FO: Bolan Tee

I am hereby ending what is officially the longest time I have abandoned this little blog of mine since starting it a couple of years ago. I hope you can agree with me that it was for quite understandable reasons. While absent I have moved to a different country as well as obtaining my PhD degree. So from now on I am dr. Tahnée living in Paris (rather than just Tahnée living in the Netherlands).

I’ve been trying for a couple of weeks now to re-enter the blog-o-sphere, but failed to find the right words. But now I figured, what better way to return my blabberings about knitting than by showing an FO!

Pattern: Bolan Tee by Leila Raab
Yarn: Isager Viscolin (in what I think is colour # 60?)

This is my first ever attempt at knitting something that is meant to be worn in summer. I pretty much fell in love when I came across this pattern and immediately wanted to knit it, throwing all prejudice I had against knitted tops overboard. I picked out a yarn out of materials I’ve also never worked with (Linen/Flax/Viscose, I honestly don’t even know what that means), and off I went.

So first of all, was this a fun knit? No. Not.at.all. Was that the patterns fault? Also not at all. It was 100% my own fault. Somehow my brain decided to turn to mush post-PhD defense and following even the most basic instructions left me confused. I think I had to reknit every section of this piece a million times, and doing that on tiny needles with tiny yarn is just plain frustrating. And then when I finally finished all the knitting I managed to do this;

Yes, I had twisted one of the pieces when sewing it together. Honestly, I can be such an idiot sometimes. Anyway, am I happy with this project nonetheless? Here I have to answer with a whole-hearted YES! It is really such a lovely design, I love everything about it. It is incredibly light and breezy, I love the fit, I love the simple colour. It’s exactly what I had hoped it would be!

The yarn was pretty scratchy when I was knitting with it, but it has softened up so much after washing! I’m curious to see how it’ll behave with wear and more washes.

And quite to my surprise, this has converted me to the idea that summer knits are a thing, and I’ve already cast on a new top! But more on that soon (because you know, I’m back and everything!).

How about you, are you a summer knitter?

Apr 7

FO: Henslowe 2.0

Just as I had hoped, my Henslowe flung itself off my needles on hopped onto the blocking boards and voilà (casually practicing my French here), it’s done!

Pattern: Henslowe by Beth Kling
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in the Ochre colourway

Henslowe requires 1 skein of fingering weight yarn, which is pretty great. I’m pretty sure 99% of knitters could just dive into their stash right now and come up with a pretty skein, either solid, semi-solid, or even lightly speckled would be great. There’s not too much knitting time involved in this either, the pattern is really not that difficult but has lots of fun lace to work through. Obviously all this, the speediness of the project and low yardage, does mean it is not the biggest shawl ever. If you are looking for a shawl you can bury yourself in, move on. If you are looking for a light lace shawl you can drape over your shoulders and prance around in during summer, this is the shawl for you.

I also just love Malabrigo sock. I have used it a couple of times before, also for some shawls and hats. Ironically, I’ve never knit a pair of socks out of this yarn, and to be honest I don’t think I will. The yarn is lovely and pretty and soft, but has no nylon content and I’d be so worried they would wear out in no time. But yes, for shawls I’d recommend this yarn all the way.

I’m super pleased I now also made this shawl for myself, and look forward to wearing the hell out of it this summer. And for comparison, here is a side-by-side shot of the shawl I knit in 2015 (and gifted) and my brand new shiny Henslowe shawl. I might honestly end up knitting one of these in every colour of the rainbow.

Do you have any pattern you’ve knit multiple times?

Apr 4

Knitting lately

My brain cannot fully comprehend all the changes going on in my life right now. Last week I had my very last working days at the university and in less than a month from now I’ll be moving to Paris. So right now I have one month in between to get things finished up and pack things up. But first and foremost I’m taking some time to breathe. Some time to simply sit and knit and I am loving it.

I’m mainly working on two different projects, one of which might look familiar if you have an incredible memory. This is the Henslowe shawl and I knit it once before as a gift for my grandmother 3 years ago. Back then I had a difficult time actually gifting it instead of keeping it for myself and I swore to myself that one day I’d make this shawl for myself.

This time I am making the shawl out of a skein of Malabrigo sock in the Ochre colourway. Yellow shawls are always a great idea and so far I’ve never made one. Just like last time the shawl is flying off the needles and I hope to have it done and blocked by the end of the week.

I’m also focusing on finishing up this pair of neon socks. The pattern is called Tulsi socks by Verena Cohrs and the yarn is by Koperdraadje. The pattern repeat is easy to remember so it makes for great tv knitting.

Before the big move I’ll have to sort through my entire stash and best case scenario I’ll finish a couple more WIPs so I can feel like I have a complete fresh start in Paris.

Mar 18

FO: Tambourine cardigan

Happy Sunday everyone! I have had a busy week in which I did not spend much time at home. So my weekend was dedicated to finishing up a near FO. Most likely I’ve complained on this blog at length of how I’m not a fan of knitting things in pieces and having to sew them up. This feeling stands, so after recently knitting all the pieces for this cardigan I took my sweet time assembling everything, weaving in the ends, and sewing on the buttons. This weekend I sat down for the final touch, meaning I now have a brand new cardigan in my wardrobe.

Pattern: Tambourine cardigan by Julia Farwell-Clay (featured in Pom Pom Magazine issue 12)
Yarn: Wollkenschaf DK Merino in Herbstlich dunkel

My collection of knitting magazines has been accumulating steadily over the years, and recently I have finally found myself being more and more drawn to knitting from them. It is completely silly that a couple of times per year I receive the most beautiful knitting magazines by mail, find myself drooling all over the featured patterns, and then putting the magazines aside without actually knitting from them. I think this has been mostly the result of habit. When I pick a new project I will automatically log onto ravelry rather than running to my book shelfs. And it is this habit that has been changing a lot lately (with already some recent FOs to show for it, like the Netherton pullover or the Invincible Summer shawl).

This pattern has been a lot of fun to knit, despite the reasonable presence of twisted ribbing and the required assembly. Especially knitting the body was a blast, knitting those little circles of nubbs is adorable.

The yarn was a great choice for this project. This was my first time working with this dyer (Wollkenschaf), which is very reasonably priced and was dyed to order. The pale red/dusty pink/rose colour gives the cardigan an overall vintage feel. Despite me finishing this at the start of spring, I think I can still get good wear out of this over the next few months as a relatively light cardigan to wear over a dress.

Mar 4

Neon socks galore

Possibly inspired by the freezing winter weather, or possibly just because, but I’ve been bitten by the neon sock knitting bug (yes that’s a thing). In terms of my garment knitting I definitely tend to keep things on the safe side, but I have zero fears of going wild on my hand knit socks. Currently I am feeling all of the highlighter colours, and my feet deserve a little party every now and again.

Yesterday I finished up this neon stripey pair of socks made out of Nicole C Mendez yarn (this is the Avada Kedavra colourway). She makes the absolute loveliest self-striping yarn, which I’ve also used before for a mint green striped pair.

You might notice that, completely out of character for me, I’ve actually matched up the stripes on these socks! Feel free to burst out into applause. I didn’t suddenly get bothered by matching up stripes though, but the black stripe fit so perfectly for the fish lips kiss heel on the first sock that I decided to recreate it on the second.