Knitting Traditions Podcast Ep.18- Easter knitting

[Music] hello and welcome to episode 18 of the knitting traditions podcast my name is inga and you can find me on instagram as knitting traditions and every now and then on ravelry as knitting tradition but i mostly use it for cowl knit alongs and make alongs welcome it's been a while if you're a returning viewer i'm very fortunate if you're still following me on my knitting journey and if you're a new viewer hello uh this is a podcast where i talk about knitting i talk about what i've been working on lately and the yarn i'm using and why and just talking a little bit around it and then usually at the end i sit and knit a bit um and just chat with you so yes it's almost easter and in norway because i live on the west coast of norway here we do not only make christmas sweaters but it's kind of a thing to also make easter sweaters so i am wearing a very yellow eastery sweater if you've been following on um following this podcast for a while i started in the fall i gravitate a lot towards warm earthy tones but um for easter i always get like a burst of vibrant color inspiration so this is the easter sweater that i made last year and the pattern is called trescao i will put links to everything that i talk about in the description box below here on youtube but this is a free pattern by along avec anna i don't know if i pronounced it correctly she is french but she lives in the uk and this is one of her patterns which is free and it's a lovely pattern it has a garter edge on the sleeves and it has a very cute increased raglan increase detail and also the edging on the bottom is carter at least i think it's also garter in the pattern i'm not sure if i made a modification but um i made the size three and i used a norwegian hand-dyed yarn called nitorama which is a merino silk and it was 600 meters per skein and this whole sweater was one skein and i paired it together with four skeins of um tilia and that's a silk mohair yarn from phil colana because i saw that it was like this vibrant yellow and the nitsurama color was called mango so it was a great match and yeah this is a easter sweater because it's very yellow and um along avec anna has also generously donated five patterns to the stash along which is a make along that we're running through all of this year and to participate you just make whatever you want with something that you have had in your stash pre-2021 so something you got last year or even earlier and it doesn't have to be knitting it could be crochet or sewing or just make something to appreciate what you already have and she's donating five patterns so throughout the year i will draw some prices and then um you can choose yourself which pattern you would like she generously donated a pattern to patterns that i could choose from to make so i think i will make one of her t-shirt patterns spring or summer because she does have some lovely like staple pieces that can go with anything a lot of it is stockinette she also really likes carter no not garter um lace and she also has some lovely color work patterns and she also makes pattern for children and she makes patterns in english and french and russian danish maybe italian she has several languages so you should check her out if you'd be interested i really like this pattern i think it was really well written and i can't believe that it's a free pattern i really enjoyed knitting it and yes only positive things to say about it the merino silk is very soft and usually i don't find silkmore hair itchy however i did want a more fitted garment so i did make a size that was quite fitted and i do feel slight prickle factor on my arms which i think is from the silkmo hair um i don't think it's from the merino silk because that was a very smooth um fiber strand yarn yes all right so um i hope you have something lovely to drink i made myself an iced coffee because i just got home from a 26 hour shift and i just needed to cool down i didn't really feel like having another warm drink because i've been drinking warm coffee for well several hours now but i figured i wanted to record a video for you guys from my new apartment or my old new apartment i used to live here before and then i rented it out when i was working as a doctor in a general practitioner's family doctor's office but now i'm back working in the hospital as an ob gyn doctor and i'm loving it i'll talk more about that later because we have more knitting to talk about so i was working on this the last time this is um a pattern called a la suk polar and i had yarn to make this in fall colors but then i already had one in green and beige and red so i wanted one that was more eastery spring summer like so i got some some of the most vibrant colors i could find and yes i finished this it went by really quickly i did try to make it in four days that didn't happen it took me like six days but it's knit on i think seven millimeter needles or six so it's it goes by quite quickly but the yoke was a lot longer than i thought it was going to be so it took me a while especially this section here when you have all the sleeve and arm stitches on the needles and i hadn't brought a long cord for my needles so i had to like work on a small circumference but yeah i really like it it's really warm i tend to wear this if i am skiing so i did bring this last weekend when i went skiing with my cousin and friends and just wore this one sitting outside in the sun and i'll put some footage at the end other than that i also like to wear it in the summer when i go camping because it gets cold and norway in the evenings so then i like to put it on so i can just snuggle up i might even have even more layers underneath but this kind of gives you heat um the yarn is alla fosloopi mainly which is the thick it's a thick yarn by eastex a icelandic yarn and it's not super soft but it does soften up a bit when you wash it