My Cable Knit Sweater

Winter is always the knitting season for me. As soon as the weather starts getting colder, I get the itch to pick up a knitting project. Although I haven't shared that many projects on the blog, I actually very much enjoy knitting. It's one of the most soothing activities I know. Some of my proudest projects have been knitted. On top of the list is a lace knit cardigan with beads I knitted for my Mom a few years ago, and an Icelandic sweater dress I made for myself. 

As with all crafts, some years are more productive than others. This winter has seen a new wave of knitting for me. The projects are not many, but they are big. First, the scrap yarn throw blanket. And now, a cable knit sweater. 

I usually make my own patterns for knitting since the few times I've followed a pattern resulted in disastrous failures. I don't know what I do wrong, but even after checking for gauge, all my projects turn out at least 3 sizes too big. My last very painful disaster was the sweater I knit for Rein last Christmas, that I ended up ruining trying to make it wearable, and that I wasted a lot of hours to make. Sigh..

That's the thing about knitting though, a project like a sweater has a lot of room for error, which can lead to moments of utter frustration. This one also had a couple of those. I tried to do a high-low hem ribbing, and mostly succeeded, although I should have started with more cast-ons, and then decreasing the number with the short rows (if that makes any sense to anyone else but me). That was a valuable lesson for me as I'd never done a high-low hem before on a sweater (or anything else for that matter). Also, I counted the stitches wrong when joining the sleeves, so I ended up having to unravel many rows of knitting. Not a fun moment.

I love seed stitch! Seriously, I use it in most of my projects. It's one of those easy stitches that looks very sophisticated. So, the body is in seed stitch apart from the cabled front part, and the sleeves are regular knit. I thought it would be a nice contrast between those two with the raglan sleeves. By the way, it was my first attempt at a self-drafted raglan sleeve. Success! 

A little word about the yarn I used as well. My Grandma gave me this yarn for Christmas too many years ago. I had a hard time deciding what to knit with it, and so it just sat in my yarn pile. Now, when I was back in Estonia for the holidays, I thought it'd be the perfect time to start this project. It took me about a month to finish this. Would have gone a lot faster, but I usually knit only when I'm watching a series or film in the evenings. We should watch more of those, I guess.

All in all, I'm super happy with my sweater. I had a couple of hiccups along the way, but that's a part of the process. Initially, I'd hope to share this pattern with you, but it came out much more difficult, and the work that would go into making this into an easy-to-follow pattern with different sizing would just be too much at this point. But, you can browse other knit projects I've made for some other ideas.

A little update! The yarn i used is Bergere de France Eclair (74% acrylic, 14% mohair, 9% worsted wool, 3% lurex). The color is Taffetas, which I can't seem to find anywhere for sale. There are other colors available, though. Like hot pink, deep purple, plum, beige, white, and lime green on Amazon, and this site also has a lot of variety, including the light pink I used for a hat I'm wearing here.

I'm already sketching out a new spring sweater design. I hope to make something simple, so I could share the pattern with you as well.

Have you knit anything recently? Is knitting a seasonal craft for you as well, or are you a year-round knitter?

Knitted striped scrap yarn blanket (with instructions and tips)

The moment I saw Elise's beautiful knitted blankets I knew I wanted to make something similar. Then, going through my yarn stash before the big move, I knew I had to downsize. As I was sorting, I noticed I had a lot of neutral-colored half-finished skeins left over form other projects. A lot of black, white, tan, brown, and some grey. And then it hit me - why not use up those left-overs to knit a blanket? I loved the idea! It had all the elements I love most - a simple pattern, because knitting for me is more of a meditative craft, it uses up left-overs, which is always a huge plus in my book, and it goes perfectly with the design I had envisioned for our future living room in Leverkusen.

I actually started knitting this at 1 a.m. in the morning one night I couldn't fall asleep. I was tossing and turning, and then decided to just start with the pile of yarn on my floor. I knitted until about 3 in the morning. I continued to knit throughout my last 2 weeks in Estonia and I finished on the car ride to Leverkusen. It's the first thing I made for our new home.

It's been almost a month now and we're both in love with the blanket. It's just the right size, super cozy and warm (I had a lot of wool fibers in that stash). It's the perfect stash-buster project.

 Here are the instructions in case you got an itch to try it yourself:

Supplies:

• A lot of yarn - I used the ones left-over from different projects so they varied in size, gauge and fiber content. I have no idea about how much yarn I used up, but I would guess you need at least 15-20 skeins (50g each). The finished thing weighs about 1kg.
• 7mm circle needles (that would be a size 11 in the US system)
• a crochet hook to hide the ends when you're done
• scissors

To make the yarn an even gauge all the way through, I almost always knitted with multiple strands of yarn at the same time. So I would simply gather as many ends of the same color as was needed to get the equivalent of a yarn that was meant to be knit with 7mm needles. Oftentimes it was 2 or 3 strands, but there were a couple of really thin yarns, and then I went with 4 strands. If you have one yarn as an example, you can easily feel the correct thickness in your hands. By the 3rd stripe you won't even think about it anymore.

