Twined & brioche projects

Today my friend Andrew gave me a charming tatting book from 1944 - there are many beautiful patterns in it, so I feel like getting my shuttles out again. I don't have the nails to match them, but at least I do have a new twined knitting project to match the cover.

The patterns are from A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt, actually the very same cushion I got last post's pattern from, but I'm using thicker yarn and needles. Or, rather, not as thin: 500 metres/100 gr wool-silk blend and 2 mm needles.

Gauge curious? 54 stitches = 10 cm/4 in

Yesterday I added a finishing touch to a pair of twined mittens I finished last year. They were slightly too wide, so I felted them by hand and now they fit perfectly - and the fact that I love both grey and stripes doesn't hurt.

For the mittens I used wool from Östergötlands ullspinneri. It works beautifully for brioche knitting too, and I've made two brioche scarves recently using their variegated wool. (Knitting with 4 mm needles almost felt like cheating now that I've been into 1.25 - 2 mm for a while.)

With felted twined mittens and two scarves I should be well prepared for Midsummer - it normally gets rather cold then, or perhaps that's just my impression?

Getting it

My tatting is improving! I found a book with some really lovely patterns: Tatting Patterns and Designs by Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson. Their names don't look as English as the title, do they? It's a translation of a Swedish book, which I haven't managed to find... Not that it matters that much - I have to learn what the symbols mean anyway to be able to read the instructions - but it does feel a bit odd using a translation from my mother tongue.

A sigh of relief after completing the first repeat! I don't expect to learn it by heart (not that I feel obliged to) but I'm getting the logic of the technique.

Är det inte lite besynnerligt att hitta en översättning till engelska av en svensk bok, men inte den svenska? Men framför allt glädjande att den här typen av böcker översätts!