A real man

Handmade circular needle
Originally uploaded by Asplund

makes his own knitting needles, don't you agree?

Not that I do - Mac the Knitter does, and he was kind enough to send me this circular needle with one point shaped like crochet hook. It arrived yesterday and I tried it immediately. It works beautifully, and I'm going to use it for my next lace project.

I never thought of a knitting needle as beautiful before, but this one certainly is. Thank you!



"Jaws" sleeve in progress

 I've knitted enough of the first "Jaws" sleeve to see that I like my pattern idea enough to stick to it. This sleeve is veeery far from Marianne Isager's original design.

My plan is to add some colour when I get to the cuff, but I haven't decided what colour(s) or how yet.



Last, I'd like to comment on some of the kind comments on my previous post:

elisaacampbell & Carolina: I think spreadsheets are a great idea, but actually haven't tried it that much. (Only really to see the effect of many pattern repeats together.) I'm so oldfashioned I like squared paper! Actually, my method is very much like Carolina's. I make sure I get the width right, adjusting pattern and/or needle size and make up my mind about the length when I get close to the armhole.

Annika: I learnt how to use steeks by reading Alice Starmore, first (I believe) from Fishermen's Sweaters, but she has also described the technique in her book about Fairisle sweaters.

christinelaennec: I agree completely about the difference between plan and reality! It's a good thing I really enjoy swatching!

Not particularly helpful

Comparing Russian sweaters
Originally uploaded by Asplund

As I mentioned in my previous post, I prefer writing to talking. A good example of the disadvantage of speaking is when I was asked in the interview how I match back and front pieces to make a pattern continue across the shoulder join.

I said something like "um, well, it's about planning... put the pattern in the centre of both back and front sections... and then you try not to make mistakes..." How useful is that?

In this post I'm going to try to explain it better. (More vaguely would hardly be possible!) In the photo you can see two shoulder joins with the same pattern. I knitted the red version in the early 1990s, when I didn't dare to make modifications - and didn't have the skills either. The pattern is from Uuve Snidare's book "Fiskartröjor" (fishermen's sweaters), which is probably the most important one of my knitting books. In August I was lucky enough to get to meet Uuve Snidare at a knitting camp and thank her personally!

Even though I was (and still am) proud of knitting that sweater at 18, there are a few things about it that have annoyed me slightly since I finished it. A couple of years ago I knitted a new russet brown version, in which I incorporated some of the things I've learnt since then. I might write posts about all of them, but blending patterns across shoulder joins will do for today.

Placing the pattern so that the centre of a pattern repeat is in the centre of both back and front is crucial. It isn't in the red sweater, which shows when you look at the shoulder join. There is no row where I could have ended to get the lines to carry across the join smoothly.

The second crucial thing is ending at the (horizontal) centre of the pattern repeat, like in the russet brown sweater. The join is a three-needle bind-off: you turn the sweater inside-out and cast off the back and front sections together. The same thing goes for knit-purl patterns, like in this sweater (photo rather blurred, I'm afraid).

"Lerwick" sweater

You don't have to end in the middle of a repeat, though: in this case I ended after a whole repeat. (This design is also from Uuve Snidare's book.) I guess it depends on the pattern. The tricky thing is figuring out how many repeats you will have to make to get them to blend and get the length you want.

Undecided

"Jaws" in progress
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I'm not sure what I think of the sleeve pattern so far, the beginning of a big triangle that consists of many small ones, but will knit a few more inches before I decide whether I want to keep it or do something else.

The radio show a couple of mornings ago was a lot of fun! Actually, the best part took place the evening before: I was on the train from Stockholm and a woman I'd never met before approached me and said she thought she knew who I was. It turned out she was the one who had phoned me from the radio station a few days before and who was to interview me early next morning - talk about a coincidence!



Riddarholmen, Stockholm, Sunday afternoon



How she recognized me? She saw my reflection in the window (she was sitting behind me) and that I was doing something with my hands. Praying? No, knitting! A male knitter on his way to Uppsala, who could that be... I enjoyed talking to Elin a lot, both on the train and in the studio.

