Thursday, May 31, 2012

FO Friday - Baby Vest

I finished knitting the baby vest last weekend. Such a quick and fun knit! I definitely might make this again :) Last night I sat down to finish it off - I hate sewing buttons, so I'm very proud of myself for not procrastinating on that :)

I did block it before sewing, but must say I can't really see any difference... here it is, before and after blocking:


I found the buttons when I went yarn shopping Tuesday, and just knew I had to have them! Aren't they adorable! Here's a close-up - taken at an angle as somehow that also made the colour come out better. It has looked almost grey in the other photos, but it really is more green'ish.


I've updated the pattern with gauge, size and amount of yarn used. Would you mind taking a look and seeing if it makes sense now?

Now to wait for niebling#6 to make his or her appearance :)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

WIP Wednesday - Dachshund and Summer top

I finished the baby vest over the weekend :D Now I just need to stitch the sides together and add buttons and it'll be all done! So hopefully I'll be able to post a photo of it on Friday.

Saturday I'd bought the newest issue of "Simple Knitting" and found a summer top in there I really wanted to try. It seemed easy and looked cute, so a perfect challange. Unfortunately I didn't find it until after 2pm on Saturday, so the yarn shop was closed and wouldn't open again until Tuesday (Whit Monday is a holiday here), so I had to find something else to start on in the meanwhile. Thankfully I had an ooooooold kit I'd bought ages ago (thanks to 's recommendation) which included both pattern and yarn, so after probably 5-7 years I finally pulled that out and got started :)


Yesterday I made it to the yarn shop after work, and got the necessary yarn for the summer top. Boy, was it ever hard to choose! I find it even harder to chose colours for things I knit than when shopping for clothes, because I can't try it on first and see if the colour works on me... ah well, like the cashier said, if I like the pattern, I can always come back and make it in more colours ;)

I'm not entirely sure about the yarn either... the pattern called for Baby Alpaca which they didn't have in the correct weight/length ratio, so I found something else instead where both the weight/length and the gauge fit, but I don't know how much that actually matters? If the gauge is right, does it matter that the weight/length ratio is different? *is confused*.

Ah well, at least I'm learning :) I got started last night (after knitting no less than THREE swatches as my tension apparently is way off), but as the photo proves, haven't gotten very far at all.

Since the top is knitted in the round, I had to cast on 240 stitches to begin with! THAT took forever, although fortunately I thought to place markers for every 40 so I didn't have to double-check my counting all the time (past experience does count for something finally ;) ). I managed to get rather paranoid about connecting correctly though, as they kept going on about not twisting stitches and how the only way to solve it if you had was to start all over again :-/ I think I ended up double-checking 5 or 6 times, before I trusted I'd gotten it right. You'd know after having knitted two rounds, right?

I know it's not much to look at yet, but I can't wait to see it grow :) I might need a larger circular needle though, but I've never seen them larger than 80cm in shops here. Ah well, there's always online.

Both of these WIPs are rather large projects though, so unless I decide to cast something on in the meantime, it'll probably be awhile before I'll have something to show for a FO post again ;)

Thursday, May 24, 2012

FO Friday - Socks! And Knitting Woes

Yay! I have another finished object to show you :) Actually I finished these socks last Friday, but I'd already posted my FO post, so I figured they could wait a week.

They were really quick to knit and I love the colourway :D Thankfully I have another skein left if I want to make another pair. Of course, since summer has since then finally arrived to Denmark, I haven't actually had any use for them since I finished them, but I'm sure that'll come much sooner than I'm ready for.

Next I'm going to try for some toe-up socks - see how I manage that. There are various techniques I want to try my hand at (knitting in the round on one long circular needle, knitting two socks at once, cables etc.) and socks seem like as good a place as any to learn those.

Unfortunately the shrug from my WIP Wednesday is already a wash, and I frogged it last night. I got to the point where I was to close off the sleeves yesterday, and I could see that it was far, far too small still. Had it just been the armholes that were too small, I could have knitted the sleeves longer before closing them off (it makes sense with the pattern ;) ), but it turned out it was too small across the shoulders as well, so I really had to start all over.

I hadn't made a swatch, as I'd already knitted with this yarn/these needles once before, so I figured it wasn't necessary, but I hadn't thought about the fact that that was back when I first started knitting, and my tension has gotten a lot tighter and a lot more even since, so even though I increased the number of stitches I cast on, it actually turned out SMALLER than last time! Go figure. At least now I know my new gauge for the yarn/needles, so if I ever dare attempt it again, I'll have a better idea of how to start.

For the moment I think I'm shrugged out though, so I might just end up using the yarn for something different altogether.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

WIP Wednesday - Baby vest and Shrug

Two for the price of one :)

I started this baby vest last Saturday. It's so cute, and so much fun to knit :) The original pattern was in Danish, but the owner very kindly allowed me to translate it into English for anybody interested :) You can find it here

I'm just over half-way done, so hopefully I'll finish within a week or two.

However, I wanted something different to knit for the church council meeting tonight, so I decided to give the One-Skein Shrug another chance. The original pattern called for a 53 stitch cast on, so I've tried increasing that to 66 in the hopes that it'll fit me better. With my luck it'll end up waaaay too big this time, but we'll see :) At least it's a fast enough knit that I won't mind (too much) having to frog it and start all over again.

The yarn is a lovely Merino wool. It's sooooo soft to the touch. I love working with it :)

Check out Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesdays.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Knitted Baby-Vest

Pattern and pictures are kindly supplied by Farmorfabrikken.dk. Mette very generously allowed me to translate the pattern to English. The original pattern (in Danish) is here. All errors are due to the translation and are my fault.



