Today's purchase, not yarn (sic!)

Originally uploaded by Cecilia Levy

Love at first sight at gallery Sigtuna Kulturgård.

Swatching

Fair Isle swatch
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Wool in an array of glorious colours (leftovers and new skeins I just couldn't resist) plus Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting = high time to swatch! It's a book I really recommend, primarily for the excellent pattern library section.

Not only is there an abundance of patterns, they are also arranged according to how many rows they consist of (from 1 to 19 rows plus a number of allover patterns). Starmore also encourages playing with the pattern shapes and explains how to do so in a structured way.

With so many choices it's difficult to decide where to start. For this swatch I simply picked one of the many irresistible patterns to see how the colours in my stash work together. I really like this combination of colours, but not so much my colour sequence.

The rusty red is too dominant and demands attention at both the beginning and the end of the repeat. That's too messy in my opinon, so I'm going to move it to the middle where I think it will play nicely with the warm shade of yellow. What's more, that should result in a single focal point in the centre of the repeat with the glowing colours against the undyed and beige background.

I should add that Starmore's book has many qualities apart from the pattern section. Even though parts of it may seem dated at first glance (after all, it was first published in the 80s) I would say it's a timeless book above all.

The yarn is Shetlandsuld from BC Garn; 3 mm needles (US 2½).

Cecilia's twined mittens finished

Cecilia's twined mittens
Originally uploaded by Asplund

At long last I've finished the twined mittens I cast on for Cecilia in April. There was no hurry then, and when I picked them up again after summer I had some difficulties with the pattern, since I decided to abandon my original idea.

I really wanted the thin lines to frame the hand and merge with the broad line in the middle, but then diagonal (and horizontal) lines pop up while vertical lines sink. I don't mind three levels if it's an allover pattern, on the contrary, but I think it would look silly with just two lines suddenly rising where the mitten ends. Cecilia appreciates simplicity, so I simply skipped the frame idea. Let's just hope her hands won't look like dark grey, cloven hooves.

For examples of Cecilia's immense artistic talents, check out her blog A Matter of Form. Another idea is to visit gallery Sigtuna Kulturgård, where she and her husband Mattias will be displaying their work during three weekends starting on Sat. 7 November.

Sunset in Uppsala.

Twined sweater: reknitted rows

WIP: Twined sweater
Originally uploaded by Asplund

It was a good decision to rip out and reknit part of this project. It has taken almost a week to catch up, but I like the way it looks a lot better now.

I'm not sure how to continue, though. There's no lack of ideas, it's rather a matter of choosing the right one; even if I don't mind ripping out and reknitting I'd rather not if it can be avoided...

The best thing is probably to let it rest for a while and work with some other projects. There's no lack of works in progress either.

Or lack of yarn, for that matter: I just went through my stash (well, part of it) and discovered a couple of skeins identical to some yarn I found too beautiful to resist the other day, especially since I was sure I had never seen those shades before. It seems I'm even better at fooling myself than I thought, which is a bit worrying. Or promising!

WIP: Twined sweater

WIP: Twined sweater
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Moving from border to body I kept the number of stitches but changed needles from 2½ to 3 mm (US 1½ & 2½) and let the lines of the border pattern continue and form new patterns. I like it when different pattern sections blend.

What I didn't quite like was the main pattern I had come up with. Some details looked far better on paper and in my imagination than they did in reality, so I ripped out 15 rows – more than 6,000 stitches... It's annoying, but not nearly as annoying as seeing things in a finished sweater that I was too lazy to change.

I'm happy with how it looks in this photo, which I took after picking up the stitches again.

Twined knitting: right and wrong sides

Twined knitting: right and wrong sides
Originally uploaded by Asplund

The right side is fairly similar to ordinary knitting, but knit stitches are tall and narrow instead of short and wide; also, you get deep relief patterns.

The wrong side almost looks crocheted rather than knitted.

Here's a blog with great photos that show the basics of the technique.

Anniversary

Twined sweater to be
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Almost exactly a year has passed since I cast off my first twined sweater. What better way to celebrate than to cast on a new one?

This sweater will be similar but not identical; I want to test some new construction and pattern ideas.

Kampes z-plied wool ordered from Firma Krokmaskan.

A vest for a vest: finished

A vest for a vest
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I envy my fingers – unlike me they remember things so well! Once I got started with the pattern it was almost like typing, and a favourite movie helped making this a quick knit: Woody Allen's Match Point is so compelling (even the the third time) I knitted faster than usual.