I do prefer writing to talking, though, to tell you the truth. Blogging suits me, but I wouldn't even toy with the idea of a pod cast, for example. Too fond of revising my words.

For those who want to hear the show (it's in Swedish) I'll add a link at the end of this post. A word of warning about the photo of me first: it strikes me I've got cheeks like Polomoche in a favourite book from my childhood! (Well, at least I'm not yellow and I don't have horns - and as far as I know I don't smell of rotten apples.) Link to the show here.
Check out Ylva's incredibly beautifully decorated mittens! I was lucky to get to admire them live at a knitting café Monday evening and was happy to discover her blog post about them.

News

Red dragonflies
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Imagine my surprise and delight when I read the morning newspaper a couple of days ago and saw my blog mentioned in an article about knitting! Thanks, Karin! Later that day they called me from the local radio station and asked me if wanted to come and talk about knitting on Monday morning. Guess what I answered!

"Jaws" is resting while I think about different sleeve ideas, so I've excavated the "Red Dragonflies" sweater from my UFO pile. I'm afraid it may be slightly out of proportion (the sleeves too wide for the body) but I won't know for sure until I block it. I may have to knit some kind of side gussets to add to the width.

Last but not least, a couple of gifts! I recently knitted a shawl with handspun silk yarn fellow knitter Marguerite in France was kind enough to send me. Here it is on a tea towel fellow knitter James in New Zealand sent me. Thank you both! I'm going to give the shawl to a friend's daughter, but the towel is mine.

Teeth galore

Side join
Originally uploaded by Asplund

"Jaws" is taking shape; here's the side join.

I made the steek rather wide, since I didn't want to cut it open in the middle but to cut out the middle part of it with all the dangling threads.

Then I picked up stitches along the whole front and the whole back and started knitting the side panels vertically. The original design has garter-stitch side panels, but I prefer stocking stitch. (It's the same thing with the yoke). The first and last ten stitches are garter stitch, though, to blend with the bottom border and to keep it from curling. Also, I chose to have a split, which isn't in the original design. 



This is what the wrong side looks like.

 



I first tested making the side panels all brown, but changed my mind: I wanted to accentuate the construction with some stranded colourwork and decided to knit more "teeth" before a few all brown rows. I ended with a purl row (or, rather, a knit row on the wrong side) before casting the sides off together from the wrong side.



Ron asked about the sleeves. They will get more "teeth" (the more, the merrier) possibly turned into simple lines. Maybe a splash of orange or yellow... I'm surprising myself by not deciding very much in advance - I usually like deciding most things in advance but leaving some room for improvisation and changes.



Jaws

WIP: Andes by Marianne Isager
Originally uploaded by Asplund

All the borders with white triangles suddenly made me think of sharks and their multiple rows of teeth, so I'm going to rename the sweater Jaws.

The centre back and front sections are finished; right now I am crocheting "seams" in the steeks before cutting them to secure the strands. Next step will be joining the shoulders and then pick up stiches along the whole back and front to knit side panels and sleeves.

Hello sunshine

"Andes" wip
Originally uploaded by Asplund

The sun made a guest appearance today (it's been very cloudy recently) so I managed to take a photo of "Andes" that shows the colours properly. There will probably be 12 borders of white "teeth" in all, and I'm going to frame this section (shoulders, side panels and sleeves) with the greyish brown used in the split bottom border.

Let me tell you it's quite satisfying looking at all the dangling ends in the middle of the steek to the right knowing I won't have to weave in a single one of them!

In a comment on my previous post Ing-Marie i Säter asked me if the small project was a sleeve or a swatch. It was a swatch, partly to test gauge but mainly to try different ways to combine my colours. (Photo of the original version here.) These are my thought behind my colour choices:

1. My stash: 7 skeins of greyish brown, 3 natural white and 1 warm brown means lots of greyish brown for the frame, side panels and sleeves; leftover colours concentrated to the back and front centres.

2. Natural white used in all the borders for stability and to combine the other colours with (they all look good next to it) - and simply because I have quite a lot of it.

3. Two shades of brown (cool greyish and warm yellowish) alternating for variation.

4. Two purl ridges in differerent colours below each brown section. Yellow and orange looked nice with warm brown, and light brown and dark brownish green looked nice with cool brown.

