Or Incentives to use my calendar...
I made some mistakes… When it says “increase” or “decrease” in the end or beginning of a row, the authors always mean that you should do it a few stitches in so that you will have an even edge for the sewing part. I forgot and had to do without an even edge at the sewing part… And when I was making the left front, I thought I had remembered how to do the decreases. I hadn’t, so the left front has a deeper curve than the right one.
Can you see that? Of course you can’t! So who cares.
What you hopefully can see is
my “handmade of…” etiquette and my handmade tag with size, yarn quality and washing instructions (information that I believe the recipient of the gift will appreciate).
If you make a lot of things, or if you loose a lot of things, it can be worth to order some woven etiquettes. I got mine from www.vavnamn.se (a Swedish site, but I’m sure there are English versions out there).
I had this pretty yarn, light grey, black with silver and gold threads and balls. It was unfortunately both itchy and a bit over done. So I decided to mix it with grey alpaca fleece and knit the ballerina pullover from Stefanie Japel’s Fitted knits. I’ve never done top-down knitting working on circular needles before, but I know that I will do it again. The nice thing with it is that you can try it on while you knit, 
if you put the stitches on a thread or an extra circular needle. This gives a great opportunity for fitting. In addition, when the knitting is done, you don’t have to sew 4 pieces together. That always bores med out.
One particular difference between Stefanie’s knits and things I’ve seen before is the increases and decreases done very close to center back instead of a
t the sides, being a design element in itself. I choose to modify that part, moving the increases and decreases to be between the sides and center back, resembling what you do when you are sewing. I also shortened the distance between the cables to get more turns.
When it has the desired length I will pick up the stitches for the sleeves. The knit looks a lot better in the mirror than on these pictures. ;)
Errata for Fitted knits can be found at glampyre.com
In I much loved one gave me a subscription of another magazine this year since Vogue knitting had a tendency not to show up (when I complained they were very fast in sending me the lost issues though). He believed it was safer to buy it in the store when it arrived... Instead he gave me “kreativa kvinnor” (creative women), a more of an all-round magazine representing lots of techniques. They had the pattern for this cute lamp that will replace all window stars in the apartment, keeping the light on until the sun returns.
I have made a hanger for the ne
edles, using a front for a drawer from IKEA’s bargain corner, 10 angle hooks and some Christmas paint on sale at Panduro. For every hook I have painted what needle size (I’m supposed) to find there. Inspired by the tidiness I’ve cleaned my needles (a good thing to do every now and then). The tails will straighten out eventually when I won’t curl them up all the time.
I’ve just now finished a pair of wrist warmers for my going-to-be sister-in-law (who carried 15 books for me on the plane). The pair on the picture is worked in purple mohair in a wave pattern with brown beads on the edge, knitted on 
made my 3 rows of garter stitch. The body is worked with 4 repeats of waves, between every row of wave repeats are 3 rows of stockinette stitch (slätstickning). The first 3 wave repeat items are worked over 19 stitches each (the cast on was 19*4+2=78 stitches): k2tog 3 times, k1, *cast over, k1* 6 times, skpo 3 times. Then I decreased 6 stitches per repeat and worked wave repeats over 13 stitches: k2tog 4 times, k1, *omslag, k1* 4 times, skpo 2 times. After 4 wave row repeats, I increased a stitch between each repeat. Continue until you have the desired length, knit 3 rows garter stitch and bind of. Sew the seam inside the two edge stitches.
Three baby knits (among other things). 
Two knits from Baby Bloom by Erica Knight. The first one, a fake wrap around cardigan in vine red cotton-viscose blend, has been resting for a few months because I haven’t taken the time to figure out how the front edges should be worked from the pattern. In addition, 
I have taken the needles to use for other projects in the meantime. Such as this little knitted jacket in pigeon blue cotton that I will work on during my research school that starts on Monday. The third ongoing baby knit is a bow-tied bolero for my niece’s first birthday (but schhhhh, don’t tell her) from Simple Knits by Debbie Bliss.
Did you believe that I was content with my transatlantic book treasure? Of course you didn’t! Another 15 books arrived with my going-to-be-sister-in-law just before new years. Most of them dealt with crochet, some dealt with cross stitch, bead and wire, bags and patchwork. As you can see, I can’t stick to one thing. That’s why I only do nuts (as a guy in a store told me). 
Check out the new spring-summer collection from Drops Design. Not all of the patterns are uploaded yet, but from the pictures I can tell it is their best collection yet! My favorites are W-359, and SA-041.
