Free Pattern: Wooly Christmas Heart

 

Wooly Christmas Heart “Julehjerter” 

Christmas hearts were originally done in paper, and supposedly conceived by Hans Christian Anderson, thus they have been around since 1860 ish. They are a traditional Danish holiday ornament. A woolen julehjerter will last much longer than a paper heart!  This heart is knitted in two colors and then felted.

 Materials: *One skein each Paton’s Wool in red and white will make lots of hearts 

                   *knitting needles to get a gauge of 4 ½ stitches per inch 

With white yarn, cast on 16 stitches. 

Row 1: Adding red color in this row: knit 4 white, 4 red, 4 white, 4 white. You can strand the colors in the back, but don't go crazy as they will felt in

Row 2: Purl back, keeping colors as set. 

Row 3: Knit, keeping colors as set. 

Row 4: Purl, keeping colors as set. 

Rows 5-8: reverse the colors 

Rows 9-12: return to original color pattern 

Rows 13-16: repeat rows 5-8. You have a sort of square grid of red and white squares. Next, form one side of top of heart in white

Rows: 17-20: Cut off Red yarn then knit 4 rows of white in stockinette stitch, knitting in red yarn end on the first row. 

Row 21: k1, sl1, k1, psso, knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1 (14 sts) 

Row 22: Purl 

Rows 23 and 25: Repeat row 21 

Rows 24 and 26: Repeat row 22. (10 sts) 

Row 28: k1, (sl1, K1, psso) x2, knit to last 5 stitches, k2tog x 2, k1 (6 sts) 

Row 29: purl back

Row 30: k1, sl1, k1, psso, k2tog, k1 (4 sts) 

Cut yarn and slip end through remaining stitches, pull tight 

With red yarn, pickup and knit 16 stitches on the opposite side of the top Purl one row, knit one row, purl one row. 

Follow directions for rows 21 through 30, to make right side of top of heart in red. 

Next, make another heart as above, but REVERSE the colors. 

When you have both sides made, pickup 3 stitches in red at the middle part of one heart. Knit in “idiot cord” for 6 inches: Knit 3, slip stitches back onto left needle, knit 3, slip back onto left needle, continue.

When you have 6 inches, cut yarn and pull the end through the 3 stitches, but use the end to sew in place at top center of the other heart.

Place hearts wrong side together and sew together at the bottom. Secure all ends by sewing in. 

FELTING I felted my heart in the washer. I did 3 washes on a warm cycle, checking size each time. You can try washing on hot but be careful if you are unsure whether your red yarn will bleed in hot. Once it is a size that you like, dry flat.

My heart is 4 " by 6 ".

FO: Reyna Shawl

When I was in Copenhagen a couple years ago, I bought some lovely Handmaiden Casbah, actually a sock yarn made of merino, cashmere, and nylon. I purchased it at Sommerfluglen. It travelled (of course!) from Canada  where it was made, to Denmark,  to the US.   It was supposed to be a scarf of knitted broomstick lace, which I found too fiddly. I also don't wear scarves that much.  So, I found the Reyna shawl. 

I may have expounded on this in the past, but I do believe that sometimes yarn must "steep" in the stash before it tells you what it wants to be. (Maybe this belief is a result of buying yarn without a project in mind.)

I often spend time searching on Ravelry for the right pattern for purchased yarn, and it is not unheard of for me to try yarn with a pattern and reject the pattern.  Reyna won and you can see why! 

The Danish in Alberta

I was lucky to visit my friend Barb in Edmonton in June. We did a driving trip south which included a visit to Dickson, Alberta, halfway between Edmonton and Calgary. We visited the Danish Canadian Museum, of which Barb is now a board member!

The Danish emigrated to Alberta in several waves.  Many emigrated from the western US, not just Denmark. Here is the main building 

There were beautiful mementos of fiber arts, including bobbin lace

and several impressive needlepoint chairs that were brought from Denmark (who had time to needlepoint once on this continent and needing to start a farm??)

this is a needlepointed and beaded midwife's bag

this handsome suit brings Hans Christian Anderson to mind...

