Petition for publication of "Tvåändsstickat" in English

 

Tvåändsstickat by Dandanell and Danielsson.

This is, in my opinion, the best book about twined knitting available. It deals with both the technique and the history of twined knitting. It also contains basic patterns and lots of interesting pictures. 

The book was reprinted and revised in 2011 by Dalarnas Museum, but only in Swedish. I contacted the Museum suggesting an English translation but did not succeed in convincing them.

Now there is a petition for publication of "Tvåändsstickat" in English at The Dutch Knitters homepage. If you are interested in making an English version available do follow this LINK for more information and sign the petition.

Twined knitting in the middle of Summer

Knitting mittens in the middle of Summer? Yes, definitely! I knit all year round so I find nothing strange with this. 

These mittens were intended to be half mittens. But then I knitted while watching a very engaging  film on TV, and suddenly saw that I had long since passed the proper length for half-mittens. 

So I decided to continue and make a pair of mittens instead. 

The yarn is a z-plied, 2-ply from Kerstin and Bosse, spun at Wålstedts.

Band weaving at Sätergläntan

I have once before tried to learn band weaving - with very poor result. So I decided I would give it one more  chance and signed up for a course at Sätergläntan. 

And Sätergläntan always delivers: this was a week of pure joy thanks to our teacher Elisabeth Johansson. Elisabeth led a week starting with braided bands continuing with simple woven bands and then patterned bands on a rigid heddle (with backstrap). The week also included the basics of setting up your warp, different types of yarns for different kinds of bands  and so on. There were also traditional small looms for bandweaving for those who wanted to try that out.

I stuck to the rigid heddle since my main goal was to learn how that worked. And I had a really enjoyable week. Of course my bands do not look perfect, they are uneven and contain mistakes. BUT they were great fun to make.

At the end of the week I also learned how to make/weave a napped edging (kavelfrans in Swedish) often used on traditional mittens. This will be useful for decorating knitted mittens in the old traditional way.

We also got to see some old woven bands. Below are some bands from a private collection. They are incredibly detailed (most of them are ca 20 mm wide) and use very complicated patterns.

Bonus: this was my view out the window while weaving:

Keeping the yarn stash organized

The forecast for today was rain so I took the chance to tidy up our "wool-room". Organizing the yarn stash and sorting out various items that no longer were in their right place after planning, starting and finishing projects during the winter. I try to do this with some regularity.  It is not my favourite thing to do, but I feel good when it is done.

The stash is growing (despite a lot of knitting) and some sort of system is necessary to maintain an overview. We bought the containers a couple of years ago and they were worth every penny (that should be "krona" since I live in Sweden).

Luckily I did not have to sort out the knitting needles today (the most boring thing to do) since I did that a couple of months ago. Time for coffee!

Dyed yarns for twined knitting

The last month I have dyed yarns, Since I do not have the facilities to dye more than 200 grams at a time it is quite time-consuming - but rewarding.

I have used a dyestuff from "Färgkraft" called "Färg Special". It is easy to use. The yarn that I have dyed is the z-plied yarn for twined-knitting from Kerstin Danielsson in the natural colours white, grey and dark brown.

Above you can see the natural white yarn that I used on the left. Beside it the result when dyed red, green, blue and yellow.

On the left the grey yarn used. Beside it the result when dyed red, blue and yellow. I am especially fond of colours dyed on grey - there is a depth and liveliness in these colours that I find irresistible. On the right you can see that yellow on grey makes a very special almost olive green.

On the left the dark brown yarn. On the right the result of dyeing it with marine blue - it is extremely close to black (I will probably make more of this in the future).