Short notes about the construction:

1. Knitted in one piece until I reached the armholes, then divided into three sections.
2. Armholes shaped using short rows.
3. Back and front joined using a three-needle bind-off and knitting a neck gusset (which I learnt from Alice Starmore's Fishermen's Sweaters). Picture here.
4. Stitches picked up around the armholes for a garter-stitch edging.
5. I picked up stitches along front; then knitted gusset stitches, back stitches and gusset stitches; then picked up stitches along other front. All stitches knitted back and forth for garter stitch edging.

My mother seems pleased with how her new vest turned out!

A vest for a vest

A vest for a vest
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Feeling a bit cold this morning I borrowed a grey vest that I knitted for my mother some five years ago and which is too big for her. The length is fine and she likes wearing it, but it gives her "wings".

Guess what? It turns out to be exactly my size, so we've decided I'll knit her a new one. There is enough of some beautiful heathery blue wool from Morjärv that's been in my stash for quite a while, waiting patiently for the right project.

As the grey vest is pre-Ravelry I don't have any notes – or I don't know where they are and probably wouldn't recognize them if they turned up – and that wool is a lot thicker, my challenges for this project are:

1) reconstructing the two patterns, since I don't own the book where I found them (Vogue Dictionary of Knitting Stitches by Anne Matthews);
2) figuring out where and how often to increase to get them to blend (the ribbing and main pattern repeats consist of different number of stitches);
3) knit a different size with different, thinner wool and a different gauge – and place the pattern so it becomes symmetrical;
4) last but not least, get the size right this time!

In addition, I'm knitting this vest in one piece instead of three. Why? To try it! Haven't knitted an open vest that way before.

Wearing and studying the grey vest takes me back to the time when I was knitting it. It was summer and I was staying at a colleague's house while she and her husband were away. They have a wonderful little garden where I spent many hours knitting, reading and picking berries. Strawberries, gooseberries, red and black currants, blueberries... Heaven.

Twined & stranded mittens finished

Lotta's mittens, cuffs
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Lotta's mittens are washed and blocked, and I'm happy with my decision to combine stranded mittens with twined cuffs. I will definitely do it again.

Revelations

Today I received an award and a challenge! Thank you, maria e – I'm honoured!

The challenge is to reveal ten things about myself; I've decided to bring up five general and five knitting-related things. Nothing is a secret, but I guess this is meant to be informative and about fun facts rather than secrets anyway.


1. I think you are an awesome girl, the award says. Well, actually I'm a man – anyone surprised/shocked/horrified? – but I hope I'm still awesome!
2. Food: I don't like cooking (a triumph of understatement) which friends and family know only too well. I'm fine with eating, though. (But picky!)
3. Cars: I didn't even try to learn how to drive until I was nearly thirty. Imagine my surprise when I suddenly found myself actually enjoying driving!
4. Taste buds: I don't like the taste of sweet very much.
5. Other addictions (apart from knitting): I've gone from active to passive smoker. A lot cheaper. More yarn money! Seriously, I'm glad I finally quit (two years ago) and don't even like the smell anymore. I've had one relapse, smoking a cigar at a party.

6. I enjoy knitting swatches.
7. Whenever there's a knitting book I really want I always allow myself to buy it, arguing that I never spend money on cook-books. (See 2 above.) Excellent tactics I learnt from my aunt.
8. I don't like alpaca very much, especially not baby alpaca. (Too slippery to knit and too fuzzy to touch for my taste.) There are blends with alpaca that I love, though, like Rowan Felted Tweed.
9. It's dawning on me that there is no way I will be able to knit all the things I want to (a mere fraction is what it feels like) which is something I try not to think about too much. However, a good thing about realizing this is that it has made me more careful when I choose projects.
10. Last, some serious bragging: Kaffe Fassett once pinched the cuff of the sweater I was wearing and said "I love this."

I'm passing this award & challenge on to awesome Nordic neighbours Pinneguri and lille-ursus.



Edited to add:
Would you believe it, I just received another award! Thank you Beate, I appreciate it and your kind words very very much! I'm afraid I'm going to be lazy and just add the picture here – can't think of another seven things to write about myself. Plus, a man's got to do what a man's got to do. Knit, that is.

Combining twined and stranded knitting

WIP: Lotta's mittens
Originally uploaded by Asplund

A few months ago I promised my friend Lotta a pair of mittens. Now that the days keep getting shorter and cooler it's high time to get started!