When Grandma and Grandpa (Mormor og Bedstefar) were no longer, their Bibles were donated to the museum, which hasn a impressive library collection

We also visited the Dickson Store Museum. The Christiansen family who started the store were emigrants who arrived via Nebraska.  There was some delicious ice cream to be had here!

The Christiansens lived above the store

Of course I could not resist photos of the old Singer, which was made in 1899, according to this useful website. (After 1900 Singers had a letter prefix). I cannot locate where it was made, however. The letter prefixes after 1900 indicate location.

Greetings from Denmark!

Danish Tie Shawl Number One and Return to the Low Country

I finished a Danish Tie Shawl...I am planning a series of these..wanting to do a bit more "historical" Danish knitting.

This sweet thing, which would complement a slimmer figure than mine a bit better, is knit from yarns purchased in Denmark. 

I used  a combination of Hjelholt's Dansk Pelsuld (the lighter orange) purchased in Roskilde at Rok og Uld ("Spindle and Wool" I believe is the translation, no website but a lovely shop). The Dansk Pelsuld is lovely and springy, and reminded me of working with Classic Elite's "tapestry" which I LOVED and has not been available for a long time.  The Tapestry is 75 wool and 25 mohair, a great blend for lace; the Dansk Pelsuld is 100% wool. It was produced at Hjelholt's Uldspinneri in Svendborg, not far from where my family lived. 

I also used  3 colors of natural dyed yarns purchased at  the museum shop at  Lindholm Hoye, in Denmark from tansy (the very light color) St. John's Wort (the yellow) and madder (the darker orange) which is very hard to see at the border. 

The pattern is at this point a bit of a classic,   Dorothea Fischer's "Traditional Danish Tie Shawl" from the Spring 2008 issue of SpinOff. Saved mine and I have the original article to read!

I am not a big stripes person but don't like a sudden transition to another color, and the gradual stripes  soften it. I do love the right angles of color as seen in the back view above, and also how the stripes of different colors seem to meet, as in the photo below.

In other news,  why yes, I did evacuate. Made it into the car with 2 cats and both rabbits, up to my son Ben's in Clemson SC.  My parents and sister and her family all evacuated as well to different locations in the "upstate" as we call it. Ben's housemates were very accommodating and at least did not remark on how allergic to cats they might have been or how gross they thought the stray bunny poop was on the floor of the garage. (No matter what you do there is stray bunny poop, the nice thing is that it's well, umm, in little egg shaped pellets that are easy to scoop up.)

At any rate, here is Rosa ready to return (Blanca is behind her) 

And, here is Ben saying goodbye to Fiona and Samantha. Ben scooped up Samantha to put her in the crate before I showed him how to do it without getting scratched so there was some learning involved. (Put her up by the scruff and gently lower feet first, same as a rabbit).  All animals did fine, I put hay in the bottom of the crates to absorb...and we had a water break for cats halfway through the 7 hour trip. Rabbits are easier to travel with I learned, they don't meow with complaints when you stop the car, are easier to get into crates, and you can hang a water bottle for them. 

My house sustained no damage, lots of leaves and pinecones down, here is the front. 

We all got home safely to electricity and water. My parents lost trees in the backyard: thanks be to the positive forces in the universe that none fell in the direction of their new house!! This was a typical sight on our return trip on back roads, many trees down, often over power lines.

We are all home now, safe and sound! 

Sankt Hans - Treasure Island Shawl

Thanks to a Danish friend, I learned that  Sankt Hans (Saint John's) Day, is June 23rd. It is of course the name day for St. John.  It is conveniently timed with the summer solstice on June 21st, (and allowed early Christians to co-opt yet another pagan celebration!!).  Danes celebrate with a bonfire and a party.  Here is more information on the celebration courtesy of the Museum of Danish America.

