Monthly Archives: February 2014

Knitting

Rubbish Mojitos

I can’t believe I started this hat in November! Oh well, sometimes it happens that you make one simple hat 4 months right?

This hat has been on my to-do list for like a year. I love everything about it: little twists that create the lines on the purled background, the amount of slouch and lots and lots of Reverse Stockinette. Yes, that’s right. I love purling. :-) I think it must be thanks to the way I knit – I think it’s called combination knitting – in which purling is very fast and painless.

Anyway, here’s my Rubbish Mojitos (I love the story behind the name!) by fabulous Woolly Wormhead and I’m totally ready for spring :-)

Designs

The Big Cable

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Somehow the snow has dissapeared. At the moment the weather is a little bit like during spring. Some sunshine, or a little bit or rain, but no snow. One thing remains – it’s still not very warm and it feels really great to cuddle in a wool sweater, especially if it’s big and cozy like “The Big Cable”.

The Big Cable by Justyna Lorkowska
These photos were taken a month ago.

It was in April, maybe May last year when I saw this sweater on a girl in the street. I was driving to work and the big cable caught my attention immediately. Thankfully there was red light so I took out my notebook and drew a very simple sketch. I knew that one day I’d either buy it or make it myslef.

The store-bought sweater the girl was wearing was different tough: there was only one cable on the back, I remember it had pockets and a typical seamed construction. I decided to use my sketch as a starting point and just improvise on my own, but I kept the Garter stitch and the idea of huge cables.

Can you believe I made it in one week? The huge needles (that were so hard on my hands!) and super bulky DROPS Andes made knitting really fast. Additionally, the simple top-down construction made it very easy to try it on and decide on the length or fit. I made my “Big Cable” pretty long, but the instructions cover a hip length and short sleeves too.

I must say that this sweater hasn’t visited my closed even once since I made it. It’s there all the time, waiting on the sofa or armchair to be grabbed when the night gets chilly, or when my son comes to me to cuddle a little and needs a warm blanket. Yes, a blanket!

Today I released the design and it’s available on Ravelry or Lete’s Knits website and to keep you warm and cozy it’s discounted (no code needed) :-) Hope you enjoy it!

Happy knitting!
hugs,
Justyna

Kids Knits, Knitting, Yarn

We’re ill again

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I have no idea what is happening this winter. Maybe it’s because my son keeps bringing various bugs from kindergarten and the infections spread pretty fast to his little sis and us. During Christams my Hubby got knocked down with pneumonia, not it’s my turn. Last few days were terrible – I had a high fever and was really sore all over. Thankfully my GP gave me some antibiotics and now all is coming back to normal.

That time was also pretty unlucky when it comes to knitting. I guess I did a lot more ripping than knitting. At the beginning of this month my mailman brought me a skein of fabulous Lioness Arts BFL Sock in probably the most amazing green I’ve seen. The moment I saw it I knew it would be a spring accessory using a stitch pattern I’ve been eyeing for some time now. The end result is really nice, something I definitelly needed in my spring wardrobe – a simple lacy shawlette!

Here’s a little sneak peek :-)

Evaporate by Justyna Lorkowska

Oh, this one gave me a lot of headache as I had to start border three times. The last time I played yardage chicken I finally won with about 1 gram of yarn left. Thankfully the pattern will be very easy to customize so other knitters making it won’t have to rip as much as me.

The second design that paid a short visit to the frog pond is a cardigan I’m currently making (yet again it turns out green is my number one color!).  I knew what I wanted the yarn to become so I got to body/sleeeves split really fast. As you probably know I like to make sleeves first and this time was no different. I made both in a day! Just to rip them the next day :-) I tried on the cardigan a couple of times to make sure I’d be doing the right thing. Ah well, thankfully ripping in a good cause is not that painful.

So yesterday I decided it’s time to make something fast to cheer me up. I cast on for a hat I designed last year – Sand Bank. I dove into my stash, found some lonesome skeins of Regia Silk 4-ply and made a hat for my boy. BTW, do your kids grow so fast too? All the hats I made last winter are too small for him now!

I CO as per pattern, just used one size smaller needles and DK yarn (I held Regia double). The hat is also 0.5 repeat shallower. It resulted in a nice amount of slouch – the hat is covering Wojtek’s ears just like I wanted and hopefully it will not get too small too fast.

Now I just need to make a new hat for Aga :-)

***
hugs, J.