progress report

thank you for the nice comments on the dior collar! it’s not itchy at all, quite the contrary. tina, the spinning guru, corrected me regarding angora yarn; it is possible to spin it without mixing any wool into it, but the wool makes it easier. so there! i forgot to mention something regarding the pattern: the increases are made as some sort of short rows, but i wrapped the stitches at every turn to avoid making holes in in it.

yesterday was a real day of knitting. two of my favourite yarn shops hosted knitting cafés, nysta and marias garn. i overslept, but made my way off to nysta first and met up with erika, satoko, gunilla and karin. the shop was full of people, many of whom i’d never met before. it’s really inspiring to know that there are more and more knitters out there! i didn’t buy any yarn at nysta, just some bamboo dpn’s and a debbie bliss pattern catalogue: prima. together with erika and satoko, i headed off to marias garn, where it was equally crowded with enthusiastic knitters. take a look at the photos over at marias blog. at maria’s i bought some more yran for the fisherman’s jumper and i’m very pleased with myself because i restrained myself from buying anything else.

taking decent pictures during the winter can be really hard due to the few hours of daylight we have here on the northern hemisphere. it may not be obvious, but i have made some progress on some of my wip’s and i wanted to make the best of a sunny day and actually take some pictures. i’m not 100% happy with them, even the daylight seems to be a bit strange, but there it is.

first out is the “agnes” cardigan from rowan magazine no 35. i’ve almost finished the back and i think it looks quite good so far. the purl stitches on the body will eventually be covered by burgundy french knots. if i figure out how to make them.

i’m very fond of this project, the “log cabin socks” from the wonderful book handknit holidays. however, actually trying the sock on made me realize that it’s too tight, so i’ll have to frog it and start over with slightly larger needles. i just hope i have enough yarn, because the colour i have has been discontinued.

i love the look of knee high socks, but have yet to finish a pair. i’ve made some progress on these, the “lace knee highs” from interveave knits winter 2004. i like the look of them, but i’m a bit worried that my calves are to fat. oh, well, nevermind…

this is a jumper i’ve been working on for a long time. it’s the “short-sleeved diamond stitch sweater” from vintage knits by sarah dallas. i’m beginning to suspect that it will turn out to big, so i might have to frog this too. bugger! the yarn is rowan 4-ply soft.

here’s something i’ve ripped out a lot of times. it’s a slightly modified vintage slipover from the 40’s. it’s intended for a man, so i’m adding some waist shaping. it’s also knitted back and forth originally but i’m knitting it in the round. the colour looks awful in this photo, but in this light i can’t make the colour more true to the original. i hope i’ll be able to take a better photo once it’s finished.

finally, a little bit of progress on the “gentleman’s sock with lozenge pattern” from knitting vintage socks by nancy bush. mind you, they’re knit on size 2 mm dpns, so it’s a bit of a slow work. and i haven’t really put these on the top of my list of priorities.

we, there it is for now! off to do some frogging…