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

Wedding shawl

Wedding shawl, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

Here is a colleague of mine on her wedding day a couple of weeks ago (haven't found any matching wallpaper of curtains for her to pose next to) in the shawl I was honoured to make for her. The shawl is greener in reality, which you can see in this post.

I've started knitting a pattern from a book I bought some time ago, "Water Lily" from The Haapsalu Shawl by Reimann & Edasi. This is a pattern that actually doesn't have any nupps in it - but I like it anyway ;-)

"Water Lily" shawl in progress

In the book it is used in a rectangular design, but I thought it would work well in a triangular shape. This shawl will be V-shaped, though: I've divided the triangle in halves and am knitting the first half in a way to make it slant outwards from the middle. It will be similar to this shawl, which I made a couple of years ago.

"If there is a Cinderella looking for a steady fella..."

Wedding shawl in progress, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.

"Springtime" shawl 2010

A colleague is getting married in September and asked me if I could knit her a shawl for the wedding. She trusted me with one of the shoes to go yarn hunting for a similar colour, and I decided to get Rowan kidsilk haze.

I'm knitting the "Springtime" pattern from First Book of Modern Lace Knitting by Marianne Kinzel; I made it a couple of years ago and like then I will knit a shawl consisting of three triangles instead of the original square shape.

It's a pattern I enjoy knitting a lot, but something that makes it a bit tricky is the fact that the chart symbols differ from what I'm used to. For example, a blank square doesn't mean "knit stitch" but "no stitch".

Ron asked what bind-off method I chose for the shawl I just finished and wrote about in my previous post. First, I added an extra row on the right side to close the tips of the leaves (with a centred double decrease: slip two stitches together as if to knit, knit one, pass slipped stitches over) and then I did an ordinary bind-off with knit stitches on the wrong side but very loosely.

Buck Strong asked who it was for. Actually, that shawl found a new home at another colleague's! Who knows, some day I might try to gather the colleagues I've knitted thing for to have them perform some kind of knit walk :)

För ett par år sedan stickade jag en sjal efter mönstret "Springtime" av Marianne Kinzel. Det är egentligen en kvadratisk duk som består av fyra trianglar, så jag tog bort en triangel och stickade den fram och tillbaka i stället för runt. Det är ett roligt mönster, men lite svårt i och med att symbolerna inte är riktigt samma som jag är van vid. För att bara nämna en sak, så betyder inte en tom ruta "rät maska" utan "ingen maska".

Nu ska jag sticka om den i Rowan kidsilk haze till en kollega som gifter sig i höst och frågade om jag kunde sticka en sjal till bröllopet. Det var lätt att tacka ja till ett så hedrande uppdrag! (Hoppas att de har lika lätt att säga ja framför altaret, men det får man väl utgå från.) Jag fick låna en sko att ta med till garnaffären för att hitta en liknande färg, vilket var ett nytt och roligt inslag i stickprocessen!

Jag fick en fråga om hur jag avslutade sjalen jag skrev om i mitt förra inlägg (och som har fått ett hem hos en annan kollega - snart har jag stickat åt tillräckligt många för en catwalk). Först lade jag till ett extra varv på rätsidan för att sluta löven, detta med en dubbel hoptagning där man lyfter av två maskor tillsammans som för att sticka rätt, stickar nästa och sedan drar de lyfta maskorna över den. På så vis hamnar mittmaskan överst. Sedan gjorde jag en vanlig fast extra lös överdragsavmaskning med räta maskor på avigsidan.

Blocking the Springtime shawl

Blocking the Springtime shawl
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I've folded the shawl in half to make it easier to block; not only out of a lack of space, but mainly to make sure the two halves become identical in size and shape.

It's a method I've tried before and I think it's far easier than measuring and rearranging the shawl and all the needles. When it's dry I'm going to dampen the middle of the back and reblock that part to avoid a crease.

Blocking has made it grow considerably in size, from each of the three triangles measuring 46x100 cm (18x39½ in) to 75x120 cm (29½x42 in). In this photo you can also see how much yarn I ended up not using - a close call!

Actually, I had to change my plans and skip the border along the top, realizing there wouldn't be enough yarn after all. Chart C (the big squares without leaves) was far more yarn-consuming than I expected. I had taken it into account how much many more repeats there would be, but hadn't studied the charts closely enough to discover how many more stitches there are in some rows. For example, a repeat consists of 24 stitches in one row, but 32 in another. That makes quite a difference when a row consists of 18 repeats!

This is my first attempt at a crocheted bind-off; I think it suits the pattern very well and it wasn't difficult, so I'm more than likely to do it again. After some experimenting I decided a chain of five stitches would be enough; the pattern has nine, but considering how little yarn I have left it was definitely a good decision to make them shorter.

Springtime shawl

Springtime shawl
Originally uploaded by Asplund

In Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting there's a square-shaped table cloth that I admire and believe would be fun to knit. As I neither need nor want a knitted table cloth I've decided to modify the pattern to make a shawl instead. Not that I need shawls either, but I do need to make them.

The square design consists of four triangles, so by skipping one of them and knitting back and forth instead of in the round I will get a shawl shape I really like and have knitted a few times before (like this shawl). It looks comfortable to wear, staying on the shoulders far better than a triangular shawl. It seems easier to sit down wearing it too, since the back is horizontal.

I first cast on to knit the "Gerda stole", a pattern on Ravelry, thinking this colour would suit the pattern extremely well. I still think so, but ripped it out realizing I would soon get fed up knitting a rectangle. In some ways I'm very patient, in other ways not.

Off topic: I've been house-sitting and taking care of Sigge for a few days. Very relaxing!

If I may say so myself, I got the size and shape of the "Pacific" sweater right! It's far too hot to wear it these days, but I don't mind. Winter was so long and cold I'm still almost surprised every morning to find it's summer!