Just in time

Härjarö, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be one of the workshop leaders in this beautiful building. What's more, I was lucky to get there in time (well, two minutes before my first workshop started) as something went wrong with the car I was going to borrow from a friend. This happened on Friday evening and I needed the car in the morning... Born to knit and I had to take the train to the nearest town instead, where one of the participants was kind enough to pick us up and drive us to Härjarö.

It would have been great to be able to stay the whole weekend, but a dear colleague of mine had a birthday party in the evening, so I had to rush from the knitting event as well - picked up by someone else who was going there and was kind enough to drive all the way to get me. There's nothing like friendliness!

What do you think I gave my colleague - a lace shawl, a polar-bear rug or my nephew?

Correct answer: a shawl based on Marianne Kinzel's "English Crystal" design in her First Book of Modern Lace Knitting. Yarn: "Viva" from Wetterhoff; 4 mm needles (US 6).

In reality the shawl is raspberry red. I'm not sure Kinzel would have approved as she cautions the reader not to use yarn "of a conspicuous colour, as this is not in the lace-making tradition." This isn't meant to criticize her; I just find it interesting how different opinions people can have about crafts. (Not to mention how one's personal opinions can change over time!) Also, I'm sure it makes a difference the book was first published in the 50s.


Speaking of shawls, at long last I have started a project using wonderful laceweight wool Kerry gave me last year. I've found inspiration in a fabulous Estonian stitch dictionary, The Haapsalu Shawl by Reimann & Edasi.

Estonian-Australian shawl

"Aberlady" sweater finished

"Aberlady" sweater, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

About a week ago I finished my "Aberlady" sweater, but it took days (literally) for it to dry. This is one of my all-time favourite patterns, by my favourite designer Alice Starmore. A Flickr friend of mine suggested I rename this project "Aberlord" :-)

The photo above shows the pattern, but the photo below shows the colour of the yarn better, a light blueish grey of Rowan Creative Linen ("Foggy" 624). And in case you're wondering, yes, those are my lips. Kiss, kiss, dear readers!

I'm making "Water Lily" shawl progress. The photo in my previous post gives a better idea of the pattern, but in this one it is easier to see the shape I have in mind.

"Water Lily" shawl

Check out Ylva's glorious cuffs! Twined knitting, magnificently decorated.

Nu har "Aberlady" äntligen torkat - det tog flera dagar, men det var det värt att vänta på. Jag tycker att garnet (Rowan creative linen) är som gjort för den här sortens mönster, hälften lin och hälften bomull. Den är lite svår att fotografera, bara: i den övre bilden ser man mönstret men den undre gör färgen mer rättvisa. Och ja, det är jag som är i den om ni undrar - puss på er!

Sjalen jag håller på med är ett nöje att sticka! Den kommer att bli v-formad, och så tänker jag mig någon typ av kant runt den.

Estonian shawl finished

Estonian shawl finished
Originally uploaded by Asplund

This is how my knitted-on edge turned out. Not sure how far my yarn would last I decided to knit a pattern that could be cast off practically any time; this one consists of two different pattern rows and two plain rows.

There was more yarn than I expected, so I ended with a few pattern rows with extra increases for more pronounced points. I'm pleased with the edge (I wanted something airy to balance the fairly compact main pattern) although I think the original design is prettier.

That goes for the whole shawl, by the way, even though I'm happy with my modifications - and even happier that I've left my old fear of experimenting and taking liberties with patterns behind. I've learnt a lot (and still do) from following instructions, but it's nice not to have to depend on them all the time.

My modifications in short:
1. Variation star motif used. It's bigger, so I made this shawl five stars wide instead of seven.
2. Garter-stitch border skipped.
3. Centre "grid" pattern resized to blend with the stars, and I added different groups of nupps to it.
4. Edge knitted on instead of made separately and sewn on. (Which keeps this from being a real Haapsalu shawl, but I guess it's safe to call it Haapsalu-ish!)

The finished shawl measures ca 115x105 cm (45x41 in).

Correcting a mistake

Winter mosaic
Originally uploaded by Asplund

The past few weeks have been unusually cold. I took these photos on my way to work last Thursday morning. It was almost -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) but fortunately it isn't that cold now.

I'm making progress with the Estonian shawl. My intention was to have identical groups of nupps in all the centre-section quadrangles, but mixed up rows and accidentally started too early the second time around.

I didn't discover this mistake until a couple of rows later, and instead of ripping these out I decided to correct my mistake by simply deciding this was what I wanted instead. Actually, it's a good opportunity to find out how different nupp patterns ideas will look in reality!

Proving myself wrong

Estonian shawl wip
Originally uploaded by Asplund

In a previous post I mentioned that I'm not very fond of bobbles. Well, seeing this shawl by Rod on Flickr reminded me of my natural white Viva and the fact that I've only knitted a swatch or two testing a couple of patterns in Nancy Bush's book Knitted Lace of Estonia.

This is half a star, the Crown Prince pattern. I like it very much that the bobbles are fairly flat; the combination of them and the lace holes of roughly the same size is very appealing too, in my opinion.

Here's a photo of the shawl, made by Knitting Soo on Flickr. It's very pretty, but I can't help thinking about possible modifications... A frame consisting of rows of holes instead of garter stitch, for example.

Getting the tension right for the bobbles was a bit tricky, but didn't take very long after all. I've had more trouble with the tension in the stocking-stitch areas: for example, getting the loops for a bobble (a "nupp" in Estonian) loose enough tends to rub off on the surrounding stitches - and purling all the loops making a single stitch tends to make me purl the surrounding stitches too tight.

I enjoy knitting this kind of pattern a lot, primarily because it's something I haven't done before. (A tiny swatch about a year ago hardly counts.) Also, dear old wool-silk blend Viva is a delight to work with, and the sheen of it makes the bobbles almost look like pearls in daylight. Not captured in this photo due to severe lack of daylight.