Knits 'n' Pieces ← by Asti

Indie Design Gift-A-Long 2016

Nov

2016

A year has passed and Indie Design Gift-A-Long is here again. The sale period will end tonight, but KAL/CALs with lots of games and competitions and lots of prizes to win (patterns from GAL designers, yarn, kits, stitch markers, books etc) will run until December 31 midnight US EST. So if you haven’t yet, come and join Indie Design Gift- A-Long group on Ravelry now, there is still plenty of time to knit or crochet some wonderful Christmas gifts for your friends and family.

Again, there are a lot of talented designers participating and a lot of beautiful patterns to knit or crochet. There are some patterns that really caught my eye and which I’m hoping to knit for this Christmas.

My first project during this GAL will be Wheatsheaf Cowl by Loraine Birchall (last year I knitted her Evergreen Hat for my daughter and she still loves it). I love the cables on this cowl. I had a perfect purple yarn at home, so I actually already finished knitting it. I just have to take pretty pictures of my cowl.

Wheatsheaf Cowl

Next I want to knit some socks. I’m not yet sure which ones to make first, but there are two on my list: Sela’s Socks by CraftArella and A River Life by Tisserin Coquet. I need to find some solid yarn for these.

Sela’s Socks

A River Life

I also found a beautiful tam – Snow over Leiden by Kirsten McTeer – that would look perfect with my own First Snow mittens.

Snow over Leiden

And I want to knit a shawl. I think Laetare by Ranée Mueller is just the one I need. It is simple, but elegant and I think I have the yarn for this.

Laetare

I also want to knit a Christmas stocking, because I never had one and I think Selbu Roses Christmas Stocking by Denise Balvanz looks just right.

Selbu Roses Christmas Stocking

See you in KAL/CALs!

Overwhelming GAL – so many beautiful patterns

Nov

2015

The sale period of the Gift-A-Long will soon be over (it ends Friday, November 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm US EST) and I’m gonna show you what you are missing if you haven’t joined this event yet.

Gift-A-Long 2015 Sale Patterns – just look at this huge bundle of patterns, there are so many beautiful ones that it makes your head spin (well, at least that’s how I feel :) )!!! Or look at all these wonderful pictures on Pinterest!!!

I have found so many new talented and inspirational designers and fantastic designs and I would like to share some of these pearls.

Kate Bostwick is a designer from England. She designs everything from hats and cowls to sweaters and pillows. All her designs are so bright and colorful. I absolutely love her mittens – Mount Rundle Mittens and Kicking Horse Mittens (photo copyright Kate Bostwick). She blogs here.

Mount Rundle Mittens

Kicking Horse Mittens

Loraine Birchall is also from UK. She designs everything from hats to cardigans, she also has some knitted bangles in her collection. She loves colors and texture. I fell in love with her beautiful cabled hats Evergreen Hat and Wheatsheaf Hat (photo copyright Loraine Birchall). Her website is here.

Evergreen Hat

Wheatsheaf Hat

Marcela Chang is from Chile. She mostly designs shawls and hats, but also mitts and cardigans. Her designs have lovely lace patterns and beautiful colorwork. I totally adore her cardigan Fall in Love (photo copyright marcelachangdesigns) and her Southern Star hat is so pretty (photo copyright Marcela Chang). She blogs here.

Fall in Love

Southern Star

Meiju K-P is a designer from my neighbour country Finland. She mostly designs shawls and sweaters, but she also has some hats and mitts and knits for kids in her collection. Most of her designs have subtle patterns and colors, but they all look so pretty and interesting. It’s really difficult to choose my favourites, but the first ones that caught my eye were her Pier View shawl (photo copyright Tanu Kallio) with its shape and colors and Tavie cardigan with its gorgeous cables (photo copyright Meiju K-P/Tanu Kallio). Her blog is here.

Pier View

Tavie

Solène Le Roux is a young designer from France. Her collection of hats, cowls and socks is still quite small. Her designs have a lot of texture and they are youthful and hip. I really like her Treboul shawl and Padova Hat (photo copyright Solène Le Roux). Her blog is here.

Treboul

Padova Hat

Vikki Bird is from UK. She mostly designs beautiful blankets, but there are some cowls, hats and baby items in her collection as well. Her designs are really colorful and cheerful. Just look at these adorable blankets – Fluffy White Clouds (photo copyright VikkiBirdDesigns) or The Knitbots baby blanket (photo copyright Vikki Bird)! Her blog is here.

Fluffy White Clouds

The Knitbots baby blanket

Come and join GAL 2015 and support indie designers. See you in KAL/CALs!

