Buttercup knit and crochet cardigan

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My knitting, Ta-daah!

John, my brother and I just got back from an European road trip of two weeks. We had the most amazing time driving through Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and back to Belgium.

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You can see more photos on my Instagram feed.

While in Germany we drove over the border to Austria to visit Innsbruck for the day (amazing that you can do that!) On our way there we stopped at the side of the road where John took these photos to show you my Buttercup cardigan.

The navy cardigan over white t-shirt looks just like the snow covered mountains, don’t you think?

Buttercup cardigan 02

I was knitting like a lunatic the three days before we left on holiday – I just had to finish before the road trip!

The pattern for this beautiful cardigan is Buttercup pattern from Marie Wallin’s book Filigree. This is my second project from Filigree, the first being the crochet top Rose which I absolutely adore.

The nitty gritty of my Buttercup cardigan:

Pattern: Buttercup from Filigree: Collection Three by Marie Wallin. The pattern for Right Front is missing from the book but you can download it from the errata page on Marie’s website here.
Yarn: 7 balls of Rowan Summerlite in Navy Ink shade 492
Size: Medium
Knitting needle size: 3 mm
Modification: I lengthen the cardigan by adding a 6th crochet square motif. That meant I also had to lengthen the back to 37 cm in stead of 29 cm, before doing the arm shaping.

I’m really in love with the crochet and knit combination. I combined the two in my Kimono Cardigan, but I definitely think Buttercup combines crochet and knitting better.

I think I have a pattern crush on Marie Wallin. As soon as put down the knitting needles on Buttercup, I picked up the crochet hook to make my second Belle top from Rowan Holiday Crochet. The second top with the same pattern! That’s how good her designs are! I’ve been wearing my Belle since May 2015 about once every two weeks. No wonder I need a second one.

If Belle is anything to go by, I’m going to need a second Buttercup cardigan again in a few years.

Thank you Marie Wallin for designing the most amazing knitting and crochet patterns.

Kimono Cardigan

09 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My knitting, Pattern, Ta-daah!

≈ 3 Comments

Do you have a yarn that you love so much that you will search months and months on end for a pattern just so that you can use this yarn? A yarn so soft and light, yet warm in the cold and cool in the heat? A yarn in the perfect shade of grey that will match almost everything in your wardrobe? I have. It’s Gardnstudio Drops BabyAlpaca Silk in 8465 Medium Grey.

I bought 12 balls back in August 2015 without knowing what I wanted to make with it. That’s unusual for me because I always find the pattern first and then look for the yarn. I thought I found the perfect crochet pattern in the Samira sweater, and I got halfway through the back when I realised this wasn’t working. The back loop only SC was creating a fabric with so little stretch, I would have had to modify the pattern so much and buy more yarn, that I just frogged it. You can see the frogged project in my Ravelry Projects here.

The fantastic Drops pattern database also didn’t have anything suitable for Babyalpaca Silk that I particularly liked.

What to do now?

I just made up my own pattern. And it’s mostly a knitted pattern.

I used Babyalpaca Silk for my Whispers cardigan which is crocheted, so this time I wanted to see and feel how the yarn looks knitted. I’m so happy I did it this way – this yarn looks better knitted than crocheted I think.

As for a pattern, well it needed to be super easy because I’m no good at shaping for knitting and especially not if I have to dream up the pattern myself! Straight sides were what I needed. That made me think of a kimono because isn’t that really just a bunch of squares and rectangles? Surely I could manage that.

Turns out a kimono is exactly that: squares and rectangles. I used the plus size DIY Kimono pattern of Nina Scott-Stoddard, as my guide for the pattern pieces.

But, me being me, I couldn’t just knit a cardigan. No I needed something crocheted for a bit of flair. That’s were the the “Zen lattice” pattern from Robyn Chachua’s book Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia came in. It was the perfect type of lace stitch and also perfectly name – Zen. Zen crochet border for a knitted kimono cardigan. I mean really! Match made in Japan.

