.....and then she decided to reappear!

Hello folks!

Yes, it's me again. Long time no see. I'm not even going to appologize for my hiatus, as we all know sometimes life happens, and blogging, sewing or whatever takes the back seat for a while. Besides, it not like there's too few blogs around and nothing to read, right?
I am sure, most of you never even noticed I was gone :D

In my last post, I promised you all a give-away. Obviously, it will not be in celebration of my 1-year bloggiversery (is that even a word??) which came and went, like last years snow. It will be more or less a "Why-the-hell-not" kind of thing! I really appreciated all of you who made my day, visiting and commenting on here last year, and I still do. This community is valuable on so many levels, even when you're not actively participating. I have still been reading everyone in my feed, and getting inspired, and I hope to give something back again.

I'll be announcing the "party" in the near future, I just need a few posts under my belt, to get back on the radar again! Funny how one gets a little rusty. Heh.

In other news, my sewing machine decided to die on me right before Christmas. Right as I got the urge to sew a x-mas dress. I managed to get half a muslin done, and then the lights went out.... I am still looking for another one, but need to save up a little. A new one will be too expensive, so I am thinking about getting a second hand one in good condition. Should be doable :)

I have been able to get some knitting done over the winter, actually! I'll be doing individual posts on each one shortly, but here are some teasers.

This green one is "Audrey in unst" by Gudrun Johnston. The yarn is Karisma from Drops, in a lovely green shade. I think the first image is pretty true to color. At least on my screen :) I loved making this, It's knit seamlessly all in one piece, bottom up with set-in sleeves. It was finished in a couple of weeks, and I have worn it lots.

This second one is from a vintage pattern, Bestway 1320 from the 1940s. The yarn is also Karisma, from Drops, but I think it was a bad choice for this pattern. I might make another one in a lighter yarn, as I love the general look of it. I screwed up the blocking and it came out too big, but I'll fix that (hopefully).

I got this pattern from Lucy at 1940s Style for You. I can't quite recall if it was a free download (of which she has many!!!) or if I bought it at her Etsy shop. Either way, check out both if you're into 40s knitwear. She makes the most stunning knits, and if you don't knit, she can do it for you ;)

This last one is currently on the needles. Just the sleeves and collar to go.
Also a vintage pattern, the "Finessa" jumper from the 1950s.
The yarn is some kind of  soft baby wool, bought long time ago for some other project. This is an old UFO that I found in a bag, and decided to finish. Yes, I am a good girl! Excited to see this one made up, I just hope the size is right...........!

So there you are, lots of stuff to come, provided we get some decent light for photography around here in Norway-land!

Toodles!!

A new design in cable stitch

Finally!!
Happy new year, all!
After a lot of waiting for the planets to align, non-crappy weather and light (and a decent hair day) I gave up, and photographed regardless. (Well, at least the weather was decent :)

So I am happy to present to you; my entry for the Knit for Victory challenge/ knit-along hosted by Tasha.
The pattern is 'A New Design in Cable Stitch', free from the V&A Museum online.

The cardigan took me 4 weeks from start to finish, and was a fairly easy pattern. The sizing was, well, abit of a puzzle, and even though I added extra stitches to fronts and back and blocked it vigorously it is still quite small. I can wear it buttoned up, but don't care for the "skin-of-the-sausage-look". 40s fashion was close fitting, mainly due to rationing, but nowadays and extra skein of yarn is not a problem. But I think I will wear this open, thank you very nicely ;)

I initially wanted a green cardi, but the one shade in the store didn't turn me on so I ended up with this light blue, and I quite like it. The buttons are not vintage, but cute shanked plastic buttons with flowers on them in a "frosted" look.

The only thing I didn't like is how the cables don't meet up on the shoulders. Due to the decreasing on the back piece armhole shaping, it doesn't add up when assembling the cardigan. Purely cosmetic, I know, but being a perfectionist things like that annoy me.

If I was to knit this one again, I probably would make it slightly longer, so that the junction between ribbing and the cabled portion would hit my natural waist. But it was hard to tell during knitting if I would get into it at all! This project taught me a lot, and next time I will be able to better adjust these things.

After all, this is only my second knitted garment (other than socks, mittens, hats and scarves) and all in all I like this cardigan very much. I've seen multiple versions from other knitters in all kinds of beautiful colors and with fun buttons. It looks gorgeous in black!

On another note, my hubster uttered a request for a sweater, so I am now busy with a traditional Norwegian 'Marius'-sweater. It was designed in 1953, but is based upon stitch patterns from the 20s and 30s.
It is named after war hero and skier Marius Eriksen, and is very popular in Norwayland these days. The design is on everything from coffee mugs to Ipad-covers, even cars!!

source

I cast on Dec. 23rd, knitted the whole body on the round, found out it was too small (even for me!!!), frogged the whole buggar, and started over a week ago....sigh.
More on that later (just the arms to go now!) but here's a little teaser :)

So, tell me; what are you working on??

Blocking a knitted garment

Hello everybody, are you all en route with your Christmas preparations? 

I sure hope so, and I am sure many of you agree it is quite the race! 

