Springtime shawl progress

Springtime shawl
Originally uploaded by Asplund

There should be enough yarn for five repeats of leaves plus the bottom section; hopefully, also a knitted-on border along the top.

My plan is to reuse this scalloped border from Jane Sowerby's treasure of a book Victorian Lace Today.

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!

"Pacific" sweater finished

One of the many things I love about this yarn (BC Shetlandsuld) is how much softer it becomes when washed. It suits me perfectly, because I prefer working with yarn that isn't too soft and slippery but like most people (I hope!) would rather not wear a scratchy sweater.

Modifications in short:

1. Bluish-green stripes made wider (because I like the colour so much and wanted to make it more dominant).
2. Purl stitches around cables (for a deeper relief effect).
3. Sleeve cap shaped (for comfort and to practise shaping stranded caps with short rows).
4. Parallelograms added to sleeves (to make them more fun to knit than just stripes and cables).
5. Side cable in the middle continued along sleeve (because I like hidden details).

Here's what the shoulder join looks like:

Royal company

Royal company
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Today I was delighted to get to meet a great knitter and fellow Raveler from Norway for the first time! We first got in touch on Flickr a few years ago. I only wish I could have stayed longer today. Next time in Norway?

Of course, it is always a treat seeing Born to knit, Maria and Karin too. We also caught a few glimpses of the royal wedding (Crown Princess Victoria) from two screens on the café walls, but I do prefer Knitting Royalty and so found it very easy to concentrate on my friends instead.

Speaking of great knitters, my grandmother who taught me how to knit would have turned 90 today. How many knitting hours we could have spent together during the past twenty years!

The joy of blocking

Anna's shawl
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I love blocking shawls! This time the total width grew by some 38 cm (15 in).

Tomorrow I've got two knitting-related activities to celebrate the first day of my summer holidays: having lunch with Anna to give her this shawl and see how it looks on her, and in the evening meeting up with my knitting & sewing group from work.

I did manage to knit in public on Saturday, joining other members of group Uppmaskan at the train station in Uppsala.

Unfortunately, I could only stay for some 20 minutes, between the opening of an art show where a cousin of mine is represented, and a colleague's birthday party. Toil and moil...

Happy shawl!

"Lady's Circular Cape"
Originally uploaded by Asplund

The shawl I finished a couple of weeks ago got to meet Annika last night. I hope and believe they will live happily ever after!

More "Pacific" progress and knitting camp

WIP: Isager's "Pacific"
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Here's a better photo of how I've let the middle side cable continue along the sleeve. Another modification is purl instead of knit stitches next to the cables.

I haven't mentioned the knitting camp I'm going to in early August. (My birthday present for myself - sometimes I'm really generous!) It will be such a treat meeting old and new knitting friends, and I'm more than happy with the workshops I've been allotted:

1. Decorative details in Estonian knitting
2. Traditional tapestry crochet patterns from Korsnäs in Finland
3. Different decorative elements with Designer Idol Britt-Marie Christoffersson! "I guess I'm just a lucky so-and-so," to quote a song by Duke Ellington.

Two other knitting idols will be there too: Celia B. Dackenberg, who wrote Ylle & bläck (Wool & Ink) about knitting in literature and writers' knitted garments, and Uuve Snidare whose book Fiskartröjor (Fishermen's Sweaters) is one of my top favourites - she's the one who reconstructed the Russian sweater from Unskijposad. I'm thrilled to pieces!

"Pacific" progress

WIP: Isager's "Pacific" sweater
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I'm knitting the second sleeve, shaping the cap with short rows and then knitting in the round.

In the instructions there is no shaping, but I like the way it removes excess fabric. Also, I decided to frame the cable with a white vertical row where I picked up stitches (see left sleeve). I did this with a crochet hook.

Another modification is the way I have changed the sleeve pattern. Instead of the original design's striped sleeves with two cables (which I thought would be too monotonous to knit) I have used the parallelograms from the body for the sleeves too; only two, though, and placed closer to each other.

