Finishing out year and starting up the new one

I finished the White Clovers pullover. It went up and down several times as I tried to get the fit right in the shoulders and neck. Here it is finished as the designer has written the pattern, with a turtle neck:

Then I ripped it back again and finished it with a crew neck. I like the looks of the crew neck much better. The Vamsegarn has softened up nicely with wearing. I am really enjoying this sweater. I can see myself making more sweaters like this. It was fast to make in this worsted(almost aran) weight yarn and it fits beautifully.

I also finished knitting the Navy Felted Mittens from the book LVS 3, well they will be felted when I find time to put them in the washer. Our washer stays really busy with laundry around here because of our big family so finding time for felting can be difficult. Last weekend we were gone for four days. When all the suitcases were empty we had a pile the size of "Mount Washmore" as a friend calls it. I always feel like I should have more than one project to felt when I do it since it takes so much water. So maybe I should make some more mittens! Here they are before felting:


Lisa came home from Alaska for Christmas and was telling us about how cold it was up there. She has been buying extra clothes for layering to keep warm. I made her a pair of rag-wool socks while she was home. They are made with Raumaragg yarn, the yarn that the Norwegians use for ski socks. Lisa says that I can make more of these!


I also had picked out a nice sock weight yarn for her birthday in early January. I started knitting those just after her birthday and have one finished so far. Lisa has returned to Alaska so I will have to mail them when they are both finished.


It has been a productive knitting year. Now on to the next year!

White Clovers pullover sweater

I have been making a sweater for myself! Not for display in the shops but for me to wear! I had been looking at what I had to keep me warm this winter and found that I really didn't have much for warm sweaters. This will be a wonderfully warm, wool sweater for these cold, cold days.

As I was thinking about what to make I ran across a pattern that a designer wanted to have tested to make sure there weren't any errors. It is a simple design with lots of stockinette and a bit of stranding to spark it up. We have found a few places where she needed to make changes in the pattern. Good to get those fixed before some unsuspecting knitter tries to make it and can't understand why it isn't working.

I am using Rauma Vamsegarn in a very dark teal with white and a lighter blue-green for the accent bands. This is one of my favorites of the Rauma yarns.

I don't have a full picture of it yet but I took some pictures as I have worked so I will see if I can put them together to give you the idea of what it will look like.


The sleeves also have the small design border at the bottom like at the hem of the sweater. I ripped back to the wider top border last night because the neckline was going to be too high. I will start the decreases just above the border instead of knitting several rows first. It should be done soon. Then I can wear it! Ahhhhh, warm!!

Mitts and Mittens, oh my!

I have been knitting a lot of mitts and mittens this summer. You would think that I would want to knit tank tops or something cool for summer wear. But this summer mittens really took over my knitting.

In August before I went to Norway I sent off a couple of pair of very simple children's mittens to a Ravlery group project called For the Children of Pine Ridge. They were bright orange and purple. Should go over well with children on the reservation there if they are anything like my own children. I used my own pattern for these. I have knit so many basic mittens this way that I finally wrote up the pattern for it. You can find it here.


Then I started a pair of Latvian Mittens from the book of that name by Lizbeth Upitis. I chose 5 colors of Lamullgarn that I liked together. I really wanted to learn some new techniques from this book. There are beautiful scalloped edges, braids and rows and rows that use up to 3 colors at the same time in the row -- yes, I am a glutten for punishment when it comes to kntting. It was really hard to choose a pattern because there are so many beautiful mittens in this book. I finally decided to make mitten #5 because it was fairly simple designs, had the scalloped edge and only had a few rows knit with 3 colors in the row--I have my limits after all! The braids will have to be in the next pair.


The first mitten is just past the thumb opening. I am using 2mm needles with 72 stitches. Tiny, tiny! It grows very slowly. What was I thinking? They are beautiful though, right? They were starting to get a bit tedious and they are hard to take along. It gets to be a big bag full of knitting when you are using 3 balls of yarn at the same time. So they have been resting for a while.


