LunaKnit

If you already have the perfect cardigan what do you call another one as perfect? I really can't tell which Exeter cardigan I love the most: the one I knitted earlier or this new one . I must say Michele Wang is my absolutely favorite knitwear designer. Not only is this pattern near perfection, I also love her other patterns such as the Stonecutter and Hellebore . When knitting my first Exeter I followed the pattern very closely, but with this second one I took quite a many liberties. I guess knitting is a bit like baking: at first you need to measure all the ingredients but after a while when you know how the batter is supposed to feel and look like you can start mixing more freely. For example: the first time around I wondered if I could knit the fronts as just one pieces instead of first knitting the charted sections and then the ribbing. I wondered if the gauge really was that different that you needed to have two different needle sizes for the two elements. ...

Seaming and weaving in yarn ends are my least favorite parts of knitting. It always takes me by surprise how long those things really take. When you bind that last stitch off your needles it feels like you're done, that's it, it's finished. But no. There's still the blocking, the seaming, the buttons and all the other finishing touches left to be done. With this cardigan it took me an extra evening of work to get everything ready. I never seem to remember how slow work seaming is (especially if you don't really do any other sewing like me and if you want the resut to look neat.) and I get frustrated when I'm not finished by the time I thought I would. I always seem to underestimate the time it takes thinking "oh it's just a couple of seams and a few yarn ends + 6 buttons, that should be a piece of cake!" But when you are already into your third hour of sewing and your sleeves are still completely separate entities from the body you...

Not wanting to spread unnecessary negativity I'm first going to briefly write a happy-joy version about this hat, giving you the option of skipping all the annoyance and foul mood this pattern caused me later on in this text. I really like how this hat (eventually) turned out. It is exactly what I was looking for: minimalistic, light-weight and impossibly soft (thanks to the Lamana Cusco which feels like hugging a kitten). It's certainly not thick enough to brave the winter chills, but I'm embracing the capsule wardrobe ideology and knitting for the season at hand, and the hat is perfect for this time of the year: when you can almost pretend it's summer in a sunny and windless spot, but around the corner the cold can still take you by surprise. Before I started to focus more on my wardrobe and concentrating on knitting things that I really love to wear, all my hats were of bright colors so it's now nice to have a simple and neutral colored cap to go with ...

It's almost that time of the year again! Last year I only heard about Me Made May challenge in the first few days of May and missed the official sign-up. I had a guerilla-me-made-May instead trying to wear at least one me-made garment each day of the month even though I wasn't officially participating in the challenge. It was actually a lot harder than it seems like: usually I automatically have something self-made on me - a hat, a sweater, pair of woolen socks - but now I really had to think and plan what I was wearing instead of just spontaneously grabbing something on my way out. To add to the challenge May last year was exceptionally warm here in Finland so wearing something woolen wasn't the first thing I had in my mind every day. Not that I was complaining: I would always choose sunny days over sweater-weather. This year I made sure I signed up for the Me Made May challenge in time. I will also post my pledge here for all of you to see:  I, Sari from ...

These are our plans for the day!