Shetlandish Shawl

Designed for an auction benefitting Family Rescue in Chicago.

Close up of it on the dress form.

A shot of it blocking.

Merino silk lace weight yarn with glass beads in the edging. The beads don't really show in these photographs.

Inspired by Shetland lace knitting traditions.

Hat and more of the Mittens

I have decided that I need a hat that won't clash with my Bohus Mittens.
I started playing with excel, and have cast on for a Bohus inspired hat.


Knitting close up.
It will never be as delicate, or look as blended, as the true Bohus. This yarn is heavier (though still fine at 7 stitches to the inch) and doesn't contain any angora.



The yarn, the chart, the knitting.

I'm reworking my charted ideas as I go. Some things that looked great on paper just don't seem right in yarn. I was going to try a tam type of hat, but then I decided that I shouldn't mix colorwork and major shaping in my frist color design. So it's slated to be a basic beanie style hat, with colorwork going around the side, one color ribbing, one color top.


And, a mitten update.


Close up of pretty cuffs attatched to mitten hand.



Left hand progress, hand is done, thumb is almost done.



The two in-progress mittens together. Phase one is almost complete, just a little knitting to go on the left thumb. Next I knit the flip top part of each hand. Then I'll work on the lining.

Then I can wear them.

Sunday's are for Spinning?

I'm copying the Yarn Harlot's idea that one day should be for spinning, so that it doesn't get taken over by the knitting. And we all know that I let things get taken over by my knitting.

So this is what I worked on today.

It looks better in person.

This is the roving I haven't spun yet. It's so pretty.

It's a merino bamboo blend called Galapagos. It's super soft. I can't wait to ply it and make something, maybe a hat.

More Secret Knitting

Secret knitting for Sandy's birthday!

I designed a hat a mittens with matching cables. Designing the cable took a minute, but I really like how it turned out.

This is a close up of the cables on the hat.

And the set.

They are made from Malabrigo, a super soft merino yarn from Peru. I have it from the birthday girl that they are "so soft!"

Bohus Stickning

My current obsession.
Blue Shimmer wristlets and the alpaca blend I bought to turn them into mittens.

Mom and I took Susanna Hanson's Bohus Stickning class at Stitches Midwest. I am completely in love! I love the geometric designs, I love the subtlety of the fine color patterns, I love how the angora blooms and makes it even more blended, I love how the angora feels. (Mine haven't really bloomed yet as they're still beeing kept in a plastic bag)

A close up of one wristlet. The red thread at the bottom is a provisional cast on and will not show in the final mittens.


Susanna told us about the history of the Bohus Stickning company/movement. I imediately grabbed the Poems of Color book from the library and started obsessing. I really want to get one of Solveig Gustaffson's kits. She is meticulously recreating the dye formulas from the original sweaters. Look at her site and drool a little. I have been. Mostly over the Wild Apple, the Egg and the Forest Darkness.

Paraphrasing Susanna:
Bohus Sticking began as a way to help out an economically depressed region of Sweden. It was a coture design house, retailing sweaters for hundreds of dollars. About a third of the profits went back to the knitter (not the percentage usually paid to textile workers). The company closed it's doors when the demand started to die off in the late 60's, not wanting to sacrifice construction methods or materials to bring prices down.

Beauty Shots

The hand painted sock yarn that I took with me to knit a wrap while on vacation.  

The two colors of tweed yarn that I bought at This Is Knit in Dublin.  

The roving and drop spindle from the Handweavers Studio in London.  

Silk top also from Handweavers Studio.  

Eggplant colored wenslydale wool from I Knit in Waterloo.  

Hand painted roving, also from I Knit.  

Silk lace weight (yes it's from Habu, but I never see Habu here in Chicago), also from I Knit.  

Lovely soft merino cashmere blend that I bought at Loop in Islington.  

And lambswool, also from Loop, that I have now seen all over Chicago!  Oh well.  

One of my yarn buying goals was to try for things that I can't get here in the states.  

Malika's Aeolian Shawl

I used a beautiful lace weight alpaca to knit this for Malika.  In my mind this is like a long distance hug of fibery goodness.    

All done, un-blocked in it's "cat yack" stage.  I had to use a contrasting merino lace yarn to bind off the edge because I ran out of the main yarn.     

Soaked, squeezed dry, and stretched to within an inch of it's life!  Pinned out to dry on our futon.  It's beautiful, I love it and can't wait to see how mine comes out.  

The yucca leaf pattern that makes up the main part of the shawl.  

The agave and flower edging, pinned out to dry in perfect little points.  

Another shot of the  flower edging.  

There are actually little tiny glass beads in the flower that didn't show up in any of these photos.  They are very nice and add just a touch of glitz.  

First Yarn on the Wheel

Tonight I oiled the wheel like crazy and grabbed some leftover "practice" roving from my class this sumer.  

My first single, the maroon is a "regular" wool (I forget the breed name) and the peach is merino.  The merino was much harder to spin.  You can kinda see that it's thicker than the maroon strands.  

Actually it was all pretty hard to spin because I've only used a wheel for about 45 minutes, and that was months ago.  Once I got used to the maroon, no more breaking or getting all twisty, then I was out of it and had to get used to the peach.  Practice makes perfect, I'm planning on grabbing some inexpensive roving to play with, then on to peanut and some superfine merino that I have two pounds of!