October 2007

BOO!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

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Sausage Slippers?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Wow, this was a disaster, uh, PROTOTYPE.

The pattern (DROPS 104-10, also available in Finnish) is really cute but this just turned out all wrong. (Mostly my fault.) I was using a different yarn so my gauge was off. To compensate, I decided to make one size larger than what I wear without doing any actual calculations. (Ha.) I'd nearly finished the first slipper before I whipped out the calculator and realized it was going to be too small after felting. Sigh, off to the frog pond.

The second time, I thought I did the calculations correctly and used the stitch counts for the largest size. The problem was, I also took the length in centimeters -- not row counts -- according to the largest size, so the slipper was looong and pointy. I duplicate-stitched the skull motif on and thought it'd shrink just fine (it didn't) or at least I could stretch it into a proper shape after felting (I couldn't).

See the pic? That's the size after felting. I never made a pair for this one.

There was some wonkiness with the pattern, too. I didn't like how the heel turned out, not even after felting. It was just too... floppy. What do you think of these instructions:

Fold edge on each side of heel in to 3rd sts towards RS and sew until a sausage edge forms.

Seriously? Sausage edge? I never could understand what they wanted.

Third time's the charm, eh? I'm having another go at the pattern, this time with both slippers. And I have some ideas about the heel.

Skull Slippers (Ravelry project page)
Pattern: DROPS 104-10 Felted slippers in 2 threads of Eskimo (available also in Finnish and tons of other languages)
Yarn: Novita Huopanen (100% feltable wool) double stranded, colors #370 (moss) and #353 (grass)
Needles: 10 mm plastic circular needle (huge!)
Mods: custom size: stitch counts from size 43/45, length (in cm) from size 38/39; knitting the foot in circular knitting, three-needle bind-off, duplicate-stitched skull motif, tweaked heel (once I get to it...)

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noooo!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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A Finnish Knitting Podcast?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

(This post exceptionally bilingual. Finnish bit at the end.)

Minni of Hernekeppi and Tekele ja tuunaus blogs toys with the idea of starting a podcast -- possibly a knitting podcast! I'm a podcast addict so to me this sounds like a marvelous idea. And I've yet to find any knitting-related podcasts in Finnish. A world first, Minni? :)

What say you? I'm all for the idea! :)

Ja poikkeuksellisesti samma på finska: Hernekeppi ja Tekele ja tuunaus -blogeista tuttu Minni pohtii podcastin ja mahdollisesti ihkaekan suomenkielisen neulepodcastin aloittamista. Mitäs tykkäätte? Minusta aivan loistava idea! :)

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Ulla: A Perfect Ten

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The tenth issue of Finnish online knitting magazine Ulla (think Knitty or MagKnits) has just come out and it's amazing! There's tons of patterns from really talented Finnish knit-bloggers and I have a hard time even picking out the one I'd like to cast on first. (Huh? What Christmas projects?) Unfortunately, Ulla doesn't do official translations of the patterns so they're available only in Finnish. But the designers themselves might post translations on their blogs so keep on eye on them.

Here's just a small selection of the stuff that jumps on my to-knit queue (sorry! Ravelry link).

First row:

Aino socks by Eeva Saviranta from /dev/yarnstash
En Pointe felted ballerina slippers by Ilu. There's also an English translation of this pattern and don't forget to check out Ilu's En Pointe gallery. I'm having a thing with felted slippers lately (more on those later).
Freddie bolero / cropped cardi by Villilanka (dude! you live in the same town!)

Second row:

Pohjan neito cardigan...
and it's big sister, Louhi, long cabled coat, both designed by Tuulia Salmela. Gorgeous work, very Elsbeth Lavold inspired! I wouldn't make that long a coat cause a) it'd be too heavy and b) I couldn't pull it off (the wearing part), but I'm really drawn to the large, pointy, almost Elvish hood. :)
Revontuli shawl by AnneM. The colors are too flashy for me but I think the shawl would look great in a subtle, tone-on-tone yarn.

And third row:

Bombadil socks by Eeva Saviranta. Anything Lord of the Rings related and I'm so there!
Lemminkäinen sweater vest by Eeva Saviranta (again!). Sure, it's a men's pattern but I don't think it'd matter.
Brego socks and mitts by Tuulia Salmela. Again, Lord of the Rings themed! Check out Tuulia's blog for pics of all of her designs in this issue. I'm guessing there'll be a lot of translation requests. ;)

First off, huge applauds to everyone who pulled the issue together. Someone on the inside (and now of course I can't remember who it was) posted a few days ago that it'd be the best one yet, and OMG, they weren't kidding.

Two, I obviously have an obsession with passion for cables. And socks. And cabled socks.

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Unventing a Better Cast-On for Gusseted Thumbs

Sunday, October 07, 2007

I was working on a project today, a project with gusseted thumbs. Inevitably in such a project there's that certain spot when you have to cast on extra stitches in the middle of a row. In the past, I've always used the half hitch (a.k.a. backwards-loop or single cast-on) method.

I don't like the half hitch. Yeah, it's quick and easy but looks like crap. It's unstable. And it's nigh on impossible to pick up the stitches at the bottom end when you're working on the thumb.

I was looking for better cast-on methods, fiddled with a few and came up with this. I'm sure there's a proper name for it but for now I'm calling it purling on. Because it's exactly like knitting on, except you purl. Huge difference! :D

(This can of course be used for other purposes where you need to cast on in the middle of the row, like those underarm stitches if you're doing a top-down sweater.)

1. Here I've transferred the gusset stitches on a piece of scrap yarn and need to cast on 3 new stitches on the following row.

2. Turn the work.

3. With wrong side facing, purl in the first stitch on the left needle but don't drop it off the needle.

4. Transfer the purled stitch to the left needle. Again, purl in the first stitch, don't drop it, and transfer the new stitch back to the left needle. Keep going until you've cast on the desired amount.