I found this inspiring video on youtube, featuring a song sung at the midsommer bonfire, with lyrics by poet-artist Holger Drachmann, and a beautiful montage of paintings by the Skagen artists

I celebrated Sankt Hans by completing blocking of my Treasure Island Shawl. I had almost finished it two years ago when my family and I went to Denmark, it then took me two more years to complete the knit on lace edging!  I'm very pleased. 

Happy Solstice to all!!

In search of my Grandmother's Yarn...Denmark Part 8

Well...as I've said before, some of my forebears came from Langeland, in Denmark. And as a shawl knitter, I must wonder what breed of sheep my grandmothers shawls were knit from?  

The answer is still a research project, however...I did actually find a local yarn store in Rudkobing which made me quite happy...LundGarn

Part of the reason for happiness is that I discovered that one of the few spinneries left in Denmark is close to Langeland in Svendborg, just over the bridge. It's Hjelholts.   Hjelholts sources it's Gotland wool from Denmark and Sweden. It is blended with some merino from the Falklands. The wool is three shades of gray and colors are dyed over either very light, medium or dark gray, depending on the color to be dyed. Of course they give tours and of course, I missed visiting. The spinnery is on the list for the next trip! I saw their yarn in shops throughout Denmark. 


This is their Farvestkiftegarn, color changing yarn, purchased at Lundgarn, all single ply fingering weight

Here is a skein of their color changing yarn with a coordinating solid. 

These two are double plied fingering weight, purchased elsewhere in Denmark, I think the orange was from a shop in Roskilde

And here I am at the marina-hotel in Rudkobing,  our favorite accommodation. I am perhaps contemplating my next project...and whether Grandma's shawl was knit from Gotland

Here are a few sheep in Troenekoer near the church, couldn't get close enough to see if they were Gotland...

A shot of the bakery in Troenekoer, I believe. We got some awesome treats there....

And here are some views from Langeland

And here are Icelandic poppies blooming in my yard yesterday

Denmark Part Seven... Langeland and some tips on how to trace one's Danish ancestors

After Skagen we had a long drive to Langeland with a brief stop in Aalborg for coffee. I had hoped to meet a fellow blogger in Aalborg but it didn't happen. It's a fast-paced university town and probably worth another visit.

So here's the story about Langeland and why we went there:

Family lore told us that my Mom 's Grandmother's parents had emigrated from Langeland. Langeland is translated at “long island” and is part of Funen  or Fyn. Langeland is it’s own municipality. 

We had planned to do some genealogy sleuthing while there. We found the Archives in Rudkobing, thanks to a tip from a waitress on our first night there!  Here is the website in case you too have ancestors from Langeland:  http://byarkivet.langelandkommune.dk. Only the contact page is in English, unfortunately.  (If your ancestors are from another municipality in Denmark, there probably is an archive there). 

Here's Mom/Nancy on the steps of the Archives in Rudkobing. 

 We walked in and met Else Wolsgård, the director. Apparently Else is PAID by the Danish government to manage the Archives and assist people in genealogy research(imagine that in the US!) Here are Nancy and Else chatting over a cup of coffee. Apparently Nancy chose the correct top and glasses that day!  Too cute!

The archives were most impressive with records dating back over 100 years

I had put together a tree on Ancestry.com based on   a print tree that Nancy had previously documented. 

Our family name (Nancy's Great Grandparents) is  “Rasmussen” and I suspected that is was originally a  patronymic, meaning that at some point there was a “Rasmus” in our line  and his son, “Rasmussen” decided to keep that as a permanent surname for his children.  Here is an article on patronyms in Scandinavia from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_family_name_etymology

Else allowed me to use their computer and access my ancestry.com record and I printed out more on these individuals, mostly US censuses which she said might help her to trace some individuals.  This would be a task as there are 15 parishes on Langeland and one needed to know the parish for a definite identification, and of course there are many many Rasmussens.

