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 :)

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.

WIP: Lavandula

On Friday evening I cast on a new sweater for Gaby and I can wholeheartedly recommend it as the most popcorny knitting I've done recently. I'm not following a written pattern, but the general instructions on the construction of this type of sweater in Olga Kondratyeva's video Polygonal Seagull.

My yarns are Zegna Baruffa Kent, 100% Italian bobbin merino, 200 g, 900 m / 100 g, in two threads and Zegna Baruffa Cashwool, 100% Italian bobbin merino, 20 g, 1500 m / 100g, in three threads. And I also added some beads to the light lavender yarn. I added the beads, using the "as you go" method and a crochet hook (or rather a small resistor, which I shaped as a hook, as I don't have such a small crochet hook).

As you can see, for three days I've already knitted the upper part of the body and almost finished with one of the sleeves. And I'm back to my stitch markers, made out of cotton yarn and beads. I've tried plastic markers, small safety pins, metal wire markers, but I give up - cotton thread markers are the only ones that work for me.