Sorry abou the delay

Sorry about the delay. Somehow, weather turned bad, and then study kicked in and everything rotated around my studies, and not handicraft. I have not knitted for weeks.


This is the whole shawl. It was hard to photograph. It is also huge, 260 cm across the wings and 140 down the back. I have seen shawls half that size!


Semi-close-up. You can sort of see the variegation in the handspun in this picture. It is gorgous, in my opinon, and looks really good in the clover leaf pattern (I believe it is also called Rose leaf?)


Clover Pattern. The transition between my mothers yarn and mine happens in this picture - I can see it because my mothers yarn is a tad thinner, but I am pretty sure noone but me, who has had it in my hands and stared at it for hours and hours can see it.


Leaf pattern. Again, the variegation. I am amazed at this shawl because it turned out so well, even though I almost despised it at several points in its creation.


Bonus picture!

Ditlev, my first and oldest piggie, and probably the cutest I have ever met.

Have a really nice day

/Lene

Just a little

It is summer, after all, and my brain is everywhere. I seem to have strayed from the narrow path of knitting and splashed all over the place - it's not just handiwork anymore!

• I bought a (new) bike - so now I have two, but oh, what two! One regular one that was incapable of living out my wishes with me, so I bought the "Black Stallion" (Black, slender, and mean) for bike travelling - also in rough places. It is fully suspended, but otherwise built like a travelling bike. It works well in (less rough) terrain, as well on expanded bike trips.
• I am sewing up a storm, in my own opinion. Until now, I have three butterfly pillows, three cow-pillows (Patchwork body, head and legs, later assembled), and a pig, a cat and a sheep in the same fashion. Pig, Sheep and one Cow are in our summer cottage, replacing the old icky pillows that were there when we bought the place, a Cow and the Cat will reside in my aunts quilt shop as store models, and one Cow went home with me!
• I have also almost sewn a cardigan for me - with princess seams and all, and maybe I will sew another one in another fabric, I like this! Just that I might want to shorten it overall and put the taken-away lenght where my waist is... I am tall.
• "Large Triangle with Clover Pattern" from Victorian Lace Today is stalled, I ran out of yarn. Mother is spinning more. Thankyou mom *blushes*
• My patchwork runner is still disassembled. I dislike it right now. It made me sad ;-)
• As is the large blanket I am sewing. It is, however, now spread out on the floor, ready to have horses painted on it so I can hand-quilt them on. The rest may be machine-quilted straight lines. I am so anxious about "breaking" it - I love it so!

Well, that was it - have a nice summer day.

PS: Oh! My house got painted! And my roof repaired - it only just broke (storm damage) in December! And, my windows will be painted from the outside, too - or even *gasp* replaced! Maybe I can open them, then ;)

MS3

Here are two Mystery Stoles. The blue/denim heathered one is mine, and the white one is Ute's. They are pretty, and the pattern is easy to knit, and speedy. We are very excited to see what will come next!






/Ute and Lene

"Victorian Knitting Today"

For those who have read my old blog will now that I am somewhat of an avid, if lazy, lace knitter. With that in mind it surely wont surprise that the book "Victorian Lace Today" has found its way to my hands. Granted, I could not afford it, but my mother is so smitten with the lace bug too, that she ordered it from Amazon.de :-)

I must say, it is amazing!

First off, it contains a lot of little historical bits and pieces. There are wonderfull, wonderfull pictures of historical and other sites from Victorian England, for example King's College Chapel in Cambridge.

The patterns are very appaling, simple and yet very intriguing. Some are knitted up in mohair yarns making them light and fluffy - some are knit up in handspun, or sock yarn, cashmere yarn etc. The colours are bold, the shapes are unusual for today, and the constructions are ingenious. I especially like the large section on simple scarves with wide borders. I learned more about borders by reading this section twice than reading my HK book several times. It is described in such a visual and down-to-earth way, with colour coded charts and all, that modifying edgings, adding insertions etc. seems very easy. The Author really understands her metiér!


Most probably know the book "A Gathering of Lace", which is also a lovely book on lace. The difference between those two is that while A Gathering of Lace has many small-gauged, elaborate, well-thought out, innovatice etc. garments and shawls this book only has vintage/retro clothing style, like the "fichu", a pretty little lace collar, and shawls deciphered from old knitting books that require less skill than A Gathering of Lace, yet have a strong link backwards because of that exact reason.

For a beginner, I would recommend Victorian Lace Today instead of A Gathering of Lace, simply because the Victorian shawls and scarves are easy, yet very effective, and the techniques section is by far better in the Victorian Lace Today book.


Have a really nice day


/Lene

(Who jumps right into Bed. Weekend was hard on little Author of Blog)