Starmore mania, part 1

Well, I knew stranded colourwork was something I longed for during my book project, but little did I know I would finish no less than three Starmore projects: Mary Tudor, Thoroughbred and Rona. They're all available as kits from Virtual Yarns - I should add that I am not sponsored by them, but simply a happy Starmore addict.

I learnt long ago that I find it extremely difficult to get the gauge called for even though I've tried different needle sizes. My solution to that problem is to use my gauge to calculate roughly how many stitches I will need for the garment to be my size. Then I choose which size to follow in the instructions depending on which of them comes closest.

There's no way I'd take liberties with the charts or the colour combinations - the main reason I send for kits is that I get colours a genius has chosen and that I myself never would have dreamed of. (I find combining two colours is difficult enough!) Look at these fifteen colours of Rona, for example.

Hebridean Delight

I do take some liberties with shapes and constructions, though, and that's what this (and my next) post will be about.

Shoulder joins are very important to me, so I make efforts planning them, and undoing them if necessary. It is not so much about how they're done (I practically always use the three-needle bind-off technique) but getting them to look pleasing. So, here are three examples of different results with the same technique.

With Mary Tudor I managed (with some luck) to get a good length by finishing a whole rose before the shoulder join. I think it looks very nice with two roses meeting at the join:

I used two colours to bind off - with only the background colour it would have visible where the yellow stitches are joined. (There are already examples of that among my sweaters...)

shoulder join wrong side

When it was time for Thoroughbred, I first tried letting the allover pattern meet in a similar way, but was not very happy with how it turned out - sorry about the blurred photo - mainly because of the shape of the negative space:

Thoroughbred, take 1

Instead I added a row with only the background colour, and think it looks a lot better:

Thoroughbred, take 2

Last but not least, Rona. I was delighted to see how a new pattern was created when the two horizontal, mirrored bands were married by the shoulder join. A great thing about the three-needle bind-off technique - apart from being very easy - is that stitches are matched in pairs. If I had grafted front and back instead ("Kitchener stitch") they would have been half a stitch off.

Rona shoulder

That's it for today! Sooner or later I will be back with other modifications. Let me just add that I'm such a selfish knitter I'm going to keep all three of them! 😎

Mine!

Efter bokprojektet har jag glatt givit efter för mitt uppdämda behov att sticka flerfärgsmönster. Inte mindre än tre Alice Starmore-plagg har det blivit - en av dem påbörjad före boken, så den fick jag gömma. Själv är jag inte särskilt bra på att kombinera färger (två är svårt nog) så jag har lyxat till det genom att skicka efter kit från Virtual Yarns. Vissa av de här färgerna skulle jag aldrig ha valt, ännu mindre kommit på att kombinera, så det är bara att vara tacksam över att det finns ett geni som gör det. Kanske ska jag påpeka att jag inte har blivit sponsrad utan bara är glatt beroende. 

Färgerna mixtrar jag alltså inte med (tanken svindlar), däremot lägger jag mig i en del när det gäller konstruktion och passform. För det första har jag väldigt svårt att få till den starmoreska stickfastheten, till och med när jag byter stickor. Därför utgår jag från min stickfasthet och väljer storlek utifrån det. Oftast blir det Small med betydligt tunnare stickor än som anges, och så liten till växten är jag faktiskt inte.

Vidare är jag ganska petig när det gäller montering av fram- och bakstycke. Som regel vränger jag arbetet ut och in och maskar av de två styckena tillsammans, detta för att få mönsterpassning. I de tre projekten ovan är det alltså samma teknik men med lite olika effekt. 

I koftan Mary Tudor hade jag tur nog att längden blev lagom om jag avslutade med en hel ros. Det blev riktigt fint när två rosor möts vid axelfogen, tycker jag. (Föreställ er två stympade som bildar någon sorts monster-ros!) Här maskade jag av med två färger: med bara bottenfärgen skulle den ha lyst igenom de gula partierna, och det ville jag undvika. Detta eftersom jag har exempel på den effekten i tröjsamlingen...

När jag monterade slipovern Thoroughbred prövade jag först att göra likadant, men blev inte nöjd med hur det tog sig ut där gallren möttes över axeln (vilket jag hade trott). Därför lade jag till ett enfärgat varv med bottenfärgen och maskade av styckena med den. Klar förbättring, tycker jag: rent i stället för plottrigt.