Else noted that Americans tended to come to Denmark in search of  an ancestor’s grave. She usually cannot do this as there were no remaining graves. If someone died in Denmark 100 years ago, the grave was rented for 20 years. If no one paid the rent, the grave was reused. I asked whether remains were dug up (!). She said that bodies disintegrate within the course of 20 years and that occasionally  a piece of wood from a casket might be found. There was not enough room for all the graves.

Farming and fishing were the usual trades for the working class in Langeland and likely most of Denmark. Regarding immigration, Else noted that ¼ of Langeland’s population immigrated in the 19^th century. By the 19^th century, people tended to be healthier therefore more children survived. (That was a surprise to me...). Traditionally the oldest son inherited the family farm or estate (through primogeniture).  As the population grew and land became less available,   younger sons were forced to look elsewhere for a place to own land in order to not become “landless," often opting for immigration to another country.

In my reading, I also discovered this: In 1862, America’s Homestead Act made land available to immigrants, increasing the impetus to emigrate.  Of note, in 1864 Denmark lost about ¼ of it’s territory when Slesvig-Holsten was lost to Germany. While this territory is adjacent to Jutland and not Funen, the repression of Danish culture and mandatory German military service to the former Danes in nearby Jutland likely made immigration even more tempting in the general culture.  An important note here: part of family history is that Jochum, my Great Great Grandfather,  emigrated because of mandatory military service. Of course he did not live in Slesvig-Holsten and I am not of this writing able to find references to mandatory military service for Danes in other areas at the time.

We suspect that Jochum and Marian, his wife,  emigrated around 1861. Individuals who were emigrating would go to Esbjerg harbor, according to Else,  and take a ship to Liverpool where ships would embark to America. This is consistent with our oral family history that Jochum and Marian went to England before coming to New York. 

 "Rasmussen" was obviously chosen to be the permanent surname once the family emigrated.  Here again is the painting that I viewed at the Aarhus Kunstmuseum (art museum), by Edvard Peterson from 1890 "Emigrants at Larsens Plads." 

While painted 30 years after my family emigrated, this work describes in part the emotional challenges that my Great Great Grandparents suffered.

While we know that Jochum and his family stayed in the New York area, the majority of Danes moved onward to the midwest especially after 1862 to take advantage of the Homestead Act. 

Our encounter with Else proved to be most fruitful. As the Lutheran Church documented the comings and goings, weddings, funeral, and births, she was able to successfully corroborate our family in Denmark and their antecedents for two generations before my Great Grandparents.

Here's a photo of Mom on the balcony of our waterfront rental in Langeland with a photo (from our US family archives) of Marian and a son, a brother to her Great Grandfather.  Marian and another son, were buried in Connecticut, a fact that we did not know before this!

Skagen Part Three

I want to share more photos of Skagen

Here is the outside and one view of the quaint and adorable home of Holger Drachmann. The delicate and sweet furnishings contrast to Drachmann's large personage

Here he is painted by P.S. Kroyer

Ruth's Hotel where we will stay on our next trip when we are wealthier...

At the back of the Skagen Art Museum

St. Lawrence's Church was built in the 14th century.  (Denmark adopted Catholicism in the 9th century. In the 16th century King Christian III personally knew and read the works of German theologian Martin Luther. Luther  felt that one's relationship with God should not be tainted by corrupt rituals in the church including the sale of indulgences. Christian III routed Catholic factions in the country and Lutheranism became the state religion).  The church has been  buried by sand over the centuries but you can still go in and climb to  tower. 

At the north of Denmark, the Kattegat and the Skagerrak meet, their waters going in opposing directions at Grenen ("branch") , making for a dramatic place for photos. As the Skagen painters knew, the light was marvelous for images whether photographic (ours) or painted (theirs). We took a big bus that could go over the sand to get to the tip of the branch. We were there at "L'Heure Bleu" when the appearance of the water and the atmosphere blend as in the painting of Drachmann above