Positive thinking

Dark evenings, grey weather and too much to do... Time for some positive thinking inspired by dear Maria, who has given me a prize.













She asked me to list ten things about myself, and I will list ten things that are good in my life right now:
1. My husband turned 40 last week, and his vest is almost done. Hope to post pics this weekend.
2. My son was 5 the same day, and he is so wonderful. The confidence they have at that age.
3. My daughter who is the perfect person to knit for, style concious, grateful and very small!
4. I actually like the garden when it is getting to rest, the last phase in the changes over the year with great, earthy colours.
5. The yarn stash is in excellent shape, and I feel quite content to draw my knitting inspiration from it for a while.
6. Apart from the vest there are a number of projects that are close to finishing, and since we plan to redecorate my study as soon as I get through the piles of stuff in there I am well motivated to do something about my UFOs.
7. I have a job that gives me energy and I look forward to getting there every morning.
8. I can't believe how lucky I am to be surrounded my so many wonderful people; friends, colleagues and relatives.
9. I am preparing a knitting café about new techniques for cabling on november 19th, and there is just so much we could do but we only have two hours.
10. In a few weeks MrP and I celebrate that it has been ten years since our first date. Amazingly enough I just won a lottery and got a dinner for two at the restaurant where we had our wedding dinner.

I think this just boosted my energy, so back to that pile of UFOs!

Icelandic shopping

Under a bed in my house there are two big boxes. One is filled with knitted items like shawls, vests and sweaters. The other holds lopi and létt-lopi and some lace yarn. I also have some hand made yarn and buttons from Ullarselid as well an embroidery kit and some of their products made from rabbit wool. So what do I really need to buy? Anything I don't have of course!

There has been some great pattern books coming out in Iceland since my last visit in 2003. Védis Jónsdóttir is a designer who has envigorated the traditional woolen sweaters with a line of booklets from Istex, the leading yarn company. I'm especially glad to get a hold of her patterns for garments in lace yarn, einband. Another favourite is the new book on mittens Hlýjar hendur that is currently the third best selling book, all categories included, in the largest chain if Icelandic book stores.















When it comes to buying yarn there is a limit to what a suitcase can hold. To get the most out of the trip I decided to focus on einband, the lace yarn. I got all the natural wool colours and a few balls each of white, brown and natural black. The large skeins at the back are dyed with herbs in a beautiful, dark green. I also wanted som red, which I found at the Álafoss store where we made a quick stop. There I also couldn't resist getting some unspun, green yarn that will look great with the natural brown in my stash. My brothers got some blankets, and somehow managed to get them into their small bags for the trip home. I had of course planned ahead and brought a half empty, big suitcase.





























After reading all my new books I got an idea for a Christmas present and got some more yarn at a supermarket, but that has to remain a secret...

Icelandic wool

I went to Iceland last week, and although I was there on other business I managed to squeeze in some wool. My cousin owns some 170 sheep and the week before they had been brought down from the mountains were they graze freely during the summer. The farmers still go out on horseback for several days to collect them, but they use airplanes to locate the sheep. Then the sheep are brought to a place where they are held in a circular enclosement and then separated into smaller pens, one for each farm, as seen in the picture. These days they don't have to herd them the last kilometres to the farm, but load them on trailers. After the sheep have been brought home the lambs are slaughtered before the remaining sheep are put in a barn for the winter.















Later that day we went to a local shop where people with an interest in crafts in the western parts of Iceland sell a selection of high quality products. It is called Ullarselid and was started in 1992 on the grounds of the university of agriculture at Hvanneyri. The products are mostly made from wool, but there are also buttons made from bone and horn, stones and other souvenirs. The following three pictures show some of their hand spun or herb dyed yarn, sweaters designed for the hand spun yarn and their special take on the traditional Icelandic sweaters with a patterned yoke.











































I made my not so interested brothers come along, and here is what they bought: socks, mittens, a hat and some felted soles. Not as expensive as the larger items but still great quality and perfect gifts to bring home. What I bought? You will see in the next post...

Modern lace

As you might have guessed by now I've made a few shawls this summer. I blocked six last week and here are the final three.

