Yarn, Yarn, yarn and more vacation

Here is almost all yarn from the trip (the white is not present!)
On the left (green and marron, black is the Wåhlstedts, as well as the tied bag of rovings on the lower end. The to opened plastic bags are mohair. In the middle is the Norsk Kunstvevyarn (close up below). Im moving into the blue turqoise green, with some purple, lime green. You need a close up? Ok. Favourite is this mohair. Just have a look!
This is the great mohair. Just soft and wonderful. Ahh. Älands mohair was the name, a part of Nordmohair.
I love the Swedish summer. Im actually busy like nothing else, but it is vacation - and having quality time with the loved one is so valuable. No, no sailing - to be honest, none of us like to sail in "kuling" (stormwinds) and thunder. We are very safe sail beginners.
So instead. It is a new tour planned. Tivoli in Copenhagen (and yarnshops ;) and Lousianna, some west coast.. and Ahh. Wonderful Sweden. So you will have a very quiet blog here for (A WHOLE WEEK) or maybe week-and a half.But as always. Plans can change. Isn't the colour palett so summer. I especially think the older mohair is what I thought was mohair. But compare this left yarn with the yarn on the left a bit up. Really a difference. I stillfell in love with this, so it doesn't matter, but the kidmohair is definitely yummy. Ahh. It is so great that other yarnlovers understand the mania about this. My idea of paradise is really a room with all my yarn around! I'm living it. Knitting will be a great adventure. So, figuring out what I should do with this yarn will be a great "sketch and think"- exercise. Have a great summer. I'm thinking of my knitting friends all over the world. Isn't that just fantastic that our passion bring us together all around the world. I so much would like to meet you and knit toghether. See you!

Yarnvacation (familyvisit) part 4 of IV

Dear brother. He is an artist, and lives in Käckelbäcksmon, near Viksjö with textile artist Christina Oscarsson (showing her work at Kalmar Slott this summer, Shibori - Life fundamentals (DNA)). WOW. They just built a porch, and it was nice meeting them, Martin (my brothers son) mom's sweathard, and Nisse (the cat). I talked to Christina about my plans to go to Kallmyra mohair, somthing she could not understand when there is Älands Mohair much closer. In Älandsbro, just north of Härnösand. We went there. And met the wonderful Pip-Larsson.He is a South African mohair-male goat that only been bottle-fed, stayed in caranteen came a long way to Sweden, to get some fresh blood into the angora-mohair flock. Anyway, he was so small back then, when he met the flock, the all gathered around him, and he squeeked like a baby. For this he was named Pip-Larsson. So Pip, means "squeek" in Swedish. Larsson, is a great Swedish common name, like US have Smith and Jones. (well, I'm thinking of the western heros;-)Anyway, Pip-Larsson's proud owner, - and the owner of Älands
Mohair Eva, tells me that they are three mohair goat owners that has have a company together - one in Vika (Dalarna, near Falun) one in Kalmar (?) and her. And that one of the flock there was very much awaiting Pip-Larsson. So, just when she decided that her flock were not nice enough to him, he settelled in. So, they send him away and Eva said to that he was a very shy goat, so there was no worry. When she called back day after to ask how he settled in, she was told that they have not had a blunder - Pip-Larsson has been on everyone in the flock all night! So, this charming fellow is now back and separated... What a charming King! Anyway, the result is her beyond words wonderful combed mohair (that is spun in England (or was it Denmark?) and coloured (Färgkraft again!). Just fantastic colours. And the quality, Not carded but COMBED mohair. One, two, three threaded and bouclé (the latter from the older goats). Why are the shelfs empty? I have already digged in. Great price. 150 SEK /hg and definitely worth a visit. Wow, did I fell in love with this yarn. It is quality, so much that I just cannot wait to go at it. With all wonderful colours I just couldn't buy white (which is of course the new colour to buy ;-) Dying to dye (haha, thought of that a long time!) Well, the mohair shop are actually doing socks on machines
on machines from Italy and England. Great work. I also learned that the mohair is used in airplane seats since they are inflammable. Well, warm and durable, and surprisingly soft.
I remember the mohair from the late 80s this was not even close in softness and feel. This is so much more a soft very slightly fluffy, like a great merino, but no, it is mohair. Just fab yarn. Really fab yarn, really fab yarn. Ahh. Pictures on the way. But I got to keep the suspense on this blog.

Yarnvacation (or family visit) Part III (IV)

