Hei there Krissy!

Snow Bird Stocking (Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2012)

Out September 4, the 2012 edition of Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts.

Included in the magazine is my Snow Bird Stocking, a design inspired by Nordic decorative arts.

Birds perch at the top of the stocking, above a field of stars and vines on the front side; the stripes on the back side of the stocking are an abstract rendering of bird prints in the snow. Duplicate stitch accents (in green) are added to the design after knitting.

The stocking was knit with MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino, and measures approximately 16" around and 20" long--big enough to fill with lots of goodies!

Nordic Christmas Stocking finally ready to publish!

I have been working on this one a long time, and it's finally ready to go live.  As soon as I finish this post, I'll be heading over to Ravelry to publish the pdf.

(front view)

(back view)

Read a bit more about the development of the Nordic Christmas stocking here. 

Over the past 4 years, this projects has gone through several iterations, with some important lessons learned along the way. The most significant of these being:

-when knitting experts advise that you mustn't switch the positions of your yarns when doing 2-color knitting (you have the main color in your right hand and the contrast color in your left hand, for example), take that advice to heart!

Many years ago I took a 2-color knitting class from Lucy Neatby, and the above was one of the two big pieces of information I took away with me*. I never intended to ignore her advice, however...

I started knitting the very first version of this stocking in 2006. When I was nearing the heel turn, I became really, really sick. Like 102 degree fever sick. So I had to put my knitting aside for a while, as I could hardly sit upright, let alone knit.

Once I started feeling a little better, but not anywhere near fully recovered, I resumed my stocking.

Big mistake. As I was still pretty out of it, I didn't remember (or even consider) which hand held which color previously. I just picked up the stocking, put a yarn in each hand, and started knitting.

It turns out, I swapped the colors. What had been in my right hand switched to my left, and vice versa.

Behold, the result:

See how the stripes change right there at the heel? How the white stripe becomes much more prominent on the lower half? That's because I held the white in my right hand for the first part (the top), then switched it to my left hand (the bottom section).

These next photos are a bit blurry, but you can still see how the main pattern was affected by changing the position of the yarns:

(white in right hand, blue in left hand)

(blue in right hand, white in left hand)

The color that is carried in the left hand travels below the color held in the right hand, and for this reason there the floats created when the color is not in use are a tiny bit longer for the left hand color. This then results in the stitches for the left hand color being ever so slightly bigger, meaning stripes, motifs, etc knitted with the left hand color will be more prominent than those knitted with the right hand color.

You can really see the effects of switching which color goes on which hand when you look at the wrong side of the work:

The point where I switched yarn placement is pretty obvious, is it not?

If this all seems complicated and confusing, here's the simple version:
-decide how you are going to carry your yarns (MC in right, CC in left, etc, according to your 2-color knitting style); write it down on your pattern, and don't switch!

And if you decide to resume an in-progress project when you are still slightly feverish, maybe reconsider? A few more days of recovery probably wouldn't hurt.

Nordic Stocking on Ravelry

*The other biggie I took away from Lucy's workshop was in regards to how floats are handled in stranded color work; specifically, how tacking down floats on the inside of the work impacts the outside of the work. Having never been much for tacking down, I left the workshop feeling fully justified in my knitting style. Thank you Lucy!

Nordic Knee-Highs

The Sock Summit hits Portland this week (July 28-31, at the Oregon Convention Center).

On Friday, July 29, there will be a book signing featuring contributors to the new book Knitting Socks from Around the World. The signing is from 4-6pm at the bookstore in the marketplace, with the participating authors signing in two groups; I am in the 4-5pm group.

My contribution to Knitting Socks From Around the World is a Norwegian inspired knee-high sock. The front of the leg features a very traditional rose/star and net motif, while the back of the calf and the sole of the foot feature a herringbone pattern.

My fondness for herringbone motifs stems in part from an appreciation of the juxtaposition of strong geometric patterns with more organic shapes. But it also comes from the association I have of herringbone and Kristiansund, the Norwegian town my father grew up in. More precisely, it reminds me of the klippfisk (dried salted cod) hanging on the outsides of homes in the fishing districts of the town.



