New pattern

I have released a new pattern. Nothing special, but it is fun designing things that actually can be worn. It´s a supercozy cowl you can wear in several different ways. It comes in two sizes, has a simple but effective lace pattern and is closed with three big buttons.

You can download the pattern for free here: Midwinter Cowl

The longer one you can wear both as a cowl and a scarf and you can pull it over your head on those cold winter days.

The short version is perfect to wear under a jacket or over a sweater.

Mystery Kerchief

KAL´s are fun! I have participated in another one: Criminal Minds Mystery Kerchief by Threebagsfulled. Every week you get a piece of the pattern and it´s exciting to see the project grow. The thing is, you don´t know how it will look when it´s finished.

This one started OK, but after a while I thought the shawl just looked like a sample of different stitches. I decided to frog and put it aside. Then I hadn´t much time to think about knitting since I moved to a new flat. Wow, that´s heavy work...

But after a couple of weeks I looked at the projects the other participants had made, and to my surprise the shawl was quite beautiful! So - I picked mine up and finished it yesterday. I´m really pleased with it and have signed up for another KAL!

The yarn is Marks & Kattens Fame Trend.

Mystery unveiled

The finished shawl looks like a work of art. The pattern is beautiful!

Mystery KAL

I´m attending a Mystery KAL for the first time in my knitting "career". KAL means knit along and is a group of people knitting the same pattern at the same time. Mystery KAL is when you don´t know how the finished project is going to look like, since you receive the pattern in parts, for instance one clue every week.

My first Mystery KAL is called 22 leaves by Lankakomero and is great fun. It´s going to be a shawlette. The only thing is the pattern is revealed too fast. Five clues in three days. I would have liked a little bit more excitement. Otherwise it´s great! I´m halfway through clue #5, but the picture shows clues 1-4.

More magic!

I have said it before, knitting is magic! Just look at these two pictures:

The secret is yarn made of wool and a washing machine.

Starry Shetland

Another shawl is off the needles and I think it´s the most beautiful shawl I´ve ever made!! The pattern is Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clarke and the yarn is Handmaiden Fine Yarn Sea Silk. It is made from silk and plant fiber and has a fantastic lustre and softness. The colour is called Stardust. It´s a match made in heaven!

It´s really hard to capture the true colour with my camera, hence the different shades of this gorgeous bluish grey in the pictures.

Sideway shawls

Lately, I´ve been knitting a few shawls sideways. One of them, "Forest Beauty", is knitted from tip to tip with a lacepattern to the right and stockinette stitches to the left. The shape is made by increasing the stockinette part and then, after you reached the middle, decreasing again until you only have the lace tip left.



The other one, Amalia, is made in another way. First you knit the lace border and then pick up stitches all the way and knit garter stitches in short rows, thus forming a crescent.



They both are lovely patterns, but I have realized that I like triangular shawls much more. But the shawls was fun to knit, and since I´m always looking for something new and exciting, a new shape, a new yarn, a new color, you have to acccept that it doesn´t always work out in the end.

Now on to the next project!!.

Timantti

Wow! I´m so excited and happy! I have published my second original design on Ravelry and I am getting a huge response!

Here she is, Timantti:

This shawl is made from the softest merino yarn and the result is a light and airy shawl with a diamond pattern border as the only decoration. Timantti means diamond in Finnish and I think it´s a beautiful word!

The pattern is available as a free download:http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/timantti

Magic!

Knitting is pure magic! A single strand of yarn transformes into a beautiful cardigan or a soft and lovely shawl. I´m so thrilled every time I´ve finished a project! All those stitches on my needles have turned into something nice to wear myself or give away to somebody I care about.

When a project is off the needles it often looks creased-up and out of shape. It is not as soft as you would wish either. But when soaked and blocked something has happened!
It´s like when the caterpillar bursts out of the cocoon transformed into a beautiful butterfly!

I have been knitting on a shawl for my friend who is moving up north. The yarn felt hard and itchy, but when blocked it turned soft and beautiful.

Here is before and after:





The pattern is found here http://muro.vuodatus.net/blog/881297 or here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/revontuli--huivi-northern-lights. The yarn is Kauni effekt 100% wool.

Myrtle - finally!

My Myrtle is finally off the needles! I love the way it came out, it is really beautiful and fits me perfect. Snowden Becker, I bow to you! The yarn, Regia Silk, is lovely too, especially when blocked. It´s a blend of wool and silk and it´s soft and shiny.

I haven´t decided on buttons yet. Maybe a lot of small ones or just one at the top....

Shoes for a knitter

What awesome shoes! If they were mine, I sure would have to knit socks (which I don´t really like)!

If anybody knows were to buy these shoes, please let me know!

Myrtle - a love-hate relationship

I´ve been knitting on a beautiful lace cardigan called Myrtle a couple of months now. The reason it takes so long is that I have to be fully concentrated on this project in order to make it work. I have to sit all alone, no TV, no nothing.
There is so much to keep in mind and if your thoughts wander just for a moment, sh-t happens!
This project has been accompanied by a lot of curses, but there is so much satisfaction when it all comes together.
The trickiest part is when you are going to shape the sleeve caps. The instructions are somewhat unclear, and you have to improvise a lot. I´m so proud that I made it so far, I just have a couple of rows left! I cross my fingers that it will fit me well!

