FO: Heritage Shawl

march09-049This is one of those sneaky knitting projects that I have been working on but not really mentioning. My heritage shawl.

My paternal grandmother is from the Faroe Islands. I am using Faroese wool. I now live in Britain. The wool has a touch of Britain’s Falkland Islands wool mixed in with the North Atlantic wool. Most of all, I am Scandinavian. The pattern by Sivia Harding is called Norwegian Woods which I cheekily, sneakily interpret as "Scandinavian Woods". I suppose I could have gone for a traditional Faroese shawl, but I had my reasons for choosing this pattern.

The wool is really strange. Snældan 1-ply is over-spun, uneven and its colour runs the gamut from very light grey to very dark grey. It is very sticky, yet easy to work with. It is rustic, yet soft. It’s absolutely fascinating. It blocks out very well too. My only criticism is that it is a teeny bit fuzzy which detracts a bit from the lace. You don’t get a crisp lace shawl with this wool. Instead you get a warm, hard-wearing shawl.

It is an easy lace shawl, comparatively speaking (although I would not recommend it as your first lace shawl) and I have not had any issues with it at all. I will be knitting it again. I also really enjoyed the story the pattern tells - the first third represents “bare branches” followed by “first buds” and then, finally, “leaves”. Knitting this shawl felts like I was knitting the end of winter and beginning of spring. It’s a powerful feeling for a Scandinavian lass like me, I tell you, and one of the reasons why I chose this pattern.

And now I have nothing on my needles! Oh no!

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Letter from Krakow

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Dear everybody, I am typing this entry in the lobby of our Art Deco hotel in my bare feet. It has been raining all day and, just as I moved to Scotland without an umbrella and still do not own a pair of wellies, I cheerfully wore my comfy (not rainproof) sneakers to rainy Krakow. I also only packed three pairs of socks. I have already changed twice today, so I'm not quite sure how tomorrow is going to work out. I hope it will be drier.

Also? I had been singing New Lanark Aran wool's praises in recent weeks and refuted any claims of its dye bleeding. I currently have a red-striped forehead where my newly-knitted New Lanark beanie in red has been resting. What do you mean I should've washed and blocked it before leaving? You sound as though I'm a patient sort of person!

Krakow, then. To me, it feels like a Copenhagen which has been through hardship and war (which Krakow has, of course). The same architectural feel, but very run-down in most places. A beautiful, proud but tired place. We visited the old Jewish Quarter today which affected me on a personal level (a long-lost branch of my family tree is Jewish) - particularly as somebody has drawn white ghostly figures on abandoned houses. I felt decidedly twitchy and we left for more carefree ventures. Tomorrow we intend on tracking down some Art Noveau stained glass, eat more pierogi (yum!) and just maybe take in a church or two before heading home to Glasgow and dry socks.

And I've bought the first Christmas present of the year. Score!

Aye Write: The Aftermath

Jonathan Coe cancelled Aye Write, he bloody well did. I had even brought along my hardback copy of The Rain Before It Falls (not my favourite, but my nicest copy of a Coe book) and a big bucket of courage so I could ask him to sign my book. Boo.

Still, I went to see Andrew Crumey (now offically a favourite author of mine) yesterday which was all sorts of interesting. He read an unpublished short story as did Gavin Esler (unsurprisingly punchy and smooth) and Rodge Glass (as always self-deprecating and humourous). Esler's story was the easiest to follow, Glass's story got the most instictive gasps from audience and Crumey ..  well, I think he confused a few people there. Listening to him, I noticed that although he was an engaging reader, his prose is the sort which needs to be read in order to be fully unpacked. I continue to be intrigued.

Forecast: Very Nice

forecast1 I finally have photos of my finished cardigan, the oft-mentioned Forecast. As you might expect from an early March afternoon in Scotland, outside was freezing cold and rainy, so we didn't stick around for a longish photo shoot. But this'll do. I made so, so many modifications to this pattern that it is ridiculous: I changed the collar, the cables and the sleeves - but I like to think I've remained true to the original design's idea. I just didn't like all the textures the original design had going on. I have detailed my modifications over at my Ravelry notebook, in case you want the specifics.

I have not mentioned the wool, come to think of it. It was an eBay bargain:  I snapped up 1200 yards of Latvian pure wool for around £15. Granted, I have never picked out so much vegetable matter in my life (including Noro!), it gave me very bad yarn burn on my finger (I knit Continental) and most people would not wear this cardigan right next to their skin, but I still consider it a bargain. I love working with very rustic and under-processed yarns, the wool has knitted up beautifully, it is extremely warm and will be very hard-wearing.

Also? The colour is frigging gorgeous.

I also bought buttons off eBay after struggling to find anywhere in Glasgow which a) stocked ten of one button type and b) wouldn't end being almost as expensive as the wool. I found some really lovely buttons at an online haberdashery shop, but they could not deliver more than six buttons. Oh well, eBay can be your friend in times of need and I ended up purchasing these buttons at a quarter of the price our local John Lewis wanted for the exact same buttons. Hmm.

Anyhow, as I am off to AyeWrite tonight to hear Andrew Crumey talking with Rodge Glass, I must dash and have my dinner before I'm running late.