Tag: Knitting

Some Yarn at Last, or, Asta Sollilja

Asta Sollilja

Beginning mid-December, I started this sweater, designed by Kate Davies, and available in her book Yokes.   Asta Sollilja is a sweater derived from traditional Icelandic sweaters, but with waist-shaping (not that I have much of one!) and short rows to make a distinctive front and back. Traditional Icelandic sweaters have neither, but are wearable in any direction, although with regular wear, take on, perhaps, more of the owner’s body shape.

I used Cascade 220 and changed the colorway a bit, cutting down on one color and using navy blue for the dark brownish color as well as the navy.

I just finished this sweater and was soooo excited, I just had to take pictures of it! I used Jeny’s Stretchy Bind Off, which is fantastic in that it is tidy, and stretchy, and can be done quite nicely with 2×2 ribbing at the neckline.  You can see the video here.

I still have ends to weave in and armholes to graft before the final wash and blocking – but this is the first Finished Object of the season – my New Year’s resolution – the BIG ONE – is to finish up my plethora of UFOs.

 

 

I Needed a Change!

I have just written about how I am disgusted by becoming obsessed with photography.  What that means is that I don’t like getting so focused on one thing that everything else I like to do takes second, third, or some place down the road.  Life then becomes – for me – rather dull and quite uninteresting.  And way too focused.  It becomes a trap.

I don’t like thinking of only one thing at a time.  I like being in different areas of interest in my head, and in my daily life.  It keeps everything in balance.  Creativity is an energy which can become quite wonky if not properly directed.  It becomes a chore, and downright unpleasant when decisions are not being able to be made.  Stagnation then sets in.  And frustration.  And so on.

To break this up, this is what I have been doing these last few days:

Other Things to Do (5 of 11) Other Things to Do (3 of 11)Other Things to Do (10 of 11)

Other Things to Do (9 of 11)Other Things to Do (7 of 11)

One Thing Leads to Another . . .

Watercolors

After finishing the sweater a few weeks ago, something shifted. Doing things with my hands, and completing a project, flipped a switch. I’ve been putzing with knitting, playing with photography, spending time doing post-processing, but it really is not the same as starting and finishing a project. My creative world has become increasingly more narrow as I have focused on photography.

Photography is more comfortable now. I think I “get it” at times. That is satisfying – but it is never as satisfying as creative projects seen from beginning to end. The fact is, I am not a photographer at heart, but the most satisfaction comes from a photo when it reflects something of how I see the world. What that is in photography seems to be snippets of things, the casual portrait, or a good landscape. I am curious as to how understanding photography will affect other creative parts of my life.

Paint brushes are like knitting needles – they are held in the hand, moved and manipulated. Color knitting is something I love – magpie eyes! – and color has been in my head for weeks. Suddenly, greens must be more intense, and red has allure like it has not in some time. Sumi-e and brushes are wonderful, but color is winning now – paint brush to hand, colors on the palette.

 

In Which I Have a Cold and Knit a Sweater

Sweater Sleeve

This past week has seen me seriously down with a cold – out of a 5 day work week, only 2 days had me visible at all!  I started getting it a week ago today, and knowing how awful the cold could be – the other half came down with it the week before – I decided I had better figure out something to do with myself.  I decided to make myself a sweater.  And I am glad I did make that decision early on in the game because, had I not, I would have just watched TV all day long and felt horribly unproductive.  Even sick, I just don’t like blobbing around.  So, in between aspirin and decongestants, sleeping and sneezing and shivering, I knit up a sweater and watched Engregages, but with English subtitles.  Interestingly, I could understand a lot of the French by the time I watched all the episodes available on Netflix.

Sweater

One of the things that has been haunting me in the world of knitting is my abundance of half-finished projects, meaning things that need a bit of thought.  Being sick, thinking is one of the last things I wanted to do.  The project needed to be interesting, fast, and simple.  The solution was an Icelandic-style sweater.  I dug out my Lopi pattern books, and looked at  Ravelry, and finally decided on a pattern – which I modified to a degree – and colors.  White, light grey, dark grey, black.  Contrast.

Sweater Neckline

The yarn is a fuzzy acrylic because I had it on hand.  Using US 8 and 10.5 needles, the sweater had a gauge of 3.5 sts / inch.  Once that was established, the rest was easy.  And, in exactly 7 days, my sweater is completed, finished, ends woven in, washed, and ready to wear.  It fits pretty nicely, too, but my grafting skills are not what they used to be . . . so I won’t show you the underarm seams.

Sweater with Pattern Book

If you have the book shown, Volume 17, the pattern is based upon sweaters 19 and 20, with some modifications to the last 2 pattern rounds.

To say the least, I’m feeling pretty smug!