Heart for the country

With weather getting darker and colder, the cravings for cosy and warming home accessories grow stronger. And the sewing machine is a good quick solution for a change, when most things take forever to make. These cuddly country style hearts were accomplished in no time and now they're just hanging around, bringing out smiles with their funny shape.

Multiplying seeds

Seed beads have a tendency to multiply very well over the years and take over more boxes and drawers all the time, no matter the season. I wanted to decrease the amount by creating some extremely long necklaces. These are like unjoined glass ropes offering various wearing options. But although they are each 3-5 metres long and have taken hours to bead, only a fracture of the stash is used. Still got enough for years.

The new Haapsalu Scarf book is out

The warm and stylish presentation of 'Haapsalu rätt / The Haapsalu scarf' book was held in Haapsalu yesterday. The first books were sold at the event, it will be about a week until they hit the stores.




This post is intended to make your mouths water, because I already have the Pink Bible! And naturally, signed by the authors.
These are just my first impressions, it will take a while to take it all in and fully comprehend all the contents, after all, the book has 272 pages and weighs 1.888 kilos (4.2 lbs)!
This time it is published simultaneously in Estonian and English, that may add somewhat to the volume, but charts still make up most of the contents.




There are 47 patterns for square shaped shawls in the book. A square shawl consists of a centre section and a border section with a special narrow stitch pattern inbetween, plus a sewn-on lace edging. These stitch patterns are already conveniently combined together in the book, but can be used separately to design your own shawl as well.




The triangular shawl pattern count is 26 and there are three different techniques explained: knitted beginning from the upper edge, from the lower point or decreased in the centre. Triangular shawls/scarves also have a sewn-on edging.




Must be my favourite part of the book, because these can be used in so many other types of knitting projects too - the lace edgings. A lot of them, all so gorgeous and more intricate than in the first Haapsalu Shawl book.




Since the charts are given fully with all corners included, making enlarged copies or using a magnifying glass might be necessary for some of them. Of course, there are pattern repeats, so the large chart can be used as an overview.




As a nice little gift for everyone attending, these pocket calendars were handed out at the presentation. The text says: 2012 - the year of knitting a Haapsalu scarf. Everyone could then mark those (few) days they were not knitting. Great as a bookmark and chart marker.




More pictures of the event can be found in a gallery of the local newspaper.

The first Haapsalu shawl completed

Two months have passed in a flash and changed summer to autumn, now finally the shawl started at the end of this post is really finished. Everything was made following the steps of a true Haapsalu shawl and I'm very glad I attended a short course last winter with Aime Edasi, who showed all the necessary techniques.




Knitting the centre part was very enjoyable, but all the finishing from sewing to gathering the edge stitches after blocking - not my favourite pastime at all.




The stitch pattern used is Karukellakiri (Pasqueflower pattern), I like its varied texture. Made four pattern repeats in width and 19 lengthwise to obtain the standard size, but the shawl seems a bit small. Rinsing with cold water might have been a mistake, this made the wool stretch significantly less on the blocking frame.




The seam is not quite perfect, there are some occasional larger spaces in it. These are probably caused by looser edge stitches, next time I will focus harder on the end stitches of every row and pull them more tightly around the needle, maybe that will do the trick.
This made me a little unhappy first, but I'm sure nobody will notice it while the shawl is worn. Besides, I discovered that the seams look similar in the Haapsalu Shawl book (blocking frame photos).




The yarn used for the shawl is Midara Micro in natural white (shade No. 025, pure wool). Not the easiest lace yarn to knit, because it's not very smooth and tends to dangle easily, but ripping it was quite possible - had to try this a little along the road. Perhaps the yarn is not quite thin enough either, but the result seems fine and the shawl has a better hold than those knitted with merino wool.

Very old yarn stash members

Sometimes things just appear in unexpected places, like these spools of grey wool I found in an antique store among furniture and other non-knitting items. Each of these holds more than 100 grams cobweb weight wool.
The large black spool is not antique, but definitely vintage and acquired from someone's old stash. There is more than a kilo of cobweb wool on it!
No time to be bored in the foreseeable future - all of that should be enough for at least thirteen shawls.

Featured in a book, Lovebook

One of my knitted home decoration accessories has landed in Dawanda's new Winter 2011/2012 Lovebook booklet, this is really exciting.
The item in question is this beige simple knitted pencil cup cozy with cables:




The booklet is printed in three languages and it is also available as a pdf file. My cup cozy can be admired on page 19 of the English Lovebook, on page 23 of the German Lovebook and on page 14 of the French Lovebook.

