Chevalier Socks

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

Things have been a bit wild around here lately, but I have been knitting. (It is a sanity preserver!) I think a couple of things might get frogged for gauge and fit issues – phooey – but these socks are getting done.

I love them. Fortunately, so does Mr. C. who will get to wear them.

The pattern is by Mari Muinonen and is called Chevalier (This is the Ravelry link, which might not be visible to the world at large.) The pattern is free for download on Ravelry and there’s a matching Chevalier pattern for mittens. Mari’s blog is called MadebyMyself, but a lot of the content is in Finnish.You can look at the pictures, though – she’s an incredibly talented designer. (She seduced me utterly with her pattern directions for these socks. It says “Pattern of the Chevalier Socks is written both english and finnish in the same file. Try to manage.”)

The yarn is Briggs & Little Tuffy, which Mr. C. loves for his house socks, and which is spun in New Brunswick. The colourway is Greystone. It’s actually kind of green.The bonus of using such thick yarn is that the socks knit up super-fast.

Here’s the first sock. Don’t you love it?A bit of a blurry shot because I had to do it without the flash to show the cables better. Also, the colour looks more blue here than it really is.

I made some modifications. I knit 24 rows of ribbing before starting the cable stuff, while the pattern specifies 10 rows. And I fiddled with the toe so that there’s a whole diamond ending there, instead of just cropping it off and doing a regular toe. Since these won’t be worn under boots, cabling on the top of the toe isn’t going to be an issue.

What do you think?

Revontuli

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

There’s not a pot of gold at the end of the Kauni rainbow – just some northern lights.

As mentioned yesterday, I used the EQ or Rainbow colourway of Kauni in Mr. C’s Elrond sweater. I paired it with the EF colourway, which is navy, purple and blue, so some of the rainbow didn’t have enough contrast. I broke out the purple, turquoise and green bits of the rainbow and set those parts aside. When his sweater was done, there was a ziplock full of purple, turquoise and green.

I thought of making something for myself, maybe another shawl.

This pattern is called Revontuli, which apparently is the Finnish word for the northern lights. (That’s a Ravelry link.) It just so happens that every time I’ve seen the northern lights, they’ve been lime green or turquoise, so this worked out perfectly. There’s a smidge of yellow at the centre cast on and at the outer hem.

I washed this by hand once, giving it a good soak, but it still didn’t soften as much as Mr. C.’s sweater. So, into the pillowcase and into the washing machine it went. Here’s the finished piece – I love it!

The colours are not quite as vivid as the flash makes it appear – it shades from gold at the centre into lime, then a softer turquoise than this, then purple. I turn back at red-purple. This looks quite primary, but the real thing is more like petroleum on water. I like that palette!

It shrank quite a bit in the washer, because it was knit at a looser gauge (on 4.5mm needles). It blocked 33″ from the middle to each point when I washed it by hand – after the washer, it blocked at 28″. It’s not felted, though – you can still see the stitches – but it is closer to being felted than Mr. C.’s sweater. Once again, the Kauni really softened. This is like having a soft blanket tucked around the shoulders. I think I’ll wear it a lot because it is so snuggly.

The Elrond Sweater

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

I finished Mr. C.’s Kauni fair isle sweater a while back. (You may remember me talking about the swatching and the pattern choice here.)

When it came off the needles, it looked like this:

It sat for a bit while I worked up the nerve to throw the completed sweater into the washing machine. I had to do it, because I had knit the sweater 10% too big to allow for the shrinkage in washing. It didn’t fit him, so into the pillowcase it went, then into the machine. That was a stressful 45 minutes! But it came out beautifully soft and 10% smaller.

It had to sit a few days more before I was ready to sew in the zipper. I always fret about sewing zips in with the machine, but not enough to baste them by hand first. This one, as has recently been the case, went in perfectly the first time.

Since then, Mr. C. has had it on his back and I’ve been trying to get it from him to take a picture of it! Here it is, all done:

Yet more proof that I’m not a photographer! Unfortunately, you can’t feel how much the wool softened in the washing machine. It’s incredible. The sweater is so soft now that you wouldn’t think it was the same yarn. It didn’t felt – it just fulled and shrank.

For this sweater, I used the Kauni Rainbow colourway for the bright bits, but not all of the colour repeat. The purple, turquoise and green bits didn’t contrast enough with the purple, navy and blue background, so I broke them out of each repeat. I had a whole pile of these pieces left, so I knit something else with them. I’ll show it to you tomorrow.

Cabled Denim Bag Done!

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

Knitters talk about F.O.s, which are Finished Objects – as opposed to U.F.O.’s, which are UnFinished Objects. Finishing a project is definitely cause for celebration, so I’ll share my most recent F.O. with all of you.

Even better, you watched it in progress. I started my denim bag here, continued here, and most recently posted about it here. I finished all that I-cord, then stalled a bit on the lining. There must have been an easier way to put the lining together than the way I did it, but I finally got it done.

And here it is!

Here’s the inside, which looks kind of like funky pyjamas:

It shrank about an inch in each dimension, as the label warned and I think the fabric tightened up nicely. It has some sturdiness now, especially with the lining. I only had a little bit of the sixth ball leftover, so I maybe could have knit one more repeat on the strap. Pretty efficient knitting, and I’m very happy with the end result.

Inky Spider’s Web Fichu Shawl

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

As you know, I’m very fond of Jane Sowerby’s book VICTORIAN LACE TODAY and have knit a few projects from it. Here’s another. This is the fichu variation of the Spider’s Web Shawl, knit in Noro Silk Garden Sock. I love this inky colourway and added some iridescent beads to it, too.Technically, this should block out as a half a hexagon, but mine came out more like 3/4 of a square. It’s a nice size and just falls to the elbows. Here’s a detail shot of the edging with the beads:I love the colours and the texture of this one and know I’ll wear it a lot. What do you think?

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave

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