Slutligen Rona, som är ett bra exempel på hur ett nytt mönster kan bildas där två spegelvända möts. Gissa om jag blev livad! Ett annat elegant sätt att montera är att sy maskstygn (Kitchener stitch) men det ville jag inte använda här. Visserligen blir det en smidig söm, men den innebär att det blir en förskjutning en halv maska i sidled där styckena möts, och då skulle något av effekten gå förlorad. Så är den tekniken betydligt mer tidskrävande också.

Så småningom kommer det ett till inlägg om friheter jag har tagit mig med de här projekten.
 

Still alive and knitting

Well, I knew there wouldn't be much time left for blogging the past couple of years, but I'm still around. My book was published in October, which was a quite a relief - I did manage! Not that I would have without my fabulous team at Bonnier Fakta, of course.

photo by Cecilia Levy (@cecilia_levy on Instagram)

I'm not tired of knitting, on the contrary - and not even cables - so there are projects I could have written blog posts about. However, I must admit I was tired of writing about knitting, which is the main reason my blog has been hibernating. If anyone's interested, I'm far more active on Instagram these days: @asplundknits. I do enjoy writing, though!

The last few months I've been indulging myself in non-cable projects. Speaking of hibernating, when I started working on the book I knew I had to hide Alice Starmore's "Mary Tudor" so well there would be no risk I'd find it by mistake. What a party once I could allow myself to excavate it! Nearly done now, only one front band left to knit, but right now I can't find the yarn! It will probably turn up when I look for something else - and hopefully, the cardigan itself won't be lost by then...

And I've decided to knit a twined sweater. No deadline, pure luxury!

Inte har jag slutat sticka, men bokprojektet gjorde mig allt lite dränerad på energi att skriva om stickning - trots att jag gillar att skriva. Det finns alltså stickningar att skriva om, för sedan boken kom ut har jag varit på grönbete! Alice Starmores "Mary Tudor" hade jag redan påbörjat när arbetet med boken drog igång, och då var det bara att gömma projektet där jag inte skulle kunna råka hitta det. Perfekt att ha den påbörjad när jag hade tid att ta mig an den igen! Och så har jag inte kunnat låta bli att lägga upp till en tvåändsstickad tröja.

An excavation

Going through my projects and realising I must have been through a double-knitting period at some point: three cowls and a scarf! When did that happen? At least I'm well prepared for Midsumer, which is usually rather chilly.

Visjö: greyish white & "Börje"

Onion Organic Wool & Nettles

Här går man igenom vinterkläderna (äntligen!) och upptäcker fyra dubbelstickade projekt, som jag har ett vagt minne av att jag har stickat... Midsommar brukar ju vara kyligt, så jag känner mig väl förberedd!

Edited to add
More rummaging - it seems I found enough time for some twined knitting last summer!

Det blev visst lite tvåändsstickning i somras!

Things are looking up

(Or down?)

Photographer Tina Axelsson in action!

Thanks, everyone for encouraging words! Now back to writing instructions... Life isn't only work, though - last week knitter friend Maja and I had a great evening!

Silence explained

Needless to say, I haven't been very active here lately - but it's "because of a reason" as someone once put it. Not that I can give away many details, but it is starting to look as if there really will be a book published eventually! There is still a lot of work to be done, but if all goes well it will be published in about half a year. The past year I've been too busy to write blog posts, and anyway I couldn't post photos of my projects, but here's a little glimpse of what's to come. I will probably not be very active the next few months either, but I hope you will wish me luck!

Här på bloggen har det ju inte hänt mycket på evigheter, men det är "på grund av anledning" som någon uttryckte det. Jag har nämligen ett bokprojekt på gång, så även om jag har stickat mycket har jag helt enkelt inte kunnat skriva inlägg om mina projekt - just inte haft tid till det heller - men i nuläget kan jag i alla fall bjuda på en liten glimt. Det börjar se ut som om det faktiskt kommer att bli en riktig bok, fast jag har haft otroligt svårt att verkligen tro på det! Mycket arbete återstår, så det blir nog rätt tyst här en tid framöver också, men jag har inte några planer på att försvinna helt. Håll tummarna!

