Oolong knits

Front Front is worked as back except for v-collar. This includes: 1st garter stitch selvage, shoulder shaping using short-rows, and armhole shaping. V-collar Just like for back, pick-up 16 st from side of saddles, but instead of CO 20 st, work right and left front separately; shoulder shaping and 1st garter stitch selvage are worked simultaneously with collar shaping; collar shaping : increase 1 st every knit row. The stitch is increased just before the last stitch on the left for the right side and vice-versa (i.e. in the collar); when 10 stitches have been added on both sides (row 20), join them (52 st) and continue to knit as back.

"Candide, or Optimism" is the complete title of this short novel or novella, if you prefer. This is black satire, but its full intentions go beyond mere literary or social satire. In it, like most of his other fictional work, Voltaire attempts to ridicule and refute the fashionable philosophy trends of his time. So Candide can be read not only as a funny little text, full of laugh-out-loud nonsense, but also as a more serious philosophical treatise in disguise. The optimism the title refers to is the philosophical idea that since God is good and loves his creatures, we must live in the best of all possible worlds, even if this is not obvious to us simple-minded human beings. Candide is introduced to this philosophy as a gullible young man by his tutor, Prof. Pangloss. By a series of unfortunate circumstances Candide is forced away from the idyllic life he knew while growing up in his family home and into constant travels that will lead him through several countries in Europ...

Kjerstin by Rachel Søgaard is another fair-isle, but this time in worsted yarn, for the slow knitters like me. Correction: not fair-isle, but Bohus. A slightly different tradition, that involves some cleverly placed purl (and sometimes slipped) stitches in addition to stranded knitting. It is also a free pattern. Yay!

Armhole shaping Do not forget to keep working the 1-stitch garter stitch selvage throughout. Every knit row, 4 times, increase one stitch after the 2nd st and before the last 2 st of the row (use stranded increases, M1L and M1R). End at row 29, 60 st; Using knitted CO: cast-on 2 st at beginning of next two rows. End at row 31, 64 st.

First Fair Isle by yu co is another gorgeous fair-isle sweater. I am on a roll and the next few weeks will continue this theme, you are warned.

I finished 12 projects last year. One per month! And only one of these was started the previous year. Needless to say, most of these projects were pretty quick knits: a pair of mittens (by far the quickest project I ever did), a ribbed scarf, both in chunky yarn, two pair of socks (DK), a headband (sport/4ply) and a fair-isle hat (aran). Some projects were more intermediate: two cowls, one lace and one brioche (sport/4ply), and a sleeveless sweater (chunky, see picture). The longer projects were another sleeveless sweater (sport/4ply), a poncho and a bed-runner (both chunky). As you can see, I have a thing for sleeveless sweaters. Knitwise, they are a lot faster to finish. Wearwise, I find them very comfortable to wear and attractive worn with a matching long-sleeved shirt under it. I am still to knit a sleeved sweater for myself. I use Ravelry to keep at my projects and, before checking last year's ones, I ordered them by numbers of favourites. Funny that I have frogged some o...

Sometimes the simplest patterns are the most beautiful. Warm Winter by Knitting For Breakfast is absolutely gorgeous fair-isle at its simplest. Truly lovely.

Back pick-up and purl 16 st from the side of one of the saddles, start from the end side and end at the CO side; Using knitted cast-one: CO 20 st in between saddles; pick-up and purl 16 st from the side of the other saddle, starting from the CO end; total: 52st; 1st row (WS): knit straight; rows 2-5: Shoulder shaping using German short-rows rows rows 2-3: 10 st less at each side; rows 4-5: 5 st less; work up to row 22, knitting straight, but with a 1-st garter stitch selvage; start armhole shaping.

Last December was dedicated to pressure cooking, without any guilt or shame, and before that there were many posts about my garden. I cannot remember my last post on knitting, so I wanted to start the year going back to what is supposed to be the main subject of this blog. I know I have not yet worked the sleeves of that cardigan and it has been over a year. I know, it is unbelievable I can be so disorganized. But I have just started a saddled-shoulder v-neck sweater for the big man in my life and I wanted to share the pattern I am following. A warning: the instructions I am providing are quite sketchy, so you may have problems following them if you have never knitted a similar pattern before. I am knitting from a pretty standard recipe for a sweater knitted seamlessly and top-down. The collar rib will be knitted at the end from picked-up stitches. I am using Malabrigo Mecha (colourway: Paris Night) and 7 mm needles and I have a gauge of 12st/10cm in stst (stockinette stitch). H...