Finishing out year and starting up the new one

I finished the White Clovers pullover. It went up and down several times as I tried to get the fit right in the shoulders and neck. Here it is finished as the designer has written the pattern, with a turtle neck:

Then I ripped it back again and finished it with a crew neck. I like the looks of the crew neck much better. The Vamsegarn has softened up nicely with wearing. I am really enjoying this sweater. I can see myself making more sweaters like this. It was fast to make in this worsted(almost aran) weight yarn and it fits beautifully.

I also finished knitting the Navy Felted Mittens from the book LVS 3, well they will be felted when I find time to put them in the washer. Our washer stays really busy with laundry around here because of our big family so finding time for felting can be difficult. Last weekend we were gone for four days. When all the suitcases were empty we had a pile the size of "Mount Washmore" as a friend calls it. I always feel like I should have more than one project to felt when I do it since it takes so much water. So maybe I should make some more mittens! Here they are before felting:


Lisa came home from Alaska for Christmas and was telling us about how cold it was up there. She has been buying extra clothes for layering to keep warm. I made her a pair of rag-wool socks while she was home. They are made with Raumaragg yarn, the yarn that the Norwegians use for ski socks. Lisa says that I can make more of these!


I also had picked out a nice sock weight yarn for her birthday in early January. I started knitting those just after her birthday and have one finished so far. Lisa has returned to Alaska so I will have to mail them when they are both finished.


It has been a productive knitting year. Now on to the next year!

White Clovers pullover sweater

I have been making a sweater for myself! Not for display in the shops but for me to wear! I had been looking at what I had to keep me warm this winter and found that I really didn't have much for warm sweaters. This will be a wonderfully warm, wool sweater for these cold, cold days.

As I was thinking about what to make I ran across a pattern that a designer wanted to have tested to make sure there weren't any errors. It is a simple design with lots of stockinette and a bit of stranding to spark it up. We have found a few places where she needed to make changes in the pattern. Good to get those fixed before some unsuspecting knitter tries to make it and can't understand why it isn't working.

I am using Rauma Vamsegarn in a very dark teal with white and a lighter blue-green for the accent bands. This is one of my favorites of the Rauma yarns.

I don't have a full picture of it yet but I took some pictures as I have worked so I will see if I can put them together to give you the idea of what it will look like.


The sleeves also have the small design border at the bottom like at the hem of the sweater. I ripped back to the wider top border last night because the neckline was going to be too high. I will start the decreases just above the border instead of knitting several rows first. It should be done soon. Then I can wear it! Ahhhhh, warm!!

Wild Blue Horses and Norwegian Mittens

The Wild Blue Horses Cap is growing. You can start to make out the horses now. See the nose on the right and the mane on the left? Soon I start decreasing for the top of the cap. Then the rows get shorter and it starts to go faster.
Here is where I am on the sides that have the flowers.

I have also been working on some Norwegian mittens. The star mittens are from an Arnhild's Knitting Studio pattern, AH102 Child's Eight Pointed Star Mittens and Hat I made the first one to time how long it takes for me to knit them. We were trying to get an idea of how much class time would be required. So it took me about 6 hours. Some of that was while I was watching TV or tinking back to correct my mistakes. That will allow some time for students who might have the same problem or for questions and instructional time.

These will fit Carl so I will finish them for him. They are made of the very sturdy Rauma Strikkegarn. It is a really hard wearing yarn.



These plain navy mittens are also Norwegian mittens. They are the Tovede Votter (felted mittens) from the Rauma LVS-3 book. The yarn is Rauma Vamsegarn, a heavy worsted/aran weight. I made the men's size because I have long hands and I want to really felt these down for some really warm mittens. They were really fast to make on big needles. Just one more thumb to go. Great quick project. Hmmm, maybe I should make more for Christmas presents. You won't tell will you?

Time Flies...

As the old saying goes, "Time flies when you are having fun." It has been a great holiday season for us but also very busy. We have spent time with family and friends, helped a daughter move, rejoiced about a new baby in the family, mourned for relatives and good friends who are gone from us now, wrapped presents and opened them, played games, and laughed and had lots of fun together. I hope you had a great holiday season as well!

I also got some knitting done during this time. When I get stressed, knitting really helps calm and center me.The charity knitting is always on the needles. I have used up a lot of leftovers for these. Here are some of the hats and mittens that I delivered to the church for the Mitten Tree. There were trips to physical therapy for Amy's tendinitis in her wrist. Of course, I took knitting to work on while we were there. The therapist was always interested in what I was knitting. It always seemed to surprise her when I would pull out a different project. "It's a different color! That's not the hat you were working on last time!"