5. Colour sequence alternating for variation: yellow-orange, brown-green, orange-yellow, green-brown...

There are many good challenges involved in this project. Apart from testing different ways to use the colours and trying a new way to construct a sweater, it's good to practise getting even tension when stranded colourwork and plain stocking stitch is combined.

Returning to Marianne Isager

Isager swatch
Originally uploaded by Asplund

First of all, thanks for all the wonderful comments on my last post!

Knitting lace shawls is great, but so is variation - so I've been looking for inspiration in my knitting books. Trust Marianne Isager! Here's an intriguing design in "Inca Knits" that I haven't paid much attention to before, but which kind of gave my stash a come-hither stare.

The construction is one I haven't tried and never would have thought of, for that matter. First you knit the multi-coloured sections of the back and front; then you pick up stitches along the sides to knit not only the sleeves but also the side panels.

Any modifications? Yes!
1. Colours. I'm using greyish brown and natural white Shetlandsuld I bought about half a year ago when my LYS celebrated 25 years. I'm spicing it with some leftovers from Zaire. The photo to the left does not do the colours justice, but will at least give you an idea.
2. I'm not knitting the multi-coloured sections back and forth, but in the round with steeks. A bonus is not having to weave in any ends: I start new rows in the middle of a steek and will simply cut the steeks open and trim the edges.
3. Minor modifications in the pattern with an extra colour and two stocking stitch rows skipped between purl ridges.

Estonian shawl finished

Estonian shawl finished
Originally uploaded by Asplund

This is how my knitted-on edge turned out. Not sure how far my yarn would last I decided to knit a pattern that could be cast off practically any time; this one consists of two different pattern rows and two plain rows.

There was more yarn than I expected, so I ended with a few pattern rows with extra increases for more pronounced points. I'm pleased with the edge (I wanted something airy to balance the fairly compact main pattern) although I think the original design is prettier.

That goes for the whole shawl, by the way, even though I'm happy with my modifications - and even happier that I've left my old fear of experimenting and taking liberties with patterns behind. I've learnt a lot (and still do) from following instructions, but it's nice not to have to depend on them all the time.

My modifications in short:
1. Variation star motif used. It's bigger, so I made this shawl five stars wide instead of seven.
2. Garter-stitch border skipped.
3. Centre "grid" pattern resized to blend with the stars, and I added different groups of nupps to it.
4. Edge knitted on instead of made separately and sewn on. (Which keeps this from being a real Haapsalu shawl, but I guess it's safe to call it Haapsalu-ish!)

The finished shawl measures ca 115x105 cm (45x41 in).

Living on the edge

Estonian shawl wip
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Here's my first attempt at a border around the Estonian shawl. I really like the one in the original design (easy to see in the shawl knitted by Flickr's annalore) but knitting it separately and then sewing it on - no thanks. So, I decided to pick up stitches around the shawl and then knit the border pattern upside-down instead - and resize the pattern to match my number of stitches. (Anything to avoid sewing.)

Unfortunately, knitting a pattern with nupps in the round didn't work,at least not for me: no matter how I try one of the stitches next to a nupp becomes enormous, looking like a big hole. I thought about knitting this section back and forth instead, but finally decided to try something completely different instead. What I've done so far looks promising, but I haven't knitted enough for good pictures yet. Will get back!

Frogging the edge at least gave me an opportunity to take a picture of the shawl. I'm quite excited about it and wonder how big the finished shawl will be. Unblocked and without a border it's about 70 cm (27½ in) wide. I've knitted lace shawls with this yarn before and they grew considerably during blocking.

This one may not grow quite as much, though, since I'm using slightly thinner needles (3½ mm/ US 4) and I don't know if the nupps will make a difference.

Here are some basic notes how I knitted the baby cardigan:

• I cast on ca 90 stitches.
• After getting the desired width I knitted about 1/3 of the stitches with a separate thread (for the sleeve) and then went on as before.
• When the back was wide enough I did the same thing for the second sleeve and then went on to knit the second front.
• Strand removed and stitches picked up around the armholes; sleeves knitted in the round to desired length.
• Shoulder joins sewn together.
• Buttons sewn on and loops crocheted.
• Strings crocheted to be able to tie the two fronts together on the inside.

