Spencer - progress report

I loved this pattern from the moment I saw it in Anna Wilkinson's great book - I think it is mainly down to the bright colours that I simply couldn't resist. After some hunting and gathering, including a trip to Latvia and some gift-skeins that my mom brought back from Estonia last summer, I finally had the palette of colours that I needed.

I cast on the required number of stitches both for the front AND the back to knit in the round and make it an cardigan instead of a vest. It's not "real" fair-isle, at least according to my definition, but it's good practice for the next project which I'm planning to base on Mary-Jane Mucklestone's "200 Fair-Isle Motifs" collection of Shetland patterns. 

In terms of construction I opted for a steek with knitted-on button band as well as steeked armholes (a first time for me). The idea was to knit as much as possible in the round to avoid doing the annoying purl-side colourwork, including the sleeves. I used a different technique for my last fair-isle cardigan where I knitted in the round to the beginning of the arm holes and then separated the front and back to knit them separately and flat. This has the advantage that you can shape the armholes more nicely and it is easier to fit the sleeve caps, but i also means that the sleeves then have to be knitted flat and that's what I want to avoid.

So far, so good. The bodice has been done for about 2 months now but I haven't plucked up the courage to get started with the sleeves, partly because I worked on my Petit Poisson Rouge in the meantime and I was a bit fed up with the thin yarn and tiny stitches. Also, I'm running out of the light grey yarn so I have to think of another option for the sleeves and button band. I made one attempt at continuing in the fair-isle pattern over the sleeves but that was a disaster so I think I will opt for a single colour on the sleeves - maybe dark blue?

While my musings continue, I'm also working on a Miette (a cardigan this time, not the skirt - this seems to be a popular name for patterns) and a hat. New pictures here soon!

P.S: I think homemade rasperry-sorbet-pink is now my favourite summer colour.

Vier Fäustlinge und ein Halleluja!

As usual, I needed a little bit of a relaxing project in between the more complicated cardigans and with Winter approaching I had just the thing in mind: mittens. My mum had brought me a really nice little book from Estonia in which Aino Praakli documented patterns from original mittens found in different regions in Estonia.

At first glance they resemble the Latvian mittens that I learned about at the workshop earlier this year but I while I was knitting, I actually saw the differences. The Estonian patterns are more abstract and geometrical and consist usually of only two or three contrasting colours. In any case, both are beautiful. And so fast to knit!

I knitted them on the smallest needles I had that I usually use for socks and I cast on 52 st (my hands are quite small), increasing to 60 st after the cuff. The thumb is attached afterwards with the most simple method, picking up 18 st around the thumb-hole - just remember to cast off the stitches on opposite sides of the two mittens, otherwise you end up with two left-handed or two right-handed ones... (and no, I'm *not* speaking out of experience).

Another little piece of advice would be to join the rounds of the pattern at what will be the sides of the mittens (I don't know how to describe it better but I mean the place which is not the palm or the back of your hand when you imagine the finished mitten). I didn't pay attention on the first mitten and now I have the ugly jog on the back of the mitten where it is much more visible - probably only to the trained knitters' eyes but anyways.