I did a lot of knitting on this sweater for Carl during those appointments too. The therapist really enjoyed seeing the progress that I made on it. This is the second Wallaby sweater that I have made for Carl. He outgrew the first one and had been telling me that he needed a new sweater. He chose the colors and their placement. It is his favorite sweater now. It is always so nice to get such appreciation for my knitting!


Carl needed a new pair of mittens this year. These are my basic mitten pattern. I knit them nice and tight to keep out the wind and cold. This winter has been so cold that we needed all the warmth we could get!
I had started these glittens for my daughter, Lisa, some time last spring. I finally finished them and she loves them! These are made in Rauma Vamsegarn 100%wool, aran weight yarn. It was a little heavy for the stranding and the extra glove inside, but that has made them extra warm. A good thing when temperatures are below zero!

I used Kathy Cochran's pattern. It was very easy to follow with all of the pictures she has posted. I would like to make a pair of these for myself as well.

I have been working on some other stranded projects too. I will put them in another post.

Norwegian and Cabled sweaters finished

I finished the work on these sweaters well before the TNNA show. I was so busy getting things ready that I forgot to take pictures of them though. These are pictures of them in the display at the show.

Pattern: #138RS Man's Norwegian Sweater Black and White with Stars on the left of the two hanging sweaters.
Yarn: Strikkegarn


Pattern: Children's Cabled Sweater-Red between the white pieces.
Yarn: Vamsegarn

Cabled sweater for kids

Another sample for the trade show. This one is only a size 2 children's sweater. It is going quickly in Vamsegarn, a worsted weight yarn. Good thing, we leave in one week for the show and this is supposed to be in the display! I have the body done and one sleeve started now but haven't been able to get photos yet.

I had some problems along the way. No, make that lots of problems along the way. Probably because I am trying to get this done quickly. After doing seed stitch for so long on the Window Pane sweater I totally missed the instructions where it said to do the side panels in double moss stitch. I had been working merrily along for about 3 inches above the ribbing when I discovered it! The second picture is of the side panel after I reknit it plus a couple more inches.

I decided that I really didn't want to reknit the whole thing so I took the stitches for that whole panel off the needles -- gasp! -- I know, I know, for some of you that would be a major trauma but the stitches weren't going anywhere . . . yet . . . this is very sticky yarn so the stitches would just sit and wait for me to do something with them.

Now, fast forward a bit. I managed to cross one of the cables the wrong direction later in the sweater. I was telling my hubby how I had to reknit the side panels and now I needed to do the same thing to this cable. He suggested that I take pictures so I could post a how-to about it.

I am working on the how-to. Red is really hard to photograph well by the way! So bear with me. It will be up soon I hope. In the meantime there is lots of preparation underway for the show.

Window Pane Sweater is done!

It is finished and ready to go to the show! I think I looks great. I will be a very warm sweater for my hubby next winter too.

Here are the details:
Rauma pattern 2064
Vamsegarn 1100grams of 5 different colors
Needles sizes 4 & 4.5 mm - US 6 & 7

I would usually use a larger needle with Vamsegarn This was all done as knit 1, purl 1 which is always a looser gauge for me than stockinette.

This is an easy sweater to make, it just looks harder than it is.

Window Pane Sweater

My current knitting is getting rather boring. I think it is because this is such a big project and is pretty much the same throughout.

This sweater went with me to Texas for spring break in March. There wasn't much to see along the way.

It is growing steadily and hopefully will be finished soon. I have taken it to all of the classes we have been teaching. The students all look over eagerly when I pull out my knitting to see what I am working on. Recently, the reaction has been, "Oh, you still aren't done with that one?"

Sorry, I am almost done with the back now -- but I have one more sleeve to go.

The pattern is Rauma 2064 Window Pane Sweater. The yarn is Vamsegarn, our worsted weight yarn. It will be on display at the TNNA trade show in Ohio the second week of June.

Knitting Pictures!

I finally found some time to take pictures of the knitting I have been doing. I really have been knitting but just hadn't found time to blog about it. I have spent that past couple of months trying to keep up with Arnhild's business as well as my own business and taking care of my family. I found some time in there to knit apparently too, as you can see!

There are hats and a cowl to go to charity. These will probably go to our church for their fall hat and mitten drive. I have been working on a couple of hats in ISU Cyclone colors, red and gold. These are the kind of knitting that I do while watching Rosie's basketball games or reading email. The striped one was finished at the last game, which they won in overtime!

