Wild Apple

Not so long ago I bought 'poems of color' knitting in the bohus tradition by Wendy Keeley. Its a lovely book with lots of traditional examples of the bohus style. The garments are lively colored on stockinette stitch background with interspersed purl stitches for texture. Fair Isle garments have just two colors per row and utilize steeks. In the bohus stickning patterns ,there could be any number of colors in a row, and steeks are not been used.



Kerstin Olsson is a bohus stickning designer and is one of my favourites. I have ordered her 'the wild Apple ' kit from Solveig Gustafsson in Sweden. she is a clever dyer and produces the original colors for the official patterns.http://www.solsilke.se/



Here is what my postman delivered yesterday. I'm so glad my two border collies did not get the parcel first . would have been a really expensive disaster.




The yarns are in a superb quality and hence the price. Its a blend of angora and merino, %50 each. realy soft but not 'mohairy'.There is enough to knit an extra large cardigan so I'm sure I will manage a hat or two with the remains.

this is a version done by the , http://theraineysisters.com/

Now will have to be careful with the gauge, I knit the colored bit slightly tighter than the plain stockinette. Have to be strong though, still half a sleeve to go on the Marion Foale's Jacket..

The perfect shawlette

I have finished one sleeve of Marion Foale's green Jacket but I think It is a bit like watching paint dry, few more inches will be too boring to show so decided to bring you ishbel, courtesy of Ysolda http://ysolda.com/wordpress/2009/01/14/ishbel-pattern/. On ravelry you can see dozens of this lovely shawlette.

I purchased the same yarn the original pattern was made from, an Old Maiden Aunt yarn. a 4 ply mix of alpaca and merino, 'moody'.

It is the perfect size for me to use as a cowboy triangular scarf;

Here I am in a chilly spring day somewhere in the new forest. Love it and it is almost always in my handbag ,ready to be pulled out in time of need.

Double Martha

While the knitting the Marion Foale's Jacket goes somewhat slowly, I thought to start organise previous knits into some manageable order. In Rowan magazine no 37, 'Martha' in 4 ply cotton by Stella smith proved to be so successful I have knitted it twice. In 2006 I chose a green 4 ply mercerised cotton which I purchased in the historic town Trogir-unesco world heritage site, Croatia and set it with the jeager turquoise beads.











Husband knows that when travelling, no matter where, the missus has to have her yarn shop fix .I'm doing my bit of research and bookmarking all interesting 'yarn /buttons/beads' places .Whilst in Sardinia, I have read in the tourist guide that a Macomer ,has a long tradition in wool manufacture so with high expectations I dragged the tribe along in a filthy cold weather but upon arrival nothing was in sight, a complete sleepy town. I stopped at a cafe to drown my sorrows and while having the best chocolate I've ever tasted, I did some pantomime and tried to ask the Sardinian waitress ‘ donde' wool? She of course did not understand a word in English but after a few tries she pulled me out of the cafe and next door, hidden at the back was a little heaven of yarny staff...bliss..and there I found my really soft charcoal hairy 4 ply alpaca! Written on the label - silke by arvier, bergamo Italy. The six soft balls lay dormant in the stash until I felt the crave to redo martha again. The beads are the gunmetal from jeager. This one is one of my favourites.











and zooming in, see all those white hairs on the black background…





yum..I'm going to have my own llamas, you'll see..I'm already asserting it on dear husband...

First design..

When purchasing the Weardowney knit couture book , I fell in love with this cardigan.

Actually I was drooling over it. Last October when visiting the knitting and stitching show in Alexandra Palace, London , I went purposely to the Weardowney stall, and started chatting to the heavily pregnant Gail Downey. I made strong hints towards getting the pattern for this cardi but was told that it was part of their line and now discontinued. This was when I made my mind to try and create something beautiful similar to this. I purchased from Gail the original lurex yarn, about £8 per 100g ball. Its looks very similar to the now discontinued rowan lurex. The color is very vintage pink bronze.

So after a lot of experimenting I came out with this. The color is the same as in the book but looks here pink purple. The challenge in this piece was the shaping in the chevron pattern. I had to find a way to increase without being to noticeable. I placed my increases next to the natural ridges occurring in this pattern and I'm quite pleased with the results.

I think the best way to wear it is actually to twin it with your basic jeans otherwise it is too sparkley. Also I got a tip from Gail Downey, the lurex if washed with a fabric conditioner becomes much more 'silky'. I'm very fond of those bronse buttons which were purchased in Paris. The right buttons do beautify a garmen and I always ponder much about which buttons to saw in.

Marion Foale's Jacket

18052009422, originally uploaded by bespokeknits.

Its actually green, but looks here blue. So far sleeveless..

The beginning

Hi,

Before I start I would like to apologize in advance if my grammar etc are faulty as English is not my first language.

I grew up in Israel. My mum used to have a knitting shop so me and yarn and knitting go back a long way..

On my needles at the moment is a beautiful classic piece of Marion Foale. I'm sure many of you are familiar with her designs. very tailored, very textured. She made a few appearances in the rowan books but We (My knitting group in Rosie's wine bar , Southsea, Portsmouth) have spotted her kits and patterns in WOMAN'S WEEKLY, out of all places!.. Few of us fell in love with the' thyme green Jacket', and a knit along started.

The pattern calls for Marion Foale's dk sport wool which looks a bit optimistic as the gauge is 29 sts... Anyway I used rowan's 4 ply soft,'leafy' and those chevron and double moss stitches are well defined. I find it very satisfying to knit: easy to memorise but not that simple.

So far I've finished the back, two fronts, colar, buttons..

I'll publish it as soon as I will figure out the technical bits...