Zimmermania

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

First Tomten

Hello everybody,
I have seen so many great items on this blog, and now I want to say hi and join with a first contribution.
I have only recently discovered EZ via knitting blogs when I was planning a garter stitch jacket for my friend´s little boy but didn´t have any idea how to do it. EZ is not widely known in Germany (yet) as there is no translation of her books into german.
I got "Knitting without Tears", and after translating a bit and understanding the importance of Gauge, I came up with this.

Being an architect, I love the fact that it´s modular, and the shaping, of course.
I have changed the base number from seven to nine because of the thinner wool (Schachenmayr Nomotta Rondino) I got and that worked well, but I messed up the decreases on the sleeves a bit ( I just somehow couldn´t count the rows right).

When we put the finished jacket on the child, we found that the colours are just right for a baby. The first thing he did was to smudge smashed carrot on it happily. I think spinach will go nicely, too, as long as it stays with the green stripes.

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posted by meyer at 4:43 AM

15 Comments:

  • Yours is one of the cutest Tomtens I've seen. The colors are sensational! Can you tell us the yardage of yarn you used? And finished measurements? I'm thinking of making one for my 18-month old niece, but I'm not sure about sizing.

    By Blogger Leslie, at 6:27 AM  

  • After seeing this one I might have to try one, too. Great looking sweater. Thanks for sharing!

    By Blogger Taoknitter, at 7:38 AM  

  • Beautiful work! I love the colors.

    By Blogger K2Karen, at 8:01 AM  

  • That is so lovely. I can't believe there is no german translation.

    By Blogger handknitbyafailedfeminist, at 8:16 AM  

  • WOW! Love the colors.

    By Blogger Mandy, at 8:19 AM  

  • What gorgeous colors! I've got a large pile of purple wool to make a Tomten for my daughter, but now I'm vaguely regretting that I don't have my old standby of orange and green. You used some of favorite colors for babies. That's a lovely sweater.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:36 AM  

  • Hello Annie, I really love this jacket and the colours you have used. I think this might be next on my list...

    By Blogger picperfic, at 9:14 AM  

  • Too cute! Darling colours

    By Blogger Elysbeth, at 5:34 PM  

  • That's a wonderful tomten! Great colors.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:23 PM  

  • A really nice Tomten! And I cannot understand why EZ´s books are not translated into German. The German knitting books are just crap, with very few exceptions. Almost all the books I have are in English. But working with them has really improved my English!
    Hilde from Germany

    By Blogger Hilde, at 10:47 PM  

  • Oh, thank you all so much for your comments! As for the yardage, I used some stash yarn, and I have to guess now, but I think it was ~100g dark green, and each ~50g orange and grey. So that would make approximately four ounzes green, and two ounzes each grey and orange (a bit less, as one ounze=28,3g, please correct me if I´m wrong- I hate calculating). That wool(100% New Wool/Merino) gave me a gauge of 6,5 stitches to 1'' inch. The jacket was ment to be for a 8month old, 22'' (~56cm) round, so I changed the base number to nine and cast on 144 stitches. Finished measurements: length (without hood= 31cm, umm, ~12'' inches). Sleeves, measured from beginning of deep armhole=25cm,that´s a bit less than 5''inches. I thought the sleeves were way to long, but they turned out just right. I guess it depends on the baby´s proportions- this baby is long and slender.
    Hallo Hilde, maybe we should give it a go with translating those books. I thought of doing that myself when I found that there is no translation, but I feared that my knitting and english skills are not good enough and that I might get some things wrong...
    I agree about german knitting books, I was so glad when I found about the more unorthodox knitting instructions and simple yet beautiful designs of EZ. And then, her second name is german, I think she married a german guy whose name "Zimmermann" means "carpenter" in english. Another reason that a translation is overdue, isn´t it?

    By Blogger meyer, at 5:39 AM  

  • Thanks so much for your reply! I love the EZ patterns but I've always been a bit leery of jumping in with the somewhat vague instructions regarding amounts of yarn and sizing.

    By Blogger Leslie, at 6:04 AM  

  • I am thinking of starting one for my girl right now (well, tonight...)
    Yours is nice and inspiring. I love your colours too.
    It is decided: tonight I will cast-on. (yeah)

    By Blogger Filambulle, at 8:43 AM  

  • This is beautiful. I love the colors you chose.

    Ang

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:18 AM  

  • Such a lucky baby! Your sweater is beautiful and EZ would be thrilled that you took her original pattern and then changed it to make it right for you. Good work!

    By Blogger becky c., at 1:28 PM  

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