Blog life

I confess, I've not been a very social blogger, or knitter, lately. This autumn has been too hectic and it has been hard to find the time and energy. I've worked and studied more than full time while taking care of my family and having an infection that has taken far too much energy. It is good to know that someone is thinking of you at times like these, so I'll try to be a little social now.

I've gotten two blog awards that really warmed my heart. I hope you excuse me if I don't pass them on, but I'm not that good at keeping track of blogs these days, and a lot of the people I do know have already recieved them.

The first one is from my new knitting friend Nata, who joined the local knitting café group this summer. You are an inspirational and fearless knitter!

















The second blog award was actually given to me a while ago, but I wasn't writing much then. It's from Knitted Gems, who writes an amazing blog about many creative interests. I'm honored to be on your list of reading.









Finally Maria, who both knits and plays folk music with me but hasn't seen me much lately, has sent me some questions. I will answer them from the knitting pespective...

What are your 8 favourite TV programs?
I prefer knitting in front of:

* All day sports events, like the Olympics or skiing
* A good film that I've seen before
* Whatever the kids watch on a Sunday morning
* House, because I can mostly listen to the dialogue
* Saturday Night Live, keeps me up for late night knitting
* Anything MrP likes, for the company
* Documentaries, so I can learn and knit
* News, like radio on TV

8 things I did yesterday

* Almost finished knitting my daughters dress
* Knitted a few rows on my Sockklubben december sock
* Found a red, knitted doily among the Christmas textiles
* Looked through my new book of Japanese patterns again
* Spent too much time on Ravelry
* Got the laundry done so I can use the room for blocking
* Wore handknitted socks all day
* Bought a new bookcase so I can free some space for more knitting books

8 things I am looking forward to
* Opening all my presents with yarn in them :-)
* Making a sweater from Pakucho colour growing cotton
* Visiting Kristians Gård in Delsbo, and get more of their wool
* Finishing my last sock in this years Sockklubben
* Seeing my daughter in her new, knitted dress
* Making more clothes for myself next year
* Making a blanket from my mothers yarn dyed with herbs
* Going to the knitting café much more next year

8 favourite restaurants
Only go to knitting cafés or take the kids for hamburgers these days...

8 things on my list of wishes
* More Addi circulars, I want them in all sizes
* A set of carding-brushes
* An Icelandic, upright spinning wheel
* A week to finish all UFO:s
* A bigger living room so I can invite all you great knitting friends over
* That the two shawls I sent in the mail arrive safely
* That I get more students for my knitting class this spring
* That my stash doesn't grow but shrink next year

8 people I challenge
I will skip this one for the reasons listed earlier.

Back to last minute knitting!

Hat parade

With a view like this from the kitchen window, it's easy to get inspired for winter knitting. I love using those single skeins of luxurious yarns for hats, and here are a few examples.















This was so much fun I couldn't put it down, it took three evenings. Short rows and cables in the "wrong" direction makes it look wierd, but the pattern is easy to follow. It comes from Knitty winter 2007 and is called Bloody Stupid Johnson, named after a character in a fantasy book. The yarn is Manos Silk Blend, and it is so good it is almost unreal - soft and a joy to knit. I made one modification, a Japanese cast on for 2x2 rib that is a lot like a tubular cast on and very comfortable. The hat is a little small in height, but it hasn't been blocked yet. Looking forward to using it, and making a scarf to go with it.















This hat is about a month old, and great for tucking in my wet hair after swimming. The pattern is called Frances and comes from The Inside Loop. I used larger needles since I couldn't find the right size and couldn't wait getting started, but the edge is firm and holds it in place because I used both colours from the start. The Fair Isle pattern is cleverly designed using Rowan Tapestry with built in colour changes on a background of Felted Tweed. It was hard to pick a colourway, because they all looked beautiful, but I got some help in the end and like the result.















A few years ago I ordered four skeins from Virtual Yarns, Alice Starmore's online store. They also became a hat, but here the contrast wasn't enough to show off the pattern Stjärnmönstrad mössa by Anita Gunnars.

I wouldn't mind getting more of all these yarns in the future. I feel like I have gotten to know them, and I have hats for half the days of the week...

I have also finished the third of my shawls from the previous post. It is just as wonderful as I thought it would be, but a bit too small for my taste. I will make a good X-mas present for someone, while I plan what yarn I could use to make a larger version for myself.

