Knitting - and other things

Ending this blog

2010-06-10T19:56:00.003+02:00

Yes, it seems ridiculous to have a blog about knitting (not that I´m particularly diligent in my blogging) when I am basically no longer a Knitter. Knitting a sock or two once in a while doesn´t really count, does it? Not as any kind of identity, anyway.

I have, however, decided to continue writing (a bit more regularly) on another blog, centered around an interest that hopefully is more constant: reading.

Welcome to: Viktorias Bookshelf.

Knitting lifestyle

2010-05-31T19:11:00.003+02:00

I am not really knitting. Not as I used to. The reason is, tv is crap. And I don´t really sit down to watch a movie alone (my husband travels a lot), I´d rather read. I know there are folks who read and knit but that just isn´t for me.

I mostly do small projects, stuff that gets used up in a season. Like hats and socks. Sadly, an acrylic hat looses much of its shape and elasticity after a washing, so I am getting used to the idea that my hats are not forever. I don´t really like stuff that are not forever, but what the heck. I console myself that most people change as often, because they like the variation. I wouldn´t know much about fashion. Not when it comes to hats, at least.

This is my latest project:

My god, is that the time?

2010-05-28T21:17:00.003+02:00

Six months and I have not written a single word on this blog! Not that it´s the end of the world. At first I had a bit of angst about it, but then I thought it should be fun to do it, and frankly, the duty-element that I, myself, put into it just took the fun out of it. So maybe I will be more productive in the future, if it doesn´t feel so much like a chore.

It´s been a good winter, albeit long and cold and dark. I have never in my life longed so much for sunlight! Now I take every opportunity to walk round our little lake, have ice-cream in the park and generally just bum around.

I am mostly looking forward to our vacation trip. We are going to England, which is my favourite place on Earth, and I will write more about it later. A picture from my last trip there, last year in May. I give you Warley Woods, Birmingham:

Cold comforts II

2009-12-12T19:29:00.000+01:00

To paraphrase Margaret Drabble, there is no reason why one could not enjoy tea, cognac, chocolate and love for all eternity.

Christmas Elegance

2009-12-10T19:19:00.000+01:00

The amaryllis is perhaps the classiest of all the christmas flowers. My mother-in-law has one that she has kept alive for years, and one year it got watered by accident, at the totally wrong time of year, and it bloomed in the middle of summer, as it has ever since.

Here it is, in August this year, on my mother-in-laws balcony. I think it looks lovely with the clear blue sky and the strong summer sunlight.

Cold comforts

2009-12-08T19:07:00.003+01:00

Alive and knitting

2009-11-23T07:29:00.007+01:00

New toys

2009-08-13T14:31:00.000+02:00

I found these great circulars while shopping in Jönköping on vacation. I have seen them on the internet, but have been reluctant to buy. However, being in a holiday spirit of generosity, which even extends myself, I just got them! They are exactly the sizes I use most: 4, 5 and 6 mm, and the cables are 60, 80 and 120 cm. This, I imagine, will allow me to make almost anything I prefer. The needles are fastknitting and the cables soft and flexible. I love them!

An evening stroll in Malmö after dinner

2009-08-12T14:30:00.000+02:00

And we meet this charming orchestra.

And these lovely guys:

And someone lost his underwear...

I hope he found it.

Beautiful Skåne (Skania)

2009-08-12T14:00:00.003+02:00

After a hiatus of more than a month, I´m back. I have been dead tired, to begin with, and then on a well needed vacation. And it has worked, I feel like I´m thoroughly energized!

Just looking at this photo is both relaxing and energizing, I think. We travelled southern Sweden for a week (my husband and I), and this is from our first day, at Ystad Saltsjöbad, where we had a great lunch and a stroll. That´s not us in the bathrobes, but whoever they are, they really capture the mood we were in.

It´s been fun to see Skåne, that´s a part of the country I have never been to before. It´s just been a place to quickly drive through or fly over, on our way elsewhere. What first struck me was just how close everything is, you drive for an hour and you´re at the other side of it!

Nirvana II

2009-06-26T22:01:00.000+02:00

I met these two friends this weekend, charming dachshund couple Vanja and Emil (they do not care to be called sausage dogs, thank you very much), and they challange the Yorkshire sheep on who is closest on the ladder to Nirvana.

I think it might be a draw.

(Photos by husband, Jan Berg)

Windows, windows, windowcleaning...

2009-06-25T22:15:00.001+02:00

When I see a building like this (in this case you are looking at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester) the first thing that comes to my mind is this:

Perfect Sunday

2009-06-24T21:47:00.000+02:00

A perfect Sunday: sleep until lunchtime, pack a can of sausages, a tea thermos, Maryland Cookies and set off for Bälinge Berget´s national park. Find a perfect spot (not hard), have husband set fire, eat and then rest.

Go home, fall asleep on the sofa, make dinner, go to bed.

Finger Food

2009-06-23T17:39:00.002+02:00

My fingers got so fed up with the red top that I felt compelled to start a new project. I know, I wasn´t supposed to, and certainly not another scarf, but I couldn´t help it. It´s red and pink and cotton and it will look great when it´s finished.

My fingers wanted it.

