Gardengate

 This is something I finished more than a year and a half ago, and never managed to post about it...

Why? I do not know. Mybe because I am not completely satisfied with it?

I wanted to knit this pattern for literally YEARS, even before I knitted my New Leaf sweater, but I kept putting it off. Then, after quite a few succesful stranded sweater, I took out some ... you guessed it, gray sock-yarn, and handdyed red.

Knitted it mostly to the pattern, and only adding some lines of dots to the patterning on the cuffs, to -kind-of- mimic the long cuffs I love.

Wearing it a few times I feel that the sleeves could be wider, and when I move more than usual, a strange puckering occurs above the breast

Which makes me want constantly pulling down the hem. 

You see, that puckering? It annoys me, maybe that is the reason I waer it less, even though I do love the drawing of the pattern itself.

Pattern: Gardengate

Photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

What the Friday?

 In which, I try to figure out, what the fff...friday I was thinking, when I started some of my UFO-s, 

This was supposed to be a summer-wrap cardigan...

The yarn has cotton, and linen in it, and a lot of colors... I might even finish it, some day.

However, I am running out of these unfinished misteries, and I will have to figure out, what to do with these friday posts... I do have an idea, but let me mull on it for a bit longer. 

Stranded knitting workshop

 Today's post comes a bit later than usual, but I have important news.

You asked, and here it is!

In the last years, I've knitted a good number of sweaters/cardigans/hats with stranded patterns, and every time, when I post one of these eithere here in the blog, or over on Facebook, I am asked to teach the teachnique.

So, with Bori of Spinn 'n Fox we conspired to bring you a three event workshop, where I will teach you, how I knit this teechnique.

First, we meet on march 18th, then 25th, then on april 1st. 

Among other things, I will teach how to knit continental and british (picking and throwing), how to use two colors in two hands and how to tach down long floats on the back of the work.

The event is here, but pay attention, the first day is march 18. 

Weekly SO

 Fashion edition.

I strongly dislike high waisted pants, and I absolutely HATE the fact that nowadays, one practically cannot buy anything else. 

I went into a couple of stores, including H and M, which does have a considerable selection of denim pants, but for friday's sake, there is about fifty different styles, and maybe of them even have medium waist, and there is none with low waist.

No, don't get me wrong, of course, I do not want those really love waisted jeans, from which one's pubic hair could be seen, however, I have a short waist. NOT a short uppre body, but the distance between my belly button, and my hip  (is this the seating depth?) is short. 

I always struggled with pants being too high for me. At a time, for example, when I was sewing a lot from Burda patterns, I thought that this has to do something with the german bodies, they are taller, and that is why the pants are high for me. Admittedly, I did not understand, until I've seen some historical clothes on myself on pictures taken from the back. I do not know why was it, but that was a real AHA moment for me, making me understand, why I feel that I need to turn down the waits of literally every pants I wear, be it trainers, PJ's, jeans, or tailored pants. 

Now I approach pants with extreme caution. I look at many sites and shops, especially since my size fells into that gray zone just what is between regular sizing and... how to say it.. chubby sizing...

Even when in my favourite source (online shop called Pomme Plus) that caters exactly to these in-between sizes says, that the waist of a certain pair of trousers are "nich and high, and no belly would show" I am thinking: "well, those pants would be kind of thight at my underarm " (to quote my grandmother). LOL. 

Anyhow, I do not think these cuts do much for most women, except for very tall, very thin ones, and there are people whose body is not like that, and it would be cool, if we could just BUY something else. 

Went skating - the reenactor's way

 A few years ago there was a yearly organized reenactor's skating event, which was always fun, but for some reason less and less people attended.

However, with my friend, Judit, we decided, that we do an Edwardian skating afternoon :-)

Weekly Pattern

 This week I simply opened Ravelry's "hot right now" list, and picked something I actually liked for the first look. 

Picture from Ravelry: © eri shimizu

Which is the Shizen sweater.

Why I like it, and why would I consider knitting it? 

While I like massive, colorwork, cables, lace, and I wear those sweaters constantly, sometimes, I would like to have something I can throw on over my summery white clothes. 

Yes, I wear a LOT of white, especially in the summer, and this is something I can imagine with a white tank top and some soft, wide legged linen pants. 

Also, looking at it, it looks like it has an interesting construction, the shoulders are two straight strips, which continued in one after the neck-opening is down. 

Sleeves are knitted top down, with minimal shaping. 

I would probably choose some bit rusting, linen, silk, or similar fibers with cotton. 

Outfit

 I am not a "outfit-of-the-day" blogger, not in the least, that unlike about a decade ago, I dress... less.

I used to have a LOT of clothes - though most of it either handmade- I mean, I made them- or second hand-, so much that my collegaues made bets when will I wear the same outfit twices (it did not happen in a whole year), but that was a time when I had a job, where I had to go in the office every day. 

