Thursday, December 20, 2007

Neckwarmer pattern

A few people have asked me how I knitted this neckwarmer, and if I could post the pattern for it, so here it is. This is more of a description of how I did it than a specific pattern. If you find anything that looks strange, or any errors in the pattern, please let me know.

Neckwarmer


Materials

Needles
- 5 dpn:s, 3 mm
- 1 circular needle, 3 mm

Yarn - Rowan 4 ply soft
* 2 skeins black
* 1/2 skeins red

One spare 2,5 mm circular needle


Gauge
7 sts / 2,5 cm (i.e. 1 inch). It's not the end of the world if you don't get gauge! It stretches a lot anyway, and it doesn't have to be a specific size.


Cast on 112 stitches using a stretchy cast on method. I used long-tail. Divide the stitches on 4 dpn:s.

Work in K2 P2 rib for as long as you like. I wanted the ribbing to be long enough so I could fold it double. If you don't live near the Arctic Circle, or you want less bulk and warmth around the neck, just knit the ribbing as long as you want it to be.

When you're done with the neck, the flat portion begins.

- Knit one stitch. This is now the beginning of the round, at the right front corner of the neckwarmer. You should have a knit stitch as the first stitch of the round, and a knit stitch at the end of the previous round (i.e. one of the K2 of the ribbing is "divided in half").
- Knit 32 stitches with needle 1. Switch to needle 2.
- Knit 24 stitches with needle 2. Switch to needle 3.
- Knit 32 stitches with needle 3. Switch to needle 4.
- Knit 24 stitches with needle 4.

Increase round
Needle 1: Knit 1, YO, knit 30, YO, knit 1.
Needle 2: Knit 1, YO, knit 22, YO, knit 1.
Needle 3: Same as needle 1.
Needle 4: Same as needle 2.

Plain round
Knit all stitches. At the corners, knit the YO through back of loop.

Continue with the increase round every other round, always doing the YO after the first stitch and before the last stitch of the needle, and knitting the YO through back of loop on the plain rounds. When you have enough stitches, you can switch to a circular needle if you want to (it's easy to keep track of the corners anyway). Continue like this until your neckwarmer is wide enough on the shoulders.

Knit the stitches on needle 1.
Cast off the stitches on needle 2.
Knit the stitches on needle 3. (Just leave them on needle 3 if you haven't switched to a circular, or just leave them on the circular)
Cast off the stitches on needle 4.
(You should be able to do this in one go without cutting the yarn)

You're now at the beginning of the round, at the right corner of the front piece. (You have the stitches for the back piece on a separate dpn, or hanging on the circular, just let them rest there while you knit the front piece.)
Knit 1 row.
Purl back 1 row.
Continue like this until the front piece is a long as you want it to be.
Cast off all front piece stitches.
Cut yarn.
You could also incorporate something in intarsia. I did a P, because the recipient's name starts with a P. If you don't want the back of your intarsia to show, you can knit a back side for the front piece. Just do a purl row instead of the cast off row, knit the back side until it covers the intarsia, pick up stitches with the 2,5 circular from the purl bumps at the back of the front side of the front piece (couldn't make it sound less complicated...) with a separate needle, knit all stitches together with the picked up stitches at the same time you're casting off. This also adds extra warmth.

Back piece.
Join yarn to the beginning of the back piece (right corner).
Knit one row.
Purl back one row.
Continue like this until your back piece is long enough. I made mine a little shorter than the front.
When you're done, cast off all stitches.

Border.
Start at the right corner of the back.
Pick up stitches from the front of the cast off loops along the bottom with a circular needle.
Continue picking up stitches all the way around the edge. Where there are no cast off loops, I picked up stitches as follows: pick up two, skip one, pick up two, skip one... I also tried pick up three, skip one... but that made my fabric pucker.
If you have purl bumps instead of cast off loops at the bottom of the front piece, just pick up those instead.
Make sure you have the same amount of stitches at both sides, and at the bottom of the front and back piece.
When you've picked up your stitches, knit one round.
After that, just increase the same way you did earlier. At the beginning of the round K1, YO, knit until you have one stitch left before the corner, YO K1. Do this on every other round, knitting through back of loop when you get to the YO.

