Leo

If someone is tempted by Leo (see link below) it might be interesting to know that the German firm Wollkontor Berlin sells Horstia Maulbeerseide-Schurwolle for 5,80 EUR/50g. A sweater size M needs 15 balls, so it is not a cheap present (87 euro). But if you love somebody...

Temptation

OK, just like everyone and their friends, I like the new Knitty. I don't love it, there are a few things I find boring and ugly, but I wouldn't mind to knit a Clapotis scarf (in some other yarn, available here) for myself, or a Leo sweater for my husband.

But honestly, I could live without them. The only thing I immediately felt that I really, really need to knit s the superb Hallowig. And now there is a knit-along (parallellstickning...) going on. I might be able to resist this. But I'm not sure I want to...

Hallowig - Knit Along

Hallowig is done by Megan Reardon, who writes one of my long-time favourite sites, Not Martha.

Secrets under construction

15 October is the fixed delivery date for the third package in the Nordic secret friend exchange. This time we are supposed to send - and receive - something we've made with our own little hands. I have an idea that looks great on paper, and today I decided that this weekend will see the transformation of dreams into reality. One little clue: it will not be knitted. (Oh, the heresy!)

Friends and flowers

This weekend we went to Bruxelles to visit my sister and her family. One of the highlights of the trip was to meet Anne, a Finnish colleague and knitter with whom I have exchanged a number of amusing e-mails, but whom I'd never met before. Anne brought me a "Strickmühle", and she was kind enough to lend me Elisabeth Lavold's book on i-cords, one of Barbara Walker's book on different stitches and patterns, and a very inspiring book on how to knit a three-dimensional castle with people, horses and a dragon. My knitting wishlist is growing!

Anne wore an amazing cardigan, I only wish I had remembered to take pictures! She had knitted a rolling landscape with fields, hills, trees and skies, and then adtorned it with hundreds of buttons. Apples in the trees, cars on the roads, trains, houses, cows in the fields, children on sleighs, birds in the sky and aeroplanes above them. She even told me she has a UFO button at home, waiting to be added. Wow!

I showed my sister how to dye with Kool-aid, and I am really happy with the outcome. I dyed one skein of a very fine wool (2-trådigt svenskullgarn?), and one skein of a thick thread from Colinette.

For batch number one (thin yarn) I let the wet yarn soak in orange-coloured orange Kool-aid and I microed it until the water was clear. Then I spread it out on a baking sheet and painted streaks of red and pink. I even sprinkled some red powder here and there, and then I cooked it all and let the yarn cool before rinsing it.

For batch number two, I started with a soak made of the remains of the pink powder. Then I drizzled on a very strong mix of the remaining red powder and very little water, and microed everything again. I let the yarn cool, and my sister came up with the idea to make a very tightly wrapped "sausage" of it, before we put it in a last colour bath. We put the tightly wound skein in a bowl of concentrated yellow. Because of the tight wrap, the yarn didn't absorb the yellow evenly, and in some places the pink shone through.

If this yarn had been for sale I would have called it krasse. (After the flower, whose name I don't know in English. In French it's Capucine.) Or what do you think?

A new word!

The Swedish knitting association Sticka! had a competition to find a Swedish expression for "knit-along". I sent in a proposal, and won!

Det vinnande ordet är parallellstickning, inskickat av Jorun Boklöv.

Hennes motivering till ordet var: "precis som i parallellslalom startar man samtidigt och ska ta sig igenom samma svängar och svårigheter på ungefär lika lång tid".

Unfortunately I will not get to use my new word so much, since I have decided to write my knitting blog in English. But I hope to see it used by others!