Nowadays, my figure changed, and the way I live changed, though I still LOVE to put together outfits, I do it a lot less, and even then, I rarely have an opportunity to shot a picture. 

This was one of those times, besides, i was asked, what did I wear underneath the renaissance sweater.

So, here you go:

A micro-corduroy dress, thermo-leggings, handknit socks, and black boots.

What the Friday

I really have no idea, I wanted to make from this.

 

Short Comment

Something new.

Weekly SO

 Originally I wanted to write about something totally different (not even about knitting, but fashion), but, I have to get it out of my system. 

I absolutely HATE, when others want to use your content to their own gain. 

Meaning, I post about something I do, and they advertise their own event (product, service, etc) or agenda, disguised as a comment. Or I make a group about something, work with that group, and they, once again, advertise their own thing, without asking me. 

I like to think I am fairly sensitive, I often share events, products, pages, and whatnot, but that is my page, my group, my work, I want to decide what I want to advertise, endorse, offer, thank you very much. 

I think it is extremely bad form to do that.

Okay. I'll get off my horse, and next week there comes my opinion about... well, you will see. 

Short Comment

Since, it turns out, one does not need enemies, if s/he has a family, there will be more SC posts in the next few days.  Sorry. Thank you for your patience.

As for the picture, I needed some mid-sized (2,75mm, 3,25mm) circulars, and some DPNs as well.

 

Weekly pattern

 This week, I choose something from Ravelry's hot right now list. I know it's been there for a while, as it was published in 2021, there are more than 2000 projects to it, and the you-tube knitting vlogs/podcasts/etc mention it quite often. 

The Halibut sweater.

Photo from Ravelry, by Caitlin Hunter

I am rather ambivalent about this. I know it is VERY popular, I know, Caitlin Hunter is rather popular in general, I have the Alpine Blossom in my plans.

I understand the appeal, I understand the fun in the fish motif, I understand that it would be fun for someone who likes fish, likes to fish, interested in the ocean-world (from biology viewpoint), etc. 

The pattern could be a fun addtion to the wardrobe for them, it could be fun to wear for a winterwalk right next to the ocean. 

However, I am not one of those people. 

I don't like fishing (except for a music festival called Fishing on Orfű, LOL), I don't like to eat fish. I am not a marine biologist type. For god sake, we don't even have a seaport in this landlocked country to have a winterwalk there.

Besides, the pattern is to broad scale for my taste, and the used yarn is too thick (for my taste) the finished sweater has way too much ease. 

My preferance is finer motifs, thinner yarns, and fits that follow the body's lines more closely, so I while I undrestand why is it so popular, I would not knit it myself. 

What about you? Do you like it? Would you knit it? 

The wonders of Blocking (knitting basics)

 You asked, and I promised, and here we go. 

How to block a sweater? 

Let's start with why block a sweater? As I already wrote in that long time ago posted post about swatching, that when you put knitted/crocheted items into (warm) water the water fills the space between the fibers, the fibers soften and loosen up and become more malleable.

After I sewn in the ends, I took a quick picture for you, to be able to compare the before and after

You see, the knitting seems uneven, it looks like the stranded pattern scrunches up, like the floats are too short (they are NOT. I take great care to leave long enough floats, but this must be something to do with the way I knit, because I can always block my stranded patterned pieces completely flat. But heck, it even looks like it is way to short (for my taste at least).

It went to the sink, to water that is not hot, but warmer than lukewarn. I usually add a drop of lavander shampoo to wash out any dirt it might have acquired while knitting, or that might have gotten into the yarn, as I can never know where and how was it stored, handled before I got it, and this is especially true for second hand yarn.

After rinsing and carefully press some of the water out, I put it onto a big and thick towel.

Roll it up lengthwise:

And crosswise, making it into a small package. 

Those who are really careful, can press the water out of the package, maybe even carefully step and walk on them (its a good game for kids too). 

Then the brave ones can put the package into the washing machine to the spin cycle. The thick frottier protects the knitted fabric, and the centrifugal force pushes it to the wall of the drum, where it stays, while it spins. (But then, you only do this at your own responsibility.)

Then, I open the packge and lay the sweater on another big and thick towel, and pin it. 

How much I pull on it depends on the yarn, the size, how much the knitting/pattern scrunches it up.

Interestingly enough, right after I take it out of the towel-package I can see changes. The wet fabric is softer, the fabric is more even, the stranded pattern is flatter. 

If the sweater as scrunched up as this was, I pull it hard, and pin. 

See, how I pinned ABOVE the ribbing, because I did nit want to have a scallop-y edge. But also, how I pinned the tips of each pattern repeat

Then I let it dry, until it is bone-dry. 