Midsummer

2009-06-22T21:41:00.003+02:00

We have celebrated Midsummer this weekend, perhaps the most genuin swedish/scandinavian celebration there is. For me, Midsummer is associated with relative peace and quiet, because most people migrate from the city to their or their friend´s summer houses where they barbacue and party all night long. We tend to stay at home, have a meal and put our feet up. This year we were joined by my sister, who seemed to need a bit of rest. We aim to please.

We are not above the pole circle, we do not have midnight sunshine, but the sun sets for such a short time that there is really no darkness to speak of. We get some shade of sunset/sunrise and then it´s day again. This photo is from my sister´s camera. You find more of them on her blog "Angela´s World" and you find the link among my favorites.

Red Top

2009-06-22T20:26:00.001+02:00

In the category Unfinished Projects, I present this top. I started it sometime last spring, I think, and I´m knitting it top down. The neckline is supposed to be square, and the length about 60 cm. Short arms, probably not much more than there already is. I have not decided.

Thing is, the yarn is hopeless to knit with. It´s cotton, it´s thin, the stitch is uneven and boring. If I had decided to crochet with it instead, it would have been perfect. But now I´ve gotten this far, I´m not about to rip it. Oh no, I am going to finish it. But I will never attempt anything like it ever again. There are better ways.

Bird Watching

2009-06-22T19:34:00.001+02:00

There is a place I walk past at least once a week, where the sea swallow likes to fish. It is fascinating to watch, circling the rather narrow airspace between the trees, coming around fast but still managing to turn its head downward, looking for some fishy movement, and then suddenly diving, making a big splash and sometimes it´s lucky, sometimes not so lucky.

I tried to get a picture of it, but this was the best I could do. I only recently started watching birds (in a haphazard and leisurely fashion), and I have to say I enjoy it greatly. Perhaps it´s a sign of old age. I haven´t started feeding them yet, though...

The Curlew

2009-06-18T17:21:00.001+02:00

The other day we (husband and I) were taking a walk and we took a turn that we never have before. We ended up on a site between the lake and the trainstation, where the big yellow lifting crane used to stand, before it was taken down, what - five years ago? Surprisingly, we startled a curlew that made one heck of a racket, running and flying in circles around us. Probably there was a nest somewhere. I tried to get a picture of it, but as you can see, the bird eluded me.

I was surprised to find him (or her) there, I never knew we had one so close to our home, and in the middle of town. But I guess the site is rather isolated between the water and the tracks. You can´t easily walk through it - we had to climb a very steep bank to get back onto the road (the alternative would have been to cross the tracks) - and I suppose that to most people it´s just not there.

It was a slightly surreal experience to discover somewhere completely unknown to me, a rather big place too, so close to home.

Off season

2009-06-17T17:12:00.000+02:00

It´s not really the right season to work with acrylics, but I decided to finish stuff, so I´m finishing. A pink hat and a scarf that I had planned to just make red and white, but as I had some pink left I threw that in the mixture too and made it all match. I sure hope that strong red won´t bleed ...

I am very happy with it. I like this set very much, although not enough to be longing for fall. However, when fall unavoidably comes, wearing this hat and scarf will make it so much more enjoyable!

Another duck´s summer

2009-06-16T02:08:00.001+02:00

Is it possible to meet a whole bunch of newly hatched ducklings and not be filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude?

In want of needles

2009-06-15T02:01:00.002+02:00

When I decided to finish this scarf-project, the needles had been taken out and is used for something else, a project that isn´t finished either. Instead of transfering the needles again, I found a couple of old dpns, stuck needle point protectors to them and now use them as regular, but short, needles. It looks a bit haphazard, but works really well. I just never work with long needles - I am a slouch and I simply can´t sit up straight for as long as I like to keep knitting. With cables or short needles I can lie down under a blanket in the comfiest corner of my sofa and knit away while watching all my favourite tv.

Nirvana

2009-06-14T07:57:00.001+02:00

Yorkshire is full of sheep. Really, everywhere. Most of them seem to be related to Shaun, you know, black face and white wool.

So when we´ve driven past about five thousand of them, my friend says," if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I´d like to come back as a Yorkshire sheep."
"Why", I say, "isn´t that a step down the reincarnation promotion ladder? Shouldn´t we strive for higher consciousness and all that?"
"Who cares", she says, "when life can be this much better? You´re born, you walk pretty much wherever you want, and there is food everywhere. You live in the absolute loveliest corner of the world and you need worry about nothing. Can you get closer to nirvana than that?"

Indeed, can you?

Some knitting

2009-06-13T01:35:00.000+02:00

As you can see, I have not completely given up knitting, I have just had a little less knitting time than normal. What I am doing now is completing all the started projects, I´d really like a "clean slate" by fall.

This is a scarf, or not really. It´s not a functional scarf, it will not keep me warm or anything, it´s more of a fashion statement. To brighten up my face when I´m wearing all black. Or white. Or something. The colors were inspiring, I got the colorscheme off an old sweater that was all washed to pieces.

No, I´m not happy with it. I decided to try something new, started, ripped, started over, ripped and started over again, wanted to rip but decided to stick with it. And this is the result. Ok, but not to die for... - exactly. I might wear it. Might even like it. Eventually.

