Finished: Mata Hari

Pattern: Wrote it myself
Yarn: 4 skeins of Lace Merino Silk by Karabella, color 7211
Needles: Addi’s circ 24″ US 3
Cast on date: Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Cast off date: Monday, July 21, 2008

Minimalistic desgin, Maximum effect

I did it… I freaking did it… And I am very very happy with the result of my boatneck kimono top:

My friend Mary, who taught me how to knit, named the top Mata Hari. History teaches us that Mata Hari was a dutch female spy, and since this top is a knock of from Souchi Design’s “Batwing”, I thought the name Mata Hari was very appropriate!

I am in love with Mata Hari. I have never been so content about a project like this one.

It’s minimalistic design yields maximum result in my opinion and I am simply elated. If I am ever to bring out a knitwear line in the future, this style is what I aspire to design! For reals…

Let’s get down to the knitty gritty

I would like to share with you how I concocted this utterly simple knit. Will you believe me that there is absolutely no shaping in this design? Very easy knit, simple and minimum seaming! Oh yeah, my kind of knit.

First of all I knitted a rectangle with a giant opening in the middle. My plan was to pick up stitches all around this opening but first I needed to block the rectangle.

I washed it, squeezed out the water gently, rolled in a towel, walked over the towel with my full weight so that most of the excess water would go in to the towel:

Then I place the rectangle ever so gently on the table, making sure that I have my dimensions down and leave it to dry:

After it dried, I simply folded it over and evenly picked up 180 stitches all around the opening. I joined in the round, knitted for like 7 inches and voila this was the result:

Next, I blocked the last part I knitted and calculated exactly where and how wide I wanted my neck opening to be.

I simply seamed 3 inches on either side of my neck opening, weaved in the ends and ah…. mission accomplished.

I like the open split sleeves very much!

All the borders in this design are in seed stitch, the rest is all done in simple stockinette stitch. So boring to knit, but the result is very beautiful.

Knitting with light weight yarn and what’s next?

I am so into knitting with light weight yarn now. I mean, the result is so beautiful and so incredibly light to wear. It is as if I am wearing nothing… and the light softness of merino and silk on my skin…delicious!

What’s next you might wonder..? I think I deserve a little break now. I have completed 5 projects in a row and methinks I am just going to browse magazines and patternbooks for the next week just to get some inspiration!

If you are interested to read all entries about Mata Hari, click here and all entries will appear, just keep scrolling down.

Thank you for reading and untill the next entry!

A Happier Summer

How lazy and hot my days are lately… More than once I have to tell myself to slow it down otherwise I won’t last in heat. So it goes, slow, lazy and ever so contently.

As I am enjoying the hot and sunny days, I am reminded of my very first summer in Portland. How lonely my days were then… I hardly knew anybody and often times my heart longed for my family and friends back in the Netherlands.

This summer however, is a much happier one! Friends, often time knitters, call me to see what I am up to. A summer party here, a summer party there, a walk in the woods, some wine at a restaurant… ah, life is good.

It takes time to start a new life in a different country and build up a new circle of friends. So many have been incredibly friendly to me and so many have reached out. I am so very thankful for that!

At times, my heart still longs for my family and friends in the Netherlands. The difference now however, is that it does not hurt as much any more.

As for knitting

After I finished the giant rectangle with an opening in the middle, it is time to fold it over and pick up stitches all around that middle opening:

All in all, I have to pick up 180 stitches around. These stitches have to be evenly spaced and in order to divide them all evenly, I chop the big opening up in little pieces with markers. This way I am sure to divide 180 stitches evenly!

Picking up stitches can be somewhat tedious. The only advice I can give is: don’t forget to breath!

Now the last part of my Kimono top commences. I expect to finish at the end of this coming week.

Almost forgot…

I got a new “do”.

Before:

And after:

Love it!

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!

In which my patience is tested

My patience is tested. Severely tested.

Lace weight to light fingering yarn and needle size US #3 can make you go completely crazy, I tell ya. More than once did I have to calm myself down, take a deep breath and restrain myself not to abandon my latest project.

It is a humbling experience in which I learn that sometimes things will not go at a speed that I want them to go. So I just have to flow with it and accept that in order to achieve an utterly beautiful finely knitted garment, one has to suffer.

So fine…

Soon enough, I find myself at peace with the slow pace my project is progressing. More over, I am so incredibly pleased with how fine and thin my garment is turning out! I am so in love with this weight in stockinette stitch and I find myself staring at it in pure amazement.

