Tweedy hat and scarf

Back to knitting! This week I finished the scarf for my husband and made a hat too, while watching a lot of good movies and Poirot mysteries. The Sisik yarn is beautiful and warm, a tweedy mix of mohair, wool and a small amount of acrylic and rayon. I might have to make a simple hat like this for myself, too!

Yarn: Dale Sisik, 5 skeins, from Kris.
Needles: 3.5 mm
Pattern: Trial and Error
Sisik: Here is a picture of a sisik for which the yarn is named.

We are having really bad lighting today, I should maybe take new pictures tomorrow...

Pippi is wondering when we can get rid of this pesky tree which is keeping her from her corner. She likes to hide there.

I wish everyone a fabulous new year. Don't make too many new years resolutions!

Chandelier

I saw this picture in the last issue of Fiberarts Magazine. It is a chandelier, made by the artist YaYa Chou. It's striking and beautiful, and I bet you can't guess what it's made out of. Click here for a closeup.

The artist created a series of sculptures which are commentary on the artificiality of the things that we eat and our alienation from nature.

Here is a link to the page it originally appeared on, and you can see that the chandelier has been hanging for a year and a half with no signs of deterioration! She thinks it might last for ten years!

When I think about how many of these things I have eaten over the years...

Link to the webpage of YaYa Chou.
Link to Fiberarts Magazine.

It's a start

The Brocade sweater is underway, and I love working on it. The Hifa 2 yarn is great, it's very soft, and the colors are very saturated and rich. It's so cool the way the peony is revealing itself as I am knitting, because it's not a shape I am used to seeing while knitting, no straight lines anywhere. Since the yarn is thin, you get a lot of detail, but it takes a long time, the entire weekend was spent on these measly 5 inches.

I am, again, experimenting with my 16" (40 cm) long double pointed needles and knitting belt. They are defeating me! I am very unhappy with my tight and uneven stitches. I guess I should find a project to practice on, and this sweater I definitely don't want to be a "practice sweater". By now, I have a love-hate relationship with the long needles. They are so comfortable to hold, and so easy on the wrists and arms. But I have to sit upright on a straight-backed chair in order to maneuver them, otherwise the work is held too high. That's not what I want to do when I am watching tv knitting. I added a fifth needle from a different set, so that I am using four 2.5mm and one 3 mm, which is much easier than just four, but they are still awkward. I love these needles, and I will use them, but it's going to be back to the circular needle for this sweater.

I also started a scarf from the new book Victorian Lace Today. This is a great book, so I went ahead and joined the Victorian Lace Today knit-along. This book has such a wealth of information, and I can't wait to try more of the patterns. I am doing the scarf with No. 20 edging (p. 84) in Misti Alpaca Lace, color Lipstick. I have done two pattern repeats, and it's so much fun! I love knitting lace!

The pattern in the book was made with a heavier yarn than the lace weight, which makes a large 20 inch wide scarf, so I am guessing mine will be about 12 inches wide.

I wish you all a happy holiday!

Ripped Off

It's been all work and no play at Pine Cone Lodge recently. So not much to show in the Poetry in Stitches department. I finally was able to knit all weekend, but I have not even gotten the first flower border finished.

I am THINKING about knitting a lot though. For example, let me show you a sweater named Marius, named for this guy, Marius Eriksen, a popular skier in the fifties:

The picture and caption above is from "Strikking i Norge"
(Knitting in Norway, Kjellberg, et al., 1987).

This is one of the most popular sweaters in Norway ever, and was designed in the 50's. It was loosely based on the borders of Setesdal sweaters, but I have never seen it exported much, since it was not a real "traditional" sweater. It was more one that just "everybody" wore.
Here is another updated version which is pretty cute.

But since it's not a traditional sweater, but actually a recent and copyrighted design, imagine my surprise as I am walking down the street and I see this window:

See the sweater on the left? Okay, maybe the nighttime, through the plate glass window, is not the best shot...



But still! Ralph Lauren has blatantly copied the Marius sweater. This is just so wrong!

Wonder if I should alert the knitting authorities. I will have to go and cheer myself up by reading some Threadbared...