new year, new blog

i have decided to move! not physically, i did that last year, but to move my blogging. i really like wordpress, so i’m not moving far away, but in the future, you’ll find me here:

www.bleakmidwinter.wordpress.com

i would be so happy if you’ll come with me!

midwinter, christmas, and a new year

we’ve passed the solstice and the nights are getting shorter. vacation started at midwinter for me and we’ve spent the christmas out of town. the serious lack of snow in stockholm was depressing, but unfortunately the weather was mild in tällberg also. there was still some snow when we arrived though.

snow

and yarn!

wool from ullcentrum

these will turn into a pair of socks for me eventually. purchased at ängsdesign.

i received many lovely christmas presents, for instance a knitting book on sock knitting. the one with fair isle patterns was a pre-christmas present! both from stefan, of course.

new knitting books

we found a lovely shop and café called tällbergs leva & bobutik.

they served home made cakes

after a relaxing vacation with a lot of reading and knitting, we were supposed to take the train home, but the recent storm, dagmar, put a stop to that. we managed to get bus tickets instead. we had some spare time before departure from rättvik. naturally, i found a yarn shop!

garncentrum in rättvik

i bought some more yarn from ullcentrum…

lace weight in black, gray and white

it’s new year’s eve tomorrow, i hope you all will have a lovely night and make sure that you do drink too much champagne – that’s what the new year celebration is all about isn’t it? i won’t though, champagne always make me really, really sick. just a glass or two will do. or perhaps three.

Happy New Year and Happy Knitting in 2012!

Train knitting

We’re spending the yule tide away from home this year. I’m looking forward to good food, reading and… knitting, of course!

I couldn’t wait until we’ve arrived, and brought out my knitting on the train.



bulky wristwarmers

i decided to knit one christmas gift this year. it was a quick and easy knit. quite satisfying!

wristwarmers and vincent

pattern: my own
design: me!
yarn: 100 % wool, nanok from love garn
yarn source: gift from dear friend catrin
needles: 8 mm dpns
started: december 9 2011
finished: december 11 2011

beautiful colours

vincent is not exactly helpful when it comes to knitting

wooly warmers

happy knitting!

we have a wooly winter ahead

we’re still waiting for snow and the temperature is annoyingly high, but december is just around the corner and it really is time to wear those woolies now. i’ve been knitting quite a lot, but i haven’t finished anything since my last pair of mittens. stefan is in desperate need for a new pair of mittens too, since the fair isle gloves i knitted for him five years ago (was it really five years ago? that’s crazy!) are very worn. not beyond repair, but i’ve mended them so many times by now i’m actually rather sick of them. more fun to knit a new pair. the sauage mittens are for him. he loves sausages, so i find these very suitable! the pattern is by spillyjane (ravelry link) and i bought it at her ravelry store. i’m using a lovely, tweedy yarn called shetland 4-ply from a company called harris tweed textiles, but it’s made by carloway mills on the isle of lewis. a bit confusing but it’s still a very nice yarn. i bought many years ago from my friend tove, who in turn had bought it online, i don’t know from where.

i’m making some modifications, adding thumb gusset, making them fingerless gloves with a top flap. for easy access to the display on stefans iphone, of course.

mittens with thumb gusset and the beginning of fingers

i’ve also begun a new hart for myself. this project was initiated at my class at hv-skolan where we last time explored the knitting traditions from halland. the colours are very intense and i would never wear any of them seperately in any garment, but combining them like this i rather like it.

traditional pattern from halland

the yarn is huldra, from hifa, a yarn from norway. it’s incredibly soft and nice to work with. but not soft in a “bad” way, not like merino, it still feels very wooly. just not as scratchy as the yarns i tend to use normally. i know i’ll use this yarn for many other projects. socks, perhaps? if one reinforces the heels and toes, it might work just fine. it certainly is fine enough.

i’ve also made some progress on my manu cardigan, i actually enjoy plain stocking stitch a lot. especially when working on other patterned projects at the same time, it’s good to have different things to alternate between. i can knit on my cardigan on the bus without having to check the pattern.

