Category Archives: Sweaters

Oct 8

Stitching on

Hello lovely people, I hope you are all doing well. I’ve been going through an exceptionally busy period, followed last week with a miserable week in which I was pretty sick. Altogether this left me with a feeling of having neglected my knitting, so I decided to take stock of where my projects are at.

Since my last blog post I actually cast on a new shawl. This is a sample knit for Amy, who is the mastermind behind Stranded Dyeworks. The pattern is called Cosmic Wonder, and it’s actually my first time working brioche stitch. And I totally get the hype now! It’s so simple, yet more interesting than stockinette or garter stitch. And the fabric it creates is. so. freaking. squishy!! Especially combined with the intermingled garter sections, this is making for one squishy, soft, and lovely shawl. It’s also very fun to have two different sides to the shawl. I’m now working (and nearly finishing) section 5 out of 6, so I guess I’ve been making more progress than I thought after all.

I’m also still working on my Ondawa sweater, for which I nearly finished the back panel. Meaning, I’ll be entering sleeve-land in the near future, which is getting me very excited. Because it actually means I’ll have a finished sweater soon! Yay!! I also received my copy of Woods – making stories in the mail last week, which is giving me inspiration for at least 3 new sweater cast ons. If you have not pre-ordered this book yet, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Not only are the patterns stunning, but the photography and print of the book is gorgeous as well.

My least progress has been on my sock WIPs, but I did finish one vanilla sock that I’m making out of a Mermaid yarnery sockblank, and sock number 2 is already well under way.

How is your knitting going this season?

Aug 17

Sweater weather

Ok ok, I am aware of the fact that it is the middle of August, and it couldn’t be possible further from actual sweater weather. However, two weeks ago I was struck by an idea of pure genius (I swear), and sometimes immediate cast-ons are necessary.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one in this, but when I first started knitting I wanted to knit all the things, and with it came buying all the yarn to knit all the things. Actually, not much has changed in that respect, but the learning curve when you start knitting is incredibly steep. This means that I outgrew many of those projects within no time. This has left me with odd quantities of yarn, some of dubious quality.

One of these projects was a pair of leg warmers in a simple spiral rib pattern, that I grew bored with even before finishing the first leg warmer. The yarn I was using was a dark grey Cascade yarn 220, and I had precisely two skeins. What to do with two skeins of dark grey yarn? The leg warmers were frogged, and the yarn was forgotten.

Lately I’ve been feeling the urge however to dig up these forgotten about yarns and try to use them. The genius idea for me was the moment that I realised that I could increase the amount of skeins. Really, this is a perfectly fine yarn for a nice and durable sweater, why not make one? Plus, I had just come across the most perfect pattern for it. I purchased a couple of additional skeins, which doesn’t even count as stash enhancement, because it’s using up my very old stash (right???).

And from this the beginning of the Ondawa sweater was born. I think what I used to see as bland and boring grey is actually perfect for such a busy cable pattern. Also, for some reason I had forgotten about these adorable stitch markers, so despite it being August I am immensely enjoying this project. And who knows, maybe it’s done once the cold weather arrives.

And of course I always have a pair of socks on the needles, in fact I already finished half of a new pair! This pair is made from Stranded Dyeworks Oasis in a new colourway (balloon) and the pattern I’m using is Dreamweaver. This is the perfect pair project to the sweater, which is knit over 6 separate cable charts, because the sock pattern is super easy to memorise.

And as a bonus to this weeks post I wanted to share some pictures of why all of my knitting always has an extra insulation layer of cat hair. Actually, everything in my house is covered in a layer of cat hair.. But despite that, whenever I get the camera out for knitting pics, Iva comes running and will try to sit on my knitting. One day I’ll publish a photo book that is just pictures of Iva photo-bombing all my knitting photography..