Oolong knits

In terms of knitting, 2022 was my most productive year. I started knitting small projects, such as a handful of dishcloths. After all, there is nothing better than dishcloths for quick gratification and I always need a bit of extra gratification in dark winter days. The only large project I started in January was a large colourblock scarf (more like a stole). This was my first mohair project (2 strands held together). I loved the colours, but, after many days working on it, I ended up frogging it. It turns out I'm not a big fan of mohair, so I just knew I was not going to wear it. There was not point in continue to work in it. Instead I decided to use the yarn held together with a different yarn, so the fabric isn't as fluffy. In February I started working on a sweater and by the end of June I had concluded 6 sweaters! (Not including three other sweaters I started but frogged!) I don't have good pictures of my sweaters, so you must take my word for it: they are g...

When I first saw Sophie Scarf I thought how cute! But then everything looks cute on PetiteKnit, which is one of the reasons for her success, and I was perfectly aware it wouldn't look that good on me. Then, copycat patterns started appearing everywhere: a stockinette stitch version, a ribbed one, one with a pretty motif on the tips, and so on. And every time I thought, they're super cute on cute, young and thin women, but I'm neither of those things. But you know how it goes... it's like ads: no matter how annoying they're, enough repetition and you end up getting tempted. I still wasn't tempted until recently a very similar pattern came out. I got curious about the differences between these two patterns for 2 reasons: (1) altering such an extremely simple pattern is not easy and I wanted to know how that gets done, (2) I also wanted to check how much changes you need to do in a pattern to avoid being accused of plagiarism. I was surprised at how differe...

Was 2021 a bad year for you? I guess it was for most people, if for no other reason, because of this never ending pandemic. As for myself, I'm not even sure what's wrong. Everything is like a fog. I've lost all sense of time, days melt together without highlights. I can't seem to do anything right. When something goes wrong, I don't have the energy or the mental lucidity to fight it and I also lack the enthusiasm necessary to get things right. I hadn't realised just how bad 2021 had been for me, until I checked out my list of knitting projects for 2021. It's strange how my knitting illustrates so well everything that is wrong with my life right now. I thought I'd knitted quite a lot this year, but I have knitted mostly small projects and not that many. But what I found truly disappointing is that I've not knitted a single project that I love. On the contrary, everything I knitted the past year was so boring that I struggled to pick some pictur...

I've always loved designing as much as I do knitting. This means I hardly ever follow a pattern, not even one of my own creation, as I keep making modifications as new ideas come along. Knitting, like any other visual art, involves both aesthetics and technique. Accordingly, there are two aspects of designing patterns that I love: one is the pleasure of creative thinking, playing with colour, texture and shape, and the other the problem solving aspect of it. When I see a knitted garment, my first thought is often "How is that done?" and solving that puzzle all by myself is one of the reason I usual don't ever buy patterns. The other being that during or after the often lengthy process of solving the puzzle, a bunch of modifications and improvements have already occurred to me. So, why buy a pattern when I have a much better idea, right? One limitation I have been feeling very keenly lately, when it comes to designing, is the available yarn in my stash. I h...

These gorgeous socks are the solution I found to a few personal problems. The most serious of these: excess of sock yarn in my stash; the milder one: cold feet in winter; and the last one: impatience. To solve all these problems in one go I designed a pattern for thick socks knit with two different strands of sock yarn held double through out. With the resulting gauge, these socks fly off the needles, ready to warm cold feet in no time. In addition, even when knitting plain socks, there are not enough stitches to reach the dreaded death by boredom caused by miles and miles of stockinette. But the cherry at the top of this cake is the beautiful marled effect obtained by using a combination of self-striping yarns which keep surprising me as I knit on. The technical details Yarn: Scheepjes Invicta Colour, colourways 970 and 975. Needles: 4mm (US6/UK8). Pattern: standard construction, i.e. cuff-down, with heel-flap and gusset, and a wedged toe finished with Kitchener stitch . Bri...

