TdF day 11 - Madeleine

The first BIG summit yesterday was Col de la Madeleine, and I thought it would be a nice name for this heart pattern I designed. The last rest of the pink yarn was 5.8 g, not enough for even a tiny hat. Luckily I had a last rest of the yellow fine yarn as well, so a new hat is being knitted today.

TdF day 10 - Helping Hands progress

Tuesday was rest day and this is my Wednesday TdF post. With no TV on Tuesday, I managed to spend some time at the cutting table and sewing machine. I matched some solids for sashings:

and put together the Helping Hands quilt. The top is hanging in the window, the horizontal stripes are from the blinds.

Here a closer view. What next? I need borders and outer borders to make the quilt bigger.

The obligatory preemie hat of the day:

Today there will be some serious mountains to reach! Happy Tour to you all.

TdF day 9 - pink

A new preemie hat on the needles.

TdF day 8 - still knitting

Yesterday on TV there was the F1 race going on at Silverstone at the same time as the Tour de France climbed mountains in Switzerland. At times I concentrated on closing my ears and keeping my eyes on the knitting, and when the cycling was on, I just enjoyed the combination of Eurosport and knitting. I tiny hickup happened with the pattern but this time I decided it can be left as it is.

The first tiny tomatoes are there. If you look carefully, you can see there is one against the stem on the left.

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: