Spring Is Around The Corner

hopefully :)



It's been snowing occasionally yesterday and today, but the first snowdrops peaked their heads in the small garden in front of our building.

The First of March is near and as is the old Bulgarian tradition people will exchange and wear white and red martenitsi.



So last night I was inspired to make some crocheted ones for the children's teachers and closest friends:

Mystic River

Pattern: Mystic River by DROPS Design
Yarn: Lanoso Alara 50% cotton 50% acrylic, 220 g
Needle: 3.5 mm
Time to knit: 6 days, incl. sewing and buttons

Perfect little summer cardi, I'm extremely happy with it. Knit without modifications and almost no unraveling (but for those unfortunate 13-15 rows after I had made a mistake).
TIPS from second thoughts (if I were to make it again or for those of you, who might want to knit it):
1) Use crochet cast on for the fronts. This will match the knitted cast off of the back.
2) Cast on the new sts for the sleeves with provisional cast on and additional yarn on the row marked with an arrow in diagram M.1.
Then, when you have again reached that row marked with the arrow and it is time to bind off the stitches for the sleeves, graft the sleeves.








It's Friday and so many people are showing their finished work - visit Linda's Creative Friday and Tami's Amis FO Friday

Find the Differences

Or why knitting in a sleepy mode while watching Miss Marple solve the next complicated crime is not recommendable :)

Mystery

It's a mystery to me how it happened, but instead of attaching the zipper to the CPH, a zipper, which I still haven't bought, I find myself today blogging about my new summer cardigan, half of which is already done in less than two days.
Probably because I've had too much work lately, and the winter is so cold and long and tiresome, but for two days I felt too tired and unenthused about knitting. I just didn't feel like finishing any of my other projects or starting another small cold weather project. And then I got it - I was tired of winter, I needed to knit something to remind me of warmer and greener days. I like snow and at first was very happy with everything being covered in white, but now I long for color, I'm tired of white and grey.
And after two whole days without knitting, just browsing through my stash and queues on Ravelry, on Thursday night I spontaneously cast on the last on my queue - this little cardi from the latest DROPS collection - Mystic River. I had just the yarn for the project in my stash - a soft cotton-acrylic blend in green. The pattern is very well written and easy, I really hope it would make a wearable little cardi.

Done!

Last night I finished the Central Park Hoodie. I still have to buy and place the zipper, but all the knitting is done - and these meager 2 m of yarn are all I'm left with! In the end I brought the kitchen scales with me and measured the yarn every couple of rows. When I had 10 g left, I started the I-cord, and half way through it measured the actual meters of yarn left and how much I would need (with approximation :). But I squeezed within the 500 g I had. And the fit is so perfect, yey, yey ...
Upcoming notes on the finishing of the cardigan - probably tonight ...

The Hood

Slowly, but steadily I'm making progress on my Central Park Hoodie, and though I had some issues with the pattern and even some significant unraveling, I still like it immensely and enjoy the process. This morning I finished the hood and thought I'd share my modifications for anyone who might want to try them.
Like many others, I decided to continue the cables from the center of the back into the hood. Because cables make knitting narrow, and I read on Ravelry that the hood runs narrow anyway, I picked up a total of 86 stitches as for the large sizes, though I'm knitting a customized 32 size. I also started picking stitches from the left front and on the WS, after transferring the live stitches from the left front on the needles without knitting them, to make the fronts even (I don't know why the pattern doesn't take into consideration that when stitches are left live on the fronts, the right front is one row shorter than the left).
I knit the hood for 28 cm and then began decreases on the central cable panel of 18 sts.
The first decrease row is the 3rd cable row of the fronts and the 9th cable row of the back.
Here's what's going on with the central 18 stitches:
1 row (RS): p2 ssk k4 p2 k4 k2tog p2 (two stitches decreased)
2 row (WS): k2 p5 k2 p5 k2 (no decreases)
3 row (RS): p2, right cable: k1 k2tog, k2 from cable needle, p2, left cable: k2, k1 k2tog from cable needle (two stitches decreased)
4 row (WS) k2 p4 k2 p4 k2 (no decreases)
5 row (RS): p2 k2 k2tog p2 ssk k2 p2 (two stitches decreased)
6 row (WS) k2 p3 k2 p3 k2 (no decreases)
7 row (RS): p2 k2 ssk k2tog k2 p2 (two stitches decreased)
8 row (WS) k2 p2tog p1 p1 p2togtbl k2 (two stitches decreased)
9 row (RS): p2 ssk k2tog p2 (two stitches decreased)
10 row (WS): k1 p2togtbl p2tog k1 (two stitches decreased)
11 row (RS): k3togtbl k3tog (four stitches decreased)
All of the 18 stitches of the cable pattern are decreased.
Continue to decrease the two central stitches symmetrically on the next row:
12 row (WS): p2tog, p2togtbl
The next row is the last row of the hood and the 5th row of the cable pattern of the fronts. Knit this row until two stitches before the center of the hood, ssk, fold the knitting in half with the two needles side by side and graft the stitches, grafting the first two stitches of the front needle together. The graft row acts as the second half of the 5th row and evens the two halves of the hood.




On the last picture my daughter is demonstrating the hood from behind and you might even notice that I still haven't sewn the second sleeve (but I will this evening, I promise :)

And another project I started just to test the pattern. I think this might make a nice cowl, and I even like it in mohair, but I think I hate the color of my yarn (raw meat gone bad - pinkish beige) and I am currently considering throwing it away for good - something I've never done before, actually. Do you ever throw away yarn you hate?

Rotonda

After the heavy snow and arctic temperatures (-22C), yesterday we had a break from the cold and managed to take pictures of my latest finished sweater. While knitting it, it constantly reminded me of the St. George Rotunda and the Roman ruins next to it - probably my most favorite place in town, my secret garden. Hidden in the inner court between the Presidency and the Sheraton Hotel, the beautiful church is the oldest preserved building in Sofia, built at the beginning of the IV century, when Sofia (then Serdica) was part of the vast Roman empire. Behind the church are the ruins of the residency of the emperor Constantine the Great. I just had to photo shoot this sweater there!



Pattern: Rotonda (rotunda in Bulgarian)
Yarn: Alize Missisipi 2 skeins
Needle: 3 mm
Time to knit: seems eternity (I think, considering all the unraveling and re-knitting, I actually knitted this at least twice)









It's such fun to share your FO with other knitters! Check Tami's Amis FO Friday!

Pouch Hat

Pattern: Pouch Hat
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Batik, the light colors from two skeins
Needle: 3.5 mm rib, 4 mm body
Time to knit: less than two days (with some serious unraveling and re-knitting)



This is the first of my "recycled" hats this year. As I promised earlier, this winter I'll unravel some of the old hats and reuse the yarn in a new style.
This new hat, which can be also a neck warmer, used to be part of a set of an entrelac hat, scarf and gloves. I unraveled the scarf and the hat and re-knit only the light colors this time. I have an idea next year to make the hat double, using this pattern and the darker colors as well.








Linked to Tami's Amis FO Friday!