Knitting post - the Barcelona Alpaca Jumper is finished!

Hello dear Blog friends,

Today another catch up post about something that I recently finished.


The Barcelona Jumper by Julie Jaeken

I started this jumper last year and worked on it on and off. The pattern came from Julie, the owner of the wonderful Julija's Woolshop here in Antwerp.

I previously blogged about this jumper in a post here.

Since we were planning on visiting England in early March, I realised that it would be great if I managed to finish off this jumper in time so I could take it along and finally hand it over to my daughter there!

Here are some photos that show the final steps.

Adding the sleeves

 

 

Finally, the finished jumper!

 

The neck line

extra long sleeves in rib pattern

simple neck line

 

Pattern from the book and my own version

my youngest daughter trying on the finished jumper

 

Together with my second oldest daughter on Mother's Day

My daughter loves her new jumper!

I made the sleeves a bit longer so the could be worn up or down to keep extra warm!

This is a great pattern and lovely in the soft and cosy Drops Alpaca Boucle yarn.

I did start a second jumper (for myself) which will have to wait.... Right now I want to work on more things for the coming warmer season.

Looking forward to reading your comments!

The Knitting Catch Up - Barcelona Alpaca Jumpers, Soft Merino Cowl, and the rebirth of the Ombre Shawl

Hello Dear Blog Friends,

A quick preview of my first finished project (finished on 1st January 2016): More in a moment!

The knitting catch up

I mentioned in one of my recent posts that I have done some new knitting, finally here is my chance to tell you in more detail about it.



Two Alpaca Jumpers called Barcelona

First of all, this time I am following a pattern for a jumper from this lovely book: Jules & Julie by Julia Jaeken featuring 35 patterns for the entire family! It is photographed beautifully and features members of Julie's family!

She is the owner of Julija's Shop here in Antwerpen.
I love her shop, she stocks some of my favourite yarns!
This is already her second book, her first one is full of delightful knits for small children!

Jules & Julie

Unfortunately it is only available in Dutch so far. I guess if you wanted to, you could mail Julie whether you could purchase the pattern in English, might be worth a try...

You find Julie's website, blog and shop here!


So I am currently knitting an Alpaca jumper for one of my daughters. The thing is, before I could get the light grey) wool for hers, I bought a different shade (dark grey) and got started - this will be a jumper for myself. So in fact I am actually knitting 2 jumpers at the same time, in different sizes, but from the same pattern. (Barcelona).

Here you can see what Barcelona looks like (both adult and child sizes)

Here you can see work in progress on the two jumpers that I am making:
Not only am I making 2 jumpers, I am also working on front and back together!!! I am using the same wool as Julie in her book - Drops Alpaca Boucle which I bought in her shop. I already worked with this super soft yarn last year!

 

I am making progress, slowly.... (well because I have also been doing crochet of course!)


My first finished project - a knitted cowl

Then in mid December I started on a large Merino loop shawl which is a present for a good friend!

I finished it on the first day of January, what a good start into the New Year!

Measurements: 188 cm all round, knitted in the round, 21 cm wide. This is large enough to wrap around the neck 3x. I love this yarn, it is unbelievably soft and squishy, yet warm! I knitted quite loosely, so it is very elastic and stretchy! The colour is 174 (Olive Green). I used moss stitch.
I've already made quite a few of these super long loops!

 

My Alpaca Ombre Shawl

I also decided to frog the ombre shawl I had been knitting and to re-work it because I wasn't happy with how it turned out. Luckily I am knitting on large needles (9mm). This is from the oh-so-soft Alpaca Silk yarn from Drops.

Well, that's it for now on the knitting front, we'll talk about crochet soon!!! ;))

Again, I am looking forward to hearing from you, please leave me a comment or two! See, that even rhymes! Looks like we're off on a good start for 2016!

A Bright Summer Jumper Dress

Welcome back,

Shortly after my last post I finished my summer knitting project which I haven't showed you yet.

I know that it looks like summer is practically gone, but we still get some very hot days from time to time.

When I found this discontinued and colourful yarn I thought it would be nice to crochet a jumper, but after a few tries I decided that it might be great to do a knitted jumper instead.

Luckily I had enough yarn and so I ended up with more of a dress than jumper!!!

The yarn is Vero by Lana Grossa in their Linea Pura range. 60% cotton and 40% silk, a luxurious combination.


 Bright Summer Jumper Dress

This shows my working approach: I take some existing garments to decide on a design feature, in this case the cut of the arm holes. Underneath you can see both a T-shirt and a sleeveless top for comparison.

This shows the back panel being knitted. You can also see the stranded work of the fairisle which I deigned myself.

 My first attempt of the front panel was not very successful, it ended up too far cut out!

 

 

This is my recalculated version!

And here it is with the yellow colour accent rib.

 

 

 

 

Worn with a T-shirt underneath...

 

Some of my own observations and hints:


Knitting with a summer yarn is quite pleasant!
Knitting in the round makes this fun!!!
Stripes are easily done, but carry the other colours along inside, saving sewing up too many ends later!
Fairisle adds interest, make sure to calculate pattern repeats (I tend to draw coloured diagrams when I design) and vary the repeats.
Do not carry the second colour over more than three stitches.
I love geometric designs!!!