Light fest

2009-06-12T01:31:00.000+02:00

I pass this very neglected-looking potted plant every day in my work. It´s been set aside at the top of a staircase and I suppose someone, sometimes gives it some water. The pot is small and it´s standing on a narrow ledge in front of a window, almost falling down from the weight of the cactus-like leaves. The winter has been long and dark and the air dry and stuffy.

I have heard that some flowers burst into bloom when they think they are about to die. Or perhaps it´s just a springlight-fest. Whatever - it is amazing.

Going somewhere pretty

2009-06-11T07:29:00.001+02:00

The shop was not open. This bag might otherwise have been mine now. I have no idea when I would have worn it, though. It´s too small to hold my computer and my knitting. It might go with a pretty dress at a wedding or an evening gown which I wear tops once a year because of my husband´s work, but that´s no life for a beautiful bag like this. I´d keep it on display if I didn´t think the exposure to light might hurt it eventually. I´d probably have dressed it in a white cotton bag, stuffed it with a soft pillow and forgotten about it.

Just as well then. I wish it a good future, going pretty places.

Bombs?

2009-06-10T03:08:00.001+02:00

This is a joke from a shop window in Haworth. It is a joke, ... isn´t it?

English food

2009-06-09T07:27:00.000+02:00

This picture is a bit off focus, but I thought I´d share it with you anyway. It´s my first meal in England, on my trip over in April/May. I asked the lady in the pub what to have that was really, really Yorkshire and she recommended a Yorkshire pudding. This is what I got. A plate with another plate on top of it made of bread, filled with vegetables and potatoes and on top of all that two huge slices of the most tender roast beef. And then brown sauce, plenty of it.

By the time I was finished there was enough food left on that plate for another two meals! I did my best though, because it was great. Really, really great food. I have no idea why people sneer at english food.

If I had consulted the menu on the table before I ordered I would have hesitated at the name of the dish. Belly Buster. Good thing I didn´t.

When on holiday...

2009-06-09T07:20:00.003+02:00

... one eats Sticky Toffee Pudding! And carries the extra pounds like a (wo)man.

Good taste

2009-06-08T02:54:00.004+02:00

Fine cuisine is alright, but for me simple cooking is always the best. Many of my best memories, especially travel memories, involve food. This is home made gulasch soup at Café Lyckan in Gothenburg.

Positioning

2009-06-04T18:47:00.000+02:00

It is important how to position yourself. I like to have my back to the wall, something to do (eating breakfast) that does not take all my attention. I like to just watch people go by. This is Landvetter Airport, very very early in the morning and I am waiting for my flight to take me to Manchester, via Kastrup. Perhaps it doesn´t look like much, but it´s a very enviable place to be. Adventure ahead. Actually, sitting there, not doing much, is part of the adventure. Travelling alone has a lot of that going on: just sitting, watching.

Travelling with company is travelling with more eyes than your own. It´s the opportunity to see things through someone elses eyes, as well as being there yourself. By talking and reflecting you are invited to another´s perspective. On the other hand, travelling alone is being deeper into and more aware of your own. The experience is not in any way muddled by stories and references and the voice of another.

Travelling in company and travelling alone is to go by two very different rythms. In company, you are always in that flow of things happening. (At least if you have good company, and you should always choose the best.) Either you create or your friends create. It´s like you are writing the story of your trip together. Alone, you will find yourself outside that flow now and again. You just don´t have the energy to create flow all the time, to create that story. To begin with, that can be a bit stressful not to be part of a story anymore. But if you embrace it, it can be very restful. You just sit there and let other people´s stories pass you by. You are not involved. And just sitting there isn´t even part of your own story - it´s not what you will tell your friends about when you get home.

It´s actually a bit odd taking a picture of it. By doing so, I guess I have made it part of the story.

Up close

2009-06-02T18:43:00.000+02:00

I can´t help myself. I take loads of pictures like this. This picture is from my first day, one of those first hours in Manchester, and I was finding my way from the train station to the museum that I wanted to see. It had been raining that morning. Back home we were still ankledeep in snow and here spring had been going on for a long time. That painted iron fence by the canal. Those lightgreen leaves.

Pilgrimage

2009-05-31T18:39:00.001+02:00

Why did I visit Sylvia Plath´s grave? I read her one novel when I was in my teens, but it did not make a big impression on me. I didn´t make a conscious effort to find out where she was buried either, I just happened to read about it in the Guardian a few weeks before I was passing it, on my way somewhere else. However, it became important to carve out a few hours in my schedule to go there, and to take some time to actually be there.

Before I went, I borrowed a book at the library with her collected short stories. I read a few, but no, nothing stuck. Then I read the preface. I read what her husband, Ted Hughes, had to say about her, about her struggles. And that´s when I realized what drew me to her.

Sometimes people become greater, more important works of art in themselves, than anything they ever made. They talk to us through the way they lived their life, and sometimes in the way they ended it. I think that Sylvia Plath´s last act made her fiction real, made her intentions impossible not to take seriously. She did have something important to say about art, about the calling to art, and the cost of art, and that was what that journey was all about, for me.

