Knitted throw-around blanket jacket

You would think that something as simple as this needn't take very long to make. But this very simple, straight throw-around blanket jacket has been on it's way for a long time. I got this old sweater from my mum which was not exactly pretty, but I liked the yarn, the blend of colours it had in it, so I decided to un-ravel it and create something new with this yarn. something I have done many times, you can read more about that in my re-knit manifesto. Anyways it took so long, since every time I tried something it didn't work out. But finally setting on such a simple model, with just a plain regular stitch it worked. (just very boring to make) all the complicated stuff just didn't work with this yarn. and I'm glad my sister liked, it was her christmas gift.

The throw-around is just a plain flat square, to emphasize the simplicity I made no ribs at the extremities, so it rolls a bit, and I added a bit of yellow edge at the bottom, that has become a bit more orange on the picture than it is reality because of the beautiful autumn leaves in the background. Only made a little bit of rib on the vertical edge to prevent too much inwards rolling. It's the outwards rolling that I like. It's so super simple it has no closing, it's just two slabs of fabric one over the other, keeping them together with a supersize safety pin. I did put on pockets in the end, of course it would have been more simple without, but pockets are so practical, and as you see she likes to stick her hands inside them.

here's a picture of one of the previous attempts, was trying to make sort of ladies tailored jacket, as you can see the texture of the beautiful in-out ribs are just not at all visible at all. also had an attempt where a brioche stitch was going to create some puff sleeves (the Isabel Marant way) also just didn't work. probably ended up knitting this piece 3 or 4 times before ending up with this the final one.

Old knitting photos

Recently I posted the finger-less gloves with Space-invaders sort-off intarsia pattern. I was telling how these gloves were made of the yarn I had used for the rim with running-men for a sweater I knitted many, many years ago.
One of my good old friends Sandy picked up on this story. Out of her archive she dug pictures of me knitting the sweater back then. Unfortunately I'm myself much more disorganized, live in boxes because of never-ending re-build etcetc, so I cannot find any old pictures right now, but one day when things get more organized I will dig out an old picture were I'm actually wearing that sweater.

we think the pictures date back to 1986'ish. Which means the finger-less gloves are re-knitted out of yarn dating back almost 30 years ..... this is what I love about yarn, you can use it again and again, (as long as the moths haven't eaten it) because it's and (almost) endless thread. Read more about that in my re-knit manifesto.

The pictures are from times when people were more conscious about when to taking a picture, i.e. took pictures at special occasions etc, were it was not normal to take picture of everything all the time, so Sandy remembers that Ulla (to the left) and myself were making fun of here photographing us in such a uninteresting situation.

How I loved those shoes.

New amigurumi round-up

Because of that exhibition that I had end of last year at the craft council of Sonderborgs yearly show, I prepared a poster showing all the amigurumi I have ever made. This poster is an update of the previous overview with the additions since Findus.

you can read the full story of the dolls by clicking on the links here below
Delfts Blue (Madam Blå), Pyke's bunny, Hedgehog Findus, Jo the Biker, Sandy's miniature
Stines miniature, Uma, Lieves emo birdie, Strisser the rabbit girl, James the sheep
Hannah the fearie, Ronja, Leo the catwoman, Gothic Lolita for Julie, a bee for Lieve
Duck-face lips for Guus, Mermaid for Carin, Helene & Oliver merried, Helene, punk for Tijmen
Mia doll, Green dragon for Stef, longneck man for Samuel, 3-eyed monster for Nils crobot for Kick

Space-invaders (sort of) finger-less gloves

These gloves are part two of the finger-less gloves re-knitting project. Last week I showed you the open twisted rib version, this time it's an intarsia version with bright coloured pac-man sort of pattern, which is the simplified space-invaders that I developed for Sandy's mini-me amigurimi. It's a super small pattern that looks like a little face, and by repeating it like this it could easily be thought to be some cute flower, whilst actually it's more like something out of a very early computer game. I always really liked that pattern, just couldn't really figure out where I wanted to use it.