because it's a slightly oversized garment and it it's not very tight on your skin i don't find that it itches that much also the neck in the pattern is quite loose but you could still do the turtle maneuver and snuggle up but it's not tight on the neck and that really helps if if a yarn is more scratchy that it doesn't stay fitted on your skin or like constricted because then it will itch more so yeah i don't i don't itch myself to death when i wear this and um the beige uh blue and purple tones is alaphos lupi and then the uh green orange and yellow is let loopy which is a thinner version of the olives loopy but if you hold it double it's exactly the same thickness so that expands the color horizon so that's what i did i paired it double so that i could get a lot of these eastery and brighter colors and then i still have more of this yarn to make the more autumnal version which maybe i'll make closer to the fall again because right now i i'm feeling the spring colors for a bit which i always do and then i go back to my factory settings so i'm gonna take this off now because wearing two wool sweaters inside the apartment is quite warm so yes but i'm really happy with this one i highly recommend [Music] the the designer behind this um sweater she has she this sweater is in a book of hers i i don't remember the name of her instagram now because i think she might have changed her instagram name at some point but i will put it here i heard rumors that her book will be released in english in september so if you would like to try tons of stunning um yoked patterns with icelandic wool and also a lot of her patterns are using tinder and final and other norwegian rustic yarns so if you want to get your hands on that um have a look out around september or follow her on instagram and she will probably post it there so yes really happy with my alassook polar and i already really want to make another pattern from that book um but yes i want to make all the things and i don't have all the time anymore so we shall see what happens and i have also made some progress on the socks that i made in dura sports a canadian yarn from nova scotia from briggs and little which i got from my yarn swap friend suzanne and we just made another yarn swap so i didn't get to record because life was busy i didn't get to record the yarn that i bought from her but knowing that she watches this podcast i guess it's a good thing because then she can watch this whole episode without any spoilers but i got her some lovely yarn trust in that so this was done last time and i just casted on the second sock so i made quite a bit of progress um i'm making three braids on the front of the foot and leg and then just stalking it for the heel and below so it's i used a one by one ribbing and then i used the mouse hell construction which is what my grandmother taught me and i've written it up so it is on ravelry if you're interested however for this one because the braids were less than half of the stitches of the entire leg i took two extra stitches when i divided for the heel and that also meant i needed to do two extra decreases on the heel but i really liked the effect of it because the leg then is bigger than the foot and it fits like a glove or a sock you know you know what i mean however i did bring this to work in my bag and then i spilled coffee in my bag because my thermos cup well it wasn't properly closed so these socks were swimming in coffee so i had to rinse them off and i just wanted to show you how much this yarn blooms okay so this is the strand from the ball that i wound up i do have a ball winder but i really wanted to feel this fiber so i did it by hand just to get a feel of it and this is how it bloomed after getting rinsed do you see how big of a difference that is it bloomed beautifully and i can already feel just from my quick rinse that it softens up beautifully so yeah i'm really excited to have these socks done i do own a lot of knitted socks because i like to wear knitted socks all year round i can't wear them to work now because they would probably get destroyed because it's a messy messy work but as soon as i get home i put on socks and today i'm wearing easter socks so these are some uh white and orange it gets blown out white and orange socks with just some simple color work uh knit three in white and then knit one in orange and then on the next row swap that around or something like that yeah very simple color work but i don't have any socks with braids on them i have a lot of plain socks i have a lot of color work socks i have like this big box of socks that i keep them in both socks that i've knitted myself socks that my grandmother has knitted the one who taught me how to knit and also socks that my other grandma has knit for me in the past and i'm never throwing away any of those socks even if they get worn out because those are precious so these will be my first structured socks with braids on them so i'm really excited for that uh it is a bit hard on the hands to knit them because i'm i have opted to do it without a cable needle so i just have to hold the stitches um yeah but it works out fine it's it's all worth it in the end and yes i have also made some progress on my itunes shawl by melody hoffman which is also using icelandic yarn it's using the pluto lupi which is an unspun yarn and the colors are just beautiful this color right here is called wood and i have a lot more of it because i do want to make a sweater in this because i thought it just had some beautiful warm brown and then cool gray tones and i found it very interesting and then this one is one of the beige or heathered beige colors the iter shawl is a shawl that switches between garter and lace and then you spit splice six different colors from one end to the other to make a gradual color change and i've made the gradual color change from darker brown to lighter brown to the wood color