Another hat and cowl set that I finished recently is this beautiful white cabled set. It is made in Rauma Vamsegarn, a worsted weight wool. The pattern is newly translated pattern -- Rauma 84-10. This one will be displayed at the Arnhild's Knitting Studio Retreat to be held in Ames in late February. The pattern will be released at that time.

I finished the sleeves for the Norwegian Man's Sweater a couple of weeks ago. I have been awaiting further instructions from Arnhild for the finishing. I have started that now. I will need to sew with the sewing machine along the center front and the sleeve openings and then I will cut through the knitting to make openings to attach the sleeves and the button bands. I will be taking lots of pictures as I do that. Arnhild and I are making up a book to give the students who are taking classes in our new Fiber Arts School. We are going to include lots of photos of the techniques involved in making these sweaters and other knitting projects.

And finally I have been learning how to knit socks from the toe up. I have knit dozens of socks from the top down but this takes some different techniques. It has been a challenge sometimes but I feel like I am learning a lot as I go. I have been wanting to learn how to do this because I have some sock yarn which is hand-dyed. I can't get more if I run out and the ball is a little shorter yardage than some that I have used. With this method of making socks I should be able to use up all of the yarn and still have my socks completed. I always worry when knitting from the top down that I will not have enough to finish the toe!

This is a photo from about a week ago. I have both of the socks past the heel now and one is almost finished.

I will try to update more as I work on the Norwegain sweater. It also needs to be finished in time for the retreat in February. There may be some other projects on my list for then too. I'd better keep knitting!

Cabled Vamsegarn/Finullgarn Cardigan

It's finished! I found the perfect buttons too!

This sweater has taken a lot longer to make than I thought it would. I got interrupted a lot with other projects while working on it. Then I got bored and really didn't want to do the sewing up parts.

I really don't like the sewing up. That's why many years ago I taught myself how to make seamless sweaters!

This will be a great winter sweater. It is a bulky weight but made with a strand of a worsted and a strand of a fingering weight. That is how it gets those beautiful subtle stripes. Can you see them?

I was hoping to get a picture of me wearing it but I didn't have anyone to help me with that. I needed to take it to Arnhild's so it could be packed with the display stuff. We are getting closer and closer.

Pattern: 2090RVF
Yarns: Vamsegarn and Finullgarn This one is the medium size and I had one ball of Vamsegarn that I didn't use.
Needles: Sizes US8 and US11

Hubby and I spent yesterday cleaning out the store room. It was mostly kids clothes, computer parts and wedding gifts (that we haven't used in 30 years of marriage). We had brought back a bunch of stuff from our college grad daughter, Jessie, which needed a home. I have been trying to get the kids clothes sorted for a long time now but I could only reach part of them for fear of toppling the towers of computer parts! I really should have taken pictures.

Well, we filled up our Suburban with things to donate and the room looks much better now. No, I didn't get DH to give up very much of the computer stuff but we did whittle it down a little bit and we at least got things moved around so I could get to the clothes that I needed to sort. Now there is just one box of clothes for Carl to grow into and several boxes of things that we are storing for Jessie while she is between apartments.

Now we need to start working on the collections of toys that have accumulated after almost 27 years and 8 children! We have so much which could be blessing someone else!

Finally Making Progress

It seems like this sweater has taken forever to knit! I would knit a ways and discover that I had forgotten to change the second strand to the next color.

If it wasn't that I would find a cable that was crossed wrong. I actually had the right front knit all the way to the shoulder when I discovered that one. I had to rip a bunch of it because some of the stitches were already bound off for the neckline curve. Then I dropped the 6 stitches of the cables down about 20 rows to fix the cable. I am getting rather good at that now!

At this point the body is knit and ready for the shoulder finish, so I started the first sleeve last night. I still have to remember to count the 9 rows of each of the different browns while crossing cables every 4 rows and increasing 2 stitches every 12 rows! See why it gets messed up sometimes?

I think the sleeves will move along more quickly though. Hopefully I will have a finished sweater soon!

Pattern -- Rauma 2090RVF Short Cabled Cardigan and Hat

Yarn -- Rauma Vamsegarn & Rauma Finullgarn

Rauma Sweater progress

Last week I was going to show you my progress on the hat and sweater set that I am making for Arnhild to take to the TNNA trade show. I didn't find the time to get it posted though. So here is where I was last week and where I am now. The sweater is going really fast!

The hat is finished. The sweater is now about 27 centimeters or 10.5 inches. The cables are looking really nice. There are 4 cables across the center back and 2 on each front. This will be a heavy sweater which will be really nice for the cold Iowa winters.

