söndag 23 juli 2017

Project bags - learning how to use our sewing machine

I am learning how to use our sewing machine by making project bags. You can never have to many of these ...

Socks with two different yarns

I knitted these socks a couple of months ago. I used one striped yarn and one in solid colour (red). This is because sometimes when I knit man sized socks if run out of yarn before I am finished. I have started weighing the sock yarn that I have bought and found that it is not uncommon that they contain less than the stated 100 grams. So to avoid having to buy extra yarn I sometimes use two colours instead. it is also a great way to use leftovers from other sock projects.

söndag 19 mars 2017

Socks - finally finished

I finally finished these socks! Man´s size. Yarn used is 105 grams of Drops Fabel, and needles 2,50 mm.
I used the Old Norwegian Cast-On ("dubbel-korsuppläggning" in Swedish) and a K1, P1 ribbing. After that I changed to a Seeded Rib (4 stitches repeat) for the all-over pattern.
The heel-flap stitches are a "Reversed Slip 1, Knit 1" pattern.
Finally a toe with decreases at the end of each of the four needles. In Swedish it is called "Strålintagning". I have never tried this before, but it is said to give a good toe both with thin and thick yarn.

I like the retro-feel of these socks.

fredag 27 januari 2017

Hat in twined knitting - hand spun yarn

I just finished this hat in twined knitting. The yarn is some of my first hand-spun, spun years ago (2011). The red yarn is 50/50 Spelsau (grey) from Norway and Leicester (white). The fleece was grey and white when I spun it and I later dyed the yarn red. The yellow yarn was spun by mixing some dyed fleece that I was given, origin unknown. 210 stitches on needles 2,50 mm.

fredag 20 januari 2017

Striped and checkered mittens in twined knitting

These are twined knitted mittens using the simplest way of patterning: two colours making stripes, and making checkers by being reversed every second row. 
The main part of the mitten is striped. I used checkers on the cuff ...
and on the increases for the thumb. The increases are made on both side of the thumb gore every second row.
The cast-on is one that I have learned from Karin Kahnlund. I repeated the principle for the cast-on effect just before I started the increases for the thumb - to mark the end of the cuff.

The yarn used is spun at Wålstedts. The fleece used is from the breed Värmlandsfår - natural colours, except for the yellow that I dyed.

fredag 6 januari 2017

When mending holes isn't enough ....

These holes just weren't worth mending, they were to big and the yarn was of a really bad quality (don't buy yarn without information about what kind of fibres it is made of). 
But since I have been told not to waste yarn I did as my mother often did.
I cut off the part with the useless yarn and frogged the remaining material back until I reached the point where I wanted to start the new foot.
I picked up stitches and used a yarn of better quality for the foot.
I also checked with myproject book regarding needle size, amount of stitches and other particulars regarding the sock.
After some knitting I had a pair of socks almost as good as new.