THE TIRIL SWEATER

I have a pretty long to-do list of knitting projects I plan on making, but every now and then something comes along and I get so excited about it that it ends up getting pushed ahead of everything else. This sweater was one of those. I usually take a while in deciding wether or not to knit something and which yarn to use, but the same day I came across this pattern I went straight to my favorite yarn shop, bought the yarn and started knitting. The whole sweater came together in less than two weeks, and that's even though I was knitting other stuff at the same time too!

The pattern is from Sandnes Garn, designed by Tiril Eckhoff, and I knitted it in Sandnes Garn's børstet alpakka yarn in white on 6 mm needles.

BABY CABLE HAT

I promised cable knitted projects earlier, and here we are with another one! I've got friend who is due at the end of the month, so thought I'd knit her a little something. Baby and kid stuff is so fun and quick to knit. I've been pretty into knitting cables recently, and since this will be an autumn baby, I thought a little cozy cable hat would be appropriate.

I used this pattern for Veslestrikk's Gullklumplue that I found on ravelry, and knitted it in Drops Baby Merino in off white on 3.5mm needles and finished it off with a faux fur bobble. I don't usually knit with such small needles, but it wasn't as fiddly as I thought and the cables turned out so lovely and defined. I used just over half a ball of wool, so this is an excellent way to use up some leftover yarn for sure.

I'll be gifting it together with either one of the macrame teethers or the fabric teethers I made earlier this year. Hopefully little baby Amanda will approve!

ANKER II

Earlier this year, I shared this sweater that I knitted for Oscar last year. I love this sweater so much, but it turns out toddlers grow incredibly fast and before not long came the day he had grown out of it. So what's a knitting mamma to do? Knit him another one, obviously.

This time around, I chose a more green-y tone, and knitted it in Sandnes Garn Merinoull (the colorway is 7572 petrol). It's actually a bit of a funny color that kind of changes depending on the light, ranging from a dark sagey green to a dark grey. I actually messed up and only knitted three rows of the pattern at the yoke and had to unravel quite a bit to go back and fix it (though no one on instagram noticed or pointed it out haha).

Also, funny story: I thought it'd might be a good idea to get a couple of photos of Oscar in this sweater, but he was not up for it in the slightest haha. He downright refused and a had a giant tantrum instead. As we were on our way outside and he needed a warmer sweater anyway, I gave up and reached for a basic H&M hoodie instead, to which he cried out "JAAA!!" in excitement! Haha. That's it, that's the last time I'm knitting you anything! I thought to myself. But then the next day Graeme sent me this little video:

Oscar's new sweater from Hilde McMillan on Vimeo.

In other words, it's definitely not the last time I'm knitting Oscar something. :)

CABLE HAT X2

I've been on a bit of a cable knitting kick recently. These two are just the first of several knitting projects involving cables that I've recently finished (stay tuned! September turned into a pretty big knitting month for me haha). These are both going to be Christmas presents and, that's right--I just used the C-word. But we're in October now, so that's ok, isn't it?

Both of the patterns are by Strikkelisa. The hat with the straight lines is the Tykkrillestripelue, and the diamond cabled one is the appropriately named Hat with Diamond Cables. I wanted the hats to be similar but different, so I decided to use the same yarn and color and bobbles for both: Gjesdal Cortina Soft and 8 mm needles. It's a super cozy and chunky yarn, perfect for some cozy and chunky hats.

So that's me officially started on my Christmas presents of 2018! Maybe this year I'll actually be organized enough to not have to stress about it in December? Just kidding, I say that every year. It never actually happens haha.

THE SKAPPEL SWEATER

So this was mainly what I was working on while we were driving from Norway to France in August for my friend's wedding. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen me mention it in my stories? Well ladies and gentlemen, I DID finish it on the trip, and I've been wearing it a ton ever since.

The pattern is the Skappel sweater, which became really popular in Norway a few years ago. I totally see why, it's such an easy and quick pattern to knit, and the giant oversized design is so easy to wear. Instant favorite sweater for sure!

I used Drops Alpaca wool in colorway 506 and Drops Kid-Silk in 22 Dark Grey. The color is a bit darker than what it looks like in these photos (the bottom photo is more accurate, color wise). The pattern technically calls for 7 mm needles, but I couldn't find my 7 mm needles when I started it, so I just used some 6 mm needles and adjusted the pattern instead. It's a big, slouchy design, and it's already sagged a bit with use, but I understand that is to be expected and happens when you use the original yarn as well. I've already got a few grey sweaters in my wardrobe, but they're so versatile I always have use for another one!

Sidenote: maybe I should start photographing these sweaters with me actually wearing them?