Indie Design Gift-A-Long 2015

Nov

2015

So it is time for the Indie Design Gift-A-Long on Ravelry. GAL is a 6 week long KAL/CAL of holiday gifts made from patterns designed by independent designers (335 participating designers this year). This is my first year as a participating designer and I am really thankful to Elitza, who told me about this wonderful event.

From Thursday, November 19th at 8:00 pm US EST to Friday, November 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm US EST these 335 indie designers will be discounting between 5 – 20 of their patterns 25% for this event (5065 patterns this year). To get the discount use coupon code: giftalong2015.

For more details join Indie Design Gift- A-Long group on Ravelry and take part in KAL/CALs, there are lots of games and competitions and lots of prizes to win (patterns from GAL designers, yarn, kits, stitch markers, books etc). KAL/CALs will run from Thursday, November 19th at 8:00 pm US EST to Thursday, December 31 at midnight US EST.

My bundle of discounted patterns:

A hat with a lot of twisted stitches – Twisted Fall

Nov

2015

I wanted to knit a simple warm hat to wear in the winter. I thought that cables would make it a bit more interesting, but then I came across stitch patterns with twisted stitches and I was sold. No need for complicated cables when you can just twist two stitches at a time and get stitch patterns that look as good (or even better :)) than cables.

I chose the yarn because of its color (Jewel 698). I just love that color :) The yarn is very soft and lovely Rowan Baby Merino Silk DK (66% Merino Superwash Wool, 34% Tussah Silk; 147yds / 135m, 1.76oz / 50g). It took 2 balls to knit the hat.

To keep the ears really warm I worked a double ribbing to this hat.

Twisted Fall hat fits head circumference 21–22” / 54–56cm.

Finished measurements of the hat: circumference, unstretched 16” / 41cm and length 10” / 25cm.

You can find Twisted Fall hat pattern on Ravelry

Two-colored garter stitch shawl – Crossroads

Mar

2015

I had been playing with the idea of striped shawl in garter stitch for a while and finally I did it. I wanted it to be a nice warm shawl to wrap around the neck or shoulders on a cold day. I was looking for the right yarn and colors for this and didn’t find any, but then one day I won two skeins of Marskogens lamm yarn from Woolmint (in English soon, blog here) and this yarn was meant for this wrap. :) It is 100% wool and so soft and nice and really a pleasure to knit with.

Crossroads is worked in one piece, starting with the first triangle and then moving on to the center part and the second triangle, joining it all together as you go along. Wrap is shaped with short rows (+ increasing and decreasing of center part). The border is worked to the wrap later. Don’t let the short rows to intimidate you, it is really not that difficult to work them and they are described in the pattern.

Although it is all in garter stitch, 1/3 of the wrap is purled and the rest knitted. RS of the wrap has these clean and clear stripes of purl rows. On the WS the colors seam a bit foggy and blended with each other and there is a nice row of alternating chains which makes a pretty design feature. So if you weave in the ends carefully, you could use either side of the wrap as RS.

It took 2 skeins of Marskogens lamm (100% wool; 382yds / 350m, 353oz / 100g) to knit this wrap (382yds / 350m of brown and 344yds / 315m of light grey). I used US 4 / 3.5mm needles to get a nice dense fabric.

The finished measurements of the shawl: approx 75” / 191cm wide and 19” / 48cm long at center. You could make it larger or smaller. I suggest changing the number of cast on stitches by 20. To adjust the center part, just work more or less rows (and increases and decreases).

Matching exact gauge is not essential here, but bear in mind that different gauge will affect finished measurements of wrap and amount of yarn needed.

Hope you’ll enjoy this! Happy knitting!

You can find Crossroads wrap pattern in Ravelry

Mika hat

Oct

2014

I have a lot of left over yarn at home and often there is just a really small amount of each yarn or color. I have used these left overs to knit socks and mittens and gloves with striped or little Fair Isle patterns, but there is always this concern that there isn’t enough for both socks or mittens or gloves and it is frustrating :) And it gets boring at some point :)

So one day I thought I’ll do something different and knit a hat and just started knitting a simple stripe and this is what came out :) Only later I realized that there is a whole bunch of things out there using a similar technique, Frankie Brown’s 10 stitch blanket being probably the most famous of these and that I had even favored it like 4 years ago in Ravelry :) So I must have had it somewhere at the back of my mind the whole time :)

Anyway, first I knitted a hat for my son. I worked it in Hjertegarn Lima (100% wool; 1.76oz / 50g, 109yds /100m) with needles US 6 [4mm]. This hat is without the sharp point or tip at the top of the hat.