It is worth it… it is totally worth it. The project is not near completion yet, but I can already tell you that this is one of my project I am going to be most proud of. Its sheerness simply takes my breath away…

Within a week I have come from this:

to this:

And tonight, I have finished this rectangle with an opening in the middle:

Two thirds of my project is finished. Now all I have to do is complete the last part…
The construction may seem a bit odd to you, but just wait untill I show you the final part. And no, the opening in the middle of the rectangle is not to pull over my head! Keep on guessing.

Just the other day when was chilling outside in front of my house it struck me how much the color of my neighbour’s car resembles the red of my kimono top! It is just the perfectestest red ever!

Thank you for reading and untill the next entry!

Kimono Silhouette

In my last post, I talked about how enamored I am by Souchi’s knitwear design and in particular by this top called “Batwing”.

This top has in my opinion, a classic kimono silhouette although it is called “batwing”. For the past few days I have pondered upon the knit construction of this piece I want to make. You see there are so many ways how I could write up the pattern and the challenge for me is to choose the least complicated way!

I want the pattern to be simple, easy to follow, clear and crisp. No fuzz… I deteste fuzz in a pattern.

What do you seek in a knitting pattern

While I was cooking up my Kimono pattern, I realized that at the same time I was defining what would be a good pattern in my eyes. What do I look for in a pattern? What makes me want to knit it? What makes me not want to knit a pattern? Am I put off by the way it is written? Am I so attracted by the endpiece that I do not care how it is written?

I came to the conclusion that first and foremost I of course must fall in love with the piece. Secondly, I scan a pattern and when I see there is too much fuzz, and unclearness, I am very much put off and I have to think twice about starting the project.

Boring knitting pattern?

Some knitting patterns can be extremely boring. How about endless rows of stockinette stitch, hmm? Yikes. Boring. However, when I am excited by the endpiece, I will endure endless stockinette. I will even endure endles ribbing.

Having this said, I can already tell that my kimono pattern will be extremely boring. But that will not stop me from making it!

Biting the bullet

Endless rows of stockinette stitch, lace weight to light fingering weight yarn and US #3 needles. Oi…

Luckily, the yarn, Karabella’s Lace Merino Silk, is wonderful to work with and I simply cannot wait to see how the finished piece will look like.

I got to keep my eyes on the prize and that will keep me going. I hope..!

So, I am curious to know what kind of pattern is appealing to you? What makes you want to knit a pattern and why? Will you endure “boring” patterns? Will you concur patterns that are kind off intricately written? Or are you so put off then that you won’t choose that particular pattern?

I am curious what your take on this is!

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!

ps: thank you all so much for your compliments on my bamboo summer tops!!!!

Finished: Bamboo Summer Shell

Pattern: My own design.
Yarn: 2 skeins of Farmhouse Bonnie’s Bamboo
Needles: Addi’s circ 32″ US 7
Cast on date: Thursday, July 03, 2008
Cast off date: Sunday, July 06, 2008

I can’t help myself

Really… I cannot help myself… all I am doing is knitting, knitting, knitting. Don’t ask me how my house looks like. Don’t ask me about the piles of laundry. Cooking? What is that?

All I want to do is knit.

Pattern stitch Open Double Wing

I very much like lace pattern “Open Double Wing” from one of Barbara Walker’s pattern books. It is a 8 row repeat lace pattern and it is so incredibly easy to follow! So I made a swatch and decided to use it in my Bamboo Summer Shell.

The shell pattern? Easy Peasy!

Question for you all: What is exactly the difference between a shell/tank/camisole? I really don’t know… I just called mine “shell”.

My shell looks kind of fitted, but really, there is absolutely no shaping applied in this pattern. I Just casted on 170 stitches, did 4 repeats of the Open Double Wing pattern and then changed to stockinette stitch.

After 70 rounds, I just shaped the armholes. The neckline I just casted off in a straight line. That’s it. No finishing folks. Love easy patterns like that; simple and straight forward.

Am I loving the outcome? Eh… it’s cute… it’s a little something something. I really did not put much effort in it. I mean, you see tops like this one all over the place…

What’s next?

I am very excited about my next project. I am going to work with a lace weight yarn and US #2 or #3 needles. I want to make a light summery little sweater with batwings. My “inspiration” I got from a knitwear designer based here in Portland. Her business is called “Souchi” and she makes very stylish knitwear with an equally “stylish” pricetag.

I cannot afford her stuff, but I can certainly try to knit this cute sweater of her’s called Batwing myself!

I very much LOVE Souchi’s designs… If I had a lot of money, I would totally buy her stuff!

