Mmm...Valencia - Spain Knitting? Help?

ok, the full length handspun. Some neckline can be spotted... You get the idea. Wow, I noticed how many spellingmistakes I did yesterday. That is me being tired, no glasses on, and rushing.So, I'm off to Valencia. Many years since I was there last, remember that I chased ceramics then. They have a great museum. Now it will be different. Dear hubby will tag along. And Spain is our honeymoon (week) place.So it just gets that romantic feel.
So, hmmm mmm hmm.. Say no more... it is actually WORK . So.. I probably be rather stressed. Hopefully some hours to knit.

So, looking through Tudor Roses again...

The first day of sunshine in spring. It is wonderful, and my heart sings. I left my cotton summer knit (picture) in the sailboat (yes, now the mast is on, and the sails!) and I'm just thinking about what in the Roses knitalong I should knit. Is that not just the best thing? Planning for a knit.
So, I decided that I would go for a good Finish 2-stranded wool yarn (Piirtin Villalanka) with some tweed- feel - in brown. (Hello finish people, give me the full story about this yarn!) So, the big discussion is, what is the contrast colour? One good thing is that it has a large size (which of course is not true of the ones I really would love to do). But hey, I can change a pattern...Secondly, If it is a knitalong, I should at least go for more than one (that is how I usually cheat myself into doing one. I would really love to do one of the fairisle patterns but in shetland yarn. I do not have shetland yarn. So Catherine Parr? Good start. So I have choosen brown (Syksy = Autumn = that is when it is going to be ready ;-) (not like the original). Need a second colour ..."gold" so what colour is really "gold"? bronze? I have yellow, and 4 shades of orange, but no bronze...So,I'm really looking through my stash, and of course I have GOLD - I mean REAL GOLD coloured yarn. Its from Jaeger. and it is so fabulus and soft, cashmina or something. Hmm.. Or should I really chase another wool yarn? Those hunts are the best. To get the colours "just right". I think the gold will be a bit bleak to the brown, so maybe lighter, like beige? or should I be bold and do RED? or does brown and turquoise work? Hmm. The last one sounds interesting. Secondly, these are knitted back and forth? I really like changing the pattern to the circular, so, I have to check if it fits. (some patterns actually is better back and forth).. So. Wish me luck! Anyway! Tudor friends, here is my wishlist and rating of the patterns in the book. (where I alread have decided for Catherine Parr! -Sweater with both a two-colour pattern,and an Aran part.)

1. Henry VIII is colourwise the one! Will probably fit me too.
2. Anne Boleyn Is great - but will not fit. so, there is a problem..
3. Mary Tudor is also ok in colour, but I would alter it slightly, the problem here is, too small
4. Kataherin of Aragon (great name ;-) is also a good fairisle,but but again, sould alter the colours somewhat.
5. Then the Katherine Howard Jacket/Cardigan is just fantastic. Wrong size of course, and wrong colours, I would do bule with lime and light blue braids.
6. Anne of Cleves fits, But color..Hmm. A great Aran! Seems like a lot of yarn! but here Size is great. This one is very useful!
7. Elisabeth I is a great summersweater in white, beautiful, and probably a fast knit, but, Again too small, and then is narrow waiste does not work for me. So, this is something to ponder about.
8. Jane Seamour is nice, but I would really like to understand what original yarn that is. It just looks like two different qualities. and the colours should be more constrast.
9. Margret Tudor has buttons that just look odd, but the Aran is probably ok, as well as the henry VII and the Elizabeth of York. But, they are not to very high up.

Conclusion, the 1-8 is knittable, and all but nuber 1 and 6 needs pattern altering. All fair-ilse should have specially bought yarn. So, they will not get knit until I can visit the Shetland Island on my own. (Probably very many years in the future!) Sigh... But Catherine Parr, I hope you are interesting.

Need of a knitalong ;-) Tudor Roses!

Im a looser in the Latvian mitten knitalong. But hey, it was fun, and I'm struggling with the next mitten. Anyhow, I was bored (it actually was fast doing my taxes), and I feel like a knitalong - so i joined this one what a great idea. I will thought that I should get into the stash and find some yarn, maybe also join the STASHsaving knitalong...called stashalong ;-) well. Also thought about the Tubey.. but I guess I will go for a project that will keep me busy in the summer. If you find a UFO/WIP-along for me, comment here.Too busy to start and one myself. If you have any yarnshopping hints for VALENCIA in SPAIN please tell me, what is yarn in spanish? I will go there for a few days.

Mayday May day!

I have had this hanks for years. They were my first spun yarn, that I did. So, it is fat and uneven. Of course I just had to play with the colours. But, now I got an idea. Make all the homespun into one cardigan. Buttoned. The greenish bottom, with some purple in the top, is the right front. And the blueish grey is the left front part. Just pick up and assemble. I like this yarn. Thíck uneven and so fat. I will also have to add the sides, sleeves, and a back, and of course button brim. More spinning. Blogger is slow today, which means you will have more pictures during the week. But, the one part starting with blue is already upto the back neck. So, now, I need to spin more thick yarn. I remember I was told, once you have learned how to spin thin, it is hard to spin thick again, and I have done superthin in my brown shetland fleece. Mayday, May day is that I need more grey (light and dark) but mostly it refer to catastrophic fantasies, we were about to sail allday, bu - we did not sail our boat into summer harbour - too windy , almost storm (kuling!).Also mayday is really about TAXES: last nite now. Still have not started. Panic is creeping up. But the garden got a few hours before collapsing (to much hard work this 3day weekend). An office rat like me is not use to fresh air. I think when you dread doing something,I do something else. Like gardening or knitting. At least I'm excellent in finding good excuses. Are you?

Patterns and colour, homspun knitting

My favourite colours changes during life. When I was small I was blue, but I loved small flowers patterns. Liberty if you know. Then, I was in love with red. Dark blood red. The reason was, my little welsh mountain pony was black, so red was great. Then, I moved to yellow and brown in the beginning of the seventies. My room had a seagrass brown wallpaper, and all my lamps and my favourite chair was dark yellow, tiger yellow.
My second pony was a fux, so his light brown was great to yellow. Then, growing out of my english winner pony, my next size pony was welsh arab, a schimmel (grey?), and by then I reused my yellow. Now favourite colour was blue. So, my teenage years was blue blue blue. I learned about Klein blue, and dove blue, and sea blue. Then I was blurring around in different colours, fashion victim.
Settled down for Lime about 10 years ago. Any green, but best was the first spring green. Wow, how that (lime) sneaked into fashion. Just when I was giving up, it was everywhere. I have more yarn in lime than any other color. Then, I allowed my self to become purple, lilac, like the settling sun on dark coulds. Not to much red in the blue. Blueish purple.
So, that was a long comment on accent.Now I'm into turquoise. Trying to not fall too hard. So, I have no black yarn. (You know that most black yarn is overcoloured for a colouring gone bad), You can feel that in the quality of black yarn. So I have white (great to dye yourself!), and lime, and purple. And (behold a range of orange - fall is beautiful!)... Anyway, the mast is on the boat. and, polyester sounds good. I took the picture Wanja's designed sweater at Grebbestad, Knitting symposium. So, I knitted up my first homespun. Its so fat, it was like knitting gue (sv. klet!) But, confirming: Grey and white, with some purple blue and green tints. Haha! Already a favourite! Need to find more yarn to spin with in grey. And quick. Time for visiting Gudruns Ullbod again! PS! All naturals are always great. Btw. Purple sweater is not mine. It is Anne-Maj Lings Two-endedfab fabfabsweater.