MOONSTITCHES

Seamless Yoke Sweater II

As you will see soon, this blog hasn't only become a slightly boring knitting blog, no, it is about to be turned into a Seamless Yoke Sweater blog.
The attempt to conquer this Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern ("pithy instructions") started out rather unsuccessful two months ago, but with this second try I think I understood a little more of how it works.

We have a new sweater in the house - which my girl likes very much - which is good to play with (this winter and about the next two or three following) - and which was really fun to knit.

The shape is traditional, ribbing at the hem and sleeves. The stitch pattern for the yoke was taken from Knitting Without Tears, the yarn came from my stash, quite old and nothing special.

It fits loosely and initially I thought it was way too big, and hurried to start knitting for another one, but actually it seems just fine.

More of that kind to come next week!

Have a beautiful weekend!

Sorry for the inconvenience with the comments... I don't know what is wrong. Sometimes it seems to be working, and then again it doesn't. I am trying to find out what is happening.

All well again!

Yesterday, After School

Two girls enjoying a beautifully sunny afternoon, peanut butter cookies and milk, working on Ma, Mo, Momo and the fourth Seamless Yoke Sweater.

The yoke, the final, fun part of the whole sweater. Not so before but I think I have come to like the drastic decreases by now. Started at the proper point and knit relaxed with the second thread carried behind the work loosely there really shouldn't be a problem with the yoke looking puckered and wobbly - I will re-read this sentence when having finished the sweater, ending up with just that... ;)
The yarn is a wool/ alpaca blend, soft but sturdy and great to work with.

The cookies:
125 g butter (soft)
125 g granulated sugar
150 g peanut butter
1 egg
150 flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Cream peanut butter and butter, stir in the rest of the ingredients, blend well. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Shape into small balls, place on baking paper covered sheet, flatten the balls a bit (fork or fingers) and bake for about 15 minutes at 190 °C

Looking Back

A posting I wanted to write just after my latest back in... but, funny thing, we were surprised by Autumn Break. A week off from school. I really need to get a big calendar to put on the kitchen wall to mark all the holidays over the course of a year. It's so easy to miss or mix them all up because Dagny is partly on German schedule in her German school and the husband strictly on Japanese.
Anyway, after that week I had to get back on track and simply fell off the wagon again instead. No surprise, you know me by now. It's so easy to just knit and be happy.

In my last posting I had been speaking about what this blog was meant for (other than creating a huge community of followers or getting turned into a book or something equally aspiring...), just for the record, a few of the things I have been making during summer.
Like a new kinchaku (traditional pouch) for Dagny to take to the fireworks. A little yukata for her doll Ulala-chan, crocheted hair elastics, gauze face masks... Dagny's yukata I made a couple of years ago, and this year might have been the last time she could wear it. I let out all hems and extra seams that were sewn to make it smaller when it turned out too big for my four-year-old back in 2007.

The crocheted flower elastics were asked. Earlier this year a dear friend gave us similar ones she had been making. Sadly one of those were lost or misplaced during our move, so I had the pleasure to get reacquainted with my hooks...

And then there was the request for some face masks in early summer when many people wore them because of pollen allergy.

I followed the instruction from an early (the first?) Ito Naomi book やわらか　ガゼでつくる　- making (things) with gauze. The masks turned out too thick but were worn despite this. Not really meant for protecting against something, more in the manner of dressing up.

Thank you all for your friendly response to my latest posting.
Thanks for the compliments on the second Neighborly and thanks for sharing your thoughts about the whole commenting matter. Made me feel more at ease. Also I found a way to use my mailer to directly respond to comments without sending my answers right to my blog... all is working out in the end. Nothing to really worry about.
What I actually do find worry-worthy is that in the meantime I got so inspired by the many, many beautiful things that are uploaded on ravelry every minute that I needed to cast on for a lot of new knitting projects. And I am planning on even more!
My stash is still fed well, yet I ordered new yarn I came across on ravelry...
I will upload a few yarn and knitting photos on Flickr and explain in my next posting. Basically it is all mostly grey-ish brown and often knit in the round. Working on conquering the Seamless Yoke Sweater again :)

Back hopefully soon with knitting news...
Until then!