I also added two rows of SC in a contrasting colour before I started the knitted section. Just because I can.

Below is the “pattern” for my Knitted and Crocheted Kimono Cardigan. I’m saying “pattern” because it’s really just a loose record of what I did. Not technical at all. I’m sure many knitters out there would be able to do a much better job of this than me, but I’m giving you the “pattern” so you can use it as a starting point.

I’m using US crochet terms.

Back

Working from the bottom up you start with the crochet border. Chain 114 (14 x 8 + 2) with 3 mm crochet hook.

Row 1: SC.

Now follow rows 1 – 12 of Zen lattice from Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia. In the last row, make 3-chain in stead of 5-chain.

Row 14 and 15: change to new colour and make 2 rows SC 2. Cast off.

Start of knitted section:

Use 3 mm knitting needles to pick up stitches through front loop of crochet. (This was the only way I could work out to switch from crochet to knitting. I picked up the stitches with the same size knitting needle as my crochet, and then used a bigger size knitting needles to knit the first row.)

With 4.5 mm knitting needles, start the stockinette stich by knitting the first row, then purl the second row. Continue in in stockinette stitch until desired length.

Front panels

Follow the same instructions as for Back, but cast on 58 stitches (7 x 8 + 3).

Sleeves

Follow the same instructions as for Back, but chain 92 (11 x 8 + 3).

It’s crucial that you block the pieces before sewing them together. In the photo above you see how the Zen lattice looks before blocking. You can’t even make out that it’s crochet! Below you see the lattice stretched out to it’s full potential. The KnitPro t-pins were real life savers for the blocking.

I have to warn you though that when I started wearing the kimono cardigan those crochet borders lost their “openness”, so don’t rely on the crochet to add length to the cardigan – it will jump back to almost pre-blocking width. If I knew this, I would have made my knitting much longer.

As for sewing up the knitting, I can’t get over how amazing the mattress stitch is for this. It really creates an invisible seam. This video is what I used to see how to make the mattress stitch and how to sew in the knitted sleeves.

I love wearing my super soft kimono cardigan, but I do know I could have made a better job of it by 1) creating shaping for the neck and shoulders in the back and 2) by making the body longer. Because of the short boxy shape I also have to think a bit about what I wear it with because it can look very unflattering if you don’t have the right layers underneath.

The yarn is this kimono cardigan’s saving grace – it’s so perfect that I don’t even mind having to think a bit harder about what I wear with the cardigan. I’ll even go clothes shopping to find the perfect thing to make this kimono cardigan look its best. I want to wear my kimono cardigan every day!

Super Stripy Snood ta-daah

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by Natasja in Knitting, My knitting, Ta-daah!

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

knitting, scarf

Well what have we here? A ta-daah post for a completed yarny item? Yes indeed! I knitted a Super Stripy Snood to match my grey winter coat, and I love it!

It all began on the 9th of August when John and I took iVan (which is for sale by the way in case you are interested in purchasing a super awesome campervan) to Brighton for the day. Before we left the house, I Googled “yarn shops in Brighton” (as you do) and came across Yak a lovely little yarn shop in Gloucestershire road. We wore our flip-flops thin to find Yak so when we got there John was adamant I should at least buy something to make it worth the effort. And yes, I did make a mental note of husband’s fortuitous statement and will in future always select the yarn shop furthest from where we parked the car.

Seeing as I was now forced to buy something at this great little shop – joy oh joy – I went for 8 balls of MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino in shades to match my grey coat – blues and soft greyish shades. They are:

Shade 121 – Putty

Shade 102 – Storm

Shade 120 – Forget me not

Shade 161 – Seaside (I mean really. How perfect?)

I don’t usually go for these muted tones but that’s what was needed to match my grey coat. Yak had many other gorgeous bright shades of MillaMia which were so tempting, but I had to stick to my plan of finding something to match the coat. Of course blue matches grey and it would remind me of our day in Brighton so adding the Seaside shade was a no-brainer.

