Irish Crochet

One time I was browsing my favorite blogs, I saw a link to some Irish crochet works. They were so beautiful, I just had to try. I started roaming the net for patterns and yarn. It was actually quit difficult. I found some patterns, but they were all named Irish crochet. So when they arrived, I ended up buying two of the pattern in three different formats. One electronically (see here for a link), one as separate booklets (I do not remember where I found them), and one book including both booklets (see here for a link).

These two booklets were, however, absolutely beautiful, and the patterns was in a league of their own compared to the other patterns I bought (all pictures are based on patterns in the first booklet). This is a good book both for beginners and more advanced crocheters. The instructions are relatively easy to follow and the pictures are informative and beautiful. However, be aware that the notation is somewhat unusual. For instance, in the patterns a single crochet is called a double crochet, and a double crochet is called a treble crochet, and so on. Thus, it is good advice to read the pages describing the stitches before beginning, even for more advanced crocheters.

I also had difficulties finding fine enough yarn. The pattern called for yarn size 100 (which is as thin as sewing tread), but the finest yarn I could find in my local shop was a size 10. I tried to find fine enough yarn on the internet, but yarn size 40 and onwards had to be ordered specially. They only had size 30 and thicker in stock, and size 30 came only in white. The thinnest yarn available in colors was size 20. (A good net shop for purchasing fine crochet yarns is Royal Yarns.)

Since I had trouble finding such thin yarn in colors, I decided to practice using yarn size 10, and then try to crochet using my cotton quilting thread. The white flowers are crocheted using yarn size 10, and the colored flowers are crochet using quilting thread and a 0.6 mm needle. The difference in size between using yarn size 10 and quilting tread can be seen from the picture to the right, where the orange flower is crocheted using Yli Yli quilting tread.

I will use the motifs crocheted using quilting tread to decorate a folder to store my crochet needles in. The white motifs will be used to decorate a bag for my ongoing crochet projects. They are not finished yet. To make a complete Irish crochet, the motifs need to be joined together with a mesh of loops, into the desired shape. For illustrations of this joining of motifs, see here and here. If this is a success, I will make a Irish crochet dress for my daughter.

The crown prince shawl

This shawl was given to crown prince Gustav-Adolf of Sweden when he visited Estonia in 1936. The pattern is a copy of a picture of the shawl, designed and knitted by Mrs. Valdeman. This is a lovely shawl, with a simple but beautiful checker pattern in the middle, and some large stars along the inner border. I found the pattern in Nancy Bushe’s book "Knitted Laces of Estonia", which I absolutely love.

The shawl is knitted in a fine merino wool yarn, called "Fine Merino", which I found in an American web shop called "Purl Soho".

The shawl is 95x95 cm and weighs 42 g. In retrospect, I think the shawl would have looked nicer if I had used a thicker yarn. Both because it would have been larger, fallen more heavily, and the nubs would had looked better. These ultra thin yarns is best suited for patterns without nubs.

The shawl has been finished almost a year now. It has been lying on my corner table, waiting for me to block it out. When I finally decided to do the blocking, I got a shock. There had been a little mouse gnawing two holes in my shawl. Luckily, I was able to mend the holes, so that they do not run. If you look closely, it is possible to spot the mending, but my hope is that if I do not tell anyone, they will not notice.

Peter Rabbit

Finally, I have finished Peter Rabbit. I started on him more than one year ago, but he as been laying half-finished for a while now. But, as my bunad project is almost finished, I took the opportunity to complete various projects, including Peter.

He is my absolute favourite in the book "Le Monde de Beatrix Potter". This book is filled by fantastic cross stitch embroideries of Beatrix Potter’s pictures. I have made several mice already, among them a tailor mouse and many small kitchen mice, who I embroidered for a valance in the kitchen window at our cabin.

I do not know what I want to make of Peter yet. He will probably decorate a quilted bag of some sort.

Mini-Mona

Meet Mini-Mona. She loves to be surrounded by nature. In particular, she enjoy nature in a sun lounger on the terrace, in the garden. There she is enjoying the spring sun, preferably with a glass of red wine and with a good book. She really knows how to enjoy herself.

She is to be given to Mona, a colleague of mine, who turns 50 in April. Mona is the initiator of most social events at my work, with a very nice and cheerful personality. They have much in common, and I believe they will enjoy each others company. Mona also enjoys sunshine, and now she can do this in the company of Mini-Mona.

Mini-Mona is a midification of Beth Webber’s doll, Mini Free Spirit. If you have not visited her blog yet, By hock by hand, you should. She makes some incredibly sweet crocheted dolls, and she shares all her patterns free on her blog, including patterns for cloths and pets.

