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.

test knitting, anyone?

Edit: I have enough test knitters already! Thank you so much.

I was wondering, if any of you dear readers would be interested in some test knitting? No, I'm not talking about Modern Garden Cardigan, not yet. But my Plain and Simple Pullover pattern is ready for some testing! (Maybe these pics will refresh your memory - it was so long ago...)


If any of you might be interested, please leave a comment or send me an email to veera DOT 100rain AT gmail DOT com.

august

Slowly the light shifts. Midsummer's light, when it never gets really dark, is still here, but not as in June. We are heading to august. And in August there will be beautiful warm and dark nights, perfect for celebrations, lanterns, friends.

Bearing that in mind, I thought of this herringbone pullover. Perfect for keeping you warm, even in the middle of the August-night. It's beautiful creamy white, like a glimpse of that midsummer's light.


Oh, it turned out beautiful. Many times at this point, when I'm figuring out how I feel about some finished piece, I notice too many things sort of wrong. I see the need for improvements. But that's not the case this time. I love every detail in this pullover, the tight herringbone pattern and the twisted ribs are exactly as they should be.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Fritidsgarn
Needles: 6 mm


I'm adding this to my patterns-to-write-up-list (which is so very long already), since I love it so much.

modern garden

We have no garden and the plants on our balcony, mainly herbs and a few sunflowers, are taken care of by my husband (and little boys). But I'm getting more and more interested in the shapes of plants, the way they grow and transform. That inspiration (and some from Twinkle and some from knitting school dropout) made me think of this Modern Garden Cardigan.


I wanted to see if I can shape my cardigan with leaf patterns. And it is possible! Too bad I didn't thought it trough in the beginning, so it changed a lot on needles - and has some small problems and mistakes in it. All in all it was fun and fast to knit. It only took three days to complete. Since I was a bit sceptic of the outcome, I used some not-that-special yarns. In the end the yarns are just right and I love that grey shade.

Pattern: None
Yarns: Novita Anni, Novita Wool and Sandnes Garn Fritidsgarn held together
Needles: 10 mm


The cardigan is made for a dear (and smaller than me) friend of mine. I hope she will enjoy it.