Month: February 2014

A Second Success (I’m still bouncing)

Posted on by Alice Neal

handmade with loveI’m really excited to have my shop up and running, and will be popping little bits and pieces in there as and when I can tear myself away from making jumpers for myself 😉 because I’ve just finished my second one (that fits!) To say that I’m over the moon would be to understate it completely. I have not removed it since sewing in the ends and am now praying that the sun, which has made its first truly warm appearance of the year so far today, is just a blip and the cold will come back for a while.

OK, I don’t really mean that, but I’m a bit gutted I’ll have to put it away till next year, and fairly soon, too. So I’m starting to look at some cotton tunic options, since this jumper is made with the oh-so-soft-and-snuggly Drops Andes, which is 65% wool and 35% alpaca. It is light, soft, warm… Oh, heck! It’s perfect.

I’ve told the story here in picture form. Since a lot of my knitting takes place in the evenings, when the day-job is over 😉 , the light is not fabulous, but the photographs are clear enough, if not aesthetically perfect!

Andes 1
Casting the ribbed funnel neck stitches onto 9mm circular needles
Andes 2
Funnel neck complete, the pattern begins
Andes 3
I love this part – the emergent pattern
Andes 4
In daylight, the seamless yoke taking shape.
Andes 5
The stitches for the sleeves have been transferred onto waste yarn

And here I should add, there are many sensible things you’re supposed to do as a knitter – tension squares etc etc – that I’m a bit too slapdash to do religiously, but I cannot stress enough how useful the waste yarn tip was (thank you my Instagram friend Laura!) This jumper, and its sleeves, are the perfect length thanks to the slightly fiddly but worth every non-knitting moment of transferring live stitches on to waste yarn and trying it on! 🙂

Andes 6
Yards of jumper in front of ‘The Killing’ – seriously, if you haven’t seen the series, it’s *brilliant*
Andes 7
Bedtime. Time to put the knitting away, but too impatient to wait for a daylight shot to show it complete without sleeves.
Andes 8
A bit of a flourish around the bottom of the jumper and then the moment of truth – binding off the hem.
Andes 9
Complete but for 2/3 of a sleeve.
Andes 10
Action shot 😉
Andes 11
Can’t wipe away the smile. It’s DONE! It FITS!
Andes 12
Dancing with Baby Baggins.
The Finished Jumper Dance of Joy.

Cotton next 🙂

Intrepid Adventures… or … a Leap of Faith

Posted on by Alice Neal

I have long coveted the Sara Lund jumper. Do you know the one? From the hit Danish TV series “The Killing”. It’s gorgeous (though she also has a very trim figure, which showcases the sweater perfectly) and has had knitters and non-knitters alike hankering for it or how to make it. The sweater is made by a company called Gudrun & Gudrun for an inordinate amount of money, and they are closely guarding the pattern, too, but over on Ravelry you can find many different and highly successful versions of it.

Sara Lund in her sweater.
Sara Lund in her sweater.

First, though, you need to be able to knit a sweater. And with confidence. Oh, and with that Nordic fair isle pattern.

Hmmmm.

Well, as you know from a recent post, I have not long finished my first jumper. It was knitted from the bottom up, joined at the yoke. The Three Movies Sweater. And it was just a fraction too small. I may (horror of horrors) end up frogging it. Too much good yarn to waste and a little too feminine for my boys, sadly.

I have had two projects (oh, of so many) on the go which may help me reach my ultimate Sara Lund goal. The first, as yet unfinished, is a bottom-up sweater in gorgeous Ardalanish wool (a most exciting Christmas present), which is proving to be a bit of a fair isle sampler. I hadn’t tried fair isle before, and I’m LOVING it. I adore the way the pattern emerges, after blood, sweat and tears through stitch counting… 😉

This is as far as it has got:

Ardalanish fair isle sampler jumper *beams*
Ardalanish fair isle sampler jumper
*beams*

In the meantime, and with the Sarah Lund sweater still firmly in mind, I bought a book. This one, to be precise:

bookThe name of this style of knitting always makes me snigger. I guess my inner twelve-year old is not so inner…

I embarked, using the yarn I had bought with the intention of a larger Three Movies Sweater, on a top-down seamless yoke, hoping against hope that this one would fit.

Two tricks I picked up along the way, one from a friend on my new Instagram account: Transfer the live stitches onto scrap yarn periodically, to reassure yourself it fits (and, if you’re anything like me, to get ridiculously over-excited when it does).

The second I picked up from Pinterest many moons ago and had never tried out. I’ll endeavour to explain. When you come to the end of a yarn ball, and need to introduce the next, loop the two ends around each other and, using a yarn needle, sew each yarn end back into itself. I may try to produce pictures of this at some stage. It’s brilliant. Of course, I may be preaching to the converted, but just in case you hadn’t heard of it – try it!

OK, so without further ado, here, in pictures, is the end result. Given the fact that I often finish things at night and am at work during the day, they are a little on the grainy side. But I’m thrilled. It’s warm, snuggly and I have worn it every day since I made it. Can I get a whoop whoop? 😉

From ribbed polo into the first part of the pattern on the seamless yoke
From ribbed polo into the first part of the pattern on the seamless yoke
Pattern complete, the sleeve stitches have just been separated from the body and are on stitch holders / scrap yarn
Pattern complete, the sleeve stitches have just been separated from the body and are on stitch holders / scrap yarn
Working the sleeves and the body
Working the sleeves and the body
Sleeves complete, body near as dammit
Sleeves complete, body near as dammit
My second jumper. HUZZAH!
My second jumper.
HUZZAH!

I am, obviously, plotting the next. Oh, and of course I have an Ardalanish fair isle to complete… Eek!