Art déco

These are the lovely skeins I received from my Secret Nordic Friend Sonja, from Denmark. I have just moved offices, and in the new building we have air conditioning, which we didn't have before. It will be great in summer, but today it feels mostly moist and drafty. I will need shawls, shrugs and similar things for the glorious days when a t-shirt enough for the walk to the office. Maybe the pretty Art Déco would like to become a capelet?


This is a sneak preview of coming attractions. I am so very much in love with this fabric! (Lana Grossa/Filatura di Crosa Solo and Da Capo in randomly striped garter stitch, toute simple.)

Inspiration: Naive Knitting Blog

Some amazing work and good writing, would that please you? if so, then click quickly and go to Naive Knitting Blog!

I am currently working on a Top Secret project for the fourth round of "Nordic Secret Friend". I have received package number three, it came from Denmark with two big skeins of variegated blue wool from Zitron. Lovely! I haven't yet written a thank you to the sender, I will do that tonight. If you read this before then: Takk! The top secret project is lovely so far, after two very false starts.

Tightly knit prose

This seems to be the year of books for all the cool knitbloggers. Not including me, to my great relief.
Mason-Dixon Knitting will probably be the nicest read, but can they design things? I have no idea.
Wendy is another of my almost daily stops, and her book is also on its merry way.
Yarnharlot's book is already out, and refreshinly enough, it seems to be stories, not patterns.
As I noted the other day, Teva Durham is also on the way to a shelf near you. Or at least her patterns.

iHanna! Ohoy!

iHanna, whose lovely blog I read almost daily (you know, she has pictures and stuff...) has a problem with her short-rows, and she asked her Swedish readers to decipher the pattern. I have a solution, but my comments to her site seem to disappear into thin air. Since I know that she reads this blog sometimes, I post a link to some hints here, maybe she will find them. or maybe you find thwm useful?

All you ever wanted to know about short-row shaping, from Knitty.com.

Schulana Bando

I found Schulana Bando in my cheap yarn store today. A ladder ribbon, 44% merino, 43%acrylic and 13% nylon. Knits up on needles size 20 mm, 6 stitches per 10 cm. I can't decide if I should go (run!) back and pick it up. The ribbon is w-i-d-e; 3/4", which is about 1.8 cm. As far as I could see, Monopol carries only white Bando, with thin black lines/seams.

I don't need this, that's for sure, but would it be fun? What would you do with something like that?
Something like this?

Summer knits

Yesterday I received my first issue of Interweave knits. I had been waiting for the spring issue since February, som it was a surprise to see the summer issue - to be released in the shops 26/4! The editors have gone crazy with shrugs/boleros/cropped cardigans, and so far I am not tempted by that style At All. (I would say that one third of the patterns are that kind of garments!) There are a few other things, some nice gift items and a few sweaters, but not enough to form a wishlist in my head. Given all the praise IK seems to get in various knitblogs, I was disapointed. Maybe it will grow on me, maybe I will fall head over heels in some kind of bolero frenzy. Right now, I have my doubts.

There was, however, a profile on Teva Durham, and I learnt that she is about to publish a book. That is something I could buy as pure inspiration. I like her attitude and the lack of syrup in her projects.

do the things

Someone pointed to an excellent post by the writer (Amber?) behind Not so swift: do the things Knit against the machin: The knitalong (April 4, 2005, I couldn't find any permalinks)

counterrevolutionary would be, then, blogs full of original items made to showcase the endowments of their makers and their makers alone (or the endowments of the makers' carefully chosen select clientele.) that would be something to see, wouldn't it? something a little more than looking at the progress of whatever cloned cardigan is being created by the twenty other knitalongers with which the soldier of the revolution allies herself (or himself). to be "fair", i have to guess that the reason these knitalongs are happening is because so many people want to knit this same item, and believe it will be complimentary to them when worn. to be fair, i will suggest that it is so. and to be totally unfair, i will say that i suspect that it is not. why then does all this petri-dish knitting produce a bunch of knitted items that, if they had voices, would all talk like meg ryan? sometimes, when i see a list of knitalongers and their little report cards of progress on their identical thingies, i get a mental picture of twenty women in big cardboard meg ryan masks.

There is a limit to how much you can quote from another blogger without plagiarizing, so I will not copy the knit-along suggestion given in ths post. Go and see for yourselves.

(In her post of 10 April, the writer replies to reader comments on this topic, including a reply to a Swede using the word parallellstickning. MY word, remember....)

Inspiration: Blissen

A week ago, I hit the ceiling in my server, and for some days I haven't been able to update Life de Luxe or Life de Luxe knitting. This situation has now been rectified - for a while - and updates can continue as usual.

blissen = quality handmade handpicked goods

Blissen is a website I found some months ago, I don't remember how. I like these little crafty sites, you get tons of inspiration from them. In an ideal world, I would support these craftsters by buying their stuff, but with shipping costs over ten dollars, small cheap things get pretty expensive.

A few favourite things from Blissen:
The Soft rock pin set
The 72 collection
The 54-week datebook
The Laura necklace

April already

Back from two weeks of Easter celebrations in the high north. I knitted half a sweater for my son (in the blue Phildar Peluche) before I realised that no seven-year-old - and especially not my skinny offspring - has a chest of 100+ centimeters. Rip, rip. I cast on again and finished the body and half a sleave before boredom hit me like a hammer. In fact, I detest knitting with yarn without elasticity, it hurts my wrists. I ended my holidaytrip with a crash (full speed into a stone wall, how silly is that?) and hurt my wrist even more, so the teddybear sweater is put on hold for a few days. The photo shows Peluche version 2, half-way through.

I started on a garter stitch scarf while watching a new Beck movie last night, using the Schulana Punta Cana. The pattern is simple but nice:

rows 1 to 10: knit
row 11: kn, *yarn over, kn* repeat *-*
row 12: knit the knit stitches, drop the yarn overs.

Repeat rows 1-12 until patience and/or yarn runs out.

Add fringes if your patience runs out before the yarn does. I haven't come that far yet.

My mother in law's best friend gave me a pair of wrist warmers as a belated birthday present, and I like them a lot. She sells hers for 250 SEK, but at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm I saw similar for 600 SEK. I suppose they were of museum quality...

I need to come up with some nice ideas for the kit I received in the first round of the secret nordic friend swap. Talking of Nordic friends, I have sent an Easter-themed package No 2 to my secret friend, who just happened to be Marianne L (the one who sent me my second package!) Coincidence?

Thanks for the proposals for the Ricordo mohair. I loved Jörel's suggestion for a crocheted mammut. I can't promise that I will make one, but she wins the prize. The purple Ricordo was sold out when I checked before Easter, so I need to come up with something else.