THE NO FRILLS SWEATER

You guys, it's finally done! And I know what you're thinking, it's about damn time. Haha! To be fair, I started it a while ago, I just lost momentum somewhere in March, and then we basically traveled all of April. I finally picked it up again in May, but wouldn't you know? I ran out of yarn. Classic. I only had a sleeve and a half left, so undoing it and knitting something else didn't really seem like an option. Naturally, the specific colorway I used has been out of production for a while, but I finally managed to track some down from an online store in Denmark. I'm a little embarrassed at how much I had to pay for postage though (especially since it's from Denmark which is essentially just a hop and a skip away!). So yes, I've finally finished my cozy, woolly sweater, and it's the middle of summer. Good thing I live in Norway where you never really know when you'll need a cozy, woolly sweater.

Anyway, troubles aside, it's done! It's normally knit with two threads, but as I decided to use leftover yarn I decided to just knit with one thread and adjust the needle size accordingly. The yarn I used was Du Store Alpakka's Baby Silk in 318 Teal, which I bought years and years ago. If you're a long time reader, you might remember this? I originally bought the yarn for a cardigan pattern, which I ended up abandoning all together. When I finally picked it up this year to finish it off, I decided it wasn't really something I'd want to wear now, so I unraveled the whole thing and started this sweater instead. And here we are!

This is seriously such a lovely sweater though, and I'd love to knit another one in a light tweedy yarn. It's a fairly basic pattern, where the only slightly complicated part is the neckline, but once you get the hang of it it's fine. And it's a top-down pattern, which means it's really easy to try it on as you go so you get an idea of what it's gonna be like. I already know I'm going to get plenty of use out of this one!

HOMESTEAD SHAWL

I remember once as a child, I was in town with my mother, when she ran into someone she knew and stopped to talk to them. I guess I was pretty ready to go home, as at one point she turned to me and said, "you're so impatient!" I didn't know what impatient meant, but I thought it sounded absolutely fantastic.

Anyway, while I was trying my best to wait for my yarn order so that I could finish my No Frills sweater, my fantastic impatience got the better of me and I ended up starting a new knitting project: the Homestead Shawl. Ironically enough, I received my yarn the next day, but by then I was already knee deep in making eyelets and braid stitches and basically unable to put my new knitting project down. I was really close to finishing this before I finished the No Frills sweater (I have finished it, I just felt like posting this one first, for no apparent reason at all).

Anyway, here we are: my first shawl! I really enjoyed knitting this and absolutely love the finished product. It's made up by mostly knit stitch and a few rows of structured knit to break it up, which made it both quick to knit and also kind of addicting. The braid stitch was a new one for me, and now I kinda want to knit horizontal braids on everything. I used Pickles' Angora yarn for this (which I think might be discontinued) in 7283 Dyp Skog, a lovely shade of green. It's so soft and fuzzy, and it's getting me all excited about cozying up in this on a chilly autumn day!

WHAT SHOULD I KNIT NEXT?

I'm still working on my No Frills sweater, but I've run out of yarn so I'm just sitting here, twiddling my thumbs while I wait for my yarn to arrive in the post. The weather's been a bit moody lately (summer's over, I guess! – JK. Please don't be over.), so I've also been itching to start a new knitting project. There's just something about sitting inside, working on a cozy knitting project while the rain pours outside! I'm being a little indecisive though, so I thought I'd maybe do a little post for inspiration. Input very welcome! Here are some projects I'm considering knitting next:

From the top left:

The Vertical Stripes Sweater by Petite Knit, probably in a color similar to the photo. I love Petite Knit's patterns, and this looks like such a versatile and wearable sweater.

A Setesdal Sweater from Sandnes Garn for Oscar (though I'd love to knit a matching one for Graeme too!), perhaps with charcoal as the base color. This is a Norwegian classic, and I haven't really knitted a multi-colored pattern like this before, so might be fun to try?

The Homestead Shawl by Melody Hoffman in a dark green. I already have some angora yarn from Pickles I'd probably use for this. I've also never knitted a shawl before, so maybe it's time?

The No Frills Cardigan by Petite Knit in a maroon-y color, because I loved the No Frills Sweater so much and I'd love a cardigan version. Can't have enough cardigans!

Help!

TJUKKLUA - COZY HATS

It's been feeling really summery around here and we've been spending all our time outside in the sunshine, but hey, I decided to knit some super cozy and warm hats! We do live in Norway after all, so I wouldn't be surprised if we got to use them before the summer is over.