Lace and drinks

No, I don't recommend drinking and knitting, especially not lace. When I was preparing to write this post I discovered that all the lace shawls I'm working on have colours named after drinks. The first two are finished, and this is how yummy they looked before blocking:















Let's start with the green one. It is designed by Jane Sowerby and it is a variation on a pattern from her book Victorian Lace. This version appeared in Knitter's Magazine summer 2008. A free version will be on their website, but it isn't up yet. The original is knitted in Zazu by Twisted Sisters in a colour called Blue Curacao, but I'm more familiar with the green version of the drink so I made it in a nameless green lacewool from Fyberspates that is hereby named Green Curacao. As you can see it is very thin and transparent, but the yarn feels strong and when I wrap it around my neck it is warm enough. I like the shawl and it was fun to make, but there is one problem. I knitted it during the Olympics, from opening until the closing cermony. Then it got stuck because the ruffle meant there were 1925 (!) stitches to bind off, and with added picots there were 2053 actual stitches. Then a thread had to be sewn through all the picots for blocking... I don't think I will make more ruffles for a while.















The next drink is Sangria, which tastes very good on a warm Spanish night. Red wine with slices of oranges is also a fiery colourway so I thought it was just right for Icarus from Interweave Knits. The yarn is Suri Blue from Fleece Artist and it turned out to be more pink and less red than what it looked like on the skein, but it is still beautiful and so soft. This was all quick and easy and since this will be a Christmas present I might make one for me as well. I used larger needles, 4mm, and the shawl measures over 2m across the top, which made it almost to big for the bed I use for blocking.















Last night I cast on for my third drink. This is Rosé by Färgkraft, a soft pink dyed on a light grey yarn. When I bought it I thought it would be an Icarus, but when it came home it wanted to be Hyrna Herborgar from Thrihyrnur og langsjöl instead. I've loved this pattern since I got it in 1991, but I had a bit of a problem with the table cloth look of the pattern and it was hard to find a yarn that could counteract that. I think this will be just right, and it will look great with my coat. The skulls in the background is my table cloth in the kitchen, left from my son's Halloween/birthday party last week. I hadn't planned the picture, but it is sort of right with the pink and the lace.

Japanese knitting

What a weekend! I've been teaching Japanese knitting techniques for three days. It is the first time I've done this professionally, I've only hosted free evening seminars before and never about this subject. Now that I've worked through the material and tried it out I can't wait to get a chance to do it again. I only had four students, but they were all hard working and enthusiastic and they kept me busy. I hope they are as pleased with themselves as I am with their work.















So what is Japanese knitting? The story behind this goes back to the eighties when Mieko Yano from Japan started giving classes in her new homeland, Sweden. She spread the innovative and modern way of knitting that has been developed in Japan, were there is little tradition and much creativity on the subject. She also taught new instructors who spread the techniques all over the country. Unfortunately she died after a few years, and the eighties knitting boom came to an end soon after. Now when knitting is growing in popularity a new generation is starting to show an interest in all aspects of knitting, and Japanese knitting books are becoming available again. A few months ago I heard that Medborgarskolan was looking for a new teacher. Since I learned the basics a few years ago and was eager to learn more, I vounteered to do it.

I looked through the material I had, and went to see a former teacher who worked on this in the eighties. She had a lot of material, samples and advice and lent me some books. I picked out the sections that felt most useful and interesting to me and created my own plan and material. The first half of my course is about basic techniques, like casting on and binding off, finishing and reading charts. The second part is more about decorative patterns and new ways of knitting. In the next picture you can see some of my samples, such as double knitting, pleats, illusion patterns, mosaic patterns and short rows.















Finally I want to thank Mr P, who has been very supportive and provided me with the perfect soundtrack for the weekend. He gave me "The Knitter" by Cheri Knight, a collection of rock ballads with a great cover and a song all about knitting.

Knits for the kids

This summer I thought about my reasons for knitting, and realized that I should think more about the result and less about the process and make things that someone would need, want and use. I'm still very much a process knitter, and I have to find the work interesting, but I have tried to be more practical. One top priority is to involve my children more. I made a pile of baby garments for them, but they were big and could hardly use them. Since then I have made very little for them, because it felt like a waste of time. Now they have shown some interest in what I'm doing and I've tried to listen to their ideas.

Some time in July my daughter asked why I didn't knit for her. She has strong opinions, so I told her to make me a drawing of what she had in mind. She came back a few minutes later with a picture of a dress with long sleeves. I immediately thought about the pattern Sand Dollar from The Children's Collection by Alice & Jade Starmore and showed it to her, and she approved. A few days later we went to the LYS to pick a yarn that was light and cool and not too expensive, and most importantly very red. We chose Blend/Tendens by Hjertegarn in cotton and acrylic. The deadline for this project is her birthday in December, so I havn't worked that much on it yet but it is small and quick to knit even if the pattern is extensive.















