New techniques I've learned this year!

Where I live, September is also nicknamed the month of knowledge because that's when the kids start school. I also like learning new things, so I thought it would be fun to discuss a few techniques that I've learned when making some lovely patterns this year. Of course, the patterns don't necessarily teach you how to do them, but for example Sari Nordlund is really good about linking tutorial videos for certain techniques in her patterns. Also how did people ever learn things before YouTube?

Anyway, here they are, in no particular order:

• The crochet cast on: this one was used for the Southampton soft which I am working on right now. I never would've thought to use a crochet hook to cast on a knitting project before, luckily I have some laying around.
• Judy's magic cast on: was used for the Fleuriste socks, which are knit toe-up. I hadn't knit toe-up socks before, so that's why I wasn't aware of this technique, but it actually makes the toe look really nice and seamless. 
• The tubular bind off: I used this one for both of the projects I mentioned previously. Sewing through all 252 stitches of the ribbing of the Southampton soft got a bit tedious, but it does look elegant and elastic. 
• The German twisted cast on: I used this one for the Kuiske socks after seeing it mentioned in a tutorial for the Magic Loop method. I have always done some weird method of long tail cast on where I hold two needles together - or in the case of Haapsalu lace, used a knit cast on, of course -, so I thought it would be fun to try a new way of doing it. It's pretty easy and straightforward and I will probably keep using it for socks. 
• Which brings me to... the Magic Loop method - even though I ended up knitting the Kuiske socks on DPNs, I decided to give it a go when knitting the sleeves of the Southampton soft, and I think I've got the hang of it now. I'm not 100% sure if it's saving me time, but at least I don't have to worry about DPNs going missing :-)
• The three needle bind off: was used for the Fleuriste cardigan and the Suolaulu sweater to connect the shoulders and I am HERE for it! Anything to avoid sewing.

So that's six new techniques I've learned this year! At the ripe old age of 34! Go me!

A Forkton of Yarn.

OK, OK, maybe it's not that much, but it's still a lot for me, considering that I freed up a second drawer for my stash (which, to be honest, it was surreptitiously taking over anyway).

As I mentioned in a previous post, a local dyer from had a new batch of yarns for sale and of course I had to support local businesses :-) So those two lovely colourful hanks are sock yarn from the Woolmint brand. 

I also decided to order two skeins of self-striping sock yarn from Flotte Socke, because why not. 

But the Baby Merino is actually for my mom! I told her that I wanted to knit a sweater for her and she got to pick the pattern and the colours. I showed her the Ravelry stores of Sari Nordlund and Meiju K-P (Meiju Knits on Youtube) and she chose the Skärgård sweater. The main colour is going to be a rosy pink and the contrasting colour is going to be a natural white. I think it's an excellent choice - not only is the pattern beautiful, but Skärgård is also fun to say! It will probably be a few days before I get to cast it on, but I decided to take advantage of the Drops Merino Mania sale and bought the yarn earlier this week. Of course I have more skeins, but they didn't all fit in the basket :P

State of the Project: Southampton Soft, part II

Yeah no quippy title this time, I'm afraid. 

Today's post was actually going to be about how I finished the body part of the sweater and was moving on to the sleeves, but as I got to the k1p1 ribbing last night, I discovered, much to my chagrin, that I my stitch count was off: it was an odd number instead of an even one. I first thought that I must've picked up a rogue stitch somewhere, so I knit two stitches together to have an even number of stitches and cracked on with the ribbing. But then I counted the stitches again several times and realised that I had actually been missing a stitch, so now I was two stitches short. I also noticed that I had only knit through half of the strands in one stitch several rows before and decided to rip back to that stitch, fix it and look for the place where I lost the one stitch. I found that I had knit two stitches together another few rows before. I decided to not rip back to that place and made a new stitch instead, so now I have the correct amount of stitches and no half-knit ones. Yay me!

Here's where I'm at. Excuse the weird colouring, I took the previous photos in natural light, but this one was taken under lamplight.

In other news, I bought a forkton of yarn today and on Saturday! More on that when everything gets here. 

 

Yet another cast-on aka Knitting monogamy just isn't for me, baby.

Encouraged by the fact that I managed to complete the fiddlier part of the Southampton Soft and inspired by two posts I saw on Facebook (namely one by a local yarn shop announcing that the pre-order period for the Estonian version Niina Laitinen's third book, Villasukkien Uusi Vuosi, was being extended because the local publisher was experiencing some delays and the other one by a very local yarn dyer from the brand Woolmint announcing that she would have some freshly dyed yarns for sale this weekend), I decided to cast on a pair of socks from Niina's first book, Villasukkien Vuosi (The Year of Wool Socks). The pattern I chose is called Kuiske (Whisper) and the yarn I am using is Woolmint Opera - a fingering weight sock yarn in the colourway Orlando. I bought the yarn in August and the lady behind Woolmint was actually kind enough to deliver it to my workplace personally, because she was in the neighbourhood. Of course I want to support her again and place an order this weekend, so I thought this would be the perfect chance to put Orlando to good use and knit one of Niina's older patterns while waiting for the new book.

