I hope you will enjoy my Feuille d'Automne Collection.
What's in a Leaf?
Have you ever stared at a beautiful fall leaf? Well, that is what I spent my week doing. It is just marvelous to see the beautiful colors that nature offers us. I know that when we think of natural, or when natural products are marketed, browns, beiges and creams are portrayed. But there is so much more in nature. There are flamboyant reds, vibrant corals, plums, golds, greys, and greens of all kinds. I saw all these colors in these simple leaves, and set out to recreate them using natural dyes. My natural companions this week were brazilwood, sumac, goldenrod and osage orange. Some of the colors took my breath away. Who knew that such vibrant reds could be created with brazilwood, and such opiniated greens with osage!
I hope you will enjoy my Feuille d'Automne Collection.
I hope you will enjoy my Feuille d'Automne Collection.
Dare to live in color
I just love color to the point that even my home has become the stage for my "colorplay". Lately, maybe because of fall, I have been in the mood for reds, pinks and oranges, so once again the house has morphed! The funny thing is that each time the house goes through a color metamorphosis, my family doesn't even seem surprised. The family leaves a blue house in the morning, to come back to a passionate red one at night. One day I asked my husband and children, how come you are never surprised or even upset that I changed everything again. My oldest daughter said:" Mom, you make us so happy, we love that you bring so much color and joy in our life!"
Don't tell the family, but I see great new colors for the kitchen!
Don't tell the family, but I see great new colors for the kitchen!
Knitting for Mom
Both my mother and I have our birthdays in September. This year, I wanted to do something that would combine knitting and natural dyes, so instead of dyeing the yarn first, and then knitting it, I reversed the process.
I started with this, 100% BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) in an Aran weight, 200g of it to be exact.
I chose size 9 needles, a simple lace pattern with clean edges, that would be easy to memorize, perfect for knitting while homeschooling the children.
After a few hours of relaxed knitting, I had a lovely scarf.
My mother's favorite color is blue, so I decided to play with indigo. I did not want to do just a blue scarf, but rather decided to create a gradation of blues by immersing the scarf once all over, and then repeating the immersion process over gradually smaller sections of the scarf. I chose to make the center the darkest, with the blue getting gradually lighter toward the edges.
I always find it amazing that out of this odd scented mixture can come the most beautiful blue!
After washing, drying and blocking, the scarf was ready.
And here it is worn by Miss SockPixie. I had a really hard time getting it back from her in order to wrap it and give it to my Mom!
P.S.: My Mom loved the scarf, and is already enjoying it as the weather is cooling down fast out here in Boston.
I started with this, 100% BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) in an Aran weight, 200g of it to be exact.
I chose size 9 needles, a simple lace pattern with clean edges, that would be easy to memorize, perfect for knitting while homeschooling the children.
After a few hours of relaxed knitting, I had a lovely scarf.
My mother's favorite color is blue, so I decided to play with indigo. I did not want to do just a blue scarf, but rather decided to create a gradation of blues by immersing the scarf once all over, and then repeating the immersion process over gradually smaller sections of the scarf. I chose to make the center the darkest, with the blue getting gradually lighter toward the edges.
I always find it amazing that out of this odd scented mixture can come the most beautiful blue!
After washing, drying and blocking, the scarf was ready.
And here it is worn by Miss SockPixie. I had a really hard time getting it back from her in order to wrap it and give it to my Mom!
P.S.: My Mom loved the scarf, and is already enjoying it as the weather is cooling down fast out here in Boston.
Bandelier Fingerless Mitts
Here are my fingerless mitts which are a version of the Bandelier socks from the current issue of IK. I used Knitpicks' Palette in the following colors listed in order of their appearance in the mitts: Blue, Purple, Mint, Marine Heather, Mist, Sky, and Eggplant. I did two repeats of the chart and on row 26 of the second repeat I did a peasant thumb across 15 sts.
You can't actually see the thumbs in this photo but it shows the colors the best. The mint green color fades out in most of the photos. This is probably the happiest I've ever been with my color choices for a colorwork pattern that has color changes in both the foreground and the background.
You can't actually see the thumbs in this photo but it shows the colors the best. The mint green color fades out in most of the photos. This is probably the happiest I've ever been with my color choices for a colorwork pattern that has color changes in both the foreground and the background.
I fixed the link from yesterday - sorry about that! Here are a few more:
Dale of Norway is re-releasing some of their popular baby sweater patterns in a new booklet including my personal fave the bunnies and carrots and garden tools cardigan with about 20 colors.
How did I miss Nancy Bush's Norwegian Wedding Gloves in Piecework from last year? I don't have the pattern yet but it looks like from the cover photo that they're for men???
