What I have been up to?!

In case you wonder if I have stopped knitting?... well no, I haven't :-). I have been up to other things for a couple of months like moving, knitting gifts (Nowegian baby mittens and some lace cuffs). I have also published another lace shawl pattern, the Estonian Butterfly.

At the moment I am designing a new Estonian lace shawl in Grignasco MerinoSilk. Very exciting!

Easter knitting

I had such a nice Easter Holiday! I seldom publish photos of friends or myself on the internet, but this time I'll make an exception. I'll share one with you. Knitting with friends is one of my favourite hobbies. Yes, I know I knit almost every free minute I have, but seldom with friends which is so much more fun. The weather was fine, the company was excellent! To the right, in action, Strikkoman is knitting her vendestrikkjakke. To the left there's me and my Big Butterfly shawl. All lined up in front of my office which dressed up with its Janus Face "Stickarboden" for the occasion (it's just a play with two Swedish words meaning "knit" and "carpenter's workshop").

For Lapariagotte, poncho

Laparigotte,
I will try to describe how to knit the poncho main body by some text and the two pictures below (please note the diagrams are an example I haven't got the Poncho pattern at hand at the moment so please follow the instruction carefully):

The poncho main body is knitted in the quite easy Feather & Fan lace pattern. The front and back section are separated by two plain stitches and on each side of these on every other row you are supposed to increase a stich before and after those (4 stitches in total every other row). As the number of stitches increases more repeats of lace holes and corresponding K2TOG may be inserted. Keep track on the YOs and make sure there is an equal number off K2TOGs else the body will grow or get smaller than it is supposed to.

On the very first lace row the pattern has no decreases at all. It's the "set-up row" as you can read in the Sharon Miller "Heirloom knitting" book, Cobweb crepe shawl pattern frame. Like this:



Therfore the number of stitches increases a lot after the first row. Just mark the centre stitches before you start (make sure the number off stiches match the pattern)and follow the written instruction as many times as you can fit in before you reach the first marked stitch.

* means just a plain knit stitch
o means yarn over

Then the lace rows consist of the basic pattern repeat on every fourth row:


* means just a plain knit stitch
o means yarn over
/ means knit 2 together
\ means slip one knitwise, knit next stitch and pass slipped stitch over the one you just knitted


Good luck! and welcome back if you meet more trouble.

/Knitritious

Butterfly Shawl

Finally I managed to finish my Butterfly Shawl. It has been a UFO for months, I have been knitting and frogging and knitting and frogging. Finally I just decided to get it off the needles. Here it is, an Estonian influenced shawl -My way! I used nupps as pixels to make the big centre butterfly. Very untraditional, naughty me!

Hi Precious!

Welcome back little Tulipa turkestanica! The petals open as the sun rises and in the evening they close again. It's the earliest botanical tulip of all the bulbs I have planted. It'll be followed by many of its relatives: tarda, clusiana, bifolia sylvestris and the humilis varieties.

Wrist warmers

I popped in at the Husfliden store in Drammen today, and the owner really has stashed up with new yarns. I just couldn't resist this... ecological yarn. It pretty much looks like something in between cashmere and angora but it is much softer. Nice fluffy halo, a bit dry feeling and matte finish. I bought it with sparkling fibres (sequin it was called) but unfortunately it is not visible when taking photos of it. The "sequins" consist of something that looks like sari glitter fibres that are randomly spinned into the yarn. Beautiful! I think it'll make nice presents (yes it was a success!).

Lace up your apple!

I am not sure why I knit such things... I used to hate knitted unuseful things, but since I became a mom and I got a little fan club of young girls that really appreciate the knitted toys I make it has grown into a habit.

This is an apple cozy, to prevent the apple to get brown areas when being transported, and to save the handbag from stains too.

I had no instruction, just made it up while knitting. I garter stitched it to make the decreases and increases less visible and crocheted laces and green leaves around the opening.