Stickat av män / Knitted by men - The exhibition in Dala-Floda

We are back from a couple of days visit and work in Dala-Floda. The time spent was as always a very nice experience. This time we were there to build an exhibition, a new experience. We had professional help from Anna-Karin Jobs Arnberg. She was as always a fountain of knowledge and great to work with. The venue was the Studio at Dala-Floda Värdshus. The exhibition was opened by Sonja Bush from Wålstedts Textilverkstad AB, Dala-Floda.

Her are some photos of the exhibition

Midsummer is a great time to be in Dala-Floda

 

 

 

Roslagsfår

This is a short information about Roslagsfår.

The breed Roslagsfår was rediscovered in the 1990's. The breed today stems from Raggarön in the north of Roslagen where the sheep has been kept since the 18th Century. The wool was foremost used for making textiles for the family. It was spun, woven, knitted and nalbound for socks, mittens and other types of clothing. The wool is very similar to that of the breed Rya, strong and lustrous.Their wool varies in quality and is not suited for fulling since it does not shrink easily.

The sheep are small. A ewe weighs 30-40 kilos and a ram about 50 kilos. Their height averages 57 cm making them the smallest of the Swedish sheep breeds.

More information (only in Swedish) about the breed can be found here:

http://www.allmogefar.se/roslagsfar 

Wrist-warmers (wristlets) for men - in Twined knitting

These are wrist-warmers (wristlets), in Twined knitting. I finished these in the nick of time since the exhibition starts on Thursday.

They are knitted with yarn from Wålstedts, Dala-Floda on double pointed needles 2,00 mm.

The form for these wrist-warmers is traditional for Dalarna, and wristlets were worn by men in the 19th Century.

Making the napped edging.

More project bags!

More project bags.

I told you I can't get enough of these. :-)

 

Sorting fleece

Since the weather was much better today than yesterday we decided to spend a couple of hours sorting fleece. A couple of weeks ago we received a lot of fleece from the breed Roslagsfår from a friend. A very generous gift.

So we spent part of our day skirting and grading. We want to end up with a yarn suitable for knitting, but there is quite a way before we reach our goal. Washing all this fleece will take days and we will be dependent of the weather for drying the washed fleece.

No doubt this will be a project for the entire summer - and we will probably need to get ourselves a new drum carder since our old one has ceased to function and I can't see us carding all this wool by hand. Spinning can be done during winter - but I really would like the wool carded by then.

My idea is to mix these colours to get a grey yarn. I will also very soon have to decide whether to mix in some other wool before starting carding.

Den perfekta herrstrumpan / The perfect sock for men

Perfect socks for men

In 1985 ICA kuriren published "Sticka sockor" - a collection of sock patterns originating from a competition for their readers. From the submitted socks some were chosen for publication and knitting instructions for each item were written. This book is no longer available in stores. You will have to search the second-hand market.

The pattern for "the perfect sock for men" is a very good basic pattern for socks knitted with a rather thin (420 metres per 100 grams) sock yarn on needles 2,50 mm. The rib is continued on the upper part of the foot giving the sock great flexibility and the heel has a standard slip 1, knit 1 stitch to make it stronger.

Knitting men's socks in thin yarn takes a lot of time, but the result is rewarding.
I like these socks a lot. They will be very useful in spring and autumn, and indoors on cold summer days.

The yarn used for these socks is Drops Fabel. it is the first time I use this sock yarn. It has been recommended by my friends as a good and durable sock yarn. I do hope that is true - I would be really disappointed if all the hours spent knitting these socks were waisted.

Sticka sockor - ICA kuriren (ICA-förlaget AB) 1985

And by the way - I knitted two pairs (and one more pair is on it's way).

Stickat av män / Knitted by men

If you are visiting Dala-Floda this summer you can see the exhibition "Stickat av män" (Knitted by men) at Dala-Floda Värdshus. It starts June 23rd and ends July 29th.