Now there is an inexpensive software program for creating your own gloves and mittens with all types of yarn.
Some Colorwork Pattern Links
(Edited to Fix Link)
Socknitster left a good comment in yesterday's post about being disappointed in the Norwegian Handknits book because there were too many easy knits and projects knit in really thick yarn. I have to admit I will buy an entire book just for two potential projects in my never-ending search for enough patterns to feed my addiction.
I had the same situation with the new version of Homespun Handknit that recently arrived from Knitpicks - shown here are the only two projects I will probably make from the book. Comparing the two versions of the book you can really see the difference in the world of knitting in the last 20 years. Patterns today are much more detailed - the new Homespun Handknit has 25 patterns and the previous one has more than 50 if I'm counting correctly. The new book also includes much more information on how the yarn for the projects was spun. There are more projects with more multi-colored yarns and fewer stranded projects and unfortunately no glove patterns at all in the new book. (The previous Homespun Handknit had something like 6 glove patterns including a pair that were truly spectacular technique-wise - the double knit top-down colorwork gloves.)
The pretty spider hat uses a multi-colored yarn for the background but I will just stripe the background to get a similar effect.
Here are the Moth Mittens in worsted weight yarn on size 3 needles.
Socknitster left a good comment in yesterday's post about being disappointed in the Norwegian Handknits book because there were too many easy knits and projects knit in really thick yarn. I have to admit I will buy an entire book just for two potential projects in my never-ending search for enough patterns to feed my addiction.
I had the same situation with the new version of Homespun Handknit that recently arrived from Knitpicks - shown here are the only two projects I will probably make from the book. Comparing the two versions of the book you can really see the difference in the world of knitting in the last 20 years. Patterns today are much more detailed - the new Homespun Handknit has 25 patterns and the previous one has more than 50 if I'm counting correctly. The new book also includes much more information on how the yarn for the projects was spun. There are more projects with more multi-colored yarns and fewer stranded projects and unfortunately no glove patterns at all in the new book. (The previous Homespun Handknit had something like 6 glove patterns including a pair that were truly spectacular technique-wise - the double knit top-down colorwork gloves.)
The pretty spider hat uses a multi-colored yarn for the background but I will just stripe the background to get a similar effect.
Here are the Moth Mittens in worsted weight yarn on size 3 needles.
I also think I'm going to get this Sandnes Tema 12 booklet of knitted accessory patterns. I really like the hat and mitten set with the embroidered cuffs, #15. DH also expressed an interest in the pop-up mittens.
Also, while you're at the Bea Ellis web site, check out the new FREE Dale of Norway patterns.
October Sale
It is October Sale time for SockPixie. I have put all my creative study skeins up on the website at a 30% discount. Each skein is unique, and the skein in each picture is the skein you will get. I have so many wonderful things in store for SockPixie that I needed to make room, and these colorful babies were in need of good homes!
I hope you will enjoy my October Sale!
I hope you will enjoy my October Sale!
Norwegian Handknits: Heirloom Designs from Vesterheim Museum
I just received an Amazon order containing Norwegian Handknits: Heirloom Designs from Vesterheim Museum by Sue Flanders and Janine Kosel. It really is an incredibly beautiful book full of color and vintage black and white photos. It contains 30 patterns for accessories and a few sweaters inspired by objects in the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa. Each pattern is accompanied by a photo of the knit or tapestry or painting that inspired it. The book even includes a few recipes for traditional Scandinavian sweets. There are some good photos and diagrams of some interesting techniques like twisted cord and applied twisted I-cord. Also, there is a pretty good section of felted items and felting info as well.
I'm being greedy of course but I would have liked a few more complex stranded designs in the book. OTOH, in the advanced project section the Foolish Virgin Pillow includes some 4 and 5 color rows! And the entrelac sheep are possibly the most adorable knitted items I've ever seen.
If you're like me and seriously interested in Nordic knitting history and technique, this book belongs on your bookshelf. I think my first project will be the Flower Hat with Earflaps and the matching Flower Mittens. Does anyone else have the book yet? What do you think?
Bubbles was hoping to review a few of her favorite phone books but they're just too delicious to stay around for long.
I'm being greedy of course but I would have liked a few more complex stranded designs in the book. OTOH, in the advanced project section the Foolish Virgin Pillow includes some 4 and 5 color rows! And the entrelac sheep are possibly the most adorable knitted items I've ever seen.
If you're like me and seriously interested in Nordic knitting history and technique, this book belongs on your bookshelf. I think my first project will be the Flower Hat with Earflaps and the matching Flower Mittens. Does anyone else have the book yet? What do you think?
Bubbles was hoping to review a few of her favorite phone books but they're just too delicious to stay around for long.
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