Knitting the Telja Sweater & Tundra Update

Three projects on the needles!  Right now the focus is a Lopi for a KAL at The Woolly Thistle.  I love Lopi yoke sweater designs.  All the colorwork added to a rather very simple design has always intrigued me.  I casted on the Telja Sweater which is a design from Jennifer Steingass.  I am knitting this sweater up in Léttlopi yarn which I have not knitted with this weight of Lopi yarn before.  I knitted up both sleeves first and did a provisional cast-on.  I plan to pick up those stitches and knit a hem to finish them.

The body has been a bit of a challenge!  I originally did a provisional cast-on which for over 220+ sts is a pain in the butt!  I then followed the colorwork pattern which I was thinking I should change but I pushed on through it.  Once I was done with the lower body colorwork, I put the body of the sweater on two needles to check the fit. I do this all the time no matter what!  This saves a lot of frustration later if you know your sweater is going to fit once done!  I put the body on two needles to see how this sweater is fitting! UGH!!!!!!!

I knew it was going to be too large!  Dang, it all!  Why is it I often don't listen to my gut feelings when knitting? I swear, I make more work than is ever needed when I ignore these little snippets of instinct!  I slammed on the knitting needle brakes and frogged all this work.  I totally readjusted my sizing and the design of the pattern. As many of you know I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Zimmermann and her EPS (EZ's Percentage System). 

EPS (from Wikipedia)

Zimmermann devised her "EPS" (Elizabeth's Percentage System) calculation for sizing garments based on gauge and desired body circumference.^[6] Her "EPS" is still widely used by designers: it consists of a mathematical formula to determine how many stitches to cast on for a sweater, given that the sleeves and body are usually proportionate no matter what yarn or gauge is used. EPS can be found in her books that are sold through the family-run business Schoolhouse Press.

Once I frogged out my work, I went right back to my gut instincts!  I quickly crunched the numbers again with EPS method.  Casted my new amount of stitches back on my needles with a Knit2, Purl2 rib.  I made several mistakes in the colorwork over and over again after knitting five rounds of gray!  All signs that I should have stopped long ago!  I removed the colorwork again and the five rounds of gray that went with this design. I did knit the five rounds of gray on the sleeves and I liked that look there, but I found on the body since I am not following the design it just looked off-ish. 

Low and behold all the color work for the body is now done! I only did two rounds of the gray to help tie in the design work. Everything is now spot on!  I can just knit mindlessly around in circles until I get to the where I will be joining up the arms.

Tundra Update! 

October 10th we saw heavy wet snowflakes mixed in with rain!  For me, this is always a great sign to know Mother Nature is doing her job and teasing me with a bit of the white stuff.

October 12th we are closing in on single digit daylight hours. I love this time of the year as we move into darkness with the hunkering down feeling for the arrival of winter.

The tundra always has some wonderful play on light.  I was biking last Thursday and was able to watch this play on light through the clouds and across the tundra.

Little Miss Tally sums up her day of beach walks, and a tundra walk . . . ah, bliss time to rest after dinner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Unspun Icelandic Wool: Can you say "Lets FROG more than we KNIT!"

If you go to this post you can read about this fiber/wool called Unspun Icelandic Wool.  Here you can see the start to this journey of my sweater. I bravely casted-on to start a sleeve and right away I found this unspun wool to be very nice to handle and pretty tough stuff.

The issue is the combo of needle size, pattern, lack of bold contrasting colors, and carrying too many colors in a round.  I would certainly say a personality flaw I have is jumping in with both feet, sinking into the abyss and then figuring how to pull my sorry arse out of the huge hole I dug for myself!  I am actually pretty good at this self rescue as I have been doing this for all of my life . . . the old saying of "live and learn" hmmmm!

My first go was with this pattern which is an older Lopi design.  I find myself drawn to these older classics.  This pattern can be found in Knitting with Icelandic Wool book by:Védís Jónsdóttir.  Which is a great resource for Lopi sweaters.  It is called Str´yta (not sure why the accent will not go over the "y").

Here is the sleeve which had a color issue.  There is white in the center of that pale grey only the grey is too pale and the white is barely noticeable. The next issue is I had to carry 3 colors which in double stranded Icelandic wool means 6 strands of unspun I am trying to carry along--not a pretty sight!

I frogged and picked this pattern from The Best of Lopi.  Another all time favorite of mine and a Lopi classic called Brigitte. The issue with this design was my colorway pick.  Once, I casted on for the sleeve there were more stranded issues, and the gauge was way off . . . back to rethinking this project out AGAIN! 

Here is the next sleeve.  This is when I realized again that I would be carrying to many strands, the colors were not bold enough and the sleeve was going to be too large.

The grey is totally getting washed out.  This is when I stopped to see how many rounds I would be carrying 3 colors which would be 6 strands of unspun and I slammed on the brakes!

Time to drop needle size, knit a swatch in the round, get gauge figured out, order some more yarn and move on to another project as I wait for my yarn to arrive.

My Lopi sweater is on hold until my yarn arrives most likely late this coming week.  I will be at a ski race in White Mountain. I hope to arrive home to some more unspun wool for my Lopi sweater.  Knitting always amazes me as I am able to make endless mistakes in knitting.  Over the years, knitting has really taught me to be patient with the mistakes, to figure them out, mess around a bit to solve the problem and then to "Knit-On" as EZ would say!

I have been frogging a lot and knitting less I would say over the last few weeks.  Just to prove my point:

This is a left hand mitten which was done and needed a partner. This is a pattern from Kate Davies, one of my favorite designers, from her book Buachaille.

