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January 13, 2008
Knitting mittens
I'm knitting a pair of mittens from the Norwegian book Håndplagg til bunader og folkedrakter. This book is really gorgeous, it has 300 pages filled with patterns traditional handcoverings from Norway (gloves, mittens and wrist warmers), all replicas of museum pieces. Francesca has a blog entry with some pictures from the book.
Here is a glimpse of the mittens in progress:
These mittens are from Sør-Varanger, way up in the north of Norway. I would love to visit there, but it's 3,063 km according to Google Maps. Maybe someday....
They knit up really fast because of the gauge of 25 st to 10 cm (6.25 spi). Most patterns in the book have gauges of 35-40 st to 10 cm (8.75-10 spi). I'm not afraid of a small gauge, but it's nice to be able to finish something quickly every now and then. Although it's not like we really need mittens over here right now, with temperatures of around 7C/45F. And besides, they're just an addition to the stash of mittens I've made before... I like having a choice!
Posted by saartje at 2:37 PM | Comments (89)
January 6, 2008
Starting the new year well
Hello everyone,
A very happy new year to you all! I know I've been very quiet lately. There's nothing wrong, just life has been full with lots of things, including knitting. Here's my latest FO:
The famous Icarus Shawl from by Miriam Felton, published in Interweave Knits Summer 2006. The pattern can also be purchased from Miriam's website.
I decided to knit a smaller version of this beautiful design by knitting only five repeats of the main pattern instead of the seven the pattern calls for. Right now, I'm thinking six might have been better, but we'll see how I like it after using it a couple of times. I'm a small person and I don't like to feel swamped by my shawl.
The yarn I used is Knit Picks Shadow, lovely to work with.
So what am I knitting now? I kind of lost my knitting mojo lately, as we discussed at the last meeting of SnB Fryslân, but I seem to have found it again. I'm knitting a pair of mittens from Lapland. No pictures yet, but soon, I hope. Tomorrow I will be returning to work after a two week Christmas holiday, which may just turn out to be good for blogging, we'll see. I'll try my best.
I'll leave you with a picture of Lotte, who is seven months old already. She's dressed in a lovely comfortable grey cardigan, knit by a dear friend. Thanks again Hannie, it fits her beautifully now!
Posted by saartje at 8:34 PM | Comments (50)
