Here’s a simple pair of knee-high socks. They are really warm in winter and they also work nicely as camouflage on boulder fields.
I used this pattern by Novita (in Finnish) with Novita’s 7 Veljestä Tweed yarn.
‘Scuse my spiderman suit!
Author: stgeorgeknits
Never not knitting!
Knitting Quiz
Alissa of Headknits made a really cool knitting quiz and here are my answers.
1. Share an image of a knitting pattern you love but would probably never knit.
These cable pants would be so comfy around the house but I can’t see myself knitting them.
2. What is your favorite knitting technique?
Stranded colour work.
3. Yarn: wool, alpaca, cotton, linen, hemp, silk, or acrylic?
I really like alpaca but I don’t have much experience with it (yet), so I have to say wool.
4. Needles: wood, bamboo, metal, plastic, or casein?
Wood, although I use all of these except casein.
5. Would you go on a knitting vacation? If yes, which country’s yarn shops would you like to visit?
I’d love to if I had the money and time. My top 1 country would be Scotland (and Shetland especially) but I wouldn’t mind visiting the Faeroe Islands, Iceland or Norway. Come to think of it, I’d go anyway.
6. Lace, fingering, sport, DK, worsted, or bulky? (If you had to choose just one)
DK
7. Do you eat while knitting? If so, what?
No.
8. Speckled yarn: yes or no?
Sure. I don’t usually say no to yarn.
9. Favorite knitting slang word?
Frogging, although I can’t say I ever use the word but I like it all the same.
10. Can you do anything else while knitting? Watching or listening to something doesn’t count.
I’ve thought about walking but since I mostly walk on forest paths with rocks, roots, sticks, tree stumps and such, or even somewhere with absolutely no path at all, I find knitting and walking kind of dangerous. Falling over with sharp, pointed sticks in my hands does not appeal to me somehow.
11. Favorite knitting pattern designer?
Kate Davies
12. Favorite yarn brand?
As a Finn, I have to say Novita. I do use it the most anyway.
13. Intentional felting: yes or no?
Yes. Slippers, bags, baskets, potholders, stuff like that.
14. Who taught you to knit?
My mother, although I think I learnt it properly at school. I think that was the second or third grade when we started knitting (and I would have been 8 or 9).
15. What’s your next knit?
A northern lights jumper for hubby. I’m also in the middle of socks and a cowl.
Fisherman’s beanie
In between knits that take a longer time to finish, it’s nice to knit something quick. So, here’s another hat. It’s a fisherman’s beanie in bulky yarn and it practically knitted itself!
You might have noticed that I like to knit hats. I usually like simple, no-nonsense hats. Fisherman’s beanie ticks both of those boxes. The yarn is Novita’s Isoveli and it’s a 75% wool, 25% polyamide yarn in nice turquoise, forest green and very dark egg plant that looks brown when the light is not good. If fact, even when I bought the yarn I thought it was brown. It was only later that I found out it was egg plant colour which made me very happy because I like egg plant colour more than brown.
I used 5mm needles. The pattern is unfortunately in Finnish only. But it’s the simplest of patterns and here’s the quickest of translations: Cast on 88 s and knit 2×2 rib pattern for 23 cm in the round. Then knit 2 together for the whole row (44 s). Knit 4 rows. Then knit 2 together for the whole row again (22 s). Knit 4 rows. Knit 2 together for the whole row and pull the yarn through all 11 s, pull tight and weave in the ends. Done.
Happy knitting!
Well travelled yarn
This is one of those jumpers that has a story of sorts. I bought the blue mohair yarn in Austria almost a lifetime ago, back in the 80’s. Mohair was a bit of a thing those days and this was a huge 300g ball – so soft and squishy. I thought the light blue colour was great, pastels being also an 80’s thing. As so often, things happened and I never knitted anything with the blue yarn.
Then came 90’s, 1995 to be exact and I spotted a really great knitting magazine in the shop. Among many great designs was this nice big cable jumper with rib pattern all over it. I wanted to knit it as soon as I saw it. By ‘as soon as I saw it’ I meant ‘in 2019’. Clearly I’m not in a rush. Well, mohair is making a bit a comeback, I believe. Cables are always fashionable. Light blue is a bit too pastelly for my liking these days, but it’s still ok.
I knew the blue yarn would not be enough for the jumper but I thought I’ll think of something when it runs out. I knitted the front and back and then the collar. I knitted the sleeves top down so that I could use up all of the blue yarn. I planned to have a block of some other colour near the cuffs. I ran out of the blue yarn way too early. Fine, I’ll finish the sleeves with white. And then I ran out of white yarn. At this point I was getting a bit annoyed but having got this far, I didn’t want to unravel the whole jumper. And so the grey yarn came in.
I know, it looks a bit daft but I dedicated this jumper for wearing in the house only. Although I’m annoyed with it, I’m also pleased because I used the light blue yarn that has followed me from town to town, and even to different countries, and finally, more than 30 years later I used it! It’s not that the yarn was somehow amazing, but I think it’s the fact that it was bought in Vienna, my favourite city. For me, this yarn has Vienna written all over it. When I see this light blue yarn, my mind goes to Vienna immediately. Also, that cable jumper pattern has been haunting me for over 20 years. Better late than never, right?
Happy knitting!
