Light Asherton Scarf

I have one more sewing project, finished in 2021, to photo and show you, but here is my first project, finished in 2022. It is a scarf I cast on December 27th and knitted hurriedly through the last days of 2021 and the first days of 2022, so that Gaby could take it with her, blocked and dry, to Vienna, as a present for her boyfriend.

The yarn is again Italian bobbin yarn, 90% merino ultrafine and 10% cashmere. It is very thin, 1500 m / 100 g, so I wound it in four balls and knitted the shawl in four threads. After blocking it softened and the cashmere content fluffed, so the texture became very nice to the touch. However in retrospect, I wish I had knitted it in 5 or even 6 threads, as it came out a bit thin and light.

The pattern is probably my most favourite men's scarf pattern - Asherton, which I already knitted once several years ago. Not only is this pattern beautiful and swanky, but it is also free! The chart is fairly easy to follow and it produces a subtle and interesting reversible relief. The original pattern is written row by row and stitch by stitch, but as I am a visual knitter, when it comes to instructions, I prefer charts and proportions and despise garrulous wording, so last time I knitted this scarfI drafted a chart, which I published on my Ravelry page. This time I simply printed the chart again and after one repeat memorized it and followed it without any need of consulting it. I really don't know how people knit without charts!

 

Pattern: Asherton Reversible Scarf

Yarn:  Filatura Papi Fabio Dorotea, 1500 m / 100g, 130 g in four threads

Needle: 3.5 mm

Time to knit: one week

Blocked size: 23 cm wide x 173 cm long

Because my yarn is very thin and I knitted the scarf only in four threads, it came a bit light, more suitable perhaps for Vienna autumns and springs, rather than winter. Still, I hope it is wide and long enough to provide adequate cover. Now I am in the process of designing a suitable hat to go with the scarf, as I have plenty of the yarn left.

Hayward

I have a new sweater to show you  - Hayward, a simple raglan with elongated raglan lines, a lot of positive ease, boat neck and 7/8 sleeves, knitted in stockinette stitch in the round - the perfect tv knitting!

I was gifted the yarn by a Facebook friend, who had bought it, did not like it and noticed that I had knitted with it previously. In all honesty, it is my least favourite Italian bobbin tweed yarn I've tried so far, but it is of very beautiful color and definitely did not deserve to finish in the trash bin unloved.

I fought with it hard until I found the right pattern. Initially I bought the popular Harley and cast it on with this yarn, but midway the cowl I realized that this tweed was too stiff, too dry and too busy for the cabled Harley. And then I remembered that I had been planning to have a go at the Hayward for quite a long time and this was the perfect yarn - if I did not like the elongated raglan, at least I would not have wasted precious yarn on it.

To knit the sweater I followed the general recipe for elongated raglan by Olga Kondratyeva and my own measurements and calculations. And it all went very smoothly until I reached the sleeves. Then my perfectionist nature in evil combination with my ever hesitant self knitted and frogged endlessly one sleeve or another - long or short, how long, how short, how narrow, how wide - I couldn't decide and I had to try them all until I was finally satisfied with the result you see on these pictures. I do not regret a single frogged stitch, as at least now I know this is exactly how I wanted the sleeves! :)

The positive ease - I knitted the sweater with a total of 20 cm positive ease at the bust and I believe this is really needed to make the Hayward silhouette work. For the hem - I tried without ribbing, but it curled uncompromisingly and no amount of blocking or even 3-st I-cord could prevent it. Plus the wideness of the sweater around the bum, combined with the curling, was very unflattering. So in the end I unravelled the last 10 or so rows and finished the hem with 2x2 ribbing and I love it - it stays straight and pulls in the volume just enough to feel comfortable.

Pattern: Hayward by Julie Hoover

Yarn: Natural Fantasy Condor 3, 200 g

Yarn Content: 62% wool, 6% angora, 10% silk, 4% modal, 18% polyamide, 450 m / 100 g

Needle: 3.25 mm, 3 mm

Time to knit: about a month

 

All in all, I'm actually truly happy with the final result, the sweater is easy to wear and very light - only 200g, but quite warm. After washing the yarn softened and as you can see I am able to wear it right next to the skin without any itching or irritation. Now I have to decide what to make out of the two other bobbins of the same yarn in two other colors that came with it - more Hayward sweaters perhaps :)

Cancun Lace Top

A quick and very pleasant knit I made for my daughter. She's been asking me for a lace top for years and I kept putting it off until I finally found the perfect match - Cancun Boxy Lace Top, free pattern on Ravelry and Alize Lino, a gorgeous fluid linen-viscose mix.

I ordered the yarn last year from the same sale I bought the viscose for my previous FO. I expected it to be in a natural color but it was more of a neutral grey. And I generally avoid grey. Besides I had just done an experiment dyeing a linen mix fabric (more on that soon), so I thought this yarn was the perfect candidate to replicate my dyeing experiment on yarn.

The problem - how to dye big quantities of yarn, when I don't have a large dyeing pot. What I decided to do - I placed all the five 50 g skeins in hot water, salt and cotton dye in a plastic washing basin (enough space and water, not enough heat) and after the yarn had absorbed most of the dye I wrapped each skein individually in a piece of stretch foil and heated each of them for two minutes in the microwave oven. Then I let them cool for the night. On the next morning I washed them and all the skeins turned out identically nuanced (no more one skein much darker than the others). I'm very very pleased with my dyeing job and the color I got with the scarlet red dye on the grey linen-viscose yarn.

Pattern: Cancun Boxy Lace Top by Erin Kate Archer
Yarn: Alize Lino, 25% linen 75% viscose, 220 g, hand dyed
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 9 days

The pattern is very simple - two identical rectangles, sewn together at the shoulders and the sides. I used three-needle bind off for the shoulder seams and mattress stitch for the side seams. The pattern is more like a recipe, not so much a detailed set of instructions. I made my own calculations for my yarn and worked the sequence of the various laces mostly on a whim as I went. I'm absolutely in love with the final result and I wish to incorporate these lace stitch patterns in other knitting projects as well.