Woollen winter blazer

Started preparing for winter early this year and made a blazer style jacket that would be comfortable under winter coat.
The body part was knitted in one piece, sleeves and collar separately. The main pattern is twisted stitch ribbing that allowed convenient decreases for the waistline to be made. Front pieces, sleeves and collar are decorated with large scale aran motives. Quite modestly.











The jacket required 14 skeins of Patons Fairytale Colour 4 Me yarn in shade No. 4978. This is a lovely thick and warm pure wool, the weight is somewhere between DK and worsted.

The season of colour coming up

My favourite season is getting closer day by day and finding red and yellow leaves feels more exciting and inspirational than looking for the first signs of spring.
Colour is usually the starting point of new projects and choosing which ones to use, the most fun part. When in need of theoretical help, interactive colour wheels are very useful for visualising different colour combinations. And you can always rely on the result.
This Color Scheme Designer is what I prefer. Although intended for web design, colours are still colours:




And here is a small reminder of colours for this autumn suggested by Pantone. Just lovely.

Fall for Blues cowl pattern

Thin cables running across the soft textured surface keep this cowl comfortably around neck, while its height is enough to cover one's head and ears in cold winds.
The cowl is easy to knit and finish, it is worked in the round on circular needles as one piece.

The cowl requires four 50 g balls of DK weight yarn, but naturally, it can be worked in lighter and heavier yarn weights just as well.

The pattern is available on Ravelry.







The sample is knitted in Schachenmayr Nomotta's Extra Merino, shade no. 56. Because of its loose twist, needles sometimes get lost between the threads, but that also makes the yarn so wonderfully soft and fluffy. It is also a very convenient centre-pull ball.

Haapsalu Shawl Day

The picturesque town of Haapsalu celebrated the annual lace knitting day yesterday: woolwhite lacework was to be spotted everywhere, both in finished and work-in-progress status. The seaside resort atmosphere was something well worth envying as always.

The lace knitting contest was not too crowded with its fourteen participants:




Some people just knitted on the street without competing:




Shawl dance presented by a classy local dance group:








And some other highlights of the program:






Shawls and other lacy items made by the local master knitters were also sold at the craft fair. And for a shocking price of 50 Euros - unfortunately, this is what people who value handmade can afford here. (The price for being an economically well-behaving country.) Well, start planning your lace shopping trip for next August!






This is the window of the Dome Church chapel, where the White Lady appears on full moon August nights (she must be hiding in there by day as well):




By the end of the day, all this motivation overdose resulted in a midnight swatch with Karukellakiri pattern. This project cannot be postponed any longer and as soon as I'm done with the hardest part - choosing a stitch pattern - my first Haapalu shawl will be cast on.




There is also a sweet short film about knitting in Haapsalu in 1937 available in the Estonian Film Archives:

Summer in the sewing room

A small wall hanging object can exist both as a decoration in sewing theme and a storage solution to keep all the small tools at hand.
The alternative mission of the hat is to serve as a pincushion, while the bag can hold small scissors, safety pins, thread spools etc.




The piece is made of linen and all sewn by hand, the wires at the top and bottom give it a good hold. Seems like the only thing without a clear purpose is the dress.

Old craft book finds online

I discovered recently that the Book Depository offers many digitised old books as free downloads, among those some about arts and crafts. Here is a short overview of my favourite finds.



The Ladies' Work-book
Patterns for knitting, crochet, point-lace, etc.




Point collar in crochet:




Crochet purse with beads:





The Lady’s Album of Fancy Work for 1850,
'consisting of novel, elegant, and useful designs in knitting, netting, crochet, braiding, and embroidery with clear and explicit directions for working the patterns.'

Knitting bags and fingerless gloves were already discovered:





The Art of Modern Lace-Making, 1891
History and techniques for making various types of lace, for example, a darned-net edging with overwrought stitch:





Art in Needlework: A Book About Embroidery, 1900
Many illustrations and embroidery stitch examples.

Darning designed by William Morris:




Embroidered renaissance ornament:





Handbook of Wool Knitting and Crochet, 1918
Knitting and crochet patterns for the entire family.




This pattern for ladies' gloves with fancy backs is certainly worth trying out someday: