Swedish Knitblogger who loves spinning, knitting, dyeing and yarn. I will do some other roundabouts about life too.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Yet another Latvian mitten from Kurzeme and..

I got it bad for these mittens. It seems to be a mitten COM I am doing. This one the colours is inspired by the blanket behind. Yarn again Visjö from Östergötlands Ullspinnery. Love again.... I put the needle on the bottom since it curls, but this is actually the edge where you fold it and sew so you get a nice lace edge. The fun thing with these mittens is - this is still the cuff. The cuff patterns have NOTHING to do with the rest of the mitten - which at least saves some surprise moment for the final show. Getting a sneak peak of a knitting, is like the spoiler - for instance every time they announce the actual content of TV-show "The Big Bang Theory", the seconds before it comes on. I hate that. I want the surprise! Like the Faroese shawl in dark brown could definitely be called a "string". The pattern is Jóhanna. And it will really take some time. Once you finished the shawl, you have to knit it again - the white lining A faroese yarn needs faroese yarn - Snaeldan. The interesting part with this yarn is that it is a mix with Falkland wool. Interesting "Island" exchange. You see what I mean? A dark-brown "blob". To make my point - when writing this I just started on todays Cast on Mania, a mitten inspired by the Inspira "almost" corrugated rib. We will see where it goes. Again the Östergötland Ullspinnery yarn "Mörk Karamell" together with some Visjö. If it fits husband - it is his. Keep knitting!

PS! It is not very difficult to knit with two colours or fair-isle. It is the same as any two colours - you only need to follow the pattern . It is an adventure! And very much rewarding!

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Latvian mitten with some Swedish influences...

I find it inspiring to knit interesting pattern. This mitten is from a book on Latvian Mittens (by Uptis), and the pattern 117 is from Kurzeme, Barta. But - not shown yet is the main pattern for this mitten, that is also found on very ancient Swedish patterns, the clover and I guess it is hard to claim it being from one region or the other - when patterns travelled in the old days - and the origins are forgotten. Who was first is an enigma. Anyhow - making the Swedish influence more present - I choose Swedens maybe best woolspinnery (Östergötlands Ullspinnery) (ok - it is side by side with Wåhlstedts, Mojärv and...) with the yarn "Visjö", which has a softness to it. I also choose rather Swedish colours, blue and yellow - but I think the main mitten pattern will be done in the purple background and light blue - to match the hat - that is based on the swedish version. It is rather intriguing to think that this is still only knitting tve cuff of the mitten. I am so glad that the Latvians kept their rich tradition alive, and we can see wonderful patterns like this. So I do a "third" a mitten in one weekend-day - that gives me definitely some calculations on how much work it is to do the mitten. At least the sun was out and shining!... So, I have not yet done more than cast on for the sunday. So decided to do one pattern - I swapped in the last minute. Then casting on for "in the round" sweater - and at the last minute changing my mind to make a cardi. I do use cardi's Anyhow - I cannot decide what I want. But I realized I already have bought great buttons to this cardi - I feel I must. Now - with a brioche (Patent) pattern - will the yarn be enough is the big question. But, I do as I always do. Knit on and hope for the best! It usually works.