Here, finally, are some pictures of the shawls I mentioned in an earlier post:

Yarn: New Zealand Lammeuld by Filcolana 600mt/100gr
Needles: 3.75 mm
To like or not: this is actually quite a nice yarn - when it comes in whole skeins rather than bits and pieces - and I enjoy knitting with it. The intended recipient of the brown shawl didn’t want it.

Yarn: Retro by Gepard Garn (discontinued), merino,150mt/50gr
Needles: 4.50
To like or not: yarn was wonderfully smooth, soft and squishy. Nice drape.

I am in the process of reknittting some of my earlier designs - I think I knit the first of these in 2003.

Yarn: Shetlandsuld by BC Garn, 450/100gr
Needles: 4.00
Blocked Size: appr. 214 cm across the top, 100 cm down the middle
To like or not: yarn is sold unwashed, but softens up beautifully when washed.

The prototype for this was knit in 2002 in the same yarn, but in another colour. That shawl was a gift to Erna, the woman behind kunststrik.dk. Erna died in 2004.

Yarn: New Zealand Crossbred Wool 12/2, 600mt/100gr
Needles: 3.50 mm
To like or not: if you like it, you can find the pattern here

And to end the parade, another Anglaise. I wanted to see how it looked in a less floaty yarn than the Kid Seta. This one will be moving in with my mother.

Yarn: Loðband Einband by Ístex, 225mt/50gr
Needles: 4.00 mm
To like or not: like the Shetlandsuld this yarn is sold unwashed. While it softens somewhat with washing, I suspect many people will still find it scratchy. I like it a lot though, and will be looking for more next time I’m in DK. The pattern for Anglaise will up on Yarn Over by the end of the week.

Click on the images for more pictures.

Tags: Anglaise, Annelise, Anni, Erna, Marie, shawl

As usual I’m still knitting away on shawls. In December I finished Marie, the first of 2 shawls knitted with the yarn my mother sent me. As I never heard back from Filcolana about the grey yarn I decided to go ahead and knit a smallish shawl that would use skein 1 and maybe a couple of the small balls from skein 2. But breakage was not the only problem with that yarn. It turned out that even though they were supposed to be from the same dye lot, they were in fact a bit different. This was not obvious in the skeins/balls but once knitted up it was noticeable. I guess I should’ve smelled a rat when I saw that the printing style for the colour/dye lot was different on the 2 bands, but I didn’t, and as I was using a short circular needle, everything was scrunched up and I didn’t realise the problem until I was about a third of the way through the sideways border. As to what came out of my mouth when I did, I’ll leave it to your imagination. So, I ripped back what I had knitted with skein 2 and pondered my options for a while. Decided to rip back a bit further to a logical place in the pattern and start the 2nd skein from there, but it still didn’t look right. Fortunately I had a little bit of the same kind of yarn in a lighter grey left over from the Inger shawl, so I ended up using that at the bottom of the main body. It distracts the eye from the fact that the grey in the body and the border is not the same. A picture would be a really good way to illustrate my point, but unfortunately my camera has decided it is in need of a new power port. Since that would cost MYR 746 (we paid a little more than MYR 800 for the camera just 2 years ago) I’m without camera until our budget allows for a new one. Anyway, a second Marie from the brown yarn was completed without any further incidents, and I’m currently knitting on Annelise in Retro, a sport weight merino wool by Gepard Garn (discontnued). It’s wonderfully soft, but quite splitty. My mother asked me to knit these shawls for 2 women who were our neighbours when I was growing up, so once I’m done with the Annelise I’ll ship them off to DK and get started on the Refined Aran for my sister. Maybe. I kinda feel like a bit of thread lace. But I also thought I’d try and write up the pattern for the Anglaise shawl to give away for free.

Tags: Anglaise, Annelise, Marie, shawl, yarn trouble

I finished this a while ago, but haven’t posted about it because I wanted the recipient to be the first one to see it.

Click on the image for more pictures.

Design: my own
Yarn: New Zealand Crossbred Wool 12/2, 600mt/100gr
Needles: 3.75 mm bamboo circular
To like or not: Not only did the recipient like it, she loved it! I’m honoured - and the butterflies are gone!
Addendum: I like simplicity and my shawls don’t tell stories. The stitch patterns are just that, stitches arranged in patterns that are pleasing to my eyes.
This shawl was different. A mother lost her son, and though I know her only from her blog I had to do something more than just offer my condolences. This shawl had to say something. Something about leaves on the tree of life, and how some of them fall off much to soon, but live on as beautiful flowers in the hearts of other people. It means a lot to me that she liked it.

Tags: FO, hjerteblad, shawl, sjal

I only knit for people I am confident will want my knitting. It’s a rule. But I broke it. And now my stomach is full of butterflies.

