Traditional Swedish Patterns for Knitting by Karin Kahnlund

Today I visited a release party for a new knitting book Traditional Swedish Patterns for Knitting. The book is written by Karin Kahnlund and her designs are all inspired by patterns of traditional textiles from the Swedish province of Skåne. The source of inspiration has been Jakob Kulle´s book Swedish Patterns for Art Weaves and Embroidery (1892), which was reprinted by Rediviva Publishing House in 2008.

Since I am an avid fan of traditional knitting, traditional patterns etc I am glad Karin uses traditional Swedish textile patterns in her book, and I am impressed by her designs.

Her patterns are based on the Swedish knitting tradition of compact patterned knitting in woollen yarn spun from long glossy fibres which become only more beautiful with time.

A really nice thing about this book is that is written in both Swedish and English. Smart and something that I think should be done more often (wouldn´t it have been nice if the reissue of the twined knitting book from Dalarnas Museum had been done in the same way).

Karin has been my teacher in knitting at the courses at The School of the Association of Friends of Textile Art in Stockholm that I have attended. She is a great teacher and her vast knowledge of Swedish traditional knitting has been most inspiring, and  an important influence on me as a knitter.

The book contains patterns for mittens, hats, sweaters, cardigans, cushions, leg warmers etc

Karin signing her book.

Book information:
Sticka efter Svenska Mönster
Karin Kahnlund
Traditional Swedish Patterns for Knitting
Rediviva Publishing House 2011
ISBN 978-91-977695-1-8

Knitting in the old tradition

The first time I saw this stitch pattern I knew that I would make at least one pair of mittens using it. The sheer symmetry and harmony that it displays appeals strongly to me. It was part of a mitten from the north of Halland, Sweden. When it comes to knitting, Halland is foremost known for the fantastic Binge tradition. But I have never seen this pattern used in Binge knitting.

These mittens are knitted on dbpns 2.0 mm with a thin 2-ply yarn spun in Denmark. The wool used is from the Swedish breed "Värmlandsfår" and the colours are natural. I used 140 grams in total. The gauge is 40 stitches to 4 inches and 40 rows to 4 inches.

The cast on and the first 6 rows are knitted in twined knitting to get a firm and durable start for the cuff. The rest of the mitten I knitted holding the yarn in my right hand, “throwing” the yarn in the way that was traditional in most of Sweden before we started knitting continental in the first half of the 1900´s. I have found that I actually find it easier to get an even fabric with this technique when knitting with two colours. It also reminds me a bit of twined knitting, so I really like it.

Rosenkransar - Old stitch pattern from Gotland, Sweden

Twice before have I used this technique, knitting in the old Swedish tradition: a pair of mittens with a stitch pattern from Gotland and a pair of wrist warmers in the Spede tradition from Scania, Sweden.

Wrist warmer in the Spede tradition from Scania, Sweden

Black twined knitted mittens

When saying thank you is not enough, what does one do? For Gunilla I offered to knit mittens. Mittens that will last for years. 

I was prepared to knit mittens with complex patterns or many colours to show off the Twined knitting technique. But, I was asked to knit black mittens with no colour patterns, no striping, nothing extravagant. Possibly a hint of a second colour, and if so, it had to be gray.

I started these mittens a number of times, and frogged them over and over again. I became quite unhappy about how to design them and I got "knitter´s block" (if there ever was such an expression) about this project. It lasted until I decided to follow Gunilla´s wish to the point, it was after all quite explicit. 

Suddenly everything felt much better and knitting became a joy, as it should be.

So here they are, Black mittens knitted with my favourite yarn from Wålstedts in Dala-Floda, Dalecarlia. I used two black and one gray strand for casting on, traditionally it would have been one  in red, but Gunilla had said yes to gray so I used that. The only decorations used are  a couple of rows of an ornament that I saw in 2010 when visiting Dalecarlia studying old twined knitted items. 

 Next week these mittens  will be sent to Gunilla - hopefully she will like them.

Haruni

I wrote in July that Blue Faced Leicester became a favourite for spinning. It also turned out to be very nice to knit. I knew that I had to try it out in a project that uses s-plied yarn, so Twined Knitting was out of the question. There are a number of shawl patterns that I have had my eyes on, planning to knit when I get a craving for lace-knitting. The one that I chose this time was Haruni by Emily Ross (yes I know it is ages since it was released but I don´t do a lot of lace knitting so I don´t keep up ...).

I do recommend this pattern, it knitted up fairly quick and it wasn´t too difficult. I made two extra repeats of Chart A to get a somewhat bigger shawl - the finished result is 188 cm  x 95 cm (75 inches x 38 inches). I used all but 5 grams of my hand spun Blue faced Leicester.

There will be more spinning and more lace knitting with BFL in the future!

One more Boneyard

Chestnutty Boneyard
I bought this yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It is handdyed Blue Faced Leicester and the colourway is called Chestnutty.

I didn´t want to knit something "complicated", just make something where the yarn came to be "in center". So I knitted yet one more Boneyard (design by Stephen West). This time I made 50% more increases in the first 2/3 of the shawl to get a shape that was more "rounded" - I think that it came out pretty much as I had hoped.

It has a very soft and luxurious feel to it, and my guess is that it will leave us rather soon for one of my relatives (as is the case with most of the shawls that I knit).