First, I took my first color and cast on 120 stitches. Then I knit back and forth in knit stitch until I finished one of the skeins I was knitting with. This was my plan all the way through. Each stripe was as long as it's smallest skein, but not more than 10 rows. I used circular needles because straight ones would never fit this amount of stitches, and I actually love using circular needles more than straight ones. You just have to turn the piece after each row, just like with straight needles.

I knit the whole thing simply in knit stitch, and alternated between the colors pretty randomly. I took the color I fancied next. I did however take into account how much of each color I had. I had the most black, so I made more black stripes than the other colors, meaning they were also closer together to each other than some of the other colors. Similarly, I had only a little of grey, so I had to knit a lot between grey stripes.

Since I didn't know how big of a blanket I would get with the yarn I had, I simply kept on knitting until I had only black and brown color, which meant I couldn't alternate the color anymore, so I finished the blanket.

The finished measurements are about 130x130cm, but it stretches to a little bit more.

Once it was done, I hid the yarn ends with a crochet hook, and made 4 tassels from the yarn ends to embellish the corners. My knit tip here: hold on to all the small bits of yarn that might be left over while knitting. You might need them later. I think the tassels are a nice touch to add to the blanket.

This just might be my favorite knitting project ever made. Right after the cardigan I knitted for my Mom many years back. Plus, it was so therapeutic. This is just the type of project to make when you want to knit something, but don't want to worry about following the pattern sheet all the time. It got me in the mood to knit something else. I might go for a sweater next just because I lack them. Funny thing is, I have all my needles in Leverkusen, and all my yarn in Estonia.

If you have any questions about this project, let me know in the comments.

xo. Hanna

DIY Knitted 2in1 Bow/Turban Headband (knitting pattern)

I don't know what the weather is like in your part of the world, but here it's getting real cold. Like, they're predicting snow for tomorrow. Yes, SNOW. I don't know what's happened to the climate this year, but the fact is that we've jumped from sunny and summery to cold and wintery in just 2 days, so it's time to dig out those scarves, hats and gloves. And, even if it's not that cold where you live, it's still not too early to prepare yourself for the colder months ahead. So, today I thought I'd share my bow headband knitting pattern with you. 

I originally created this pattern for my Etsy shop 2 years ago, but since I stopped making these headbands last year, I thought I'd share the pattern with you so you could make your own if you wanted to. The pattern is designed in a way that allows you to change up the bows creating many colorful combos. Or, you can omit the bow altogether for a turban headband look.

 You will need: 
100 g of yarn (thickness suitable for size 3-3.5mm needles, but knit 2 strands together)
4mm double-pointed or straight needles
Tapestry needle or a crochet hook for hiding yarn ends

 Abbreviations: 
st, sts - stitch, stitches
k - knit
p - purl
k2tog - knit two stitches together
yo - yarn over (for adding a stitch)

One size fits most.

 The headband: 
Cast 15 sts
Work in *k1, p1* ribbing for 6 rows.
Rows 7-26: *k1, p1 repeat from * until the end of the row. (This is called the seed stitch)
Row 27: k1, yo, continue in the same seed stitch pattern until the last stitch, then yo, k1. (So your number of stitches grows by 2.)
Keep working in the seed stitch pattern for 30cm.
On the next row k1, k2tog, continue in the same pattern as previous rows until 3 stitches from the end, then k2tog, k1.
Continue working in the seed stitch pattern for 20 rows, then work the last 6 rows in *k1 p1* ribbing.
Cast off all stitches.

 The bow: 
For the bow ring cast 10 sts, and work in *k1 p1* seed stitch pattern for 36 rows, then cast off.
For the bow cast 15 sts and work in the same seed stitch pattern for 42 row, then cast off.

 Sewing: 
First, sew together the ends of the headband. Hide yarn ends.
Next, place the bow ring across the ribbed part of the headband, so that it cover the seam. Join the ends on the other side of the headband and sew them together. Then, sew the back of the bow ring to the back of the headband securing it in place. Hide yarn ends.
Lastly, hide the yarn ends of the bow, and place it inside the bow ring from the right side of the headband.

I don't know about you, but cold weather always makes my fingers itch for some knitting.
If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments, and I'll try to clarify.

xo. Hanna

Modeled by Marianne Nugis

DIY Knitted Bow Brooch

As you might already know, I love bows. I mean, what's there not to love. They are cute, simple and a beautiful embellishment. As I was knitting my removable bow headbands, I had some bows leftover. So, I thought I'd turn them into brooches.

