It’s… …erm… …a ring…

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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Sachiko sock pattern

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!

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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!

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“Oh, please respect my privacy…”

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

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“Oh, this is not about me, huh?”

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

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

Bye, bye 2008

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:

Knits 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!

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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.

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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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Hue, saturation, lightness

Oh_my… …I’ve probably lost my mind.

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Those colours are from another realm.

I blame the awfully dark season. And the boogie.

Black sheep… …er… …goat.

Now when my winter coat happens to be daringly gray (:-D) I desperately needed some black winter accessories.

prudence3
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Coming soon!

I’m not sure why writing patterns has been so difficult for me lately. Partially I might have some problems with high standards, I’d like my commercial patterns to be perfect. Other obstacle might just be that I’m such a rookie in pattern writing and everything goes on quite slow.

But something is coming out soon, really! Ophicleide has been in test knitting, I want to thank my two lovely test knitters for the first time public right now! But will get back to that later… Ophicleide pattern will include two sleeve options, the short pouf sleeve of the original and gently gathered 3/4 length version. Then I have two sock patterns coming out, the first will be Harlequin socks, second one will be a pattern for these:

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Another sock is still on progress. I quite like both of these patterns. They produce socks that are thin enough to use in fitting winter boots (my usual use for handknitted socks), but I’m quite sure that people who like to show off their handknitted socks will find the patterns interesting enough. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, it’s been a while…

I don’t like winter… …except that it is the perfect time to wear all those lovely woollen creations – and make new ones. I’ve bee busy knitting and oh yes, yarn shopping lately, fortunately my knitting activity does not relate to my blogging activity.

Oh, crocheting makes so portable little projects. I’ve almost forgot the delight of this craft. This particular project has zero creativity in it – I copied the idea and the yarn choice directly from
Windloop. But I absolutely love the idea and these particular shades of Kureyon, they actually don’t look good on the yarn ball (sweet pastels interrupted with some dirty gray and muted brick), but the self striping quality of Kureyon and this pattern are simply made to each other. The beauty of this garment reminds me the Rivendell set of Lord of the Rings trilogy.

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Chocolate mousse and that seventies feeling…

Extrabulky or super fine? Why not both! After (or during) my long and productive Twinkle period I’ve found those laceweight yarns very tempting, too. I really liked the outcome of that laceweight cashmere top, so I decided to use some more lace yarn to make up something wearable for myself.

At first I was eyeing on Laura Zukaite’s Essential Tank Top (at Ravelry) but then I thought again and decided to design something by myself… …can you see the theme, me, myself and I…

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One more scarf

I’m still pretty exited about my quite successful explorations of Noro yarns. That idea of simple striped Noro scarf has tempted me since I saw the first one. And all those beautiful finished objects since that really made me sure that this is the right way to go with Noro.

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