Family holidays

It's really been a busy couple of weeks. First my mother had a big birthday party with the family and some of her old classmates from Iceland who where making a trip to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their graduation. I finally got a chance to deliver the top from Poetry in Stitches that I made for my sister-in-law a while ago. It's a little too big, but I think it will work.




















I also managed to get a picture of a shawl I made for her a couple of years ago, before I had a decent digital camera. It is the pattern "Langsjal ad vestan" from Thrihyrnur og langsjöl, a book on Icelandic lace that I bought in 1991. In the book the shawl is in solid white, but I had a selection of Icelandic kambgarn in diffrent shades and used up what I had in natural colours. By felting the ends together when changing colours I was left with minimal finishing and a neat result.




















When I got home from that great weekend it was time to prepare for the next party. I've spent countless hours this past week getting the Rainbow Blanket ready for the Christening of my husband's niece. When the week started I still had one section and the edge left, but I made it! The final meter of I-cord was done in the car on the road to Stockholm last Friday, but I had blocked the coloured parts the day before.















The blanket measures 110 x 110 cm and consists of five sections knitted in rainbow yarn from Kauni on needles 3.5 mm using the pattern for the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf. I've knitted the pattern over 70 stitches. The second section starts with a stitch picked up at a courner of the first stripe and the pieces are knitted together by slipping the last stitch before the joining, picking up a stitch through the ridge on the previous stripe and then lifting the slipped stitch over the picked up stitch. The blanket is reversible, but with a slight difference along the joined edges. Finally the blanket was edged by a black line of I-cord over four stitches on 3 mm dpns in a similar quality to finish of the edges and hold the design together.