Buachaille vest and knotted steek!

When Kate Davies launched her new yarn Buachaille, I was too curious not to join the Sevenskeinsclub to get hold of the loveliness. The club also gives you several patterns for small accessories, but I wanted to fit all the colours into one garment, so I opted for a vest. An am quite happy with the result.

The yarn is soft and the colours play well together, I think. I still have some left, there might be a hat or mitts, or a cowl - we'll see. 

I tried a new steeking technique for the vest, the knotted steek, as explained by Tomofholland. The weaving in of ends took forever, but I still think it was a good choice for the yarn. I also did a latvian braid instead of a ribbing at the neck opening and the armholes. 

The Sevenskeinsclub is sold out, but the yarn will be available for sale in January. I have also seen somewhere that there will be three more colours! Wonder what they might be... I would love some golden yellow, some purple, and mayby brown. 

Blomekrans knitalong

 
As I told you recently, there is now a torirot design group on Ravelry. Feel free to join and to visit!

On May 15th we start a KAL for the Blomekrans vest. It's very informal, no strict rules. Some of us are going to turn it into a sweater, like one of my test knitters did, maybe even a long sleeved version. Some have already started. Here's a link to the pattern page.

I was lucky to get my hand on some Wollmeise from Knitnetty's stash earlier this spring, which I hope to turn into a colourful Blomekrans sweater. We'll see how that goes. I'll use blue for background, green for leaves (obviously) and the two others for flowers. And what's left after the body is done, will be used for stripy sleeves. What do you think? 

Designing the blomekrans vest

I promised to tell you some more about this vest. 

I had the idea during the Shetland Wool Week. I saw a vest when visiting Shetland Collection Open Studio, with fair isle pattern all over, and a round neckline, that I liked. I decided I had to make patterned vest with a similar neckline. I don't know where the flowers came from, suddenly I just saw them. Here's the first sketch I made in my notebook. 

And here's the finished vest from behind. 

During the Wool Week, I had already bought yarn for two sweaters, and this vest idea came to me just before leaving Shetland, so I had to order most of the yarn online.I had some of the colours already, and it was a lucky match. It's not always easy to match colours from online photos. 

I was struggling to figure out how to do the waist shaping with these big flowers. Suddenly I realized I would have to make decreases and increases between the flowers, and not only in the sides, and I was glad to see that this actually worked. Making the charts for the different sizes was also quite a job. I have not used a technical editor before, but for a multisized garment like this, I saw that that was absolutely necessary. I was happy to have an experienced designer and tech editor help me, Sarah Hatton.

I was also very happy to have two super skilled test knitters, who both have done a lot of fantastic colourwork before, Pinneguri and Jettshin.  Pinneguri actually made two vests! Jettshin turned it into a very colourful short sleeved sweater. I'm planning to make a sweater version myself. But then I have lots of other plans too, so I'm not sure when. 

 

 

Hot right now!

Please forgive my bragging, but for some hours today, my new pattern was top five on Ravelry's "hot right now" list on the pattern page. For a while it was number two!

At the moment, it's number fourteen, not bad either. Here are a couple of photos of the vest, called Blomekrans.
I'll tell you more about the pattern later, just needed to share my excitement.

Wavy baby vest

Just thought I'd share this vest before giving it away.

It's been outgrown for a while now.

Made it a few years ago, size appr. 2 years.

The stitch pattern is my own:

1. row: hdc, (number of stitches multiple of 6, + 1
2. row: * sc, hdc, dc, trc, dc, hdc* repeat from * to *, end with 1 sc.
3. row: * trc, dc, hdc, sc, hdc, dc, trc * repeat from * to * end with 1 trc.

The yarn is Rauma Finullgarn and Rauma Babygarn.

Norah Gaughan in Norway?

I just finished my first Norah Gaughan pattern, Bonsai tunic, from Interweave Knit Spring 2007.

I made som mods: Using another yarn (Kauni... surprise, surprise...), my gauge was little looser than called for (18 vs 20). I did some calculation, and found that if I made the smallest size, it would be appr. a 38”, which would be my size. I knitted in the round, both because I hate the seaming, and because of the color changes. So - there was a lot to think of at the same time, decreases, increases, more decreases, lace pattern etc. I should have made a chart and noted everything. Next time... So far, I have not made the belt - don't think I will.

It's a lovely pattern, and I hope not my last Norah Gaughan project. Flower Child (ravelink) in the Berroco pamphlet Norah Gaughan volume 4 is beautiful, with what seems to be an interestning constuction. Her Loppem is also in my queue.

But where do I find the patterns??

Berroco don't ship outside USA and Canada. I found a shop that would, but international shipping would cost 25 $. Then I found an online shop in the UK - but they only send to addresses in the UK.

Anybody who knows how to get these patterns in Norway??