Monday, August 22, 2011

Rosemaling fit for a King?

Specifically the King of Norway.  I've been asked to paint a panel to by hung at  Norway Hall in downtown Duluth. They are sprucing up for the King's visit. So I have been painting this for the King Of Norway. He is expected to visit Duluth on October 17th.

 

So here is my panel.  It is one of 4 being done in different styles by 4 rosemalers in our local rosemaling society, The Twin Ports Rosemaling Society. 

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I think the colors are truer in this one, but the glare is worse. I wish I knew how to get rid of the glare when photographing rosemaling.

And here are a couple early photos that I took before it was finished.

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My rosemaling teacher was originally chosen to do this panel in the Telemark style, but she is facing cataract surgery and called me a few weeks ago and asked me to do it.  I was honored.  Mine is certainly not as nice as what she would have done, but I hope it will brighten up the Norway hall.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Kauni effektgarn Thistle design and The Knit-a-Journey retreat

January/February update:

I started on this sweater using Kauni effektgarn, which I  bought in December at my local yarn shop.  This yarn changes color from tan to beige to cream to off-white to grey and back to tan, with very long color repeats.  I started with two balls of the same colorway, but started at different points in the gradual color change.  This is the effect it gives.  I have now bound off the shoulders and am cutting the steeks for a v-neck and armholes. This yarn is very "sticky" so I'm probably not going to sew the armhole steeks.  I am picking up around the neck opening to do a corrugated border around the rib v-neck.  I'll try to post some more pictures as I make more progress. 

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The bits of maroon yarn are the scrap yarn that I put the bound-off stitches onto at the base of the armhole (13) and v-neck.  The pattern said to bind off 4 for the v-neck and when picking them up do a K2tog and ssk with those 4 stitches.  But the design has a center stitch, so I thought it would be one stitch off if I did that.  I think maybe I should have done 5 or 1, but I did 3.  So in picking those up, I tried to fix it so the center stitch is on top and I did a dec 2 putting the other two behind it.  If it looks odd, I'll take it out and try something else.  I often have to redo the necklines of my sweaters (see many previous posts).  So that's where I am with my knitting now.

Adding one more picture after finishing the neck opening and cutting open the armholes.  It looks so much better this way.body-done

In January I helped host a retreat for listeners of Susan Dolph's Knit a journey podcast.  Three knitters from the Twin Cities area and one from Tennessee came for the weekend.  Most of them stayed at a lovely Victorian B&B about 1 mile from here.  I had them over here for supper Saturday and Sunday evenings.  We went for a hike in Hartley Park on a very cold, but sunny day.  We visited two local yarn shops, we played games and sat and knitted and chatted.  It was a lovely weekend. 

Here are a few photos from that weekend:

Breakfast Breakfast at the inn, listening to the owner recount the history of the Mathew Burrows Inn.

 

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Atop Rock Knob in Hartley Park on a day when it was 5°F. Betsy, Allison, Laurie, Susan.

 

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A dessert that looks like it has raw wool on top, but it was spun sugar.

 

IMG_5718 Sitting around the fire knitting at the inn.

 

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Sitting up in the third floor sitting area of the inn. Me, Betsy, Lisa, Susan, Allison.

 

IMG_5735Lisa, Susan and Betsy on the shore of Lake Superior.

Friday, January 7, 2011

2011 is here!

I didn't keep up with this blog last year, in part because I really did do more painting.  I also kept knitting and spent more time outdoors as long as the weather was nice.  Now that it is in the single digits outside (-15 to -20C for those not in the US) it's just too cold to be out more than I have to.

 

Here are two pictures of my living room decorated for Christmas.  I tried to come up with something different this year for the mantel.

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Here's a close-up.  I made some of those paper trees for my dining room table and then decided to do some more for the mantel, because I really liked how they turned out and they were so easy!

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For the first time, I knitted some Christmas gifts - 4 hats and some fingerless gloves. And I did some rosemaled plates for Christmas too.

Here are a few of the items I painted last fall.

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And here is the sweater I finished last fall.  It is made from Bergere de France yarn that I bought in Falaise, Normandy, when we were there in May. Pictures from that trip are on my website.

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There, that wasn't so hard and didn't take too long.  Maybe I'll try to keep this up better this year.  (This would be more likely if I got comments from those reading it.)

I did do a better job of keeping up my travel blog last year, which is linked at the top of this one.

 

Happy New Year to all who are reading this! 

I hope 2011 is an exceptionally wonderful year for you!