Neighborly. Selfish?

A second one, started to give away but my girl begged me to keep it. So I gave it to her. My knitting efforts in the past mostly circled around me and she has all the rights to want a few knits for her own, too. And I must say I am flattered she likes wearing what I am making. This will change at some point, I guess. So I do enjoy it while it lasts.
And make one more Neighborly ;)

Since this little vest actually is knit in now time, being busy knitting it surely can't be the excuse for not writing here, or getting back to you who commented on the last Neighborly...
Life happened, mostly laundry it was, so my impression. Too little time for anything beside keeping it all running...

*We've been to see ARIMA SHINPEI'S WORKS at the Living Design Center OZONE last weekend, just beautiful! The postcard Dagny is holding is from the exhibition.

And if it wasn't enough that I already feel awful most of the times because I don't manage to write to you, Typepad with its fabulous update lately suggested me I should answer your comments online in the comments section to show that I care about my readers.

Phew, that really puts some pressure upon my shoulders. I already did have a bad conscience and now I am feeling even worse.
I will not complain how busy they made me when they switched the default address for answering comments from the commenter's email address to the comment itself and all my answers were going directly to my blog... My fault, I didn't look carefully. Good I discovered it eventually... what a relief I hadn't written anything embarrassing or too private in those replies.
But now there is the burden of giving the impression I wouldn't care about you because I do not keep the conversation on my blog moving, as they (Typepad) suggest to me.
Should that really bother me?
I confess I am no social networking person and don't connect to others via Twitter or Facebook. I guess all of that can be a lot of fun, but as long as a day is only 24 hours and as long as we must die eventually, I will spend as much time as I can not updating my various accounts. I will reply to your comments whenever I can but I will keep doing so mostly directly and not in public. Only if an answer is of general interest I will write in the comments section.
I am most definitely overreacting to the whole new Typepad with all its features around getting connected, increasing the number of readers, making everything quicker and easier and, not at last, creating the next blockbuster blog... After all this place was just meant to be for sharing my crafty endeavours. Nothing more.
And I am not half as concerned as I may sound, so don't take me too seriously.
And now on to this bunch of fingering yarns on my desk that are engaged in some stranded knitting...!

Have a good day!

PS: Yarn from stash, leftover Olympus make make from that beret and some Hamanaka Sonomono Slub I never knew what to make with.

Neighborly

Being neighbourly with Neighborly.
A quick and fun post about a quick and fun knit.
I think it's a great idea Jennifer of JCasa handmade had, such an easy way to do something good.
I do not know yet whom or where to give my second Neighborly I have started knitting but I will figure something out and hope it will cause as much happiness as in our house...

I love the boatneck and the simplicity of the design.
The collar isn't very sturdy and I had been thinking of making it folded but then I really liked that it looked not so perfect and also a bit unfinished. So I made just according to the pattern. Not knitting a ribbing around the armholes was requested by Dagny and I think it goes well with the floppy collar.

I didn't have any of the suggested yarns but was determined to use something from my stash, so I paired two left overs from cardigans I made. A subtly striping wool and as pilling-protector a silk mohair yarn.

LOVE how they are together!
I did knit according to the pattern (of course neglecting the instructions for the colour changes), only made it a bit longer (32.5 cm), and, as a result of a smaller gauge (16 St) the circumference at the hem is 90 cm. Good fit for my 6 year old.

A nice and easy to follow pattern.

Thanks for sharing, Jennifer!

Knitting Without Tears

No tears, no. Never when knitting. But it surely was more challenging than so many stories about first Elizabeth Zimmermann's Seamless Yoke sweaters I've been seeing on ravelry made me hope it would be. Knitting Without Tears and Knitter's Almanac have been on my shelves since two years, I think. But I never came around actually trying one of the patterns in those books. They did intimidate me. All those words, the lack of charts... being supposedly so ingenious and simple, and also: assuming the knitter got brains to make use of.

