bloody stupid johnson and hourglass, take two

winter really seems like eons ago now that summer has arrived with a vengeance. it close to 24 degrees outside, the sky is bright blue and the lazy cats are enjoying the shade on the balcony. the new balcony, i should add, since one of the reasons for my blogging (and knitting) absence has been that we have moved. from a very nice flat to an even nicer one! this one has a wood burning fire place (not lit now, obviously) and an extra room for all of my knitting and sewing and generally crafty stuff! i just love it here! there’s still a lot of stuff that we have to do in our new home, and we’ll be using most of our summer vacation for putting up wallpaper, painting and putting up new shelves (and boy, do we need them!). but we’ve basically settled in, which has brought my inspiration back.

the other day i had the desperate urge to knit, and knit something simple. i remembered my old hourglass jumper (from last minute knitted gifts) which i almost never use because it turned out too tight, and there are also a few mistakes in the neck decreases. well, it’s a shame to let good yarn to go waste, so i frogged it! and i’ve now started over with larger needles and a larger size. my idea for this jumper was always that i wanted it to be slightly too big and something for me to snuggle up in during autumn or even on a late, chilly summer evening. well, my first take on it didn’t fit the bill. but i have great hopes for it this time.

but first! i haven’t shown you the finished bloody stupid johnson hat, so here it is:

bloody stupid johnson! no, the hat!

pattern: bloody stupid johnson from knitty winter 2007
design: sarah lilly
yarn: la droguerie alpaga (yarn used double throughout)
yarn source: la droguerie in paris
needles: dpns 3,5 and 4,0

a fun and enjoyable knit that turned into a warm and cozy hat with a very nice design.

and here’s a photo of my new take on the hourglass jumper:

hourglass, take two

as you can see i have not bothered with washing the frogged wool and stretching it, hence the curly yarn and somewhat bubbly jumper. i will of course block the jumper once it’s finished, and the bubblyness (?) doesn’t bother me.

i have to show you the new home for my yarn basket!

yarn basket in front of fireplace

happy knitting!

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enjoyable knitting

the bloody stupid johnson hat is coming along. i really enjoy this pattern, the cables are easy, but with enough variation to make it interesting. the alpaca yarn really is soft and very nice to work with. i do suspect that the hat might turn out a bit on the large side, but that’s ok, large and warm hats have been put to good use this winter, and the cold and snow doesn’t seem to go away in a hurry. which i’m very grateful for, i love this weather!

sideways cables on bloody stupid johnson

i’m looking forward to finishing this fairly quickly, hopefully before friday, because that’s when i cast on for my olympic knitting project! like i mentioned, i will be knitting mittens and the pattern i’ll be using is the vespergyle mittens pattern by elinor brown. it’s available as a free ravelry download, so if you haven’t added it to your collection yet, i suggest that you do so! i’ll be using two shades of grey in a 100% wool yarn from gotland that i received as a present from my dad a few years ago

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i’m getting the hang of it now

i wasn’t convinced that intarsia knitting was my thing. the stitches became uneven on both sides of the colour change. i consulted several knitting books to try to remedy the ugly stitches, but none of them mentioned this problem. i resolved to just make sure all strands of yarn were very tight at the colour change, and now it actually looks pretty good. i might consider using this technique again, if i’m sufficiantly motivated by a good pattern, but all in all, i prefer fair isle colourwork to intarsia any day of the week.

argyll vest

but the vest is coming along, i’m about to start the under arm decreases on the front (back is already finished, plain stocking stitch with no colour work), but became distracted (how unusual!) while surfing ravelry. i was reading the ankh-morpork knitters guild forum and happened upon someone mentioning working on their bsj. now, bsj in the knitting universe usually refers to the baby surprise jacket by elizabeth zimmerman, but when you’re in a forum dedicated to the brilliant works of sir terry pratchett bsj obviously refers to bergholt stuttley johnson a.k.a. bloody stupid johnson and in this particular case; a pattern for a hat inspired by said person and published in the 2007 winter edition of knitty. being a longtime fan of sir terry, how could i resist knitting a hat inspired by one of his discworld charachters? and it’s a very nice hat too! i did have some problems interpreteing the pattern at first, but now i’ve gotten the hang of it, and it’s coming along just fine.

bloody stupid johnson hat

luckily i had a nice brown alpaca yarn in my stash already, which i bought a few years ago at la droguerie in paris, so was able to cast on as soon as i got home from work on friday. i’m using the yarn double throughout.

in just a few days, it’s once again time for the olympics! yes, there will be skiing, skating, bobsleighing and… knitting, of course! that’s right! it’s time for the knitting olympics! i’ve signed up for team sweden on ravelry, and i’ve decided to compete in the mittens moguls event which means that i will be knitting a pair of mittens! it’s been a while since a made any mittens, so i figured it’s about time i knit a new pair. i will cast on on february 12th and  need to finish before the vancouver olympics close on the 28th. i’ll let you know more about my mittens later this week.

well, that’s all for now! happy knitting!

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