Norway

We have just spent 5 lovely days in and around Tromsø in northern Norway watching the Northern Lights, husky dog sledding and generally having a nice time tramping around in the snow and meeting new people.

Norway, you may or may not know, is a nation of knitters and has been, presumably, since records began!  There is a distinctive style that is prominent...there was also a knitting shop near to our hotel...

My husband loves big chunky warm jumpers and saw the distinctive navy blue jumper with white pattern detailing and red edging, which we now know is called 'Marius,' in the knitting shop window.  It turns out you can buy the pattern book only if you buy the wool for a pattern.  Being limited in luggage space i bought enough wool for the pattern for a pair of Marius socks (2 navy, 1 red, 1 white) and that's it, I'm committed.  The practice piece will be the socks then sourcing wool for the jumper and no i will not be knitting any sort of jumper for any sort of dog as in the pattern front!  Oh yes, after learning a bit of Norwegian to translate the pattern! Wish me luck!

Shetland

Although I was born, brought up and have now returned to live near Chester,  when i was just about primary school age, the whole family moved to The Shetland Islands where we stayed for 5 years. This was during the 80's.   It was here that I initially learnt to knit as at school. We  had a lesson where the girls were taught to knit whilst the boys made exciting, but still unknown, things out of balsa wood. This, I thought,  was extremely unfair!

I seem to remember that our knitting teacher was tall, slim and with short white hair. Probably someone that came into school from the local area rather than a  teacher.

I have  distinct memory of us having to knit a small stuffed toy. I knitted a small dog in stocking stitch in beige wool. In fact, when i went rummaging in my Mum's loft looking for knitting needles, I came across some patterns and  one of them was of a dachshund,  i wonder if that was the one?

So that was the start of it.  I can't really remember knitting anything else but know that i did.  Mum still has a red knitted coaster with a blue fairisle pattern on it. I don't know if this was made by me or my sister. 

So that was many years ago and this is the second skill I was taught in Shetland that i have resurrected to see if I am any good. So far my knitting seems to be more successful than my fiddle playing!

A fantastic place to grow up with amazing open spaces. Definitely worth a visit http://visit.shetland.org/

2 days ago was the Lerwick Up Helly Aa, a spectacular viking procession with roots deep in history. There are some great pics and videos explaining it but here is a good 10 minute video i found on YouTube  Lerwick Up Helly Aa 2015: http://youtu.be/Q5euzvdqdD0  we went to many of these all over Shetland. Spectacular!

Tiredness & New Learnings

You know when you have one of those weeks where you just don't sleep?  Last week was like that. 


Monday and Tuesday were really windy..it was so windy that there were white caps on the waves on the canal...yes, definitely the canal, not a river!  The whole boat moved and I could hear all sorts of stuff being hurled around in the ever changing wind direction including a boat moored 3 boats behind us that has been completely wrapped in tarpaulin - tarpaulin is noisy.  So that was the first 2 nights.  Then Wednesday I was so excited about being able to sleep, that I went to sleep late and woke early...why are bodies like that?


Consequently I didn't really feel up to knitting and when I did try on Thursday, I was so tired I kept dropping stitches, then when I got to the end of a row I found  a couple of stitches that had dropped down about 4 rows.  What's worse than dropping stitches when you are tired?  Having to carefully loop them with the crochet hook and work them back up to the row!


Friday was very exciting - I went to Center Parcs at Sherwood forest for my annual meet up with the girls for a weekend of talking, eating, drinking and spa sessions, it's fantastic!  Even better was that I could meet up with 2 of my friends who are also knitters and I could have a chat and a question of them.


Here are some useful tips and info I got from them:
- Don't start a scarf or similar with knit stitch as it will curl; rib or stocking stitch is better
- When starting a new ball of wool, take the wool from the inside of the ball rather than the outside.  This way if the ball of wool drops on the floor it won't unravel as it keeps rolling away from you!
- Always try to change onto a new ball of wool at the end of a row rather than the middle.  That way you can neatly sew it into the seams or sides
- It appears I knit the continental method which is where you have the knitting in your left hand and the wool in your right.  As I went to primary school in the Shetland Islands, and this is where I first learnt to knit, this would apparently make sense as this is how they would traditionally knit.  The English method, I am lead to believe, is to have the knitting and the wool in your left hand.  This was apparently so that it showed off the English girls dainty little hand better in historical times.  I think I might look that up!


