Still Sugar..

So far , so good.

Featherweight inspiration

My favourite past time when fed up with my office work is to check other knitting blogs, ravelry, online magazines, etc.. You can learn a lot about whats going on in the knitting world. what patterns are popular, which magazines got out, books etc. I think its wonderful people can self publish their designs all online , no need for books. Great opportunity for working from home and even setting up your own business. I take great pleasure in watching how knitters pick their favourite design and then make it their own, modify it, substitute the yarn, change a few details. I get so much inspiration from it. Here is example of this kind;

Hanna Fettig from knitbot published a breezy little top, done in Malabrigo lace, featherweight cardigan. Now when I saw it I thought its is cute , charming and good for using my Malabrigo. Then I spotted such a wonderful version knitted by Taryn : see photo above as well.

Taryn used dream in color , baby, in shiny moss color. The photography helps but you can see how elegant this top became after adding the feather and fan hem. I absolutely adore this piece and thank you so much Taryn for explaining how you modified Hanna's pattern. Sorry Hanna, but in this case I think the pupil might outdone the master!
Socktopus , as far as I know are the only ones who stock baby but the colors are limited and when phoning them did not seem to be helpful in ordering shiny moss for me so I might be needing to order it from the states..
Where is the summer by the way? Is that it?!

Slow growth..

I've been busy with sugar. It is growing painfully slow, endless white knitting..I have 2 black and white border collies that shed hair at the same speed I managed to clear. The black hairs somehow always manage to lift themselves and lodge in the white pristine stitches. I've always raised an eyebrow when shopping on e-bay for wool and reading the 'pet free house' comments but now have a greater sympathy for the subject. Just have to accept that my white cardi is going to be a mixture of silky mohair, supreme shetland and canine fur..




The construction of this cardigan is unusual , not your normal 2 fronts, back and 2 sleeves . So far I've knitted the back and 2 front seamlessly up to armholes , put the 2 fronts stitches on scrap yarn and knitted up the back while decreasing for the armholes.

July is an anticipation month for the forthcoming autumn season. My postman does not know it but he is being watched constantly. I'm learining from past mistakes and wont allow my collies to get to my Rowan magazine, not even a sniff. I prefer my magazines without toothmarks, you see..;-) .I've seen some previews of the patterns and the fair isles are good.

goodbye for now.

Daisy

Shoot me...

White as Sugar

I'm always looking up for unic wearable designs and my latest find is the danish designer Marianne Isager. I was aware of her but when I stumbled upon her book Japanese Inspired Knits I thought that is one to look out for. She has a nice way with colors and what looks like simple forward approach towards knitting but a closer look shows a thoughtful brilliant construction about her garments. I have started knitting a piece from Classic knits.

Its called 'Sugar'. A clean lined cardigan worked in garter stitch, punctuated with narrow two stitch cables.

Now Marianne knitted her cardi with her own yarns which are not readily available in the UK. I have swatched a few times to achieve a slightly tighter gauge and came up with a combination of rowan kid silk haze in white teamed with a cone of Lacy Shetland 'supreme' which was bought last year in Ally Pally.

Knitting is very slow with this one as it is garter and the back and two fronts are being knitted in one go. I'm putting myself a target of achieving at least one button hole per day. so far so good.

Here is a close up. The book shows 2 cardigans , one with dark buttons and one with creamy color. I chose to have the dark ones from rowan as contrast. What do you think? We love...!