YARNED

DIY midsummer

Kamicha, June 20th, 2009, in Miscellaneous DIY, my style
3 Comments »

Midsummer is big celebration day in Finland, but I’m not too exited about it. Weather in Finland in June is unpredictable at its best, so I’m spending my midsummer day home, cleaning my wardrobe and implementing some instant reward DIY projects.

I trashed a tunic and a T-shirt dress with my beloved fabric cutter. I forgot to photograph the white tunic at it’s untouched state, but the black one is this basic, almost sheer American Apparel dress. Note all the cat hair… :-S

I’ve used both dresses mainly as undergarments. The idea was to incorporate them to layering like before - but I wanted to give them a right to stand out as their own, as independently interesting pieces.

From the white tunic I cutted out triangles and occassional quadrangles. The outlook of the surface is bit mosaic like. Assistant was available all the time, ready to give a hand… …er… …paw.

This was more time consuming than I thought, I got tired after the front and left the back untouched.

To the black dress i made only simple slits, lightning fast DIY project:

Excuse my laziness, I tested both out with the same silk cotton knit dress. But you get the idea.

I guess that I’m actually going to use these!

I’m back!

Kamicha, June 19th, 2009, in my style, off topic, pattern
6 Comments »

Ohoi… …I’s me! I know that is has been terribly quiet in this blog in this spring, butt I have an explanation. Sort of. In my studies I have drifted somehow to making animations and some sort of realtime visuals - and oh boy, those are time consuming crafts. Plus there is no chance to knit while doing either of those, so my actual knitting time has shrinked down to one third (or less) compared to the times gone by.

The slower knitting pace has also forced me to think of my knits and myself as a knitter. Unfortunately many of my knits lie in my wardrobe untouched since the photoshoot for the blog. I’m not able to incorporate them to my outfits. I really do enjoy knitting as a process, but on the other hand I really would like to produce clothes that I actually want to wear. Now this is even more true, I don’t have too much extra money to spend on yarn.

I know that things have changed in my way to dress myself up, too. There is less pressure for formal wear, and I find myself playing with layers and volume more and more. Some - not all - of Wenlan Chia’s knits fit to this approach pretty well. I actually wore the Karate Sweater today when visiting grocery shop - oh yes, the morning was chilly, now the sun seems to peek out a bit…

My scarves I tend to use frequently (at least in wintertime), and when I wear ankle socks in my boots they certainly are a handknitted pair. I love the idea of Butterfly dress as a part of my layering experiments, although I hesitate to taking Her Fragility out of the garment cover. Selma cape has also found her way to regular use. But that’s about it, folks.

Now I need to figure out what to do to all of the unused garments. I see lots of giveaways happening in the near future, somehow frogging is really difficult for me.

Cabled cuteness

Kamicha, March 26th, 2009, in finished
7 Comments »

Oh those cabled little pieces… …when sewn together they magically formed this cute little number.

Almost too cute for me. But I’m definitely in love with the clever construction, beautiful buttons and lovely yarn (Plymouth Yarn Suri-Merino in unusual heathered dark seafoam color). This knit really reminded me that actually I like seams…

There is not too much cover in the back. Unfortunately the back photos were not too good, but you get the idea…

I will publish my notes here in April - but I doubt that I will write actual pattern out of this. The construction is quite difficult to scale to different sizes without serious test knitting. But for brave at heart this will give a nice knitting challenge! Although it will probably require some trial and error to get it right the small pieces knit up pretty quick and result is very rewarding.

Bits and pieces

Kamicha, February 1st, 2009, in work in progress
2 Comments »

This is a bolero (I’m not kidding).

Cardigan with DPN:s

Kamicha, January 11th, 2009, in work in progress
1 Comment »

When I ripped the Selma pattern from Anthropologie, I thought that it will be the last time I’m doing such things. But this company chooses the knits so well that I’m walking the path again.