I didn’t start knitting until October, but when I did boy it was gooood! I chose the very simple and soothing knit stitch for 90% of the snood. The other 10% was stockinette stitch for when I was using Adriafil Knitcol shade 55. Like I said, I don’t usually go for muted shades and felt the need for something in a darker blue to break up all the muted-ness. I had long ago fallen in love with the crazy beautiful things people were knitting with Knitcol so here was my chance – their “Renoir” shade matched my MillaMia shades perfectly!

Throughout October and November I knitted and knitted. The sweet receptiveness of knit stitch, mindlessly changing colour whenever I felt like it, mixing solid bands of colours, 2-colour stripe combinations and sections of the self striping Knitcol to make a super stripy snood.

I finished the snood just in time for the cold English Winter and wore it for the first time last Monday.

You probably want to see more of the stripes of this Super Striped Snood. Here it is. (John took the photos on our way to work. Can you spot the heron in the background?)

First Half

I repeated three of the sections of colour twice, but apart from those repeating bands there isn’t really a pattern. It’s just randomly knitting stripes.

Second Half

With so many stripes and different colour combinations the snood can look different every time I twist it around my neck. I love it!

I can highly recommend knitting a Super Striped Snood or Scarf. It’s the ultimate easy project for playing with colour and it looks great! It’s also a great stash busting project. Or you can do what I did and go on day trip and park the car as far as possible from the best yarn shop in town.

V-neck knitted sweater ta-daaaah

09 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Natasja in Knitting, My knitting, Ta-daah!

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Tags

knitting, V-neck sweater

On 6 April 2014 I picked up a pair of knitting needles and took up knitting again after 10 years. Almost exactly two months later, my first knitted sweater is done!

Stylecraft ladies sweater 8948

The last thing I had knitted, was a cream, pink and grey scarf back in 2004. I was bored out of my mind and didn’t do any crafting after that. That was until August 2009 of course when the crochet bug bit me. I guess the confidence I have after years of crochet, seeing pretty knitting on Ravelry, starting the craft group at work where I am surrounded by knitters and reading every now and then on a crochet blog that a crocheter has taken up knitting, wore me down. I wanted to knit something. Not a scarf mind you! I wanted something to wear but the pattern had to be easy, not too fussy yet with a something special, v-neck and something I would want to wear. I found the perfect pattern on Loveknitting.com – Stylecraft Stars 8948.

When I bought the pattern pamphlet I also bought 4.5 mm Pony aluminium needles. I didn’t need any yarn, as the Vinnis Nikkim that I wanted to use, is the exact gauge and yardage as Stylecraft Stars. What a great stroke of luck! When I saw that, I knew this was going to be a goooood pattern for my first knitted sweater attempt!

When my needles and pattern arrived, I decanted myself onto my spot on the couch, ready to do some knitting. Only problem was I didn’t know how to do the very first instruction of the pattern: Cast on with the thumb method. The what?! Thank goodness for my laptop and Youtube. I found the perfect instructional video on the Deramores website. The thumb method turned out to be very easy. Hurdle 1 overcome.

As I was knitting the ribbing I soon realised that I made a mistake. Not with the knitting, but with the knitting needles. My cotton yarn was slipping all over the place and I was gripping my knitting needles so tightly to try and keep the stitches from dropping, that I developed knitters-cramp very quickly. Back to the Loveknitting.com website for bamboo needles, (and stitch holder and row counters – in for a penny in for pound).

Those bamboo needles were a godsend! Everything was so much easier once I switched to bamboo.

Everything went swimmingly from there. Bearing in mind that the fancy bit of my sweater happened right after the ribbing, I kinda had thrown myself into the deep end right from the beginning, but I loved it. I got a thrill when I did a stitch count and was spot on!

