Fun knitting

At the moment I am knitting a Rhodion Shawl. After a few repeats I got the hang of this pattern. I can see where stitches are going and am able to solve missed or extra yarn overs.

The wrong side rows are predictable, but for the right side rows I keep the chart at hand for regular reference.

Dropping a stitch is tricky. I fiddled a bit when that happened. I don't think anybody else will notice though.

Knitting this shawl is fun, it is great to see it growing. The pattern looks so nice. It will take a while before this is finished, but is will be a very pleasant journey.

Handwerkbeurs Zwolle 2013

   

I went to the Handwerkbeurs in Zwolle yesterday. I saw a lot of beautiful things. A lot of embroidery and quilts, but also a lot of yarn. I fondled the yarn at Breipakket.nl, talked to people, and enjoyed myself. Luckily she went too, and I got a ride with her.

Some of the things I saw, went home with me. I will really enjoy this.

Valentine's day

Even the bread...

Yarn that was once loved, will be loved again

She had received some yarn that did belong to someone that had passed away. It was quite a lot she brought along to our Stitch 'n' Bitch this morning. Everybody got the chance to rummage through it and pick some yarn. I got to choose some lovely coloured dark pink cotton.

About 25 years ago I had similar yarn in yellow and green. It was good to see that all this yarn that had been bought by someone with probably some nice project in mind, will now be made into another project by somebody else. It will be loved again in another home.

Breidag Nieuwegein

I've been to the Breidag in Nieuwegein last Saturday. We arrived around half past 10 and it was not too busy then. But around noon it was crowded. I think the room was just a tad too small for all of this fun.


I bought books from Ysolda and Stephen West and got them signed by them as well. They were both really nice. Great to meet both of them in person.



I hope this fair will also be organised next year. With a little bit more room, please?

Krea Doe

Last Saturday I was at the Krea Doe in Utrecht, helping out a friend who had a stand there. The Krea Doe is a very popular fair, it was very busy the entire day. A lot of people had a nice day out. These two pictures were taken before opening hours. I did not have time to make more pictures with all the customers there.


I knew that Arne and Carlos would also be there to present their knitted christmas balls, the Julekuler. So I brought my copy of their book, hoping to get it signed.

They were knitting and talking with a lot of people. Arne told me that they did not expect their book to get this much attention.

Knitting christmas balls is really a big hit. They were very nice and had attention for everybody there. I had the opportunity to make some pictures and got my book signed as well.

Looking forward to the Handwerkbeurs

This is what I'll be wearing.

Knitwear in magazine

Knitwear seems to be hot again for some fashion companies, especially the more chunky knits.

Colourful cardigan

This cardigan has flown off the needles. It took about a month from start to finish, and for me that is pretty fast. It is knit entirely in moss stitch with a line of brioch stitch on both front sides.

I made it on 5.0 mm needles with the yarn held double. The yarn is Scheepjes Invicta Colour with different colours on the skein. Since I worked with two threads, I tried to have the colour of the two strands of yarns as different as possible, so the colours would blend into each other nicely.

The cardigan was knit in the round from the bottom up until I reached the armholes, and has set-in sleeves.

Speedy knitting

I knit this hat in two days. I cannot recommend that if you want to prevent sore fingers and stiff shoulders. But it was so much fun to see the pattern evolving and the colours changing. I just wanted to finish this, so I can gift it to a friend. I think she will like the vibrant colours and I hope she will enjoy wearing it this winter (it's too warm to wear it now).

Purple Lace Cardigan

I'm working on a lace cardigan with purple cotton yarn from Scheepjes. The pattern I unvented from a store-bought cardigan, which I used for inspiration. I am knitting the sleeves flat, because I could not get gauge when knitting them in the round.

The cardigan is knit in the round from the bottom up. I will join the sleeves to the body and finish with raglan decreases.

Handwerkbeurs Zwolle 2010

I've been to the fair in Zwolle today. I've been there all day long, helping out one of the vendors when necessary and look around in the morning and at the end of the afternoon.