Last week I happened to see that a designer was looking for some people to test knit a new pattern. Sure, why not? I only have .....ahem....lots of projects on the needles already. So I started another one. These were short fingerless mitts so they wouldn't take long, right?

The first mitt came out a little bigger than I need but should fit someone with just a slightly larger hand well. They are worsted weight in a nice denim blue and creamy white. They will be great for those cool winter days when your hands are getting cold but you still need them to type or knit. Or under mittens for those really cold days when you know you are going to have to take the mitten off at some point to dig the car keys out of your pocket.


I made that one mitt and decided to try a different yarn because it was a bit lighter and might fit me better. So came this one in a dark teal green and blue. Mmmm, nice colors and a good fit too. I finished the first blue and white one and made the green and blue one on our trip to Wisconsin this weekend for a wedding. That's why I took the pictures in the car. Great place to take pictures on a sunny day, by the way. It was perfect lighting. I really didn't need the warmth of the mitts though because it was well into the 70's the whole weekend. Beautiful trip too because the trees were gorgeous, but that is another story.


So, where was I? Oh yea, I made this one mitt and then started the second blue and white one..... but once again, I was distracted. I found some dark and light purple PT5 Sport yarns just calling out to be mitts for Amy. Amy loves purple. It is getting cold soon. So Amy needs mitts. Of course, I had to start those right away don't ya' know?

Working, working

I have been so busy since I got back from Norway! My kids are back to homeschooling, things are slowly getting sorted out with my father-in-law's estate--very slowly, the household routine is getting back to more or less "normal" and I have been knitting, of course!

My knitting lately has been primarily for some patterns that I have been working on. I finally have the first new on up! DN1009 Mohair Mix-Up Mitts and Hat is a pattern that I developed to use the Plumet Mohair yarn that I have on the web site. It is such a nice quality yarn and very light weight. In this pattern I used it in combination with another yarn to add that soft touch to the mittens and hat.

I have knit a LOT of mittens over the years for my 8 children and charity efforts. I have developed a favorite way of knitting them for a good fit. You may notice that the thumbs are on the sides so they are reversible. That is very handy for small children.


The hat is made mostly from the leftovers from the mittens. It is a very simple hat with a rolled brim knit in the round. A nice way to coordinate the mittens to the hat without being too matchy.

This mitten has the Plumet mohair just in the lime green stripes. The second yarn is PT5 Sport.


This one is made with Rauma Tykk Magi, a sport weight sock yarn and the lime Plumet Mohair. It looks like I worked hard to get the designs in this one but the striping in the sock yarn did all the work.


This light blue one is PT5 Sport in a medium blue and Plumet Mohair in a light blue.

There are sizes to fit kids from about 7 or 8 to adult women.


Pattern DN1009 is available as an Instant download PDF file or a Printed Pattern.

Next, I have a sock pattern that I am still modifying, a cabled hat pattern and a crochet sweater. I can't say which will be done first but I will add it here as soon as I can.

Have a great day!
Denise

Traveling Norway

I have a fun 2 weeks to spend in Norway. Internet connections are not always good because we are staying in small local hotels but tonight it seems to be working for now at least so I will try to upload some pictures. Click them for a closer look.

First our friendly sheep. They park themselves on the road over here. Drive carefully, everyone!The GPS was very helpful most of the time. We went up and down the mountains several times! It usually looked something like this.


Here is the road we traveled. Beautiful!

Progress on AH103 Mitten

The past couple of days have been busy so I haven't gotten as far on my mitten knitting. There is a knitting group at Borders that I recently started attending on Tuesday afternoons so I took the mitten along yesterday. I should have known better! Talking and following a pattern don't mix well! HA! I think I need to look closely at the last couple of rows again before I go on. I did get to the decreases at the top though and did the first 2 rounds there. Here is where I am now:


And here is the chain that makes its way up the sides of the mittens. In a Norwegian mitten there are always a few edge stitches which separate the palm design from the back of hand. They usually have a solid line of the main color(the dark one) on either side. You might also notice on the thumb gusset the solid line of the main color on either side. This line will continue up the sides of the thumb when I make it.


