Too Many Hand-knit Sweaters

I'm doing some decluttering and organizing in my home.  I started with the most difficult room--my bedroom.  We don't  have a walk-in closet, but have 3 separate small closets.  (Our bedroom has 10 doors and 1 window.)  Of those doors 5 are closet doors. I started with the closet that I use the least, took everything out, reorganized it and put some back in.  Then I tackled the one where I store my sweaters, other kit tops, jeans, shorts and shoes. Here's what it looked like before.

I took all the hand-knit sweaters out and put them on the bed.

I count 30 here, but that doesn't count the short-sleeved ones and those knit in cotton. Those I had actually organized before I thought abut snapping some photos.  There are only about a dozen of those, so that was easier.

Unfortunately this is the space I had to put them back into. The two stacks on the right are the cotton and short-sleeved sweaters.

But I managed it! They all went back in and should stay that way for a while as I am not wearing wool too much these days.  I have a sweatshirt on today, but in the summer when I'm cold I wear sweatshirts, not wool sweaters.

Today I finished up the other closet and I went through my dresser drawers earlier this week. 

I still may have too many sweaters, but by April I'm starting to get tired of wearing the same 23 sweaters and look for more. That's when I pull out the older ones that I don't wear early in the winter. When you wear wool from September through April you do need a good selection.

On the knitting front, I have completed two shawls and a pair of socks this summer and am starting on a sweater-vest.

Technorati Tags: hand-knit sweaters,decluttering,organizing

Knitting shawls, sweaters, etc.

I can't think of a title for this entry.  I decided to put up some pictures of my knitted projects for this winter and spring.

None of these pictures are very good.  I've lost patience with photographing myself.  I try several different photos and then just give up and use the best of what I have.

This cardigan is called Gnarled oak.  It was designed by Alana Dakos and appears in the book called Coastal Knits, by Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig. I used some yarn I bought in Finland. Mine came out a bit small, so I decided not to put buttons on it.  That way I can't button it, which would cinch it in and make it look too tight on me. It's okay as an open cardigan.

 

The next one is called Blackberry and Lichen by Candace Eisner Strick. The name refers to the colors she used, but I used completely different colors.  I tried this first with Kauni yarn, which is a gradient color yarn, but it didn't work out, so I tried making up my own color scheme. I'm not completely happy with it, but I think I'll wear it next fall. It is knit in Jamieson Spindrift.

 

Here is a picture of the sleeves before they were cut apart. I knitted both at the same time with steeks between them, then cut them and sewed them up. This makes the stripes come out the same on both and makes it easier to do the increases with the pattern. I've had trouble with that before.

Then I saw a model in a shop for this vest and wanted to try it. I've never done entrelac before. It wasn't hard at all. This yarn, which is what the designer used worked out perfectly.  You never change colors. The yarn does that for you. This also, I think I'll wear in the fall. The pattern is called Gina, as is the yarn. The design is by Sarah Punderson.

 

And then I've completed 2 shawls and have two more on the needles.

The first is called Color Affection by Veera Välimäki. It's an interesting asymmetrical design. I made it a little smaller than the pattern said, but it seems large enough for me.

 

My last completed project is this shawl called Maia, by Rosemary Hill. It's in an ebook called 7 small shawls to knit, but can also be bought separately through Ravelry.

 

Here's the back.

 

That's my knitting update.

 

Technorati Tags: knitting,shawl,sweater,cardigan

Just Rosemaling

I had intentions of blogging more often this year, but then I got into ancestry research and did that instead.  I have also been taking another rosemaling class and finally after 12 years, I really feel I'm getting the hang of this.  Here are a few of the items that I have done this spring. 

 

Here's a sketch on cardboard. This is my own design. I like experimenting with the placement of the scrolls.  Some of my favorite designs have no flowers in them.