The above photo was taken on the island of Grip (really an archipelago, if you want to be fussy about it) where klippfisk is omnipresent.

 But back the stocking...

The greatest challenge in designing knee-high socks is the calf shaping--there is a lot of anatomy happening along the length of the calf: from the ribbed area under the knee, the leg grows considerably wider quite quickly to reach the full calf circumference, then narrows down to something like half the calf circumference for the ankle. Complicating matters is the tremendous variety from one human being to the next regarding their individual calf shape. I have skinny ankles but very developed calf muscles and average length legs, so I need a lot of shaping for a well fitting knee-high. Some people have little change from the full calf to the ankle, but is that because they are twiggy for the entire length of the lower leg, or because they have solid, substantial legs? And are the legs long, short, or average?

Sooo...lots of allowances are needed for fitting each person's unique and individual calf shape. To achieve this end, I worked the increases and decreases at the center back calf in pattern, but also included additional gusset panels on either side of the leg.

I very intentionally kept these areas solid, so it will be easy for knitters to customize the stocking, without having to worry about maintaining any two-color patterning. And I like the visual effect of the solid color gusset--it adds another element to the overall design of the stockings.

One more (important!) detail: there is a typo in the book. Sometimes the mistakes are mine, but I'm clear on this one! An error was made in the production process:

In the leg shaping section, the text should say S2KP2 (not S2K2P).

S2KP2 = slip 2 knit wise, one at a time, k1, pass 2 slipped sts over the k1.

I haven't seen the book yet, but I heard from a knitter who wrote that the explanation of the abbreviation was not included in the book.

It's always good to check for errata before starting a pattern. The process of taking a project from inspiration to publication is a long one, and there are many places along the way where mistakes can happen, despite the best efforts and intentions of all parties involved. I'm working on a post on that very subject...

Dancing ladies, ducks, and reindeer

Being one-half Norwegian, and having several talented knitters on the Norwegian side of the family, I received many handknit garments as a child. I don't know the story of the sweater in the above photo (although I would guess it was a handmade gift), but I still have the featured hat.

This hat is typically Norwegian in its construction. It is worked as a long tube, with only minimal crown shaping in the last inch. The stitches are then drawn together, resulting in the very dramatic gathering you can see in the photo. A pompom covers the opening the gathering inevitably leaves at the top of the hat.

This hat was the inspiration behind a design for my first book, Knits from the Heart.

Earplap Hat from Knits from the Heart; pattern is available as a pdf from KnitPicks.

It's a little hard to see here, but that's a duck on the left side of the hat.

The book in the photo is Barnas Store Sangbok by Anne-Cath Vestly, copyright 1962, illustrations by Ornuff Ranheimsaeter (due to copyright issues, we had to cover the title in the photo). I spent a lot of time with this book as a child, admiring the detailed line drawings and singing a select few songs:

Der bor en baker i Østre Aker.
Han baker kringler og julekaker.
Han baker store, han baker små.
Han baker noen med sukker på.

For a song about baking sweets, the melody is surprisingly melancholy. Maybe because the final lines of the song say "if you have money, you can get (some cookies), but if you don't have money, you can leave". So sad!

On to the next hat:

The construction of this hat is the same at the other--a long tube with virtually no shaping, lots of gathering, and a pompom. What stands out for me about this design that it was my introduction to what has become on of my favorite Nordic knitting motifs--human figures.

Human figures, often holding hands or dancing, are frequent images in Norwegian knitting. A particular favorite of mine are the "dancing grannies", which I incorporated into this design from The Knitting Man(ual), the Nordic Hat Three Ways.

My brother Lars, me, and my Dad, modeling the Nordic Hat Three Ways from The Knitting Man(ual).

Click the image to see the hat in more detail.

Someday I want to incorporate human figures into a sweater design. Also still on the "to-do" list is a design with reindeer, like those seen in the second childhood hat. I have a friend who very much wants a reindeer sweater, and as this friend has been my official pompom maker (those perfect pompoms on the Earflap Hat? he made them!) for many years, I think it's the least I can do.

