Another sweater fresh off the needles! You might remember this project as one of my holiday knits. I actually finished it up rather quickly, but noticed I should’ve alternated skeins (something I often find myself to lazy to do), and had to rip back part of the body to address an abrupt colour change. With the biggest part of the fresh finish adrenaline already out of my body, I left the sweater lying around for a while before getting round to doing this.

Pattern: Gran sweater by Dora Creadora
Yarn: Snailyarn Merino DK (I actually don’t know which colourway this is!)

I didn’t make any significant alternations to this pattern, yet it still looks slightly different than it’s supposed to. That’s for 2 reasons: firstly I realized I only had enough yarn to knit the pattern 1 size smaller than I’d usually need. Given that I was most interested in the cropped version that has a lot of positive easy, I reckoned I’d get away with it. Secondly, once I knitted it as cropped, I thought it was too cropped and added more length. So the Gran version I ended up with lies somewhere in between the classic and the cropped version.

In any case, the pattern is highly addictive. The repeat that runs over the body is easy to remember. It doesn’t make for the quickest knitting, but is highly meditative.

The yarn is absolutely gorgeous in my opinion. It’s a light grey with lots of purple speckles all over. I think it looks really special! It’s super soft and it felt really creamy while knitting it up. Allover pretty perfect for a sweater!

This little sweater has been all summer in the making, with a little knitting here and there. I’m pretty sure I finished all the knitting well over a month ago, but was too lazy to weave in the ends. To be fair, it was so incredibly hot I wouldn’t have worn it anyway. But now with the start of what appears to be an absolutely perfect autumn, I’m going to say the finishing time of this top is absolutely perfect.

Pattern: Tegna by Caitlin Hunter
Yarn: La Bien Aimee Tough Sock in the Yellow Brick Road colourway

One of the very first things I did after moving to Paris was pay a visit to the La Bien Aimee store, which is where I picked up the 2 skeins of yarn necessary for this top. At that time I might have been the absolute last knitter on earth that hadn’t knit a Tegna yet, so it was an obvious choice. It’s an easy and satisfying pattern that I would most definitely recommend!

I’m going to tell you one little secret about this top, which is that I nearly frogged it after it was blocked. I was having such a bad day and was feeling all sorts of bad about myself when I tried it on for the first time. In my mind this thing was hideous and unflattering and I just wanted to rip it out right there and then. I was feeling ugly, like a failed knitter, and in my mind this top was the culmination of all of that. I didn’t frog it, thankfully, and now wearing it I actually feel fantastic in this top. Just goes to show what kind of mean tricks your mind can play on you. I’m not sure what the take home message from this should be but I do want to tell you this; be kind to yourself. Give yourself a break. And let knitting be a positive light in this world that is all sorts of messed up right now. Oh, and never frog a knit in the heat of the moment!

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?

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.