Well travelled yarn

November 5, 2019 stgeorgeknits15 Comments

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!

Good old 80’s

July 7, 2019 stgeorgeknits9 Comments

I have lots of yarn but I keep knitting old, unravelled jumper yarns. What’s wrong with me? I don’t know. I just hate wasting stuff and having a jumper in the wardrobe that never gets worn seems like waste to me.

I knitted a jumper in the mid-80’s. I liked it and wore it quite a bit for some time. After that I’ve not worn it at all. It was quite big, like jumper were in the 80’s and these days it wouldn’t fit inside a jacket or coat, and that makes it unusable, as far as I’m concerned.

So, I unravelled the jumper and knitted a smaller, simple, no-nonsense top-down jumper. Now it fits inside a coat. I don’t know anything about this yarn. It’s some kind of man-made fiber, possible mostly, if not entirely. In the 80’s I liked the colour. I liked those little colourful blobs. I still do. The yarn is quite thick and it only took about a week to knit this.

Back in the 80’s I remember thinking that this jumper is really warm because it’s so thick. Of course, it’s not that warm at all; I know that now. I plan to use it as an in-between seasons jumpers.

This scarf shows how much smaller the new jumper is compared to the old one. This is the leftover yarn from the jumper. The scarf is all garter stitch and I knitted until all the yarn was used. The scarf is about 160 x 32 cm so it’s a reasonable size.

None of this is helping me reduce my yarn stash but at least I didn’t waste much time on these AND at least now in my wardrobe there is a jumper I can use, rather than a jumper that just takes up space. The scarf is a bonus. WIN-WIN, methinks.

Happy knitting!

Cushion Cover · Hats · Jumper · Knitting · Upcycling

Reclaimed

May 4, 2019 stgeorgeknits9 Comments

There’s been a jumper taking up space in the wardrobe for years and it never gets worn anymore. It was made by my mother in the mid 90’s and it was quite huge, typical of the times. It was an all over Norwegian pattern and was a real shame that it was never worn anymore. I couldn’t find anyone else to wear it either and I doubt it would have been easy to find a buyer for it. So, I unraveled it. It hurt a bit but my philosophy is to use the stuff one way or other. At least now the jumper gets worn again. It doesn’t look as awesome but it’ll get used.

I used a pattern called Twin River by Drops Design. It was a very nice pattern – I might use it again sometime. I don’t know what this yarn is. My guess is that it’s some kind of wool mix. I did completely random stripes.

I used the leftovers for a hat.

It’s a shame I didn’t take a picture of the original jumper but needless to say this one looks nothing like it.

The original jumper had steeked armholes. Obviously the yarn was cut into short bits. I calmly knotted all the bits randomly and knitted a cushion cover. Knots are hidden inside. Waste not, want not!

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

Britannia-esque

April 4, 2019 stgeorgeknits1 Comment

Ta-dah! Another finished jumper for hubby.

This is a ‘granddad shirt’ type jumper. I thought I might get bored out of my wits knitting this, it being fairly thin yarn and all stockinette. But because it’s all stockinette, it was really quick – I didn’t have time to get bored out of my wits. The pattern is once again by Novita. They have lots of patterns in English but I seem to be good at picking patterns that are only available in Finnish. The yarn is Nalle by Novita and the colour is lovely denim blue.

I really wanted to add European Union buttons but I didn’t have any, so Union Jacks it is. EU buttons would have been a statement, but these Union Jack buttons are just buttons. No political undertones. ‘Nuff said.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

Ribbed

March 27, 2019 stgeorgeknits2 Comments

Over half a kilo of yarn bites the dust as I finished another jumper!

Another wardrobe staple. The pattern is free by Drops Design and I used Gjestal’s Raggegarn. Again, a very nice and straight forward pattern with no problems. The jumper is warm and simple and sits well. It could have been maybe a couple of centimeters longer but other than that no complaints. Both maker and receiver are well pleased.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

Winter blues

March 16, 2019 stgeorgeknits4 Comments

Another jumper finished!

This is a very quick top-down jumper that knitted up in a week. The pattern is from a book called Neuleita, by Saara Toikka. It’s very simple; there is no funny business and that’s the way I like very thick jumpers. The main thing to me is that the (thick) jumper is warm and fits under a coat well.

The yarn is Viking Naturgarn. I really like the colour. When I was a kid, my favourite colour was blue. Then I adopted a black period, and although I wasn’t a goth or anything, I did wear a lot of black. I remember thinking those days that blue was so boring. Now I’ve gone back to wearing colours and liking blue again. Blue and lilac. And lots of other colours.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting · Stash busting

Tom, Dick and Harry

March 14, 2019 stgeorgeknits4 Comments

There’s a moose loose aboot this hoose!

And not just one moose but three! They have been totally naked until now. I promised them jumpers and although it might take a while, I usually do keep my promises and hey presto! We have 3 tiny jumpers. They are all top-down jumpers and all of them slightly different.

