Denmark galore, part 2

Here's a new picture of the cardigan/jacket - not that many more rows than in my previous post, but it will give you a better idea of the colours. Danish sunshine did the trick!

Two Danish islands a month seems just right! I don't think I'll manage to wait a whole year before returning to Bornholm or Fanø for next year's knitting festivals. It was my first trip to Bornholm, but I taught twined knitting at Fanø strikkefestival for the second time, and it was a little bit like coming home! The prodigal knitter, so to speak - not least considering I returned home with more than 2½ kg of a certain substance in my bags. This gorgeous tweedy blend of wool and cashmere, for example:

a cone of sheer happiness

We had a light, spacious room for the twined knitting workshop. There were some exercise balls there, and one of the participants chose one of those instead of an ordinary chair - it looked really comfortable, so I'll have to try that some time! Not that there's any room for an exercise ball at home. Needless to say, there's always room for more wool.

Come to think of it, there was a really funny moment thanks to the exercise ball. When I teach twined knitting for beginners I often move around pressing down people's shoulders. Mine hurt when I see others' curled around their ears! Well, you can imagine my surprise when I pressed her shoulders and she sort of gave way under my hands!

Speaking of beginners, I'm trying to master tatting. (It's fascinating how completely different the words are in closely related languages: in Swedish it's frivoliteter - of French origin - in Danish orkis and in Norwegian nupereller.) What I've achieved so far isn't much to brag about but I'll post a picture of it anyway. Considering I tried it for the first time only a week ago it's not too bad - and it was a good way to spend time travelling to and from Denmark.

Apart from the joy of learning in itself I must say I find learning something new very useful when I'm teaching twined knitters for beginners: it's the best way to remind myself what it feels like getting one's fingers used to something new, having too many and too few (and too big and too small) fingers at the same time. And in the wrong places of the hands too. My fingers are beginning to understand what I want them to do, even if they don't quite make it - yet. I will make them make it.

knots galore

En pilatesboll, är det kanske det som saknas bland stickprylarna? En kursdeltagare på Fanø hittade i alla fall en i salen där vi höll till, och det såg riktigt bekvämt ut. Jag är allt lite lockad att skaffa en, men det tar ju upp en hel del volym som jag hellre skulle fylla med ni-vet-vad. (Drygt 2½ kg lyckades jag komma hem med denna gång. Visst nappar det!) Ett komiskt ögonblick var när jag gick runt och tryckte ner axlar här och där (det gör ont i mina när jag ser andras axlar nästan i öronhöjd och jag är för klåfingrig för att inte göra något åt det) och hon försvann under mina händer! Synd att ingen tog ett foto på mig i det ögonblicket, för jag blev nästan rädd!

Det är alltid roligt att lära sig nya saker, och nyttigt som kursledare för att påminna sig om hur det känns att få pli på händerna. Nu har jag fått möjlighet att lära mig att slå frivoliteter. Det har jag velat pröva länge, så jag är glad att det äntligen har blivit av! Det börjar lossna, det vill säga fingrarna har förstått vad det är de ska göra även om de inte riktigt går i land med det. Men de känns stora som bratwurstar - utom lillfingret, som är irriterande kort. Förmodligen en evolutionsmiss (varför födas med en blindtarm när man kunde ha fått ett frivolitets-lillfinger - fast om några generationer kanske det har blivit sådana framsteg) men skoj är det i alla fall!

Denmark galore

Here's a photo of the progress I've made with the 18th century style jacket/cardigan I wrote about in June. You can see the steek in front where I will cut it open. I tend to make them wider than necessary, but I definitely prefer that to not quite wide enough. Before cutting the steek I will stitch seams in it and felt it slightly. (Hand-sewn seams - I used a sewing machine for my first steeks, but find them so stiff they're rather uncomfortable.)

Funny it's been a month since my last post considering Charlotte Kaae and I were interviewed about knitting and blogging at Strik Bornholm recently. Who am I to talk about blogging, you may wonder if I seem to have stopped... Well, I did mention I've decided only to post when I feel I have something to write about whether it's been a week or a month! You can read the interview here - but the text is in Danish.

Charlotte Kaae is a delight and her colourful and sparkling knits match her personality perfectly - or I guess they reflect her personality. We had met briefly a couple of times before, but this time we got to spend quite a lot of time together - and I'm happy we will see each other again in a few days at Fanø Strikkefestival. Bornholm is a fabulous island, by the way. This was my first but certainly not my last vist.

My workshops at Bornholm were lace patterns for beginners and shawl shapes. The participants knitted mini shawls to try different shapes. My frog tape measure tried one of them on!

September is a happily busy month: apart from the two knitting festivals in Denmark I'm starting my weekend twined knitting course at HV and my new life as a dancing teacher (18th century dances for beginners). Strange, I was never into dancing before but this kind got me hooked! Actually (and probably the reason I like it) it's similar to knitting back and forth: you make a pattern moving in one direction and then go back doing the same thing but in the opposite way. And in case you're wondering, I did find a fez and the Ball à la Turque was unforgettable!

Sheep, the Baltic Sea, a glimpse of a ruin... Good things come in threes!

Det har varit full fart ett tag och mer lär det bli: nyligen var jag kursledare på Bornholm och på fredag far jag till Fanø! Ett och annat smørrebrød lär slinka ner mellan varven (ha ha...) och så får jag nytt tillfälle att vädra min hemvävda dansk-svenska. Sedan har jag både HV-kurs och danskurs att se fram emot! Det har slagit mig att 1700-talsdanserna påminner lite om att sticka mönster: man gör en sorts mönster när man rör sig åt ena hållet och så vänder man och gör samma tillbaka fast spegelvänt.

Min (rättare sagt Annas) 1700-talskofta växer sakta men säkert. Det blir inte så många varv åt gången, för jag får lite ont i fingrarna när jag håller på för länge med 2,25 mm tjocka (tunna) stickor - men det är det värt!