to the beige color and then it's gonna end with a sorry i inhaled some fiber it's gonna end with a um it's called ivory but it's not really ivory i think it looks like a light beige so the last time that i showed this i was i had gotten i think this far i just started the other lace and now i finished that lace did another garter section and started this lace section which is the third lace section and yeah every row it takes longer because you're increasing on one of the sides so this will take a while but i am enjoying it it's just i really have to be mindful of my tension because this yarn since it's unspun um it breaks easily and i have learned after casting on that you're that it's smart to keep it in the plastic because it comes in a plastic wrapping and then you can just make a hole in the center and then pull the strand from the center and then that way it will not break as easily but honestly i don't find that it breaks when i'm pulling it around this around here like this because i'm aware that it's that it breaks easily however what the problem is for me is sometimes when i knit holding it like this this is where it kind of stretches and then breaks you see because it's very easy to pull apart and i find that the colorways are different this color uh is quite sturdy i don't find that it breaks as easily but the other color that i'm using right now this one seems more fragile to me it breaks more easily or it stretches more easily as i knit with it and i don't know why maybe it's because of the lanolin content being different but um yeah i just have to be a bit mindful when i need to relax my hands and then it's fine and it's also if if it stretches i just lay the strands double and um and you don't need you don't need to use spit or water to spit splice these you can just rub them together or you can even i've heard that you could just lay them on top of each other for like just lay them like this you don't even have to rub and just knit and then they will kind of stick to each other because of the roughness of the unspun strands and the scales of the wool so yeah it's i'm really happy with how this is turning out i i'm really looking forward to transitioning into the more lighter colors and hopefully i will have a another warm woolen shawl before summer and if not maybe i'll just let it rest and then continue knitting on it in the fall because i do think that the process of knitting should be enjoyable if you don't enjoy what you're knitting on i'd rather put it aside and let it rest and then get back to it then force it because i find that if i force myself to to work on something then i'm kind of over it when it's finished and i don't enjoy it as much as a finished garment either and the mood changes sometimes i feel like knitting on something super woolly and other times you know if it's 30 celsius outside and you're sweaty maybe it's more enjoyable to knit on a linen t-shirt or something lighter however i do knit on woolen things in the summer as well so it all depends and yeah so i was knitting this and i thought well this is easter but it's also spring and summer so maybe i should make another easter easter sweater like a loud easter sweater so i i had bought some yarn from moheria in the fall i bought two sweater quantities and i made the winter sweater and then i also bought uh this yarn let's see for a more autumnal version of the sweater and she got in contact with me because she had gotten orders from all over the world and she wanted to gift me some yarn for a easter sweater that she had so i had this yarn in my stash it was a very bright yellow from this is um a mohair yarn from african expressions love which is actually a south african yarn and it's 78 mo hair 13 wool and 9 nylon and the yarn that she sent me was for one of her easter sweaters because she has an eastern pattern easter pattern and it was with green and hot bright pink i asked her if she would allow me to make a sweater another sweater pattern of hers with this yarn instead because she does have a lot of beautiful designs and i really enjoy one of her patterns which is called lena's flash dance sweater which is quite like 80s inspired and i did have a lot of small leftovers from the previous sweater that i made the winter sweater so i wanted to kind of use up my scraps and make like a very loud easter sweater so that's what i did i'm not finished yet i still have the arms to go but i have gotten the body done so i let's see the sweater this sweater pattern apparently there's a long and a short version the long having three of these color sections and the short having two however i'm a very tall person so i figured i wanted the short version but i wanted it to be long enough to reach my jeans so that it wasn't going to be a bralette so i added a few rows of yellow just here in between to make it just a few centimeters longer and then the front and back when you separate for the sleeves or knit back and forth but you start bottom up and knit in the round and then you pick up stitches for the neck and i am just kind of playing around with the colors because i do have most of the yellow and then green and pink but i had some brown leftovers and some blue leftovers and also some leftovers of this pt design concord which is a chained sparkly yarn made of polyester and viscose it's like an effect yarn so i had some leftovers of that so i put that in the stripes and then i haven't quite decided what to do for the arms yet because i kind of need to see how much i have of the different leftovers and what kind of colors would work together and yeah but i'm hoping to finish this maybe in the next week because it's just the sleeves left and it's knit on seven millimeter needles so it's quite quick and the arms will bend it in the round so for me that's the quickest way of knitting so yeah i'm excited to have another crazy easter sweater this will be the most crazy