fridamakes

[fridamakes]

It doesn’t look that exciting, but this linen is from the New Kingdom (ca. 1492–1473 B.C.)

Thinking about it for too long makes me feel absolutely insane.

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this is my takeaway from Everything Everywhere All At Once

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Ah yes, chat GPT coming for our pattern makers

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Hey I went to Finishing Your Wips island. Yeah nobody knew you there :/

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hey so like sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your boyfriend fell into the wool and we carded him. yeah he’s now in multiple rolags and we are spinning him into yarn. oof yeah and we were gonna weave that yarn into a bolt of cloth and fell it so uh…. he’s gonna be boiled. yeah sorry. look it could be worse, he’ll be part of a very dense and non-fraying cloth. it’s not that bad

[fridamakes]

New year, new mitts

I got a set of interchangeable round needles for christmas (they were by the brand addi click- so far really liking them) and wanted to make something small to test them out. I also got a goodie-bag of wool yarns from Hobbii from my mom and wanted to do something with one of those yarns. (shoutout to my family for the great gifts!) 

I decided on these outlander inspired mitts (pattern HERE) using the Arctica yarn by Hobbii. This yarn now seems to be discontinued, but I really like the rustic look. Unfortunately the yarn is also pretty scratchy and quite rough on the hands to work with. I used almost exactly 50 grams (1 skein) which was nice and low waste.  The pattern was nice, but I ended up going rouge quite fast. I did some additional shaping to make the wrist more tightly fitted. I ended up doing something like this - cast on 32 on 5mm needles (I did magic loop on these)  - on row 12 - decrease 2 = 30 st  - on row 25 ish - decrease 2 =28 st  - When starting to make the thumb gusset I also added another stitch on the opposite side, to account for the “outside edge” of my hand.  - Cast off using a stretchy method , ending up with a slightly bigger cast off edge, which I think looks nice! 

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Crocheters when the hook slips off the yarn: "Whoops! Better redo those like 2 stitches I dropped :D"

Knitters when the needle slips off the yarn:

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Four ish started and frogged projects later...

.... I decided to make basic socks. Yeah.

Since my last post I started and frogged a whole lot of projects. The latvian braid- colour change- kitten mittens are still on their needles, but I haven't made much progress since last posting. It's just SO SMALL and fiddly, and I have to stare at the pattern to knit them.

I wanted to start something else that I could make, more casually, in the mean time, and I tried a bunch of things that didn't end up working. I think I started two (three?) different mitten-projects, a hat and a dishcloth. All of which have then been frogged and scrapped. I have managed to find a bunch of pretty patterns that I want to make later, tho, so not a complete waste of time. I'm fridatriestoknit on ravelry, and my favourites there reflect my trials and tribulations quite well.

As mentioned, I settled on a pair of really basic socks. I'm using this pattern and a nice slightly colourchanging warm purple yarn.

The bottom thing is the start of the heel flap. This pattern has a padded heel which is new to me

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Latvian braid stuff

The kitten-mitts I’m making include a new technique that I’ve never used before, the Latvian braid! It is a way of making a decorative chevron across your work w/ three rows. Super fiddly and time consuming in this tiny needle size

The colour changing yarn is making the whole thing a little harder to see, but I like the way It looks :) bonus pic of my cat Majken who was sleeping at my feet when I was knitting the braid✨

It’s now time for the actual fun bit where I get to do the colour work with just knit stitches!!! Hype!!

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Starting my next project

Having just finished my very first colourwork project I decided to go in right over my head and do a way more complicated colourwork project with way smaller needles.... Needless to say, I am not smart. But I am excited

The pattern in question is the Lille Katt mittens by Camilla Wallgren on Ravelry. They are cat themed mittens with a traditional scandinavian construction and shape, so what's not to love?

The other day my mum and I went through our yarn stash and I fell head over heels in love with a cool colour changing yarn. The stars aligned and the yarn fit with the mittens, and ya'll know that I just had to do it to em. Unfortunately I don't know where the fancy yarn is from, but the other beige yarn is drops flora, and the needle size is 2,5mm.

I absolutely loved doing colourwork on the half mitts that I made, but so far these are fuckin miserable. I hate rib knit to the core of my very being, and with two colours it's even worse. But they do be turning out cool

This is not my picture, but this is to show how the mitten should look

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Blocking time✨

I finished the other mitt and got really excited to block everything that I’ve made since starting to knit a few weeks ago! Pictures are: the mitts that I just finished, a balaclava with mohair and wool and a pair of socks that I made to refresh my knitting skills.

