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January 26, 2006
I'm off to see some snow
So we are leaving for France tomorrow! We're going skiing for a few days, we're returning on Tuesday. We're visiting T.'s uncle, who lives in the Vosges. It is a trip of about 6 hours by car from where we live. It is a spurr of the moment thing, we just decided to go a few days ago.
And then I got thinking about taking lots of pictures in those beautiful surroundings, in the snow. I do have skiing gloves (made of fabric), but I can't hold my camera well wearing those, let alone find the right button and push it. So I decided to knit some fingerless gloves. I bought some 100% wool yarn in the yarn shop in Leeuwarden in dark grey, lighter grey and bright red, colors that go with my skiing outfit.
This is the first one that's finished:
Note it's the right hand one, the most important one. So even if I don't finish the left hand one in time, the main hand will be warm. But I think I'll finish the second glove in the car tomorrow.
Norwegian Stockings
Thanks for all your kind words about my Norwegian Stockings! It's a really nice pattern, and Folk Socks is a really nice book. It's a classic, in my opinion.
Debra writes: I plan to make them longer, so they come up well above the calf, right below the knee where the leg diameter is smaller than at mid-calf. Maybe this will help them stay up better.
I think she is absolutely right. Mine are too short, especially the part of the leg above the decreases. It's always surprising to me to notice the amount of 'vertical shrinkage' when you put a sock or stocking on. Because it stretches sideways, the length decreases, so you have to make the socks longer than you would think (at least than *I* would think). Someday, I'll do these socks again and make them longer.
In the meanwhile, here are some links to other finished Norwegian Stockings in blogland:
Fig and Plum
Jessimuhka Knits
The Purling Prude
See Eunny Knit!
Hitbyabus
I'll be back sometime next week!
Posted by saartje at 10:54 PM | Comments (12)
January 23, 2006
Brrrrrrr......
Thanks everyone for your kind words about my Herringbone Gloves! I like them too, and they're so comfortable and warm. Although at the moment, I wear them with a pair of mittens over them, because: Brrr, it's so cold over here! Well, relatively speaking of course. I know there are places where it's mutch colder than the -8°C we're having tonight. Still, I'm glad the Herringbones are finished and I'm wearing my Norwegian stockings:
I made them some years ago. The pattern is from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. I'm not sure of the name, and I don't have the book with me so I can't check.
The stockings are very comfortable and they only slide down very slowly. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit next to the warm stove and knit on my Mermaid!
Posted by saartje at 10:17 PM | Comments (20)
January 20, 2006
Finished Herringbone gloves
I can't believe the weekend is here again already! I had a very busy week, so even though I finished the Herringbone Gloves on monday, I didn't have time to take pictures and write a blog entry until yesterday. So I wrote a nice, complete entry and when I was almost finished, I somehow pushed a wrong button and everything disappeared, just like that. This is my second try...
Here's a picture of the finished Herringbone Gloves.
click
I like the way they look with my winter coat. I've worn them all week and I'm glad they're nice and warm. I've done this pattern before, in sockyarn, and I do think 100% wool yarn is warmer. I'll try to put a picture and details in my gallery later this weekend.
So my work on Mermaid continues. I still like this project a lot.
The pattern could be clearer in my opinion, especially if you consider the price of the kit. Still, I think I'm doing okay. I hope there won't be any unpleasant surprises later on...
Questions
Yuki asked about the short needles I used for the Herringbone fingers.
Mine are by Schoeller und Stahl. I bought them in a yarn shop in Leeuwarden, but since most of you won't be visiting that wonderful city anytime soon, I did some searching. You could try this German webshop: Martinas Bastel- und Hobbykiste. This link directs you to the double pointed needles pages. She sells all kinds of shorter needles. I haven't done business with her, but I've heard good things.
Emily wants to know if I always use the needles suggested on the ball band.