Luxemburgish yarn

This weekend we visited the Oekofoire in Luxemburg, a fair organised by the Mouvement ecologique. I think it was the third time I visited the fair, and as my husband pointed out, we know the different stands quite well by now. The difference between us two is that he is bored and I feel at home. This year the theme was textiles. They hadn't found a lot of interesting exhibitors (in my opinion) but in one stand visitors could try weaving and spinning, and they sold luxemburgish wool and yarn. I was surprised by the low prices, but as the owner said, people are prepared to pay for ecological food, but not for wool. The wool comes primarily from the family's own flock, but also from other Luxemburgish farms. I know very little of spinning, so I will not say something about the different plyes. There must be a lot of lanolin left, the yarn has a fat feeling and should be perfect for outdoor sweaters. I bought 150 grams of a thick one-thread handspun, handcoloured wool, and Joel immediately wanted a scarf. I have started knitting and I like it, but I think the old man in Germany who dyes the yarn should have washed it some more, or used more acid, the dark blue colour comes off in my hands. I hope I can wash off most of the excess dye, otherwise Joel will be sporting a blue neck this winter.

Marie-Josée Hoffmann-Welsch has courses in weaving, spinning and felting, and the family has a boarding-house for tourists. The Hoffmann-Welsch family's website.

Quick report on Kool-aid

The boys and I tried our hands at Kool-Aid dying, and it was a nice experience.


I wound three 25 g balls of Barkarole (you know this stuff by now, don't you? merino, cashmere and silk) into short hanks and let them soak in water. I had been told that the Kool-Aid is acidic enough as it is, so I didn't put any vinegar in the water. (Afterwards I have understood that the silk might have needed it.) We mixed water and the very syntetically smelling fruity powder in three bowls. The first is Ice blue raspberry, the second is Raspberry reaction and the third is Magic twist something (cherries?). The first bowl turned opaque blue, the second clear blue and the third clear green.


I told them how I wanted the colours distributed, and they began painting. We used normal kitchen tools, and a broad sheet of plastic for the table.


We soon discovered that the two blue shades were too close. To spice things up, I added some purple grape to the opaque blue, and a dash of orange to the green.


When there was no white spots to be seen, I turned the yarn over and we continued on the other side.

When the yarn was painted, I put it in a pan and we left it to cook in the oven for a while. I washed the hanks when they had cooled, using a drop of shampoo in the first water.

In an inspired move, I mixed up the remains of the orange (to a more concentrated colour than the blues and greens) and put a (dry) tightly wound ball of white mohair in the bowl. I turned it over until all dye was absorbed, and the put it in the oven with the others. The result was amazing, a soft orange colour that changes to mild yellow and pure white in the middle of the ball, where the dye didn't reach. It felt like magic when I "opened" it to make a hank and wash it. There will be pictures of this beauty, later. (Thanks, Barbro, for the idea!)

I will do this again, but next time with more concentrated colours and 100% wool. I don't mind blue and green shades being watery, but for a red/orange yarn, I want more fire!

A baby castle?

Everyone seems to be knitting lacey shawls, and I wonder if I should too. I'm not the shawl-wearing type (but everyone seems to say that when they start their knitting...), so it would be nice to find something else to practise the lace stitches I once knew. Today I found something nice, which might be a good idea for baby sweater number 3. (I need to get back to the French sailor barkarole, the baby is born and even though I'm knitting for a six months old, it would be nice to surprise our neighbours with this quite soon)

The thing I saw: Gingerbread castle.

I found this photo in a machine knitting site, Heidi's knitting room. She gives instructions for knitting it on a Bond, I hope I will be able to transform her chart into handknit stitches. I googled for the castle and found a handknitted version in the blog Little Purl of the Orient. (Scroll to the 25th of April) It would be a nice idea to knit this in the back of a sweater or cardigan, and make a small embroidered cavalier (or princess?) in the front.

The boys and I have done some Kool-Aid dying, and it was a nice experience. Reports will follow. For those of you who read Swedish, there is a report in my main site of the great Mercedes event we went to in Milan last week. A picture from Armani's fashion show for those of you who think about fringes. They seem to be fashionable...