My holiday has officially started, I had my last day at work this year on Wednesday. And if I am honest, I don't know how I would get done with all my shopping and preparations if it wasn't for those two extra days off. It also meant I was able to finish my Knit for Victory cardigan!! Yay!

I cast on November 21st, and I never thought it would be finished this fast! But the pattern was very straight forward, and I had very few problems along the way. Don't you just love it when things run smoothly?

I did however have the nagging feeling of knitting a child size cardigan, the pieces just looked SO small, and there was really no way to tell how it would turn out. Other than knitting the darn thing finished, naturally :)

I knew I had to block it, and having never done it before, it was an exciting new experience! 

So here's how I did it:

You'll need bucket, water, detergent, tape measure, towel, pins, cushion and knitted wool string :)
(a bottle of wine is useful too.)

I first finished all my pieces (obviously), and washed them how I would the finished cardi. I soaked the pieces in lukewarm water, using a mild detergent especially for wool. My yarn is 100% new wool. I was careful not to rub or wring it, I just gently swooshed it around in the water and squeezed what water I could from it with my hands. 

Rock and roll :)

Then, I placed the piece on a clean dry towel, rolled it up into a sausage, and stepped on it a few times. Yes, people, I did, just to get the towel to absorb the water. It works like a charm, and the pieces come out nice and flat and just the right amount of damp :)

Take care with the edges!  If you get scallops like these,
it may help using more pins, and just work the shape til it's even.

Next step is to stretch the piece to the right size and shape. My pattern had an illustration with measurements, so I just got out my tape measure, took some measurements of my own body for comparison and started pinning the piece onto my blocking surface. I used a garden couch seat cushion, but any pinable smooth surface will do. Just be careful your yarn will not bleed any color onto your pinning surface, it can do that when wet. I used large upholstery pins, but I am sure regular pins are just as useful. If they are without heads, pinning them at an angle away from your piece will keep it from slipping off.

Much better even edge.

Stretch and pin the piece into the shape and size you want, but make sure any edges are nice and even. When wet the piece is springy, but once dry it will hold the shape it dried into, so if you don't care for scalloped edges, do spend some extra moments getting it all even.
Also, make sure to match the length of the sides where front pieces and back piece meet, and also the shoulder area, so that sewing together goes smoothly.

Not too shabby:)

Just to give an idea on just how much larger you can make your pieces (Thank Gawd!!), here's my sleeves pre and post blocking! WOW!!

From straight jacket to wearable in a couple of hours :)

When your happy with the result, leave to dry :) Repeat with all pieces.

Now all's left is to weave in all those loose ends, and assemble your garment (which I have), so stay tuned ;)

In the meantime, don't forget to relax a bit and enjoy the Christmas spirit!

Merry Holidays to you all ;)

Knit-along coming along!

So the last few weeks have been quite busy over here in Norway-land.
Work is crazy, a lot of last minute scramblin' before the holidays, so when I finally get home from the factory and stable chores, I just want to pass out on the couch.

But there has been crafting! Oh yes!
Today is exactly three weeks since starting my Knit For Victory cardigan, using a vintage pattern from 1940.
It is free online on the Victoria and Albert Museum website, and is called 'A new design in cable stitch'.
And I must say it has been smooth sailings all the way! I have knitted some in the past, but mostly small things, like socks, mittens and hats. Oh yeah, and the Snowroses sweater :)
Here's my progress so far.

Back piece, not yet cast off because I wanted to coordinate
the armhole and the shoulder sloping to the fronts.

The fronts.
One of which I knitted one and a half time.... Forgot some decrease stitches at the armhole there.
Whoopsie.

Two thirds of a sleeve,
one and one third to go!!

This is my first cable knit, but it is really easy. All you need is an extra needle (a little wonky one for cabling) and the ability to count to eight, because you only do cabling (in this case) on every eighth row. Simple! I am "memory challenged", so I bought some markers to help me keep count, but so far I have only used one, for where I started the increases on the sleeve.

If anything, the hard part is getting the cables to look good near edges. For example, on the fronts I noticed after casting off, that the decrease rows on the shoulder was right on where a cable should happen, so it doesn't look right. If I don't fix it, I know it will bug the crap out of me, so there will have to be some frogging. But it is just a small piece at the top, so no biggie.

Damn.
There should be cabling... could be worse though :)

There are some similar issues on the arms. Because of the increase stitches happening on either side, there will be new cables appearing, and at some point they will be wide enough to get "twisted" like the others. Until they are, they are just flat stripes of knit stitches and look odd. But since they will end up on the underside of the arm, I can live with it.

I did knit a swatch before I cast on, and had the right gauge.
But I did so in Stockinette, and I am so worried it will end up too small. I added extra stitches to the back piece and fronts (about the equivalent of 1 inch, so around 3" in total). All that is left now is one and a half sleeve, but for some reason I totally forgot to check the measurements on the sleeve sketch in the pattern, and did not add any extra stitches either! Gulp.

What can I say....I was eager. So praying they won't end up Arm-Strangulators. Heh..

Like mentioned before, at this point I think it mostly resemble a cabled straight jacket, so I will obviously be blocking the beejeezuz out of it. I am actually very curious on that process, because I have never blocked any knitting in my life, so I don't have any idea on just how much it is possible to block. Interesting!

But that's a tale for another post! Onwards!!