Friday, April 09, 2021

Finished knitting project - sweater no. 2 in 2021.

Sometimes inspiration is found in unexpected places - and times. I was watching an Instagram Live with a crafter that taught me how to spin yarn, and she was wearing the most incredible sweater I'd ever seen! 

I managed to find it on Ravelry, and bougt the pattern. Trove 

Originally knitted in one colour with several contrast colours, but I had an idea for yarn I already had - Sølje by Hillesvåg, dyed by Værbitt in the Tordivel colour (dung beetle in english). 



It took me about 6-7 weeks to knit this sweater. But I love it! It's warm and fluffy and smells like wool..


And the colours - the natural grey and the shifting contrast yarn, making it almost shimmer like the metallic colours of beetles. 


I decided to knit it in a smaller size than the pattern recommended, because I wanted it to have a snugger fit. The sleeves, therefore, had to be lengthened. 


The construction of the neck and shoulders were insteresting and new to me. I guess I keep finding patterns that require me to learn new techniques. I decided to follow the recommendation from the pattern to use italian bindoff too, which took some extra time but gave a very nice result.

And now? Now I'm on a sweater break. I'm knitting a shortsleeved top, but there's yarn and pattern ready for another two sweaters waiting in line.. Including handspun yarn (which will be my first time knitting with my own made yarn). There are exciting projects ahead!


Thursday, April 08, 2021

Løvetannmamma

My mother-in-law gave me a bag of Kauni yarn last year, and I figured that I might as well try to use as much of it as possible, knitting a sweater for myself. 



The colours in the pictures are a bit off.. the yarn changes colour from dark blue, to purple and blue, before returning to dark blue. 


I've been wearing it quite much lately, it's thin enough to not feel stuffed, yet wam enough to be comfortable in the changing Spring temperatures. 

And for the bag of yarn I was "using up"? Well, there's another sweater's worth of yarn left.. 

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Finish what you started

I've continued working through my drawers of started projects, and stumbled upon three blocks from a project I made a few years ago (and an extra square of the background fabric). So, instead of making another large project using these blocks, I decided to pair them and make lavender pouches of them. and before I knew it, they were done! It only took four years.. 

Front


Back


And then I found four stitcheries just hiding underneath another project.. Well, we can't have any of that, right? Not in the year of finishing things.


A leftover block from my "dotted death"-projet (which still needs either binding - or a trip to the trashcan) paired with some red Moda fabric got a little bit of freemotion machine quilting practice. Perhaps a miniature tabletopper or a mugrug?


Another Christmas stitchery received the same treatment, this time matched up with some blue fabric. I see that I need to practice my fmmq, so I guess if (let's be realistic, when) I find any more blocks like this, I'll take the opertunity to get some more practice.


The last two recently unearthed were made into a couple of zipper bags. They're small, but larger than I first thought, not that it would be a problem. My plan was to make them into notions  bags for knitting - with stitchmarkers, needles, a small pair of scissors and a tape measurer. Perhaps as gifts to a couple of my knitting friends.