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. 

 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

Sitting around the fire knitting at the inn.

 

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

 

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

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.

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!

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.

 

 

 

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.

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!