Knitted throw-around blanket jacket

You would think that something as simple as this needn't take very long to make. But this very simple, straight throw-around blanket jacket has been on it's way for a long time. I got this old sweater from my mum which was not exactly pretty, but I liked the yarn, the blend of colours it had in it, so I decided to un-ravel it and create something new with this yarn. something I have done many times, you can read more about that in my re-knit manifesto. Anyways it took so long, since every time I tried something it didn't work out. But finally setting on such a simple model, with just a plain regular stitch it worked. (just very boring to make) all the complicated stuff just didn't work with this yarn. and I'm glad my sister liked, it was her christmas gift.

The throw-around is just a plain flat square, to emphasize the simplicity I made no ribs at the extremities, so it rolls a bit, and I added a bit of yellow edge at the bottom, that has become a bit more orange on the picture than it is reality because of the beautiful autumn leaves in the background. Only made a little bit of rib on the vertical edge to prevent too much inwards rolling. It's the outwards rolling that I like. It's so super simple it has no closing, it's just two slabs of fabric one over the other, keeping them together with a supersize safety pin. I did put on pockets in the end, of course it would have been more simple without, but pockets are so practical, and as you see she likes to stick her hands inside them.

here's a picture of one of the previous attempts, was trying to make sort of ladies tailored jacket, as you can see the texture of the beautiful in-out ribs are just not at all visible at all. also had an attempt where a brioche stitch was going to create some puff sleeves (the Isabel Marant way) also just didn't work. probably ended up knitting this piece 3 or 4 times before ending up with this the final one.

Old knitting photos

Recently I posted the finger-less gloves with Space-invaders sort-off intarsia pattern. I was telling how these gloves were made of the yarn I had used for the rim with running-men for a sweater I knitted many, many years ago.
One of my good old friends Sandy picked up on this story. Out of her archive she dug pictures of me knitting the sweater back then. Unfortunately I'm myself much more disorganized, live in boxes because of never-ending re-build etcetc, so I cannot find any old pictures right now, but one day when things get more organized I will dig out an old picture were I'm actually wearing that sweater.

we think the pictures date back to 1986'ish. Which means the finger-less gloves are re-knitted out of yarn dating back almost 30 years ..... this is what I love about yarn, you can use it again and again, (as long as the moths haven't eaten it) because it's and (almost) endless thread. Read more about that in my re-knit manifesto.

The pictures are from times when people were more conscious about when to taking a picture, i.e. took pictures at special occasions etc, were it was not normal to take picture of everything all the time, so Sandy remembers that Ulla (to the left) and myself were making fun of here photographing us in such a uninteresting situation.

How I loved those shoes.

New amigurumi round-up

Because of that exhibition that I had end of last year at the craft council of Sonderborgs yearly show, I prepared a poster showing all the amigurumi I have ever made. This poster is an update of the previous overview with the additions since Findus.

you can read the full story of the dolls by clicking on the links here below
Delfts Blue (Madam Blå), Pyke's bunny, Hedgehog Findus, Jo the Biker, Sandy's miniature
Stines miniature, Uma, Lieves emo birdie, Strisser the rabbit girl, James the sheep
Hannah the fearie, Ronja, Leo the catwoman, Gothic Lolita for Julie, a bee for Lieve
Duck-face lips for Guus, Mermaid for Carin, Helene & Oliver merried, Helene, punk for Tijmen
Mia doll, Green dragon for Stef, longneck man for Samuel, 3-eyed monster for Nils crobot for Kick

Space-invaders (sort of) finger-less gloves

These gloves are part two of the finger-less gloves re-knitting project. Last week I showed you the open twisted rib version, this time it's an intarsia version with bright coloured pac-man sort of pattern, which is the simplified space-invaders that I developed for Sandy's mini-me amigurimi. It's a super small pattern that looks like a little face, and by repeating it like this it could easily be thought to be some cute flower, whilst actually it's more like something out of a very early computer game. I always really liked that pattern, just couldn't really figure out where I wanted to use it.

These are not the most easy gloves to make, it's really a work of patience and precision. The gloves are knit with re-purposed (see below where the yarn came from) Marianne Isager Tvinni single strand on 5 sock needles size 2,5mm. It's a rather old-fashioned gloves pattern which I make based on my memory, it's fully fashioned including an "indent" to create space for the thumb and I also actually really knit the fingers, whilst many fingerless gloves are made without actual fingers.

Here's what the gloves looked like from the inside before I worked away the ends. What a terrible mess that looks like! as you can see, all the yarns ends are curly because the yarn was re-purposed.

Here's a picture of the border of a sweater that I salvaged when I had to throw the rest of the moth eaten sweater away. One day I just suddenly thought this would be the perfect material for fingerless gloves with space-invaders.

Those funny running men are soooo '80'es. Exactly the time when I knitted the original sweater.