Windows, as shows

2009-05-30T01:26:00.002+02:00

My husband once entertained an italian guest in connection with his work. This gentleman was fascinated by the swedish windows. Why? Well, because they are decorated for the outsider, looking, not in perhaps, but just enjoying the display.

I had never thought about this before, but it is right. Of course, sometimes we do want to obscure the view, but that is not, I believe, the primary concern when dressing a window. Most of us consider what the curtains will look like from the outside, we take trouble to display an assortment of flower arrangements and pleasurable personal knick-knacks, and all through December there will be candle-like electric fittings in every window, workplaces as well as homes, as a national display of unity against the forces of darkness and the cold of winter.

I quite like that we are this way, although I must confess: my windows are not in order.

Stocking Stitch

2009-05-28T01:10:00.000+02:00

Found a knitting machine at the MoSI (Museum of Science and Industri in Manchester). For making stockings, I imagine. I like the way it is made of heavy iron - very victorian, very 19th century. And what an invention!

Just imagine what a revolution it must have been, all those machines: the spinning Jenny, the knitting machines, the looms. Not only did it change the work, they changed where we work, when we work, how we think about work. Suddenly there was leisure time, time when one was not working. Of course, for many women it meant there were two places to work, and perhaps that was a big fueling factor for the suffragett movement.

Anyway, I also happen to think this machine is, well, beautiful. Really.

The Thistledown Miracle

2009-05-26T22:26:00.000+02:00

This picture does not make this jacket - yes, it is a jacket - completely justice. It´s that glass that seperates me from it. Understandable, though, as the jacket is actually made of thistledown. Yes, that´s right: thistledown. The idea is incredible, but not as incredible as the stuff, whatever it is, that´s holding it together. Glue? Thread? I couldn´t tell for sure but I´m guessing on the latter.

This jacket is on display at the MoSI - Museum of Science and Industri, in Manchester. It is made by Adrian Bannon. It alone is worth the price of the ticket.

Canal charm

2009-05-24T00:52:00.002+02:00

The english canals used to be the veins of the economic landscape, as late as the mid 20th century. Now, it´s for the tourists and holidaymakers. They still cross the inner cities, I stumbled across them sometimes and they make a nice surprise, far down as they are in the city landscape. Nothing like it back home. Not to mention all the greenery - in the first days of May!

The first picture is from Birmingham and the second one is Manchester. Both hardcore industrial cities. They both made me slightly out-of-breath. Yet, these pictures communicates harmony and peace.

There is something about the presence of water that just makes me calm and happy, like an instant fix of tranquilizer. At home, where I have lived for 18 years, I have water outside my window and I´m sure it affects my psyche on a very fundamental level. And I am sure I am not alone.

Iron power

2009-05-23T18:00:00.000+02:00

A dear friend of mine invites me to dine with her from time to time. She is young and beautiful, modern and entrepreneurial and gets an enviably high rating on the scale of getting-things-done. And, she cooks on an old iron range.

Fascinated, I have taken dozens of pictures of the way she dances around this old thing: feeds it with birch wood, boils the potatos, the veggies, fries the meat, and - belive it or not - there is the most fabulous pineapple cake behind that oven door. She does all this while making interesting conversation with me, answering the phone, petting the cats and I hope that, in the future, she will never be without one.

Again, thanks for the hospitality!

Ascension Day Pleasures

2009-05-22T00:42:00.002+02:00

Today, on Ascension Day, we enjoyed the beautiful weather (not forcast by the weatherexperts) at our local heritage museum, Hägnan. Not too many people there yet, the museum buildings are closed, although the café is open from the beginning of May, apparently. Best café in town too, all home made sandwiches and goodies. We had salmon sandwich and cinnamon buns. Tea and coffee.

I have been here lots of times, but it´s a place impossible to get tired of. And it´s the feeling of it that gets me every time, the detail. All those centuries-old houses, the nails, the handles, the wood that´s been tared and painted over and over. And worn by use and weather, sun, wind, rain and snow. I love that, get such pleasure from it. Love for things does not mean one must own. It´s enough to know that it´s there, it´s ours, and it´s cared for. And I can go there anytime I want.

So can you.

Walkabout

2009-05-20T04:52:00.004+02:00

I have been doing some travelling lately. At times in good company, and at times alone. I can not say I have been doing a whole lot of deep thinking about my life and such, no, I have mainly just bummed around, enjoying where I was. There has been much to enjoy, I was visiting my absolute favourite country: Great Britain.

As I came home I realized I wanted to do some changes to the blogg, mainly, I wanted to give myself the right to write about anything. Hence, the changes. I toyed with the idea of changing more, but I´m quite happy with it as it is now.

What I did not do, during these two weeks, was knitting. It was a hard choice to make, but, as I was going to have to lug all my bags around by myself for a couple of days, and I wanted to visit some special places, so it became very important to keep it light. I packed a very small backpack with a change of clothes, soap and a toothbrush, a computer and a camera, and off I went. It was too small to check in, so - no knitting. As you know, knitters are up on the list among dangerous people, terrorists and such. I didn´t really want any trouble.

