jawbreaker cardigan progress

I have finished knitting the back of the jawbreaker cardigan. As I don't know if I will have enough yarn, I started with a provisional cast-on. I knitted the back, and then evaluated how much I had used, and then decided in what yarn to knit the border. I used this stripe sequence : 1 row of swedish grey yarn, 1 row of Phildar arome, 1 row of Annell bouclé, 1 row of Phildar arome. Doing this, I used double of the Phildar arome, the yarn I have the most of. To reduce in cutting strands of yarn, I knitted this on a circular needle (flat). I knitted in stockinette stitch, and have decided to use the wrong side as the good side.

The reverse stockinette makes it less stripey, the colors blend more into each other. I have used 1.5 ball of the Phildar arome, and not even one ball of the Anell bouclé. So it looks like I will have enough to finish ! Maybe I should have left out the grey yarn ? Anyway, I put this aside for a week, because I will be spending some time in Torino (Italy). I am looking forward to this short trip, and maybe I can even find some yarn stores ?

Jazz finished

I have finished knitting Jazz - a Hanne Falkenberg design. This is the first sweater I finish this year (of course I have knitted lots of small projects, and knitted and crocheted a blanket). This Hanne Falkenberg design is knitted from cuff to cuff, in a mosaic slip stitch pattern. At first it takes some concentration, but once the pattern has sunk in, it's fairly easy. It's a lot of knitting, but is was fun. I started this september 05, but I haven't touched it for 6 months or so, because of a frozen shoulder problem. This is 'Jazz 3', you can see it in different colors on Hanne Falkenbergs website. I have knitted 4 Falkenberg designs until now : Da Capo, Delta (this isn't on her website any longer), and La Strada. Every time I wear Da Capo or La Strada, I get compliments ! It takes some time before these garments get finished, mainly because it is small gauge knitting (3mm needles). That also means they are lightweight, so they are very wearable !

Working with 2 variegated yarns

I gave the mittens as a present on the X-mas gathering of our hobbyclub, and they were very well received ! As you could see in a previous post, I have worked these with 2 variegated yarns, held together. I always thought this would result in a colored mess, but in fact they came out gorgeous. The trick is to use 2 yarns that are close in color harmony, but are different in texture. I used 2 yarns that had shades of charcoal, navy, turquoise and hot pink in them. Some colors were not the same in both yarns, for instance there was some red in one yarn, en not in the other, but this was an accent color anyway. One yarn was plain wool, the other a lightweight mohair. Now the mohair gave the finished fabric a slight halo. The nice thing about it, is that the colors of the halo are sometimes different from the colors of the plain wool. I could get navy stitches with a hot pink halo, or pink stitches with a charcoal halo. It really, really worked well toghether. Too bad I don't have a good picture to show you !
This brings me to another subject : to me, blogging is about showing your work, so pictures are essential. Unfortunately, I am a lousy photograper. And because it is winter now, it's still dark when I leave in the morning, and already dark when I come back at night. So not much photo opportunities ! I need to take pictures in the weekend, or else I don't have nothing to show.

Ik heb de wanten als kadootje gegeven tijdens het kerstfeestje van mijn hobbyclub, en ze vielen in goede aarde (gelukkig). Zoals jullie konden zien in een vorige post, heb ik deze wanten gebreid met 2 draden gevlamd garen. Ik dacht altijd dat zoiets niet zou werken (veel te druk !), maar de wanten zijn echt schitterend geworden. De truuk is om 2 garens te gebruiken die gelijkaardige kleuren vertonen, maar een verschillende textuur hebben. Mijn 2 garens hadden donker grijs, marineblauw, turkoois, en felroze als kleuren. Sommige kleuren waren niet volledig gelijk, er was wat zwart en fel rood in 1 garen dat niet in het andere garen terug kwam, maar dit waren eerder 'accent'kleuren’. 1 garen was gewone wol, het andere garen was een heel dunne mohair draad. De mohair zorgde ervoor dat het gebreide weefsel een 'halo' vertoonde (lichtkrans ? stralenkrans ? aureool ? gloed ?). Erg geslaagd is dat de steken soms een halo van een andere kleur had, bvb. marineblauw met een felroze gloed, of donkergrijs met een rode gloed ...heel erg geslaagd. Jammer dat ik geen goede foto heb om te tonen.
Dit brengt me op het onderwerp 'foto's'. Bloggen betekent voor mij 'de mogelijkheid om mijn werk te tonen'. Jammer genoeg ben ik niet zo’n goede fotograaf. En in de winter heb ik haast geen zonlicht om te kunnen fotograferen. Ik moet er echt aan denken om in het weekend te fotograferen, want anders heb ik niks om te tonen !

jawbreaker cardigan

I also have been swatching for a 'bigger' project. I liked the 'jawbreaker cardigan' in the latest interweave knits (winter 2006). I have no yarn that works for this, but I have several that work together. I swatched, and it looks that I will get gauge with this combo. It's Phildar arome (a thick and thin mohair/wool/silk blend in variegated colors of rust and grey), Annell Lugano (a wool/mohair bouclé), and a double strand of grey Swedish yarn (see my post sept. 23d). I knitted this swatch in seed stitch, to break up the stripiness of working with 3 yarns. I am only worried that this add too much bulk to the fabric, working with yarns that are already bulky. I'll have to think a bit more about this.
And there is another problem. How to know if I will have enough ? I have 6 balls of Phildar (300g), 3 balls of Annell (150g), and 2 balls of swedish yarn (200g). The swatch is knitted in 1 row of each yarn. Clearly that won't work, as I have double the amount of yarn in Phildar then in Anell. And working a double strand of grey yarn cuts down in what's available also. Decisions, decisions ...

smaller projects (mittens, scarf)

I know I have been very quiet ... this was due to computer problems at home. More time for knitting ... I have been knitting up a storm, mainly on smaller projects. I finished a pair of super soft mittens. This was a gift from my secrect pal. Don't they look great ? I need to give several x-mas gifts, but I am keeping these for myself. The mittens are knitted with one strand of bluefaced leicester yarn, and one strand of mohair.

