FO: Pickles Høstjakke

Finally! For the first time since March this year, I'm able to present a finished knit sized for an adult! It's been baby knit after baby knit for what feels like ages. Dear husband managed to snap some action photos this afternoon while I was blowing soap bubbles with the little one.

Mid-September, Pickles blogged about their new design, the Fall Coat, or in Norwegian: Høstjakke. It didn't take long to convince myself that I needed to cast-on for this one very soon.

Surprisingly, considering the sheer size of my stash, I couldn't find a suitable yarn for it in my stash, the main problem being that I only had kidmohair (in the required quantity) in black and I (even more surprisingly) did not want a black version. I went ahead and ordered some yarn to go with what I did find suitable in my stash at Garnudsalg, and with a speedy delivery I cast on on September 21. 

I ended up with a luxuriously smooth mix of three yarns from Garnudsalg: Blackhill Silk Mohair, Blackhill Wool/Silk, and Blackhill Highland Wool. It's brilliant. You can almost see from the photo below how nice it is :)

What you can also see from this photo is that I altered the pattern to include i-cord bind-off (which the coat already has on the back) on the sleeves as well, and I am extremely happy with the result.

When I first discovered Pickles, I thought most of their designs were a bit crude and lacked details and finish. Over time, I've changed my mind, thinking that it's actually easy to add the details and finish yourself (at least when you've been knitting for so long that you have a feeling of what little details might do the trick), and what Pickles does so well is to make simple patterns for garments that are fashionable right now. I definitely have my eyes on the I-do-cardi and the Crop Dot Sweater.

Pattern: Høstjakke/Fall Coat by Pickles, size XS with one more yoke increase and a few stitches cast on under the sleeves.
Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld (Rullesten), Blackhill Uld/Silke (Rullesten), Blackhill Silk Mohair (Kit), approx. 900 m each. 404 g in total.
Needles: 6.0 mm making it a fast knit.
Read more on my Ravelry project page: Here.

Testing the Blogger app: A heap of baby winter knits

I've just downloaded the Blogger app hoping that it'll help me getting some more blogging done. At the moment I'm mainly knitting instant gratification baby winter knits and I only manage to photograph them with my phone - and this is where the app comes in handy; honestly, photo editing, uploading, etc. take up half of the time I spend on blogging.

Anyway, here's my parade of recently finished knits. It features my two absolute favourites among baby vests along with what might be two new favourites when it  comes to hats and gloves. 

Pattern: Lark by Helga Isager, size 6 months. 

Yarn: Blackhill Højlandsuld from Garnudsalg, Kiwi, and Blackhill Alpaca, grøn/petrol melange. Approx. 150 m of each, 46 g in total for each vest. 

Pattern: Pebble by Nikol Lohr

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, Straw. I just managed to get three vests out of 200 g. 

Pattern: Raindrop Hat by Dani Sunshine

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, Chocolate Heather, 46 g for the smaller one and 64 g for the larger one. 

Pattern: Rillestrikka Vottar from Strikk til Nøstebarn. 

Yarn: Holst Supersoft, Sloe, 32 g. Intentionally felted a bit to get nice and soft gloves. 

You can find more details on all the projects on my Ravelry projects page. 

So what do I think of the app? Really easy to use, pretty, and it provides fast photo handling. I can live with the fact that I need to edit the photo size in the post on the computer afterwards. Of course we will all have to live with a poorer photo quality when I use Instagram photos, but I guess I can't have it all.