TdF day 7 - Grandmother's knitting pattern

Some time ago I showed the unfinished mittens I have kept as a piece of history. Yesterday I took my knitting needles and some yarn ends and started experimenting. This was my first try but something went wrong and I started again.

This time I believed in myself and solved the mystery. You only use one colour at a time, knit all rows and change colour after two rows. Number of stitches can be divided by 4. So here it goes: knit two rows in colour 1 (my red), then  row 3: *knit 3 stitches in colour 2 (white), lift one* repeat to the end of the row. Row 4: knit all white stitches, lift the red stitch with the yarn on your side of the stitch, repeat to the end of the row. Row 5: Change to colour 1, knit 1, *lift 1, knit 3*, knit the last stitches of the row. Row 6: Knit all red stitches, lift the white as on  row 4. Repeat the rows 3 to 6.

My pattern writing language is not what the patterns usually are, but if yo really are interested, just try to follow it and write it for yourself in the correct language. As you can see, I can now knit like my grandmother used to:

The 3-coloured pattern was easier. I must be knitted in circular rounds either on DPNs or a circular needle. Again, only one colour is used at a time, and number of stitches something by 4. Row 1, knit in the background colour. Row 2:* knit in colour 1 (red) 3 stitches, lift one*, repeat. Row 3: like row 3, you will lift the same white stitches. Row 4: knit all stitches in background colour (white). Row 5: knit in colour 2 (blue): knit one, lift one., *knit 3, lift one*, and knit the last two stitches in blue. Row 6: Like row 5. Repeat the rows 1 to 6.  - Both patterns make the mittens warmer than just plain stitching, and there are no long yarns inside to catch the little fingers.

After the fine wool I wanted to knit something with bigger needles. I used all my colourful cotton ball ends, starting at the top with the tiniest scraps:

This hat will be for a strong little baby.

Today "we" will be cycling in the mountains again.

TdF day 6 - baby hat

The 6th day of the Tour was warm and sunny here. The cyclists were approaching the mountains and that will make watching them more interesting. I worked only on the knitting project and finished the pink hat finally.

This is the 25th preemie hat I made this Spring and Summer, and as you can see the collection calls for some more pink hats. The 50 g ball has 310 m yarn so I think I can make two, maybe three more.

Have you seen the other Tour de Fibre projects? List of links is here or here.

Tour de Fibre day 5 - SC finish and some knitting

Yesterday's cycling was nothing too dramatic, and as I don't have any countrymen participating, there is no extra excitement. Therefore I managed to get my Scandinavian Christmas quilt officially finished, with binding, label and sleeve. 

Today is cloudy so the picture quality is what it is. You have seen close-ups of the blocks during the SAL so I will not bore you with new ones. On my sidebar under the Scandinavian Christmas button are all the links to the 7 stitchers who have told me or Melanie that they are playing with us. Each link is to the latest post of the block in question. If I have missed your post, please let me know and I'll add the new link. This has been a demanding project with lots of work, but also satisfied feelings after a goal has been reached. Without the group's support I would not have finished the quilt for a long time, and I hope my finish will encourage others to keep up their good work.

For the rest of the evening I continued work on the baby hat. You can see on my ball of yarn how much I still have to knit to get where I was before unknitting the enormous hat with a dropped stitch.

Finally a peek in the garden; the hosta is about to show its pale flowers:

TdF day 4 - binding experiences

My Tour de Fibre post has been rescheduled for the next morning because we watch the Tour de France in the evening after work. Preparing for the 4th day I sewed the binding on my SC and thought it looked a little odd.

This was not the first binding I made ever, but someone might think otherwise. Anyway, after unpicking it I had a perfect , endless binding to attach to the right side of my quilt. During the cycling I managed to hand sew it almost all way round, just the corner for the label is waiting for tonight. I remembered to add a sleeve too, as you can see in the top right corner below. The other edge of it needs hand sewing too.

Our pink peonies are in full bloom now, and their scent reminds me of baking.

I have been working on the Helping Hands scarves from Melanie as well. The squares need to be cut to same size now. The scarves had slightly different widths and lengths too.

I have this book by Kaffe Fassett, and my quilt is inspired by the cover of the book.

TdF day 3 - SC, knitting and new taste experiences

This day had exciting events on the screen and unfortunately some cyclists had to give up their Tour de France already. Our Tour de Fibre is safer for the participants, and by switching from knitting to quilting I try to avoid one-sided stress on my hands. Today the hand quilting on SC was completed, just some snowflakes on the blocks.

For the mountain part I continued knitting on the preemie hat with an easy lacy pattern.

In the morning I received a surprise from Melanie, a UK themed supper:

My first experience of Marmite could be expressed with the words "interesting" and "exotic", and I will give it a second try. Anyway, the special edition jar must be a collector's item in a few years, with or without contents. The biscuits and the crisps will be opened tomorrow.

Hanne is hosting this Tour and a list of links to other blogs is on her sidebar.

TdF day 2 - a minor setback

Day two of Tour de Fibre didn't bring much progress as you can see:

A pink preemie hat among my pink peonies, close to being finished. And here ten minutes later:

I had dropped a stitch way back and couldn't make it good again, and the hat was more suitable for a one-year old than a preemie, so I will use a pattern that will not be so loose.

I decided to add some stitches to my Scandinavian Christmas instead:

If you want to watch the Tour de Fibre, there are links to many participating blogs on Hanne's sidebar.

Tour de Fibre day 1

I have joined Hanne in her Tour de Fibre, trying to get some handwork done during the Tour de France. My main project will be the Scandinavian Christmas quilting and binding.

Today I finished the stitchery on the label, and tomorrow I hope to get some quilting started. As I can't sew for long times without a break, I have some knitting projects at hand too. I hope to blog every day about my progress - today was an exception with two blog posts!