This one's done on matboard.  I'm working with oils now, which provide different challenges than the acrylics.  They smudge more, because they dry so slowly. I'm learning.  The oils dry with a nice shiny finish, and are quite bright on a wooden surface. On matboard, however they dry flatter and more quickly. I can claim this design as my own. Though I was looking at a photo of another design, I really didn't come that close to the other one.  It was much more involved than this one.  I may try again next class.  Mainly I'm trying to vary the position of the basic scrolls and the shapes of the flowers.

This is a plate I painted for my wall. After moving some things around, I felt I had room for another plate. This is a design I worked out over several weeks.

 

And here are two examples I photographed in class.

This one is by Nancy Schneck. I posted one of hers last time. Note the unusual border treatment in this one. I should try to paint this one too. There are some interesting things going on here.

 

And here's a detail of one by Oscar Kjetsaa.  This style is too different from mine for me to want to copy it. It's very soft and round. All of these are in the Telemark style.  I don't try to do any other style. It's definitely my favorite. 

 

Technorati Tags: rosemaling

Intellivision hats and some professional rosemaling

That sounds like a good pairing, doesn't it?  I actually was going to do a post about Christmas decorating and paper trees, but decided to save that one for later.  It would have made sense before Christmas, but now I figure it doesn't matter when I do it.
KNITTING
I was then going to do a post about knitting and had photos of these hats to start and then realized that's all I had.  I am also working on a sweater, but it's not at a point that I want to photograph it or talk about it, so all I have is these hats that I made for Christmas gifts.  My son asked for a hat with this Intellivision logo on it.  He sent me the logo back in September, maybe.  so I worked it up and knit him a hat for Christmas. 


I wasn't sure if my other son would want one too, but when he saw his brother's he decided he wanted one too, so he and I worked together to convert the image he found on-line into a graph for knitting.  My sons are 38 and 33, so they played with Intellivision when they were little. I made his using left-over yarn when we traveled to Virginia for New Years at my sister's.


And here they are both together. The Intellivision logos work well for knitting, because they used very low-resolution graphics.  I could have made a better-looking skier, but then it would have looked less like the original blocky Intellivision figure. I used Jared Flood's "Turn a Square" pattern, but worked it flat until I'd completed the intarsia logo. Then I joined it and finished it in the round.  Oh, in both cases, after finishing the hat, I ripped out the ribbing at the bottom and reknit it going down.  For the first one the hat was about an inch too long, and for the second, I just didn't like the way the ribbing looked.


I also made two hats like this one for my niece and her boyfriend. 


That's a mock-cable pattern and it worked up quickly.  This is the Cross-stitch-mock-cable-hat by Barbara Benson.  That's pretty much it for the knitting.  The sweater I'm knitting is on a 2.75mm needle and is taking a long time.
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------Interlude to change subjects------La la la la la--------
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ROSEMALING

I do have some interesting Rosemaling photos. I took these last fall in the classroom.  My teacher has been rosemaling for many years and has worked with some excellent rosemalers.  She has some samples done by some pretty famous rosemalers.  If you've never heard these names, then you are not a rosemaler. 

This one is by Nancy Schneck in 1984. I love the whimsy here. And the unexpected straight lines right in the middle.  Wonderful!

This one is by Sigmund Årseth. (There should be a little circle over the 'A', but it doesn't show up very well.)  This is an older example of Sigmund's work. He always had a quick, free stroke, but his more modern work is more angular.  This is more rounded.  He is one of the very few rosemalers to use white in his work.


And here are two by my teacher. She is very talented.  Her name is June Nyberg. This plate you can see is finished with a reddish stain letting the wood grain show through. I love these soft colors on the reddish background.


Here's another one by June.


And finally a couple done by me.


Not quite the same quality, but I'm working on it. For this one I used Sigmund's as inspiration.



I'm going to try to blog more often this year.  I still have some photos from Finland I need to put up on the other blog.  I got started once, but ran into the holiday rush.
Do leave me a comment.  I love comments. 

Technorati Tags: rosemaling,Intellivision logo,hats