Red nordic hat

Used the yarn left over from the cardigan. Basic beret shape, starting with corrugated ribbing.

The motif and the dots are echoing the cardigan.

What will I be when  grow up? (before blocking)

Berets and fair isle both can benefit from strick blocking.

Red nordic cardigan

Once again, this is a story, which started months ago, and went through different threads, to come toogether in the end very nicely.

I already told you about my favourite yarn, which I just call "the scottish yarn". You aready heard me sing odes to it, and I have a bunch of it.( a few kilos would qualify as a "bunch", eh?). In fact I have about three cones of this red tweedy one, which I am carefully guarding. I kept looking out for just the right pattern, the one that would do it justice, because I felt it deserves the best.

But when I came across the Vogue's Nordic cardigan pattern I didn't make the connections at once.

Only a few weeks ago, when in the same day I found the magazine In a yarn shop (1001fonal), and looked at a red/white nordic vest in HandM. At that moment I knew from what I am going to knit this sweater.

There was still the question of the contrast color. I have the same yarn in off white, but it is set aside for something else. The pattern asks for four strands of a kidsilk haze like yarn... which I think is just too much. But then the light turned on, and I remembered I do have the same quality yarn in off white in a thinner weight, and I also have some balls of a Barka yarn, which is very much like kidsilk haze. So I used them toogether.

The one strand made the contrast color whiter, and it gave it a bit of halo as well.
The sweater has an interesting contruction. The top parts of the fronts and the back are knitted separately, then sewed up, and the knitting contiues, picking up stitches for the sleeves. It might worth some thinking to figure out how to do it with shortrows, omitting the sewing part :-)

I tried to follow the pattern, for the longest I could... But thought the original feels a little unfinished, with having the buttonholes(and the buttons as well) in the patterned panel, and there is no real edging at the front.

Therefore I omitted the increase at the end of the neckline, and knitted a solid red buttonband on both part.
And knitted the sleeves in the round (no sewing up, yay!), and didn't do the decreases, so the sleeves are looking slightly bell shaped.

If I would knit this again (most probably will in a different color), I would pick up more stitches at the shoulder for the sleeves, to give the upper arms more room, and probably do the collar wider, but that is about it.

My only problem with the pattern, that it only comes in two sizes. And even those are acquired with the use of different needles/gauge. Now, using a different needle results different fabric. What if I like tighter knitting? (which I do, actually). What if I have a slightly different yarn? What if I am slightly bigger than a smallish medium (by american standards)? I couldn't decide if it was simple lazyness from the designer or the tech editor. I think in a magazine of this fame should have higher standards in details like this. reading the pattern it seems complicate enough to deter even the slightly above than average knitter from venturing into recalculating the whole thing. But having actually knitted it, I realized it shouldn't have been such a big deal to recalculate it for slightly bigger sizes. It is such a shame, because it would've worth it.

photos: Christopher Laurent Deli.

More winter rainbow

Remember the rainbow colored yarn we dyed, with long color repeats?

Finally I managed to knit some of it. Since it is wintertime they became mittens.

And a scarf...

And to answer some of the questions I got after I he yarn was all wool. Not the softest one, mind you, even though it did bloomed very nicely after washing and blocking it is still not for those who "can't stand wool because it is prickly". And yes, the colors did run into each other a bit in the pan, but I didn't mind it. It just made the colors more interesting.

The scarf and the mittens are available in the etsy shop.

its not only knitting

I did lately... my friend had an order for some small bags.. She had some fabric I had some zippers, and we set out to see what could be made...

The embroidery is her work (used the handdyed rainbow yarn), the sewing the thing up is mine.

The one with the dog? There was the piece of fake fur, and we've made it as a joke. Guess what? The very first person my friend showed it bought it. Go figure.

Beaded ball gloves and an official announcment

My sister is preparing for her prom night (or the like, here in hungary they are doing the last year ball during the school year, not at the end of it.).She has a long romantic dress, which gave the inspiration to design and knit some long, elegant gloves.

They are fingerless, they have a lace pattern at the back, and they have beads worked into the edge, and into the pattern itself. (Would it be "my" design without beads? LOL)

Everybody liked them so much, I knitted a bunch of them at once, in different, all romantic colors.

Which made me thinking...

Fom time to time, I was asked would I knit something for someone else... for money. I always replied no. I would be gladly teach anyone to knit, even write patterns, but never wanted to think of it as a money-making possibility. It is no by chance that the subtitle of my blog, is "this is just a blog", because I never wanted to sell/advertise anything. Besides knitting because I must, not to mention knitting on a deadline, would kill the whole thing.

But once in a while these enqueries came. So I had to do some hard thinking. Put aside my shyness, and self questioning. And decided, that though by principle I would still not knit for orders (with a very few exception), but if I make something and someone would like to have it... He/she can. From now.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me announce my new etsy shop, where you can buy a few things I make.
Like these ball gloves. If you come from my blog, use the THECRAFTYSIDE2011coupon code, and you'll get 10% off until the end of december.

Ps. Project data: Pattern: my own design. Yarn: Barkafonal. Photo: Deli Christopher Laurent

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Winter rainbow

I have knitted this sweater in the spring, but only started using in this late fall.
The yarn came from Barkafonal, and surprisingly little was enough.
The pattern came out of my head, simple top-down raglan. Wider than usual ribbing at the sleeves.

A season of gloves

With the cold season gloves are getting out of  the bottom of drawers.

For me, yarns are getting dug out of the bottom of the stash.

This is just the beginning, be prepared for the avalanche of posts about gloves and mitts in the next

weeks.

 I love fingerless mitts, I find them very practical in the city, they warming hands, but let one take out keys, passes, change without having to take them off.

These are made from sock yarns that are 70-80% wool and the rest nylon or acrylic for strength.

To go with jeans:

In vampire mood:

And a little bit of romance in embroidered flowers.