Tag Archives: Strokkur

Finished Strokkur

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Strokkur

Well after almost two years I can say I finally finished Strokkur!  Hurray.  For anybody who reads my blog and hasn’t been following the saga I have cast on and ripped this sweater back So. Many. Times. it isn’t even funny.  Now that I see how long ago I cast this on I think easily over a dozen times.  Due to gauge issues. I finally decided to F it and just knit it.  If it was too big I would slightly felt it.  If it was too small I have children.  And here we are with a sweater that blocked perfectly to proportions {maybe a smidge longer} and is so cozy.

Now some notes….

I rarely knit sweaters because I am perpetually dieting.  I lost 4″ off my bustline since this summer when I decided I didn’t care anymore about my gauge.  Since Ysolda is so wonderful about offering a huge range of sizes this sweater is now a size larger than I would have picked if I were starting to knit it today.

I need to fold back the sleeves about 3″ which means I officially have mutantly short arms.  My last sweater I knit for myself… the lovely Retro Prep all the way back in 2014, which also took @ 2 yrs to complete hmmmm, had long sleeves as well.  I plan on tackling a top down sweater to figure out how long my sleeves should be.

The neckline is wide… one of those really wide barely scooped out jobs I have seen often on Ravelry.  I am actually not sure I like it. On one side my tank top & bra straps show. On the other side however, because my circumference is almost the same as my height yessss I am a ball,  having a non crew or turtleneck means I look less round.  I usually buy V-necks to cut into the expanse of my chest and this neckline is slightly less flattering but still attractive.

I blocked the sweater out to about an inch longer than called for and my shortness means it may just be a smidge too long.  I believe it is 24″ long which is significantly shorter than the 27″ I used to consider tunic length.  Again being short, I think I need to cut another 2-3″ off of it.  Not sure if the length is imagined or factual due to weight of sweater.

I have been wearing this sweater often since I finished it a week ago.  It sat for about 2 weeks waiting for me to weave in ends so kicking myself.  I love the fuzzy coziness of it tho I know some people find Icelandic scratchy.  Okay it is slightly scratchy but I don’t care.  It has also been unseasonably warm.  St Louis is one of those cities that doesn’t really get cold or get much snow :weeps: and we have been looking at temps in the 70’s.  Elka doesn’t care.  I wore it last night with my Pendleton wool skirt pic for reminder:

My husband said wow honey that sweater and skirt look great together.  I let him know that yes I knit the sweater to go with the skirt.  Success!

BTW the astute will have figured out I bought a skirt I couldn’t fit into and then bought yarn to knit a sweater to go with it and then lost about 40 lbs…. most of it in the past 4 months.

yarny days and knitterly evenings~

Elka

A Shawl & A Sweater

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

 

 

I am breaking my long standing one project at a time habit.  My socks have stalled and been stalled for months.  I just got all socked out I guess.

I picked up a shawl pattern, Sharon Miller’s ‘The Grey Shawl’, which used to be sold on her website as Project #2.  It is a Hap Shawl so I suppose it could be in her Shetland Hap Shawls; Then and Now but it doesn’t look like it… the really appealing part of it, to me, is the color Grey!, and the changing colors in border.  However there are many other similar patterns out there from various designers.  A hap isn’t supposed to be fancy schmancy after all. The pattern and yarn kit was a gift from my friend Mama Liz in 2004.  I recall starting it and then, after finishing the center diamond/square, ripping it.  I am either much more laissez faire about my knitting these days or I was just crazy.  I have moved past the center onto the border and cannot for the life of me imagine why I was dissatisfied the first time.

I have been working on it slowly, while watching Game of Thrones on DVD, Midsomer Murders on Netflix, and Vintage Dr. Who on Britbox.  Right now we are in the 2nd season of Dr. Who and I am looking forward to a new Dr.  This morning I spread out my shawl in progress in preparation of first color change and saw that I had a dropped stitch in the actual center part… the last row prior to picking up border and went back.  Despite this it is being a satisfying knit although I shouldn’t have started the border while trying to suss out who dunnit last night.  Here is my shawl after fixing my center and picking up for the border:

Redoing border pick-up

I recently joined Instagram.  Not because I have plans to share my pictures, which I have always felt lacked a certain something something, but because I wanted to be able to follow people. After redoing my border pick-up I took a break and bopped online to enjoy some pictures and did you know they have something called fairislefriday?  This of course, combined with my current Jamieson & Smith yarn knitting, had me hankering for some color work.  While I was eyeing the wee little hanks and balls of shetland around my husband asked me what I was doing.  I told him I was thinking of knitting a sweater for myself.