So, after much hesitation I finally dared to give it a try, hoping I was in for one of those success stories (Yeah, first EZ and it fits like a glove! Finished in three days! So easy!).
But... over here it rather turned out as fitting so-so, finished in almost two weeks and no, not that easy.
The first set of sleeves was too tight, the yoke looked very puckered.
After I frogged the first version I decided on old fashioned ribbing instead of faced or rolling hems.

It looks alright from a distance, but my decreases are really weird. Must work on those... anyway, the sweater fits and will be worn. And will look terrible in just a few weeks because the yarn tends to get quite fuzzy. Stash yarn, bought in the early days with not much experience.

I must say I was really glad I finished this sweater eventually. It is just a small thing and shouldn't have taken much time or attention, yet I managed to get lost in this project. Days were just flying by and I totally drifted away from blogging again, and communicating.
At least there is a new sweater in the house now and I think I did learn a bit while making it. That is always good.
I also think I do love seams because they give a knitted piece more structure and stability. Back in August I finished a cardigan (I try to take photos this week so I can blog about it) using the mattress stitch and not only was it very easy, it also looks nice and does support the cardigan's shape. I am sure I will give the Seamless Yoke Sweater another try someday, but not too soon.

Good start into a new week, you all!

Autumnal and Urgent

Just resurfacing after a pleasant week of super urgent knitting...
I'll be making it quick because I am tired and should really go to bed early today. When I am rested properly I can spend tomorrow morning in front of this screen and catch up with you.

So I actually made another Swallowtail Shawl in just six days...

I guess you all know the feeling when casting off a long time project (like my first Swallowtail, 16 months!)... suddenly there is all that energy and freedom. And the urge to keep those hands busy. And in my case, after finishing the Swallowtail Shawl in a very light cotton, the curiosity about how it would be to knit it in a bit heavier yarn, in wool...
So I searched my stash and decided to make an autumnal Swallowtail in Socks that Rock (ravelry link), mediumweight, 24 Karat.

The yarn would not have been enough for all 14 repeats of the Budding Lace, so I went for the smaller version of 9 repeats. I like to wrap my shawls around my neck anyway, so 9 repeats in this mediumweight sock yarn are just fine.

Yet, somebody here decided, halfway through the shawl, this one would be hers...

We agreed on sharing and I also picked fabrics for a matching dress for Dagny (not pictured in these photos, still to be sewn).

Modifications for making the shawl smaller:
9 repeats of the Budding Lace 2 pattern, omitting of rows 3 and 4 of the Peaked Edging (referring to the instructions as they appeared in the top 5: The Best of Interweave Knits).
I had been trying how it looked when rows 1 and 2 of the Peaked Edging are being repeated once to get the additional stitches to make the stitch count fit but that didn't go so well with the less amounts of Budding Lace repeats, so I had to knit back. I surely must find out how to employ lifelines.
I didn't come up with those modifications all by myself but found very helpful blog postings I will link to tomorrow when there is more time.

As for the nupps: Katrin of Sew-Mad totally deserves a big thanks for commenting and advising me to add just one additional yarnover when making the nupps and let that one slip before the P5tog - so much better!

Oh, and I should mention I do like the yarn for a shawl. Nice drape, not too light and delicate, easy to wash. 110 g were enough to finish this shawl, by the way.

Until tomorrow then!

Surprise!

Still 2009, still summer and that Swallowtail is mine!!!

Honestly, when I wrote I might finish it next year I rather thought never. Because it was such a pain to knit. But at the time of writing my last posting I was under the fresh impression of that very first row of nupps, respectively the following row that asks you to purl five together. P5tog... Such a terrible idea, I thought.

Yet, here you are!

When I gave it one more chance last week, I tried hard to remember to knit very, very loosely whenever attempting to work on a nupp. And what a difference that made! Suddenly it wasn't so awful at all.
Even enjoyable!

So, here I am with my Swallowtail Shawl. Didn't think this would happen too soon.

What did I learn besides getting to know nupps are very hungry little creatures who require a lot yarn to be and make happy?
Staying calm, trying again, being patient. It will happen eventually.