Talking of looking things up - have you heard about the Radio 4 knitting challenge?  Here is a link to their blog / challenge http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/entries/2a8040ac-cddf-4c6b-8ab3-a59630c55bcd  I've also posted it on my Google+ page


Here are some pics, in the now frankly appalling colour of brown wool.  They show the poor error of dropped stitches, the old way I held the wool - between thumb and forefinger of my right hand, the new way of learning to hold the wool, which makes me less tense in the wrists and seems a little easier, and a pink footed goose who wanted to join us girls at Centre Parcs!

Double Moss

My speed of knitting is picking up.  It's like a forgotten memory that has resurfaced.  I am currently really enjoying it, it's not got to the distinguished bit of complicated patterns yet, my shoulders are relaxing and I'm starting to try to fit in my next fix,  my next couple of rows!

I have a little book 'how to knit stitches' is a good inspirational start, despite me having to get Internet clarification several times, and has lots of different textures to turn my hand to.  I am going to have a lovely big sampler scarf if i make it to the end of the book!

So page 5 is the moss (double moss) stitch.  I am doing 21 rows of a sample with 5 rows of stocking stitch as an in betweener,  for want of a better phrase! That worked ok so next up page 6 an actual pattern. .....

Mossy

Friday night and picked up the needles for a few rows whilst hubby was cooking tea.

Have (now) mastered seed, or moss, stitch, a simple knit one pearl one culminating in lovely little crosses.  See photos below.

Unfortunately the useful little book that I am using to influence my next choice of stitch to try,  failed to tell me that I needed to move the tail of wool in front of or behind the needle after each stitch.  A right mess of extra wool on the needles ensued and was impossible to actually knit.  However, it gave me a chance to learn unpicking , which i had to do for 2 rows. I now realise one of the reasons there may be so many crochet hooks I've inherited,  mighty useful for picking up stitches!  I had forgotten about the soul destroying bits of knitting!

A bit of Internet searching later and i was sorted and 8 rows of moss stitch later am fading from the blue to brown colour of the wool.....

Happy knitting everyone!

Firsts...

First blog, first blog post, first time I have picked up knitting needles since primary school...

I must admit that I don't really know what possessed me to see if I could remember how to knit, probably a number of factors but I think it would be fair to mainly blame my Norwegian friend.  First off I was admiring her knitting when we met up for a few days and had an interesting conversation about taking knitting needles on planes.  It seems like some you can and some you can't.   I think that's a great basis for the next hollywood plane blockbuster...or an Agatha Christie murder mystery!  Secondly, the same friend emailed me just after I had a (fantastically liberating!) operation on my back and was looking at 6 weeks of not being able to do much so one of the things she suggested was taking up knitting...

I went to a well know retail park craft store which I like to go to at lot.  Whilst we were buying lots of craft supplies for the kids Christmas presents, I had a chat with one of the ladies there who recommended the most marvellous shop tucked into a small industrial unit for someone starting out on a new knitting hobby.  I finally managed to go on Friday after work as we finished early - no I didn't manage to do it whilst I was off post op!

I had previously raided my Mum's loft and got a whole bag of needles that are a mix of hers, her Mum's and her great Nan's.   So I am guessing that some of these needles are 60 years old or even more.  If anyone can date needles let me know!!  I then spent a marvellous afternoon pairing and measuring and writing down an inventory of what I now own.  It was very therapeutic and appealed to my occasional sense of order.

So here I am.  It took me an age to remember the casting on (firstly with the aid of a book and then with the aid of the internet!) but finally it suddenly clicked and I used the 'knit cast' method.  It was so easy I ended up with 60 stitches and proceeded to try the old knit knit method, I.e. garter stitch, and after the first couple of rows being a bit slow, steamed off a total of 6 rows.  Hmm, this really is a bit wide for a scarf, and quite time consuming and the casting on wasn't terribly neat, so with a brave face I pulled it apart and started agin, this time with the 40 stitches that the lady in the shop recommended on size 5 needles....its looking a bit more neat now and I have progressed to garter stitch. Why is pearl harder than knit?