Dear hearts would you believe my husband unkindly scoffed?  Well he did.  Probably because, in all the years of my knitting, I have only knit three sweaters for myself.  The first I promptly gave away… literally off my back.  That was in 1986.  The second I knit while pregnant with Zoe in 1995: Rosemaling from Knitters Issue #32.  I never did get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and it just didn’t fit correctly since I had knit it for my pre-baby figure. The third sweater, my most successful, was knit in 1998, without a pattern out of pink Satakieli yarn.  The whole process, from picking out the stitch, modifying it to be worked in the round, figuring out sizing and design elements as I went along, even the yarn were a joy.  Unfortunately the style I had chosen, lacy, became impractical for my new life as a mom.  Tyler was born the following year and then Nece.  Of course I love my children but running after them in a dressy tunic just didn’t work.

Anyway my husband is unaware of my previous sweaters only my Strokkur failures.  I have knit it three times only to find my gauge has tightened between hem and yoke.  I am unsure if this is because it was winter time, and I was wanting a a hand knit sweater, or if it is just one of those yarns that my fingers want to be at a certain gauge.  It has been known to happen.

Regardless Instagramers, Instagrammers?, apparently tag anything stranded as fair isle and given my mistake during tv watching on shawl I figured some nice relaxing stocking stitch in the round would be good.  I pulled out Strokkur, which I had restarted for the forth time a while ago, from its knitting bag and have been amusing myself with my stitch marker.  Enjoy my lovely bunny:

Strokkur Restarted

There is my pattern in the background.  I think I have it printed out a dozen times at this point!

Bunny Tails

The pink ball along time is one of those jingly jangly balls that rings as my knitting gets shaken.  The bunny has a silver stand and the cutest little cotton tail.

Beribboned

Beribboned

Okay not quite beribboned but still!  We last saw Strokkur last November.  I have finished 2 sleeves, which are still on point regarding gauge, so I hope if I concentrate on staying slow and relaxed the body will also not tighten up.

Yarny days and knitterly evenings~

Elka

YOP#6 Week 18

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

YOP6_Banner_perfect_lines_slightly_larger_medium

 

Last week I knit a pair of socks for my husband.  Unfortunately I misread how long the foot is to be, I keep such notes on Ravelry, and did 7″ from back of heel instead of 7″ from end of heel shaping.  Socks are now for Tyler who has scored 3 pairs of socks since YOP goals were assembled.  This pair, and the last pair, are to be Christmas gifts.

This August we went to MidAmericon in Kansas City and I purchased Tyler a piece of artwork from art show.  It was a relatively expensive gift and he was told to not expect anything for Christmas so the socks are all the unwrapping he will be doing this year.

So the yarn is an oldie from my stash.  There was a time, say 11  yrs ago or so, when I purchased several hanks of Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn and I am down to 3 hanks after this one called Moose Creek. For some reason it always looked like a brownish plum color but honestly it is a brown and my eyes were just drawn to the flashes of plum or burgundy in it.  Here is the hank wound up into a yarn cocoon:

Mountain Colors Bearfoot Moose Creek yarn cocoon.

Mountain Colors Bearfoot Moose Creek yarn cocoon.

 

See the plum and reddish tints?

Here is the finished sock, overexposed and unwashed.  You can see how the colors pooled but it isn’t nearly as obvious in the actual sock:

Finished sock

Finished sock

 

One nice thing about Bearfoot sock yarn is the mohair content which makes it super warm and cushy.  Usually whenever I wash a pair I reach inside and take out yarn pills.  Sometimes I let them gather for a while and it is extra padding on sole of foot.  For some reason it just pills inside the foot.  I have knit textured socks and the texture is basically lost after several washes.  But these have made my warmest and longest lasting socks.  I have  pair going back 8 years.  My Mad Color Weave socks.  I also have a couple of pairs even older than that but I don’t have them saved anywhere handy picture wise. Most were Michelle’s Basic Sock pattern.

