Flu(ffy) knitting
First, beware: Do not lick this post, wash your hands after reading and disinfect your computer, I have the flu… With this security advice out of the way, wool, magazines and knitting will follow.
I had a very busy week, so not too much ‘hobby-knitting’ for me. The bit of knitting I have done was for an artwork I submitted to a contest. The rest was taking photos and editing them and…. paperwork 😱😱😱 I mentioned this competition several times, but I am too superstitious to write a post about it before I have an (positive) answer. If I get a negative one, I will pretend I never heard about this.
After I sent everything away, my husband got violently ill (and he really seldom is) and my brain was occupied with other things then knitting. But as you can perhaps imagine, I picked this _______________ (insert swearwords) flu up.
Today I am a bit green and yellow inside (things you did not wanted to know, but I tell you nevertheless) but the fever is down, and I am up from bed :-D
This very long intro was necessary to explain, why I again started a new project 😅😅😅 My mother bought me a knitting magazine to distract me from my headaches and fewer and I immediately fell in love with one pattern: a wide wrap cardigan made from fluffy yarn. As I have never made a wrap cardigan, this was doubly attractive. This magazine is from a German wool shop which sells its own brand of yarn Wolle Rödel and yarn from Rico design. Sadly, the wool for this pattern is much too expensive (in my universe).
But I found some cheaper replacement: I tried the same yarn I used for my artworks simply hold double. And I am very happy with it. This yarn I buy on eBay, it is made from rests from the fabric production, meaning it has no label and is mostly very thin as you can see on the photo. The yarn has 380 m for 50 g and I used a 2,75 mm needle. I had/have a few problems to get gauge, because I cannot knit tight enough with thin yarns. But as I said above, I think it will be ok.
The big chunk of the back I knitted while watching alternately Star Trek and Sugar Rush. Not sure if this was good for my mental health. We will know in some days. If I start baking aliens in muffin tins, please fetch help….
The magazine has all over nice patterns, but as I know from other versions of this magazine, the sweaters have often very long bodies and super small armholes. Also possible is, that I have a very short torso and thick arms 😅 Hopefully the cardigan will be the right size for me- the pattern calls for 21 cm for the biggest size, this seems to be enough.
Thank you @crosheille and @crystalize for hosting the #needleworkmonday. If you want to see more beautiful projects with yarn, fabric and most of all needles, follow @needleworkmonday. Or even better grab your needles and keyboard and join the #needleworkmonday community.
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Oh no!! I licked your post!! 😅
Hope you are feeling better @neumannsalva. It is no fun with flu. And your husband too, he is well now I hope?
Ooo I love the wrap cardigan!!!! 😍😍😍 It is so stylish and comfy looking!! Can't wait to see your production :) I think I like the magazines too! :)
Oh noooo, go and wash cour mouth, better the whole face or take a shower with a germicide 😆😆
We are both better, but I still have no voice and I am coughing, but this does not trouble me so much incontrast to headaches...
And I will report on the cardigan... I may have modified the pattern a bit (oh god!!! why have I done this???) and I am curious if all will fit together (stitchcount for the armholes with sleeve stitchcount)
Sorry you are so poorly, and a new knitting project (especially one that is not too demanding) is the perfect therapy :) I like the way the wool is knitting up, it looks very soft and cosy? So this yarn made from waste fibres, is that correct? I must have a look and see whether such things are available in the UK. I think patterns are made for an imaginary person, and we all have different ideas about how loose or close fitting we like to wear our garments. The best thing (and what I'm trying to learn) is how to adapt patterns for our own beautiful shapes and sizes. And now, very quietly, I'm intrigued by the competition ... :)
Do you want to take part in the @treeplanter voting circle I'm running this week for #needleworkmonday? You can find out more about it in this post. Have a lovely week!
yep... the knitting helped :-D And also it is much cheaper yarn, it is really soft. I am not sure about the drape, but this must wait for later stages of the project. The yarn is from a wool shop which sells normal brands like Lana grossa or Lang yarns etc. But they also sell no-name yarn which is as they say "yarns of the high-quality fashion industry. Particularly inexpensive, since it is about yarns that are industrially no longer economically to process because of too small amounts." Sadly, they seem to only sell in Germany, but I am not sure...