I do the same for cotton, alpaca, wool, stuff. And I do the same for those that have more than 30% manmade fiber, though I don't really use yarns that have more than 40-50% acrilyc.

I know that some say, that you can steam-clock things, I have tried it, but I prefer the wet-block. Also, you have to be very careful to use heat for stuff that has manmade fibercontent, as, especially acrilic and/or poliamid can easily go limp under heat, and you cannot undue that. 

What the Friday?

 In which I am trying to figure out what the friday I was thinking, when I started this or that UFO.

Actually though I completely forgot about, was not that big of a mistery. 

I knew it was supposed to be a sweater, or rather a cardigan, and I loved it, because of the pointy side seams, and that at least one of my knitting friends knitted it. 

I had a vague memory of it being a Knitty pattern (as like 10-14 years ago, many really good, and popular patterns came from Knitty, so dug around the Knitty archive. 

It took me a while to find it, but it is the Flaming June pattern 

Since I still like it pretty much, and I had the yarn packed with the piece on the needles, I will most probably finish this. 

New Year's Renaissance

 It seems all I do lately is knit, but the truth to be told, I am battling demons, and knitting is one thing I hold onto, because first of all yarn does not asks questions, yarn understand, second of all, I know how to do it. Mostly. Not to mention, that one of the thing is for the New Year's Good Luck sweater, that I only knit on that until it is finish.

I am thinking a lot about sewing, and I do things that takes me closer to sew, got some patterns printed, glued and cut, I have fabrics washed, but for the moment, I am the queen of procrastinating. 

In the meanwhile, as I said, I am holding onto knitting like I'd do it for dear life. 

You've seen, that I finished the New Year's sweater, and by now I managed to block it, and we even took some photoes of it on Saturday. 

Excuse for the missing smiles, part of the reason was that it was effing cold. Norbert even asked if I am sure that it is a good idea to take off my coat for photos in minus C°'s, but at least that I did not want to postpone longer. 

As you see, at the end, I decided on the almostred dark burgundy color, and Elenor Mortensen's Renaissance sweater.

Both the base color and the contrast color was variegated, both was a no-name second-hand find, the burgundy from year's ago, the light white-is/purplish from a few months ago. 

All through knitting, I was wondering, if it was a smart idea to mix not one but two variegated yarns together, because when I looked at my knitting, quite often I could not see the pattern.

However, when I looked it from farther apart, I could really see the lines more clearly: 

So, though, I am not unsatisfied with the results, next time, probably NOT use two colorful yarn, at least one of them will be a solid, or at least semosolid one. 

On the other hand all the yarn came from my stash, only small amount (a few meters) was left, and it blocked out nicely.

As for the pattern, it is well written, as usual (for Elenor pattern's), I only changed my usual added waist-shaping and the longer cuffs.

What I like about Elenor's pattern, that the later ones go beyond the patterned yoke, this one have the majority of the stranded part after separating the sleeves and the body.

Of course, I like the lines of the drawing, though for me it s more rococo than renaissance.

Pattern: Renaissance by Elenor Mortensen

Yarn: Sockyarn

Needles: 2,75mm, 3mm, 3,75 mm

Photos (modelled): Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto

Weekly SO

 Underwear (as undershirts)

I've been listening to some knitting podcasts on Youtube, and when I first heard that one of the podcasters wears her (wool) sweaters without anything - maybe except a bra- I was like hmmm. She must be the odd one out. But then I heard another one, and then another one, and as we all know, one might be a chance but three is a trend. 

I was like WHAT? 

She did not like a certain yarn, because it is ever so slightly prickly (do not get me started on "prickly/itchy", etc yarn, LOL), but she does not wants to wear anything underneath... because she gets hot, but then she still sweats and she needs to wash her sweaters frequently... 

Now, I would NEVER EVER wear a wool/alpaca/angora/cashmeere (basically -mostly- protein based / animal fibers) sweater directly on my skin. I would always wear something, at least a T shirt underneath. 

I did not, even, before I started to study historical clothes, but after that, not even that much. Whenever I am asked, how do I wash my wool sweaters, my answer is usually that I rarely do. Not only, because I have many, and I do not go out that much, but also because I always wear something underneath them. It is one of the basic teachings of historical dress, and if nothing else, we should learn as much. Just as I am often asked about my sweaters and washing, we are often asked about how did they washed those big, natural fiber dresses, and the answer is the same. They did not. Were they dirty or smelly? Also NOT. Why? Partly because those clothes were hung out to air, (wind, sun and cold does wonders). Patly, because, they were undershirts (chemises) underneath, and they washed those. And washed those frequently. I also wash my T shirts, undershirts, etc rather frequently.

Things with cellulose based fibers (cotton/linen) are somewhat different, I used to have some summery tops, and I might even wear a cotton sweater with a tank top (instead of something with sleeves), but I still feel the urge to wear something underneath.