Happy new year, everyone!

A spot where I didn't bring my knitting

Cinderella was here
Originally uploaded by Asplund

It would get wet in the outdoors hot tub. I took this photo in the morning of the 24th; it was biting cold and in the evening even colder, -35C (-31F). I thought it was too cold to get into the tub that day, but did the next two when we enjoyed a heatwave of ca -20C (-4F). Unbelievably wonderful, especially when it was dark and the stars were out! And yes, I even got into the lake at one point! The water was so cold it didn't feel cold, but tickled all over the fraction of a second I was in. Once was enough, though.

I've finished the baby cardigan I wrote about in my previous post. I think it's a great construction for a baby garment: very elastic and practically seamless with only two short shoulder joins. Aren't the buttons we found at Yll o tyll cute? There's enough yarn left for a matching cap.

Great expectations

Baby cardigan wip
Originally uploaded by Asplund

A colleague of mine is expecting a baby and asked me if I could knit her a baby cardigan. She knits too, so we met up at our LYS the other day; there was a cardigan there with a shape that I found inspiring (or theft-worthy, if you like) and we found some baby merino wool there too. Purchase-worthy wool, I should add.

The cardigan is knitted sideways and the two fronts will overlap. I've added a pattern, partly to make it more fun to knit, partly to make it easier to get the three sections the same size. I'm not sure what I think of it, though, now that it's moved from a pattern idea to reality. Green lips, Kaa hypnotizing Mowgli, cabbage... Well, as long as it doesn't look like the evil eye!

Wristwarmers

Annika's wristwarmers
Originally uploaded by Asplund

For the sake of variety I've been knitting wristwarmers recently. This pattern was a free gift from Ravelry's jdw at the knitting camp I attended back in August. I've added pearls in groups of five and a row of holes. They're for my friend Annika, who has asked for white, thin, warm wristwarmers.

The yarn is BC Semilla Fino, organic fingering weight wool, and I used 2 mm needles (US 0).

They're knitting diagonally; you can see it more clearly in this photo. I do like the effect you get with variegated yarn. These are leftovers from a hat I knitted a couple of months ago.

Isn't it fascinating how different they look compared to the white ones? The shape is the same, but the different colours and the way the diagonal is accentuated give them a completely different look.

Correcting a mistake

Winter mosaic
Originally uploaded by Asplund

The past few weeks have been unusually cold. I took these photos on my way to work last Thursday morning. It was almost -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) but fortunately it isn't that cold now.

I'm making progress with the Estonian shawl. My intention was to have identical groups of nupps in all the centre-section quadrangles, but mixed up rows and accidentally started too early the second time around.

I didn't discover this mistake until a couple of rows later, and instead of ripping these out I decided to correct my mistake by simply deciding this was what I wanted instead. Actually, it's a good opportunity to find out how different nupp patterns ideas will look in reality!

Shawl progress and sweater progress

Estonian shawl wip
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I'm having a lot of fun knitting the "Crown Prince" shawl from Nancy Bush's book, but can't resist making some modifications.

1. The star is the variation motif in the book. I really like it that there are variations of many of the motifs!

2. I've skipped the garter-stitch frame, simply because I'm not very fond of it, especially not combined with lace.

3. I've resized the centre section repeats, making them the same width as the stars. In the original design they are different and don't match, although it doesn't show that clearly thanks to the garter-stitch frame between the sections.

4. Personally, I like symmetry too much not to do something about it, though, and I also like blending pattern sections. Resizing meant making the repeats bigger, so I'm adding a little cluster of "nupps" too, barely visible in this photo. To be continued.

I've been working with my red sweater too: both sleeve caps are finished. I decided to make the second one while I remembered how I made the first one - and understand my hastily scribbled notes. You know, knitting held in one hand, pencil hopefully in the hand you normally write with...

I'm testing a new idea for sleeve gussets too, but I think that will have to be in another post.

Last but not least: dear friend E. is happy with the hat I gave her for her birthday.