Jeg har en regel om at kun strikke til mennesker jeg er meget sikker på gerne vil have det jeg strikker. Jeg har brudt min egen regel, og nu er maven fyldt med sommerfugle.

Tags: øjeblikke, hjerteblad, moments, shawl, sjal

The anglaise shawl is finally done; it took longer than expected because my wrists are still acting up, but better safe than sorry as the saying goes.
This was another simple knit. Because the intended recipient is tall and large I wanted to get as much shawl as posssible out of the 4 skeins my mother bought. And because my mother is particularly fond of sideways knitted borders, that was a must too. The most difficult thing about this shawl was deciding when to stop working the body and start the border, as I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible. In the end my guesstimates worked out very well as I only have 2 gr yarn left.

Anglaise sjalet er færdigt. Det tog lidt længere end først beregnet, da jeg stadig har vrøvl med mine håndled.
Mit udgangspunkt til dette projekt var få så meget sjal som muligt ud af de 4 nøgler garn min mor havde givet mig at arbejde med. Den dame der skal have sjalet er nemlig stor, og jeg ville heller ikke kunnet have bruge en rest til noget. Min mor kan rigtigt godt lide kanter der er strikket sidevejs til, så det skulle der også være. Det sværeste var at beregne hvornår det var tid at begynde at strikke kanten, men da jeg kun har ca 2 gr garn igen, gik det egentlig helt godt med det.

Click on the image for more pictures.

Design: my own
Yarn: 98 gr Kid Seta by Madil; 70% super kid mohair, 30% silk; 210 mt/25 gr
Needles: 4.5 mm bamboo circular
Blocked Size: appr. 210 cm across the top, 105 cm down the middle
To like or not: scrumptious yarn that I didn’t pay for, and an end result which is pretty much what I was aiming for, so this one’s to like.

Tags: Anglaise, FO, kid seta, shawl, sjal

Last time my mother was here she commissioned 2 shawls: the one in the Ombelle yarn for herself, and another one in Kid Seta for a friend of hers. Once again I’ve decided to go with a simple all-over lace pattern as I feel this suits the yarn better. I’ve never knit with Kid Seta before , but it’s lovely stuff if you like laceweight mohair - very light and airy. I’m calling this shawl Anglaise as the eyelet flowers remind me of Broderie Anglaise.

Udover Ombelle garnet til sit eget sjal, havde min mor noget Kid Seta med, som også skal være sjal. Jeg har aldrig strikket med det før, men hvis man kan lide tyndt mohair er det et lækkert garn, let og luftigt. Jeg holder mig stadig til et enkelt hulmønster - det passer bedst til mohair synes jeg.

And if you haven’t done so already, do go see Lacefreak’s spectacular Lyra.

Tags: Anglaise, kid seta, shawl, sjal

I managed to finish my mother’s shawl last night. I’m glad to have it done, and I’ll be going to the post office first thing tomorrow morning to send it on its way to Denmark.

Min mors sjal er færdigt, og er klar til blive afleveret på posthuset i morgen for at blive sendt til Danmark.

Click on the image for more pictures.

Design: my own
Yarn: 170 gr Ombelle by Laines Fonty; 70% mohair, 25% wool, 5% polyamid; 145 mt/50 gr
Needles: 5.5 mm bamboo circular
Blocked Size: 175 cm across the top, 90 cm down the middle
To like or not: I don’t like this yarn, but the shawl turned out kinda’ ok.

Tags: FO, ombelle, shawl, sjal

De Quervain’s Disease is the fancy way of saying tenosynovitis of the wrist, and it’s the reason I haven’t been knitting much the last couple of weeks. I only have mild symptoms, but previous experience has taught me that if I ignore them it will get much worse.
Anyway, here is my current project. My mother brought the yarn, Laine Fonty’s Ombelle, with her the last time she was here and asked me to make her a shawl. I don’t think this yarn is particularly well-suited for lace, but I know my mother wanted something with holes, so this is what I came up with. Hopefully she’ll like it.

De Quervains Syndrom er seneskedehindebetændelse i håndleddet, i mit tilfælde begge håndled, og da jeg har kunnet mærke at det rører på sig igen har jeg holdt igen med strikningen de sidste par uger, selvom jeg faktisk har haft god tid til at strikke. Jeg ved nemlig af erfaring hvor slemt det kan blive hvis jeg ikke passer på, og den fejl gør jeg kun een gang.
I øjeblikket strikker jeg sjal til min mor af noget garn, Ombelle fra Laines Fonty, hun havde med sidst hun var hernede. Jeg synes ikke det er specielt velegnet til hulmønstre, men jeg ved at min mor gerne ville have noget med huller, så jeg har valgt at strikke et ganske enkelt hulmønster. Så må jeg så se om det kan bruges.

Tags: ombelle, quervain, shawl, sjal