A story of a knitted napkin

Let's start from the beginning: I adore Disney's Little mermaid! It is the best animated film ever, not mention the beautiful soundtrack. My favorite song, Part of your world, was even played at our wedding ceremony.

What: Part of your world / Lily Go
How: Circular needles 3.5 ja 4.0 mm
From: Ginger's Hand Dyed  Yaketi-Yak 4ply, 91 g

And what does that have to do with anything? Well, a few years back I was visiting Edinburgh and going through yarn shops recommended by Ysolda herself and ended up at Ginger Twist Studios. It was a teeny tiny space filled with more yarn than I imagined possible for that room. I spent an hour trying to pick out something as a souvenier for myself. When I finally started reading the colorway names, it was a no-brainer: the colorway was called Part of your world. And if the colorway felt like it was dyed just for me, oh, how lovely was the yarn base! I fell in love with the merino/silk/yak blend. It was springy, plump and slick all at once. And the gorgeous shine from the silk! This skein was to become the most precious treasure of my enormous stash. I wouldn't use it until I found THE perfect pattern, even if it meant waiting for an eternity. 

But alas, I didn't have to wait too long. This summer I was browsing through Ravelry when I came across a mystery shawl KAL named after that very same song. A match made in heaven! I would knit my 'Part of your world' treasure of a yarn into a 'Part of your world' shawl. I went through the designer's previous work just to be sure the pattern would be worthy of the yarn - and it looked very promising. Then, all I had to do was to wait for August when the fun would begin.

I always enjoy knitting mystery shawls but shall I say, this time it felt like the designer wanted to do everything the hard way. The shawl started at the bottom edge by casting on several hundred stitches. No worries, except that it used picot cast on. Did you think picot bind off is a pain? Try picot cast on. Nuff said. It was slow going but, hey, I got through it.

Right after the picot cast on, it was lace all the way. Lace and beads. I really like knitting with beads though it takes a lot of concentration. But who thought it would be a good idea to knit lace on thw wrong side as well? This one wasn't for social knitting. Nope.

Even though it took a lot of concentration, I managed with the WS lace. But then it started to bother me that the twisted stitches of the lace weren't twisted on the wrong side. I know a vast majority of knitters hates twisted purls but if you're already knitting lace on WS rows, why stop there? 

Another thing bothering me was the use of (sl1, k1, psso) decreases. I'm so used to do ssk decreases that these really annoyed my aestethic eye. Why I didn't just trust myself in that I can replace them by ssk decreases, I have no idea.

So the shawl started off with a picot cast on, continued with beaded lace and then moved onto alternating garter stitch and lace sections that were shaped with short rows. It was beautiful as ever.

Except that. Yep. I did mention in the title that this shawl turned out about the size of a napkin.

I take part of the blame; I did choose the smallest size so my one precious skein would be enough. But I have knitted one skein wonders before and they have always been of adequate size. Nothing big but enough to cover the neck. I can't say the same for this one.

That's it for my treasure of a yarn. Been there, done that. Wasn't happy. Luckily mom already announced she would be more than happy to take this beautiful napkin.

Hiplee

The knitters of a neighbour city have had a great knitting club this year where each month someone from the group has designed a pattern for everyone to knit. I actually have nothing to do with their local knitting group except that I absolutely love them, they're great folks. But it seemed this was enough for me to be included and they asked if I would also like to design something for them. And what could be better than to cheer up my friends with a knitting design!

What: Hiplee / Own pattern
How: Circular needles 4.5 and 5.0 mm
From: De Rerum Natura Ulysse, 300 g

For a long time, I've had a bunch of lovely organic merino from De Rerum Natura in my stash. And now I finally had the perfect idea for those skeins.

I wanted to design a sweater with a turtle neck starting from the top but that it would have enough shaping at the neck that it wouldn't feel too tight. My neck is very sensitive and I usually don't get along with high collars.

So there would be a turtle neck, short row shaping at the neck, overly long raglan sleeves and it should also be twisted ribbing. But to keep it from being boring, I placed the raglan increases and waist shaping a bit differently.

The raglan increases of the sleeves and the back are placed as usual but the front raglans aren't next to the sleeves. I placed the front raglan increases in the center of the front. This also makes it easy to tell which side is the back and which is the front when I'm dressing up in the morning.

And once I had started, I decided to have some fun with the waist shaping as well. The waist decreases and increases are placed on different sides of one stitch such that it creates an optical illusion as if there are only decreases.

Finally, I wanted to split the hem and make the back a bit longer than the front. I figured continuing with the twisted ribbing would make for a nice flowing hem with the split. So, I worked the hem in broken twisted ribbing. It made for an interesting surface and brightened up the design.

The sleeves also have the broken twisted rib. While knitting, I didn't know whether I would actually like the fabric but once I blocked the sweater it became my favorite part of the garment. Beforehand I was also a bit nervous wheter the turtle neck combined with ribbing would make for a terrible 90's vibe but luckily I was worried for nothing.

The robust and airy organic merino was the perfect match for the pattern. It feels light yet super warm. I've used this almost every day since I finished it. And once it gets colder, I think I'll wear this through the winter.

For the next three months, this sweater design is just for the knitting club but in January, it will be available for puchase on Ravelry.