Anyway. The pattern calls for 2.5 mm needles and I actually wanted to try the Magic Loop method with these socks, but it ended up being a fail, because my 2.5 mm circular needles have a really long cable (I believe they're 100 cm in length) so instead of forming just the one magic loop, the cable formed like two or three and it was kind of a mess. I also remembered that Niina's patterns are written for DPNs and they are often rather specific about the amount of stitches you should have on each needle - they require you to do some shuffling around from time to time, which would've been a bit hard to do using the Magic Loop. Not to mention that I also remembered that her socks often tend to be quite narrow and I had to cast on the Pride and Prejudice socks like three times because my leg wouldn't fit through the ribbing. In the end, I went with 3.5 mm DPNs.

This is where I am now: 

How gorgeous is this colour though!

State of the Project: Southampton Soft, part 1 aka Am I a yoke to you?!?

Well, my sweater has grown nicely - I have now completed the yoke and am working on the body. The neckline shaping and shoulder increases with the wraps and turns and having to remember which way the increased stitches should lean were a bit fiddly at first, but I think the end result looks pretty great, even if I do say so myself. It should be all smooth sailing from here - just stockinette and some ribbing for the body and then the sleeves with the lovely lace pattenr, which I am planning to make with circular needles using the Magic Loop method. 

In other news, I got some new knitting gear yesterday! How cool is this project bag and these stitch markers from The Woolly Tangle?

Yes I have a new project aka idle hands are the Devil's tools.

While I was knitting the Suolaulu sweater, I discovered yet another knitting podcast by a Finnish yarn designer: Meiju Knits. Of course I had to check out her Ravelry store and found that I really like her style! A lot of her patterns were for cardigans, but she also has some lovely sweaters and shawls and a cool hoodie. A sweater called Southampton Soft caught my eye from one of her videos and I decided to make it. It is a top down pullover with lace panels on the sleeves, a decorative button on the back of the neckband and a relatively snug fit. 

At first I intended to do some stash busting and use one of the Aade Lõng yarns that I have, but I realised that I didn't have enough of it. I also realised that I didn't have 2.75 mm circular needles. Sooooo of course I ordered the needles and went to the shop to buy yarn. Drops is currently having a Merino Madness sale, but when I was looking at the merino yarns in the shop, I couldn't' find a colourway that would've called out to me and also I actually wanted something a little softer. So I went with Drops Nord in the colourway Rust, which is a slightly mottled fall orange. Nord is a sock yarn that contains alpaca, polyamide and wool and feels really nice to the touch. 

For now, I have finished the shoulder increases and am currently working on the sleeve increases: 

And here's a closer look at the lace pattern: 

State of the Project: Suolaulu sweater, part III - the finale!

She's done! I washed and blocked her yesterday and she doesn't smell like a barn anymore. You can definitely see some of the red peeking through the white in the colourwork part, because it is just so vibrant, but I think the pattern definition is pretty awesome if I do say so myself. 

I didn't enjoy picking up the stitches for the sleeves, and they turned out a bit puffy, but that's fine. 

Do you love?!?

 

Upgrading my yarn winding gear.

Seeing as winding about 200 grams of Kihnu native sheep's wool yarn took me the better part of an evening, and I have several other hanks of yarn and all the prettiest yarns seem to be sold in hanks, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a skein holder and a yarn winder. 

Here they are: 

Learning to use them took me a few minutes and the yarn kept getting stuck in the little metal articulations between the blue bits, so the first ball I made looked a bit messy, but once I attached the yarn winder to the table, used one hand to work the winder and the other one to hold the yarn up, I ended up with pretty neat looking balls of yarn that looked like this: 

I am pretty pleased with the investment. It's going to make winding the yarn for my next projects so much easier :-)

State of the Project: Suolaulu sweater, part II

The Suolaulu sweater is coming along nicely. I have finished the part of the body that was knit in the round and the entire front part and am currently working on the back part (17 more rows to go!): 

Pretty, isn't it?

I also tried the sweater on and it is a good fit, but I seem to be using slightly more yarn that what the original pattern suggested - I got four balls from my hank of 8/2 Kihnu native sheep's wool yarn, each weighing around 50 grams, but I have already almost used up the fourth one and I haven't got to the collar or the sleeves yet. That's not really a problem, because I have another hank (the one I bought was almost half a kilo and actually consisted of two separate hanks), but it does mean that I will have do some more winding. Oh well.