The mohair balaclava is a pattern from Drops design, and is free. Though I did freestyle the rib a bit, since I did not want it to go as far down the shoulders…

Sock pattern is also free from drops, and was a pattern targeted towards beginners. Basically a ‘how to- guide’ on making socks. Good pattern to start with imo

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Handwarmers - half a pair done!

And by half a pair, I mean one. I've made a single one... So I've got one to go... Though the one I have made is lovely and super warm!

The rib knit turned out a bit wonky, though i think that will even itself out with blocking. Far from perfect, but I really haven't knit many things before so I'm really pleased. Love the cozy vibe and the colour choice!

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The hand warmer journey takes a pleasant turn! Deciding on just orange and grey was a very good choice, as they are turning out very well for a first try at colourwork!

The tension issues are basically gone, even though the rib knit around the thumb-bit is looking a little bit wonky…. I do like the vibe of the pattern and the colours :)

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Project update- oops all red

I started again on the hand warmers, in all grey and red, and I love the way they're turning out! No longer do I look like an american flag, and it's giving off way more of the vibe i wanted. Here are some in progress pics :)

I fixed the tension issues I had with the first attempt, and they fit way better now, no longer too tight :)

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Psychic damage - unraveling my knitting

I slept on it, and unfortunately, I did still think that it looked a bit too much like the american flag, so I did decide to unravel the whole thing. I will be knitting the same pattern, but I'll only use the grey and the orange, no blue. I think the pattern will look nice still, but we'll see. It was not nice to unravel the whole thing, but I think it'll be better in the end.

You can see that I tried to put the needles back in, but I decided to just redo the whole thing, as I did have some tension issues from the start.. Since it was rather quick I just decided to say fuck it and redo the whole thing

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Project update- handwarmers

Update on the colourwork handwarmers! I am really enjoying the process of colourwork so far. Though my hands are really straining and are getting a bit crampey... I really don't have a great system for holding the yarn, i'm fumbling all over the place. I watched a movie and did a whole bunch of the knitting, and I got further than I thought I would. Though I do think I did something wrong in the pattern, as it doesn't look like the photos.... oops lol,,,, I think I might have skipped a row somewhere in the middle of the pattern which made it look a bit different, but I do still like the way it's turning out. Since it's my first colourwork project I might leave it for the charm, or if I can gather the strength tomorrow I might undo and redo the parts after the skipped row... That seems like quite a bit of work though so probably not,,, If I keep it I will not be repeating the miss so that the pair matches, they will just have to look a bit different...

I didn't intend it to look as ~stars and stripe-y~ as it does, which kinda made me a bit dissapointed tbh. I really don't want to walk around w people thinking I'm wearing an american flag lol. That sucks... I did think that the grey was grey enough to not look white and the orange was orangey enough to not look red, but I don't know. The colours were ment to look like traditional swedish knit colours, but I'll have to sleep on it and see tomorrow.

I'm also having a bit of trouble with the tensioning of the running yarn behind the stitching. I might be tightening it a bit too much, as the hand warmer is looking a bit small. I did try it on and my hand does fit through, so the actual fit probably won't be an issue, but I'm still keeping that in mind.

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I'll be using the Hobbii Highland Wool, in colours 4, 30 and 14. The colours reminded me of traditional swedish knit colourwork, also they are just colours that I like to look at, so that's a good enough reason to me. The beginning of the pattern is just one colour though, so it'll be a while until the fun (read- scary) part

Project start post

I've just gotten in to knitting and I'm fully hooked.... In a couple of weeks i've gotten from knitting a single sock (like four years ago) to having knit a pair of socks, a hat, and a balaclava. Pictures of those are coming, i just need to block them first. My next project I'm starting today is a pair of hand warmers. More specifically these ones! The pattern is available for free, though it is written in Swedish... I am a swede, so no problem here, but for everyone else that's a heads up. I will not be making mine in the same colourway, instead I will make them in light grey, orange and petrol blue.

The projects I have made so far have involved various techniques but only in one colour each, so colourwork will be a new exciting challenge for me. I have watched countless youtube videos about colourwork and so I vaguely know what i'm doing,,,,, I think????

Anyway, I'm super excited about this project and I'll be starting as soon as I finish this post