last day of summer

It's here. The last day of august. What a beautiful month, what a beautiful summer we've had. I feel somehow bittersweet, happy and scared at the same time. Seeing the past, awaiting the future but most of the all, living in this beautiful time that we have right now.

Tomorrow starts a whole new era in our life. Boys start in daycare, I go back to study. It's exiting and a bit frightening at the same time. I think the whole concept of change is rather hard for me. But I have learned a lot about change with the little ones. And the time I've had with them the past years - staying at home and doing my real life's work - has been so good and beautiful (and hard and demanding) that it feels like a miracle.

That clearly isn't going to go away, it's only daycare. But the rhythm changes, it all changes. I'll just have to stay open for this new time.

more stripes

Nights are getting darker and darker, day by day. Where has the summer gone? September will be soon here and that's something I can not believe. I have been writing my patterns up, writing and writing and correcting and writing again. Not one at the time, but bits here and something there. Not a single one is finished, but some look quite promising - like perhaps-someone-will-be-able-to-understand-promising. It goes slowly.

In the middle of this sometimes frustrating work, I wanted to knit something easy and happy. Like stripes. I had beautiful skeins of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed in my stash and now I have happy little man wearing very nice little striped pullover. Stripes might be one of the happiest things I can imagine, so it worked like magic this time too.


I knitted this pullover seamless from bottom up, folded the hems for simple closure, knitted raglan decreases in the yoke and added garter stitch funnel neck (or turtleneck, I don't know). Oh, there is one down side. I messed the yoke. I had the idea of a looser and longer yoke, knitted shorter sleeves because of that plan but forgot all about it in the decreasing. So the sleeves are too short. But now I can pass this pullover to my youngest and have a good reason to knit another for my oldest! And I have a great idea for that one.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4 Ply
Needles: 3,5 mm

beaufort two beret

On Beaufort wind scale Beaufort two means light breeze: small wavelets, crests glassy - wind felt on face, leaves rustle. It was the first thing on my mind while knitting my beret, since the pattern resembled small wavelets or rustling leaves. It might also be the teal blue color of the yarn that made me think more of wind and water.

I used honeycomb slip-stitch pattern in my beret and I think it worked nicely. It's warm and feels somehow rustic - it must be the texture. And it's not too thick. Perfect for late fall and early winter, I think.


Pattern: my own
Yarn: Madil Yarns Loden
Needles: 4 mm

Stranded

Colorwork is something I have been a bit scared of. I've always thought that it's difficult and the result will not be something I would love - like there's too much of something and that something is too decorative. But not any more!

I have in mind a few wonderful colorwork ideas (at least in my mind they seem great...), but before trying to see how those ideas come together I needed to get rid of my fear of colorwork. So I took out Knitting Without Tears, scribbled some colorwork patterns on paper and casted on. Then a few days later I found the beautiful designs by Jared Flood in his pamphlet Made in Brooklyn - and I had copy some ideas from his design Stilwell (rav).


Pattern: Seamless Yoke Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann, modified a bit.
Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Alpaka Fashion
Needles: 5 mm, 4 mm


It was so much fun! After a hard few rows I got used to changing color and the tension started to be loose enough. Now I can start to think about those colorwork ideas of mine more thoroughly and see if they are up to any good.