Here are a few sketches I did last spring in class.
These two are basically the same design, but with different colors.
And then the mangletre that I painted in the class I took last week.
I really had no idea that I was painting in the same colors as the sketch I had done in class 3 months ago. I have a place to hang this at home next to the cupboard where I keep my iron. Do you know what a mangletre is? It's Norwegian.
While I didn't resolve to blog more often this year, I had planned to try to write a new entry every month, but that hasn't happened. It's been an unusual year with my mother passing away in February and lots of travel.
I have been knitting, though and did finish the Knit Picks kit that is pictured above. It is one of Knit Picks "historical" sweaters. The inspiration for the design comes from traditional Norwegian sweaters, but my Setesdal below is actually much more like the traditional sweater. Still I think it's a nice-looking sweater. I made a few changes, but nothing major. I've worn it once or twice, but it is a pretty heavy wool, so I don't expect to wear it again until next fall.
There's more information about this one on my Ravelry project page if you want to know more.
I have been to Taiwan and Normandy, France in the past two months. There are pictures from Taiwan on my travel blog, (link above on right) and the Normandy pictures can be found here.
I'm currently working on a lace shawl, but did buy some yarn in Falaise, Normandy, France for another Norwegian-style sweater.
That's my June update.
I have had a lot of stuff happen in my family this past two months. But things are settling down again and I'm knitting again. I finished the black and white Setesdal-style sweater.
It was warm enough out on our deck to sit out here yesterday. This is where I did the picking up of stitches for the placket. The light here was great. Then I knitted the placket and started on the collar. I finished up weaving in the ends and tacking down the inner facings today and wore the sweater to my yarn shop. I prefer taking pictures outside, so took this when I got home again.
And I have started a new one. This one is a kit by KnitPicks. I bought it because the price was right and I liked the sweater. So far I have one cuff and half the sleeve done. Doing these one after another is helping me hone my skills and remember the things I did wrong the last time.
Here is the cuff and sleeve so far. Well, actually it's a little longer than this, as I took this yesterday morning.
That's it for this time.
I'm going to try to update this blog once a month. So here goes for February.
KNITTING
I started a Norwegian style pullover early in January. My knitting group at my local yarn store decided to all do Norwegian sweaters starting in January. Since this fits right in with my resolution for 2010, I thought this was a good time to start a Setesdal style sweater. I've wanted to do one of these for a long time, but was waiting until I felt my 2-color knitting was up to the task.
Here is what I have of it so far. It's going pretty quickly. I'm sticking to the very simple, basic Norwegian shaping, which is very little. More modern Norwegian and Dale designed sweaters are much more complicated than this, but I decided to see how this would go with very little structure. I'm not adding steek stitches, but will cut at the sides for the armholes and at the neck for the neck opening. It will have a placket.
This is the body and lower part of the sleeve. I'm ready to start the patterning at the top of the sleeve. I pulled designs from Setesdal Sweaters, by Annemor Sundbo, and made up my own pattern from there. The traditional Setesdal sweaters, which are named after the valley of Setes in Norway, were worn by men and had embroidered wool fabric cuffs and plackets. I'm not going to do the wool fabric. I want this to be a comfortable everyday sweater to wear in the Duluth winters. There is some more information on my Ravelry page.
ROSEMALING
I signed up for another class in Rosemaling. It meets one day a week for 8 weeks. It started yesterday. I didn't have a project to work on, so spent the time doodling on paper. Here is what I did.
And here:
I was just trying to get back into the feel of handling the brushes and thinking about my designs. I practiced with a round brush, a filbert and a liner.
I actually made some New Year's Resolutions this year. I don't do this every year, but when I have done it I've been pretty good about accomplishing those resolutions. So in 2010 I resolve to:
1.) Become more proficient at two-color/Fair Isle /Nordic knitting. This means that I will continue to practice these techniques. When I finish one project I'll start another 2-color project. Always before when I finish one, I decide to do something different like cables and then much later go back to two-color knitting. I think by doing it this way I'm not getting much better. I also think one way to improve my stitches is to stop and rest my fingers frequently.
2.) Complete some rosemaling project every month. If I can't get a plate or bowl or something done I'll try to finish 4 ornaments or small things. This way by next Christmas I'll have some ornaments to give away.
3.) Get more exercise--hopefully some every day. I haven't come up with a specific goal for this one, so I don't know how well this will work out. I got lots of exercise yesterday in the house going up and down the stairs. I was cleaning, doing wash, working on the computer and doing the stairs a lot. I was exhausted by dinner time. This is why I need to get more exercise every day--so I don't get exhausted.
I'm not going to resolve to be a better blogger, because if I do the other things something might have to go and it might end up being the blogging. But on the other hand I might have more to blog about, so maybe I'll keep it up better than before.
I have started my first Nordic sweater of the year, but there's very little to show so far.
Instead I'm going to post some belated Christmas pictures. I put the tree in a new location this year and my two nieces Nina and Laura were here to help decorate it and I think it is one of the prettiest trees I've had, so here are a few pictures of Christmas at my house this year.
And here's my dining room table.