Still, my sleeve does have a cable too: I picked up the stitches of the middle side cable to let it run from hip to wrist.

Last, I'm happy to be able to brag about getting the Beautiful blogger award a second time, now from Ann. Mange tak! I hope you don't mind my simply linking to the post about seven things about myself.

Before and after

Before and after blocking
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Same miraculous transformation every time one blocks a shawl! I finished the knitted-on edge late last night, and decided to wash and block it before going to bed. It was dry in the morning, so now it's just waiting to be wrapped around my friend Annika's shoulders.

This is a project I will associate with many pleasant things; to name just two:

1. The memorable afternoon I met up with fellow Raveler Ian to go yarn hunting in Stockholm. This yarn was my prey.

2. The company of my greatcolleagues. We started a knitting and sewing group a couple of months ago, and last night Mimmi invited us and our projects to her beautiful house outside Uppsala. After a long and unusually cold winter, being able to spend a warm and light evening in a garden felt almost surreal. We were quite spoiled too: home-made rhubarb pie and elderflower juice. Delicious!

Circular Cape no 2

WIP: Lady's Circular Cape
Originally uploaded by Asplund

One of my favourite yarns is Wetterhoff's Viva, a shimmering wool-silk blend - like knitting with champagne! I recently found three skeins in a colour I hadn't seen before and thought it was my duty to buy them, and it didn't take more than a couple of days to decide what to use them for.

I'm knitting "Lady's Circular Cape in Shell Pattern" by Jane Sowerby (Victorian Lace Today), a design I first knitted exactly a year ago and gave to my aunt ("Lady Caroline's Circular Cape"). This one will be "Lady Annika's Circular Cape", for a dear friend and shawl lover who's moving back to Sweden after quite a few years abroad. Hooray!

Some modifications:
1. Wedge-shaped repeats elongated with increase rows placed more regularly in the original pattern, where it grows very quickly towards the end.
2. 5 repeats instead of 12 to keep her extra warm in the winter.
3. Edging knitted with slightly thinner needles.

Feel like something new for your computer desktop? How about some elephants from Mattias Inks?

IRL

The Yarn Guide
Originally uploaded by Asplund

A few weeks ago a fellow Raveler living in Paris wrote to me to ask about yarn shops in Stockholm, since he was going to spend a few days there. Fortunately, it was possible for us to meet up there and go yarn hunting together. Here we are at our third stop, Maria's garn, in front of my favourite shelf (BC Shetlandsuld galore). It's such a treat getting to meet other Ravellers in real life!

I enjoy my "Pacific"sweater project very much, and it's time to decide how to shape the neck. Sometimes I don't do it low enough, so this time I'm going to take the time to figure out exactly how to shape it.

I discovered a split stitch the other day, but it wasn't very difficult to fix; it helps that the pattern practically consists of vertical stripes. After making a ladder with the help of a blunt needle, I used a crochet hook to make new stitches.

Returning to the subject of fellow knitters, xtine wrote something wonderful a few days ago that I want to quote: that a good knitted garment should feel like Sarah Vaughan sounds. I agree completely. (Although trying to make a garment of that kind would be aiming impossibly high - not that there's anything wrong with aiming that high, of course!) I first fell under Vaughan's spell some fifteen years ago, and the past few months I've been unusually addicted to her voice. Pure luxury. Last, I would also like to quote Caprifool's comment on a previous post, that knitting is like writing music for the eye.

A few of my favourite things

Naxos Cat
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Now that I've started my "Pacific" sweater I'm going to write seven things about myself (for receiving a blog award).

Here are seven things that I like:

1. Cats (see photo). Don't have one, but we always did when I grew up. For a few years we had three, and unlike our dog they liked walks. (She joined out of sheer jealousy, though.)