easter sorry that i have because even though this is a very loud yellow it's a very classic design um and it goes with normal clothing all year round well this one will be a little bit more in your face easter sweater which is great though so yeah arms left and then this will be done and it's so squishy because this this small hair yarn is quite thick it's not like the lace weight silk mo hair this is more like a fingering inner cord with a lot of fuzz so and it's up like a dk or aaron so yeah i'm loving it very eastery and i did get some yarn acquisitions for myself and this is by a norwegian designer she's called um she is called fable knitwear she makes some stunning vintage inspired designs so if you're into vintage looks go check her out she has some beautiful beautiful designs i haven't or i did test it for her once in the past so i have made one of her designs but i've also bought some of her patterns so i am looking forward to casting them on in the future she is also dying yarns and especially i already own some of her fingering weight yarn but i really wanted to try her mo hair so i managed to get some from her from her shop update so i got two of these this is called uh let's see i'm not sure if i can read this maybe you can read it it's like o o a k mossy stone i think um it's 72 percent kidmohair and 20 silk no 28 silk and it's 420 meters and just look at this stunning stunning green with almost bluish black tones to some of it it's stunning so i got two of these and then i got one of these two and this is the [Music] why am i struggling to read this one i can read this is butter beer which is just a gorgeous warm orangey gold and if you saw the last episode i have made the the um ranunculus using one skein of silkmo hair only um that was 400 meters on six millimeter needles is what i used so i am thinking that i could make another sweater of each of these and then maybe a long-sleeved version or another silk mohair sweater with these two i was really pleasantly surprised by this screen i think it's called duchenne glitz which is a norwegian christmas song to me it looks like an emerald um almost like how the pine trees look in the winter but more jeweled tone it's lovely lovely jeweled tone if you ask me so it's beautiful even her label is stunning so yes i am really happy to get my hands on some of her yarns and now i just need to find a pattern that will do justice or maybe i'll just make more ranunculus sweaters who knows that's about all that i have been knitting on yes since the last time i did go skiing i moved so let's get our knitting out maybe you already have it out and then we can sit and chat for a bit of course i should have planned this a bit better and maybe have brought some cast-iron something and stockinette for this section but these socks will do and i'm knitting in them on almost 12 inch from tip to tip circulars so yeah i moved and it was quite stressful i was painting the kitchen cabinets to make it a bit lighter in here because it's a basement apartment and the entire apartment is like this wood so that takes steals a lot of light and then some sad news my dog pia passed away and that was quite emotionally draining um but please don't write too much about it below because it kind of just makes me cry but she she was 15 years old she had a long long long loving life and she just got really sick at the end with heart failure and um yeah took her to the vet because i didn't i didn't have the heart to see her suffer so but yeah so that was quite emotionally draining and that was also the first week of my new job which was physically and mentally draining so that week i didn't really get a lot of knitting done which i guess is okay but that's also why i haven't had the capacity to record until today and also i feel like i need to have something to show you some sort of progress to record because after all we're here to share the love of knitting so there needs to be some knitting and yeah um on to happier things uh went skiing and i think that was the last skiing of this year because everything is melting and i don't think we're gonna have another proper snow which is sad because usually in the easter a lot of norwegian people enjoy cross-country skiing and well that's not possible without snow so and also yeah so we shall see what will happen this easter it's just around the corner i did get my hands on this beauty over here this is an antique spinning wheel i have no idea how old it is but it's in really good condition uh considering how old it is i bought it secondhand of a lady on like a facebook group where people sell swatch giveaway donate so it was a really nice bargain and i did try to spin on it i did and it does have potential to work it would just need an extra two extra bands because those are missing and i might have to tweak the um thing that makes the wheel go around because it wasn't as smooth as it should be ideally but it's a very nice piece and maybe once i get a little bit better at the whole drafting or pulling the fiber then i can work on that thing the whole hand foot eye coordination is it's not easy but i do have an electric wheel that i bought last year or two years ago it's ashford from new zealand it's one of these electrical ones it takes very little space which is great and then i just um feed it fiber and i can adjust the speed and i am pretty happy with so this is where i started quite uneven and then this part right here is what i did two days ago so it's improving and i'm making it quite thin because i would like to apply it so it will be a two-ply strand and then maybe that will be like a fingering to decay weight and i'm practicing using some fiber that i bought when i bought this one and sadly i didn't note down what the sheep breed was but i did get three different kinds of breeds so this is the fiber that i am using now to practice and it's quite soft uh it's getting blown