We have company coming this weekend from Wisconsin so I am going to be cleaning, cooking and planning for where we will put everyone in the next few days. My knitting time will probably be limited so I may not get this mitten finished right away. It is a fun project though so I will be motivated to get back to it soon.

Denise

Retreat 2010 Photos

What a fabulous weekend! It was the last weekend of the Olympics so we had to celebrate that. This is our Olympic display. Aren't those sweaters gorgeous! The Norwegian ski team was not doing well in the Olympics, so there was some disappointment but overall, it was a great weekend for the 15th annual Arnhild's Knitting Studio Retreat.

We packed up Brunhild (she is on the left here), and her more delicate sister and all the shelving, sweaters and Rauma yarns that we could pack into 3 minivans and a Suburban and we set up a Denise's Needleworks store at the hotel. Everyone loved it!


Our featured teacher, Annemor Sundbø, was wonderful. She is so willing to share her knowledge of Norwegian knitting history. We all fell in love with this woman who has preserved so much of the history from her rag pile. We are so glad she could come and share that with us.

Before the retreat, I was able to get my Margrethe sweater mostly finished. There were still some facings to tack down inside. This one attracted a lot of attention. I think several people took home patterns and yarn for this sweater. The facings won't get finished any time soon though. Sarah, the owner of Blue Heron Knittery in Decorah, Iowa decided she really liked it too so it went home with her to go on display in her shop. Say hello for me if you visit there!


I love the rack of sweaters that we put together every year. Wouldn't you love to have this many beautiful sweaters in your closet?


There were many beautiful sweaters made and worn by our guests too. Here is a "sweater spotting" picture for you. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Retreat Weekend!

For Arnhild's Knitting Studio's 15th annual retreat!

The cars are all packed. The new models are done (or almost done). The yarn and needles and buttons are waiting patiently. Tomorrow we unload it all at the hotel and transform one of the rooms into a full yarn shop!

Let the fun begin!

Rose Mittens are finished!

I finished them last night. This is a picture against the snow bank, though you can't really tell it is snow. Yesterday was day 56 according to the weather man. We have had 4 inches of snow or more on the ground for the past 56 days! Several days ago, (about 2 snows ago) I heard there had been more than 40 inches of snow since winter started. That gives some indication of just how cold and snowy this winter has been. These mittens are very welcome indeed.


They are made of Istra, which is a DK weight yarn. They feel thicker than some that I made with light worsted weight yarns from other manufacturers. I tested them out this morning while driving my daughter to school. The temperature was still in the single digits but my hands were still reasonably warm! Holding a cold steering wheel makes my hands painfully cold if I don't have warm enough mittens.

I had to get creative with these mittens. I started a pattern that had a hem but found that after decreasing, the hand part of the pattern wasn't going to fit with the yarn and gauge I was getting. So, instead I picked out some graphs that would match the number of stitches I wanted to use. The cuff is #13-1 from LVS 5, Selbustrikk and the hand is #8 from the same book. They came out beautifully with a nice long cuff to cover my wrists up to my sleeves.

The week flew by....

We had a busy week with our daughter home from Nevada for the first time in a year. It was such fun to have her here. Now it is back to our regularly scheduled programming... school, work, making meals, washing laundry, and hopefully knitting!

I have found some time most evenings to knit. I finished up some slipper socks for the girls. Now they all have a pair of nice warm, thick, wool slippers. Carl is asking for a pair of slippers too so his will be next. These are made in Rauma Polar on size 10 needles. Big needles and fat yarn knits up fast!

Lisa's green slippers got away already but here are Amy's blue ones,

and Jessica's purple ones.
and Rosie's multi-colored slipppers.

I stalled out on my mittens when I ran out of the light pink Istra on the thumb of the first one. I have more yarn now so I am hoping to get back to them soon.

So I decided to finish up these pink mittens but I don't know what pattern I used for the first one. I started counting rows and knitting away one night. When I went to put them away for the night they looked like this.
Somehow they just didn't look quite right. I think that second thumb gusset needs to be a bit longer.