I knitted the first one a while ago. Graeme and I have this kinda weird tradition of celebrating our own Valentines day on the 14th of March rather than the 14th of February. The reason for this is basically that my birthday is on Valentine's Day and about a decade ago I was complaining about this. "How about we celebrate Valentine's Day a month later?" he suggested. "Ok!" I said, excited. Since then, Graeme has routinely surprised me with a romantic gift on the 14th of March every year. And I say surprised, because I've obviously forgotten about it every single year, even that first year. This is literally the first year I haven't spent the 14th of March frantically running around some shops trying to find a last minute gift. And wouldn't you know, this was also the first year Graeme forgot!

And I know I just knitted Graeme a hat, but it went down so well I decided to knit him another. I actually knitted it right in front of him, over a weekend we spent at the cabin. "What are you knitting?" he asked. "A sweater." I lied. "Ah ok," he said and continued talking. Not sure how he didn't realize that the hat wasn't sweater shaped in the slightest. Just shows how much he pays attention to my knitting projects! Ha!

I used this pattern from Drople Design, that I bought along with skeins of Hillesvåg Blåne wool. It's a lovely wool, chunky and cozy and soft, and the resulting hat is like a hug for your head. It's super simple and quick to knit, which is always fun break when you're working on a bigger knit project. I've already knitting another one in navy that I think I might just keep for myself, but I can easily see myself making more of these!

GRAEME & OSCAR'S MATCHING HATS

Graeme's always complaining that I never knit him anything. It takes a lot of time and not to mention yarn to knit men's sweaters though (hence why kiddo knit is so much fun), so instead of anything too big and complicated I decided to knit him a hat. The pattern is the Hipster hat from Petite Knit.

My plan was to knit it out of some leftover Drops Baby Merino I had from a baby blanket I made last year for a friend's baby (sorry--no post or photo, I just knitted it and sent it away). I have a lot of leftover yarn sitting around with no future aspects and this seemed like a pretty good project for that. But wouldn't you know, I ran out of yarn juuuust as I was about to finish and had to go out and buy another skein. In other words, instead of getting rid of leftover yarn, I ended up with more yarn than what I started with. Facepalm.

The answer to this was obviously to knit a matching hat for Oscar as well. I've seen a lot of patterns for "mommy and me" matching dresses and outfits, so I figured a "daddy and me" set of matching hats would be pretty cute? I used the same pattern as the one for Graeme, and just modified it a bit to fit a child. Luckily, Graeme is one of those who embraces these things, and would love to match his outfit with Oscar on a daily basis if he could haha.

I still have more yarn than what I started out with though!

SWEATER WITH LONG STITCHES

How terrible is that name for a sweater? I'll admit, it's my own weird translation, but that's what the pattern is called in Norwegian--sweater with long stitches. If I were naming it, I would have named it something like stripy beach sweater, or summer stripy sweater or something to that effect. As you might guess from that, this is a little off season as I plan on wearing this in summer.

So here's a bit of irony for you: this pattern is by a local yarn producer, Sandnes Garn (yes, I live in Sandnes) and you can download it for free here. However, the yarn it calls for, Sandnes Garn Kitten Mohair, is out of production. I'm sure I could have found another replacement yarn to knit it in, but I actually managed to track down some Kitten Mohair online form an online yarn shop in the UK that specializes in Scandinavian knitting. So here I am, importing my towns exports haha. I actually got a pretty good discount on it too!

As for the finished product--I think the shoulders turned out a bit weird? I haven't seen any photos of what they're meant to look like, and the pattern was a bit vague, so I'm not sure I did them right. Maybe I was supposed to continue the long stitch stripe pattern. I also feel it's a relatively small sweater for what's supposed to be an oversized L? I'm excited to start wearing it once it gets a little warmer though! I'm thinking it'll look really nice with a pair of distressed denim shorts (aka my favorite shorts), or maybe even layered over a denim button down?

I also have about 8 skeins of Kitten Mohair in black now (what was I thinking buying black yarn?), any suggestions what I should knit with that?

ANKER'S SWEATER

The funny thing about this sweater is that it was supposed to be so much bigger. Basically, long story short: I knitted this sweater for Oscar in a size 4-5, thinking this would be a sweater he could fit into way in the future, but accidentally chose the wrong yarn, resulting in a much, much smaller sweater fit for a one year old. I only even realized when I was far too into the project (I really dispise undoing my knitting and would rather give it away to someone else than start over), and basically held my breath as I finished it up and tried it on him. To my great surprise, it fit him perfectly!

The pattern is from Petit Knit, and it's called Anker's Sweater. I love the ribbed yoke detailing. Mette from Petit Knit has so many awesome patterns, both for kids and adults! I knitted it in Sandnes Garn Tynn Mernio, though I should really have just used regular merino, hence the sizing getting all messed up! Luckily Oscar's gotten plenty of use out of it and it still fits him now, though he is very close to growing out of it. It was a pretty quick and easy knit though (yay for kid's clothes!), so maybe I should knit him another one?