I thought, if the urge gets too much for me, I can always pick some knitting up along the way, and mail it back home or something. However, the route I was taking didn´t bring me in contact with any yarnstores at all! Only one I passed by, only it was bank holiday, and the place was closed. What I did see was a lot - yes, a very lot - of sheep along the way that seemed to be overdue for their visit to the hairdresser... Isn´t anyone interested in wool anymore? I´m not, cause I´m allergic, but wool = knitting = well, all sorts of yarn. Who would have guessed?

Finished project, socks

2009-05-05T23:40:00.000+02:00

Simple, everyday socks, with a cabled detail. I get through a few of these in a winter.

Knitted gifts

2009-05-01T23:33:00.000+02:00

The best present ever for special occasions like weddings, births, big birthdays, is an afghan. For an afghan to last and be easy to care for, the best material, in my opinion, is cotton. And white is not a bad idea, since a good bleach will get any stain out. And, it will fit into any colour scheme your recipient favours for the moment. I have sometimes tried to secretly figure out the best colours for a gift, only to be surprised two months later by a total home makeover. Best go with neutrals.

A nice way to deliver an afghan is to buy a pretty gift bag and on top of the folded afghan place two or three lavender bags made from leftover afghan yarn. A sweet match and a sweet scent and truly personal and original. Actually, for small gifts lavender bags are great. But make sure the recipient is not allergic to that particular scent.

Another great idea is a crocheted or knitted purse with a zipper attached, filled with nice things. A prefer crochet, as it gives a sturdier fabric, and you can make a very personal purse, for toiletries or whatever. These small bags are great in larger bags, for travel or every day use, to hold those little things that one needs to carry around. Actually, they would be great to carry small knitting projects in, so that would be a nice gift for a knitter. If you use tunisian crochet, you can embroider on it.

Background processing

2009-04-28T23:22:00.000+02:00

I have this project that kind of goes on in the background. Whenever I get a bit of cotton yarn left over from something, or find a very cheap ball in a shop somewhere, I will crochet a few squares, just plain single crochet, 10x10 cm (or 4x4 inches) and then a row of single crochet stitches all around it. Now I have 150 squares. And whenever I don´t feel like doing anything else, I´ll sew a few of them together. When that´s done, I will probably make a border of some sort. Not sure what.

I like projects like that. They don´t require a plan or a pattern, they just evolve, grow from the hands without much thought. They go on for years and then, almost as a surprise, they are done. Like a gift. From oneself. To oneself.

Because I never give these away. They are like scrapbooks, a collage of memories of the projects I have made during a certain period, and I am the only one who can read it and appreciate it.

Making mistakes

2009-04-25T23:16:00.004+02:00

Making mistakes is no mistake. It´s a challange. I once made a crochet hoodie (actually I didn´t know it was going to get a hood when I started), and started off way too large. What to do? Frog it all? I did not, I just adjusted the width and then used the extra length to give it a bit of waist shape. And it gave me an excuse to use a button there. Two in fact. This gave it some more personality and style.

This sweater was made in 2002 and I have used it a lot since then. It seems not to wear out.

Yarn Memories III

2009-04-22T19:33:00.000+02:00

The archetypal afghan is the one made with granny squares and a variety of colours, all leftovers from other projects. This type of afghan is not one to give away. It´s best appreciated by the maker herself, as she is the only one who can "read" the afghan and who know the stories of all those bits and pieces of projects, many given away as gifts.

Here is a picture of my siblings and I, playing on a classic granny square afghan. I can´t remember it, but granny squares always gives me a warm feeling inside.

Tricks to acrylic knitting

2009-04-20T19:15:00.000+02:00

Use a pair of needles smaller than suggested by the seller. Even if you think you knit tightly. If it says 5mm - 6mm, use 4mm, or 4,5.

Also: don´t use fabric softener when you wash your garments. It seems to slacken the fibres and your sweater will get shapeless fast.

These rules do not apply to scarves. It is not to your disadvantage if the scarf is soft and a bit longer or wider than it was when you made it, it´s not supposed to fit in any other way than by comfort and colour.

Shoes and knitting

2009-04-18T19:00:00.000+02:00

I have a pair of great looking shoes in my closet. For years I wanted a pair just like it, but I found it hard to find one just right for my narrow feet. So, when I saw these and they fit, I bought them immediately.

I have worn them only once. With a jacket and slacks and they were great. They are very comfortable. But.

They don´t work with knits. At all.

Yarn Memories II

2009-04-16T19:07:00.000+02:00

This is a picture of me in a crocheted vest. I think it was, most probably, made by my mother.

When I looked closely at the picture recently it dawned on me that what I´m actually reading there are knitting patterns! And seeing the picture made me remember them.

I was admiring the pictures, of course, and have not thought about them since. But somewhere deep inside my mind they are still there, perhaps only as a structure of mind, a way of thinking and feeling.

A finished project

2009-04-14T18:56:00.001+02:00

My latest finished project, the Milkfibre Scarf. In shades of blue, purple and green, it should liven up many an outfit. Here it makes it´s debut on Easter.

It´s made in a really nice rib I found in an old swedish knitting book, they called it "alpine stitch". Because of the ridges perhaps. You cast on 4 times X stitches plus one. Then you knit 2K, 2P repeatedly and end with 1K. Turn and knit 2P, 2K and so on and end with 1P. Turn and start with 2K again. Easy!

