Category: Knitting projects

Next project – Koftan Siri

LinnKnitting

I had decided to finish my fair isle pullover before I started a new project, but it’s going so slowly and I’m just itching to start something new. If you are a knitter and haven’t registered on the awesome knitting site Ravelry I urge you to do so! Ravelry is the most amazing place for a knitter with tons of patterns, groups, galleries of photos and so on. Ravelry is my place to go when I need inspiration.

Photo by Clara Linnea

The Cardigan Siri is my latest obsession. I need to make one of these! I heard about it on the podcast Rätt avigt and after I looked at it and pictures of people’s finished cardigans, I just knew I had to make one. The pattern creates these wonderful leaves from you neck and down over your back and bust. I think I looks amazing! I have never tried a pattern like this before and so it will be a challenge for myself to try something new.

The construction of the cardigan is new to me. I haven’t knitted many cardigans before and this one does not follow the same construction as the only one I knitted before. It’s going to be very fun to knit this way and try out a new way. I’m a bit unsure how the armhole part will be, but I guess I’ll see when I get there.

I’ve bought yarn and started this project already.  fell in love with the colour “Cerise” (4600) of Sandnes garn “smart”. Smart is a superwash yarn and it’s super soft! 10 skeins of this raspberry red ended up in a bag and I cast on as soon as I got home. So far it’s very fun, but it took me a while to get the right hang of it. I always knit in with the back of the stitches and so I had to remember to do it the “right” way because otherwise the pattern wouldn’t show as it should. I’ve now finished the first skein and I hope to finish the cardigan before April is over, we’ll see.

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Näverstickning is so much fun!

LinnKnitting

cowl

In the book Sticka sjalar, halsdukar och lite till by Erika Åberg there is a lovely pattern for a näverstickad scarf. The pattern looked so amazing that I right from the start new I had to try it.

sticka sjalar

For this pattern I use a different yarn size and needle size than recommended. I used the icelandic yarn Alafosslopi and needles size 5,5mm. I wanted a nice and cool looking cowl to contrast with my new black winter coat and so I bought four skeins hoping it would be enough.

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The pattern itself was tricky to understand at first. I had to do a testknit before I started, to understand how this pattern worked. But once you get going the pattern becomes more and more clear and after the first skein of yarn I felt like I was getting the hang of it. The pattern creates a beautiful texture and I am very pleased with it. I made a long scarf that I sewed together at the ends to make it a cowl. The Näverstickade pattern gives this cowl a big pop and I love wearing it!

sticka1

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My eternity project – Fair Isle rib tank top

LinnKnitting

I never seem to learn that projects of greater size knitted with size 3mm always will be “eternity projects” that I almost am forcing myself through. This is one of those projects and I thought it’d be fun to do a post about it.

läststickatfinstickatThis project is a knitted tank top with a ribbed back and a fair isle patterned front. The pattern is from the book “Lättstickat, finstickat” by Anna Wilkinson (Link to ravelry.)  It looks very lovely and I guess I underestimated how long it would take me to knit this vest. I had my eyes set on getting done before 2016, but since it’s 2016 all ready you know I didn’t reach that goal.

väst

The pattern recommends yarn from Jamisons. I didn’t know where to get at hold of that yarn and instead I bought Sandnes “Mini alpakka” yarn. It’s a soft and nice yarn which feels almost slippery to knit with (I have metal needles points). I changed one of the colours in the pattern from dark blue to a green.

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I’m really happy how the pattern is turning out and I really want to finish this one. But there is still a lot left on the front piece and it goes very slowly due to it not being knitted in the round. I did two swatches of the colours before I started with the front and I’m glad I did. Since I’m not using the original colours and a different brand it was good to see how it would turn out. So I swatched two colourways and knitted a third non-swatched colourway. I love it! I’m gonna be so happy when it’s finally done.

