30 apr 2015

Anchors away!

Isabell Kraemer is, without any doubt, my favourite designer.                                                         

I love her patterns and how they're written. She herself is a wonderful person. 

aaaand very prolific... even a bit too much considering the time I need to finish a sweater. 


She amdits that knitting a XS sit's easiert o be fast and actually she's right... but I've seen testknitter that knitted an XXL in three weeks... with Holst... they have to spend a lot in needles because I'm fairly sure that they MUST catch fire, there's no other possible explanation.


Her patterns sport essential lines and a irresistible every-day wearability. They are prone to be reinvented in a myriad of ways, so much so that she herself can't keep "in-line" and always adds some personal touches to hers. 

Anyway as I can't keep up with her productivity, il do a little resumè of her latest released pattern and that will soon be available in italian. 

I'll do separate posts for every sweater to publish soon.

So, let's begin with an exception.


This pattern, "Anchors away" is one of the few sweaters specifically written by Isabell for kids.

It isn't a self-published pattern and the american yarn manufacturer has very few vendors here in Europe. My hate toward charges is well known, as my crusade to not ever buy something that can arrive at home with its price decuplicated. As a skein of this yarn costs already an awful lot, I'll pass. Thank you.

The manufacturer didn't deem interesting to publish the italian translation, that I've done, parhaps because the italian amrket is not so interesting for them... or perhaps because they didn't trust my translation :-D

Who knows? Anyway, if someone is interested in purchasing the pattern WITH the italian translation, they can, when buying the pattern, write to 

Swans Island and ask for it. If for some particular reason should they have missed it, I'll have no problems forwarding it again to them. 

I had the honor to take part of the test for this one... but please, next time, someone can tell th germans not to make tests of worsted-weight sweaters in the summer? ;-)
I knitted in swimming suit this heavy yarn while I was in Sicily... couldn't make any photo with the sweater on the wearer till the temperature dropped. Massimo didn't say me bad words only because a. he's too well educated (thanks God) and b. I didn't even think about asking him to wear it with 30°C. 

So, when all is said and done, I can testify that this sweater is delicious. Thanks to the "important" weight of the yarn, it's a quick knit, the ease is optimal and it fits boys and girls. 



The front is worked in stockinette stitch and is slightly  narrowing at the bottom to form a V. the back is worked in garter stitch (yep, even it it is a top-down sweater you'll have to do a lot of purl) with a slightly short-row-shaped bottom.


I've knitted it in a Drops yarn, the more basic of its range, with a wonderful (I found it often in their yarns) yellowish-green. The Drops Alaska is a simple 100% wool yarn that knits well and has a good stitch definition. The results is very satisfying, all the more if you think about how much you've paid that yarn. I've worked with more expensive yarns from Drops, like Ekimo and Delight, and didn't like how thei tended to loose shape when washed and blocked. This one didn't. 


Only one con: it pills like mad...


I resorted to "shave" it carefully with that razor-machines expecially per pilling. It is a sweater meant to bevery much used so...no problem. It resisted a veryintense winter. 

Massimo was so satisfied by this sweater that I kept wearing it even when the temperatures had risen to a critical melting level 

As for the ravelry-world, this sweater had so much success that an adult version,Daelyn, was released short after the kids' version. The Daelyn, like its little counterpart, it perfectly unisex. 

a sweater to be remebered.

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