Denmark Part 3 Aarhus and the Gotland sheep of Lindholm Høye

 An interesting part of our trip prep was that I had two make online two reservations in Danish of course with the help of googletranslate. The first was for the ferry between Odden (in Sjaelland) and Aarhus (in Jutland). I was rather proud of myself that I made the reservation and the early morning ferry ride went of without a hitch.  

The ferry was very comfortable despite the fact that we were not in business class, clearly for some folks this was a daily commute to Aarhus which is a large university town.

The ferry port is in practically in the city, so it was a short drive  to the museum, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum. The museum is 10 stories tall. Teenaged boys were fascinated with the rainbow walkway at the top, and indeed a lot of the whole museum.  Quite amazing. 

[Side  note:  it's unpredictable what museums or museum exhibits MY young men enjoy.  They do not like looking at paintings. ARoS got it  right, they both enjoyed photographic exhibit and the walkway.  At the Smithsonian last year one like the Chinese pottery as he also like to throw pots…the other liked the sculpture. So I guess my advice is…keep taking your bored teenagers to museums because something will catch their fancy.]   

Seen at the museum

Myself, my wonder is of the nineteenth century painters.

This is a detail of a painting, I will find out the artist and update

Here is a smaller detail, she is making a fishing net with a tool  the same as the one I purchased in Iceland several years ago

I set it on a Peruvian textile to photograph it, looks a bit like her skirt!

The  painting below is by Edvard Peterson from 1890, "Emigrants at Larsens Plads."  Peterson was a social realist painter who painted the realities of everyday life of working people. (I now have a new favorite genre of painting).  This painting is very meaningful to me as my Great Great Grandparents emigrated to New York from Denmark in 1860 with their first baby.  The baby, Christian, did not survive the ocean voyage. The strife and anxiety and necessity of a pending emigration depicted in this picture are very poignant to me.

Here's a nice site with more information on Aarhus

Mom wanted to drive from Aarhus to the Moesgard Museum nearby in Holbjerg and was dismayed to learn that it was under renovation. She REALLY wanted to see the Graubelle Man, one of three ancient people who have been discovered in Jutland's peat. Unhappily for us but great for the Moesgard Museum, it is under renovation and closed this summer.

So we settled on a visit to Lindholm Høye, a Viking burial ground.
Here's a  site with more detailed information.

It was in an idyllic setting with sheep grazing around the monument stones.  It was ever thus!  The sheep are Gotland which are apparently raised throughout Denmark. More on this in an upcoming post.

The shop was nice, plenty of Viking garb

There was a lovely cafe and store, purchased some natural dyed yarn

Natural dyes left to right: Dried Tansy, St John's Wort, madder and a darker madder.

  

Spinsjal Organic Scarf (Free Pattern!)

I do very little pattern writing but here's a little thing that I came up with. It uses my handspun and hand dyed silk. I will also put up a link in the "Free Patterns" section.  Try it and let me know how it turns out!

Organic Scarf

from

Spinsjal Designs

This is a “recipe” pattern for a garter stitch scarf that can be as wide and as long as you like.  The sample uses handspun silk that was hand dyed with eucalyptus. 

Materials

Yarn: I used 100 yards of handspun silk which was 11 wpi (wraps per inch) and a bit “thick and thin.” My gauge was 4 stitches per inch. You can use whatever yarn at whatever gauge you like, but be mindful of drape and softness.

Needles: Pick some needles and knit a sample that creates a nice “fabric” for your scarf, adjusting needle size as needed. I used size 4 straight needles.

Dyeing: My yarn was dyed with eucalyptus. Silk takes dyes well and has a lovely tone to it. If you would like to dye your own, see the general instructions in this post at my blog: http://spinsjal.blogspot.com/2014/03/eucalyptus-dyepot.html.  Some prior experience with natural dyeing is recommended before you use a precious yarn as dyeing is always an experiment, and results can vary. I did NOT mordant this yarn, so I expect that the color of this scarf will fade with time.

Knitting

Cast on 30 stitches. Knit 10 rows or 5 garter ribs. Next row: k 2 tog in each stitch. 15 stitches remain.

Knit to the length that you would like your scarf, minus the ruffle border.  

I had a limited amount of yarn and wanted to use it all. I calculated how much I would need for the last 10 rows of the scarf (the ruffle end) in this way: I needed 5 times the length of a row of knitting to actually knit the row.  I measured out enough for the last 10 rows by measuring out the yarn based on the width of the beginning ruffle. 

When you are ready to knit the end ruffle, do an invisible increase in each stitch in this way: pick up the stitch below your stitch and place it on the needle. Then, knit each stitch. Here’s a good website for pictures of this technique: http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/05/very-nearly-invisible-increase.html.

At the end of the row you will have 30 stitches. Continue knitting in garter stitch for 10 more rows then bind off loosely.