Wild Blue Horses and Norwegian Mittens

The Wild Blue Horses Cap is growing. You can start to make out the horses now. See the nose on the right and the mane on the left? Soon I start decreasing for the top of the cap. Then the rows get shorter and it starts to go faster.
Here is where I am on the sides that have the flowers.

I have also been working on some Norwegian mittens. The star mittens are from an Arnhild's Knitting Studio pattern, AH102 Child's Eight Pointed Star Mittens and Hat I made the first one to time how long it takes for me to knit them. We were trying to get an idea of how much class time would be required. So it took me about 6 hours. Some of that was while I was watching TV or tinking back to correct my mistakes. That will allow some time for students who might have the same problem or for questions and instructional time.

These will fit Carl so I will finish them for him. They are made of the very sturdy Rauma Strikkegarn. It is a really hard wearing yarn.



These plain navy mittens are also Norwegian mittens. They are the Tovede Votter (felted mittens) from the Rauma LVS-3 book. The yarn is Rauma Vamsegarn, a heavy worsted/aran weight. I made the men's size because I have long hands and I want to really felt these down for some really warm mittens. They were really fast to make on big needles. Just one more thumb to go. Great quick project. Hmmm, maybe I should make more for Christmas presents. You won't tell will you?

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

AH103 Eight Pointed Star Mittens by Arnhild Hillesland

A knitter commented on Ravelry that the AH103 pattern possibly had mistakes. Arnhild created the pattern in the early 1990’s for classes she was teaching. She hadn't had any comments before now, but mistakes can happen. She has gone through several computer systems in that time and has revamped many of the patterns. Sometimes in making changes and reprinting things can accidentally be changed. She works very hard to make sure there are no mistakes. She does not want to have to post page after page of errata as many publishers seem to do.

So, in the interest of making sure knitters will enjoy working with these patterns, we decided to test knit it again just to check. I have not knit it before so I was elected to do the knitting. I am following the directions exactly to see what happens. I am making the Ladies size on 2.5mm needles. The yarn is Rauma Strikkegarn as suggested in the pattern. I chose 2 of the discontinued colors that Arnhild had.

4/10/10 so far I have knit the cuff and hand through the gusset stitches. Stitch counts all came out right and the fit is good. The first design (arrows) is a 4 stitch repeat. The diamonds are an 8 stitch repeat. That works.

I have knit the gusset stitches on to a holder and I am ready to do the rest of the palm and fingers. I don’t see any problems so far. Stitch counts all came out right and the fit is good.

4/11/10 tonight I knit about 2 inches up from the thumb gusset. At this point there are no changes in the pattern to worry about. I just keep following the graph until I get to the finger tip decreases.

I have been practicing holding both yarns in my left hand as I knit. I usually hold one strand in each hand when I do 2 color knitting. I am very pleased with how even the knitting is.I am not getting as much bumpiness in the work as I usually do. My gauge is loosening up though as I get more comfortable with this technique. I am getting a slightly larger gauge now than I need for this mitten so I need to try to tighten it back up. Otherwise, I will have a very “roomy” mitten.
I have noticed 2 minor things as I have been working.

1. The diamonds on the cuff need to be shifted 2 stitches over to line up exactly with the stars. Remember that I am following the pattern exactly. If I had not done that I would have checked for this alignment and corrected it. Norwegian patterns generally assume that the knitter will know some of these things.
   
2. There is a funky diamond in the cuff just under the thumb gusset. This is the beginning of the round and there really isn't a good way to avoid a jog at that spot. Who is going to see it on the underside of the arm anyway?
   

This is a very pretty mitten. I love the chains that go up the sides of the hand. I will try to get a better picture of those later.

So far, there don't seem to be any errors in the pattern so maybe the knitter just misunderstood something. These mittens are not a beginner project but hopefully with a little help, she will get her mittens made so she can enjoy them. I will knit this one and then do the right mitten as well to see if it works up the same in reverse.

More later,
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!

Escape to The Clearing Folk School

Sunset over Ellison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin

What a fabulous way to take a break! I had an opportunity to go to The Clearing Folk School the end of October. It was sort of last minute. Arnhild was teaching a Reversible Knitting Class and her husband was planning to go along but something came up that he wanted to attend instead. I am so glad that I said yes when they asked if I could go in his place!

We drove through the woods on curvy, gravel drives, narrowly missing the trees on each side. There was not room for 2 cars to pass! Fortunately, most of the drives are one way! We arrived at the most beautiful, historic buildings, nestled in the woods. They made me feel at home right away.

This is the Lodge where we ate all our meals. Yummy! Great meals and dinner conversation too! The dinner bell rings for every meal. The sunset picture above was taken from the window on the opposite side of this building.


On the other side of this building was our room. Simple, but beautiful and comfortable at the same time. We suspect that one of the quilting classes may have made the quilts on the beds. No TV, internet, phones, radios etc. Our cell phones were turned off except when calling out. It was a time to relax and get away. Ahhhhhh........



Soon after we arrived, we went off to the Schoolhouse. There is a sawdust path through the woods that we traveled several times each day between the Lodge and the Schoolhouse. This is where we and the watercolor artists had our classes. Isn't it inspiring? I had a chance to take a walking tour of the grounds. What a beautiful facility!

Reversible Knitting was more difficult than it looked for many of us. We struggled to count out our 90 stitches (120 for me because I was trying out PT 5 sport yarn while the others used Istra DK. I had to make it more difficult!). When we had finally accomplished that and knit a few rows, we had to put beginning and ending stitches together for double the number of stitches on our needles! Yikes! There was a lot of silence in that room as we all counted!