The process is rather simple and quick. It's a perfect first project for anyone interested in learning how to knit. It has all the basic stitches in it, it's not too complicated and doesn't take hours do finish. Instant gratification guaranteed!

Knitted Bow

Skill level: Beginner
Supplies: 4 mm double pointed needles, a little bit of yarn (suitable for 4mm needles). You can vary the needle size and yarn thickness to obtain a smaller or chunkier bow.

Pattern 
Cast on 15 stitches, and work in seed stitch:
1 row: knit 1, *purl 1, knit 1*, repeat from * across
2 row: repeat first row
Knit in the same way for 22 rows, then bind off all stitches.

Wind some yarn to the center of the bow, halfway through attach a brooch pin to the back, then continue winding until the center of the bow is as you like.

Finished!

My bow is currently attached to one of my hats. It so pretty and cute! Happy knitting, my friends!

Tamar's Knitted Infinity Scarf DIY

The past week has been full of fun with family and friends, but I'm beginning to miss this blog and my sewing machines back in the city. Since it's going to be another week before I'm reunited with my sweeties and can start sewing again, there will be more knitting and style posts than usual over the course of next week.

Knitting is actually my second most favorite craft next to sewing. Every year I get the knitting itch as soon as the weather gets colder. Oddly, that didn't happen this year, and my knitting urge didn't kick in until November. I guess I had some catching up to do, because in December I've already knitted a hat for Anneliis, a scarf and wrist warmers for my teachers, and this cozy infinity scarf for Tamar as a Christmas present.

Since this infinity scarf was so simple in design, I thought I'd share the knitting process with you, so you could recreate it if you'd like. This would make a great first knitting project because it's pretty fool proof and uses only the very basic knitting techniques and stitches.

Click "read more" below to see the full pattern.

Happy knitting!

Taking a Knitting break

If you wondered why there wasn't a refashionista post yesterday, it's because I spent 9 hours yesterday knitting my voice teacher a shawl. And the day before that I was busy knitting pair of half mittens/wrist warmers for my accompanist, and the day before that I knit my friends a hat for her Birthday. Phew! I can't remember was the last time I knit that much.

If you're interested, here's the pattern to the lovely Annis shawl. It took me "only" 9 hours to complete. But it does look really pretty.

I didn't use a half mitts pattern for these, I just knit the way I would knit a pair of mittens, leaving the fingers open. I used a lace pattern to create visual interest, and I thought I'd share it with you as well.

So, if your interested in using this pattern, here you are:
The pattern is 15 stitches long and 6 rows high.
1. row: knit 2, k2tog (knit 2 together), knit 3, 1 yarnover, knit 1, 1 yarnover, knit 3, ssk (slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over the knit one), knit 2, repeat if necessary
2. row: purl all stitches (or knit if working in rounds)
3. row: knit 1, k2tog, knit 3, 1 yarnover, knit 3, 1 yarnover, knit 3, ssk, knit 1, repeat if necessary
4. row: purl all stitches (or knit if working in rounds)

5. row: k2tog, knit 3, 1 yarnover, knit 5, 1 yarnover, knit 3, ssk, repeat if necessary
6. row: purl all stitches (or knit if working in rounds)
Repeat from the beginning.

There's a lot of secret Santa stuff to take care of this week, so my blogging may be a little more sparse than usual. I love making handmade gifts, even if it takes me 9 hours to complete. Off I go to finish another knitting project!

Refashionista: How to re-knit sweaters

Happy Monday, my friends! The closer we get to the end of year, the harder it it to make projects for the blog. Not only is it getting super busy in school, but the days over here are getting shorter and shorter, which means daylight is hard to come by. Therefor, after pics on the hanger. Times are tough, I'm telling you.

Anyways, today I'd like to share a clever way to alter knitted sweaters. It's not always easy to alter sweaters and make them look correct and "like new" after the transformation. Sometimes, however it's possible to make the alteration virtually undetectable. Here's how I shortened the sleeves of this black and white sweater:

1)  I decided how short I wanted the sleeves to be. Then I factored in the length of the new ribbed part. Then I started to detach the unwanted part of the sleeve. First, cut one strand of yarn. Make sure it's only one.
2) Start unraveling the row of stitches. Just pull the strand of yarn that you cut open.
3) This is what the sleeve should look like once you're done unpicking the row of knitted stitches.
4) Now you can easily pick the stitches on to knitting needles and knit a new ribbed sleeve end.

This method can be used to re-knit any part of the sweater, or knitted socks of mittens.

This was harder to put into words than I thought, so if you have any questions, please ask in the comments and I'll try to clarify.

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