Donegal sweater finished at long last

Almost to my surprise I finally finished my "Donegal" sweater, an Alice Starmore design. My Ravelry project page tells me I cast on in July 2013 - and it seems I haven't touched it since perhaps February 2015. For whatever reason I suddenly got it out the day before yesterday for a diagnosis. Good news: only 1/4 of a sleeve left to knit. Great news: no moth holes! It only took two evenings to finish it, so I wonder what made me put it aside for almost two years - I usually accelerate towards the end of a project. Maybe there was something I've chosen to forget, like getting the colour changes all wrong for a few rows? We'll see.

One thing I do remember is having difficulties deciding where and how to end the front and back for a shoulder join without major pattern cracks and collisions. I even think I modified the chart slightly, which feels practically sacrilegous. (Meddling with a Starmore chart!) Perhaps I get a needle and some leftovers to embroider stitches so that the lines near the neckband meet. To me it looks as if someone took a bite, which in a way is rather charming.

shoulder join

The negative thing is that I ended up with sleeves that are too wide: to get where I wanted in the chart I had to knit more rows than I otherwise would have done. On the other hand, it turned out an oversized sweater (or perhaps I'm undersized?) so it doesn't matter much.

Since summer I've been toying with brioche scarves, using increases, decreases and short rows to achieve zigzag effects. These three scarves are all made with Visjö yarn from Östergötlands ullspinneri, extremely addictive wool.

Z scarves

The past few months I've been teaching unusually much (two weekends a month at HV in Stockholm, for example) which is fantastic. Only a few years ago I never would have guessed there'd be so many opportunites to teach knitting, so I count myself extremly lucky being able to combine my profession and my lifelong hobby. This blog gets to starve, though - imagine dreary posts about my writing instructions. I'd rather write about my private projects here, even though they are few and far between these days, "they" referring to projects as well as blog posts ;-)

Happy knitting!


En av många fördelar med att ha ett frikostigt antal projekt på gång samtidigt är att det plötsligt kan gå väldigt snabbt att avsluta ett av dem. För mig är det något av en gåta varför jag har låtit tröjan Donegal ligga i nästan två år fast det bara var ungefär en fjärdedels ärm kvar. Ärmarna har jag stickat direkt på kroppen, så det var inte ens någon montering kvar. Nå, härom kvällen fick den komma ut och nosa i alla fall, och med så pass lite arbete kvar tog det faktiskt inte mer än ett par kvällar att få den klar. Tack och lov kunde jag inte hitta några gnaghål eller så!

Däremot minns jag att jag fick fundera en del på hur jag skulle få ihop det över axlarna med så få mönsterkrockar som möjligt. Visserligen hittade jag ett bra varv i diagrammet, men jag fick rita om det lite för att inte påbörja nya mönsterformer som bara skulle bli stympade direkt. Det innebar också att jag stickade några fler varv än jag annars skulle ha gjort, så tröjan är i största laget - speciellt ärmarna. Det går nog inte att lura någon att tro att det döljer sig kraftiga bicepsmuskler under dem.

Annars har jag lekt med patentstickning en hel del, kombinerat ökningar och minskningar på olika sätt för att få lite roliga former på halsdukar. Tre av dem syns på fotot ovan, samtliga i Visjögarn från Östergötlands ullspinneri. 

Det blir inte så många plagg som förr, och därför inte heller så många uppdateringar här. Det beror framför allt på att jag har fått fler uppdrag som kursledare i stickning än jag hade vågat drömma om, så mycket av min sticktid går åt till att tänka ut uppgifter, skriva instruktioner till dem och teststicka. Det är otroligt givande att arbeta med kurser, men den processen ser jag inte som överdrivet blogg-kompatibel.

"The early bird gets the worm...

but the second mouse gets the cheese." I read this hilarious addition to the proverb recently - perhaps it's commonplace and I simply haven't come across it before? Anyway, it would have come in handy a few weeks ago when I taught knitting in Kiruna in the far north of Sweden, the perfect time of the year if you want to see the midnight sun.

Fortunately, I never had difficulties falling asleep when it's light - and anyway most nights were cloudy - but it was rather confusing suddenly waking up and worrying I was late for my class before realising it was only perhaps 1.30 am and plenty of hours left to sleep.

Getting there from Stockholm (ca 1200 kilometers) takes quite a few hours, not least if you decide to travel by car. A great opportunity to spend time together with three friends! There was a lot of time to knit too, except when I was driving, of course - here's one reason to pay attention as documented by friend, fellow traveller and car owner Eva. (I'm not like a multi-tasking friend who once showed me his way of tatting while he was driving - something I found equally impressive and unnerving.)