Wearing one´s mistakes

2009-04-12T20:57:00.003+02:00

Knitting can potentially turn anyone into a perfectionist. We are used to machineknit clothing, we know what perfection looks like. There are knitters who think that the unevenness of handknitting is a mark of quality, but my personal experience is that one strives for the perfect sweater or sock, and corrects mistakes whenever one can. Most mistakes are not major, will not change the shape of a garment, but are small glitches in a lacepattern, perhaps, or missing to make that one decrease on the forth row or something. Noone will see the lace imperfection, and it´s nothing really to make the decrease on row five and then again three rows on, but I know. And it makes me less happy than I would have been, had I made it properly, according to my plan (or the pattern, if that´s what you use).

I imagine pattern users have it worse, since I can always change my plan (no, it´s not cheating). The plan never works anyway, it´s not meant to, since I only make one-of-a-kind objects. I´m prepared, to some extent, to parry slip-ups and unexpected yarn behaviour. Or simply changes of heart and mind.

So, I knit a sweater, it has perhaps ten mistakes in it that I made and noticed too late to bother correcting. I try it on, but the sweater is invisible behind the mistakes I know I have made and I chuck it in the closet, somewhere in the back where I can´t see the damn thing.

Fourteen months later I decide to do a closet cleanout. And I find that sweater.

It looks great. I remember knitting it. But not wearing it. Why not? It looks perfectly fine. I have a vague memory of being dissatisfied with it, but looking at it now I can´t remember why. It´s lovely, and it goes so well with.... everything.

The perfect handbag

2009-04-10T20:42:00.000+02:00

I am, I confess, fascinated by handbags. In the first post of this blogg, there is a picture of me at three years old, holding my mum´s handbag, the most wonderful handbag in the world. Alas, even if I owned that bag, even if I could find a bag just like it, I would not use it. It´s just not big enough. A bag must be functional, above all else, to get over my threshold. I can admire, but I will not buy, a bag that does not hold my laptop and my knitting.

For everyday purposes (except when traveling, when black is a must), I present the perfect bag: an english hunting bag, with two small pockets large enough to hold all the things one must carry: wallet, phone, keys, hankies, sugar, ear plugs... And one big compartment to hold the best tool ever, my minicomputer. And my knitting.

Making plans

2009-04-08T18:10:00.005+02:00

I never work with patterns. Well, that´s not quite true. I have worked with two patterns in my entire life and they were crochet patterns.

I buy knitting mags and see a picture, I might see two or three, I see something down town, I see something a friend wears, something in a museum, a painting with wonderful colors or I think I need something to go with that pair of pants or that jacket. And I look for yarn, make a decision about yarn.

Actually, I often buy yarn first, as many knitters do. We can´t help ourselves.

The idea then comes down on paper. I have a special notebook, a gift from a friend, in which I make my design notes. It may look something like this. And the result may look something like that.

Too many hats? Haha!

2009-04-06T21:02:00.000+02:00

There is no such thing as too many hats. I wear hats from October to May and I like to have all kinds of colours. I rarely stray from my perfect pattern: a simple 1K1P rib, with a K-all-round fold that makes a nice edge around the face. I make them with 4mm needles, 100 stitches all around. It makes a light hat, that usually keeps my head at perfect temperature, sometimes with the help of a hooded jacket. If it gets really horribly cold, below -20 Celsius, I usually just wear two hats, one inside the other.

I also like to match my hat to my scarf. Not perfectly, but it´s nice to have a stripe or something from the hat in the scarf. The scarf usually stays on indoors, so the scarf has to match my clothes. And the hat has to match the scarf. That´s the reason why there is no such thing as too many hats, I guess.

I have never made a pair of mittens, though. I have no faith in my ability to make them warm enough. My mittens are black leather and cotton lining and they keep me warm always. They match my boots. If I make anything else to match hat and scarves, it is socks.

And, there is no such thing as knitting too many socks. They wear and they tear. A sock lasts me about four months. It´s totally worth making them, though. After careful empirical study I have concluded that the warmest and driest feet live in thin cotton socks underneath thick acrylic socks. And keeping warm and dry should be anyones first priority.

Mindful knitting

2009-04-04T20:02:00.002+02:00

I am a knitting introvert. A knitt-loner. Actually, knitting can be a great tool when you want to shut the world out for a bit. I learned to knit during a time when it was necessary for me to do so and all my other tools failed me. I couldn´t read any more. I couldn´t watch a movie. I had the shortest attentionspan ever. In knitting you only need to be able to do one stitch. Then another. Then another. Nothing attaches you more effectively to the Now. And when you´re learning and it´s hard, the concentration makes that attachment even stronger.

These days I can knit and listen at the same time. Knitting and talking is harder. I often knit in front of the tv, but if something really interesting comes on, I have to put the knitting down. I can, if I try hard, knit without looking at my hands. But what is the point? It´s not like I knit for the product. I can buy a sweater. I can buy socks. It is all about the process. It is really all about doing something that looks useful and will justify my sitting and doing nothing.

Ok, it is also a lot is about creating something new and interesting and unique. But that happens mainly before you start to knit, when you get all inspired and make your knitting plan. And when your knitting doesn´t turn out according to plan and you have to rethink. But mainly, it´s hours and hours of just making one stitch after another. It´s wonderful.