Sorry voor het stilzwijgen, maar zonder computer is het moeilijk bloggen ... Het goede eraan is dat ik meer tijd had om te breien ! Ik heb vooral kleinere projectjes gebreid. Dit paar wanten is 'super soft mitts', met 2 draden gebreid (1 draad zachte wol, 1 draad mohair). Deze wanten hou ik zelf, de kleuren zijn echt helemaal mijn ding.




As I still needed a gift, I immediately started a new pair of mittens, with one strand of Mountain colors weavers quarters, and one strand of laceweight Colinette mohair. The colors work so nice together. I hope the lady who gets these, will love them too ! I don't know yet who will get them. In my hobbyclub, we were asked to bring a small gift, and I think it will be distributed randomly.

Maar eigenlijk wou ik een paar kadootjes maken. Ik ben dus maar direct een nieuw paar wanten begonnen. Ik heb hetzelfde patroon gebruikt als hierboven, maar ze vielen iets smaller uit, dus heb ik de nummertjes wat aangepast. Als je wanten breit, kan je ze geregeld aanpassen, en zo'n beetje op goed vallen uit herwerken. Deze zijn bestemd voor het kerstfeestje van de hobbyclub, dus weet ik nog niet wie de wanten gaat krijgen. Ik hoop maar dat de onbekende bestemmeling deze wanten apprecieert.



And the 3d small project I finished is a whimsical narrow scarf, knitted in Noro ribbon. I just knitted and knitted on 11 stitches, then made 2 crocheted flowers to finish it of. I was a bit over-enthousiastic knitting it, so it came out too long. Solved that by knotting it here and there. I am keeping this for myself, it's way too fun to give away.

Dit is een derde klein projectje, een supersmal sjaaltje in Noro lint. Ik heb gewoon een heel stuk gebreid op 11 steken, en daarna 2 bloemetjes gehaakt om het af te werken. Blijkbaar iets te enthousiast voortgebreid, want dit sjaaltje is wel heel lang geworden. Oplossing : hier en daar knopen. Simpel comme bonjour. Ik weet nog niet of ik dit wil weggeven, 't is eigenlijk veel te leuk geworden, en mijn moeder zie ik dit nog niet dragen.




And finally, I knitted a babyhat as a gift for a collegue, who just had a baby boy. The hat is started with a provisional cast-on, knitted in one direction, unpicked the cast-on and knit a second hat - et voilà : a double knitted hat (warm on the ears, because you have 4 layers of fabric there). I got this pattern in the 'free patterns' section of the Elann website.

Nog een laatste projectje : een babymutsje, dubbel gebreid, dus dubbel warm.

more lace knitting pictures

Monika asked what happened to my plan to knit more squares for the log-cabin blanket. I stopped knitting more blanket squares - my daughter liked it the way it was, so she has adopted the blanket. And the crochet blanket is in use by me. A lady friend sewed it on her sewing machine, so that the small squares and backing don't move independantly any longer. The only one needing a blanket now is my son. I might have to start another one, but right now I am knitting smaller things.
And as to the swallow tail shawl : a lady I know 'repaired' it. Unfortunately, the spot that has the mistake falls on my shoulder, a very obvious place to look at. This lady is very good at embroidery, and she embroidered a 'faux nupp', in a stitch called 'french knot' in Dutch. Not sure this stitch is called the same in English. Looks much better now ! I'll try to take a picture soon, but I want to reblock the shawl first. In the meantime, I show 2 pictures of older lace work (also pre-blog, but knitted this year). The red one is 'Ene's shawl' from 'Scarf Style', and the blue one is the 'Mystery Stole 2', an internet knit-along. The red one is knitted in the yarn called for, blackberry ridge lace weight wool/silk blend (a gift from Jane in Texas), dyed with kool-aid. The blue yarn is a very fine weaving yarn I bought in Stockholm last summer (Klippan-Berga 'Mora').

Monika vroeg wat er met mijn katoenen lapjesdeken is gebeurd. Gelukkig hoef ik geen lapjes meer te breien, want mijn dochter Winnie vond deze deken wel goed, dus die is nu in gebruik. En de gehaakte deken werd vakkundig doorgestikt door Katrien, zodat de voering en het deken niet meer zo over elkaar schuiven. Alleen Kwinten zou nu nog wel een deken kunnen gebruiken, maar ik hou de boot nu even af.
En het driehoekige sjaaltje werd gerepareerd. Josée kan goed borduren, en heeft er met de franse knoopsteek een bobbeltje op geborduurd. Jammer genoeg kan ik nu geen foto tonen, maar ik wil het sjaaltje eerst terug opspannen. Ondertussen 2 foto's van vroeger werk : de rode is 'Ene's shawl' uit het boek 'scarf style', en de blauwe is 'Mystery stole 2' een internetproject. De rode wol heb ik zelf geverfd met Amerikaans limonadepoeder (blackberry ridge lace weight wool/silk). De blauwe wol is eigenlijk een garen om te weven, en die heb ik gekocht in Stockholm, zomer 2005