When your border is wide enough, purl one round.
After that, decrease every other round at the corners, i.e. K1, k2tog, knit until you have 3 stitches before the corner, ssk, K1. Do this every other round until you have the same amount of stitches as when you started the border.

Fold back the border. Pick up stitches with the 2,5 circular from the purl bumps just below where you picked up stitches for the border. Knit these stitches together with the border stitches at the same time you're casting off.

Weave in ends. Go out in the snow and try it out. Or give it to someone who feels cold! :)

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Merry Christmas!

The holidays are right around the corner, and this should be the time of peacefulness and Christmas spirit and all that stuff. It's not. At least not yet. I still need to finish the following:

1/3 of a sweater
1/2 sock
a scarf
1 mitten
1 pair of mittens
1 sock
1 pair of mittens and
1 hat...

Some of these can be sacrificed to make room for Christmas spirit and jolly good holiday slacking, but the higher up the list, the more important the project. It's not as bad as it sounds, and I'm not really stressing about it. I already have a lot of finished knitted Christmas presents, and there's always birthdays, right?

Anyway, I also want to wish YOU, all my dear readers, a

MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'll see you next year. Let's hope for a great year, with lots of knitting and mountains of yarn! :)

Monday, December 17, 2007

New yarn again!

So I made another visit to the Christmas market. And again, it wasn't in vain. I brought these home with me.
100 % Finnwool from Honkarinteen Tila. I can see beautiful mittens... I already have a few patterns in mind. Now, back to the Christmas knitting. Not much left to do now!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Distraction...

Even though I'm a bit behind schedule on my Christmas knitting, I had to start a new project. It will be a Christmas gift, so it's not a completely unnecessary knit, but it's really distracting me from everything else at the moment.

A sneak preview...

The yarn is Riihivilla, Natural Selection, again. But in different natural colors than the previous project. Such gorgeous yarn!

You know the drill. Recipient lurking, yada yada. Go to Ravelry to see what it is.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Another Christmas FO

And we have another Christmas FO! (Or it's really a pair, so even better!)

Here's a sneak preview.

Yarn: Riihivilla, Natural Selection

Again, the recipient might be lurking around here, so you need to go to Ravelry if you want to see what it is. I plan to finish yet another gift today. I'm on fire!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Christmas market...

So much for trying not to buy too much yarn before Christmas... I guess all the presents I give will just have to be knitted now, not much money left for other things... :)

So I went to the "old style" Christmas market here in Turku, and I managed to bring home some yarn. Can I get a "Really?" from those of you who are surprised. ---- (You're an awfully quiet bunch...) Not that many people sold yarn, but the ones who did had some amazing things!


This is Silkeskaninens Garn ("the silk rabbit's yarn")
It's made by KANIINA crafts in Sjundeå, Finland. It contains wool from finnish angora rabbits. The white skein is 50% angora and 50% wool, and the grey skein is 30% angora and 70% wool. It's so soft, so soft, and I just can't stop touching it, pretending I have two angora rabbits of my own.

This is a 100% wool yarn, 1 ply.
I can't remember what the seller's name was, but maybe someone who's been to the Turku market can help me. It was two lovely ladies, and they were standing pretty close to where you go in to the Teini courtyard, but closer to Uudenmaankatu. They had all kinds of nålbindning mittens and lovely shawls. They also had this same yarn in different colors, and also thicker yarn of the same kind.

And again, I can't remember who made this lovely chocolate colored yarn, but it's 100% Finnwool. A nice gentleman sold it to me, and I got it 1 euro cheaper because it was a bit tangled. :) He wore a beautiful hand knitted sweater, and I really wanted to ask him if he made it himself, but I didn't and now I regret it! They also had "Lammassäilykkeet", sausages, socks, etc. It was "--- Tila". Ring any bells? I wish I paid more attention, but there was yarn! I was completely focused on the wool, and I think it's expecting a little too much if you want me to read at the same time, let alone remember names! Edit: I went back to see where this yarn is from, and it was indeed Rintalan Tila, as Outi said. :)

Even though I spent waaay to much money, I think I will need to go back next weekend and see if I can find some nice gifts that aren't yarn-related. Hehe, wish me luck! :)

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Cristmas FO

One Christmas present down, a gazillion to go. Can't post pics on the blog, but if you're on Ravelry just click here.

Back to work in Santa's Sweatshop!