Friday, March 23, 2007

Samprjón

In my internet knitting group, Garnaflækja, we've been having couple of games within the group. One time we knit washrags for each other and another time we knit mittens.

I'm starting a new game which is called Samprjón. Samprjón is an Icelandic translation of the phrase knit-a-long (KAL).

I will select a free, online pattern and post parts of it everyday. Participants knit the rows I post every day and try to guess which pattern it is (but no spoilers, if you know what pattern it is send me an email to rajnos @ gmail . com (without spaces).

The game starts Friday the 6th and I will post the first lines then. This game is in Icelandic (whether or not the pattern is in English or other language), but if you want to participate and prefer a pattern in English let me know (use the above mentioned email or leave a comment).

The first pattern is knit with a soft cotton/synthetic blend with gauge about 25sts/1'', although the gauge isn't crucial. The pattern is knit on size 3 (US) needles (sock needles) and is knit rather tightly (keep that in mind while selecting yarn). You can use other materials, even wool, but try to use a soft and durable yarn.

There are two colors. The main color is light green and the secondary color is dark green. You can use other colors, or even two different colors (e.g. yellow and green). You need one skein of each but will only use about half a skein of the secondary color. You can also knit this pattern with a thicker yarn, just make sure to use one size smaller needle than the yarn calls for and you'll probably need more yarn (at least two skeins of the main color).

Get your yarn and needles ready. You have two weeks until the game starts.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

So close ...

This was written last night (20th), but the Internet wasn't working so I couldn't post it.

As you might remember from my second to last post about a month ago that my Lopapeysa cardigan was finished, the knitting portion anyways. I couldn't finish it all the way because I didn't have an access to a "good" enough sewing machine (one that could handle the bulkiness of the sweater).

Fast forward to last week. Lady at work is a new knitter and her friend that taught her knitting lives in Florida so she asks me if I could help her with her knitting (she saw me looking at knitting blogs and was delighted to find out I knit). Then couple of days later I thought that maybe she could help me with the sewing part of the cardigan. Lo and behold, today she brought a traveling Janome machine to work for me to borrow.

So tonight I managed to sew up the front where the two purl stitches were and cut down the middle (steeking I guess). I'm not to confident with sewing so I wanted to find out more (and boy did I, check out this fantastic tutorial). Plus, I needed thread that matched my cardigan better (better than the arbitrary one I used for the steeking which is burgundy colored - vínrauður).

I was going through the tutorial and checking out the zipper vis-a-vis the cardigan when I noticed THE THING. The thing is that the zipper is too small! A little small would be ok, but it is at least 2" too small! How could that happen? I measured the cardigan again and again to make sure it was indeed 22".

I bet that by the time I finish it, it'll be too warm to wear it. I did place an order at Joann's for the larger size (24") zipper, and couple of other things while I was at it, e.g. Wonder Tape to facilitate the putting-the-zipper-in process (a tip from the tutorial).

Sunday, March 18, 2007

February's over and done with

I can't believe I haven't posted in a month! Sorry about that. Now I have so much to say, I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm just going to start with the here and now.

I'm basically only knitting monthly dishcloths at the moment. I couldn't resist buying 4 more skeins of Peaches and Creme cotton at Walmart. They were only $1.48 and in nice colors. Which brought my stash of kitchen cotton up to 20 skeins, but I'm down to 18 now. I haven't taken pictures of the last two ones.

I'm stitching more now than knitting, thanks to my two SALs. I'm up to date with the SecretSAL from Allt í kross. But I'll not be posting pictures of that. I'm also stitching Maryse's 'Maisons de Campagne' and just finished February.



As I finished this picture, I also finished listening to 'Age of Innocence'. What an ending. I recommend it. It's very interesting because it describes the lives of 19th century New York aristocracy.