This should be something like Changeling bolero. It is built from narrow cabled stripes - so narrow that it is easiest to work with DPN:s. I love the yarn, it is Plymouth Suri merino. “Like knitting through clouds” described someone in Ravelry yarn page - and I completely agree. The colour is equisite, too. Vibrant blue-green and grayish purple mix up to extraordinary, colour changing shade of gray.

This is an attempt to illustrate the structure. The longer stripe forms M-shaped figure, the ends of the M are on front and form the top and bottom of button band. The bottom of M is middle back, it is sewn together with the corresponding opposite M-shaped stripe. The other piece forms the middle fron, sleeve and part of the back. I still need one small triangular piece for the front.

I don’t have too much yarn, I suspect that I need at least one ball more. So if you happen to have an extra ball Plymouth Suri Merino colour 791, lot 282 I could certainly purchase it!

The bolero seemed to be very small in the product image. Later I saw a real life version on a real person - and the yarn is considerably thicker than I thought, and the bolero is so much larger. But I think that it might be cute even as small version like this. If the unconventional structure actually works…

****

Edit: I finished the first cardigan half and sew it together. It looks lovely! It might be too small for me - but I’m not going to have any trouble finding a new home for it. And there is enough yarn, after all.

It’s… …erm… …a ring…

Kamicha, January 6th, 2009, in finished, my style
7 Comments »

An unexpected inspiration surprised me when I stared to strange amount of Colourmart bulky cashmere I’ve stashed in the past. Two cones, about 400 yards, too much for beanie. There might be enough for beanie & mitts - but on the other hand I don’t use beanies often, and I lose all my mitts. And that would be shame, the yarn is gorgeous.

So I let my brain go on process idle a while, and something just popped out. What if I made a ring scarf? I remember that those separate funnel hoodies were very fashionable… …well… …on the beginning of nineties? Ending of eighties? Dunno, but the idea of that kind of “separate funnel neck” just started to haunt me. I would only like to make a large, sculptural one, using some scrumptuous texture stitch.

Here it is. Some stockinette stitch in the beginning, simple lace rib body and then again couple of rows stockinette. Couldn’t be much simpler. I like to wear it like in the previous image, just thrown over a jumper or coat.

But it is large as a small poncho and I can easily slip it over my shoulders for some extra warmth.

My soggy bottom harem pants really enjoy its company.

Bonus task: find the cat from the picture!

There should be also an image of the thing as a hood, but none of those qualified to be published, sorry. This page could also include images of the thing as a skirt, top, coffeepan warmer, cat bed etc. What a multipurpose little thingie! I actually got so excited about the idea that probably some laceweight yarn from my stash will end up as a longer, larger, lacy version of this kind of ring scarf.

I’m so sorry about the image quality. The first thing I will invest in when I have more money is better optics for my camera. This light is simple not enough for my current one (and I stubbornly refuse to use the direct flashlight).

One closeup of the texture. It will probably soften out even more, I guess that the yarn has still some oil residue left in it.

Sachiko sock pattern

Kamicha, January 3rd, 2009, in pattern
5 Comments »

The scatterbrained knitter managed to lose the first finished one of the Japanese rib socks - so there was an inevitable break in pattern writing. But somehow the sock just bubbled on top of the piles… …well… …all sorts of important stuff and the writing process continued happily. So here they finally are: Japanese rib socks, both of them!

Sachiko pattern is available via Ravelry, price is $4 and you can find details of the Sachiko pattern from my pattern shop.

Note: if you buy the pattern please thell your country in the “Information for the seller” box of PayPal. Thanks!

I have to say that I really like Araucania Ranco sock yarn. I feels quite a lot like Lorna’s Shepherd Sock, but these hand painted semi-solids have bit more color variegation than Shepherd Sock solids have. I really like how the colors knit up: no pooling, just vivid gorgeousness of rich color. The brighter variegated colorways seem to behave well, too - I saw couple of nice examples of that in my LYS. But I’m so happy about these beautiful semi-solids, they are discreet but not boring! The yarn knits up really well, does not split easily and gives very even surface with good stitch definition. Can’t tell much about how it behaves in use, but will get back to that later…

Look at those happy toes!