Loads of money I have not. Just give me a pair of needles and some strand and I’ll figure something out.

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!

Finished: Bamboo Vine Lace Tunic

Pattern: My own design.
Yarn: 3 skeins of Farmhouse Bonnie’s Bamboo
Needles: Addi’s circ 32″ US 7
Cast on date: Friday, June 27, 2008
Cast off date: Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Bamboo, what a wonderful fiber!

I am in love with bamboo… and I am in love with my bamboo tunic! It shines so beautifully and its heavy drape I heart. I am so incredibly inspired by this strong yet elegant and feminine fiber.

Inspiration for this tunic I found in a book called Knitting Lingerie Style. While browsing through the patterns, I found this:

I was especially taken by the little bit of Vine Lace used by the designer in the neckline and bottomline. So I took that idea and incorporated it into my own design:

Bamboo is so incredibly drapey. It is the drapiest yarn I have ever worked with. You can see in these pictures what it does:

But honestly, the photos do not do it justice. You should see how it hangs elegantly around the body and how it flows and moves while you walk. I am so taken by this fiber. More than I have ever been by any other fiber.

Bamboo grows considerably after washing!

Please keep in mind that bamboo’s gauge changes considerably after washing. It grows in length as well as in width so please do yourself a favour and make a gauge swatch and then WASH it before you measure your gauge! That way you will not face unpleasant surprises when you wash your finished garment for the first time!

Also I have come to the conclusion that bamboo has a very strong will of its own. It is not only heavy, but it has a heavy drape. So forget about very fitted garments in this fiber!

Very content with the outcome

At first I was not so taken by the outcome of my project. This however, changed once I washed it and blocked it! I am so content!

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!

Invigorating Forests

It is hot at the moment in Portland… very hot. How happy I was when knitter friend Eileen invited me to hike down Salmon river over at the Mount Hood area!

What beautiful nature we are fortunate to dwell in… truly beautiful. And we are so lucky to have this on planet Earth.

The next day, another friend of mine, Chayo, invited me to take a stroll in Forest Park. She wanted to show me her favorite meditation spot:

I took the picture while sitting on a rock… and oh my, the energy over there is just so invigorating!

Thank you so much my precious friends…nature is truly beautiful.

As for knitting

After the slight disappointment of my previous project, I quickly moved on to another one. I simply cannot stand the orange any longer and when I saw this at Sally’s, I was mesmerized:

It is a dk weight bamboo by Farmhouse yarns called Bonnie’s Bamboo. The Ivory colorway stole my heart and I quickly cooked up a tunic design with a tiny bit of lace.

I know, it is yet another tunic, but you know what? I just love tunics… It really works well for me! I hope this one will turn out satisfactory.

This tunic will have a base A-line only with a bit more decreases at the waist. It is going to be an easy, slightly boring knit, but this is just perfect because while knitting this simple project, I am cooking up other designs with bamboo yarn. It is very entertaining to me, I dream away while my knitting needles make that soothing clickety-clack sound.

How I love knitting… My word, how I love it.

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!

Cute Design, Wrong Fiber

I finished my Bamboo Summer Top… and I am not happy with the outcome. The design may be cute, however, the bamboo fiber I chose to work with is very beautiful but simply not the right fiber for this particulair design.

First of all, though I love the color of this bamboo yarn and I loved working with this color. But to actually wear it? Eh, not my cup of tea.

Secondly, though it looks kind of cute at first sight, I stronly have the feeling that I am not doing the bamboo any justice. The design is simply too fitted for this beautiful bamboo that so wants to drape! I have the feeling that I am forcing the bamboo into a design in which it simply cannot bloom and be itself.

Bamboo is cracking my brain

Ah, this bamboo thing is cracking my brain. In a good way! It is challenging me to find a different design for it. I am up for the challenge and simply cannot wait to write up a pattern which will be excellent for bamboo’s drape…

I don’t think I will work with the same orange bamboo again. I will choose a different bamboo yarn, with a color that is more suitable for me to wear.

What I will do with this particular one I knitted up, you might wonder?

Rippit, rippit, rippit… to the frogpond it goes!

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!

Onward to Bamboo

I have been wearing my Linen Summer Tunic for the past few days now… It feels so good, I just don’t want to take it off! I have been ironing it every single day too so that it shines so beautifully and it looks crisp and tidy! While ironing my top, my eye fell on two balls of yarn that have been living in my stash forever: South West Trading variegated 100% Bamboo….

Shiney and oh so drapy

My very first project with this wonderful bamboo yarn was my first feather and fan scarf. Remember this one?