Mini projects are great in a car, even in an unusually spacious one. I've practically finished my twined project based on charts in Richard Rutt's A History of Hand Knitting. For quite a while it came in handy as its own project bag:

self-contained

The light is strange, but I'll blame it on the midnight sun - this was rather late at night.

As usual, one thing leads to another, so I decided to knit a couple of mini cushions combining two of the same ingredients, namely charts from Rutt's book and twined knitting. For the smaller one (similar to a mini tube I wrote about in a previous post) I used 1½ mm needles and for the bigger (or less small) one 2 mm.

I'm going to give the blue and white one to my mother as a surprise. She likes this colour combination, has a thing for small objects and is fond of birds, so to me her name is practically written all over it.

You may wonder why I write a post if it's meant to be a surprise. Actually, she's on her way here for a few days' visit as I'm typing, so she won't know before I give it to her later this afternoon.

Twined news

There's a new Norwegian book about twined knitting - I heard about it recently (thanks, Heidi!) and sent for it straight away, of course. Such books are few and far between. It arrived yesterday, so I'm happily learning about Norwegian traditions. It's fascinating how different their use of the same technique is. To be honest, I didn't know much before - really only about their covering mittens with loops of yarn and then turning them inside out to get the purl ridges on the outside. I know a lot more now!

Speaking of twined knitting, I made a twined mini purse recently to test a pattern idea. Mini as in room for a couple of USB sticks.

Twined & brioche projects

Today my friend Andrew gave me a charming tatting book from 1944 - there are many beautiful patterns in it, so I feel like getting my shuttles out again. I don't have the nails to match them, but at least I do have a new twined knitting project to match the cover.

The patterns are from A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt, actually the very same cushion I got last post's pattern from, but I'm using thicker yarn and needles. Or, rather, not as thin: 500 metres/100 gr wool-silk blend and 2 mm needles.

Gauge curious? 54 stitches = 10 cm/4 in

Yesterday I added a finishing touch to a pair of twined mittens I finished last year. They were slightly too wide, so I felted them by hand and now they fit perfectly - and the fact that I love both grey and stripes doesn't hurt.

For the mittens I used wool from Östergötlands ullspinneri. It works beautifully for brioche knitting too, and I've made two brioche scarves recently using their variegated wool. (Knitting with 4 mm needles almost felt like cheating now that I've been into 1.25 - 2 mm for a while.)

With felted twined mittens and two scarves I should be well prepared for Midsummer - it normally gets rather cold then, or perhaps that's just my impression?

Happy new year!

Yes, I know we're in June, but I realise this is my first blog post this year. Not that I've been hibernating, but I've mostly been swatching for new workshops and suppose I haven't really felt like blogging about them, even though I do enjoy swatching. However, here's one of them: it's for a two-week course starting on Friday at HV in Stockholm.

No, I'm not a giant (anyone who has met me will be able to testify) although you might think so comparing the stitches to my hand. This is my personal gauge record, 70 stitches to 10 cm/4 in, which I managed by combining twined knitting and 1½ mm needles. The pattern is from Richard Rutt's A History of Hand Knitting.

Speaking of books, here's a photo of a treasure, a stunning collection of Latvian mitten patterns available from Sena Klets. Actually, I've seen this book before, but now that I have an English copy I can read about culture and traditions too. Extremely highly recommended! (Time to go back to planning and proof-knitting, but hopefully it won't be another five months before next post...)

Mr Mosaic

Mosaic knitting has given me ideas - I've been experimenting with hats knitted sideways, combining mosaic knitting and garter stitch. Not quite there yet as one of them is slightly too big and the felted one is slightly too small, but I like them anyway. They look like rainbows with icing:

My Japanese-inspired mosaic sweater is finished - or at least practically finished. I might reknit the neckband, adding a few rows too it, but otherwise I'm very happy with how it fits. For my first neckband attempt I chose a darker shade of green to match the last patterned row, but the distance between them made the neckband look a lot darker, so I gave it another try with a lighter and brighter shade of green.

A good thing about the lighter shade is that it works better with the sleeve cuffs, where I added a small mosaic pattern. Perhaps I could call the sweater Babar? (The cuffs remind me of his feet, which is why I didn't choose a brown shade - who wants to wear dirty toenails?)