A couple of weeks ago I came across a Spiderman blanket made by Liisa. I had seen the pattern before, but I hadn't realized just how big and beautiful it was. When my son saw the picture he was spellbound and asked me to make one for him, so now I'm knitting as fast as I can without letting him see it. I hope to have it finished for his fourth birthday in three weeks.















Finally the best news of all. My 6-y-o daughter knits! Maybe it is because she gets hot chocolate at the knitting café and not at home, but I don't care. I gave her some cotton to start with, but it split and was hard to work with. Then we went shopping for something funnier and more suitable, and got some printed, heavy sock yarn for a scarf. Her brother wanted a ball too, for when he learned to knit. I said that might be a while but then his sister offered to make a scarf for him too. I volunteered to make his scarf, otherwise it might take a few years, and he got his favourite colour as well. I knitted half of his scarf in the car last weekend, but my daughter made slow progress and needed some more encouragement. This week I got her some domino needles that made it easier to knit with small hands

Brown and blocks

There has been so much going on in my life this past month that I havn't had the time or energy to blog, but I have been knitting! And shopping! There is so much to write about that I will save some for later, but these are some of my favourite knitting events since last time.

I'm back on track with Sockklubben, having finished the September socks. This is my favourite pattern and yarn so far, so I'm really happy about the result. When I tried them on for the first time they stayed on all evening and I even slept in them. The pattern is Oak Leaf from Knotions, the great new free pattern magazine. It is a bit tricky to get all the twists right, and I had to knit the first leg twice to get it right, but it isn't really difficult. The yarn is the wonderful Regia Silk, a lovely quality but not really my palette of colours except this one. I used 2.5 dpns and the size is the largest, but not very long.















I bought this yarn, as well as the beautiful Färgkraft skeins in the next picture, at the "new" shop in town. Cina has taken over an old shop here in Sundsvall and redecorated and renewed it in many ways (great pics here). Great job Cina and good luck! The Färgkraft line is the most noticable addition to the stock so far, and I think every knitter I know in town has bought some. I recently made a shawl in this quality, but this time I have something else in mind... The colours have poetic names, and mine are Bärnsten (Amber) and Choklad.















Finally a few words about a great new book. Despite new issues of Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, knitty.com and knotions.com I had to buy some new books. I got Folk Hats, which was mostly wierd, No Sheep For You, both educational and great patterns, but the book you can glimpse in the picture above is my number one inspiration so far this autumn. Danish Vivian Höxbro has taken here special Domino technique a few steps further in Knit to be Square. I bought it because I knew her spectacular Abstract Stole would be in it, but a few other ideas look very tempting as well. I have just cast on for a vest from her previous book Shadow Knitting, but that is another story.

This and that

After the sweater race earlier this summer I've made a few small things that only took a couple of days. First up are the Pomatomus socks, July in Sockklubben. This is probably the first yarn I actually bought for the club, one that is interesting without hiding the lace etc. that these socks always have (Opal Fantasie 1914). I didn't like the patten at first, and spent a week trying to knit them without the yarnovers, but finally got tired of ripping and reknitting and made them according to the instructions. I even got hold of 2.75 mm dpns a while ago so I could use the right size needles. They are a bit big, and I should probably have used 2.5 mm for a better fit, but who says I have to keep them. They are modelled by Mr P who had taken this modelling position on the sofa, all I had to do was put on the socks. He has inherited my cold that kept me away from this weeks knitting café, now I've missed three weeks in a row...















Last weekend I was at a birthday party for a friend in my folk music group. Since I wasn't sure if we were getting her anything from the group, I made her a couple of wrist warmers just in case. They are good to have if you play the fiddle outdoors, like we often do. The yarn is Sandnes Lanett in charcoal grey, leftovers from when I made piles of baby clothes from their lovely patterns. The pattern is Berta from the booklet Muddar from Sticka!, and had I followed the written instructions the would have looked very diffrent form the picture, I had to make several changes to get the lace edge right. I think the first one took five times as long to make as the second. ( Really nice party by the way, thanks K.!)















Finally my knitting for the Olympics. I didn't register for any KAL, because I wasn't sure how much time I would have, but I cast on just in time for the opening cermony and it looks like it will be finished on schedule. It is a shawl by Jane Sowerby, but not from her book on Victorian lace, but a variation on the Spider's web pattern for Knitter's magazine. There will be another variation free on their website, but last time I checked it wasn't published yet. In the picture you can see the half hexagon center, but the edge is what makes it special and I will be getting back to that now. Finished this part to the men's tennis double final, where Sweden got the silver.