These moose, if you were wondering, are small liqueur bottles. They used to contain Swedish lingonberry liqueur, which is aptly named ‘Elch Blut’, ie. ‘Moose Blood’.

Is it just me or does anyone else think of Northern Exposure when you see a moose? With me, it doesn’t matter if it’s a real moose or a novelty liqueur bottle moose, my mind goes straight to Cicely. I’m looking forward to the new series. I hope they go ahead with it. Do you remember the piano catapulted across the skies? That was brilliant!

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting · Stash busting

Doing a Spike Lee with purple

February 27, 2019 stgeorgeknits3 Comments

I have a very-quickly-knitted jumper. For once it’s a jumper that I started recently, and finished in just a couple of weeks. So no procrastinating here for a change.

The yarn, however, I’ve had for some years now. I’m trying to use up my stash and a lot of the yarn I have is at least a few years old (and some even a few decades). This yarn is called Novita Rose Mohair. It’s 65% acrylic and 35% mohair. It’s obviously not the warmest of yarns/jumpers, but right now, as it’s not so cold (it’s been close to zero degrees C, or even above), it’s ideal. The pattern is by Novita, too. I only changed the striping a bit.

I’m very pleased with the jumper. I wasn’t 100% sure I would like it when I was knitting it, but I do. There’s enough positive ease to make it very comfortable and it’s also very light. It only weighs 230g. At the moment it’s perfect with a long-sleeve t-shirt.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

Don’t worry, the sleeves will ride up with wear

February 16, 2019 stgeorgeknits9 Comments

I have another finished jumper. It’s another one that needs a bit of an explanation.

Unlike the Viking Knot jumper, this one didn’t take 11 years to knit but it wasn’t exactly a quick one either. In fact, I knitted it a few years ago but I really, really didn’t like it at all. The sleeves were too long – and I mean monkey-long – and I’m sure I had followed the pattern. Also, I ran out of yarn and couldn’t knit the collar high enough and it looked really stupid so short.

I had bought the yarn, Drops Vienna, in a sale. I figured mohair would be really warm. I don’t know if it’s the case, but I assume lots of air is trapped between all those long fibers making it warm. That’s the reason I bought the yarn. Of course it was discontinued by the time I finished the jumper the first time round and I couldn’t get anymore to knit a higher collar. With the monkey sleeves and the world’s stupidest short collar, the jumper ended up to the back of the wardrobe. I didn’t know what to do because I knew that mohair is notoriously difficult to frog.

A couple of years passed and in that time I grew a spine! The sleeves had to be tackled one way or another. And what did I know? It wasn’t that difficult to frog. It only stuck a bit on the edges of a row and with the help of a large tapestry needle, I managed to get all the tangles out. I shortened the sleeves and with the extra yarn, I could knit the collar higher. Now I’m happy with the jumper!

Question is, why do I always procrastinate? It took me one afternoon and a bit of another to fix the jumper. It took me a couple of years to pluck up the courage. Well, better late than never, I guess.

The pattern is also by Drops Design, 80-1. My collar is a little bit shorter than in the pattern, as are my sleeves. Maybe I have really, really tiny short arms. I’ve not noticed that before but it’s good to know.

Oh, and on a side note, remember the Arctic Wookiee (also known as a muppet or Cookie Monster)? I have a hat and a cowl with that same blue mitten yarn. Now this jumper. All I need now is blue socks and pants and I have an entire frozen Arctic Wookiee outfit! Awesome, right? Did you know, that the original Chewbacca outfit was handknitted with yak and mohair yarn? Yes, that’s a fact. I bet the designer is a bit annoyed now having not made the Wookiee blue.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting

Viking Knot Saga

February 10, 2019 stgeorgeknits9 Comments

I finished another jumper. This has been on the needles for some time. Let me explain.

A little while ago I decided that this jumper has to get finished now. It’s been in my knitting basket for some time. 4 or 5 years, I thought. I looked at the printed pattern and the date on it was 22nd September 2007. Yes, 2007, that’s not a typo. I started this jumper over 11 years ago. This takes procrastination to a whole new level! [rolls eyes]

I said I would explain, but I don’t really have an explanation. I must have just put this to one side to knit something else first and it somehow snowballed. There was nothing wrong with the pattern, nothing wrong with the yarn, all that was wrong was me. Apparently.

The pattern is Viking Knots and the yarn is Drops Alpaca. I made the long sleeve version. I love that yarn and the fabric it produces. It’s very soft and it feels really substantial and yet the whole jumper weighs only 310g. When I was finishing the knitting, I was convinced it would not fit me. The fabric was so thin and the edges curled up so much that I thought it would fit a doll at best. When it was blocked and finished, the size is perfect! Everything about this jumper is perfect, except the knitting time.

The colour I used is petrol (mix 7240) and it’s fantastic. I’m toying with the idea of knitting another Viking Knots. I’m drooling over the different colours of Alpaca: dark olive, dark purple, light maroon, rust, golden rod…how could I decide? What if I took another 11 years to finish it?

Happy knitting!