Of course I had to wind the yarn. And of course I couldn't stand the constant begging-to-be-made of my swatch-to-be...

I had never dreamed I would enjoy knitting fair isle again as much as I actually find myself doing! I think it is Eunny Yang's fantastic design and sense of color that did the trick for me. I am using almost the same colors as in the original. However, since this is not Jamieson's Spindrift, albeit still shetland wool - there are just a few slight changes. The dark blue I use is slightly heathered with hints of green which makes it a wonderful dark indigo shade. The Pistachio is substituted with a beige/sand shade and the Scotsh broom with a sand/green/yellow heathery shade. Also, my Old gold shade is heathered and my Bracken-equivalent is a bit brighter than the original.  I kept to the origninal's distribution of colors and I am really amazed of how wonderfully they blend in together! I made my swatch using 2,5 mm needles and not 3 mm as called for, thinking I am a loose knitter. However, my gauge here came out a bit too tight so the 3 mm will hopefully be just perfect.

So then I need one 3 mm circular. I think I have at least 2. Maybe more. But they are busy. I am really puzzeled now, how do I solve this??!

 

 

The yarn appeared.

The reds:

 

The golden greens:

 

And the rest:

The rose. The swatch is begging to be made.

 

Look at this blog with the coolest blogname ever. I am getting seriously and helplessly drawn into dreams of fair isle. Not this fair isle, well maybe too. But this fair isle. Maybe it started here. Maybe I won't be cured until I knit this. In my dreams. For the time being.

In the meantime I just had to start a long-time-planned project...Enid cardigan from IK winter 06:

I'm using Rauma finull which seems to be spot-on gauge. I really had forgotten what a pleasure it is to knit with plain wool yarn on 3 mm addi turbos - the knitting from my youth revisited... After seeing this fantastic sweater-version I decided to flip around too, and knit it from the neckline and down. It's much easier to adjust the size and length that way. I am so far planning on making the cardigan version. I just need to retrieve my steeking-mojo, from way back in time...

Modified Cobbelstone, cardi-version is getting ready for the yoke..

And I am getting ready for the rest of the evening wich involves some serious knitting and some serious gangsters...

 

Attacked by some kind of virus that doesn't keep me in bed with a fever - but bad enough to keep me on the couch with my knitting.... - I find myself obsessed with natural coloured yarn and the different kind of textures they make, depending on stitches used. My yarnstash has undergone thourogh scrutiny in order to dig out the most textural and natural looking yarn I could think of. Strange virus - makes your brain go all fibery...

First, I remembered 2 skeins of discontinued angora tweed I bought on sale last winter - just because I love the feel of it and I loved the shade still available at the time. (This yarn was discontinued only to be relaunched last winter with less available shades than before..) My texture-urge made me cast on for "Annefødder", the fabulous Anne's version of a birdsfeet pattern. The yarn might very well be perfect for this, but very soon I discovered that I would not have enough yarn to make the scarf so wide and long as I wished.

Then why not...crochet?

I'm amazed by the texture this yarn is capable of making. Before prosessed through needles of any kind it looks a bit flat and more like a 100 % wool yarn. After knitting or crocheting it gets a wonderful halo due to the angora content without shedding much at all. This might show the difference better:

Almost at the end of 2nd skein now..

But still, I'm not quite done with the birdsfeet...

My mind continued playing with this texture-thing and kept searching through the mind-version of my stash - and pling - I remembered this fibertreasure found in Copenhagen last year:

Navia, 2 ply:

It's so light and full of air! 350 m pr 50 g!

I tried different stitches and I really think this yarn looks best in simple garter st:

Here are some birdsfeet in the making - but not as a scarf. I will make a humble attempt on knitting a modified cardigan version of the Cobblestone pullover from IK 2007. I have done some math and who knows, - it might work! I really also want to make the real sweater-version - pling! - I just realized I might have the perfect textured, tweedy yarn in my stash for it.....! (Maybe I should go to bed after all..)

 

Once upon a time there was this wannabesummertop. Somehow it didn't seem to work for me - maybe it was the brick illusion, maybe it was the density of the fabric, I really don't know - but I never found motivation to finish it.