Th mitten needed frogging as I was not happy with the fit and gauge.  Once again, I frogged and have now casted-on again.  I also added one more color to just jazz up the mitten.  The color is in the braid and will also be the icord bind off.

Frogging, knitting, frogging, knitting . . . never be afraid to frog and make your knitting the way you really want it to be!  As my dear friend always says: "Knitting is not fine woodworking you can fix it!" So frog away and knit-on!

Knitting: the challenge completed!

As many of you readers know, I have been knitting sweaters for my niece and her three girls.  They are a wonderful group to knit for as they wear all items all the time. They get compliments and share those with me. They score high on the knit-able scale!

Photo from their homeschool/school program.

Alice's sweater the final one.  This is knitted in worsted weight yarn from Schoolhouse Press, the pattern is Riddari.

Damp, wet Olympic peninsula makes for wonderful 100% wool fans! 

Wool making it to the news as well!

All the gals in this household are now covered in wool of some kind. What did I learn from this little challenge . . . I love knitting Lopi Sweaters! The Lopi sweater/design is a fast, fun knit, with endless varieties of color to play with.

Knitting: Lopi Designs and Unspun Lopi

I just purchased this book from Schoolhouse Press and it is full of Lopi patterns--yes 65 (not all sweaters)!  I have fallen back in love with Lopi sweaters!  

This angle is to show you that the book is THICK and just full of wonderful information and patterns. I am really enjoying the patterns and have several picked out for future projects.

Unspun Icelandic yarn  this yarn is to be added to the 2 colors I have for a Lopi sweater for myself.  I have yet to decided on the pattern I will use, but I have it narrowed down.

From SchoolHouse Press:

"Plötulopi/Unspun Icelandic

Extraordinary long-fibered fleece unique to Icelandic sheep produces the warmest wool we know of. In a single-strand, this unspun wool knit directly from the wheel is wonderful for lace or sweaters. Work with 2-ply for typical Icelandic pullovers, jackets, scarves, hats, and mittens. Or 3- and 4-ply for coats and blankets. Material: 100% Un-Spun Wool Weight: 3 1/2-oz. wheel. Yardage: 300 yds. Approx. Gauge: Single strand: 6 to 7 to 8 sts to 1 inch or  Double strand/2- ply, 3-1/2 to 4 sts to 1 inch."

Here is a review of this yarn and I feel like it is an excellently written piece answering many of my questions.  I am sure if you are interested int his yarn you will find this piece interesting as well.  From A Knitters Review

Another great source on this unspun wool is of course Ravelry 

"This yarn is also sometimes called “unspun Icelandic” and is the yarn sold by Schoolhouse Press.
From Istex: Plötulopi can be worked one, two or more ply at a time, depending on how bulky a yarn you want. Gently wind the required number of strands together into a ball by taking the end from the centre and the end from the outside of the plate, or plates. Plötulopi is very fragile to knit. We recommend the continental knitting technique as it permits control with very loose tension.
Since Plötulopi is an unspun yarn, it is fragile to knit; however, due to the length of its fibres, it knits into a sweater that is both sturdy and soft.
Gauge for 1 ply: 19 sts to 10 cm (4”) over St st using size 4½ mm (old UK 7) (US 7).
Gauge for 2 ply: 14 sts to 10 cm (4”) over St st using size 5½ mm (old UK 5) (US 9).
100% new wool. Unspun yarn, sold by weight as a one-ply, flat round roll, called a "plate".

All I have left to do is to finish knitting up a Lopi sweater for my niece in Rangely yarn which I just love.  I need to pick the Lopi design for my self and cast on!  I will keep you posted as I work with the icelandic unspun wool.

Good Bye 2015 & Hello 2016!

A new year is always a fun place to start with fresh ideas, goals and challenges.  I love a new beginning, a fresh slate, a chance to move on and leave other items/issues behind.

What I am hoping for is a winter full of snow and already this seems to be a struggle--dang!  We have had temps in the mid to high 30s and how can that be even fair when we live in Alaska.

A bit of a 2015 wrap up here and on to 2016!

Knitting:

This year I knitted these 3 lovely gals each a sweater and a hat.  Two of them received Tomtens.  After knitting two of these great designs my EZ, I decided enough and jumped into a Lopi design for grand niece #3 sweater.  I have fallen back in love with Lopi designs once again.  All sweaters were knitted with Rangely Yarn from Schoolhouse Press. This yarn is not a Lopi yarn but worked great in the pattern I choose for this project. 

This pattern is found on Ravelry and is written by: Sarah Dearne the pattern is called Blossi Icelandic lopi sweater/lopapeysa.

Rangeley Yarn From Schoolhouse Press. This yarn is for the adult sweater I am presently knitting.

Winter Solstice Ski:

We have not been able to do our Winter Solstice Ski or Full Moon ski the last few years due to timing or weather.  This year we were able to get a Solstice head lamp ski in complete with fire, hot chocolate and hot cider.  We had a huge turn out and a lot of fun on skis.

 

We say good-bye to the shortest amount of daylight for the year here in Unalakleet, 4 hours and 16 minutes! We welcome back the daylight slowly.  Our days are already increasing to 18 more minutes of daylight.

Skiing!

We are back to full on skiing.  I get in 6 practices a week as long as we can cross the slough to get to the Dragon's Back.

Elementary skiers

Alumni back for some training commuting on their hot wheels!

My coaching partner in crime from Nome and I at the World Jr. Youth/Jr Biathlon Team Trials in Anchorage last week.  Notice their vanishing snow!

Here I am home on the range zeroing rifles!

My skier who I was able to join for this event.  Aly did a fantastic job racing at this level!

Good Bye 2015 & Hello 2016!