This sweater needed extra side panels or it would have been slightly too tight for my taste. (Also, there isn't much weight to lose when it comes to my rather scrawny chest, and sawing off a couple of ribs wasn't a particularly tempting idea.) I was prepared for this early on but decided not to make up my mind until I had knitted the sleeves, although my idea was to make use of a contruction I tried a few years ago knitting (and modifying) another design by Marianne Isager. I actually enjoy turning something necessary into an opportunity to add a nice finishing touch to a project.

side panel

This solution, using slipped stitches to create columns, echoes how the sleeves go with the body; casting off from the right side creates a ridge in the middle that not only goes with the shoulder joins, but also blends with the seam under the sleeve.

Finally, a couple of short-row details before ending this year's last and rather self-congratulatory blog post:

short rows that create a sleeve cap

short rows that create a sleeve gusset sideways

Happy new year!

Mosaic sweater progress

It took some thinking and rethinking (not to mention knitting and reknitting) before I made up my mind about the sleeves. I decided patterned sleeves would be too much of a good thing; instead they would be grey with slipped stitches to create vertical lines like the ones in the body, the one in the centre elongating the line created by the shoulder join.

Here's the first attempt - or, rather, the third one, but the first one I took a photo of:

The slipped-stitch lines are evenly spaced, with the same number of stitches between them as there are between the lines on the back and front. A good idea in theory but less so in practice; it would look just fine if the sleeve was a separate unit (a not particularly useful garment) but attached to the body it simply doesn't look very tidy.


Here's the final arrangement, where the lines blend with the mosaic pattern repeats. This solution entailed narrower centre panels, but I actually think it looks as if this might be the original thought rather than a solution:

Right now I'm thinking of different mosaic pattern ideas for the cuffs to add some colour to them. Also, I will probably also add something to the provisional neckband.

The explorer

At long last I'm working on a mosaic knitting project. I've been interested in using the technique beyond swatches for quite a few years but not until now did I come up with the right mix of ingredients.


Kose (Visjö wool from Östergötlands ullspinneri) is a favourite colourway of mine, changing gradually from brown to different shades of green - beautiful on its own but in my opinion even more so against a neutral background like very light grey. Got the colour combination. Pattern next.

Labyrinth pattern

Marianne Isager (ever read that name here before?) has designed quite a few garments using mosaic knitting and slipped stitches, for example a child's sweater "Labyrinth" in her book Inca Knits. I always loved Greek key patterns, and this one works well with the Kose colour changes.

Rice fields pattern

For comparison I also cast on to try (a modified version of) Isager's "Rice Fields" from Japanese Inspired Knits, and must say I prefer it in spite of my love of Greek keys: the structure adds an element I like, and the overall effect will be a lot lighter. But what really made it an easy, practically natural, decision was the Japanese key word.

You see, I suddenly remembered why they named this colourway Kose: Chie Kose is a Japanese designer who asked the spinnery for this particular combination of these particular shades. Joining the two Japanese aspects felt like the obvious choice - and in my book a whiff of Danish never hurts.

The orange cast of thought

The cardigan I wrote about in my previous post is finished. I liked the wool a lot, Yaku from CaMaRose. It was sligthly worrying when I washed and blocked it, because it grew like mad when wet. Fortunately, it gradually shrank to exactly the size I had knitted.

There was enough green wool to make a hat; I used a pattern from the same book by Danish designer Lene Holme Samsøe. The cable pattern is the same that is used between the cardigan raglan increases, although you can't see them in the photos above.

All of a sudden it dawned on me - it will arrive just in time for Halloween! The poor baby will look like a pumpkin wearing the cardigan and hat at the same time...

Speaking of Halloween, check out this post at Bent objects!

Uncle Asplund

Earlier this week I suddenly had to drop all my works in progress and get some new wool. A friend of mine wrote to tell me he and his wife are parents! We were really close friends when we were both students in the 1990s - well, we still are, but they live in the States, so we haven't seen each other for several years now and our correspondence (always handwritten letters!) is quite irregular. Not that such things matter when it comes to genuine frienship - and his way of expressing the news was a delight to read: you're an uncle! (Neither of us has a biological brother.)

Normally, I want to make garments for adults, so this urge must be caused by some natural, avuncular instinct. As I admire Lene Holme Samsøe's designs, choosing one of her baby cardigans was an easy decision. (Ravelry link here.) The stranded garter pattern is my modification, which I added mainly to add the name to make it more personal. They must be excellent parents considering they've chosen a name that is easy to knit, right?