tiny happy

turning point

This time of year, at least in the Southern Hemisphere, is the turning point for crafting, I reckon- it's properly cool enough that knitting is always on the mind, and everyone seems to need new hats and jumpers. 

We're also lucky enough to have some new babies in our family and friend circle - which is the loveliest reason to get making, don't you think? I've been trying out different bootie patterns for some of these babes - in the first photo above you can see a set of three I finished recently.

These are: the 'suspension bridge booties' knitted up in cream DK wool (free pattern on Ravelry here), striped baby booties (from an old Debbie Bliss book I own) and a pair of 'greemy baby booties' in grey 4ply yarn (another free pattern - you can find it here). The latter is my favourite design because it's mostly seamless and I think they would stay on a baby's foot the best. 

In my last post I showed some beautiful black wool fabric with a sparkly thread running through it, which was a lucky find at the most recent Fabricabrac fair here in Wellington. I used it to make a new winter jacket - the Nova Coat from Papercut Patterns. I made one of these a couple of years ago and still get lots of wear from it, so it's nice to have an updated version - perhaps for slightly fancier occasions, given the sparkly nature of it. I lined the coat in a black silk/cotton fabric with an embroidered texture, a bit like a Swiss dot. A bit of everyday luxury for sure!

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And speaking of luxury, I bought myself a copy of Laine's 52 Weeks of Shawls, which is quite a special book, even just to look through, let alone knit from! As the title suggests, there are 52 patterns from designers around the world and there are many I'm keen to cast on. I also think I will learn a lot from these patterns as they have interesting design elements and construction methods. If you'd like to look through the different designs, you can do so on Ravelry here. I'm quite keen to cast on this one first - it's made using two strands of silk-mohair throughout. More luxury!

A song that is keeping me company these days is this one, which has been around for a few years now but I still love deeply. Cattails by Big Thief. 

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See you again soon, friends!

riddari sweater + new projects

Kia ora, hello!

It occurred to me that I never shared my major knitting project of autumn, aka Arlo's Icelandic jumper, here on the blog. I finished it up over Easter weekend and am really happy to have done so! It was a big project but I was happy with the result - and so was Arlo, which was the most important thing! Phew.

I knitted the Riddari Sweater, a design by Védís Jónsdóttir for Ístex and I used Icelandic yarn (Ístex Lettlopi) from Holland Road Yarn to make it. Arlo chose the colours - they have lots of good contrast and look quite classic I think. I've listed the colourway numbers and how much I used of each colour over on my Ravelry page if you want to check out those details.

The Riddari is knit bottom-up which is not my favourite construction, because I'm never quite sure how long to make the body and worry that my sizing is all wrong. For a long time, I thought that the sweater would be too small for Arlo so I went up a size and a needle size too. But the finished garment actually turned out to be too big. So I should have just trusted the pattern and relaxed! Next time I will.

I think the finished piece looks lovely on him and he seems happy with it though we haven't had any weather cool enough for it yet - I'm sure that will be here soon enough!

You can find more information about the Riddari Sweater here, and you can find a great 'Riddari-along set of blog posts by Pia Kammeborn here, if you'd like even more information! (I think the knitalong is long finished, but there's a lot of helpful info in those posts by Pia).

Other than that, I've been doing some knitting for babies - so many bootees! - and I've also been working on a very bright, rainbow project. I'll show you that in my next post.

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Autumn is always a good time for tidying up in the garden after the party of summer and so I've found myself pressing a few flowers and leaves after such gardening sessions. 

In the second-to-last photo above, I've captured some of the new making materials that have come my way (okay, that I've bought!) lately. A couple of weekends ago I attended a wonderful new yarn festival in nearby Lower Hutt called Woollington. There were a few of my favourite hand-dyers there and I couldn't resist buying a few new skeins. It was also an excellent opportunity to catch up with fellow knitting friends! The sparkly black wool fabric you see in the same picture has now become a winter coat. Will share soon.

I hope you are keeping well and happy, wherever you are in this world! Lots of love to you.

Melissa