Garter stitch

"I would like you to consider using this fabric quite often; it is a beautiful one. NO PURLING; just back and forth in lovely KNIT. It never curls at any of its four edges. In short, NO PURLING, NO CURLING." (Elizabeth Zimmermann: "Knitting Workshop", Lesson two: Great Garter-Stitch)

My first contact with  knitting involved garter stitch. I do think I have that in common with many fellow knitters. I made a scarf and it took forever. When I was allowed to progress to knitting socks in the round with double pointed needles I turned my back to the garter stitch and didn´t look back until I discovered the books of Elizabeth Zimmermann. They are very inspiring and she loves the garter stitch.

Reading her books got me to take another look at this stitch that I had been so glad to leave behind - and through her texts I could see that there is more to the garter stitch than being just a beginner´s stitch. It clearly has some nice features and, for sure, it is not difficult.

I had this nice grey yarn that I bought when we visited Solkustens Spinnverkstad in October. It is spun with a mix of  wool: 70% Gotland (in Swedish Gotlands pälsull) and 30% Finnsheep (in Swedish finull). Nice lustrous and rather soft (not like merino of course, but soft enough). I decided to make a scarf that was to be used on a daily basis, no frills and nothing fancy. Plain, grey and very useful.

I browsed my knitting books and when I read Elizabeth Zimmermann I decided that it would be a garter stitch project. One of the advantages with garter stitch it that it creates a rather thick and elastic fabric that is warm - a good feature for a scarf. I then remembered that a couple of years ago there was a rage knitting the garter stitch Baktus scarf, and I thought that a Baktus would be pretty ideal project for this yarn. The principle for the Baktus is that you increase every fourth row until you have reached the middle of your scarf. Then you decrease every fourth row until you are left with the same amount of stitches that you casted on in the beginning. Here is a link to Stikkelise´s Baktus, if you would like to see the pattern.

"Garter stitch is the easiest of all stitches, and one of the best looking. It is achieved simply by working back and forth in all-knit. ... Garter stitch has a very pronounced grain, caused by the ridges of its construction, and it is fascinating to employ it running both horizontally and vertically, so that it catches light and shadow differently. Its interesting texture is thus accentuated." (Elizabeth Zimmermann: "Knitting without tears")

Tunisian crochet - Honeycomb Stitch

I have been asked a lot of questions about these Tunisian crochet stitches shown in the post TunisianCrochet (in Swedish: "krokning") from 2012.

They are a combination of Tunisian Simple Stitch and Tunisian Purl Stitch, together sometimes called Tunisian Honeycomb Stitch. In the picture above I have made them in grey/red and grey/grey. In the picture below they are done in light/dark grey and then in the reverse dark/light grey. I do Tunisian crochet in the round with a double-ended crochet hook.

You can find more and more information about Tunisian crochet on the internet. Below is a link to more information about the Honeycomb Stitch. I haven´t been able to find instructions on how to do the Honeycomb Stitch in the round, but if you do it flat first you will soon understand how it works in the round.

Best of luck!

Link:
http://kimguzman.com/blog/tunisian-crochet-honeycomb-stitch-pattern/

Socks in 100% wool - a 4-ply knitting yarn from Rauma that feels promising

I have for a very long time been in search of a 100% wool sock yarn. When I grew up my mother knitted socks for the whole family using a rather coarse yarn. The socks were called ragg socks and we used them all winter in our shoes as well as at home. Originally ragg socks were knitted with yarn where the wool, when spun, was mixed with fibres from goat to make it really strong. I don´t think that that was what my mother used, I have no information regarding the mix of her yarn. But I am pretty sure that it was 100% wool.

This is the "Rauma 4 tr. Strikkegarn" (4-ply knitting yarn) made of 100% wool from the Spelsau breed. It is coarser than most yarns and it is supposed to be very strong and well suited for socks. In other words: it feels great!

The Spelsau sheep (also called Spaelsau, Villsau or Old Norwegean) almost died out in the twentieth century. Sheep resembling the Spelsau have been around for about three thousand years - amazing! Nowadays a "modern" Spelsau also include genes from other breeds such as Icelandic, Faroese or Finn sheep. It has two coats: the undercoat is quite fine and the outercoat is much coarser and twice as long as the undercoat. This Rauma yarn feels as if they have used fiberes from the outercoat in the yarn to make it strong. It also has a nice lustre, probably due to the long strong fibres from the outercoat.

Socks are finished. I will use them this winter to see if the yarn is as strong as I hope.

A visit to Solkustens Spinnverkstad

Today we visited Solkustens Spinnverkstad together with some friends. Solkusten is a small mill in Roslagen that spins yarn from Swedish wool.

We had booked a tour and we were guided by Ingrid. Ingrid is one of the owners and she told us about the mills history, the move to Roslagen and the wool used for different yarns.

We were also shown the machines and guided through the process of making yarn, from the sorting of the wool to the finished product.

The machines are old, but still going strong. One advantage with these machines is that they are gentle on the wool while processing it. This means that the finish of the yarn will be more lustrous and the wool fibres are damaged less during the process.

The carding machine

The spinning machine

The plying machine

After the tour we visited the shop, I have rarely seen a a more picturesque shop - really inspiring!

Adding to the stash was a perfect end of our visit. If you want to read more about the mill you can visit their home page here. Their information brochure (Swedish and English) is found here.

Bandweaving - New start

It is now a year and a half since I took a band weaving class at Sätergläntan. A couple of weeks after the class I tried weaving at home, but got very frustrated with my poor result.

I do know that there is no "quick fix" when learning new skills - but sometimes there is just not enough patience available.

These last weeks I have been thinking about making a new try. I bought a yarn better suited for band weaving than the ones that I used a year ago. I searched through our "wool/yarn room" to find the necessary tools and started to warp the yarn.

I even spent a couple of hours  weaving. It felt much better than the previous attempts a year ago.

I chose a simple pattern from the Sami-tradition. I have to start with something that is not complicated so that I can focus on the basics of the weaving. I especially like the colours - so typical for the Sami bands.

Autumn has come and today was a beautiful day. We took a walk to the Iron Age burial site nearby.