Knitting needles

2009-04-02T20:37:00.000+02:00

I have several projects going at once. Small ones for the handbag: socks, scarves, hats. Big ones for the sofa: sweaters, afghans. I keep my projects at a variation of different gauges, needlesizes and fibres. Working with 3mm needles with a cotton yarn can make one´s hands a bit tired and it´s a relief to vary with an acrylic sweater on 5mm for a few days. It´s the same with colour. After a week with a big pink something in one´s knee, it´s time to rest one´s eyes on something blueish.

I mostly use circulars. One does not need much space to work with those, and it´s easier on the wrists. For scarves I use short domino needles, and they are the only wooden ones I use. I find that wood doesn´t work as well with acrylics as metal. Or perhaps it´s because I knit firmly. If I could find metal domino needles I would buy them in all the sizes I use: 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 mm. I rarely stray from those sizes, perhaps because of the kind projects I like to make.

Inspiration I

2009-03-30T19:46:00.003+02:00

A painting I saw in a museum and bought a card of. A shirt of wonderful quality and colour that cost me 20 SKR in a charity shop. A pink cotton with a bit of shine in it. What can we do?

Knitting for posterity

2009-03-15T21:30:00.006+01:00

Acrylic is plastic. I hear it lasts forever, unless you torch it. Not good they say, from an environmental point of view. Well, everything has an end and eventually the sun will swallow us and die. Acrylic yarn is easy to care for though, and is usually recommended among knitters for certain projects. Like knitting for children and young parents who don´t care about handwashing. Most knitters will, however, choose "the real thing" for the projects they love. For the people who know the difference. Who are worth it. And the fact that wool and cotton is susceptible to moth and mold, seem to make them even more desirable. Alive, in a way. Like us.

I can understand that if you want your knitting to last a lifetime, to be passed on to your children and their children, then you will want to choose the best material available. A material you love. Please do. But the truth is, most of what we make will end up in the bin, sooner or later, and not because it´s worn out. I remember my great grandmothers jugend embroidery. It was not much appreciated when she died in the 70´s, as I recall. Every time I go to the Red Cross second hand store in my neighbourhood, I find piles and piles of discarded crochet, beautiful lace, doilies, curtains, table cloths. Sold for pennies. Last week I bought a plastic bag with beige, crocheted, hexagonal "squares". Fiftynine bits of what was meant to be a bedspread. There was an old pattern in there also, worn to shreads. I imagine someone died from it, but when? The pattern cost 75 swedish öre when she bought it, that´s like 9 US cents. It was bought at a yarn shop in my town I have never heard about. I imagine the pattern has been used a lot, perhaps her daughters all have bedspreads made from this pattern. I hope they cherish it. I cherish this, the scraps I have "saved" for 25 kronor (about 3 USD).

So, what am I going to do with it? It´s not enough to make an afghan or anything like that. The colour is not too hot. It may work well with white, though, I have used that combination before, in an afghan I made as a weeding gift. I could "frame" the beige pieces with white yarn and make the afghan any size I like. Or, I could dye the squares first. Blue? Red? I could make a jacket, something to wear. A kimono, perhaps.

I think I will sit on it for a while, and ponder. It´s not like I don´t have any other projects on hand. But this little find of mine reminds me of how fleeting life is, and how the things we cherish are also. What we treasure today may be crap tomorrow. And perhaps we should not expect those who come after us to love the things we have loved.

In Sweden we have a strong sense of wanting things to be, wanting ourselves to be, useful. It´s gone as far as funeral guests being asked not to send flowers to the grave, but rather donate the money to a charity, where it can do some good. I´m not against donating money, but can we not see the living flower as a metafor for the life that was lived, and the person that has died? I´m not really sure what this has to do with knitting or crocheting or anything, but I guess I want to say this: enjoy your life and your knitting, do what pleases you and what you feel is right. What you think is beatiful, worthwhile, good and right, may not be so tomorrow. One never knows. The sun will swallow us all.

Seriously Stupid Behaviour

2009-03-15T16:28:00.004+01:00

Being a knitter allergic to wool should not be difficult. If it´s a sheep, avoid it. This has not prevented me from being talked into trying alpacka (yes, by the people selling the stuff), since it is decidedly not a sheep. After knitting a few little things for friends, and being ok, I decided to make myself a sweater from 80% silk, 20% alpacka. It came out beautifully, and I had no problem knitting it (one hour at a time), but when I started wearing it, I got the sneezy, itchy and runny nose and eyes. It was like wearing a cat. I had totally blocked out that I´m actually allergic to animals like cats, dogs, horses and rabbits. And I can now add alpacka to the list. I gave the sweater to a friend who owns, and often wears, two cats, and the sweater even looks better on her, so I guess it was meant to be.