Have you made a summer jumper or did you do some knitting this summer?
Why not leave me a comment below?
Thanks for stopping by!!!

A colourful day - progress on #rusticlacesquare and a new summer jumper

Welcome back!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far?

Here in Belgium we have been having a heat wave, temperatures were over 30 degrees for most of the week. At one point the thermometer got as high as 41 degrees!!!

Luckily now the temperature has dropped a bit. I find this makes everything a bit easier, including doing crochet and knitting.

Yes, knitting!!! After completing my recent crochet top (read about it in my previous post), I thought I might start another... but some beautiful yarn crossed my plans! I tried to crochet with it, but then decided it was better suited for knitting. The yarn is called Vero by Lana Grossa and it's a mix of cotton (60) and silk (40). I love working with it!!!



A new summer jumper

I am using 7mm needles and it is growing fast. My design is.... I'm making it up as I go along.

First I used simple stripes, meanwhile a bit of fairisle has crept in! I got 3 main colours plus less yarn of the fourth colour (yellow).

 

 

 

Rusticlacesquare progress update

Whilst working on my jumper, I also try to crochet a rusticlacesquare when I can.

Here are some photos, yesterday I reached 35 squares. Each square is approx. 11cm.

#rusticlacesquare

Well, I hope this dose of colour has brightened your day?!!!

Do you use more colour now it's summer? What are you working on right now?


I leave you with some photos of the Grote Markt in Antwerp that I took only a few days ago in the heat. My second oldest daughter came to visit for a few days. She certainly picked a good time for her visit!


Postcards from Antwerp

Cheers from me!!!

Enjoy your summer! Make sure you keep cool! I look forward to reading your lovely comments!

 

 

A simple Crochet Top and a walk amongst the forests and wetlands near Tilburg (NL)

Hello,

Hope you all had a nice weekend!!! Did you manage to catch a little bit of sunshine? We did, after a bit of a heavy rainshower, more of that later! First to some crochet news!

A simple Crochet Top

I started it some time ago, maybe early May, before the Baby Blanket and all the recent shawls - which is why it got put to one side for a while. So far I had completed most of the back and half of the front panel, but there were still quite a lot of rows to go!

After working hard this weekend to get this Top finally finished,  I can finally show it to you!

Here it is!!!

22.06.15 - My second crochet Jumper

Before it was finished: Here are the back and the front (which are identical), basically 2 large rectangles which I crocheted together to form a boatneck and simple cap sleeves by joining the sides.  This is my own design.

At the weekend : still more work to do!

Here you can see the easy stitch pattern I decided on: 2 rows of dc (UK) double crochet followed by 1 row of treble crochet (tc).

I wanted to have an even pattern that was not too holey, but let some air through nevertheless.

Sirdar Americana Cotton Blend DK

Boatneck detail

The finished Jumper!

Cool and comfortable!

The yarn I used was Sirdar Americana (I also used this for my Minty Shawl in a different colourway).

Hook: 4 mm       Used 9 x 50g*

From further away the colour looks quite neutral, but close up you can see the flecks of Red, Green and Orange in the Cream yarn. It will go with a lot of my clothes!

I made the Top quite long* (66cm) which is how I wanted it!

Some things I learned:

Making a smooth even edge - some of my early rows seemed to have gone a bit here and there, so I began to check the number of stitches in each finished row to make sure it was correct. Tedious, I know, but I soon got the hang of it and my edges started to be totally straight (and I didn't have to check anymore!)

When using a neutral yarn, it might be better to use a more interesting stitch pattern! (next time)

In hindsight I could have made more of a tunic shape (but I was dreading in/ or decreasing!)
I might need to make up my own paper pattern shape against which to crochet along!!!

Crocheting the edges together somehow seems to accentuate the holes made by the trebles (luckily the side seams don't get noticed much plus they could be extra air holes....)

Maybe crochet in the round instead???

The boatneck was a total success!!!

I was considering adding tassels but then decided against it!



A walk in a Nature Park between Tilburg and Eindhoven (NL)

Despite the crocheting on the weekend, we still managed to get out yesterday. We drove across the Dutch border to the Beerze Dale. (Beerze is a River) We noticed we were driving towards some very dark clouds! As we got nearer, there was still some rain, but the it stopped and we got going!

We walked an enjoyable trek of about 7 km, through forests, along fields and wetlands. I even got to stroke some grazing horses (in the middle of the woods) which was magical! We had to walk right through amongst them and they were such gentle creatures, busy with grazing.

Horses in the forest

Pale Foxglove (Digitalis)

White cows!

Extensive wetlands

We also saw quite a few wild flowers, an ants nest in a tree trunk, lots of electric blue dragonflies, a green frog and a brown toad. Lots of interesting new impressions.

What did you see this weekend? And what are your tips when it comes to crocheting a garment?

I look forward to hearing from you, please leave me some comments!