I decided to try combining two knitting techniques, twined and stranded. The cuff is twined, which makes it stiff and dense, not very elastic - and I've discovered it's a technique that is great for knitting letters.

The main part is stranded, partly for elasticity, partly for warmth. I find twined knitting is more wind-proof, but stranded somehow warmer thanks to the floats. Or, rather, they're suitable for different kinds of weather.

The palm of the hand is striped, not simply to match the cuff but primarily to wear well; the palm will be subject to more wear and tear than the back of the hand.

Twined stripes: ca 3.5/cm or 9/inch; stranded stripes: ca 3/cm or 7.5/inch. (In addition, the stranded stripes are elastic.) The gauge difference is rather remarkable; same yarn, same needles, same pattern and same number of stitches, but different techniques.

I wish I had knitted this sweater

I wish I had knitted this sweater
Originally uploaded by Asplund

but haven't and couldn't.

I've had some knitted items on display in a men's clothing store, Carl-Otto in Västervik, and one of the visitors told me she had some wonderful hand-knitted sweaters bought in the 80s that she thought I'd like to see. I did indeed! Pictures of two other fabulous sweaters designed and made by this knitter (Siri) here and here.

That evening was a true treat. First I got to see their beautiful garden, then their beautiful home. Kerstin and Arne had lived there for some 30 years, and the house was filled with exquisite and personal belongings; they are both passionately interested in arts and crafts and have things from all over the world. She was born in the far north of Sweden and he in the far south, and they have travelled a lot; Indonesia was one of their favourite countries.

Kerstin told me her mother helped making the Lovikka-mitten popular in Sweden by seeing to it that Princess Sibylla (our present king's mother) received a pair some time in the 1930s; many people became aware of them when she wore them in public. This very soft, thick and warm kind of mitten was first made in the 1890s by Erika Aittamaa from Lovikka. I knitted a pair (now lost) when I was around 11 years old and wore them a lot, especially when it was really cold.

It strikes me I haven't written anything about the knitting event at Nordiska museet in Stockholm a couple of weeks ago. That day visitors were allowed to knit "tags" and put almost wherever they liked in the museum. I'm far too much of a control freak to improvise completely – others were making charming and inventive things by happily combining colours and techniques – and so tried to compromise by knitting a little crown. Controlled improvisation, one might call it (trying to be benevolent). Anyway, it was a lot of fun, especially spending a few hours with knitter friends I don't get to see very often.

What's more, it's one of my – many – favourite places in Stockholm.

Hats galore

Hats galore
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Hats "Carl" and "Otto" (see previous post) have some woolly company: a green twined hat I knitted late 08/early 09, and two new, blue friends.

I knitted "Alex" with the same yarn and therefore named this hat after Carl-Otto's brother; "Blue Onion" in the upper left corner with beautiful yarn my Kiwi friend James gave me. Kia ora, James!

It's rather fascinating seeing how stripe width affects how the blue yarn looks in the three blue and grey hats. (Yarn: Pälsull, Östergötlands ullspinneri.)

These hats and some of my sweaters and mittens are in a men's clothing store, Carl-Otto in Västervik, where they will be on display for a few days. Map here.

Speaking of hats galore, I'm having fun knitting a hat for a friend. He wanted a soft and warm hat with ear flaps, preferably greenish-brown. It took some time, but at last I managed to figure out how to make the ear flaps the way I want them to look. This is what the "Sea Urchin" hat looks like so far.

Hats and knitting events

"Carl" and "Otto" hats
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I'm knitting hats for an event later this month, Smaka på Tjust (Taste Tjust – a Swedish district). This is a kind of market that focuses on locally produced goods etc. Carl-Otto, a men's clothing store in Västervik, asked if I wanted to present some knitted items there. DoI?Yes!

I've made a vest specifically for this event; I bought yarn produced at Östergötlands ullspinneri not too far from Västervik, and there was enough left for some hats. I already called the vest Carl-Otto, so these hats are Carl and Otto; they are twins but not identical.

My knitted items (and their creator) will be there Sept. 18 and 19.

Before then there's another knitting activity to look forward to, Progglördag at Nordiska museet in Stockholm on 12 September. There will be a corner where visitors can try knitting graffitti and I've volunteered to help out. I haven't done anything like that before, so it's a fun challenge!

I thought of a new way to block hats. Well, new to me at least – many others probably have thought of the same thing. I never liked blocking hats flat and suddenly had the idea I could try using a balloon; that way it would also be possible to get exactly the right size. It worked. Next problem: how to keep it still until it's dry? Ah! That's what lamps are for!