I did finish a pair of plain mittens. They are Lamb's Pride Bulky wool/mohair and will probably go to the church's international student program.
I have been modifying some socks that I had knit extra long. I found that they just don't stay up! They were both knit from toes to top so I was able to easily rip back and knit a shorter cuff on them. They will be more comfortable that way. The first pair is done and the second pair just needs a few more rows. I don't have any pictures of those yet but here is a picture of the progress on the Margrethe Norwegian sweater. The pieces are blocked and ready to be sewn and cut. Then I just need to knit a little bit around the neckline and sew the sleeves and hems.

Almost finished!

Those Forgotten Pictures

I often seem to forget to take the final pictures of my projects in my hurry to get them delivered to where they need to go. So here are some that I finally caught up with again. These are all being used as samples for Arnhild's Knitting Studio. They sometimes get loaned out to yarn shops. You may see them at your LYS some time.

Rauma Pattern 138 Man's Norwegian V-neck Cardigan
Yarn: Rauma Strikkegarn 3-ply
Took me more than a year to finish this one.

Rauma pattern 88-1355 Cabled Children's Pullover
Yarn: Rauma Vamsegarn Aran weight
This one went really fast. Start to finish in less than a month I think. It was a last minute model needed for the trade show.


Rauma pattern from LVS 4 Bunad Strømper og luer (Traditional stockings and hats)
This sock is from design #12 a woman's knee-hi stocking
Yarn: Rauma Gammelserie



The white one is from the same book-pattern #3 Cabled Men's Stockings
Yarn: Rauma Gammelserie

Window Pane Sweater is done!

It is finished and ready to go to the show! I think I looks great. I will be a very warm sweater for my hubby next winter too.

Here are the details:
Rauma pattern 2064
Vamsegarn 1100grams of 5 different colors
Needles sizes 4 & 4.5 mm - US 6 & 7

I would usually use a larger needle with Vamsegarn This was all done as knit 1, purl 1 which is always a looser gauge for me than stockinette.

This is an easy sweater to make, it just looks harder than it is.

A bit of crochet

I love to create things in crochet! I find it easy to "see" how to get the shapes I want in crochet. I am not sure why I don't do more of it? Too many other things to do I supppose, like taking care of my family, homeschooling, running kids to activities, working with Arnhild and running my own business. I guess you would say that my days are a little busy! HA!

I made up this little purse before the TNNA trade show last summer. I wanted something that would hold just the necessities but be small enough to tuck into my knitting bag when I needed to carry it too. The strap is long enough to put over my head to the opposite shoulder. I don't have to worry about it falling off the shoulder or giving me a crick in the neck.

I used River Jeans yarn, a cotton yarn with a denim look. It is beautiful, soft yarn for a cotton. Other cottons make my hands hurt when I work with it but not this one. Lovely stuff! I lined it with white so you can see the lace rows better.

As you maybe can see here, I have been using it lately to carry the Bunad stocking that I am working on. It makes a great sock project bag too!

If I can find the time I will try to write up the pattern! I have so many patterns which are only notes or worse yet, just in my head yet!

Arnhild's Fiber Arts School & Denise's Needleworks store

I wanted to share some pictures of our school and store. We have 2 small rooms in the basement of the First National Bank on Lincoln Way in Ames, Iowa. One of the rooms is set up for classes and has lots of projects displayed. The other room is my store.

We currently have 2 classes going: Basic Knitting and Norwegian Knitting. The classes are running one night a week for 8 weeks. We cover a lot of information in that time. The classes are individually tailored so the students can work on the project which they are most interested in. Many of the students from our first 8 week session decided to sign up for another session so they could continue to learn as they work through larger projects.

There is more information here at my web site or at Arnhild.com

Here is the store. We have a small selection of Rauma yarns.
And of course, needles and notions for your projects and a catalog of the Arnhild and Rauma patterns.

We have displayed many of the projects made up from the patterns that we carry so our students have lots of inspiration! On the left of this picture is a stand which holds the samples of every color of yarn available which we are happy to bring from the warehouse if someone wants them. Lots to choose from!