Every allergy sufferer I have talked to in depth about these things confess to having moments of Forgetting, Wishful Thinking or just Not Wanting To Be a Bother. We buy things we can not wear, we eat things that will make us sick, we say nothing when people smell "good". Or we make excuses. Well, there has been instances when I have had to leave a room too fast to have time to think one up. It has been more important to be able to continue breathing. But everytime it happens I am overwhelmed with guilt. I imagine it´s horrible for the person who just got out of the shower, using a sweet smelling shampoo or soap, not at all intending to kill me or anyone else. And often they will say: "but it´s only natural ingredients". Yes, well. Nature is what is trying to kill me. I´m fine with petroleum, titanium, plastic. Some days I think I will have to end my days in a plastic hut in the desert. Preferably with a broadband connection.

This is Seriously Stupid Behaviour, since every time you cause an allergic reaction to something, you will increase your sensitivity to that very thing, and what used to cause, for example, a skin rash can, in another form, turn into an asthma trigger or make you sensitive to certain types of food. Stupid Behaviour will make the world a smaller place, will create more restrictions. So when people suggest that I try and see if it works, I have to say, I´d rather not. Using bad yarn can, and will, make me more sensitive to other things.

I am constantly asking sales people, manufacturers and others who should know about the colofonium content of yarn. Like bamboo. It´s a kind of grass, isn´t it? But it looks woody, you make furniture from it, right? So far, I get no answers. I continue to ask and perhaps one day I will find that person who knows. And the sustainability of acrylic yarn manufacturing? I know plastic bags are bad. No answers. I sometimes read on the net about acrylic being made by petroleum by-products, which sounds nice, like "well, we have it anyway, might as well make something useful". Or that wool and cotton making are a much greater burden on the climate than spinning plastic yarn. But this seems to be hearsay, uncorroborated, or perhaps Wishful Thinking. I don´t know, but the lack of information is unsatisfactory, to say the least. There are acrylic yarns that are made from recycled acrylic in the US, but is it sustainable behaviour to buy yarn from the other side of the world and have it shipped here on an airplane? I just don´t know.

Persuasive yarn

2009-03-13T02:26:00.006+01:00

Yarn can, and will, talk you in to things if you let it. In my local yarnshop, sometimes there will turn up a basket of a one-of-a-kind-offer of yarn, something that is not usually in stock. Sometimes it is large balls of acrylic, 350 - 500 grams, in odd, trendy colorways. I honestly don´t know where it comes from or why they seem to make limited amounts of it. When it´s gone, it´s gone.

I fell for one such ball of 350 grams of something called California Valinda, from a manufacturer called Cewec. A search on the internet seems to suggest this company mainly makes embroidery kits. Anyway, this colorway shifts from bright yellow to a strawberry red and orange hues in between. It turned into a great hat, scarf and a pair of socks that look so great I haven´t had the heart to start using them. I just pet them and admire.

While I was making these, and enjoying this very soft, very lovely yarn, I started to fantasize about making an entire, big sweater from it, in blue. I seemed to remember that I saw blue somewhere there in the basket. Of course, once i got my monthly paycheck and returned to the yarnshop, there were no blue balls. Perhaps I had dreamed them up. There were only two colorways in enough yarn to make a sweater, a very ugly one that I can´t exactly recall, and a pink/white. Pink? On me? Actually, it took about 30 seconds to decide it would be extremely becoming.

So here it is: my latest project. I know I will look great in pink...

Yarn Memories, part I

2009-03-08T18:59:00.009+01:00

I became an enthusiastic crocheter at about age five, six or seven. My mum taught me. I remember she gave me a ball of bright orange acrylic yarn (yes, it was the 70´s) that she had been using to make dresses and a sweater for my sister, my brother and I, for my uncle´s wedding. We were supposed to be matching the bride I guess, who wore a long, very elegant orange velvet skirt and white silk blouse. I was five when they were married, so perhaps I was six when I first attempted to master the hook.

I can´t find a picture of the pretty orange dresses, but one (that´s my brother behind me) that proves that we were dressed in home made knits from the very beginning. And I love that I´m holding my mum´s handbag- I have all my life tried to find it´s match! It´s the archetype of handbags...

When I got tired of making chains, I learned to crochet in the round. I made "doilies" that looked more like small baskets than doilies, but my mother applied some heavy-duty blocking methods involving a very hot iron and then placed the things under flower pots. I considered myself an expert from the start and have been crocheting after my own head ever since.

Knitting did not come naturally for me, though. My first, and only, knitting experience before the ripe age of forty, was making a cotton doll in school, where we had "sewing shop" once a week. I never really got the hang of it, and crocheting seemed so much easier, with only one stitch to juggle at a time, being able to put that stitch anywhere I wanted. Crocheting was relaxed, knitting seemed all about control. From the beginning I played with yarn, never used patterns, and knitting was just harder to understand.

Finally, a book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee accidentaly fell into my lap during a very stressful time in my life. "Meditations for women who knit too much" is a hilarious read for anyone who is the smallest bit obsessional by nature. I decided to learn. It took me a year of very persistant trying, failing, failing a bit more interesting and now I feel quite as expert a knitter as I still am a crocheter.

Writing this blogg is a way for me to express my love, my thoughts, my ideas about the yarn arts. I also have questions about fibre, about the ecological aspects of my fibre of choice that I hope I will be able to answer in the future. I find very little written about acrylics - it seems to be almost a fibre shunned by those who have a choice in the matter. I hope to contribute to amend this, perhaps there are other acrylic lovers out there?