I also started a traditional Norwegian sweater during Arnhild's sweater class at the Blue Heron Knittery. Arnhild would like to have this one as a model to use for a while but eventually DH, Jeff, will get it.

You can see that this one is not going quite as fast! It is a much finer yarn (Strikkegarn) and size 3 needles for the ribbing. There are also a lot more stitches on this one. The ribbing on the blue sweater had 122 stitches, this one is 277! I think I have just a couple more rows of ribbing to go. Then I get to change to size 4 needles and start working with 2 colors.

The yarns are natural black and cream colors which are beautiful together. I have always admired these sweaters with the stars on the shoulders. It will be a very handsome sweater. I have a lot of knitting to go though.

Blue Heron Knittery

Arnhild and I made a visit to Decorah this past weekend. I was able to sit in on Arnhild's Norwegian Sweater classes at the Blue Heron Knittery. Sarah has a beautiful shop on West Water Street. I just had to share some pictures of it with you.

I didn't get a photo of the outside of the shop though. I will have to go back for that! Downtown Decorah is beautiful with l0ts of historic architecture. The Blue Heron is on a corner and has lots of decorative work and a tower on the building. Sarah has done a beautiful job with the inside of the building. She removed a false ceiling to expose the original stamped tin ceiling and replaced the hardwood flooring. Well, as they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

We had a great time learning how to make some of the beautiful sweaters you see here in the pictures. Thanks Sarah for being such a gracious hostess!

Rauma Sweater and Hat

I have the task of making a sample for Arnhild's Knitting Studio for the TNNA show in June. This is my sweater kit for one of the new patterns from Rauma Designs of Norway. Pattern #2090RVF and 19 skeins of Vamsegarn and Finullgarn for the size medium. It is quite the pile of yarn!

This cabled cardigan uses 2 strands of yarn which change colors to make subtle horizontal stripes. The blue is Rauma Vamsegarn, a worsted weight yarn. This color will stay the same throughout. The 3 brown shades are Rauma Finullgarn, a fine weight yarn. The two yarns knit together are making a beautiful heathered knit.

The pattern calls for 5mm and 7mm needles. Unfortunately, US needle sizes don't include a 7mm. US10.5 is a 6.5mm and US11 is 8mm. I tried the 6.5mm to make a simple stockinette swatch but that seemed too tight. I did some with the 8mm but I was still not sure about the gauge so I started on the hat first. It is knitting up very quickly on size US11(8mm) needles. It will be a fun chunky hat.

There are cables all around the hat. Can you see them in this close-up? Click on the picture for a larger view. You might be able to see where I changed the browns too.

I had to show off my new yarn helper too. Arnhild's brother-in-law makes these. The balls spin easily without rolling all over the floor now! I can't tell you how many things I have tried for keeping my yarn handy. This is a wonderful solution! I am sure if you contact Arnhild she can let you know how to get one too!

Details
Pattern: Rauma 2090RF
Yarn: Rauma Vamsegarn and Rauma Finullgarn, 2 strands throughout
Needles: So far I am using size US8(5mm) and US11(8mm)

Felted Mittens

I finally found time to post a picture of the felted mittens that I started during the knitting retreat in late February. These beauties are nice and thick and warm! Too bad I didn't think of this sooner. They would have been nice to have when the weather here was below zero.

I used Rauma Vamsegarn for these on size 8 needles. They were knit in the round on double point needles. It took less than 2 skeins of the yarn. I am getting quite the collection of little bits of wool yarn. I might have to find a project to use up the small bits.

This is one of the patterns in the Rauma LVS 3 book. It shows some embroidery and an tassel on the cuffs but I have decided that would just get caught on things so I will leave it off I think.

Now my hands will be warmer!

Pattern can be found here

The yarn is also available at my web site www.denisesneedleworks.com

Knitting Retreat & Shop

Arnhild's Knitting Studio Retreat 2008

Rauma Retreat Shop hosted by

Denise's Needleworks

Knitting retreat was fabulous!

We had a pampered weekend full of knitting, classes, excellent food and fun. Well, I didn't get to attend any of the classes but I still had a lot of fun.

We set up this beautiful store on Friday and started the weekend with soup, salads and lots of shopping.

Saturday there were classes in entrelac, needle felting, recycling your felted wool sweaters and a clinic with Arnhild, an expert in Norwegian knitting.

Sunday there was more time to work on projects or learn a new technique.

I met so many wonderful people! I am looking forward to next year's retreat!

Would you like to make one of the beautiful items shown here? You can now order any of the Rauma yarns and patterns and the Arnhild's Knitting Studio patterns at my web site: Denise's Needleworks.