cherry blossom tree cowl

Some of you might have noticed this cowl in my me-made-may posts, and I’ve been meaning to show it off. Here it is:

I am a sucker for cowls I think. Three of them in four years isn’t really excessive I guess, but the last three scarves I’ve made, and really – about the only ones I use, are of the loopy variety. (here is a red cowl, which was the first one, and then a yellow one from this winter.) It’s just so lovely to not have any ends to tuck in, or to not have re-wrap while fighting blistering winds!

A funny thing with all these cowls is how the yarn has dictated the outcome. With the red one, I choose garter stitch to show off the changing colors, and tried intentional pooling for the first time. With the yellow cowl, I went with subtle and simple stitch patterns so the yarn is showcased in all its fluffy glory.

For this cowl, it was the colors. While I love tweedy, heathery color variations in yarn (like what I used for my Bayview Street cardigan), I usually don’t go for variageted yarn simply because I really don’t know what to do with the pooling that happens. This was a gifted yarn, and much like my yarn that did not want to be knit, I absolutely adored the colors and the skein, but was stumped by what to make with it. I tried a pair of mittens first, thinking I’d like the striping effect, but I actually hated it (my ravelry project page has a picture of the fated mittens).

So, another cowl came to life. It’s the honey cowl pattern, which has a pretty simple slipped stitch pattern repeat. I wanted something that would break up the pooling, and this did (with some additional coaxing to get the repeating of the colors to alternate and stagger instead of stacking). As I was knitting I kept thinking the one side looked like morse code! I view this scarf as patterned, and it’s quite honestly a little outside my comfort-zone and I’m having a bit of a challenge incorporating this cowl easily into outfits. I actually had more patterns as a goal in my (sort of failed, kind of still being worked on) fall palette challenge, so this is a wee attempt to do just that!

I also thought the colors were like the Japanese cherry blossom trees that have been coming in to bloom downtown. It does actually look like bark and buds to me, but I think it might be a good thing the cherry blossoms were still in hiding when we took these pictures, because they would have put my scarf to shame and made it look like a pile of mud! But it’s a funky pile of mud that keeps my neck warm, so it’s all good.

Photos by John B.

flora & fauna: a favorite

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Bergen, and any day without the threat of rain must be taken advantage of! So we hopped on our bikes, to go coffee-sampling at the city’s coffee roastery at their monthly open-house day.

Safety first! I bike in the streets with the cars, and I cannot imagine not having a helmet on – my head feels bare and it just feels wrong if I forget to put it on! Then I remember and walk inside and fetch it and go on my merry way.

I’ve been digging monochrome-ish outfits in neutral colors lately, and this fits that bill – a symphony of greys and taupes with some olive grey and brown thrown in. The dress is one of my favorites – It’s called Southward Stop Shirtdress (from Anthropologie). I love just about everything about this dress; the muted color-scheme, the super-fine-waled corduroy, the shape, the stand collar and the v-neckline, and of course…. the print. There are little deers all over my dress!

“Look, a parachuter!”

And you know what else is on my dress (apart from random chocolate stains that the print does a marvelous job of hiding)? A little bit of everything! I spy polka-dotted pocket linings, polka-dotted piping, ruffles, gathers, inverted box-pleats and lets throw in some pin-tucks too. I would never have thought that all those things could go on a dress with a print without looking ridiculously busy, but I’m taking it as a lesson to play more with elements in my garments. If this dress can make that look good, then so can I!

I have a real tendency to go with solids both in buying and in making clothes, but I’ve really been trying to get more prints and patterns into my wardrobe. I’m knitting a scarf right now in a variegated yarn which is a bit of a departure for me – but it’s part of me challenging myself to venture beyond solids!

And on a random end note, I love that this city sits on the water and is surrounded by mountains.

7 years – longest unfinished object ever?

So, seven years. Seven years of having these mittens in some uncompleted form. Six moves, three cities, and two continents. (why am I obsessed with numbers all of a sudden? I blame it on the new year and wanting to tally up and do inventory of everything and anything!) I finished them yesterday, which involved weaving in three yarn-ends, haha! Difficult indeed!

This was my first real attempt at knitting beyond simple scarves in garter stitches. I copied the half-star pattern from some really cool Estonian mittens, and this is also one of the first things I made after having discovered alpacca-yarn, oooo yummy! I’m not quite sure what possessed me to go from garter stitch to colorwork on size 00 needles, but not knowing that something is *supposed* to be hard is a good thing I think. On the other hand, these mittens are… wonky. I’m not quite sure they’re entirely wearable with odd, tightly cast off seaming where the thumb is attached and decidedly different sizes.

One a little too loose, and the other too small. Where is the Goldilocks mitten?

I realized I couldn’t knit these in the round (which, after more colorwork I would come to realize is because of the lack of pattern on the backside of the mitten), so these are also knit flat, and seamed. Man, they are really quite odd. One of the mittens is way smaller than the other one too! For some reason I decided I had to knit more tightly, but I only had that thought after the first mitten was completed, so now I have one kind of falling off, and one slightly too small!