No, I don't. It depends on the gauge I'm aiming for. Sometimes I get this with the suggested needles, sometimes I don't. For socks made of fingering weight sock yarn, I usually use 2 mm needles, to get a nice firm fabric. Of course, I should tell you to make a gauge swatch [stekenpoef], but I almost never do, especially not when I'm making small things like socks and mittens. Just be prepared to rip if you don't like it, and start over with different needles!
I'll try to answer more questions this weekend.
Geen integrale Nederlandse vertaling deze keer. Het kost me toch wel erg veel tijd om het hele verhaal te vertalen, en het bericht wordt er nogal lang van. Ik zal er nog eens over nadenken wat de handigste manier is om toch (af en toe) wat informatie in het Nederlands te geven. Ideeen zijn welkom!
Posted by saartje at 11:45 PM | Comments (15)
January 15, 2006
The Herringbones go for a walk
The Herringbone Gloves are doing well, but I didn't finish them over the weekend. I'm almost there, as you can see:
Het gaat prima met de Herringbone handschoenen, maar ik heb ze dit weekend nog niet afgekregen. Ik ben er bijna, zoals je kunt zien:
Can you see I'm using really short needles for the fingers? They're 6 inches long, and I appreciate them so much when knitting fingers for gloves. I made the middle finger and the ring finger two rounds shorter on the second glove, somehow it makes a big difference. Of course this means I have to rip those fingers on the first glove back a little and redo the finger tips. Not looking forward to that....
Zie je dat ik heel korte pennetjes gebruik voor de vingers? Ze zijn 15 cm lang, en ik vind ze erg prettig voor het breien van vingers aan handschoenen. De middelvinger en ringvinger van de tweede handschoen heb ik twee toeren korter gemaakt dan die van de eerste handschoen, op de een of andere manier maakt dat veel uit. Natuurlijk betekent dit dat ik die vingers van de eerste handschoen een stukje moet uithalen en de toppen opnieuw moet breien. Niet dat ik daar zin in heb....
Did you notice the lovely sunset lighting on the glove picture?
We took a nice walk this afternoon, in an area called De Blauwe Kamer. The gloves came along so that's where their picture was taken.
Zie je dat mooie licht van de ondergaande zon op de foto van de handschoenen? We hebben lekker gewandeld vanmiddag, in een gebied dat De Blauwe Kamer heet. De handschoenen gingen mee, en gingen er op de foto.
Here's a picture of the area. The large pole sticking out of the water has a scale on it to measure the hight of the water. The area is on the banks of the river Rhine and gets flooded regularly. In 1995, the water rose almost to the top of the pole! Imagine that. Anyway, it's a beautiful place, even on a cold winter day like this!
Dit is een foto van het gebied. Die lange paal die uit het water steekt is bedoeld om de hoogte van het water te meten. Het gebied ligt in de uiterwaarden van de Rijn en overstroomt geregeld. In 1995 kwam het water bijna tot bovenaan de paal! Stel je eens voor. In ieder geval is het een prachtig gebied, zelfs op zo'n koude winterdag als vandaag!
Posted by saartje at 7:37 PM | Comments (18)
January 13, 2006
Santa was here
This entry is an experiment in writing a bilingual blog entry!
Dit bericht is een experiment in het schrijven van een tweetalig blogbericht!
Yesterday, I recieved two belated Christmas gifts from T.'s parents:
When we were visiting them last Christmas, I got to sit at the computer and order three knitting books as presents. The first two arrived yesterday and I'm so happy with them! First, it's the Folk Hats book by Vicki Square. This book is full of unusual hats, a lot of them are felted. The second is Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. Now I own all Nancy's books again! This looks like a great sock book, especially if you like solid colored socks with nice textured patterns. The third book is still on its way...
Deze boeken heb ik gekregen als kerstkado van T.'s ouders. Toen we met kerst bij hun op bezoek waren, mocht ik achter de computer gaan zitten en drie breiboeken bestellen. Gisteren kwamen de eerste twee, ik ben er ontzettend blij mee! Het eerste boek is Folk Hats van Vicki Square. Dit is een boek met een heleboel ongewone hoofddeksels, veel ervan zijn vervilt. Het tweede boek is Knitting Vintage Socks van Nancy Bush. Nu heb ik weer al haar boeken! Het boek ziet er gewelig uit, vooral als je van effen sokken houdt met mooie stekenpatroontjes. Het derde boek is nog onderweg....
