Wednesday, April 28, 2010

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!


Thursday, April 22, 2010

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!


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

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!

Friday, April 16, 2010

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 :-)


Thursday, April 15, 2010

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!





Tuesday, April 13, 2010

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.