Vacation tale continued. This is Part three of four! OK, I get the itch after sitting still. So, we packed mom, flowers, yarn, sheet, and hubby and left the beautiful mom recidence in Rälta. To go visit my brother. But, on the way we stopped at a place, where I earlier hoped I could meet my dear friend Anne-Maj (NOT in the picture), one of the virtuoses of Twined or Two-end knitting. She what showing her collection (!) of sweaters, skirts etc.(see Purple sweater!) . Unfortunately it worked out so I just missed her by a day. Ohh, I have tried to knit a two-end knitted sweater. it is VERY time consuming. Really for addicts (like me, I have not given up!). And the result is just amazing "Flip" channel, back to our "pit-stop": I had a hard time in the travel and heat, to convice my mom and hubby, that Näset was really just "a bit" outside our route (they caved in!). At Nästets bystuga, a wonderful group of knitters were learning this advanced craft at a surprising cheap cost (Strongly recommeded!). That is a course in my taste. Since two-end knittingis not ordinary knitting, and has a lot of tricks with it. So in the picture is the fantastic teacher, Beibritt Risberg. She has, with her brother, been knitting twined all her life. There was a picture at Näset of her parents doing the same. That is tradition! Wow. Below is the
two cours participants. Very focused indeed. Since if you are a great knitter, this is definitely a challenge. Maybe not for yarn"throwers", that already know how to knit by throwing the yarn. But for the rest of us that has learned the continental knitting. The trick is not only in the technique, but for two-end knitting, you do vice versa for ordinary yarn, spin the thread in a S-twist, and the twine the two threads into a Z-spun yarn. You also use two yarns, and throw them alternate, which (if there are two colours, can create great colours). Also there are special stiches unique for two-end knitting
All about it can be read in Anne-Maj Lings fantastic book. Buy it. It is a treasure. Below is Beibritt's mitten. If you click on it (all pictures are possible to enlarge) you see how cheap she sells them. It is about half price than anyone else. I think two-end knitted mittens are really stong (durable) and also, takes a week to make. So it is CHEAP.
Finally, there was a picture that caught my eye. A sheep with different fleeces. They are owned by Kerstin, who turned out to live in the Stockholm area like me. And these are her sheep grazing in Hallunda gård (I think, Nacka?) All of the sheep has of course names. Absolutely great in my opinion. I really sneaked in on her "fleece list", hoping to get some rovings to spin when she sheers this fall (autumn). That was a pleasent meet too. I sure hope I get some of the lighter, since I like to colour.. But great. Just great stop on a long and winding road from Dalarna to Västernorrland. The Fika-stop in Furudal was no disappointment either. Caffe Latte culture has finally reach the country-side of Sweden. Of course Starbucks is still not here, but there is a difficulty to get a good "latte" outside the cities. Homebaked does compensate.
I'm looking forward of the grand finale of this family visit (that sneakily enough from my behalf) ended up to a great yarn vacation. I think my husband is nice. Very nice. Please comment and drop by again. You should not miss the story about Pip-Larsson. The mohair-goat from South Africa.

Yarnvacation (or family visit) Part II (IV)

After wonderful Wåhlstedts, the most famous handicraft coursecenter, Sätergläntan, was our focus. They have a great handicraft shop, extremly priced, but nevertheless always a place to kill some hours and take a FIKA (coffebreak). But, the tunnbrödsklämma (thinbread wrapper)-sandwish were so terrible meager, that I swear, I could have put two of them in one mounth at the same time - that is how small they were, and one for the price of 45 SEK (5 Euro). We decided not to ever take a fika again.
Rip off! On the other hand, I learned that Mia Olsson (a great textile artist) had a colour course that was cancelled, because of too few participants (no wonder, their price politics are ridiculus - you are "forced" to live at the place for - an overprice!) Otherwise I would have stayed at mum's and definitely go through 90% of their courses (to fill it up!). Enough bitching. Also, wonderful Britt-Marie Christoffersson had a course (Knitting - a handicraft to develop) and Karin Kahnlund were going to be there to have courses, in machine knitting. (She lives in Leksand with her shop "Uppstickaren") (sorry no blog there!) But, they were there next week. So, I did not have the fortune to rub with them. I bought some needles (1.25 mm and 1.5 mm) and 6 small Norsk Kunstvevyarn in a good colour palett (purple turqoiuse) 25 g for 26 SEK. (Needles costing 45 SEK each. And stared att he great Färgkraft colours (for sale) and yarn (for sale). But these pictures have a dark hue, like I guess I had being there. Not as fulfilling as the great Wåhlstedt visit. But a nice summer day. Then Next to Insjön is Claes Ohlsson, a post order retail (really men's favourites) but thank you, not my lovely husband, a true bookworm. We took a FIKA again (good one) at Leksands Bageri, listen to some folklore, and went back to the mom recidence for a lazy evening. So ok, I would say Leksand is ok place to visit for anyone.

Yarnvacation (or family visit) Part I (IV)

Weatherpredictions are seldom right in Sweden. We are sending a new satellite to improve it. So, instead of sailing, we decided to do the long visit up north in Sweden. Our first stop went to Dalarna, and Rälta, where I have my mom. And, that is really a center for a lot of things, of course one of Swedens more interesting spinneries (and a true origin of the keeping of Swedish fur sheep, which were about to go extinct) Wåhlstedts Ullspinneri. The spinnery and the wool are just fab, but somehow I feel that the colours are just not my tick. But, that has never stopped me. I bought yarn (think one-thread) with a Z-spun, and a more hard two-threaded Z-twined (s-spun), in green. But, instead I find this. And I do NOT complain about the variety of colours here. They have coloured (of course using Margrét Kållberg Färgkrafts colours, the fleece. So I grabbed a Kilo (350 SEK) not cheap, but it is a bit a work to do it. But ohh! what a feast for the eyes. Of course I grabbed the whole palett, no thought of making something. Well, I thought of finding some white yarn and make it spiffy, you know, this carding magic. Diluting those small handfulls you grab. Ahh, I wish it looked like this in my cellar.