out i need to work a little bit on how to record but please let me know if you think this looks okay um because i have the windows coming in here and from behind me up there but this is like my knitting corner so i wanted this to be where i record but we shall see smells very sheepy so that's my plan is to practice on this fiber that i don't know what braid it is and then when i feel like i'm getting a more even spun yarn i can move on to the fiber that i washed and carded myself from the norwegian wild sheep health wool and lasse which i got in the fall from the farm that i was living on but i want to save that special fiber until i feel like i can produce a yarn that i can also knit with and wear so that i have done the whole process from seeing the sheep being cut by my neighbor or landlord until wearing a finished garment and then maybe going back to visit the sheep um this is something that um kat from heather and hops another podcast was also talking about wanting to do and i really like the idea of going back wearing the wool that they generously grew on their body and donated so yeah oh i forgot i'm supposed to be knitting i just got to the section where the braids need to be braided which is on this the way i'm doing this is on every third round so then when i'm doing it without the cable needles i'm just holding those three stitches take them off the needle and just hold them in a very tight grip then i knit and then from that tight grip i release them and then put them back on the needle the left needle and then i knit them and then that moves them so that the braid has been braided so please let me know are you knitting on something for easter or is that not normal where you're from uh i i did get a comment from someone that they hadn't heard about it before but i think it's quite common here um yeah easter sweater usually easter sweater and then people go knitting they wear their easter sweater and sunglasses and then they eat norwegian cake lunch chocolate and oranges and drink hot cocoa and people put sausages on a thermos with warm water and they bring that skiing and yes it's very happy few days of the spring but hopefully without rain and sun and snow instead that's kind of like the idyllic scenery that you want for easter [Music] yes so i am waiting for a book that i have ordered the 52 weeks of socks it's a beautiful kind of coffee table book from lane and i'm really enjoying knitting socks so i'm looking forward to getting that book and maybe expand my sock horizon a little bit and i recently saw on instagram that they are making a 52 weeks of shawls book so now i really want that book as well and one of the viewers or you viewers asked me if i would like to do like a knitting pattern book review every now and then and i was thinking i could i could do that once i get my 52 weeks of socks and maybe if i get the 52 weeks of shawls i could do that as well because there are some stunning designs and at least i know there are some stunning designs in the 52 weeks of socks book by very talented designers so i can't wait to look through that book and cast something on perhaps since i had a little bit less knitting today than what i usually do i figured i would show you my um most used notions pouch this is a cork fabric uh i think it's supposed to be a purse or something that i got when i was in lisbon in portugal there's a lot of stunning cork fabric notion bags and wallets and etc that they sell there with beautiful prints especially i enjoyed the brown quirk with the marine blue i think it looks beautiful and what the content in this keeps changing i always have a few stitch markers that i take on and off my work um in addition to proper notion bags for stitch markers that i also have but this one i always keep with me because i have two things in here that are well which i absolutely need to have at all times and the one one of them is the scissor which i think i got from tiger of sweden but it is such a good scissor it's quite sharp like you can hear that so it snips the yarn really easily and it's small and light and then the other thing that i keep in here which is a must is this darning needle which is quite blunt so it's not painful and it can darn quite thick threads so i use this for all of my sweaters and patterns whatever i'm working on this i always use to weave in the ends so these two are my most necessary items that i always keep with me yes and of course always have a few stitch markers in here but i keep stitch markers all around me and every project bag and on my purses and everywhere but i always have a few in here because this is what i always have with me with them with my projects so yeah there's fiber everywhere so i don't know if i forgot to say something really enjoying my new job but it's completely different from any of the other work i've done as a doctor so it's a lot to learn um but i'm really enjoying it so yeah i really like it i'm happy with my career path thus far and i do hope that once i get a little bit more into the routines and and just my brain will be less foggy when i come home that i can spend more time just knitting and relaxing instead of just passing out on the couch anyhow i hope you're well i'm hoping that you get to enjoy your knitting and making and that you're feeling hopeful now that spring is around the corner easter is coming up maybe you feel inspired to knit something that represents the hope that spring brings with it at least it does to me and that you just have a lovely lovely time and i will see you soon i don't think that it will go as many weeks between the episodes now that i'm finally settled and yeah i will see you soon bye [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Knittingtraditions

Views: 33,170

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Id: jozRMdMbcec

Length: 51min 42sec (3102 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021