They are kind of a dud, but they are still pretty.

2012

It’s almost inevitable to spend the end-of-the-year holidays reflecting on the year you’re leaving behind, and the one you’re approaching. 2011 has been all over the place for me; I completed my fashion design bachelor in May, I left Chicago behind to go on a three-month road-trip/camping-trip, and I moved back to Norway in August. I’ve been living without most of my belongings since leaving Chicago (they’re on their way, but goodness – several months overdue!), so settling in hasn’t been quite complete yet. With this year of adventure and nomadic living behind me, I am hoping for settling in 2012. I’m want to have all my belongings in one place again, and I’m looking forward to some measure of routine!

                           

And for a peak back at what I’ve made this past year – look at that! I think I have some colors I keep coming back to! ;) I’m quite surprised that I’ve knit more items than I’ve sewn this year, but I think the work on the collection skews that – I mean, does one tailored, fully lined coat equal one knit baby hat? I think perhaps not! But that collection has definitely ruled my sewing world this year.

What’s in store for 2012 then? I want to sew more for me. Sewing school-projects has been a ton of fun, especially going through the process of drafting and fitting patterns before sewing the actual garments. But they weren’t necessarily for me! There is a backlog of things I’ve been wanting to sew, and now is the time. For example, I have a Beignet skirt high on my list, and I’ll be doing Tasia’s sew-along for the Minoru jacket now in January.

There are most things still from my fall pallette challenge to sew, like jeans, pencilskirts, blouses, and dresses. I want to do a detailed series on tailoring jackets, and I have a handful of my own designs I’ll be making as well.

Most excitingly, I’ve been working behind the scenes on a line of sewing patterns! I’m still working hard on them, and will be starting small with just one pattern at a time. I’d love your help though, so if you’d like to be a pattern tester, follow this link to my pattern tester survey! Everybody is welcome, I’m hoping to have the first pattern ready for testing early spring.

I’m looking forward to this year, and I hope everybody else is too! Now, if only my fabrics, patterns, and tools could arrive so I could get started sewing again!

my 6 favorite free patterns on ravelry

These are my 6 favorite patterns from ravelry, a fantastic treasure trove of a site! You’ll notice that these are all baby-things and accessories, which are fairly quick and doesn’t use a ton of yarn, and those are things that makes me happy with a project. Instant gratification! And maybe some last-minute Christmas-gifts? Well, here they are:

Aviatrix baby hat

This is a great little baby-hat. It is a quick knit, with adorable details, and clever construction. All the shaping is done with short-rows, and there is no seaming! I wouldn’t recommend it for the complete novice however, not just because of the short rows, but also because the pattern covers a large range of sizes and yarnweights and can be a little cryptic to decipher.

my ravelry project page | the pattern

Baby Sophisticate

I *love* this little baby-cardigan. It’s worked top down, with the collar and front button-band worked last (and easily in one single piece). It’s cute, and pretty easy, and.. did I say cute?

my ravelry project page | the pattern

Shifting sands

This, however, was anything but quick. Not in a bad way, just the slow-and-steady kind. I also used a thin yarn, which made all the cables tiny. Yes, those are hundreds, maybe thousands of cables. But they’re not hard! And this scarf has about the loveliest texture I’ve ever seen.

my blog post | my ravelry project page | the pattern

Robin’s egg blue hat

Another quick knit, with a seed stitch brim, and decorative flap with button. This really was fast, and would make a good, easy gift-knit. Check out the pictures of all the hats on the pattern page!

 my ravelry project page | the pattern

Pebble vest

So cute I can almost not stand it! I haven’t seen this in action, but the buttons on the side and on one of the straps apparently makes it easy to get on and off little wriggling babies. The garter stitch and stockinette stitch combination is lovely, and outside of sewing on buttons, there is only one seam to join!

my blog post | my ravelry project page | the pattern

Cabled watchcap

Part of why I like this hat is the very soft, very fine yarn that I used, but most of all it’s the pattern. It has cables of two different sizes, and the repititon of the cables against the purl background is enough to make it feel interesting, instead of overly symmetrical. It’s just plain pretty!

my blog post | my ravelry project page | the pattern

Shamelessly promoting my own free patterns:

Reversible biking hat

My first attempt at writing a sharing a knitting pattern! It’s a lightweight hat with eyelets, it’s reversible, and pretty easy. I called it a biking hat because John (that’s him in the picture) said it’d be perfect underneath a cycling helmet in the colder months. I’m at three hats made from this pattern now – I’m sure there will be more!

my blog post | my ravelry project page | the pattern

Elvish leaves scarf

And my second free pattern, a lace scarf in fingering weight wool. It has an elegant leaf pattern repeat, and makes for a good intermediate lace project. The thin scarf is perfect for slightly chilly days where you just need that extra little warmth and comfort around your neck!

my blog post | my ravelry project page | the pattern