Secret gift 2

We came home from a camping trip this Saturday, and I found an envelope in the mailbox containing a gift from my Secret Nordic friend Johanna. It was a skein of black Lanette wool, a tube of sparkling red rocaille pearls, a pair of 2 mm needles and instructions for how to knit wristwarmers with pearls. I have been interested in pearl knitting for some time, and now I have all the necessary supplies. I have done 1/6 of my Volcan cardigan, and I have promised myself not to start any pearl knitting before the Volcan is finished. So far it is gorgeous. I have based it on a cardigan from a German knitting book (printed 1982 or so) and I am changing things as I go along. I will take some photos when the ligh is good, it is not easy to show the change from fuchsia to orange accurately.

Magknits 2 online

Magknits 2 is online since a few days, and I really like it!
Beau - a man's sweater with interesting details.
Decon - how to spice up a tired sweatshirt with knitted details. I will certainly do something based on this idea!
Magknits has asked its contributors to come up with patterns for a simple black t-shirt, adapted to their own bodies. Donna is perfect for busty curvy girls, Kidsilk is made to fit silky brave kids...
The Chocolate ruffles hood/scarf might be what I need for my morning walks to work when the frost starts to nibble at my ears. For September, I hope that the new multidirectional mohair scarf and a denim jacket will be enough. Really ambitious readers could knit this item in red with white eyelash trimmings for Christmas...

The thing I like about MagKnits is that the patterns are a bit more demanding than Knitty's. Sometimes publishes too many bulky square things, but then I'm not talking about the infamous summer 2004 issue, of course...

And now: photos!

Finally some photos!


The Babybarkarole on a very sunny day. The pattern is a simple baby sweater from a Phildar book, adorned with minicables and a knit/purl thing I drew myself.
Yarn: Austermann Barkarole; 70% merino, 20% silk, 10% cashmere
The yarn was a bargain, 55 cents per 25 g ball, and I used only 3 balls. I splurged on the buttons instead, they are real mother-of-pearl.


The sweater has buttons all the way in the back.

Would I buy this for twice the yarn price if I found it in a shop?
Yes, no doubt.
Would I do something differently if I could?
I knit the sleeves first, and when I noticed how they curled, I changed the pattern for the front and back to include a few rows of garter stitch. The sleeves are OK as they are, but if I did it again, I would throw in some garter stitch there too.
Did I learn something?
Not much...
Would I do it again?
No, I wouldn't enjoy making a copy. But still, I have more babies to knit for, so here comes Barkarole number 2, the French sailor!


The white and blue Barkarole meets up with a red Phildar laine et cachemire. This is the back, using the same basic pattern as for the Babybarkarole. It is funny, Phildar thinks that sweaters for newborns and 3 months old should be buttoned all the way but that babies from 6 months can stand getting things pulled over their heads. Fewer buttonholes to knit!


The stripes close up. With an odd number of colours you don't need to break the yarn if you do one-row stripes.

Instead of casting on for the front, I brought out the yarn I received from my Secret Nordic friend, Fru Schwartz, and made a multidirectional scarf, using Karen Baumer's pattern.


When I began, I thought the colour changes in the yarn were too subtle to show in this pattern, but as you can see, I was wrong.

This photo is more accurate when it comes to the beautiful colours of this Danish mohair bouclé.

Would I buy this for twice the yarn price if I found it in a shop?
I don't think so. I love it, but I can't imagine myself buying a scarf. It is so much nicer to knit one.
Would I do something differently if I could?
I tried mixing triangles in garter stitch and stockinette, and it made the scarf uneven. I should have realized that immediately!
Did I learn something?
Always keep an eye on your work when knitting with bouclé, especially if the boucles are big enough to pick up as stitches...
Would I do it again?
Yes! I can see a lot of multidirectional scarves in my future, but probably not in Trind mohair.

AND, speaking of Nordic secret friends...

I have sent my gift number two to Dorthe, but she doesn't have a blog, so here is a peek (with her approval).


So, what is this? It's a Nordic secret friend Office survival kit!




Everything a working women might need, including miniature chocolates and lipgloss. No miniature knitting though...