2. Needlepoint. (See photo again!) I haven't done it for quite a few months, but will probably get back into it. I like it that you can paint with colours in ways that hardly would be possible in knitting. This is a design by Elian McCready, and I stitched it some eight years ago.

3. Books, both fact and fiction. Right now I'm in the middle of The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, and opening it is like stepping into the late 19th century.

4. Movies. A few months ago I joined a study circle, "Se film med nya ögon" (Watch movies with new eyes) and I've learnt so many things! I used to watch movies more or less they way I read novels, but last week we discussed editing, light, camera angles etc. comparing three scenes in Spike Lee's 25th Hour for a couple of hours. It's so rewarding hearing what others have seen and thought about. Our teacher has chosen great, very different movies and gives us intriguing questions to ponder.

5. Listening to the radio. A favourite show is "Språket" (language).

6. Gustavianum in Uppsala. My favourite building.

7. "This Year's Kisses" with Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Well, practically anything recorded by Lady Day.

I'm passing this award on to James, whose blog was the first one I started reading a few years ago. He recently arranged a Men's Knitting Retreat in New Zealand!

Taking liberties

WIP: "Pacific" by Isager
Originally uploaded by Asplund

I like this shade of light bluish green so much I decided to make those stripes wider to make the colour more prominent.

This change entailed other modifications, like the width of the white rhombs. (Parallelograms? Somethings else? Geometry was a couple of decades ago.)

I have also changed the number of rows to a repeat. That's because I've chosen to twist the side cables every six rows: exactly 5 twists per repeat helps me keep track of when to do them, since I mark those rows in the chart and don't have to count rows.

Addicted to Isager

Pacific swatch
Originally uploaded by Asplund

After buying Marianne Isager's book Inca Knits a few months ago I've been eager to knit her design Pacific. Maria suggested this colour combination, which of course was impossible to resist.

However, even though the skeins looked great together, they didn't knit up as well: this shade of white looks too yellow, so the swatch has been resting for weeks. Today I celebrated finishing Isager's "Knit and purl" sweater by taking the yarn to reliable Yll och tyll to see if they had whiter skeins of white Shetlandsuld. Of course, they did. Also, it's wonderful with a shop where they trust you to take products outdoors to compare them in the sun!

Marianne Isager is easily the most imporant designer to me when it comes to developing my skills and seeing possibilites in knitting. Knitting two of her designs fifteen years ago was a true eyeopener regarding the possibilities of knitting, above all ways to combine shape, pattern and function in clever and attractive ways. She's a master of deceptively simple, something I admire tremendously. I love her sense of colour too.

Edited to add:

I have received an award! Thank you, Caloweena! I'm supposed to write seven interesting things about myself, but that will have to wait. Or maybe there are seven things in this post already? (Too eager to wind my new skeins into balls and start knitting Pacific to think of anything. Can't even remember the names of the seven dwarfs!)

Isager's "Knit and purl" sweater

WIP: Isager's "Knit and purl" sweater
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Here's a picture of my second attempt at a shoulder join: vertical lines and a three-needle bind-off, which is my favourite method. You can also see the sleeve cap in this picture.

My first attempt ended with diagonal lines and a simple neck opening (and short rows for it to be lower in front). I though it would work with the horizontal pattern borders, but didn't like the way it turned out, thinking it looked just like a slit - as if I'd simply cut it open. The new neck looks more finished. The vertical lines blend with the ones on the yoke.

I'm sure I will associate this project with quite a lot of live music, completely different genres and completely different venues. First, there was first-class jazz outdoors surrounded by palm trees: Dee Dee Bridgewater in top shape (beyond words) and a quintet to match her dynamics. I'm still high after more than a week! Then there was The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain visting a small and charming theatre in Uppsala, a highly musical and entertaining evening. Last but not least, in a couple of hours off to Uppsala cathedral to enjoy Händel's Messiah. (By the way, I don't knit during concerts - but on my way to them or while waiting for them to start!)