It took many long hours....we broke for dinner and supper and then we would go back to the school house in the evenings for a few more hours! At times it felt like torture but we had such a great group of people it was fun too.

Now, don't laugh...we all thought we would zip through these headbands on the first day and then we would be making hats or bags or even coats, right? Well, let me tell you...most of us were just barely finished with our headbands in time for the presentations of our work at the end of the week on the FOURTH day. Yup, that's right 4 days of working on these headbands! We were very proud!!!!

So here they are with some of the watercolor work behind them. Mine is top center in the second picture (teal).

Would I go back to The Clearing again? In a heartbeat! There is something special about it that I am not sure any of us could put into words, but once you experience it you will know.

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

Norwegian and Cabled sweaters finished

I finished the work on these sweaters well before the TNNA show. I was so busy getting things ready that I forgot to take pictures of them though. These are pictures of them in the display at the show.

Pattern: #138RS Man's Norwegian Sweater Black and White with Stars on the left of the two hanging sweaters.
Yarn: Strikkegarn


Pattern: Children's Cabled Sweater-Red between the white pieces.
Yarn: Vamsegarn

TNNA 2009

I know it is a little late but I thought I should at least post some pictures of The National Needle Arts Association's annual trade show. I took these pictures on the day we set things up. Some things are not quite finished and the lighting was not the best but you can see everything I think. Cameras were not allowed on the floor during the show.

We took lots of new models! The black and white baby dress on the front corner of our booth got a lot of second looks. The shawls were popular too.

We stayed in the Drury Hotel attached to the convention center. It was beautiful hotel and very comfortable.

Here is some of the view out our 7th floor window. There were some very tall buildings. And one shorter one with these beautiful windows. We kept wondering what it was until we walked by it one day and found that it was a realty office.

Cabled sweater for kids

Another sample for the trade show. This one is only a size 2 children's sweater. It is going quickly in Vamsegarn, a worsted weight yarn. Good thing, we leave in one week for the show and this is supposed to be in the display! I have the body done and one sleeve started now but haven't been able to get photos yet.

I had some problems along the way. No, make that lots of problems along the way. Probably because I am trying to get this done quickly. After doing seed stitch for so long on the Window Pane sweater I totally missed the instructions where it said to do the side panels in double moss stitch. I had been working merrily along for about 3 inches above the ribbing when I discovered it! The second picture is of the side panel after I reknit it plus a couple more inches.

I decided that I really didn't want to reknit the whole thing so I took the stitches for that whole panel off the needles -- gasp! -- I know, I know, for some of you that would be a major trauma but the stitches weren't going anywhere . . . yet . . . this is very sticky yarn so the stitches would just sit and wait for me to do something with them.

Now, fast forward a bit. I managed to cross one of the cables the wrong direction later in the sweater. I was telling my hubby how I had to reknit the side panels and now I needed to do the same thing to this cable. He suggested that I take pictures so I could post a how-to about it.

I am working on the how-to. Red is really hard to photograph well by the way! So bear with me. It will be up soon I hope. In the meantime there is lots of preparation underway for the show.

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.

We Signed a New Lease!

We are staying at the First National Bank location for at least another six months. Arnhild's Knitting Studio & Fiber Arts School is planning for some new classes and Denise's Needleworks will continue to provide the on-site Rauma yarn shop.

We will be going to TNNA, the big needle arts trade show in Ohio, in a couple of weeks. When we return we will be rearranging the school and store and getting ready for some new activities and classes. Keep an eye on the classes pages at either my web site or Arnhild's for all the new developments.

So come by and see what's new!

Sneak Peek

Do you like knee-hi socks? Cables, lace, ribs, stranded 2-color designs like the Norwegain star or even entrelac? You will love this book!

We are working on the translation and samples for a new book to be released at the TNNA trade show in June. Those who came to the Arnhild's Knitting Studio February retreat have already had a chance to see the book.

This is the 4th book in the LVS series. Bunad Strømper og Luer. Strømper is stocking and luer is hat. Bunad is the traditional national costumes of the different regions of Norway. There are 37 patterns in this book from all over Norway. Most are stockings but there are some interesting hats as well. And just so you know, most of these stockings say "Herre" which means they are for the men, not that we ladies will let that stop us from knitting them for ourselves!

The stocking I am making is #3 from Sogn. It has an all-over cable design. Click on the picture for a closer look if you like. This one is made with Rauma 2-ply Gammelserie.

The smaller ball in the top picture is a 1-ply Spælsaugarn from Rauma which we will be carrying. It will be used in the heels and toes along with the Gammelserie for reinforcement.

We will have lots of other new patterns available at the TNNA show too. I will have them for sale on my web site as soon after the show as I can.

The other LVS books and many other beautiful Norwegian patterns and yarns to go with them are all available at my web site www.denisesneedleworks.com

Window Pane Sweater

My current knitting is getting rather boring. I think it is because this is such a big project and is pretty much the same throughout.

This sweater went with me to Texas for spring break in March. There wasn't much to see along the way.

It is growing steadily and hopefully will be finished soon. I have taken it to all of the classes we have been teaching. The students all look over eagerly when I pull out my knitting to see what I am working on. Recently, the reaction has been, "Oh, you still aren't done with that one?"

Sorry, I am almost done with the back now -- but I have one more sleeve to go.

The pattern is Rauma 2064 Window Pane Sweater. The yarn is Vamsegarn, our worsted weight yarn. It will be on display at the TNNA trade show in Ohio the second week of June.

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!