But that wasn't all that came in the mail. When I wrote about Estonian mittens on the last days of 2005, I was pointed to the pattern books by Aino Praakli. I did some searching and found them on the site of an Estonian online bookshop, Krisostomus. So I ordered them there, and € 12.30 and 10 days later, I am the proud owner of these beauties:
Maar dat was nog niet alles wat de postbode bracht. Toen ik eind vorig jaar schreef over Estlandse wanten, wees iemand me op de patronenboeken van Aino Praakli. Na wat zoeken kwam ik ze tegen op de site van een online Estlandse boekwinkel, Krisostomus. Ik heb ze meteen besteld, en € 12,30 en 10 dagen later ben ik de trotse bezitter van deze juweeltjes:
Here's a look inside:
Een kijkje binnenin:
I haven't had time to really check them out, but they look very promising! I'll tell you more about all the books when I have taken a good look at them.
Ik heb er nog niet echt goed naar kunnen kijken, maar ze zien er veelbelovend uit! Ik zal meer vertellen over al deze boeken als ik ze goed heb bekeken.
In the mean time, I'm happily knitting away on the second Herringbone Glove.
Ondertussen ben ik vrolijk aan het doorbreien aan de tweede Herringbone Glove.
I hope to finish them this weekend. And if anyone wants to try these: if you've knitted gloves before, these aren't very difficult, I would say, even if the pattern is in Japanese. I'd be glad to try to help out anyone who gets stuck along the way.
Ik hoop dat ik ze dit weekend af krijg. En als iemand dit patroon wil proberen: als je al eens eerder handschoenen hebt gebreid, zijn deze niet erg moeilijk, zelfs al is het patroon in het Japans. Ik wil iedereen die halverwege vast komt te zitten, met alle plezier proberen weer op gang te helpen.
Posted by saartje at 4:16 PM | Comments (19)
January 11, 2006
Herringbone
Thank you for all your compliments about the baby hat. I didn't use a pattern, so I'm afraid I can't point you to it. Basically, what I did is start at the top with a 4-stitch I-cord. I increased every 2.5 cm (I didn't count the rounds) 6 stitches evenly. After a while, I could check my gauge (6 spi) so I knew how many stitches to aim for. I needed 12 inches, so that's about 72 stitches. I kept increasing until I had 72 stitches. After that I knitted straight for .... sorry, I don't know how long (and the hat is in the mail already). I used the balloon to estimate the size. I made it a little longer than necessary, so it has a roll brim.
I hope this helps someone. Maybe next time, I'll remember to write down exactly what I did!
By the way, my mother found this great link on the BBC website for something called Ray of Hope - Making clothes for premature babies. There is a page about measurements which helped me figure out which size to make the hat.
Today, I finished the first Herringbone glove.
I always have a problem with the lenght of the fingers, so I didn't weave in those ends yet. I think some of the fingers might be too long, but I'll decide sometime while knitting the second glove.
Posted by saartje at 10:51 PM | Comments (10)
January 8, 2006
A little hat
On Thursday, one of my cousins became a father with a beautiful little girl. She was born a little too early, so she has to stay in the hospital for some time. Today, I made her a little hat:
I used a balloon to make a model of her head, as I have no idea about the size of baby's heads, especially of those who are born early. I used yarn from my stash. It's Austermann Barkarole, a blend with 70% merino, 20% silk and 10% cashmere. I figured she deserved something nice and soft! Let's hope it fits and her parents like it...
The rest of my knitting time was spent on the Herringbone Gloves.
Some of you commented on the fact that the pattern is in Japanese. Well, even though I don't speak or read Japanese, I think the pattern is very understandable, if you know a little bit about the way a glove is made. Just take a close look at the charts and you will figure it out. You don't need the text.
