Hi hanks for being here I’m Emma! I love all kinds of making and crafting but I’ve really settled into knitting for the last few years so here I am talking about it.
My sub-passion in knitting is non-traditional fiber sources. This generally means unravelling commercially made thrifted sweaters for yarn and knitting them into new things! I hope you enjoy :)
Thank you for watching!! So much more fun than regular yarn purchasing haha, it’s probably a good thing I got there after it was picked over for a few weeks 😂
I am so excited for you and what you found. We lived in Maine for years and are now in the Midwest. I used to try to go to Mardens every few weeks to see what treasures they had. The next time I am out that way I definitely need to check it out. I can only hope to be so lucky. 😂
Ugh yes there’s literally no other place comparable at such a large scale! We used to go every Sunday after church because it was just up the road, and now I have to drive up a few hours, still worth it!!
Hahah I didn’t even notice when I was editing! He says hi, I usually film in an empty house but for this one he was cooking in the kitchen the whole time 😂
What terrific advice! Such wisdom at such a young age! Thanks for sharing. I unraveled a sweater years ago (thrifted). It was tedious, but I got a lot of yarn. Funny thing is I have NO recollection of what I did with that yarn. 😂
Hi Emma, I love your podcasts! You present really well and always have a fun variety of projects to share. You are the queen of upcycling thrifted knits - it’s very inspirational! Can’t wait for your next one! 😊
Thank you so much!! I love the process of turning something old into something new, I think it may have (for me at least) a similar satisfaction as spinning :) thank you for watching 🩷
Love your Maria top will be beautiful with the beading. I watched your series on unravelling jumpers very helpful. Can you tell me if you wash the wool after you've unravelled it?
I usually wash the sweaters before I unravel them at all, I’ve found trying to wash them after unraveling is just too risky as far as getting things tangled.
I actually have a 3 part series I did a few months ago! The first one is why you should unravel sweaters, then how to pick out a good one, and lastly my personal guide on how to do it! I'll have to make a playlist of them :)
Thank you. The beutiful Norwegian kofte is Telemark. The shawl i love to knit is Seascape Wrap by Drops Design, not too big or not too small. Have nice days
Yes I would love to knit the telemark, I just would prefer not to have to spend a the price of a sandes garn sweater quantity to also buy the pattern 😢
If you want to knit a norwegian jacket ( kofte) do check out the patterns from Sandnes Garn or Dale garn. They have tons of beautiful traditional jackets and jerseys. Norway has many excellent designers like Sidsel Höivik, Karidesign, Helle Siggerud. Good norwegian wool beside sandnes are the ones from Dale, Hillesväg ( Hifa) and Rauma.
I love the sandnes garn patterns but I don’t love that I’d have to buy hundred of dollars in yarn to get the booklet for the pattern, otherwise I’d already have one on my needles! I’ll have to check out those other options thank you!
There are so many options it’s hard to narrow them down! I tend to be a “yarn first” knitter so I wanted to give a breadth of yarn weight options for whatever you might have in stash :)
I love your energy🙌🏻 I’m currently such a slipover girlie, I want to knit all of them and before making the Friday Slipover, I never even owned one 😅 I live in Calgary, so all the layers and wools are a must in the winter ❄️ Also, I want to be a bold fairy too!
Thank you so much!! And yes I never used to be a slipover person, but now I’m so into them. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting old or I just didn’t understand the point of ~puffer~ style vests, but knits are more sensible 😂
Before you rip out the cardigan with the flimsy button band, have you considered reinforcing it with some hand sewn ribbon? It might help keep you from having to start over.
My issue is more with the style of button band as a whole, as well as the construction of the collar. If it was a button band that was added after I would rip it out and re-work it but it was knit as you go.
Yes, so beautiful! I think it’s a piece that looks really good with a neutral and a bright pop for the colorwork, and that shade of blue is really irresistible.
I really enjoyed watching this episode. Just the other day, I was thinking that I should make a cardigan because I don't have any and because it is nice to be able to control 'the temperature' either by buttoning up the cardi (or unbuttoning). And we have a knitter's fair in town in a few weeks so I could pick some yarn there. I wanted to ask you though - I really like the nicely oval shape of your T's neckline and it looks like it is a raglan. I recently finished 2 raglan sweaters and even though I loosely followed the short row suggestions of a free pattern, the neckline turned out a bit square-ish for my liking (especially in the front). Did you follow the instructions exactly or did you modify the neckline in any way? It fits you beautifully.
