Elegance Knits again

I am absolutely obsessed with this top and I'm desperately trying to find out the original yarn.

Here are the requirements

hopefully somebody will help me translate this.

Up to now I've tried Rowan 4 ply soft - too thin, Zarina - didn't like the twist in the twisted stitches, Debbie Bliss cotton blend - too splitty... call me fussy, but I need to get this right as I will be probably knitting it for the rest of my life :).

Keito Dama 135

Just received this Keito Dama magazine this morning.
The link above is in Amazon Japan, unfortunately the book is out of stock in YesAsia.

It has lots of unusual cabled patterns and delicate combinations of lace and cable motifs.

This vest bellow is my favourite and hopefully I'm going to start it very soon as it is, or a a short sleeve cardi.

And on top of everything I was so happy to find an article dedicated to our Romanian lace point tradition.

Can't describe my surprise to open a Japanese magazine in England, and see a picture of my Romanian hometown.

Lace point is really popular in Romania, probably the most popular handcraft - and everybody is designing and creating their own patterns.

My mother is a real expert, needless to say my house is full of similar doilies and tablecloths.

I'm glad somebody finally got an interest on it.

Shawl #3

Finally, after nine months, I finished my shawl.

This is Shawl #3 from the Let's Knit Book 11.

I started it last May, and just finished it this week . . . and even that would have taken a lot longer if I hadn't eliminated two of the pattern repeats (grin).

The yarn was Zephyr's silk/wool in color, "Curry." I used JUST over one skein. (As in, about 3 yards of yarn from the second skein--just enough to bind-off the last 30 or so stitches.

I'm relieved to have this done (finally), but have enjoyed working on it . . . mostly. As much as I love the look and feel of Zephyr, we just don't really get along. (It's a long story.)

It sure came out pretty, though....

--Deb

Beautiful knits

I recently came across Ishi's Knitting Diary. Most of her patterns are from Japanese magazines and I thought they'll be a great inspiration for us. Just pay a visit and you'll be in for a treat.

With Ishi's permission, I will publish here her latest FO - this beautiful sweater - pattern from Let's Knit Series.


The motif is very similar with the one I've used for my white top - but heavily modified towards the neck line, in order to achive the overall decrease. Ingenios and elegant.

New Style of Heirloom Knitting

It's not the Am Kamin which is the winner with me, but the oak leaf and the acorn motif.

So I had to try it - in line with my new resolution of knitting only from my stash - as I just discovered this nice green yarn ( too long forgotten).

Here it is:

and it's really easy.

Or to be more specific it became easy when I've realised that the twisted symbols (or the 'flying fishes') are NOT 'ktb's but strand increases. They are suppose to be oriented towards the right (the bold ones) or towards the left, the plain ones.

A brilliant explanation here: Strand Increase. Read this and you'll be fine. The Strand Increase(1) is for the bold twisted stitch, the Strand Increase(2) is for the plain one.

Next challenge is the mini chart A (8 stitches). It's about a small 'bobble' and a cable - because you would like to 'push' the bobble a bit away from the leaf main body.

So it goes like this: save 3 stitches on a cn at the back, knit the bobble according to the mini chart for the bobble (5 stitches reduced to one) then purl 3 from the cable needle. Easy.

Chart B is the bobble on the other side, and it is symmetrical. I trust my readers to be able to figure it out.

My swatch above has two mistakes, unfortunately I'm too lazy to go back a long way to correct anything. First there are two purled lines in the acorn pattern and I missed one - then I've lost one or two stitches from the background at some point, so my main leaf is slightly leaning towards the left. Sorry :).

Let's just call it the Leaning Oak Leaf in a windy day.

The book can be found here in YesAsia. Or just collect the ISBN number and feel free to google.

Knitting Patterns Book 250

This book is probably my favourite knitting book ever. ( The links in YesAsia and Amazon Japan are listed on the right side of the page).




I did a swatch for the cover pattern - following a discussion on the knittinginjapan yahoo group - just to see how it goes. It's pattern 086, page 40.

Pretty much straight forward, but I did a mistake on row 12 - it's a WS row with a kind of 'unexpected' change in pattern.

Apart from this, there are no particular challenges, it will only require an ambitious beginner to use it.

And I guess It will only work well with a yarn with a very good stitch definition.

Vintage Knitting in Tradition

Remember the famous Am Kamin sweater and the acorn leaf motif ?
Well, Shimada Toshiyuki is out with a new book.
Arans, shawls, fair isle, a bohus style sweater and the acorn leaf slightly modified.
Click on the image bellow in order to browse a few pages on Amazon Japan.



The book is available in YesAsia, as well, at this address.

There are a few mistakes in this edition, an but there is an errata available in pdf format.