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Orange blanket with giant needles

LinnKnitting

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For Christmas  I received the yarn and needles shown in the image above from my dear Cheryl. These aren’t any regular needles and yarn, these are giant size. The yarn came in two large balls. One ball is about the size of my head! The needles are giant as well, 130 mm in circumference with a soft plastic tube making it into circular needles. 130mm!

orangegiant

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So, of course I had to cast on and make myself a cozy blanket. I cast on 24 stitches and I made a ribbed pattern by making 2 knit, 2 purl.

I must say it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve knitted. It might look easy but holding those needles and actually doing the knitting wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. It was heavy towards the end but the needles were also a bit hard to grip due to their size. It was very fun though, making something this big. I would like to try the needles again maybe with an airy, soft yarn and make a big lovely scarf.orange3

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Here is the final result. A soft and nice blanket for the sofa. It’s already in use and I really like it. The blanket is very stretchy so it’s hard to tell the finished size. But it’s about 150 cm long and 100 cm wide.

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Thank you Cheryl for the Christmas gift.

Finished project: knit-a-long hoodie

LinnKnitting

Finished sweater from the front

The knitting project I did together with my friends is now finished and it was so much fun. It was a lot faster than any of us thought it would be. We all finished the project within two weeks. I did not knit every day but when I did I had sittings that were around 2 hours long (or more during weekends).

I decided to not do the hoodie on the sweater mainly because I tend not to wear hoodies that often and I wanted to make sure I’d use this sweater a lot. Instead I just did a little collar that curls on itself. I’m very happy with the look of it and I’m sure I’ll use it often.

 

Close up on the collar

The yarn, Eskimo from Drops, was really soft to work with and I’m in love with the colour. It’s a mix colour that has a bit of white in it and I really like that. I would definitely use this yarn for future projects. It comes in so many colours and variations that it’s easy to find several favourites.

The pattern from Sandnes was a bit tricky, not in the “difficult” way but in the language way.  I haven’t knitted anything using a norwegian pattern before and so there was some new vocabulary to learn. Many things I could guess but it’s good that they provide a vocabulary sheet in the front of the “book”.
I knitted size M and I used 10 of the 12 skeins I bought for this sweater. I’m not sure if the hoodie would need two skeins but I guess it’s better to be safe. I’m a very loose knitter and I used 8mm needles instead of the recommended 9mm.

Sweater from the back

The new thing for me with this sweater was how it was knitted all in one piece. From one sleeve, the body and to the second sleeve. I then only needed to sew together the sides of the sweater. Genius!

I think the small details on this sweater are adorable. The little ridge along the sleeves and the nice hem were very easy to make but added such a nice effect. I would easily knit another one of these sweaters immediately if I didn’t have other projects going on. I might do another one later on though!

 

Close up on the detail along the sleeve

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Thank you Cheryl for taking these photos.

Knit-a-long Hoodie Project

LinnKnitting

My two friends decided to have a knit-a-long/competition where they both would knit the same hoodie. When they showed me the hoodie they were planing on making I couldn’t resist joining them in their knit-a-long. These are the images that got me interested in the project. Doesn’t it look cosy and cool at the same time?

Image of a hoodie
Images from Sandnes garn
Image of a hoodie

The pattern comes from Sandnes garn in the book 1513 DIY and it’s a pretty easy pattern with a regular stockinette stitch, but you’ll have the wrong side out in the end.They recommend using Sandnes yarn “Easy” but I decided to go for DROPS garnstudio’s Eskimo yarn instead since they offer a wider range of colours. I chose the colour “Saphire” which is pictured below. I got both the yarn and a Knit Pro set as a Christmas gift (that I opened early in order to finish this shirt by Christmas) from my beloved P. I’m gonna do a review on those when I have been using more of the sizes.

Luvtröja1

Knitting is in progress now and I’ll do a post with the finished shirt. I guess it’ll be a review of both the pattern (which is in norwegian) and the yarn (which is so soft and wonderful!). My goal is to finish before Christmas so I can wear it on my vacation (it will be the only warm shirt I’ll bring).

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