Also, to all of you who are still out there: Thank you so much for your hearty welcome. Felt good.

Take care!

Aufnahme

picking up the thread (den Faden wiederaufnehmen)
contacting (Kontaktaufnahme)
audio recording (Tonaufnahme)
snapshot in time (Momentaufnahme)

Hello there.

I am not going to write I am back because I don't want to make you say Welcome back! for the hundredth time... I'll just continue posting.
Again the break wasn't intended. Despite my thought that after we defeated the mould everything would return to normal, it just was easier to not pursue blogging but to concentrate on spending time with my little girl during the longest summer vacation she might ever have had in her life.

Six months altogether. Busy months due to the move, a little frustrating and tiring when we fought humidity and mould, exhausting during August, when the weather was truly paralysing.

Being here, doing all the ordinary stuff that has to be done to keep things running was enough to fill the days. Some crafting, yes, because that is necessary to keep me running, but not bothering with blogging about that. Not enough energy or time. Summer.
Trying to do it all and keep blogging might have led to two very unsatisfied girls, so I just let the blog be. And, see, it is still where I left it.

This week school started. We have a first grader in this house :)
So great to watch the excitement and happiness only a child can experience!
And with Dagny being in school I now have plenty of time to engage in all kinds of selfish activities again, so, here I am.

It still is mostly hot here in Yokohama. The cicadas haven't stopped making their deafening noise and I am surprised how long they stick around this year. Maybe though it's just like every year, it only feels worse because it's happening right outside the door, in the many trees. And it really is loud.
If you play the audio (hope it works, took me some time to figure out how to embed it here... not so talented with technical matters at all!), make sure to turn up the sound until it hurts, because that is what it does.

As for the actual threads I have been picking up, it's my Summerly Swallowtail (ravelry link) I had been starting a while ago.
Would have liked to wear it last Summer, or this Summer... maybe next then.
Is it the cotton I am using or simply the fact that I have to count, pay attention to what I'm doing, whereas I'd rather stare out of the window and watch the trees?
I don't know, but I am not enjoying the knitting.
Might even pick up one of my unfinished quilts to have some fun in between...

Wishing you well!

PS: The illustrations are by Teikichi Miyoshi, from a book about insects in the forest and the field I found a few weeks ago in a recycle store. , mori no mushi to nohara no mushi, from 1966, really adorable. All the little creatures in there and also so much very typical scenes of Japan.

70%

Yes. Speaking of the partial solar eclipse we were lucky having the opportunity to witness today. It was very cloudy and I almost thought we wouldn't catch a glimpse of it.... but suddenly this moon-like crescent peeked through the clouds!
The other reason I am mentioning those 70%?
Humidity. Humidity over 70% that apparently promotes mould growth.
When mentioning the overwhelming rain we had during this year's rainy season I didn't think that the rain would have had such an effect on us... Shortly after the last posting we found a suit and a pair of shoes here in our new, shiny home that had developed some mould. Just the beginning of getting mouldy but clearly a warning for us to check all our things, clean each and every corner, have an eye on the humidity... which was at times more than 90%...
Phew. Just phew. I was so exhausted by all the checking and cleaning... just started to remember I have a blog at the beginning of this week when there was a national holiday ("Day of the Sea") and we ventured out to Yokohama Bay to remember how much we like this city.

And calm down.

After all that panic we can say that the situation was much less threatening than we initially thought and we have all under control now.
Dealing with the heat, humidity and all the spores that beautiful little forest around the house provides us with was obviously something we had to learn. Even after this long time here in Japan. New place and everything is different.

What we are not happy about is the fact that we had to give in and have to get air condition for our home. First we got dehydrators and now air condition...!
We were glad to be able to live without a car and air condition until now and it seems like losing when we now get those machines installed all over the place.
Fortunately summer isn't lasting too long here and we will be returning to a more natural mode eventually.

I hope you are all well, enjoy crafting and having a great time! (I sure did have a good time when I discovered the advantages of a densely packed closet of fabrics... and crafting supplies in zipper bags and plastic boxes. Not one loss on my side :)
Take care!