By the way, the ones I've made before are over here.
And tomorrow it's back to work for me....
Posted by saartje at 7:09 PM | Comments (11)
January 7, 2006
Yarn expedition
Yesterday, I took the train to Alkmaar, and from there the bus to Bergen (NH). Bergen is a small village on the coast of the Netherlands. It's a nice village, lots of beautiful architecture from the beginning of the 20th century. No doubt it is worth a stroll through its interesting streets and the dunes surrounding it, but first of all: it was terribly cold yesterday, and second: I was on a mission.
I was going a yarn shop which I had heard of many times for many years, but had never visited, because Bergen is so very far from any direction I usually go. But since I had the whole week off, I decided to go for it. (And it wasn't that far, 2.5 hrs from my door to the shop door). So, was it worth it?
It definately was. This is what the shop looks like:
Finlandia Import
Kleine Dorpsstraat 26
1861 KN Bergen NH
The Netherlands
072 - 589 46 42
It's quite small, but chock full with yarn. I was completely overwhelmed.
It was very difficult to take pictures of the shops interior, but these will give you an impression. On the left picture, the left wall which you almost can't see is full of Rowan yarns and special Finnish yarns which the shop imports. I don't remember what the yarns in the back are, but they were all natural yarns.
On the picture on the right, you can see some of the other yarns this shop sells. Right next to the embroidery floss stand, there is a whole closet full of Shetland 2-ply jumper wool from Jamieson & Smith. The other yarns are all put in the closets according to their color. I wish I had taken more pictures, but this will have to do. If you ever find yourself in the neighbourhood, don't hesitate to visit this shop!
So did I buy anything?
After two hours of petting yarn, taking it outside to look at it in natural light, I found myself drawn to the Shetland 2-ply. This is what I bought:
It was very difficult to pick out the colors. I plan on using them for mittens, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian etc... And I can always order more, because now I am the proud owner of a Jamieson & Smith Shetland 2-ply jumper wool shade card:
And of course, I had to start a new project with this yarn:
I'm making a pair of Herringbone gloves. I've done these before, but the colors I used don't really go with my wintercoat. These will!
In the meantime, Mermaid is doing okay. She's slowly growing.
But right now, I'm putting everything on hold to knit a baby hat for my cousin's new-born daughter.
Posted by saartje at 11:04 AM | Comments (15)
January 5, 2006
Happy new year!
It was the first new day of 2006, and with a whole week off ahead of me, I thought I was going to post lots of entries to my blog, with beautiful pictures (because I have all day to take them, in flattering natural light). And here I am, at the 5th day in 2006, with just an entry with almost no knitting content apart from a crappy picture, taken on the train tonight.
Those will be socks for T.
Anyway, I wish everybody a fantastic 2006 with lots of knitting! The last couple of days, I have been very busy, answering emails and working on a new photo album for my blog (I'll come back to that in a minute). All this because of The Article in the Dutch magazine Landleven.
I think it has attracted a few Dutch readers to my blog. And not all of them are comfortable reading English, they tell me. So I have been thinking what I can do to make it a bit more accessible for them. So when you see a couple of words and sentences appearing on my blog in the next days and weeks, don't be afraid, I'll still write in my usual as-good-as-it-gets English!
On thing I already did in the last days, is make a new picture album of my finished knitting, in which I incorporated my old website. I also translated all the English notes I wrote on the old website back to Dutch, so it is now truly bi-lingual! And that's good, because I just noticed today that I won a Knitting Blog Award from Jenla! Look at their January first entry and scroll down to #45. Wowie! Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoy my blog!
This weekend I plan to read all your comments about Baltic knitting more carefully and make a list of all the wonderful links. Tomorrow (actually today, as it's past midnight), I'm planning on visiting a yarn shop I've never been to before. It's in Bergen, which is about 2.5 hours on the train from here. Lots of knitting time! Have to download some knitting podcasts to listen to on the road!
Posted by saartje at 11:25 PM | Comments (16)