These are not the most easy gloves to make, it's really a work of patience and precision. The gloves are knit with re-purposed (see below where the yarn came from) Marianne Isager Tvinni single strand on 5 sock needles size 2,5mm. It's a rather old-fashioned gloves pattern which I make based on my memory, it's fully fashioned including an "indent" to create space for the thumb and I also actually really knit the fingers, whilst many fingerless gloves are made without actual fingers.

Here's what the gloves looked like from the inside before I worked away the ends. What a terrible mess that looks like! as you can see, all the yarns ends are curly because the yarn was re-purposed.

Here's a picture of the border of a sweater that I salvaged when I had to throw the rest of the moth eaten sweater away. One day I just suddenly thought this would be the perfect material for fingerless gloves with space-invaders.

Those funny running men are soooo '80'es. Exactly the time when I knitted the original sweater. 

Sensual or punk? fingerless gloves

These gloves are based on a very old-fashioned glove pattern that I know by memory, unfortunately the real written pattern is lost somewhere in a pile or box. It's not the easiest piece of work, as I work with a single strand of Marianne Isager Tvinni on 5 sock needles 2,5mm, so it's a work of precision and patience. In this case I cast on 60 stitches, and after quite a long piece of rib, switched to an open twisted rib on the front and plain on the backside of the hand. I matched out the amounts of open twisted rib so it would exactly match up to run 2 onto each of the fingers.

a little side-note; as I almost always work from my stash of yarns and old knittings as I have a mountain!! This is a re-knitting project, this Tvinni yarn has been recycled from a project that I knitted when I was 15, which is many years ago. More about that later in the post about the 2nd pair of fingerless gloves that I was able to make from this yarn.

Anyways I memorized the couple of tricks or interventions you need to make to create a more neat and "fully fashioned" pair of gloves. First thing is to increase stitches for the thumb. increase 2 stitches every 4th round will do. I place the thumb in-between 2 purl stitches to really mark the place. second thing that makes these gloves more finished is that I actually knit the fingers, unlike many of the fingerless gloves that are being posted, were you simply close off the round. open twisted rib

what more can I say, they are really nice and warm and I just hope I won't loose them in my commute any time soon (which I did with the previous pair pretty quickly :-()

Amazing craft by May

Take a look at this amazing needle craft by our studio assistant May in Hong Kong. I recently visited the studio and was completely surprised and amazed by the incredible craftsmanship and detailing of the felted figures that she's making. I could not really decide which one was my favorite, they are all so cute

crafted by May Choi, photography by Monica Fung

crafted by May Choi, photography by Monica Fung

these are like a little family crafted by May Choi

crafted by May Choi

small figures in pearl craft by May Choi

Men's scarf

Here's the scarf I made as a last minute gift to my hubby just before Christmas. It's very simple; a chain mail like stitch made using a Tunesian sort of crochet knitting stitch. I have made endless test and trials in the past trying develop or find a stitch that I found male enough. There are surprisingly little to be found on men's knitting on the internet both in terms of inspiration of stitch, patterns and models. Let alone men that knit. But at a certain point I came across this absolutely hilarious video of an Icelandic man knitting. He is explaining how to knit the Tunesian stitch.

Used a Little yarn from my stash turned out I had 3 skeins of greys and blacks that made a perfect "ombré" gradient color scheme. And was even so lucky that the mid grey contains a little mohair which makes it nice and soft against the throat.

some advise; if you decide to try this, remember to use a way too thick needle, the stich makes the texture very thick and dense. I used 1,5-2mm too big hook.

Mixed the mohair with some acrylic/wool yarn from the Zeeman

Nice mohair mix that I got from my mom, unfortunately she doesn't remember where she bought it.

Think I might want to try out this stitch for a jacket/vest soon, so keep watching this space :-)