Pentagons and Steeks and a Pullover

Finished! Just in time (= before Spring!).

The Pentagon Aran Pullover from Knitting Nature. Knitted in Size Small and  without any modifications to the pattern. I did change the way to knit it tough. Instead of knitting the back and the front separately I knitted the body in the round. That way, the pattern was way easier (You don’t have to twist your mind: points are purled. Always.)

Coming to the armholes, I had the choice: steek or twist. I decided to go for steeks, after my Vossajakka that felt more natural.  Didn’t make my mind what kind of steeks, but used 5 st for the steek. For the neck I decided just to knit the stitches in plain stockinette instead of the pattern and do the steek thing as well.

So far so good. For my Vossajakka I just followed the pattern, took my sewing machine and seamed the steek. Easy. Fast (once you have your sewing machine prepared). I marked the neck and sewed along the markers as well. Cut the thing and added the sleeves/neckband. The not so beautiful seam was hidden behind a knitted seam.

For the pullover however I decided to try crochet steek. First because it’s something new for me (Eunny Jang’s steek chronicle was very helpful) and second because I didn’t have to get out the machine. Not complicated as well. As for the neck, in the front I crocheted along the neck shaped and picked up the stitches for the neckband.

Lessons learned:

• crochet steeks look nicer
• but they tend to flare
• and they are bulky
• for the armhole, 3 st are enough (I first try to seem the steek down, but with the bulky steek the pullover started to look like a knight’s armour. So I had to crochet everything again and cut away the first steeks)
• For the neck the croched steek was convenient, because of the huge neckband the steek can be left as it is. Still next time I probably would do the same as for an armhole. BO the st required and CO some steek stitches.

Conclusion:
I absolutely don’t agree with Eunny that machine sewed steeks don’t go together with handknits. It is possible to sew them that they keep the stretchiness of the knitwear. For me it is the trade off between hiding the machine sewed steek in a seam (extra effort when knitting the sleeve) or having a slightly bulky steek (may be that could be avoided by using a thinner yarn. But I didn’t had any thinner yarn in the same color and didn’t want to risk another color showing).

AND I ABSOLUTELY LIKE THE RESULT

Tags: knitting, norah gaughan, knitting nature, pentagons, steeks, crocheted steeks

The Cost of Babysitting

Finally I completed one depth and generated new ones, but on the other side. I have a good friend who volunteered (more or less) babysitting for the business christmas dinner. More or less because I kind of had to talk her into it (I’m sure in the afterthought she doesn’t understand why, the kids were most peaceful. And seriously telling about 3 bedside stories isn’t that bad, is it?) so I promised to knit her something. And because babysitting really is a kind task to the stressed parents, what could have suited better than Humanity?

And here they are the second FO in 2009!

Summing Up

I totally agree with SlippedStich (at least I think to remember that I read sth like that in one of her posts) – Ravelry has an impact on blogging. I admit I find it intriguing to keep up with project on the net. Specially as I never managed a handwritten notebook. (I know). But dividing the time between family, my day job, knitting/spinning, sports AND the internet (blogging, ravelry) is not easy.

In short – the job won and blogging lost.

But even if I was quite buried in work end of year (even during christmas holidays – sad) I managed to get some project finished in november, december. And I did some spinning, not nearly as muched as I hoped and some dyeing. More about that later.

During my stay in Hamburg I finished Branching out (started in June – Mohair just isn’t the right material for summertime).

And I knitted the first of the Noro mitered mittens (gift).

I actually knit another one, in a different colorway – but can you believe it, I gave them away without taking a picture!

And then another helgi for my beloved man:

And the longest project of last year – because it was crocheting? I finally finished the Boho Blocks Sweater for my little girl. Just in time

After thinking a bit – I think it wasn’t the crocheting (which actually is great for playground projects), but the sewing together!

fiber stuff to be followed.

Tags: knitting, noro, mittens, ez, elizabeth zimmermann, miter, branching out, helgi

New fields

Some months ago I thought that after knitting (and sometimes crochet or sewing) spinning my own yarn just would be the logical follower. And end of last month I finally managed to go to a introduction lesson at Spycher’s handwerk. It was fun, even if the result was not very promising.

But they have a good offer, for not too much money you can loan a wheel. Which is perfect to try it out before making the investment. I am quite proud of my first real handspun (2 ply), but I made some typical mistakes:

• didn’t let the yarn rest on the bobbin (not to speak of rewind it on another bobbin – guess what I read)
• didn’t put enough ply twist in it
• was very proud that the singles weren’t totally overtwisted, so at some places the twist is on the small side now (plying really removes twist, especially AFTER the washing)

  

But anyway, got into the flow at some points and am definitely going to keep my JOY…

Made one FO, just in time (didn’t have time to block them, because I actually finished them on the way to the party!). Yes, a birthday gift for C.

Helgi Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia, ravelled here

BSJ, Color and Books

My first Baby Surprise Jacket for A., a beautiful little girl. Apart from the button, it was ready some time ago.

Results from my first dying experiment:

Finally I got the books from the Interweave Sale. Even if the postage takes most of the reduction it still feels like christmas.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: knit, books, ez, elizabeth zimmermann, BSJ,

Spring Socks

I finished another pair of socks for my boy. He absolutely wanted orange socks. Fine by me, hopefully his younger sister can wear them too.

BTW socks are the ideal project to be knitted on the playground

Fishes

On ravelry

I just can’t help – they do remind me of fishes. Ever since I read the mitered mittens pattern from ez, I decided to try these. Then I saw this yarn:

 And now they are finished, blocked and ready to give away. Yes I know it is not the right time of the year – but there is no sense of waiting, isn’t it. Even if I am waiting for spring to come, the next winter will come anyway.

Only after blocking I checked with the photo again and saw, that ez actually has the zigzag the other way round. But then they wouldn’t have been fishes anymore

Tags: ez, elizabeth zimmermann, mittens, mitered mittens, miter, knit, knitting, fishes

Cheshire Cat Socks

Finished! As usual the second took longer than the first one. I think this illusion knitting technique has some potential. I already have some ideas. But would choose something that is more visible, like a hat or mittens.I must admit that even if I like the look of short row heels, I find the good old flap one much easier to work. Probably because I am so used to it. But I don’t like to frog – and at least the first heel I had to work twice because I got all tangled in these wraps…

Sewing

I used some child free days last week to sew again. I used to do it a lot, but that is ages ago. I still had some fabric (100% linen) and when I saw this simple pattern, I just had to take the sewing machine out of the box. 

Even if I really like doing stuff myself, it is not really the solution to this problem.

Happy New Year

It was a hectic 2007 I just hope 2008 gets easier. Im glad that I could start 2008 with another FO – another hat for N. just ready for his birthday. I had to wash it in the machine to felt it slightly and to linen it to make it fit. But now it is the favorite hat of N.  

I also made some updates on ravelry. I really like to browse other knitting blogs, I think the idea of ravelry very cool but sometimes I can’t help thinking that this prevents me from actual knitting.