Hello! I hope you’ve had an enjoyable Easter weekend. Or perhaps you’re even having a longer Easter break? For us it was a long weekend, with several little outings. On the Saturday we first worked in the garden, and in the afternoon I went cycling. It was a lovely, sunshiny day for a ride, with lots of blossoming trees along the way.
After a little under an hour, I arrived at my destination – Atelier Lindelicht. I’d come to collect my scarf that had travelled to several crafts fairs with Marianne. Her studio is always such a nice place to have a browse.
(The shawl with the crocheted border is from her hand-dyed Oda kit.)
After a cup of tea and a chat, I took the long route home, partly through an agricultural area…
… and partly through a nature reserve along a river.
On Easter Sunday, we always have a special breakfast that wouldn’t be complete without my husband’s home-baked paasbrood, the traditional bread with a marzipan core that is basically the same as our Christmas stollen.
Our grandson got to try on his new Norwegian pullover and wanted to keep it on straightaway. Knit in a fine yarn, it took me longer than I’d thought. It’s the same number of stitches and the same number of rows as my own Sundborn cardigan.
It is a Nordsjøgenser, knit from Sandnes Babyull Lanett. (Pattern not on Ravelry; I wrote about the pattern booklet here.) It is knit from the bottom up, with the body and sleeves knit separately first. Then everything is placed on one needle for the raglan yoke.
In the pattern, several stitches are bound off under the arms to be seamed later. I placed the stitches on pieces of waste yarn instead of binding them off.
This creates a big gap.
Here is how to close it:
1) On the wrong side, pIace the stitches from the waste yarn on two needles and bind them off with a third needle. Make sure to leave yarn tails of at least 4” (10 cm) at both the start and the end of the bind-off.
After binding off there are still fairly large gaps left on either side.
2) Using a darning needle, thread a yarn tail around one of the gaps and pull the gap closed.
3) Weave in the end and repeat on the other side of the bind-off.
Repeat steps 1 – 3 for the other underarm gap. I’ve closed underarm gaps in this way several times now and find it easier and neater than casting off under the arms and seaming the gaps.
Well, that was pretty technical. To close off and bring a smile to your face (or maybe even make you laugh out loud), here is a photo I took at a fair we also visited during the Easter weekend. Somebody had been knitting for many, many hours…
Je trui is mooi geworden Marijke!
Dat brood ziet er heerlijk uit 💚
Ha! Die kleurige poppetjes zag ik ook; heel veel uren breiplezier voor deze mevrouw!
Hé, liep jij daar ook rond? Jammer dat we elkaar niet gezien hebben. Het brood was idd heerlijk (en we hebben nog wat in de vriezer). En het truitje is groot succes, zo lekker zacht en goed van pasvorm.
Beautiful sweater, Marijke, and a very clever underarm bind-off. I must try it.
Thank you, and I’m sure you’ll find it easier than it looks.