This is Cristina’s version of Pernille Larsen‘s beautiful Olive lace sweater pattern.

Christina used 4 skeins of Illimani Sabri II yarn, in colour ‘Bone’.  This is a lovely blend of alpaca and cotton, in an easy-knit, chainette-construction worsted weight that gives great stitch definition.  So the finished garment is light and very, very soft, but with a nice amount of give.  Easy to wear, and easy to care for.

And it looks even better in person than it does on the dress form!

Nina made this version of Isabel Kraemer’s design Clapton, using her favourite yarn, Fleece Artist 2/8 Blue Face Leicester in black, with one skein of Malabrigo Mechita in gold for the highlights.

It’s a lovely design, with a classic shape and relatively simple stranded pattern for the yoke.  And, like anything worked in BFL 2/8, it is light, warm, soft, and luscious.

Nina made this slightly longer, for a tunic-length sweater, and needed just a bit more than two skeins of 2/8.  She thinks that a regular length sweater, in most of the smaller sizes, could be made with just two skeins of 2/8.  If you’d like to make one like it, Nina would be happy to advise about yarn quantities.

Nina made this scrumptious capelet from her new stock of Drops Brushed Alpaca Silk, holding one strand together with a strand of Kremke Stellaris for a touch of sparkle.  It uses four balls of Brushed Alpaca Silk, and one spool of Stellaris.

It’s everything we expect from one of Nina’s designs – maximum elegance and practicality with minimum effort.  A clean, simple design that anyone can make, and will look good on everyone.

The light, airy, brushed alpaca makes this garment incredibly soft and weightless – an ideal thing to roll up in a corner of your bag and always carry with you for those times when you don’t know how many layers you might need in your day.

Perfect as a light, extra layer in winter, when the lofty alpaca will trap warmth under your coat.  Perfect for spring and autumn, when temperatures vary unpredictably and you need a layer you can put on or take off and stow in a small space in your bag.  Perfect for summer, when going in and out of air-conditioning has the same effect.  And perfect for looking stylish in any season.

The pattern is available from Nina at the store, or in the online shop.  Remember that all of Nina’s patterns are free with purchase of yarn.  So, if you are buying online, only put the yarn in your cart, and add a note with your order that you would like a free copy of the pattern.

Here’s a creative piece from Louise, getting instruction from Nina on the fly to work her first top-down raglan.

There’s no pattern, just an adventurous knitter learning as she goes with guidance from Nina.  Louise used Rhichard Devrieze Thede sock yarn, in the popular ‘Psychedelic Hosteins’ colourway, interspersed with Ruby sock yarn.  Here’s what Louise says about her creative process:

“I started top down doing as for an ordinary raglan sweater, instructions by Nina. (1st raglan for me ). I alternated 2 rows each colour until then switching up to more of the Ruby yarn, sometimes 6-8 rows of that colour. I finished off the bottom band in basket weave just because I was bored with ordinary ribbing. I picked up stitches for the sleeves and neckline and finished edges in basket weave also.”

That’s the Creative process, all right!  All the way to figuring out how to get a selfie in the mirror, because even getting photos is hard when we’re all isolating.

Great job all around, Louise!

Lisa says it’s never too early to start Christmas Knitting!  And now we’ve seen what she’s been making, we want to join her.  Gnomes!

Aren’t these guys the cutest?  The pattern is Never Not Gnoming (by Sarah Schira), and Lisa says these quick, easy-knit fellas are so addictive that she has made seven so far.  Given how long it is until Christmas, and how much extra knitting time the COVID-19 shutdown has given some of us, we predict that certain households will be positively over-run with gnomes by the time the festive season kicks off.

We like the woolly look of the yarns Lisa used – you could get the same effect with BC Garn Bio Shetland, but really, this is a great pattern for using up any fingering weight yarn scraps you have in your stash.

Thanks for sharing, Lisa – these guys really made us smile.

This is a truly stunning piece of knitting eye candy!  Pat made this glorious version of the Viajante pattern by accomplished designer Martina Behm.  This is a particularly popular pattern right now, and with good reason.  It’s a very, very easy pattern to knit (all knit stitch, with a few simple increases and decreases), there’s almost nothing you can do wrong, sizing is a non-issue, and the result is both dramatic and practical, suitable for both formal and casual use.

Pat used three and a half skeins of Malabrigo Mechita in a beautiful, speckly turquoise colour for this joyful splash of colour.  But you could use any fingering, light fingering, or heavy laceweight yarn to good effect.  We think it would be just as nice in Fleece Artist 2/8 Blue Faced Leicester – two or three skeins depending on the desired length.

Terrific project, Pam!  Thanks for sharing.

Here’s a great summer top, made by Christina.  She used the Edie pattern, by Isabell Kraemer, with a few modifications.  It’s a lovely pattern, very simple to work, and designed specifically for linen yarn. 

The yarn is BC Garn Lino – a beautiful sport weight linen yarn that is great choice for summer things.  And it comes in a wonderful range of colours.  We love Christina’s happy pop of fuchsia!

The original pattern has some textured stripes.  Christina did away with those, and added her own texture details around bottom seam lines.  But in this yarn, any version of this tee is going to look terrific!

More great work, Christina!  Everyone is going to want one of these…

Anja made this intriguing garment from the Veronika pattern by Cocoknits. It looks so fun and comfortable!

Anja chose to use Trailhead Yarns Fundy Tides and Cabot Trail, holding together one strand of each to give a complex blend of colours – one of our favourite ways to use these two yarns together.  It produces a lovely, light, summer-weight fabric with great drape.

Thanks for sharing, Anja – great project!

Kim made this version of Nina’s Mia Pullover pattern.  She used Geilsk Tweed, as a substitute for the Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal the pattern was originally written for, and we love how it came out.

It’s soft and tweedy, with a flattering fit and simple but elegant details.

Looks great on you, Kim!

Linda made these super-cozy hats for her husband this winter.  The pattern is the Kolmen Earflap Hat, by Amy Loberg, and it can be made with or without earflaps, or even without the top, as an elegant cabled headband.

Linda chose to use the ridiculously soft and luscious Illimani Amelie for her first hat.  It’s a great choice, because the alpaca-stuffed silk tube construction has a wonderful structure and sheen that gives terrific stitch definition for cables, but is ultra-soft and super-warm.

For her second hat, Linda skipped the earflaps, and used Malabrigo Rios, in a lovely dark teal.

Great projects, Linda – beautiful and practical.

Christina made this gorgeous version of Nina’s Layering Tunic pattern.   She has customised it with contrasting pockets, and a crochet flower detail on the left shoulder.

Christina used the yarn recommended in the pattern.  It’s one of our favourite yarns – Fleece Artist 2/8 Blue Faced Leicester, a wonderfully soft wool that is a treat to knit with.  And the hand-dyed tonal colourways, as you can see here in green, are extremely attractive.

Beautiful work, Christina!

Karen has been making several of these cute crocheted baby sweaters, using the Eloise Baby Sweater free pattern.  The matching hats are her own addition.

The pattern calls for machine-washable worsted weight yarn, and Karen chose to use Uptown Worsted from Universal Yarn.  It’s a high-quality acrylic yarn, suitable for soft but hard-wearing adult sweaters and afghans as well as frequently-washed baby things.  And it comes in a fantastic range of colours – Karen has chosen sophisticated two-colour combinations for her sweaters, but you could also pick a range of bright rainbow colours for the accents, to copy the style of the original pattern.

If you want to use wool for this pattern, Cascade 220 Superwash would be another great choice.

Thanks to Karen for being the first to share her project pictures to our gallery!