Mini-Monas hair is made of a thin alpaca yarn from Du store Alpakka, which is called Tynn Alpakka. Her terrace is made of a local Norwegian yarn called Østlandsgarn. The grass is made by a flossy yarn named On Line Linie 9 Multidream, and the cloths and flowers are made by various leftovers from old projects, which I do not know the name of.

I found the patterns for the flowers and the butterfly in two wonderful books. The butterfly and the small flowers in the grass is found in the book "100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet" and the big blue flower is from the book "Chrochet Bouquet".

I tried to make Mini-Mona resemble the original (see picture to the right). The thought is that birds of a feather flock together.

A birthday card in cross stitches

Last year, I made a little amigurami as a birthday card for each of the girls in my daughters class (see here for the link to last years birthday cards). This year, I wanted to sew something for them. So I looked through my cross stitch recipes, and found a book with some small fairies forming letters (see here for a link to the book). I decided to make a small pin cushion with the initial capital for each of the girls.

 







I have embroidered all of the letters, and made most of the pin cushions (see various pictures). The A stands for Ane, B for Bethine, E for Elida, Emilie and Elise, H for Hanne, I I for Ingrid Irene, M for Mia, S for Synne and T for Thelma. Two of the cushions are already given away, and the last one is given away in December.

 

 







I hope the girls like the cushions, and maybe I have inspired them to make some things themselves.

 

The beginning of the end

I have not been making as much as I normally do this fall. Not because I have not been working, but because my bunad project has taken so much of my time. Finally, however, I am beginning to see the beginning of the end for this project.

I have finished the bunad and the purse (se pictures). I had also finished the shirt, but when I tried it on, it was too small. They had cut the fabric too small at the store, and they had to cut it again for me. But now that I know how to make it, it will only take me about one week to finish when the new fabric arrives.

The only thing which is left to do now is the jacket. The problem is that the instructions of how to put the jacket together do not exist yet.

To make things even harder, the store does not have a jacket on display exactly equal to mine. My hope is that the supervisor on the bunad course I am currently taking may be able to help me figure out how to assemble the jacket. I have five course evenings left, so I hope we will be able to figure it out. If all goes well, the entire bunad will be finished by the end of March.

And if all goes well, it had taken me seven months to finish the bunad. No matter what, I will probably have my new bunad ready for the Norwegian national hollyday at the 17th May.

My big alpaca love

I love to knit with alpaca yarn. It is very soft, warm and smooth. Here is a cardigan I knitted this Christmas. I found the pattern as “Pattern of the month” for July 2010 on the website of one of the biggest importers of alpaca yarn in Norway, called “Du store alpakka”. Only the sweater was given as the pattern of the month. Since I wanted a cardigan, I did some adjustments. The sweater is knitted in a yarn called “Tynn alpakka”. If you have not tried to knit in alpaca before, you should definitely try it. It is worth every penny. But since it is expensive, make sure you find a pattern you like.

 

Old skills and new tricks

When I started my bunad project earlier this fall, I considered whether I needed to attend a course to learn how to assemble the bunad correctly. I had some sewing skills, but I have only been quilting and I never sewn any cloths. So I figured I could need some advice. After reading the assembly instructions, I realised that there were several techniques I did not know how to sew, e.g. something called a “rib seam” (direct translation of “spilesøm”) and a “tverregls” (I do not know how to translate). It was obvious. I needed some help, so I signed up for a weekend course.

The middle of November arrived and the time for the course came. I had finished the embroideries on the vest and the skirt of the bunad dress, so that I could use the course learning how to assemble the bunad. I thought that one weekend should be sufficient to finish the assembly, but was sadly mistaken. Most of the vest was to be sewn by had, and so were the wrinkles on the skirt. I soon realized that I needed to focus my efforts around learning the things I did not know beforehand, so that I knew all I needed to assemble the bunad after the course. That turned out to be a good strategy, and I learned many ingenious old skills and smart new tricks.

The first seem I needed to learn was the “rib seam”. I thought it was a decorative seam, but it was not. What it was, was, however, ingenious. With a rib seam, you can sew two peaces of cloth together, and at the same time sew the lining on to the vest in one seam (see picture to the left). That meant that it was possible to sew three seams in one seam, and it looked absolutely lovely as well. The seam was truly ingenious.

The second seam I needed to learn was the “tverregls”. I had no idea what this was, but it was to be sewn onto the slit of the skirt. It turned out to be another ingenious old skill. The aim is to reinforce the slit so that it will not tear if you have an accident when putting on your bunad. The idea is to sew button hole stitches (application stitches) along the bottom of the slit, and reinforce this with a string parallel to the bottom of the slit (see picture to the right). The string is sewn by 4-5 loose stitches across each end of the slit, approximately one centimetre above the bottom, and then grouped together with application stitches to make a nice cord.