Sitting at the knitting table of the Dutch Knitters was fun. You get to meet and talk to a lot of nice people. And everybody is knitting, looking how other people knit, learn new techniques or just enjoying themselves.

Both sides of the table were very busy at times.

Nancy Marchant was present too. Her new book was on sale at the fair and she signed my copy for me.

Finished a sweater

Finally it is finished. It has been sitting in my WIP pile for a while, because the yarn was very splitty. It is soft enough, but it will not unravel when necessary.

I am very pleased that it is finished now, and it looks really nice.

The yarn made it into a lovely cardigan

Here a detail of the decreases of the sleeve.

And this is one of the pockets. Very simple and looks good too.
I'm very happy with my cardigan, it fits nicely and I really like wearing it. It keeps me warm when it is cold.

A new cardigan in progress

When I lay eyes on this yarn at Zeeman, I just had to buy it. The colours are gorgeous. According to the ball band, I would need 500 grams for a sweater. So I bought 8 balls (800 grams), to be sure I had enough for a cardigan.

OK, it isn't wool, it's acrylic, but I like the colours and it is soft enough for me.


I choose to make a top-down raglan, mostly in garter stitch to ensure speedy knitting. The sleeves are knit in the round and will therefore be in stockinette stitch. For a nice flow I started with stockinette already at the yoke-part of the shoulders and made some ridges that are a little wider apart to liven up the transition from garter to stockinette.

Bayerische Socks

Somewhere at the end of last year I started the Bayerische Socks from the site of Eunny Jang. In the meantime I worked on other things and these were left in the "to be finished some day" pile.

During our summer holiday I took the socks with me (and some other things too, just to make sure I would not be without knitting) and made some progress on them. I made the heels and decreased the extra gusset stitches.

The pattern does not really stand out in this yarn, but I like the colour.

Freehand Parrot

This parrot was made from scratch. I only had a sketch I made beforehand, from which I worked. I made it for a pirate activity. I thought this would be a nice accessory for an outfit.


I started at the tip of the beak, made a short-row head and belly. The beak, head, neck, body and tail together are one piece. The wings and feet were made seperately and later sewn on.

The feet were the most fiddly parts. There are pipe cleaners/chenille wire inside for some sturdiness.

Finished a bag

I've finished a bag for my youngest, in which he can carry his clothes for gymnastics. First I started with a seed stitch base, 40 stitches wide, 30 rows high. Then I picked up stitches around the edges, 15 on each side and another 40 on the bottom, and knit upwards in the round in stockinette stitch until I thought it would be high enough.
Eight eyelets evenly devided around the bag, some more stockinette rounds and some seed stitch round before I bound of.
An I-cord draw string of 3 stitches to close it. Simple and very fast.

Squares all over

This is the shawl I knit in the Secret of the Shawl Knit-A-Long hosted by Vicky Mikulak from Simple Knits. This Shawl now has a name: crystal garden.
Every week part of the pattern was released and it was real fun to knit. The pattern flows nicely. Once the lines were set out, the pattern works quite logical with a bit of surprise in the weekly released part of the pattern.
I followed the pattern until row 195. I wanted the diamond shapes along the edge of the shawl to be complete. It took me some thinking before I figured out how I could make it work. It took a lot of short rows to comlete the squares on the edge and then I ended with four rows of garter stitch.


It was the first time I blocked such a big shawl and it is a very laborious process pinning it out as best as I could. I did not have T-pins and used the pins I had.
The result is a very beautiful shawl. Further details on my project page on Ravelry.

A round felt bag

This bag is started at the middle of the round base and worked upwards. After the increases were finished, I worked stockinette stitch in the round over 96 stitches. That was enough for 3 pattern repeats of the damask pattern.

The bag was felted in the washing machine at 40 degrees Celcius. While drying, I put felt tip markers in the holes, so they would stay open nicely. The holes are very circular now!
I also felted a piece of I-cord in blue, which will serve as a closure.


I am very pleased with how this bag turned out.