On the Right Course

It has never felt so good to go back to school before. But the HV school is no ordinary school

It´s the "School for Friends of Craft". 

The course I´m taking is called "The Knit Tour" (Stickresan) and our tour guide is Karin Kahnlund, a very accomplished Swedish knitter. She´s going to guide us through Sweden one region at a time and we started in Skåne with Spede sweaters.

Since I had already made a pair of Spede wristlets I actually started knitting a Spede sweater. After a whole day´s work I´d done about five centimeters (two inches) on needles 1,5 (smaller than US0).

I´ll take a picture when I don´t have to use a macro lense. 

In the outdoor museum Skansen, next door, they had dedicated the weekend to linen and wool.

In Delsobogården,  the farmstead from Hälsingland, there were a few old sweaters on display.

So we temporarily left Skåne for Hälsingland and Karin told us a few interesting things about these old Hälsingetröjor.

I think that Karin said that this was made for a man in 1875.

It seems as if all the knitters in Sweden used to be equipped with equally tiny needles and boundless patience. 

Notice the special way of knitting the cuff using mainly purl stitches.

These old sweaters belong to Skansen Klädkammare and those who work at Skansen wear genuine, old pieces of clothing when they put on the traditional costumes.

This is Vanja in a fairly new sweater made in 2004 – that is probably a copy of the one from 1872 that Lena wears in the picture below.

It´s amazing how well it has kept its colours.

And it is a lovely fit on Lena´s slender figure.

The Hälsinge sweaters might look fairly similar, but they are all individual and unique.

I believe that this sweater was made for a woman in 1862.

After the course finished on Sunday I took the train up to Hälsingland to spend the night at my mum´s.

Quite a coincidence that I happened to have a job to do in Järvsö early the next morning, wasn´t it!

Monday also happened to be my birthday and a very nice birthday it was, too.

I got to see a lovely view:

Vålsjön.

I made a new friend:

Sickan.

I found a local yarn shop painted in a rather unusual way:

The lady who runs the shop was very nice.

And on the way home I got some knitting done on the train. But since a shaking train is not the best place to knit a Spede sweater on such silly little needles I started on a new lace shawl.

This will be another Icarus made in handpainted yarn from Färgkraft.

This colourway is called Chocolate Rose – and very yummy it is, too.

Next time I´ll show you photos of the birthday presents that my mum gave me.

That will be something worth waiting for, I promise!

Comments

[Clarissa]

Jamen grattis i efterskott! På 27årsdagen menar jag :)

[ylva]

Men vad roligt att få "resa" med Karin! Tröjorna ser helt fantastiska ut och påminner mycket om Märta Stina Abrahamsdotters hjärtmönster,men man blev väl påverkade av varandras design även då.

[Laura]

I think your size 1,5 needles would be US size 000. I don't even have the ambition to knit a pair of socks on yarn so tiny, let along an entire sweater! Gifted with endless patience is sure right! But the sweaters are so beautiful -- and the one from 1872 looks as if it was just knit yesterday. Astonishing.

[Nancy]

Wow! I'd love to be with you! The Delso sweater is reworked in the new Wool Gathering by Meg Swansen based on her loving it in the MacGregor book!