I’m so glad you enjoyed! I’m a cardigan lover so I’m forcing myself to prioritize this year :) and yes I followed the pattern exactly, I think that for this pattern because the neckline is folded it definitely promotes the neckline being more round. It also has a very wide raglan bands which means rather than 4 distinct sections it really has more like 8 overall including those sections.
@@granolagear Thank you! I did notice the wider raglan bands. If I finish my current WIP (hopefully over the weekend), I need to sneak in the Poetry sweater (Sari Norlund's) before the cardi, and I was thinking about doing a folded necklline anyway. Thanks for the tip!
“Mostly Knitting” featured 2 lovely Stephen West shawls in her “friend from the vault” section of her most recent (I think) episode. Thanks for your interesting ideas for the fall/winter. .
Oh thank you I’ve had someone else suggest Stephen west too, I haven’t tried his patterns yet but it sounds like I’ll have to! Thank you for watching :)
The Morgonstjärna cardigan by Wenche Roald is a nice, traditional-looking kofta and is available as a free Ravelry download, or there’s the Karlholm cardigan by Kristin Drysdale, also lovely, also free x
Those are both beautiful ones thank you! There are so many it's hard to pick, and I've found a lot of the ones I like are in books and I'd have to buy the whole book which can get pricey.
How about Stephen West’s Dotted Rays pattern for a curved shawl? Very pretty, not hard. Works with lots of different kinds of yarns. Available in two sizes.
Interesting! I haven't knit anything by Stephen West yet, largely because I'm not usually a shawl knitter but I like that one! It looks like I could probably stop it a little early in the pattern if I ran out of yarn too and the shape would be fine. Thank you for the suggestion!
I’ve thought about trying Sunday or double Sunday but haven’t pulled the trigger yet on it because it’s a little pricey to get in the US compared to some alternatives, but maybe this will be the year!
Wow rare to see someone talking about the Porcelain Yoke Sweater! I'm currently knitting this. I think it is so much more elegant than the original Porcelain Sweater. 2:21 "Sille" is a girls name in danish and probably other nordic countries. It is pronounced as Sí (the word yes in spanish) + le (sound of the french word le). Le Knit is danish which is why I can confirm this (I'm danish xD).
Ah yes I was pronouncing it is though it was Spanish I guess, thank you for the tip! And I totally see why the original one is more common because the yoke version came out so much later, but I think the yoke version is much more feasible to knit especially because it’s fingering!
Loved this topic, something I had never really considered. I immediately headed over to my Ravelry purchase history page and was relieved to see that while I have only knitted maybe 20% of my purchases, the financial hit was just under $100 for all purchases combined since 2015. Most were bought on sale during the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. I'll be moving a few to my queue to get reacquainted. Thanks!
I have a cashmere sweater that's too big and has some holes in it. You've inspired me to think that I might be able to unpick it and knit something. Do you have any tips for unpicking sweaters?
I actually have 3 videos all about what sweaters are best for it and how to do it! They’re in a playlist on my channel :) my one warning with cashmere is that it’s usually really fine so typically I plan to hold it with something else or hold double
Thank you! I’m super frugal so it’s hard to resist the idea of a whole sweater for $5-10 but I also think it’s really fun and gratifying to figure out what to do with an unexpected material! 🩷
I’ve heard people say bottom up generally fits better, which I can definitely see being a possibility. I started knitting with top down pieces for the most part as it seems to be the prevalent design style these days :)
This was so nice😊 You really say what I have been thinking when people complain about knitting petiteknit. And I live in Norway and yes, I do see quite a bit of petiteknit sweaters around. But I think it's great! Petiteknit has done something right! Classic, wearable sweaters! And yes! Let's all just knit what we want without and not complain about other peoples knitting habits🤗 Have a wonderful weekend 🧶
Hi Emma! I am in NY State and I am also absolutely loving this weather. It is perfect! It was so cool yesterday that I brought out my Silverlining sweater by Jenn Steingass and worked on the yoke. I’m about half way through. But my yarn is a 100% wool and I haven’t been able to bear working on it since the warm weather started. I liked your video. Being a farm girl myself I have a hard time in cities…too noisy! Looking forward to your next video for sure!
Yes we’ve finally reached wool tolerable temps though I’m sure we’ll have another gear spike or two before the summer is over! And the city is hard at times for sure, the sound of cars starts to drive me a bit bonkers if I don’t have music or a fan running :)
