Epic sweater!

I just finished putting the buttons on the most amazing sweater. It’s downright epic.
I have misplaced my camera, so you’ll have to go by scrappy webcam-photos. But trust me when I say that it’s just perfect.

I used Elizabeth Zimmermann’s directions for the “Three and One Sweater” from the Opinionated Knitter, but just freestyled the colour-pattern, because I cannot be contained by directions. It extra-long, to fit my relatively long torso, it’s fitted perfectly to my measurements and it’s light as a feather – only 250 grams. If you’re a non-yarnie, that means I’ve knitted this with a very thin thread – running 600 metres pr. 100 grams. It’s the New Zealand Lambswool (available here) I love this yarn, it doesn’t scratch at all, and the colours are amazing. Buttons are from Wollsucht in Flensburg – an amazing yarn shop, I have to say.

Quote of the day

Our deapest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deapest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,

gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who ar you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking

so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

Beautiful clothes

I love this skirt:

And this tunic:

Great inspiration for something that could knitted or sown by me.

I’m doing a self-designed project with a hemmed cuff featuring 2×2 ribbing. Normally I shy away from this type of ribbing, but I never realised why, until I was a few inches into the hem of the cuff.

My 2×2 ribbing is wonky. It looks like I’m a 5th grader who just learned how to knit. Not to disrespect either of the two demographics, but I’m neither. Then why did it look this bad?

Well, after looking around on the intarwebs, I found out that the culprit is inherent in the way I purl that first stitch after my knit stitch. No matter how hard I tried to avoid that weird sloppiness in my second knit stitch, it just wouldn’t budge. From the boggy waters of the back of my brain, I remembered something – the Norwegian purl stitch. Ah. Yes.

Knittinghelp.com has an instructional video for just that stitch, and after employing it in my knitting, I can attest that I now have a neat 2×2 ribbing. Ah, life is good.

As an aside, I’d love to teach others how to knit. That would be so much fun. I’ve been day-dreaming about that when I get tired of being unemployed.

I just love this picture. It says everything about the weekend we just had, sun, a healthy chill in the air, and plenty of walks in the woods in Rasmus home town.

Quite a while ago, I knit this hat for Jonatan, an updated version of my mitered hat of yesteryear. It’s pretty, light and he doesn’t mind wearing it. Again, it’s the never-failing Filcolana lammeuld (sheepswool) that I like so much.

I also made the jacket. It’s far from perfect, but I learned a lot making it.

Sorry the pictures aren’t the best. I’ve done my best, but toddlers are hard to capture.

Just a quick note. I made a really simple triangular shawl. I wear it all the time, it’s so soft and the colours are stunning.

Yarn bought from a woman who sheared her own sheep and spun up a incredibly irregular thin single. I really couldn’t do anything else but simply knit it and honour its rustic beauty.

Fair isle! A knitting bug has caught me, yes it has. Colour-work. I love-love-love intrinsicate colours that blend in with each other. And now that I’ve worked with stranded colour-work in knitting, I’ve been masmerized with how the colours change when they are woven intrinsically into each other.

Long time ago, I invested in a lot of Filcolana Lammeuld (Sheepswool). It’s a two-ply, running 600 meters in 100 grams of yarn. In other words, I’m a bit of knitting masochist, working a 40 inch, 240 stitches, full colourwork yoke cardigan! But fear not for my sanity, for I have already worked almost the entire body of the sweater.

My camera fails to capture colours properly, but I can attest that my (usually quite uninterested husband) enthused that it was incredibly beautiful! So I’m not completely off my mark. Also, I need to add another half inch before I join with the sleeves. I want a long, cosy and snug sweater.
I also tried my first hand at duplicate stitch. It worked just fine.

The duplicate stitch is the light blue running across the yellow area.
Oh, and an extra note on the construction. I am making a plain turned hem (keeping of interest from my somewhat generous hip-area). Since gauge is generally tighter in stranded colourwork, I compensated by first casting on 216 stitches, working the plain turned hem, then adding 24 extra stitches as I began the colourwork, so I had a total of 240 st. The clever reader will have noticed that I’m calling this a cardigan. It will become a cardigan once it’s been steeked (shriek!). This is also an (almost) first-timer for me. Since I’m new to this, I am going to use Eunny Jang’s wonderful and detailed tutorial on steeking and colourwork.

Now for sleeves! I think I will work a little interest around the cuffs, but keep them plain up above the elbow, where I will begin colour-work again. I hate to admit it, but my inspiration for this style is inspired by… Posh Spice!

Oh, I tried on the body of the sweater and it fits like a (well-fitted) glove. I can only thank my generous swatch:

Last night I managed to cut and sew parts of this new skirt. It’s inspired by the Dries Van Noten skirt I bought on a whim of insanity 8 years ago. It was insanely expensive, but I’ve worn it so much ever since, it was almost worth it. You will see both skirts in the picture here:

So far I’ve only made the body of the skirt, but still need to make the waistband. I’m planning to emulate the construction of the Dries Van Noten skirt, especially the waistband, which I have to admit is a little complex. But who says no to challenge? Again, the fabric inspired me to make this skirt. This is a heavy-weight woven fabric that I think will drape beautifully because it is so wide. The fabric reminds me a little of the Dries Van Noten fabric, so it seemed obvious to refashion the skirt. I added little orange-red darts at the hem, and I’m curious to see how that will work. I can’t just make a plain black thing, now can I? Again, this is second-hand fabric I inherited from a neighbour who was about to throw it out. Ah, but this old thrifter here jumped right at the chance and scored a great abundance of nice fabrics.

The blog has been sleeping! But that does not mean I’m not being creative – far from it! I’m currently unemployed, and in between finding a place to work, I make a lot of beautiful things. Both needles and sewing machine have found use, and now I will show you, my faithful and invisible audience, pictures of just that.

I find that my inspiration for new creations come from fabrics and colours. And just so, this skirt emerged from my imagination:

The fabric was given to me by my dear old grandmother, left-overs from drapes that hung in an old house of theirs. I love the bold, big flowers and the colours that are cool and a little over-the-top. I didn’t use a pattern for this, just good old math and a tape-measure. I made nine panels, raced them together and used elastic fabric for the upper band. It turns out the elasticity is not tight enough, so it kind of hangs on my body. At some point I might go and do something about that. But not now. It gets a lot of wear, so I can forgive its flaws.