The last thing a dreaded was the wrinkle stitches, which should be sewn by hand, thee rows, with exactly 0,5 cm between stitches and across rows. If the seem is not exact, the wrinkles will turn out bad. I imagined a long and painstaking job, but the course supervisor knew some tricks. She found a block of squared paper and started to cut strips of paper and pin them to the edge of the skirt. Then, it was only to follow the squares on the paper, and the stitches were perfectly wide and spaced apart (see picture to the left).

We had a long, informative and very nice weekend. Now, I am working hard to finish the assembly of the bunad. I have to hurry, since there is still much embroidery to do before I can attend the next bunad assembly course I have signed up for, due in January. Then, hopefully, I will learn how to assemble the shirt and the jacket (for which I have no assembly instruction). I really look forward to learn more old skills and new tricks.

My first ring shawl

I have been knitting several lace shawls this year, but I had not yet tried to knit a Shetland pattern. All my previous shawls have been Estonian patterns. I love them very much, but I wanted to knit a ring-shawl (that is a shawl you may thread through a ring ).

I had already bought a book about Shetland lace knitting on Amazon.com by Sharon Miller, called "Heirloom Knitting". It is a nice book, with a good description of the lace traditions on Shetland and many beautiful patterns. But there were no patterns in the book that I just had to knit right now.

So I searched the net for patterns, and found a web-site run by Sharon Miller, also named Heirloom Knitting. This sight is absolutely fantastic, with many beautiful patterns, yarns, hints and useful links, in addition to the books she has written. It contains everything you need to make a beautiful Shetland shawl.

I bought several patterns, and decided to start with a shawl called "1Ply Rosebud Shawl". It was not too big, so that I would be able to finish in a reasonable amount of time. I was also able to use the wooden frame I had already made to block the shawl out after I had finished knitting.

It took me about 150 hours to complete the shawl. Most of the center piece was knitted in a hotel room in Turkey this summer, escaping the hot afternoon sun with my daughter. I used a very fine light grey merino wool yarn called "Fine merino", which I bought at the web shop "Purl soho". It was a challenge to knit with such a fine yarn on 3,5 mm needles in the heat. My daughter and I had many nice afternoons, where she played GoSupermodel and listened to Justin Bieber while I was knitting.

It has been a while since I finished knitting the shawl, but I didn't have time to block it out until recently. The shawl is 155x155 cm and weighs 58 gram when finished. I was a bit unsure whether I would be able to thread the shawl through one of my rings, but I needn’t worry. It came through easily. I had made my first ring shawl!

To make a Bunad

The Norwegian national holiday is on the 17^th May. On that day, many (in particular) females wear a national costume called a bunad. They are copies of old galla dresses from the 16^th to the 18^th century, and was constructed during the Norwegian liberation from its union with Sweden, intended to boost the national sentiment in the population. Most of these patterns were constructed during the period 1850 - 1930. After 17th May this year, I decided that it was finally time for me to sew my own bunad.

There are many hundred different bunads, all depending on where in the country your ancestors originate from. I was bit a unsure about which bunad to choose, but landed on the Vest-Telemark bunad, which originates from the place where my father’s family comes from (see pictures).

I wanted to make my own bunad from scratch, so I ordered fabric, pattern, silver and thread from Husfliden, which is an organisation aiming to preserve old Norwegian craft traditions. They have several stores, where they, among other things, sell bunads. They also arrange craft courses to teach people to weave, make bunads, make traditional silverware and many other traditional handicrafts.

It took some time to get all the different pieces that makes up a bunad, and I had to wait for both the red cloth to the jacket and for them to make the pattern for my shirt again. But finally, in the beginning of September, all the materials arrived and I could pick them up at Husfliden. The box was so full that the lid would not fit on top. 

 I had never sewn the kind of stitches which were acquired for the embroidery on the bunad, but I knew how to do them and the pattern was printed on the fabric, so how hard could it be. It turned out to be harder than I expected, as the wool fabric was very coarse, which meant that I could not only use the natural holes in the weave to place the stitches because this would make the edges of the embroidery uneven. The angle of the stitches is also very important. So I started on the purse, so it would not be so expensive if I made a mistake. In that way, I could get some practice before starting on the more expensive parts of the bunad.

Now, I have finished the purse (it is only half done on the pictures), and I am almost finished with the embroidery on the edges of the skirt. I am going on a bunad course in the middle of November, and hope to have finished all the embroidery on the dress before this time so that I can use the time on the course to sew the bunad together.

Hopefully, I will have a bran new bunad to wear next 17th May.