I love learning new techniques and often find myself foolishly attempting something that is not half as good as the standard well-tried methods. For the socks I'm currently knitting, I decided to go with the Fleegle heel , even though I thought this was probably a bad idea. It turns out that, at least on my feet, this heel has a really great fit. It's also super easy to execute, so I couldn't be happier with this experiment. I highly recommend this heel, it's easier to work and has a better fit than the standard short-row heel. If you'd like the recipe I'm using, here it is: Toe Cast-on: 2x12 Judy’s magic CO. Round 1: purl all stitches, Rounds 2-5, increase rounds: p1, incr1, purl to last st of half, incr1, p1, twice. Then, Even rounds: purl all sts, Odd rounds: increase round (as above). Until 60 st total. Foot I’ve added 2nd colour after finishing toe: k15 in the old colour and then added new (in the middle of the bottom of the sock). Then...

It looks like a triangle shawl, and I am almost tempted to use it just like that, but it is meant to be a cushion cover. Here is my idea: a square cushion cover worked in biased garter stitch . It is shaped like a pocket: with three seamless sides and only one side that is open in order to insert the cushion before seaming. How to achieve it? It is actually quite easy. Here is the recipe: Pillow Talk pattern First half The first half is worked flat. It starts with 3 stitches and 2 more stitches are added in every row, until the desired size is achieved. Cast on 3 stitches. Row 1: kfb, PM, k1, kfb [5 st] Even rows: kfb, k to marker, SM, kfb, k to end [+2 st] Odd rows: kfb, k to marker, SM, sl, kfb, k to end [+2 st] Work until the largest side of the triangle is twice the side of the cushion. End in an odd row, but, instead of knitting the last stitch of the last row, join in the round by knitting together the last and first stitches. This stitch is the first st of ...

Not a great photo. Photos of my projects rarely are because I just do not have the time to bother. My house is unfortunately quite dark, so it is not easy to take good shots inside. If you do not quite like the colour combination of this brioche hat, well, neither do I. I think I regret not to have used a more reasonable one, but I wanted to use the yarn left over from my Pantaloony . What I should have done instead is use all the yellow yarn in the latter project (which I did not do only by mistake) and then use only the dark navy and purple for this one (or only the purple, which would not show off brioche as well, but would have made it a lot more wearable). Oh well, it was an extremely quick project and I can always knit another one. Or frog it...

I have not been knitting much lately, but I do knit now and then. I have been favouring chunky yarn, because otherwise it would become quite frustrating to finish a project. I have knitted a strange project lately, lounge pants in the most awful bright colour combination. Don't worry I do not intend to leave the house with them, not even to receive guests while I am wearing such gaudy knits. My purpose was to knit something I have never knitted before, pants or trousers, and finish up a lot of left-over yarn in the process. They were fun and easy to knit, and they are awfully warm and soft and incredibly comfortable, I can vow for that, since I started wearing them immediately. I absolutely love them and I have named them Pantaloony . A just name.

A while ago I mentioned that three of my friends have had babies and I was going to start knitting baby stuff. And that is what I have been doing since then and the fact that I actually find it boring explains why I have taken so long to knit 5 small projects. In order words, I confess I have not been knitting much lately.

I have finished the socks I've showed you 3 weeks ago (you could see that they're almost done) and am quite ahead on my new project, which I am calling miracle . Miracle is a rectangle inspired by Pandora by Cello Knits . This is a shrug that is formed by a 1.35x1.00 sqm rectangle assembled in a clever way. However I don't think I have enough wool to do it, so it is probably just going to be a big scarf in the end. I cast-on 149 stitches and I am using the sequence p5, k3 with 1-row sequence knitting. I expected the regularity of the pattern to show after I had a good area, but, even though it does not look like plain garter stitch, it is very irregular and one cannot "read" the pattern. I don't mind that at all, on the contrary, I love the result. That is why I'm calling this project miracle . It all started when I bought a lot of this cheap yarn online in several colours for colour work. But then I really didn't like it and the projects I attem...