I had some of this bamboo leftover AND I had 2 balls of bright orange sitting in my stash. I decided to work with the orange color and I quickly made a swatch with the green leftovers.

This bamboo yarn is so delicious to work with… it is buttery soft, lofty, cool to the touch, drapy and oh so shiny. I simply love it and would recommend this yarn for summery tops anytime.

There is an important thing you should know though: this yarn grows in length considerably once you wash it! When I knit up my gauge swatch, it was 9.5 inch by 9.5 inch and after washing the dimensions were 8.0 inch by 11 (!) inch.

What to make with just two balls of South West Trading Bamboo?

I knew immediately what to make with this yarn. I want to make a close fitted and shorter version of my Linen Summer Tunic!

All of my calculations are based on the gauge swatch that I made. All the information I need is right there in the gauge swatch and I begin playing with the numbers. Let’s take a closer look:

My gauge is 6 st = 1 inch and my row gauge is 7 rows = 1 inch

First question is: How do you know how much stitches to cast on?

This top will be knitted bottom up. As you can see in the drawing, my upper hip circumference is 33 inch. My gauge is 6 stitches to an inch so: 6 stitches x 33 inch = 198 stitches. I round this number to 200.

Voila! My pattern starts with the following words: Cast on 200 stitches.

Second question: You will have to decrease from upper hip to waist. How do you know how much to decrease and with how many intervals?

Let’s look at the drawing again. My upper hip measures 33 inch, and my waist measures 28 inch. This entails that I have to decrease with (33-28=) 5 inch which equals 30 stitches.

I also know that per decrease row I will decrease 4 stitches at a time. So how many rows will I have to decrease in total? 30 divided by 4 = 7.5 I will round this to 7 rows.

This means that I will have to space 7 decrease rows over the length from my upper hips to my waist. Some more calculations show me that I have to write the following:

Knit 3 rows. On the 4th row decrease. Repeat this decrease row 6 more times every 4th row.

Anyhoo, I won’t bore you with more math, I just wanted to show you the first steps that I take in writing out a pattern.

I love quick knits!

This one is going to be a real quick one too… I started two days ago with this project and I am already half way! YAY!

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!

Finished: Linen Summer Tunic

Pattern: My own design. However, neckline was inspired by Leah Tunic.
Yarn: 2.5 skeins of Euroflax Wetspun Linen by Louet
Needles: Addi’s circ 32″ US 6
Cast on date: Sunday, June 15, 2008
Cast off date: Saturday, June 21, 2008

Quickest Project…ever!

It only took me 6 days…6 days! I am amazed myself. This wonderful wonderful linen just made me knit on turbospeed and I couldn’t help myself. All I wanted to do is knit. Sweeeet.

For this little design I actually made the math happen before I started to knit. Rather than have the design organically grow, I wanted to have my figures down so that I would not have to face too much ripping out like with my top “Attitude”.

I first measured the circumference of my hips and added 1 inch. Then I measured my chest.

Hip + 1 inch = 42 inch

Chest = 36 inch

I knitted this top from the bottom up and common sense shows me that I needed to decrease from hip to chest with 6 inches (42-36=6).

Some more math and calculations showed me that if I wanted the tunic to gradually decrease, I had to make decreases 8 times, every 14th row. Easy peasy.

Neckline

Initially, I wanted to make a deep V-neckline both in front and back. However, once I held the unfinished garment against my body, I quickly noticed that linen wants to drape. So I thought, why not let it be what it wants to be and I decided to shift from V-neckline to softly draped neckline.

How great my joy was when I bumped into this Leah Tunic design while perusing the net. I incorporated the neckline used in the Leah Tunic design, into my own. Thanks so much Purl Bee for sharing this design. And thanks so much Leah, for giving me inspiration for the neckline!

Bouncy and flouncy nature of Linen

I simply adore linen’s drapey characther. It bounces and flounces so beautifully and one can especially see it at the neckline and at the bottom part of my tunic. I love love love it!

After I casted off, I threw my tunic in the washer and then in the dryer. Once out of the dryer I stretched out my garment vertically. You see, I wanted my stitches to elongate… Linen seems to be so pretty that way. Finally, I ironed my tunic making sure pulling the garment even more vertically.

It came out so lovely!

I can wear this tunic with some pants, I can wear it as a beach dress over my bikini and I can wear it as a nightie. I wish you all could feel how deliciously it caresses the skin… sigh. Great for hot weather!

I am very happy with the outcome of this casual and leisurely garment!

Thanks for reading and untill the next entry!