First up is one that I started to have a nice looking lace project when I represented knitting at a craft exhibition in May. I started out using Morjärv 2-ply, which was far too bulky. Soon after I started on Madli's scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia in Pälsull by Östergötlands ullspinneri, but the lace lacked definition.



Combining the pattern from the shawl to the left with the yarn on the right worked much better. The pattern is Vernal Equinox by Lankakomero. It is a laced up version of the Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi shawl (the number of stitches is dubbled at certain intervals). After a while there are just too many stitches and it was a bit of a struggle to finish it when the top measured 170 cm. I didn't pin out the lace properly because by then I couldn't be bothered, but it still looks OK.



The next shawl was much more fun. I might even make it again since I was a bit cheap and only bought one skein of Noro Kureyon sock in colour 95 and it is more like a scarf than a shawl. I usually don't like the finish of entrelac patterns, but here it is perfect for the pattern and the rustic character of this yarn only makes it better. The pattern is called Dianna and can be downloaded for free on Ravelry.



My final project from the blocking session isn't lace but a very clever garter stitch scarf that was mostly knitted in the car. I made a similar scarf in stockinette a few years ago and it is so practical. This version is called Baktus. The yarn is Hjerte sock 4 and the colours behaved quite well with just enough pooling.

Icelandic lace again

I blocked a few shawls last week and two of them are from Thríhyrnur og langsjöl, my Icelandic lace book. The first one is my second attempt at Thríhyrna, the cover design. The first version was too tight and small. This time it is too loose and airy, we'll see if I give it a third try some day. The yarn is red Pälsull by Östergötlands ullspinneri and needles 4mm.















The second shawl was truly all about the process. I bought three balls of the sock yarn Raggi mini by Järbo at the supermarket. With each ball I tried a different pattern. Two were then frogged and only the third was finished. The patterns I didn't choose in the end were Lily of the Valley Scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia, because the pattern didn't show well and it was too bulky, and Ripple from Knitty, a great design but the edging didn't work in this yarn.



The one I chose to finish is Langsjalid Bárur (waves). It is big, soft and the stripes become great waves and are much easier to knit than using 6 colours like the original.

Estonian lace

This blog was started two years ago when I last visited Tallinn, Estonia. Therefore it is quite fitting that I relaunch after half a year of neglect with another visit to Tallinn. A couple of weeks ago my family and some of our relatives went on a four night cruise on the Baltic Sea. One of the stops was Tallinn and of course we did some knitting related shopping. This is what my kids fell for:















Personally I prefer patterns and yarn, and this time I found a really good selection of books but no yarn that had my name on it. Since my last expedition to the book stores of Estonia several new titles on various traditional crafts had been published. One stood out from the rest and it is one of the best knitting books I have ever seen, even though I can't read the language. (The key to the charts is also given in English.) That is high praise from someone who has collected knitting books for 20 years. The book is Haapsalu sall and it is a collection of lace patterns used for making the superb Haapsalu shawls. These shawls were hand knitted in the seaside resort of Haapsalu where the elite of the Russian empire spent their holidays 100 years ago. The patterns are still very much alive and the shawls are still used as gifts to foreign dignitaries visiting Estonia. Regular turists to Tallinn, like me, will have a hard time finding any but now we can make our own.

I have started out with a sampler with some of my favourite patterns. The yarn is regular Estonian 2-ply that I bought on my last visit. The patterns should be made from much finer yarn, but this is what I had at hand. The shawl was just improvised until I ran out of yarn and then the second edging, which I had knitted earlier, was grafted on. I will post more detailed pictures on Ravelry.

Snow!

We have had snow since November, but this weekend we got an extra foot of it. Right now it looks like a postcard outside with fresh snow and the days getting long enough to last until we get home in the afternoon. Nice to be able to take pictures outside on a weekday!
















To the left the 4-y-o in his We Call Them Pirates hat. The yarn is merino that I got in Estonia last summer. I sewed his name onto the inside of the linig, and he is so proud of the hat that takes it of to show that detail to people. To the right is the 7-y-o in her new Kari/Ola mittens. The pattern comes from a Norwegian book by Lillill Thuve. The yarn is Garnstudio Karisma. I made a pair in Dale Heilo when she was two, and she loved them, but this pair has not been accepted yet.