For a head circumference of 21.5” / 55cm it took approx 2.86oz /81g (177yds /162m) of worsted weight yarn.

When I started to write down the pattern I thought that it would be easier to do it for one specific yarn, so I chose a self-striping yarn with beautiful colors from LYS – NORO Kirara (51% Wool, 29% Cotton, 10% Angora, 10% Silk; 1.76oz / 50g, 164 yds /150m). I used needles US 4 [3.5mm].

For a head circumference of 21” / 54cm it took approx 2.12oz /60g (197yds /180m) of DK weight yarn.

This unisex hat is actually super easy and fun to knit and is worked with only two needles back and forth in rows and spirally joined as you go along. You can follow this pattern or use it as a recipe and design your own hat: you can make it longer or shorter, wider or tighter, with or without the tip, with or without the ribbing. This pattern works for any yarn weight and you can knit it in any size.
Hope you enjoy it! :)

You can find Mika hat pattern in Ravelry

Flower Princess shawl 2

Sep

2014

For this version I used DROPS Lace (70% Alpaca, 30% Silk; 875yds / 800m, 3.53oz / 100g). It took 1.76oz / 50g with US 4 / 3.5mm needles.

Finished measurements of Flower Princess shawl knitted in DROPS Lace: approx 45½” / 116cm wide and 20” / 51cm long at center.

Honeycomb fingerless mittens

Aug

2014

Last winter I was working at my computer a lot and my hands started to feel really cold. So first time ever I felt that I needed fingerless mittens to keep my hands warm so that I could get my work done. I actually tried to work with gloves on, but it was very uncomfortable. As last year I knitted Honeycomb gloves, which are very snugly and comfy and still my favourites, I decided to use the same stitch pattern for fingerless version. I chose a bit thicker yarn this time.

I used 2 balls of Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK (100% Merino, 127yds / 116m, 1.76oz / 50g) in color 0253. Needles US 2 1/2 [3mm].

Honeycomb fingerless mittens fit hand circumference 7-7 1/2” / 18-19cm. Circumference is easily adaptable, you can knit with larger needles or add/skip pattern repeats.

Length of the mittens is approximately 8” / 20cm. Again easily adaptable – more or less ribbing or pattern repeats.

You can find Honeycomb fingerless mittens pattern on Ravelry

Flower Princess shawl

Aug

2014

This is my first attempt to design a shawl with somewhat semi-circular/crescent shape from scratch. A few years ago I knitted a big shawl/afghan that resembled a sunflower and now I wanted to knit similar lace design. It took me couple attempts to get it right :)

The construction of the shawl is a bit unusual. Upper edge of the shawl is knitted first, then with short rows you move to the center of upper edge and from there you start to work the shawl body down in a half-circle shape. Don’t ask why so, I don’t know :) I just get those weird ideas sometimes and if they work, I use them :)

For casting on I used my new favourite cast-on method – Slipknot Cast-on which makes the most stretchy cast-on edge.

I used Rowan’s Fine Lace – a very soft and nice blend of alpaca and merino (80% Alpaca, 20% Merino; 437yds / 400m, 1.76oz / 50g) in Antique (921). It took a little more than 1 ball to knit the shawl with US 6 / 4mm needles.

Finished measurements of Flower Princess shawl: approx 52½” / 133cm wide and 24” / 61cm long at center.

Although I had this shawl test knitted, I did it myself as well, to double (and triple ;)) check the pattern. For this second (and third :)) sample I used DROPS Lace (70% Alpaca, 30% Silk; 875yds / 800m, 3.53oz / 100g). It took half of one skein to knit the shawl with US 4 / 3.5mm (so you can knit 2 Flower Princesses from one skein).

Finished measurements of Flower Princess shawl knitted in DROPS Lace: approx 45½” / 116cm wide and 20” / 51cm long at center.

Hope you like the shawl as much as I do and enjoy knitting it! :)

You can find Flower Princess shawl pattern on Ravelry

My first test crochet

Aug

2014

Couple of weeks ago I came across an opportunity to test crochet for another designer. Her hat immediately caught my eye and I wanted to try it.

At first I didn’t really have any suitably thick yarn at home, so I just used 5ply yarn double. 6mm hook was a bit too big for that and hat came out quite loose, but I still liked it, so I did not rip it up.

Then I had a chance to go to LYS and I bought some proper yarn for the hat – Gründl King Cotton (50g /78m, 55% Acrylic, 45% Cotton), 2 balls.

The pattern was very well written and easy to follow. It was a fun and quick crochet and a very good design, which I think looks good on most people.

Now the pattern for Bold & Subtle Chain Reactions Hats by Elitza Chernaeva is available.