Drops Poncho

My latest sweater - poncho, a pattern by Drops Design. The original is a striped poncho, knitted on bigger needles, but I soon found, that it ran too large for me, so I followed most of the numbers for the smallest size, though my needles and my gauge were smaller and it came out perfect for me - not too baggy, but still roomy enough to be a poncho and allow for another top to be worn under it.

The yarn is again Italian bobbin yarn, new to me. It is 60% merino, 20% silk buret and 20% polyamide. It is quite different from other merinos I've knitted so far - much coarser, sturdier and with almost none elasticity, which actually makes it quite suitable for an outer garment like a poncho. I had 300 g of it and knitted it literally to the last centimeter. To do this, I knitted the poncho from the neck to the splitting of the sleeves, then I did the sleeves, added a ribbed neck piece as the original open neck was a bit too open for me, and then proceeded to knit the body until I ran out of yarn.

I knitted the ribbing of the hem twice - initially I made it like the pattern instructed - adding 48 stitches to the rib to make it flare. But I did not like the wide and floppy look it gave the poncho, especially on the back, so I ripped off the wide rib and reknitted it with the same number of stitches I had for the body and on smaller needles (from 4 mm for the body to 3.5 mm for the rib). Now the rib pulls the poncho close to the body and I love the form it keeps.

The original design features two colored stripes, but I wanted to have my poncho monochromatic, so I replaced the color stripes with textured stripes. I played with several ideas until I decided on these groups of rows of slip stitch horizontal bars. I am pretty pleased with how it came out, though perhaps other arrangements of the structural rows could have been also quite effective.

Pattern: 207-18 Seashell Search by DROPS design
Yarn: Filatura Papi Fabio Tecla, 300 g
Needle: 4 mm (body), 3.5 mm (ribs)
Time to knit: three weeks

Stella Alpina Tunic

My latest sweater, probably the last for this winter season. It is an interpretation of a Drops dress design, which I made into a tunic sweater for my daughter. The original dress specifies the use of two different yarns - Drops Fabel (the color mix) and Drops Alpaca (the solid colors). However I decided to use my bobbin of red-orange Cashwool and to dye half of it in a color mix of red, yellow, orange and brown.

Pattern: Dress with star pattern border (loose interpretation)
Yarn: Cashwool 100% merino, 300 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: two months

As usual, I don't think I even read the whole of the pattern instructions, as I had an idea in my head and I made my own calculations to get it. The knitting took me long, as I had my doubts and hesitations and put the sweater aside for long periods of time.

The bottom part of the sweater is knit across with short rows, provisional cast on and then grafting of the first and the last rows to close the tube, or rather the truncated cone. The same technique is applied for the low part of the sleeves.

For the solid color parts of the sweater I used my description of the Bonus sweater - it was quite easy to adapt it for this tunic, as the yarn and gauge are basically the same.

After last week's high spring temperatures I thought I was late with this snowflake-y sweater, but the temperatures this week dropped so low and we've had so much snow and cold these days, that it is hard to believe that April is behind the corner. Spring is definitely late this year.

It was so cold when we took these pictures today that I had to hurry not to let Gaby freeze without her coat and hat. Definitely sweater weather!

Sea Nymph Modeled

And here it - the promised modeled photosession of Sea Nymph. The sweater is mine, but Gaby will wear it occasionally, like this weekend :) Anyway, it fits her marvelously and does look better on her slender body.

Pattern: Sea Nymph by Drops Design
Yarn: Charlotte, Bulgarian cotton-viscose, 300 g
Needle: 3 mm
Time to knit: exactly one month

Modifications:
Because my yarn and gauge were very different, I used only the general idea and the chart for the lace and did my own calculations for the raglan and the body. It's a simple raglan sweater, so recalculating everything to fit me was not that difficult and I am happy to report that I knit it in one go, without any ripping - a genuine miracle for me. Despite my dislike for the magic loop method I knit the sleeves in the round, so the sweater is entirely seamless.

I finished the body symmetrically to the beginning, which is the most logical decision, instead of the rolling stockinette stitch edge, as in the pattern.

A word about the yarn - not bad, gives good and heavy texture, but I don't think I'll use it again. I'll have to wait and see how it will hold on to wear.

All in all - a nice, feminine, easy pattern and a satisfying result. Now I can move on to another project :)

Celtic Dancer Slippers

Another pair of slippers by DROPS design I made these days. I like the original construction of DROP's slippers, although I have a few remarks to make to this design. The obvious - the pattern requires sewing at the heel. This I avoided by casting on with provisional cast on and then grafting. At the toes the pattern envisages cutting the yarn, pulling it through the remaining stitches and tightening - like at the top of a hat. I replaced this with the usual and much neater Kitchener stitch.

However, although I had some doubts about the angular heel, I did not modify that. If I was to knit these slippers again, I would cast on 23 sts - only 3 seed stitch for the under foot and gradually increase the seed stitch section to 11 sts. This would give a more round form of the heel section, which is a bit angular now and make it symmetric to the toes.

My other modifications - I knitted the slippers with 4 mm circular needles and the ribbed edge - with 3.5 mm circular needles and I cast on 31 sts - only 11 sts for the under foot. Because of my thinner yarn and smaller needles I was able to work the diamond section two full repeats.

Pattern: Celtic Dancer by DROPS Design
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids, color 645 (mustard), 70 g (the remainder from my Monte Rosa cardigan, I worked the rib of both slippers to the last cm of yarn).
Needle: 4 mm, 3.5 mm
Time to knit: 4 days

Kitchener stitch instead of sewing

Autumn scenery from our recent hike in the Balkan Mountains (reportage coming soon:)

Little Red Riding Slippers

When I went out this morning I noticed that the cherry tree in front of our building had lost almost half of its leaves overnight and had covered beautifully the steps on the side of the building. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a few photos and then asked my daughter to pose just for a couple of minutes with her new slippers before going to school (well, obviously, not in her slippers :))) The things we do (and our closest are made to do) in the name of knitting ...

This is quite a popular pattern, which makes for comfortable and cozy slippers. There are so many pages written and even youtube videos on the making of these slippers that I will not dwell much on mine. I used one skein of red Alize Lanagold Solids, and as I ran out of yarn for the final rows, I finished the slippers with the burgundy red Lanagold for my cardigan. In stead of casting off the stitches and sewing the slippers I made them seamless, folding the last row and grafting it.

Pattern: Little Red Riding Slippers by DROPS Design
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids 56, 100 g, 240 m + a few grams of Lanagold 358
Needle: US 6 / 4 mm
Time to knit: 4-5 days