Look at all those markers!!

Harry the Third

My third Harry Shawl is off the needles, blocked and worn all day! The yarn, which is thin sock yarn from wool, completely change when blocked. It becomes soft, drapy and very light. It´s pure magic to wear around your neck. Today it has been a nice sunny spring day here i Malmö, and Harry is a perfect spring shawl!

How I did the puff sleeves

Here´s how I made the puff sleeves for the Little Lace Vest:








Pick up 33 st on both sides of the armhole and 1 right on top of the shoulder = 67 st

Knit 6 st, pm, knit 16 st, pm, knit 9, kfbfb in the next 5 st, knit 9, pm, wrap and turn.

Knit short rows until 9 st remain to first marker = 51 + 44 st remains

From the front k 12, (k2tog, k4) 4 times, k2tog, k 13, turn

Purl back

On the following RS rows knit 2tog with one less st between, until you have made k2tog x 5. 57 st remains.

Continue to knit in the round all the way to beginning of row.

Knit three rows k1p1, bind off tightly.

************

st = stitches
pm = place marker
kfbfb = knit in the front, in the back, in the front and in the back of the stitch (increased 3 stitches)
For tutorials on short rows go to youtube.com
When working on the vest, decrease less stitches for the armhole to make the shoulder part wider.

Good luck!

Charts

Since I´m now a designer (haha) I have to have a tool for making charts for my patterns. I´ve tried different free softwares, but decided to buy the one from Intwined Pattern Studio. Not very expencive, 44 $. I like it a lot! It´s great and easy to use. Tonight I´ve made a chart for my new design: the ........ Shawl. Haven´t come up with a name yet.

This is an example of what a chart might look like:


When you´ve made the chart, you simply transfer it to a document, where you can write down anything you want and add pictures - and voilà: you got yourself a pattern. The software even make your pattern document into a pdf-file.

I spent the evening with some knitting ladies at Fröken Garn in Malmö. We discussed lace knitting, had coffee and mud cake. It is nice to meet others who share the same passion as me!

Another one

Creating your own designs is addicitive! I want to make another one! It is so much fun when other people appreciate what you have come up with! Over one hundred persons have downloaded my free pattern for the Harry Shawl at Ravelry since it was released on March 20th. 34 people have placed it in their queues and two people have started on the project. I feel like a proud mama! Somebody else likes my Harry! Yeeehaaa!

I have been knitting a triangular shawl in plain stockinette in a gorgeous handdyed baby merino (it´s the yarn in my blog header). The colors are bright pinks and oranges. I had the Seraphim Shawl in mind, but now I think I have changed my mind. I will try to design a nice finishing all by myself! Exciting!

Springtime

Spring is here! The sallow willows and anemones are in bloom, it is so lovely!

And I can´t help myself, I have to make another Harry Shawl :-)

Never give up

Knitting is like life itself. Sometimes all goes well and things turn out the way you want them to. And sometimes all goes wrong and you have to start all over again with a different approach.

I knitted a beautiful lacy vest for my daughter (#100 Little Lace Vest at sweaterbabe.com). It fits her perfectly and she loves it!

Then she wanted me to make another one in a different color, and this one should have small puff sleeves. Ok, I thought, that shouldn´t be a problem. (I would do anything for her...)

The vest finished up quickly. It is all knitted in the round, so I had to figure out a way to pick up stitches around the armhole and shape the sleeve nicely. I did some reading in my knitting books and searched on Ravelry, and finally I came up with a solution. The best tip ever is from the book "Custom Knits" by Wendy Bernard, and is called "afterthought sleeves". Ok so far so good! But the tricky thing was to shape the sleeve to the proper form.

I made one sleeve, took the vest to my daughter for a fit - the sleeve was way to big and "princessy"! It would have been cute on a little girl.

So I ripped it all out (the sleeve that is!) and started all over again. This I did three times, it just wouldn´t come together the way I (and my daughter) wanted. If the vest was for me, I would have given up and made the original ribbing. BUT: you do everything for your children, don´t you? So: yesterday I sat down all day and tried to figure out what I did wrong and lo and behold! Now it looks the way I want it to look!

Today she will try it on and I really hope the sleeve looks good! If it does I´m going to be sooo proud of myself and also will be one step closer to becoming a designer!

By the way, the most important thing when you try to design your own stuff, is to write everything down as you go. Don´t for a second imagine that you will remember it all! :-)

***************

8 pm: Finally! It´s finished (except for some nice buttons)! And looking good!

My first

The last couple of months I have knitted a lot of shawls, many of them with lace pattern. As much fun it is to knit lace, I´m not a very lacey person. Some of the shawls I use. Some of them gather dust in my closet. Some I give away. My favorites are those I changed a bit to my liking. One day I said to myself: Why not try to come up with an original design and get exactly what I want? The result is Harry!

Harry is a simple shawl that shows off self-striping yarn beautifully. It´s mostly in stockinette stitch with a garter eyelet pattern at the bottom. Though the Harry Shawl is similar to other shawls, I´m really proud of it! The yarn is from Opal´s Harry Potter sock yarn collection. This one is made in "Ron".

And this one in "Dumbledore".

I know I will knit another one soon. There is so much gorgeous sock yarn out there!

The pattern is avaliable as a free download on ravelry.com. My username is carowiens.