just another raveller

I've been paying more attention to nature's lace than to my own knitting these days, although I am making progress on several projects. Consensus has it that the Mystery Einband should revert to curtains. People think it's too scratchy to go right next to the skin. One knee sock has been finished and a second started. I've got a cotton jacket in the mid stages. Meanwhile, the outdoors beckon...

Here are some Icelandic sheep which I saw in April. At that point, there were very few to be seen. We left just a few days before the annual release of the sheep from the barns. There were a few around, sticking close to home. I was told, however, that on a certain day, when the good weather comes, everyone lets out their sheep and they wander at will around the countryside. On an agreed upon date in the Fall, everyone chips in and helps round up the sheep from around the country. For helping, you may receive a sheep in return. If there are any Icelanders listening, am I correct? This is what I heard from a transplanted German. Anyway, this photo was taken from the car, somewhere south of Þingvallavatn . This is where the LOPI comes from! I've been busy, but not knitting. I just finished three huge work related projects and I'm feeling good about that. It's beginning to feel like summer here in Western New York. Today I picked sour cherries at Schutt's . There's a ...

Here is a picture of the recipient of the domino square He's the son of a colleague. The colours are so unbabyish that I still can't quite believe that he likes it, but apparently he can't put it down. Well, I guess if you're going to haul around a big knitted square, it may as well be one that you can sew into a cushion cover later on. What a sweetie! There's not much progress to show on the Mystery Einband. I've been knitting a surprise for someone, sort of. I'm not as far along with it as I'd like to be. Busy with work. After reading Fleegle's post about purl decreases , I got to thinking. If I knit the ssk's the way you're supposed to - ie. slip 2 stitches knitwise and knit them together through the back loop rather than simply knitting 2 stitches together through the back loop - will it result in a more pleasant knit on a lace pattern like the Small Trees? Turns out that it will! Remember how I said that the Small Trees pattern was dri...

It turns out that the Trinity stitch produces a field of nupps. Massed together, like plants in a garden, I think it looks very good. Knitting this stitch is great practice for knitting the nupps in the Estonian lace knitting patterns or in the Swallowtail shawl. You have to relax and knit loosely. And look at this Icelandic yarn - even though the shawl is very fine and light, the fibers have bloomed. When you hold it up to the light you can see how this increases the warmth of the fabric. Click on the photo to see the spaces between the stitches up close. Here, you can see how far I've gotten with my Mystery Einband. It's definitely going to be a stole rather than a curtain. When I couldn't knit a another row of Small Trees to save my life, I knit a few plain rows, then a row of holes and swtched to the Trinity stitch for the centre. Then when that got boring and I thought I'd better check on the length, I soaked and stretched it out again. The border is 25 inches and ...

I thought that by now I would have posted more about my trip to Iceland. We had wonderful drives to Þingvellir and a night on Vestmannaeyjar . Alas, I must go to work each day and try to keep up life in general. I have not given up yet though so dont be surprised if another travel post appears here. I'm grateful that we are finally getting a bit of rain in Rochester. The weather has been dry and quite cool. In fact, it has been so cool that we've had to pile on the knitting while lounging on the back porch: I've held off planting my tomatoes for another week, following the sage advice of the gardeners at last week's plant sale at Warner Castle. That's just the name - there is no castle. This is one plant sale I like to go to every year. I didn't buy much - some marigolds and a Lady's Mantle for a friend - but I enjoyed looking around and chatting with people. In Knitting Toward the end of last week the endless repetition of the small tree motifs on the My...

Getting back to the subject of our travels in Iceland this Spring, here are some of the things we saw and did on the way to Vik, a town on the southern coast of Iceland which, as it turns out, is a centre for hand knitting. We had hardly started out when we decided that we had to stop to take this photo in Selfoss. The water was almost this turquoise colour. Yes it was. A little past Selfoss is the fibre paradise known as Þingborg. I'm not sure how to describe this place. They have a shop, but it seems there is another part to it, further down the road, where there are almost certainly fibre related activities going on. Their website is all in Icelandic, but you can tell it's not just a shop. The woman in the shop spoke English. I was too reserved to ask many questions. Now I'm sorry that I didn't. She asked me if I spun and I said that I used to, for my mother and she gave me a look look that said, "I know your type." Oh, and there was an extremely cute dog ...

Thanks for your consoling remarks. I really should have swatched before I started this. I was ready to press on and finish until I read Halla's comment about the needle size that her friends use with Einband - 4.5 or 5 mm which is considerably larger than the 2.5 mm needle I am using. I ran my knitting upstairs, plunged it into a sink of water and Eucalan and left it there to soak for 20 minutes, needles and all. Then I remembered that I am not knitting with the regular Einband that is sold by Alafoss, which is probably what Halla's friends are using, but with a the much finer mystery Einband from the Handkntters Association sale bin. Remember that I was getting 50 wpi with it. Compare that with 37 wpi from the Alafoss Einband. Maybe the green yarn isn't Einband at all. Anyway, the 2.5 mm seems to be just fine. I blocked it and while it isn't wide enough for a curtain, check it out....beauty, eh? Did you click to embiggen? At any rate, I am now in love with this yarn. T...