And let's not even talk about dressing appropriately to certain conditions, because climate change threw a lot of things  off its course, but we, I think, can agree, that it is not the swetar's fault (and not the yarn's) if we are hot?

SC (Short Comment)

Sometimes I do wonder that printing PDF patterns are really the most cost/paper-effective way, but compared to the time and cost, and uncertaintities shipping a paper-pattern takes... 

 

Weekly Pattern

Since I wrote about this idea, I keep thinking, how I should go about this? Two things I am sure: that this will be both knitting patterns and sewing patterns, and also, I will post positive and negative thoughts too. I might do a double take on some occasion, posting one positive, one negative, other times I take a look at just one pattern.

Let's start with a positive one, okay?

I usually stay away from those that keep popping up literally every darn knitting podcast, and this one did appeared in every "XX best colorwork pattern" "Colorwork patterns you must knit" and the like type of knitting youtube, but I still like it. 

Picture is from Ravelry © Katryn Seeburger

It is the Heirloom Quilt Cardigan by Kartyn Seeburger

Maybe because I am not only a knitter, but I also sew, and I did sew quilts for a while (back in the nineties, when we lived in Miami. I just found the album with some pictures, do you want to see them?).

This cardigan is something that speaks to me. Colors, interesting shape, a lovely mood. Yes, the colors of the original would not work with my hair, but there are quite a few finished ones I'd really love to try on, like Jilljudd's one with the blue and red, or the all blue Pinkpantherblau made.

It is designed for a fingering weight yarn, and because of the boxy shape, I think a bit off gauge would not hurt much, thus I can imagine using some sockyarns to make it. 

I think, using a basic and traditional quilting motif makes it look homey, comfortable, a bit chabby chic.

Would I actually make it? I would be definetly tempted, the only thing is something that makes this piece what it is, the cropped length and the boxy shape. 

Being somewhat overweight, I am not sure how the shape would suit me, and how changes, like adding a row of squares would change it. 

Gone to the movies (Nosferatu costumes)

To watch Nosferatu. 

My son asked "Since when do you watch horrormovies?" And he was absolutely right. I don't do horrors, I can't even watch a simple Dr. House episode... But then why? 

"Sweetheart, it is set in 1838. I was looking at the clothes, not the gore."

And I was. Of course I was interested in the story, back in university, I had a class on "fantasy" literature that took us thtough from The Monk through Dracula and Frankenstein to the Clockwork Orange and the Hungergames. 

But the clothes, the clothes! Did I tell you that I am a nightmare to watch a historical movie or a period drama? In fact, as Norbert said not long ago: "I kind of got used that you keep commenting on clothes in historical movies, but now we can't even walk around you doing the same?" (I was criticising a street-sculpture of a 19th century playwright, who was depicted in a modern suit.)

Anyhow, back to the Nosferatu costumes, the movie is set in the 1830-ies, and we know that 1830-ies fashion is often ridiculous, and that is why it is rarely used in movies, but here they did not shy away from the ridiculousness, but fully embraced it. The extremely puffy sleeves, the folds, the ruffs, the piping the lace, the underwear (did you see that fan-backlacing? I have to make a corset with those one of these days). They had headwear! Lacecaps, and even bonnets!

You all know that I am not a fan of black dresses, but that mourning gown...

I am tempted, I am tempted. 

(Take a look from a bit closer:)

There was only three moment, I drew a sharp breath of dissaproval. First at the yellow dress at one of the early sceenes. I get that they wanted to portray the calm (sunny?), but that shoulder???? 

The other time, toward the end of the movie, when she stands in the window in her underwear. While the corset itself is correct, and worn over a chemise (yayyy!), the place where Ellen's breasts supposed to be is empty.... It just looks so strange. I mean they should either used a smaller gore ("cup") or they should have used something to stuff this existing corset (They did do that historically). Though, come to think of it, it could be showing that she is loosing weight, because of the terrors, so much, even her corset (stays) is hanging on her (but only loosing weight from her breasts?).

The third time, the dressmaker in me (who have special craziness and OCD's to hang on, and criticize others for) gasped when the main caracter had a stripy dress, and on th eback of the dress the stripes were OFF, they did not match up. Once again, I know, that such a thing did happened historically. By the 1800's fabrics were a lot more affordable than even in the previous century, but they were still precious enough, that they often sacrificed pattern-matching to save on fabrics, but still... 

Otherwise, we could be happy, if the average historical movie would be halfway this decent. 

Now, I am going to plan an 1830-ies dress for myself, even if we don't actually do that period. YET. 

PS: After I wrote the above, I have found some interesting articles, like THIS one. Or THIS one.

Photos: from allover the web, probably owned by the studio.