But I like the yarn. It's actually two yarns, this (50 % linen, 50% viscose) and this /75 % cotton, 25 % linen) Knit together in simple st st it comes out like this:

 

Which transformed into Coachella, (first funny name..):

details:

pattern: Coachella, Knitty summer 07

yarn: Marianne Isager viscolin and bomulin - a little bit more than 100 g each.

needles: 4,5 and 5 mm circulars

It's a great pattern, fun and easy to knit. The fit is perfect - although it looks like a shapeless cylinder before you put it on. Really clever design!

There might still be a summer WIP or two in progress... but with temperatures now dropping to 13 centigrades they will have to rest for a while...

So next up is a warm woolly coat that just has to come alive. That's second funny name - Flicca! I am knitting it in one piece and plan on making it a raglan - like this fabulous version. I use two strands of Marianne Isager Tvinni tweed and one strand of Jaggerspun zephyr- which results in a quite interesting fabric:

Lovely lovely wool and silk - I don't mind the days getting colder and the evenings getting darker...

I found a great deal of it in Italy this summer. How could you not, staying in a place like this?!:

Sweet, sweet Tuscany, I miss you a lot!

Anyway, I am back, still happy and happily knitting! I might even get around to show off some of it any day soon!

Knitting has been quite slow lately - and blogging has been very slow... However,- life is good and very busy and I am sooooo ready for vacation! I promise to bring some knitting but I might get a little bit distracted by the surroundings.... I will be back later this summer and hope to have regained my knitting-and-blogging-mojo by then!! Ciao!!

Last year some happiness arrived in my mailbox.. I was hoping the yarn would be perfect for another lace odyssey. There is no other way to find out but to swatch!

On 2 mm needles:

I de-oiledand blocked the swatch. The yarn is not only perfect for this. It was born for this project. The heathery green ("highland glen") - the lightness - the softness - it's truly magickal! My measurements tell me that it will make a slightly smaller shawl than the one shown in agol - but that is fine with me.

I just needed to get started..

So I will let it rest for a while, dedicating my stitch-time to Rosebud..

I love this time of the year. It's the time of freshness, of growing and of expectations.

Knittingwise this air, this lightness and burst of nature whisper lace and leave my mind open to be inspired by fantastic knitters like this - and this - and this.

For a long time I have been wanting to knit a Shetland style shawl - a real one  - using the "real stuff" - the thinnest 1-ply Shetland cobweb yarn. The online place to go is of course this one. Last year I got me a copy of the Heirloom Knitting book and I find myself lost inside of it over and over. What a great place to escape to when every-day chores get too many! I am really so impressed by Sharon Miller's work, the gathering and categorizing of old lace patterns and making them available to knitters of today. 

I have had my eyes on one of the projects from her site for quite some time. It's lace knitting -meaning every other row is plain knitting as opposed to knitted lace where every single row is knitted in pattern. I'll have to make this a summertime daylight project - beacause I settled on  - black! But in good daylight it is really working quite well.

It might take a couple of summers... This is my progress so far - about 12 cm of the center panel:

I am so impressed with this yarn. It is sooo thin but yet posesses an incredible bounce and life. Knitted up it is even more bouncy and spongy - really very fascinating. I can indeed imagine that it will block ectremely well. Some day...

About the TDCLB (hah! - google put me first!..) - I did eventually reach the armpit of despair... Went perfectly fine, actually!:

Then finally, the mindless stuff inbetween lace:

What might this be?!

Today's post is totally not fiber related. No wait. Flags are made of fiber.

Yesterday was Norway's constitution day. As a child - as most children - I loved that day. Beyond all other days in the year. How could you not - the world looks completely different on this day - there are flags, flowers, music, smiling faces, gorgeous costumes and unlimited amounts of ice-cream, cakes, sodas and sweets. And of course - the most important - the parades, first and foremost the children's parade. The day is exceptional - totally different from every other day in the year.

So where is this day of joy heading?

Hopefully moving ahead as a day to celebrate freedom, peace, democracy and children. All children. And let the children carry any flag they want - with dignity and pride. Together:

In my opinion allowing only one flag in this celebration is - at it's best - ignorant. At it's worst it is excluding and nationalistic. I'm glad to live in a town that - seemingly, hopefully moves foreward.

It's the constitution we celebrate. A constitution that is based on democratic values. Let's keep it that way.

And prepare a party and then eagerly wait for the guests..

And then, the day after...

cleaning up, restitution and contemplation.