manu cardigan

instead if the provisional cast on, i made a crocheted cast on. the garter stitch egde is very floppy and loose, and i wonder if i should have used a smaller size needle. i love the yarn, this was also bought from a friend, karin, who had purchased it from a yarn shop in stockholm which is now closed, gunga din. it’s a rather scratchy, plied wool yarn in a colour that is almost impossible to catch on camera. it looks different all the time, mainly depending on the light. it’s actually a warm heathery purple-pink, but it mostly looks like ground meat when photographed. or a much deeper and colder purple as in the photo above. anyway, i’ve heard that the yarn sold at gunga din was in fact from morjärv woolen mill (sadly closed now) but that the shop proprietor changed the labels on the yarn she sold… i don’t know if it’s true, but i’ve compared it with other morjäv yarns and similarity is striking.

i’m at home today, not because i’m ill or anything, but because i have a two-day vacation! what’s the occasion? we have a new family member! meet vincent!

vincent, our new family member

this wonderful little kitten moved in with us two days ago, and now i’m staying at home for two days (stefan will be at home the rest of the week) to make sure that he gets on alright and espacially to see how he and laban are getting on. there was some tension and hissing at first, but now they’re mostly curious. they haven’t played together yet, but i think they’re getting there.

he is of course named after tim burton’s stop motion animated character, vincent, who wants to be like vincent price.

tim burton’s vincent (1982)

by the way, if any of you haven’t noticed that november is wovember, i suggest you get informed right now! more about it here.

happy knitting!

sausages

another pair of mittens are in progress! these are not traditional at all, spillyjane has designed loads of quirky knits, and i particularily fell for her sausage mittens wurst.

i’ve made a different cuff and added a thumb wedge.

the yarn is of a tweedy type spun on the isle of lewis.

gotland

the island of gotland, in the middle of the baltic sea, has a rich heritage of knitting patterns and traditions. it’s also an island that has special meaning to me having spent many summers there. my great grandfather came from gotland i still have distant relatives there. the island’s main town and municipal seat, visby, is often referred to as the city of roses and if you visit her in late spring and early summer you will understand why.

roses red

pattern: gotland from 100 landskapsvantar
design: birgit lindholm (the pattern, however, is very similar to a collected pattern from the rone parish on gotland)
yarn: wool, yarn and pattern was purchased as a kit
yarn source: ringmurens hemslöjd, visby, gotland (called gotlandsros in their web shop)
needles:
modifications: the cuffs are different from the original pattern
started: september 2011
finished: october 2011

red for roses, gren for ivy and grey for stone

wool on wool

grey on grey

happy knitting!

ravelry friends and shetland wool

you know that lovely hat by kate davies i mentioned a few weeks ago? well, i bought the pattern at once, but didn’t get around to buying the yarn. emmy, a blog and ravelry friend had also fallen for the pattern and had ordered the yarn almost immediately from jamieson & smith. she had a brilliant idea – since the pattern require all nine natural shades of shetland wool, and only very little of each, we could share the yarn! hooray for wonderful ravelry friends!

jamieson & smith delivered very quickly, and emmy wound off half of each ball and sent it to me – oh joy!

a parcel of goodies

lovely, lovely natural wooly shades

happy knitting!

placed cable aran

this jumper is not only a jumper. it’s the essence of what i consider a cosy, warm and soft autumn jumper to be.

autumn colours

pattern: placed cable aran from interweave knits, fall 2007
design: cathy payson
yarn: rittenhouse from manos del uruguay
yarn source: purl, new york
needles: i’ve forgotten to write it down, but i think i used 5,5 mm and 6 mm
modifications: lots! details below
started: september 2010
finished: march 2011

this was supposed to be my autumn 2010 jumper, but finished it this spring. didn’t feel right to blog it until now.

cabled sleeves

about the mods: i knitted it in the round up to the sleeve openings, then back and forth, but using a smaller sized needle on wrong side rows to avoid a change in tension. then i picked up stitches aroung the sleeve openings and knit the sleeves top down. i didn’t like the sleeve ribbings, and added the same cables onto the sleeves as well. this wasn’t my idea originally, i’d seen someone doing it on ravelry (sorry, can’t rememeber who now – if it’s you, let me know!) and really liked the idea. i didn’t like the rolled edge at the bottom and made a folded edge instead. added the same edge to the sleeves.

i need to cut my fringe

the yarn is very soft, but only a little wear creates a lot of little bobbles. it really is a house jumper, so it’s ok, but i normally don’t like yarn that behaves like this. i’m absolutely smitten with the colour, though! very autumnal. and we all know what i think about that, right?

cables are the same on the back

despite the yarn bobbles, i’m very happy with this jumper and i wear it a lot. i should have made the top part of the sleeves slightly narrower, but other than that, it’s great!

happy knitting!

i caved

i’m also making little chirping bird noises now. here.