And with the sizes. You are right, there is no change to make a pattern that fits all. But sometimes I would be happy if the photos were more precise. For example, the sweater I made from this German magazine reaches barely the waist of the model. But when I looked up the sizes, the smallest size had a body of 63 cm... I am not convinced, that the models in this magazine are around 1,90 m 😅😅 And the magazine is not very size inclusive, mostly two sizes and sometimes only one.... So yes, the ability to adapt a pattern is very useful (I am trying to learn this for sewing, but I find it tough)
Oh, and with the competition! This is so good to hear. I have written @needleworkmonday a bit more about the idea, as I thought it is better, if the community account starts the competitions/challenges :-D
good luck with the contest, getting over the flu and knitting that stunning cardigan!
Thank you so much. I am already feeling better today and I think it was perhaps a combination of deadline stress and some cold... :-D As I sent everything away, the stress will be lesser now. And I need all the luck I can get <3
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear you both got struck with that terrible bug known as the flu. I’m glad you are up and out of bed but I hope you recover fully soon.
I love that wrap cardigan! I think you will have fun trying this new version out. It’s always fun trying something new. Even though the yarn is a bit on the thinner side I hope it continues to do well for you and you are able to finish with no problems. The other patterns look lovely too. Does wool ever bother your skin or make you itch? If I ever make anything with wool I would have to sew in a fabric lining because it makes me itch so much. I have seen so many wool yarns I want to work with.
Tank youuuuu <3 My husband is already better and I am a bit too :-)
The yarn behaves okeyish, it tore once, but after this it was good. But it is hard to see the stitches with all the fluffiness :-D
And with the wool content. I am not very sensible with my skin, but my husband has the same problem as you. So, I mostly use some wool/acrylic blends or other non-itchy yarns. Besides pure wool is often much to expensive (as the wool I quoted in the post)
Do you also react to alpaca or llama wool? I think I read, the problem with wool is mostly the lanolin and alpaca and llama do not contain lanolin. But their wool is even more expensive 😅
Oooh, dear! I'm sorry you got sick. Get well!!! I also paid attention to asymmetric cardigans, but did not dare to undertake it. I like the way the work done by you looks like: very stylish
I am already better, only my woce is not really there :-D And I will report how the asymetrical cardigan is coming together - happy you like it.
I am glad to hear that you are already better !!!!!
That wrap style on the cardigan is neat! And I am glad you came up with a way to use your yarn to make it.
I hope you feel better soon. The flu sucks and generally getting sick sucks. Especially when you have things you want to be doing.
The pictures of the magazine- the long, white, chunky looking coat- a neat piece but I keep thinking about how much time it would take to make!
Feel better soon!
Thank you... I already feel a bit better, no voice right now, but this is better than having headaches form congested sinuses :-D And I am bit proud of myself, that I can use up this super thin yarn :-D
With the white coat... I loved the scarf on this photo, I did not see that there is also a knitted cloak, but you are right 😅😅😅
I love these knitted cardigans/coats, but I never started one, because as you say, this will need so much time and is perhaps very heavy on the needles. But I love to wear them....
Good luck with flu and with knitting :) Be well soon girl!
Already a bit better today :-D Thank youuuu <3
Get better soon, @neumannsalva !
I'm still struggling with my fluffy project :D
Thank you <3 and the fuffliness is so cute, but also a bit inconvinient to unravel (or in my case to see the stitches behind all he fluff :-D) But I think you will be ready very fast. With my jacket... we will see :-)
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Gute besserung @neumannsalva. And you have a great mama who brings knitting magazine to you. I think if I were you my mother brought me food ...
It was the first time I hear about the yarn. I must take a look on eBay :) Can be an option for my Shippo (knitting tails) project. I was almost shouting at a yarn store this morning as mohair + silk yarn which texture I really liked was hammer expensive ......
Dankeschön, es ist auch etwas besser <3
hihihi... my mother also brought food :-D and some herbs from their garden. The yarn is from wool.discount. They have normal "markenware" and these rest yarns without label. They are mostly very thin and you have to combine many strands. But for the fluffy yarn this worked nicely.
Ohhh I read the shippo post but forgot to comment. This is such a cool project, kind of knitting and life acting/performance symbiosis <3