Tweed Chaika

I finished one more sweater out of Natural Fantasy Condor - Italian bobbin tweed I was gifted by a FB friend. Instead of making another Hayward or other plain color stockinette sweater, I decided to combine the pink tweed with a remnant of the plum Natural Fantasy Condor tweed I used for this hoodie and make another Chaika. 

Chaika (sea gull) is a pattern recipe by Olga Kondratieva. Two years ago I knitted it for the first time for Gaby and it is one of her favourites, mainly due to the soft and warm merino yarn I used for hers. 

The pattern recipe is very easy to calculate and follow and the striped part is quite addictive to knit. I must admit I enjoyed knitting this sweater though I do not consider it a must-have and wouldn't have made it had I not had the gifted yarn - just now I have too many of these sweaters and no place to wear them - I prefer T-shirts at home.

Some technical details about the sweater. I calculated the yoke with little positive ease and knit it in the round, casting on with long-tail cast on and rolled hem at the neck. After the split for the body and the sleeves I shaped the V with short rows on every 3 stitches, until I reached the central stitch. meanwhile I slightly A-shaped the body by adding increases to the sides every 5 cm of length.

I hemmed the body with 2x2 split rib, which I cast off with purl over purls and knit over knits, to keep the hems elastic and not too wavy.

I knit the sleeves in the round, gradually decreasing every 9th round. Then I finished them with long 2x2 ribs and I-cord bind off.

 

Pattern: Chaika, based on Olga Kondratyeva's recipe

Yarn: Natural Fantasy Condor, 200g total

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

Needle: 3.25 mm body, 3 mm hems

Time to knit: almost two months with other projects in between

As promised, winter returned with -16C and heavy snow. Last week I was out in a short-sleeved T-shirt and just a few days later it was freezing cold and sweater weather again. Luckily, the temperatures are expected to rise again next week. I think I had enough snow this year, so I'll be quite happy to see it melt and never come back until next winter :)

Tweed Hoodie

This year I started following one of Russia's knitting gurus - Olga Kondratyeva, who opened my eyes to a number of knitting designs and trends. One of her popular videos is on how to make a classic knitted hoodie - a sweater with raglan long sleeves, a large hood and a front kangaroo pocket.

Back in February, when I decided to knit another of Kondratyeva's designs - a tweed dress, I ordered 400 g of Italian tweed wool mix, but the dress only took 200 g. I had been looking at the bobbin and wondering what to do with it for several months until I finally decided to turn it into a hoodie. In the process I found that the 200 g would not be enough if I wanted the hood as large as I planned it to be (though I'm short I have a long neck and standard hoods usually come short on me, go figure!), so I ordered another 100 g of the tweed yarn (plus a couple of other bobbins :))))  The yarn is Natural Fantasy Condor 4, a wooly tweed with very complex composition - 62% wool, 6 % angora, 10% silk, 4% modal, 18% polyamide.

Pattern: Tweed Hoodie (personal pattern based on Olga Kondratyeva's video tutorials)
Yarn: Natural Fantasy Condor 4, 260 g
Needle: 3 mm (ribbing), 3.25 mm (stockinette stitch)
Time to knit: one month

The hoodie is very warm and comfortable - I wore it yesterday to my Spanish classes and though it was fairly cold in the room I was feeling almost toasting in it. The yarn in the bobbin was fairly uneven and quite coarse but after wet blocking it softened.

I finished the pocket edges, the hood edges and the ribbing with 3-stitch I-cord and I also added some ribbing to the sides of the body for better fitting and to enhance the sports vibe of the sweater. Now, that I'm looking at the pictures and considering the bagging of the elbows, I'm thinking of adding some leather patches to the elbows too. Might be cool if I can pull it off.

And a final note - although I knitted the hoodie for myself, I'm posing in the pictures and I've worn it a couple of times, I decided to gift it to Gaby - I think it is more in her style and she might get better wear out of it.

FO: Lavandula

Yesterday was a rare sunny and warm day and Gaby and I used the golden hour to photoshoot my latest finished work for her - Lavandula. This year I am drawn to simple, elegant models, mostly stockinette stitch with a twist. The unusual construction, a few beads (hard to catch on photo but showy enough in real life) and irregular stripes make for a classy sweater out of this simple T-shirt model.

Pattern: Lavandula, based on Olga Kondratyeva's video
Yarn: Zegna Baruffa Kent, 200 g, 100% Italian merino, two threads
Zegna Baruffa Cashwool, 20g, 100% Italian merino, three threads
Needle: 4 mm, 3.5 mm ribbing
Time to knit: 11 days

In line with the still ruling oversize trend I made the sweater with positive ease and an A line silhouette.

The ribbing is open and for this sweater I tried a new trick - overlapping rib and applied I-cord at the edges of the openings.

The neckline is left raw, with simple long-tail cast on. If it proves uncomfortable for wear, I can always pick up the stitches and add some ribbing.