Twined spring hat

Twined hat in progress, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

Winter returned after my previous post, but I hope it won't be too long before it's possible to knit in the garden again. In the meantime I'm trying to create some spring feeling indoors instead. This wool (Visjö from Östergötlands ullspinneri) works really well with the twined knitting technique.

A nice place for knitting

A nice place for knitting, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

How wonderful it is to be able to sit outdoors knitting!

I've made some sleeve progress, so the pattern I described in my previous post (small squares and circles) is easier to see.

Äntligen går det att sitta ute och sticka - och sämre sällskap än snödroppar och krokus kan man ha! Det vankas mer av kombinationen blommor och stickning i maj: helgen 17-18/5 kommer jag att hålla kurs i spetsstickning på Ekerö. Läs mer här om du är intresserad!

 

opposite sides

Double-knitted jacket: sleeve pattern

Double-knitted jacket: sleeve in progress, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

In my previous post there is a photo of my first attempt at sleeves: simple squares a fourth in size compared to the big squares.

A good idea in theory, but in practice it didn't quite work. With fewer crossings of the two strands the sleeve quickly looked rather bubbly; what's more, it dawned on me the effect might actually be striped sleeves with all the crossings arranged in vertical columns. (Something like extremely long, rectangular bubbles.)

So, I decided to keep the squares but fill them with circles and tiny squares to rhyme with the main pattern. An advantage is that the two sides will look different! I chose light squares on a dark background on this side like the body.

I thought of doing it the opposite way but then I decided there were enough mirror effects going on already.

In a finishing mood

Camel cardigan, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

I'm in a finishing mood, to the extent that I've even sewn seven buttons. (I appreciate Gwen Raverat's words "sewing was downright wicked slavery" in her adorable book Period Piece. A Cambridge Childhood.) The brioche cardigan had actually been finished for more than a week before I got around to it, even though I'd already found the perfect buttons... They're made of marble and I think they look fabulous with the wool. Their size was exactly right for the buttonholes too!

Some time ago I wrote a post about the shoulder straps: here's how they turned out:

I've finished the Monk no 2 sweater as well. Not that Marianne Isager's name "Monk" is very suitable anymore as I didn't keep the hood.

Also, I've made up my mind about the collar for my double-knitted jacket/cardigan. I've tried various ideas: I wanted something different from the main pattern and tried both triangles and stripes but wasn't satisfied. Then I suddenly thought I'd keep the small squares but use them into lego-like brick shapes. Of all the things I love about knitting, I think I like solving difficulties best.

Monk no 2: collar

Monk no 2: collar, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

Here's a project (based on Marianne Isager's The Monk) recently excavated from my Basket of Uncertainties. It's been there for more than a year after I realized my collar idea wouldn't work: the neck opening is neither deep nor wide enough for the kind of overlapping shawl collar I had in mind.

original idea

I didn't want to pick up stitches to knit the sleeves in case I'd decide to rip and reknit the front, and that's where I left it. Well, it's funny how a simple solutiona can take more than a year: I'll fold it in half instead. No overlapping, but it looks fine and the opening is big enough - and there will be no ripping or reknitting.

solution - I hope

Teaching twined knitting is a great way to spend a Sunday! At one point they all looked so serious concentrating on mastering the technique that I couldn't help joking with them, saying a photo of them right then wouldn't attract many people to my workshops - which made one of the participants say yes, they probably looked like Judge Robert Rosenberg!