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.)
- Henry VIII is colourwise the one! Will probably fit me too.
- Anne Boleyn Is great - but will not fit. so, there is a problem..
- Mary Tudor is also ok in colour, but I would alter it slightly, the problem here is, too small
- Kataherin of Aragon (great name ;-) is also a good fairisle,but but again, sould alter the colours somewhat.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.





















The problem is, I have not found this colour (the backdrop blue) yet. It is Östergötlands Ullspinneri. So on the right is my Easter sweater. Great It is in Italian yarn Lana Grossa, Pep Print. Started last easter. And has been an ufo until now.












Happily I discovered scissors. So my plan is that this will be the front of a great patterned sweater (or back?). You can also see the Norweigan Alfa 100% wool from Sandnes. It is all shades of grey from black to light grey. And to make some spiff I bought 4 turqoise balls from
Found this Colinette handcoloured yarn- totally frogged sweater. Thinking of domino-squares (since the pieces are short!) Typical "sail-boat" project. Takes forever, (just to sort the yarn) summer-sweater. Enough of dark pictures: The rest which in short was: Twinny yarn (black, grey lime and some other for a newspaper sweater),and a big bag of collected chenille yarn bought on sale) and finally the 70 handspun angora in bad colours from Hemslöjden in Uppsala. I ignored the eyelash yarn from germany (fox something) and found a bag of mixed samples.. Later friend later...More to come!