I have been so incredibly busy lately that I have no time to knit much. This is why I started working on a very simple sock recipe in DK weight yarn. Using yarn a bit thicker than sock yarn makes for faster knitting and I have been so stressed out that I am in need of the gratification provided by seeing the socks grow so fast. Notice I am knitting two at a time? It is the first time I try this. Not so good if I want to see the socks growing fast, they grow at half the speed. So this was not the right time to try this, but oh well... What about finishing this cardigan ? Only the sleeves are left to finish and that is a much faster knit than socks! You say. And you are quite right. Except I simply do not have the mental space to do the necessary calculations to design the sleeves. By the time I have some time to knit, I am too exhausted. That is why I chose to work on a garment I do not really need to design. That did not stop me from improvising, though. These socks are just a go...

When I'm not in a mood to knit and read simultaneously, I find garter stitch too boring. Then I like to knit something a little more evolved. For those times, I'm also knitting a pair of nice socks. I love the stitch and I love the yarn which is quite soft and has pretty, if a bit unusual, colours (the lousy out-of-focus I'm-too-lazy-to-take-another-one photo doesn't make them justice). The pattern is Salazar Slytherin by Angela Tennant, I'm not using her pattern exactly, just the stitch and a sock recipe of my choice. The yarn is Zitron Trekking XXL in colourway 589. I'm using 2.5mm needles, the only size I own for sock yarn.

Once I've started, I can't seem to stop. I've got all carried away showing my work here. This time I'm showing a real WIP, not just a sampler. This is a bed-runner (just a big rectangle), in two colours, knit in biased garter stitch. The thing I love about biased garter is the nice edge one gets. This is what I chose to show today. In the future I may post the complete project and even the pattern, which is so easy it's really no trouble to write down. Oh, before I go. This is the project I've mentioned last week. The one which allows me to knit and read simultaneously. Something I love doing. I've already read "The lesser bohemians" by Eimear McBride, while knitting it. Heavy reading, but lovely poetic writing. I wasn't able to read for a few days after finishing it. Really, truly, HEAVY stuff. (spoiler alert) We're talking about incest, rape, child abuse, self-harming, suicide, drug and sex addition. I needed time to digest it. I...

I've been knitting a lot lately and therefore have lots of work to show. Here again I'm showing another sampler of stitches and not a wearable piece. This is a sample of several mesh-like lace stitches. I'm planning a summery (I know that it's late, Winter is quickly approaching my woods) light top and am working on several stitch choices. The idea is to include only a few of these, the ones I like better and to repeat them in an almost random way. I've learned a few things with my sampler. One is that using larger needles than recommended (which I've used) is not better for this opened type of lace. The holes are too big for my taste. So next time I'll go for the size recommended or even the one below. I want my top to be lacy but not too holey. The second is that choosing a few stitch patterns and repeating them is more pleasant to the eye than a sampler of all different stitches. I'll probably still do another swatch before embarking in the final ...

I've noticed that most knit-bloggers use their blog to post on projects they're working on. I almost never show my own knits in here and the reason is simply modesty. I have a hard time believing that anyone cares to look at my silly stuff. Even when I love the result myself, I tend to think that is only because I did it and am consequently very partial to it. The photo on the left is a cable sampler (you can click to enlarge it). It's actually only a square of cables right now. But wouldn't these look great on a sweater or a cardigan? One day they'll be... I've used a chunky yarn and 7mm needles. Cast-on: 54 stitches. The pattern described in sections from the outer edges to the centre: Slip 1st stitch and knit last for nice edges; 3 stitches in moss stitch; 1 stitch in reverse stockinette; aran braid; the cable from the Celtic Cable Neckwarmer (used only 28 stitches from the central panel, i.e. excluded 2 stitches from each outer edge). Moss sti...