February FO #7 aka January potholder

Last post in the February FO series. I think I have blogged all my "unblogged" FOs now (except for one secret projects, that I hope to be able to show you in March...). 

January potholder for the potholder swap. No pattern. January's theme was winter, or from granny's kitchen. I hope you can guess which I chose. It was sent to Babben, who also got one of my potholders in last year's swap. 

February FO #6

"Stripehals" - stripy cowl, made to match the scout hat.

A nice free pattern: Ambitus neckwarmer by Lankakomero. To fit boy 7 years I casted on fewer sts (100) and worked only the two first increases. Will probably make more from this pattern, like Anne has done

Be prepared scout hat - or February FO #5

Here's another FO in my February FO series

This one was actually both started and finished in February.

It's a second version of this hat. 

Worked in more "scouty colours" this time. 

  

I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and so is the scout. 

Pattern to be found here. 

At the moment, in Norwegian. Translation coming. 

February FO #4

"Emmanuelle wristwarmers"

Super easy wristwarmers:

Garter stith, yarn overs, buttons, needles 5 mm, Mirasol Sulka yarn (super soft: Merino, Alpaca and Silk). Two small wriswarmes took the whole 50 g skein, so they're not the cheapest. But quick, easy and warm!

Lollipop, lollipop...!

One of my knitting friends has made herself a pair of Lollipops! Wonderful colours, I think. She's done a lot of colourwork before, but it was her first time knitting cables. Those were a piece o'cake, she says. She used  Finullgarn instead of 3ply strikkegarn, and as she knits a bit looser than me, it worked just fine. 

Other people have also made Lollipops:

 

Do you want a pair too?

Winter wonderland

With Lillehammer mittens

Celebrity mittens (or mittens and places #5)

Tora Berger is doing well in the biathlon championship. She also seems to be a very sympathetic person, and she's a knitter (well, all knitters are sympathetic, aren't they?)

Photo borrowed from www.gd.no

And Norwegian knitters have noticed the mittens she's wearing.

It turns out, they're the Dovre mittens, Dovre beeing Tora's home place. I found a couple of them on Ravelry, but no pattern entry, so I added it earlier today. (I don't have details about sizes, gauge and yarn, so if anyone who has the pattern could update it on Ravelry, or leave a comment, so I can do it, it would be nice.)

The mittens were designed by Kirsten Hjort Engum for a design competition in 2000, and have been published in Norsk Huslflid 4- 2007. The pattern, or a kit,  can also be bought through Dovre husflidslag ( I guess they're busy sending out patterns at the moment!). I have also found some examples on knitting blogs, here and here.

February FO #3 - Scalloway wristwarmers

Another FO to be blogged about in February - Scalloway wristwarmers.

The first night at Jamieson &Smith during the Wool Week, I bought four balls of Jumper Weight yarn (in addition to yarn for the Scatnes tunic, that is..), and I wanted to try it right away. So I cast on for a pair of wristwarmers. I don't know where the houses came from, the just popped up in my head then and there. 

I went on knitting in the car the next day. And in Scalloway we saw one of the purple houses from the wristlets!

I might be writing a pattern for these one day...

February FO #2

A colleague, who also happens to be one of my son's scout leaders, mentioned a couple of weeks ago that she'd want a hat with the scouts' motto on it, "Alltid beredt" ("always prepared"). So, this of course got my knitting brain started. I had left over yarn from these leg warmers, and I had just seen some cool earflaps on Woolly Wormhead's blog. I was a fun and quick knit!

The hat is worked in seven colours of Rauma 3ply strikkegarn, on needles 3 and 3,5 mm.

I have written a pattern, in Norwegian. Test knitters are welcome! There is one adult size and one child size. If you don't have a scout to knit for, you can replace the letters with trees, or you can write something else (alphabet and blank charts are included in the pattern).

February FO # 1

Ok, so these FOs are not necessarily finished in February, but as I mentioned the other day, I have some unblogged FOs to show you.

Here's the first one, "Stripes and cable", a modified version of Kirsten Kapur's Perry Street Rugby

Modifications:

• The recipient did not want garter stitch, so I did stockinette stitch.
• Worked in the round until arm openings.
• To avoid curling, some ribbing at the bottom of the body (k3, p1).
• Sleeves also with ribbed cuff k3, p1 and stickinette stitch.
• A shorter sleeve cap

I like the wide cable. Actually, the recipient didn't want the cable either, but mum said, "no cabl,e no sweater, young man!". So cable there is. Not the best photo, but you get the idea. 

The yarn is Garnstudio DROPS Big Merino. It's good to knit with, but the resulting garment is a bit heavy to my liking.  But the recipient is happy, and wears it quite a lot, so then I'm happy too. He chose the colours.

****

Thanks for comments on my last post. Miranne tells us about the day she learnt the "Old Norwegian Cast On" or "Twisted German" cast on. Mary Lou also uses this name, probably on the same cast on?

"Kjært barn har mange navn" is a Norwegian saying, meaning "A loved child has many names", it's probably true for knitting techniques also!

Casting on

I'm good at casting on. By that meaning, starting new projects. Here's the newest one, that I acutally finished too. A hat, in sport weght yarn. More about that later. 



When it comes to different cast ons, I'm not esepcially good, using the long tail cast on mostly. Not especially good, but improving. For my last hat design, I learnt a new cast on, from Woolly Wormhead; Alternate Cable Cast-On for 2x2 rib.  This makes a neat edge, that look the same on both sides, so it's especially nice if you want to fold the brim up. 

Before I discovered the knitting resources on the Internet, I had no idea there are som many ways to cast on. This was among the things we talked about at the meeting in Lillehammer husflidslag last week. 

Pinneguri wrote a post about favourite boards on Pinterest recently. I found a board with different cast ons only.

At the meeting last week, some ladies showed me how they used to cast on. I was a different long tail cast on, that I recognised as the "Old Norwegian Cast On", that I had never seen before, except on Internet, for example here and here. These to ladies had learnt this cast on as children, growing up in the valley Gudbrandsdalen, north of Lillehammer. So, the cast on probably is old and Norwegian! They said it results in a stretchier fabric than the ordinary long tail cast on. 

And today I saw a different version on Pinterest: Norwegian Alternating Knit & Purl Cast On

Source: youtube.com via Liz on Pinterest

It looks like a version of the Old Norwegian Cast On, where you just mirror what you normally do, to get the purls. Looks interesting. 

What is your favourite cast on? Bad question, of course, as  you probably have one cast on for each purpose.. Or what?

Here's a glimpse of the hat and you can see that I have cast off too! With an I'cord, another technique learnt through Internet. But more about that later. I have some finished objects to show you - I might make a February FO series.