I have to say that the finishing of the sweater was my biggest fear. To me there’s nothing worse than a handmade piece of clothing that looks…well, handmade. No matter how hard you worked on knitting, crocheting or sewing your pieces, it can all so easily look “cheap” if the finishing isn’t spot on. Thank goodness for another Deramores video where I learned to do the mattress stitch. I couldn’t believe how neat the join (or lack thereof) looked! I also found the Vogue Knitting website helpful when it came to inserting the sleeves into the body.

I did have a little flurry of upset when the sleeve opening on the front of the sweater seemed to be much larger than the sleeve. Thankfully, after a bit of Google-ing, I realised that that’s normal. I just had to ease the sleeve into the opening. Easier said than done. Then I had a brainwave: if the knitting was designed this way, it means they probably did it because a lady’s bust will fill out the front so I had to replicate this “filling out” when I sewed my sleeve into the opening. That means I shouldn’t try to sew it together with the pieces lying on a flat surface, I need something curved. My knee!! And it worked!

Sewing the sleeve into body of knitting

This is how the two sleeves of my sweater was inserted using a mattress stitch. I didn’t even notice the extra fabric at the body when I did it this way. For a first attempt, I am very happy with the way my sleeve sits in the opening. (Please excuse my penguin pajamas…)

After sewing everything together I just had the ends to weave away. For this I found this blog post on The Purl Bee very helpful. I used the diagonal on the wrong side method.

The very last thing to do was to block my sweater. This is the only part that I would do differently next time. The pattern says to block the sweater right at the very end, whereas I think I would have had an easier time sewing all the pieces together, had I blocked the pieces beforehand. What do you knitters think? Do you block your knitting when it’s all sewn up, or do you block the pieces before sewing?

The nitty-gritty of my first knitted sweater:

Pattern: Ladies Sweater in Stylecraft Stars 8948

Yarn: 8 balls of Vinnis Nikkim DK cotton in Avocado

Needles: Pony bamboo 4.5mm and Pony aluminium 3.5mm for the rib

All in all, I’m very happy with my first sweater and kinda proud of myself. I mastered a fancy pattern, managed to do a v-neck (which included a very intimidating s1 knit2tog psso combo) and learned to do mattress stitch to join all the pieces together. Credit should go to Stylecraft Yarns for writing a pattern this pretty, yet easy enough that a newbie knitter can master it.

Close-up of the pattern

Close-up of the neckline

Shoulder

V-neck

Being so happy with the outcome of my first foray into wearable knitting, I already bought the pattern for sweater number 2!

I may have to think about changing my blog name to crochetandabitofknittingTime…. it doesn’t have the same ring to it, but it’s accurate 🙂

Becoming bicraftual

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Natasja in Knitting, My knitting

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

knitting, Loveknitting

Ever heard of bicraftual? Probably not. It’s a word I invented to describe someone who crochet and knits. Bicraftual – she who partakes in two yarn crafts: crochet and knitting.

As of Sunday afternoon, I am bicraftual. I’m knitting a v-neck sweater for myself! I was looking at all the interesting things on the LoveKnitting.com website and this Stylecraft pattern caught my eye. It’s so totally my type of sweater. It’s loose, v-neck, not too flashy yet with a bit of detailing to make it interesting. The Stylecraft Stars yarn suggested for the pattern has the exact gauge as my Vinnis Nikkim so I didn’t even have to buy any yarn. I’m making my first knitted sweater in the beautiful soft avocado green. It really is very, very pretty.

At the moment I’m still doing the detailing at the bottom of the back panel and I’m really enjoying myself. Counting stitches, concentrating, yarn overs, ribbing – the stuff that keep things interesting. Once the detailing is done (just 18 rows to go) I have to tackle the hundreds of stocking stitch rows that make up the rest of the back. Memories of knitting a scarf and getting REALLY bored are coming back to me, but I’m refusing to let those memories dampen my spirit. This isn’t a scarf – it’s a beautiful soft cotton v-neck sweater that will be a staple item in my wardrobe.

Eye on the prize Natasja. Eye on the prize.