knitting – Christina Hopgood

“Chanel Blues” cardigan for mum!

April 15, 2018April 8, 2018 christinahopgood

My parents were recently visiting us in Oslo. I had it in my head to make my mum this cardigan for their trip! I finished it literally on the morning of their departure, so she didn’t get to wear it here after all! But I think it turned out quite well.

Details

Pattern: Chanel Blues by Hinterm Stein. This is a lovely, thoroughly written pattern. You have to be careful sometimes when knitting short rows that you don’t zoom past a stitch marker!

Yarn: Madelinetosh MCN worsted, bought on destash on Ravelry. Ravelry has been a bit of a danger to my bank balance recently!

My Ravelry notes here.

No, it’s not inside out – it’s knit in reverse stocking stitch to give a tweedy effect. The pattern calls for two yarns held together to give a speckled effect, but my yarn was tonal enough to achieve that without messing about with two skeins.

The neck band is knit first as a long curved band, and then the body is picked up and worked downwards, using short rows to shape it. The buttonband is part of the main body of the jumper. Sleeves are picked up and knit in short rows to shape the sleeve cap and then knit in the round. No seaming at all!

The bottom band and cuffs are supposed to be knitted-on as a border to match the neckline. I did this, but the gauge was off and it looked wavy and flared. So I undid it and continued the body in ribbing, making sure the side panel flowed into the ribbing.

Mum seems to like it!

We just picked up the buttons on the morning they were leaving, and I sewed them on while my parents were packing their bags in their AirBnB. It’s still too warm in Canberra for mum to wear it, but I hope she can wear it this winter.

knitting, Uncategorized

2 Knits: 3 Color Cashmere Cowl, and Bitey Bum Monster Leggings!

April 8, 2018March 4, 2018 christinahopgood

I’ve got a couple of projects to share today, since neither felt big enough for an entire post.

This is my 3 Colour Cashmere Cowl, by Joji Locatelli. My Ravelry notes are available here.

My yarn was some lovely soft Alpaca bought at the Oslo Knitting Festival in October 2017. It was lovely in the skein, but is a little prickly on my skin. However, it works really well for this cowl.

The cowl is LONG, and I used smaller needles than the pattern indicated to get a smaller circumference. I wanted it nice and snug around my neck, instead of the loopy drapey version in the pattern. I usually wear it folded over (like in the first picture) to give maximum warmth. It’s also nice warn scrunched up like below.

It’s a nice little pattern, very simple. It just uses three different coloured 50g skeins of yarn and a few different textures and colour patterns. Easy, simple, pleasant knitting! And I wear this literally every day now 🙂

The next thing I knitted is the Bitey Bum Monster Pants by RaggedyMoo designs. My ravelry notes are here. These are for a friend of mine who just had a baby. For this I just used a few different balls of superwash DK weight wool and acrylic blend yarn in a green, purple, light grey, red, and a little black for the eyes. The cuffs on the legs are knitted long and then folded up to give some extra wear when baby grows upwards!

I made the waistband a little differently – the pattern has you knit eyelets to weave the icord drawstring through, but instead I folded it over and encased the drawstring, using only two eyelets to pull it through. The eyes are crocheted as per the pattern, and I knit the teeth improvising the design.

Aren’t they cute though? OM NOM NOM!

knitting, Uncategorized

Knitted Twigs and Willows cardigan

April 1, 2018March 4, 2018 christinahopgood

To be honest, this has been finished for a while, but I’m only just admitting to myself that it’s FINISHED finished and I’m not going to work on it any more. This has been a long time coming!

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Details:

Pattern: Twigs and Willows by Alana Dakos, in her first Botanical Knits book.

Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca in the Cranberry colour (I think)

My Ravelry notes here. fullsizeoutput_5ba5

I actually knit this cardigan TWICE. The first time, I finished it and wore it out a bit before deciding it was really too small. I frogged the whole thing, and knit it again from scratch. I am STILL not super happy with the fit – as you can see, the buttonband gapes (especially between the top two buttons). I intitially was going to sew a ribbon on the back of both the button and buttonhole bands, but just never got around to it. Then I was considering knitting the bands a little longer so the gape wasn’t so obvious. I could still do that, but since I’ve been wearing it all winter it’s not likely now! fullsizeoutput_5ba7

Apart from the gaping at the front issue, this fits really well. It’s really not too tight. The length is perfect for me. I really am a big fan! I mostly wear it open, and this cardigan gets a lot of wear every week at school. I love the long ribbing at the hem and sleeves. The cabled leaves are so pretty! fullsizeoutput_5ba1

If you want to knit this jumper, please knit a gauge swatch and choose your size wisely! You don’t want to have to frog an entire jumper, buttons and all! Learn from my mistake!

beads, knitting, Uncategorized

Knitted Luella Top with beads!

March 18, 2018March 4, 2018 christinahopgood

This knitting project has been a long time coming. It was on my needles since August 2017!

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Details

Pattern: Luella Top by Suzie Sparkles

Yarn: Wollmeise Lace yarn

My notes available on Ravelry here

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I bought this yarn at the Oslo Knitting Festival in October, 2016. It was a 300g laceweight skein, which was a one-of-a-kind. For this top, I held the yarn double as it’s written for a sock-weight yarn. As a result, this whole top was one big game of yarn chicken! fullsizeoutput_5bac

The pattern itself is very straightforward, a top-down round-yoke jumper which is the same back and front. That’s nice, as I don’t need to worry about which way to put it on! Of course the biggest change I made was to add beads into the lace yoke instead of the bobbles that the pattern calls for. I guess this saved me some yardage which was added to the bottom of the jumper! Initially I bought one packet of 125 beads thinking it would be plenty… I waws wrong! This jumper required about 500 beads and I had none left at the end!

This picture kind of looks like it has and ombre effect but it doesn’t seem to in real life. If I’d had more yarn I would have made the top a bit longer in both the body and the sleeves. As it is, it hits me right at the elbow and the hip. It works fine with mid-rise pants but I would have liked it a bit longer. I used every scrap of yarn, even the swatch!

The yarn itself is very smooth and feels almost like cotton, although it is 100% wool. It was really lovely to knit with and feels smooth and soft against the skin. Before it was blocked the fabric felt a bit stiff, but after blocking it’s got a lovely drape and handle. fullsizeoutput_5ba8

I highly recommend this pattern if you’re looking for a simple top-down top, with a bit of lace interest. It would look beautiful with bobbles too. The pattern would be a good basis for a plain jumper too, if you left off the lace! I’m looking forward to wearing this top once the weather warms up a bit. Right now it’s still too cold in Norway to even contemplate!

design, knitting, shawl

Rose Garden Shawl pattern – now available!

July 8, 2015January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

I’m finally releasing my shawl pattern! I’ve been working on this for over a month now, knitting and editing and thinking.

You can buy the pattern from my Ravelry store here!

Rose Garden Shawl.

For this month only, the pattern is available for $5 instead of the usual $6. If you add it to your cart on Ravelry, the discount will automatically be added.

My pattern includes charts and written-out instructions, so you can follow it any way you like. The lace is fairly simple and can be memorised in no time!