Well, yeah we all know what "holiday" is this upcoming week, but there are two V's that I'm thinking about lately. The first one is Viking knit weave. This is a jewelry technique possible done by the REAL vikings and which is basically a way of doing what one might call an cord...in metal. I have a thing about green bracelets on my left wrist. Love green and shiny things. Being a window shopper at etsy (the pun just came out, sorry) I saw a viking knit weave bracelet. Didn't purchase (go me!). However, I did a little more googling and found a youtube video on how to do it. The video had been provided by a wise jewelry company complete with a supply list from their store! Well, I had to try this. I ordered the equipment that I didn't have. Here's the result (done in 26 gauge Artistic Wire) and another work in progress
Here's the how-to video
I adapted the project a bit but oh is this fun. There will be more! I've been trying knitting with various types of wire this year none of which had really worked terribly well except for this. I am continuing to fiddle, however. The second V is indeed for valentine. Here is my favorite valentine, origami-style, a few of which I made and sent this week.
Here are directions on youtube (thanks to Francis)
I am not a big fan of the traditional gansey sweater...too many purls, too many plain old knit stitches, just a bit boring. I did however grow into deep like with this Debbie Bliss design, called "Hooded Guernsey," for a little boy. The hood made it.
I searched out the source, and got a used copy from a seller at Amazon.
VERY ironically about 2 weeks later I saw copies for sale on the magazine stand at Publix...ahhh, the lengths they go to sell stuff that won't sell. Is there a name for that? "Downmarketing" or some such?? I suppose I could have found a traditional gansey sweater and added a hood but ya know, buying a new-to-me book is just too much fun...really... Anyway, this is actually nephew D's Christmas gift, less than a month late (just)...yay! The yarn is completely untraditional....Berocco Touche from stash. Here is a little gansey I made for son B when he was tiny, passed down to R and then to nephew D. This is from a Dale Baby Collection, Nr. 60, knit from Dale Baby Ull. Multiple rounds through washer and dryer...hope the Berocco stuff holds up this well. This little gem is now in the well mothballed trunk of knitwear for prospective grandchildren or great nieces/nephews.
A bit of Gansey history, courtesy of this nice link. Ganseys, as we know, took their name from the island of Guernsey, one of the channel islands. The traditional yarn used for ganseys was a high twist 5 ply, which was likely sourced in the neighboring island of Jersey, a center of worsted yarn spinning. Classic Elite used to produce or at least sell under their own name a 5 ply called "Guernsey." The sweaters were fisherman's sweaters, tightly knit, warm, waterproof, and knit with a straight neck so that they could be reversed. According to this fellow's very nice blog there are knit/purl pattern combinations typical of one's town or region up and down the coasts of the British Isles. The isolated communities up and down the coastline were likely better connected by boat then by land, and the fisherman passed the useful knitwear style around (as has happened with countless other knitting traditions...I just love that...) . Wikipedia also has a nice article as well.
There is so much history here and I have English roots; I really should knit a real one. Perhaps when I retire... If you want to look at lovely photos of the fishing villages and life in rural England in the late Victorian and early 20th century, check out the work of Francis Meadown Sutcliff, discovered during the research for today's post!
I wouldn't have chosen this pattern ...but I was in a shop in Massachusetts in October and the woman behind the counter was really enthusiastic about it. It's Forest Canopy.
Easily learned repeats and not too complex for the multiplicity of colors in a koigu skein. I gave my Garden of Alla to my friend Susan (a trade for beaded jewelry
...so worth it) so it was time to do another. It's a small shawl but I love it. (I'll need to do another in the colors closer to Susan's with more oranges.
Yes, I am a koigu addict. Yes, there are some cheap shiny beads on the points. And, yes, it looks great with Susan's jewelry!
I knit my sis a sweater a couple of years ago. The pattern was from an old issue of Knitter's. Warm, warm, too warm for SC...knit from Lopi.
It was totally wrong for my sis! After it sat in the closet, unworn, I decided to give it to a charity. Here is the group, Smallwater, that I am donating the sweater to. There's been a lot of baking around here this season. My new MO is to do the dough cycle in the bread machine, then oven bake. Stollen ...I soaked the fruit in some rum to get it a little closer to Grandma's recipe. (I have researched and it appears that my family's traditional German stollen is about the same as Danish Julekake.)
Cinnamon buns for hungry boys (rolled and kept unbaked in fridge, pulled out 4 in the evening to rise and baked in the am; the yeast didn't lose it's juju until day 5...take that, Pillsbury!)
I'm have observed St. Lucia Day this year by knitting an outfit for Theodora so that she can celebrate Lucia Day. I think I did a sweet job on the crown with the beads as candles. The costume was knit from Peysufot by Helene Magnussen. Thanks, Helene! See more here on the history of St. Lucia Day
I was wrong about being almost done with holiday knitting a couple of posts back, and I continue to suffer this year with gauge and size issues. For example, I was planning a last minute hat for son R that I knew I could do quickly. I had used the same yarn and needles for B's hat and it was fine. HOWEVER I did a more intensive stranded pattern with 3 colors in a row and unwittingly changed my gauge...this will fit a 5 year old...
I am almost done with it but will restart. (I'll keep this one to donate somewhere). I also thought perhaps I would use slightly larger dpns to start the crown of the hat (it's a top down pattern) and went looking for some other dpns. Here's the end of my search
Note the very accidental placement (!!!) of my favorite Louisa May Alcott quote on the mug "housekeeping ain't no joke." Now you know this is humor as the word "ain't" was not in Louisa's routine vocabulary! Now there must be another way...I have something on order... Meanwhile here's another frustration outside the window
On a more positive note, there are also doll clothes for Linda's little neice to work on...this nice person on Ravelry does patterns for MyTwinn dolls (little niece is getting one for Christmas) and her Twinn needs something warm...here's the start
Linda brought the Twinn over and it does indeed fit, thank goodness!