Knitted Babyvest





Materials:
Two skeins of yarn, each 50g/150m (total amount used for the 6mo vest ~ 70g).
Recommended yarn is Blend/Tendens from Hjertegarn, but any soft, machine-washable, 5ply will do.
Knitting needles, size 3mm-3½mm/US 2½-4 (I'm partial to circular myself)
Stitch holder
3 buttons in matching colour
Markers (optional - the original pattern didn't call for it, but I like not having to count :) )

Gauge: 40sts/29rows over 10x10cm in Rib 2 (after blocking).

Abbrev:
CO - cast on
BO - bind off
K - knit
P - purl
K2tog - knit 2 together
PM - place marker
Rib 1: K1, P1
Rib 2: K2, P2
RS: Right side
WS: Wrong side
sts: Stitches

The vest is knitted in one piece and sown together at the sides at the end. The pattern starts at the bottom front.
Sizes: 3mo (6mo) 12mo (Dimensions for 6mo is ~15cm x 32cm)


Bottom Front
CO 46 (54) 62 stitches.

Row 1-11: * Rib 1 *

Row 12: K6, PM, * Rib 2 *, K2, PM, K6
Row 13: K6, P2, * Rib 2 *, K6 - slip the markers whenever you get to them. They aren't necessary, but I like having them so I don't have to count :)

Repeat rows 12 and 13 until the piece meassures 16 (18) 20 cm on RS.

Now knit the first 20 (24) 28 sts onto a stitcholder, following the same pattern as above (alternatively, knit a row and afterwards move the stitches on to a stitch-holder - I find it easier to just knit them straight on there).
Knit the rest of the row. You now have 26 (30) 34 'free' sts and 20 (24) 28 'locked' sts

Knit the following row, following the pattern as far as you can.

Top front left

Row 1-10: K6, * Rib 2 *, K6 (make sure to make the knits and the purls of the rib match up). End with a WS row so you're in the 'middle' of the vest, ready to make the first button-hole.
Row 11: K3, wrap the yarn around the needle twice, K2tog, K1, * Rib 2 *, K6
Row 12: K6, * Rib 2 *, K2, Knit the first part of the double loop and pull the second part off the needle, K3. You've now made the first button-hole.

Repeat rows 1-12 twice more, so you end up with 3 button-holes.

Neck and shoulder
Row 1: K14 (K16) K18, * Rib 2 *, K6
Row 2: K6, * Rib 2 *, K14 (K16) K18 (again, making sure the ribbing 'fits').

Repeat rows 1-2 once more, so you have 4 rows in total.

Row 5: BO 12 (14) 16 sts, K2, * Rib 2 *, K6
Row 6: K6, * Rib 2 *, K2
Row 7: K2, * Rib 2 *, K6

Repeat rows 6-7 3 more times, for a total of 8 rows.

Top front right
Transfer the sts from the stitchholder to the needle, and pick up 6 sts from the left side under the button-holes.


Next, transfer the sts from the top front left to the stitchholder.

Take a new skein and knit the right half using the same method as the left half, only mirrored and without the button-holes.



Back
Now we need to get the two halves back on one needle.
CO 18 (22) 26 new sts in the middle on the currently active needle.
Transfer the sts from the stitchholder to the other needle.
Knit across from the new sts to the ones transferred from the stitchholder following the established rib pattern, ending with K6

Cut off the skein you no longer use, and tie off the yarn.

Rows 1-4: K6, * Rib 2 *, K22 (K26) K30, * Rib 2 *, K6
(The ribbing will be 6 (8) 10 sts each).


Now knit the rest of the back like the bottom front. Remember to end off with 11 rows Rib 1.

BO.

Sew together the sides, but leave 10 (11) 11 cm open at the top for arm-holes. Sew in buttons.

Friday, May 18, 2012

iPhone Pouch

Wednesday evening I'd been thinking of how I needed a pouch-thingie for my iPhone, so I could hang it around my neck for when I use the GPS while biking (I do have a GPS with a speaker, but that one only does car routes, and I want to use bike routes as well). I looked around a bit at Ravelry but couldn't find anything like what I wanted, because I needed for the screen to be visible or I'd be no better off than before. What's a clever cat to do? She jumps in with both feet and tries to make up her own pattern! I'm really quite chuffed with the finished result, and even more that it only took a day to knit up :)




I started off by casting on 40 stitches using Judy's Magic Cast On using two circular needles (I'd previously tried the figure 8 cast on and Could. Not. Make. It. Work! Fortunately this method was a lot easier :) ) and just started knitting in the round until I felt the 'hood' was big enough (took me awhile to get the tension right when I changed needles - I ended up holding both needles in the same hand for the first couple of stitches to get it tight enough). I determined which side was the front, knit the first 5 stitches, bound off the next 10 stitches and knit the last 5 stitches.

I then alternated between knitting and purling each row until the sides were long enough. Unfortunately I ended up making it a tad too long, as I didn't stop to think that gravity would make it stretch once I put the iPhone into the pouch. I'm not yet too comfortable with unravelling and picking up stitches again though, so I was afraid that I would have to start all over again if I went back and unravelled part of it, so I just left it as it is. I knit the first 5 stitches on the front, cast on another 10 using a modified version of the long-tail cast on (it probably has a proper name, but I wouldn't have a clue), knit the last 5 stitches, and then went back to knitting in the round until the top was done. I ended up with 2 rounds of 1k-1p rib (should probably have knitted 3-4 rounds, but oh well), and then bound off.

The string is crocheted.