Fab mitts
Do you remember this shawl I knitted some time ago? I had just a tiny bit of the yarn left over. It was not enough for a matching hat or mittens. But fingerless mittens? I played yarn chicken and won. I finished a pair with just a couple of metres left over.
I don’t usually use a pattern for fingerless mittens. I just wing it with the number of stitches (because I’m not so active with swatching). I knit either a rib or garter stitch cuff and ordinary increases for the thumbs (I’m not sure if there is a name for that kind of thumb increase), and then a matching ribbing or garter stitch for the other end. And finally just a few rounds for the thumbs.
The yarn is Patons Fab, all acrylic. What it lacks in natural fibers it makes up for in bright colours. I could wear these with all black gloves underneath to keep my fingers warm, too.
Happy knitting!
Knit one, get one free
I had two little balls of some unknown thick-and-thin cotton yarn in turquoise and purple. I’ve never really thought of these two colours together but I can’t see a problem now. I couldn’t think of anything I could make with the amount I had, anything other than hats. Potholders would have been ok but the thick-and-thin thing put me off somehow. So hats it was.
Rare for me, but this time I knitted a swatch. I wasn’t sure about the thick-and-thin and wanted to make sure the hat would be a good size. It would be one of those hats that would be worn for any reason but warmth, but I’d still like it to be a good fit. I also wanted it be slouchy. And it was. But it was also huge. Swatch and all, and still it was too big. Aaarrgghh. So I changed the needles for a smaller size and cast on less stitches and on the second run the hat was a good size, only not as slouchy.
I only planned to knit one hat but after finishing the first I still had about the same amount left.
When I started the second hat with the colours reversed, hubby said that he could use one. No problem. I made the second hat a tad bigger and with different decreases on the crown. I started the decreases later than on the first hat, and instead of doing them first every other row and later on every row, I instead knitted 2 together for the whole row, 3 rows without decreases and then again the whole row K2Tog. And then again the whole row K2Tog. So the hats are similar but not quite the same.
By now these hats are way too cold and we would both end up with aching ears and frozen skulls if we wore them now. They must wait almost a year for warmer weather.
Happy knitting!
Thin blue line
Another pair of fingerless mittens. They are so quick to make and they take so little yarn. If the yarn is not enough for socks, it’ll make a pair of mittens. Failing that, it’ll make a pair of fingerless mittens. And that’s what I did.
I added a few lines of checker board pattern with blue, just to brighten up a bit the otherwise boring all-white. I have no idea what this yarn is. Just a nameless little ball. Same goes for the blue.
Happy knitting!
Velvety goodness
I’m much more comfortable with knitting than I am with crochet. Crochet projects can very easily not get finished. They can collect dust for a long time if I’m not careful. Well, it was time to finish this scarf.
This is a very soft chenille scarf, done with trebles and chain stitches only. It’s Sirdar Chenille DK yarn and although it’s quite bulky, it doesn’t feel too bulky because of the net-like finish. I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would.
I haven’t blocked this. I’m not sure how well chenille yarn would block so I didn’t bother. It’ll be crunched up around my neck, so who cares if it’s blocked or not? I certainly don’t.
Autumn is pretty much finished here (we had our first bit of snow today!). The other day it was nice and sunny, a rare thing this autumn, so I rushed to get pictures with the lovely reds of the ground.
Happy knitting crochet!
Whaddya fink?
Just a pair of fingerless mittens to get rid of some tiny balls of yarns. Fingerless mittens are so quick to knit that it’s almost like not knitting at all.
This yarn is probably quite a few decades old. I think it’s from my grandmother’s stash. The yarn ball was wound over the yarn label (my grandmother used to do this and that’s how I know think it must be hers), which means that I found out the yarn name after I finished the mittens. It’s 100% Norwegian wool by Dale Garn, called Fink. It’s rough as a bear’s-you-know-what. I remember reading once that some people put hair conditioner in the rinsing water to soften the yarn. I tried that and to my surprise it actually worked. They are now a lot less like a bear’s-you-know-what. Still a little rough though. Ho-hum.
It’s getting a bit cold for fingerless mittens now but one can always put mittens or gloves underneath the fingerless mittens.
Happy knitting!
Fill your boots
You might remember my leg warmers earlier in the summer at midnight and in the woods. These leg warmers got around before they were done. I knitted a few rows here and a couple of rows there. This is what they look like now all done.
These were the perfect things to knit when out and about. No thumbs, no heels, nothing but straightforward stockinette. Row counting was the only thing besides straightforward stockinette knitting. I’m quite new to knitting outside and I have to say that to me it’s not so much about knitting as such but more about being able to knit outside if I wanted to. Some kind of mental thing, I think. I almost always knitted just a few rows at the time. And it was great.
The leg warmers were knitted with Finnish Novita’s Nalle Taika yarn, which is 75% wool and 25% polyamide and nicely variegated. The reason I’ve wanted to knit leg warmers in the first place was because so often in the winter one ends up with a boot full of snow. It’s awful. First it’s nothing but slowly the snow starts to melt and then you’ll have a wet sock, a wet boot and eventually cold feet and ankles. The plan is that the bottom of the leg warmers go over the boots and stop the snow getting into the boots. Obviously the leg warmers work in autumn, too, but they mostly just keep the legs a bit warmer then.
I don’t remember what the name of this colourway is but perhaps it has something to do with autumn. It certainly is very autumnal.
Happy knitting!
stgeorge knits 