One more song from Barnas Store Sangbook, this one about the poor sheep that has to provide the wool for all these sweaters:

Bæ bæ, lille lam, har du noe ull?
Ja, ja, lille kjære barn, jeg har kroppen full!
Søndags frakk til far, og søndags skjørt til mor,
Og to par strømper til bitte lille bror.

Baa, baa little lamb, have you any wool?
Yes, yes, dear child, I have a body full!
Sunday's coat for father, and Sunday's skirt for mother,
And two pair of stockings for tiny little brother.

Zigzag slippers

In a previous post, I shared this photo of the door of a Norwegian house.

The bright red and white geometrics of the door have been bouncing around in my head for a while now.

At the same time, I have been thinking about a new pattern for a pair of slippers.

I love knit slippers. I wear them around the house all the time, and find that it's best to have at least 3 pairs at any given time, so I have something to wear while the other pairs are in the laundry/hiding from me/otherwise unavailable.

My favorite slippers are the "Saturday Morning Slippers" I designed for The Knitting Man(ual). They are warm, they wear well, and they are very comfortable. They are also something of a pain to make--the sole is double stranded twisted garter stitch knit at a very tight gauge, and it's all but guaranteed to leave your hands worn out. I think they are well worth the trouble, but I wanted an alternative that was a bit quicker to knit.

The Saturday Morning Slippers from The Knitting Man(ual). Photo courtesy of Sarah Pope of Blue Garter.  The contrast-color sole was her innovation. Well played, Sarah, well played.

In November of last year, I was generously given a copy of Susanne Pagoldh's book, "Nordic Knitting: Thirty-One Patterns in the Scandinavian Tradition".
Originally published in Swedish in 1987, the book was translated into English in 1991. It is currently out of print, so it was truly a delight to receive a copy as a gift.

The book explores knitting traditions from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, Finland, and the Faroe Islands. One of the patterns included is for two-color, wool slippers.

These slippers, called skoleistur, are a Faroe Island tradition that has carried on to the present day--or at least up to the time of the book's publication. When I saw this photo, I found the inspiration for my new slipper pattern.

I decided to base my design on the shaping of the skoleistur, and the patterning in the red and white door. After much trial and error (meaning I have several mis-matched prototypes to work into my slipper rotation), I now have finished pair of slippers.

See the influence of the door pattern on the top of the foot?

Detail of the sole (left) and side (right) of the slipper.

A pdf of the pattern is in the works, and I hope to have it available as a download by the end of February. And I have new pair of slippers to wear!

Just in time for Christmas!

I finally finished a holiday stocking I have been working on forever. I mean forever--the charts were formatted in Pagemaker. I had intended to have the sample knit and pattern ready to publish in time for Christmas...2010.

That didn't happen, but now I'll have the pattern ready to go by February, and really, that's about the right time to start one's holiday knitting, right?

The design utilizes two of my favorite Nordic motifs:

geometrics-


-and stars & nets-


This stocking developed out of a class I taught back in 2007. The focus was an introduction to Scandinavian knitting techniques, and the class project was a Nordic Christmas stocking. Although the pattern, or at least variations of the pattern, have been around for four years, I am just now getting around to publishing it.

Aside from having to update the charts to Knit Visualizer, I've been a little hung up about the colors--four years ago, my color selection was based on what I wanted for me, not on what the best colors for a promotional sample might be. The yarn is Hifa 2, in a light blue (a pretty traditionally Norwegian color choice), chocolate brown, and raspberry. 

I love the colors. When I was in design school, my color theory teacher commented that my innate color sensibilities are firmly rooted in the early 20th century (not a bad thing).


An image by Erte; not the source of the palette for my stocking, but I can see where my teacher was coming from when she made that comment.

Anyway, I've been wrestling with the colors, wondering if I should re-knit the stocking in a more conventional holiday palette. And I've come to the decision to stand by my original choices, and leave the colors as they are.

Onward then, to updating the chart, having the pattern edited and the stocking photographed. Hopefully the pattern will be ready to go by mid-February, leaving people lots to time to knit it up by Christmas...2011.