Another awesome thing about this sock yarn is that it is slightly heavier than fingering weight.  I think it is the mohair again.  The yarn feels dense and plush and fills in any place that would normally have a gap such as the gusset area.  Here is a close up of heel and gusset to once again show color of socks {not overexposed}:

Sock heel and gusset

Feel free to click to embiggen 🙂

The pattern is A Classic Sock from Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks book.  I purchased my copy when Zoe was a baby so about 21 yrs ago and it is falling apart at this point.

In a few days Wovember starts.  I have been anticipating Wovember for weeks.  I have cast on Strokkur and am hoping I don’t have the same tension woes that caused me to rip and reknit this sweater 3 times so far.  I have switched from my Trusty Grays {aka Aero needles} to bamboo ones hoping that will help.  I am also planning on measuring every 20 rows or so which is annoying but should end up with a finally FO.  It is expected to be in the mid-80’s on Tuesday, not the least bit Wovemberish at all, but such is St. Louis weather.  Winters here tend to be relatively warm and drizzly instead of snowy.  It makes me sad but home is where the heart is and I do heart my family.

yarny days and knitterly evenings

~Elka

 

Knitting for Others

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Disco Socka

Disco Socka

I really enjoy knitting for my beloved.  He is very appreciative of anything I make for him.  I have only knit him socks and mitts but he never complains about color or fiber choices.

I do worry, however, when knitting for others.  My children are persnickity, my sister doesn’t wear my hand knits and my mom tends tuck away the goods as too nice to wear.  Did I mention I saw her in Chicago when I went to see the big Greek Exhibit over holiday break?  She, my mom, was wearing Laminaria over her winter coat.  I knit that when the pattern came out–over the winter ’07/spring ’08 and gave it to her for Christmas ’08 so it was nice to see it in action.

So update.  Strokkur is idling.  It seems that in my hurry to have something super warm and toasty to wear over the winter I tightened up my gauge as I progressed with the knitting.  Yes I knit the sleeves first.  Yes I measured my washed and unwashed swatches.  I ripped and restarted the sweater with  larger needles and once again my knitting tightened up.  I am a bit frustrated by this turn of events.  Only once before have I had this happen to me–when knitting a throw for Berroco yarns in their Chinchilla yarn.  I think I tried to  knit that a dozen times before I called and said it just wasn’t going to work.

My proposed fix at the moment is to wait until it is sweltering outside and I will not be in any hurry whatsoever to wear it and then cast on again.

Meanwhile I was showing my fabulous elegant gauntlets to a co-worker and her eyes just lit up.  She exclaimed about how soft they were and pretty and warm.  I offered to knit her a pair of her very own for a flat rate that would kinda cover the cost of yarn.  I did this while another co-worker was in the office and she too would like a pair of ‘arm socks’  Very gratifying to this knitter’s heart that others are wanting gauntlets of their very own.

Once I faced the fact that this winter was to pass without my wearing Strokkur I was a bit down in the doldrums and it took a while to find my knitting mojo & suitable yarns in my stash.  For the first co-worker I am having a hard time finding a yarn with the similar feel, color etc as my prism mia but the second said she liked pink and most importantly I believe, easy care.  I went through my stash and found several balls of the now discontinued Schoeller + Stahl Fortissimo Colori Disco Socka.  Wow what a mouthful.  I have actually knit several socks and hats and mitts out of this yarn and find it to be a true workhorse of a yarn.  It doesn’t pill, barely fades and I have yet to encounter a hole in any item knit out of it.  I have a pair of socks that are 8 yrs old at this point that still look brand new.  Anyway I decided that this yarn would be perfect for Kristen’s arm socks.  The finished babies are in the washing machine right now having the stitches evened out so a picture of the gauntlets in progress will have to suffice.  Above you have a close up of the yarn chosen that I sent to Kristen to make sure it wasn’t too pink or glitzy for her and below you see proof that despite being knit smaller than mine they still fit a human arm.  The wrist looks impossibly tiny on and off the needles… a heads up for anybody who looks at the gauntlets and thinks these will never fit.  They do. 🙂

Trying on impossibly tiny mitts to make sure they fit.

Trying on impossibly tiny mitts to make sure they fit.

yarny days and knitterly evenings~Elka