“Oh, please respect my privacy…”

“Now it’s okay… …shall I strike another pose?”

“Oh, this is not about me, huh?”

“Didn’t you know that I can control the autofocus of your stupid camera… …easily.”

“Nice to have those… …feet out of the image!”

Bye, bye 2008

Kamicha, January 2nd, 2009, in off topic
4 Comments »

Year 2008 has been the year of change for me. But there has been some knitting, too - actually quite a bunch… …mosaic of FO:s 2008:

Ant then again I explored some new territories of pattern writing, results: three free patterns and Ophicleide cardigan pattern for sale. There will be more patterns in the future… …this will definitely not make me rich but it is fun - and following the pattern sales and Ravelry projects is so rewarding!

Leaving the career life and starting as a full time student has been a huge but definitely positive change in my life. There has been some moments of doubt and I’m somewhat worried about my small income - but overall everything is fine, I feel extremely motivated and I have found some really exiting new things to explore and do - and I am receiving wonderful support from my husband for this project, thousand thanks for you my dear!

Usually I’m not too into new year’s resolutions - but now I have shed the traces of working life stress and established my new lifestyle patterns; perhaps it is time to work a bit for my fitness and wellbeing…

…let’s have a great year 2009!

Remember this? Ophicleide pattern finally here!

Kamicha, November 3rd, 2008, in pattern
4 Comments »

Hi you all! I’ve finally finished the Ophicleide pattern and now it is on sale for $6.50. You can get it via

Ravelry: Purchase Ophicleide pattern (pdf)

and probably later via Payloadz, too, but I have to inspect this option a bit further…

Note: you don’t need Ravelry account to buy this pattern, but PayPal is the only payment option. That link brings you directly to Ravelry shopping basket in PayPal - with Ophicleide in your basket.

There are six sizes, for bust sizes 87 to 120 cm. The pattern has also two sleeve options: instructions for the original short pouf sleeve and then a 3/4 length variation.

You need DK weight yarn, about 750 yards for bust sizes 87-104 cm, 850 yards for bust sizes 113-120 cm for short sleeved cardigan. Add about 100 yards for longer sleeves. Yarn in original is Rowan Wool Cotton (#964 Still), I used 6 balls for short sleeved 104 cm bust sized cardigan. Needles: 4 mm 80 cm circular needle for the body, 4 mm DPN for i-cords or size to obtain gauge. 6 metallic hooks and loops for front fastening. Blunt point (tapestry) needle for finishing work. Some leftover yarn for temporary cast on. And that’s it.

The stitch pattern of this cardigan utilizes stretched stitches. The herringbone part of the pattern uses stretched stitches crossed over regular ones. In the honeycomb pattern stretched stitches gather the garment gently to form those shapes. Neck opening utilizes short rows for subtle shaping, you can find great instructions of short row technique from Knitty. Neck opening and sleeves are finished with i-cord bordering - and you can find great tutorial from Shelly’s blog. And that’s about it about special techniques needed with this pattern (well, you could check out some temporary cast on methods too, if you are not familiar with them yet).

A nice fact to know before you decide to start is that finishing job (read sewing) is pretty much minimized in this pattern: you just attach short sections of i-cord border to the yoke area of the front pieces, attach few loops and hooks to thet border and probably finish the sleeve-underarm area and i-cord ends of the sleeves with few sewn stitches.

Stefanie (Ravelry link) and Larisa (Ravelry link) kindly test knitted Ophicleide for me - and now it is right time to tell how thankful I am. Girls, if you hear me - without you this project would never happened and you enthusiasm really carried me on. Thank you, thousand times!

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