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!