Born to knit

Remembrance of Things Past

If there is a certain scent that will remind Johanne of 2006 it´s Koolaid.
As a child she helped her mother to dye yarn using birch leaves and such.
But she has to confess it was a lot more fun using a hundred percent artificial substances.

The whole family participated.
And when Ludvig exclaimed that he´d painted his lips, too,
Johanne was awfully glad that they were using non-toxic dye
that you´re actually meant to drink. Ludvig escaped unharmed.

Dyeing yarn was so much fun that Johanne seriously considered chucking in her day job.
But she realized she really does need it to keep her in yarn.

Elise helped her wind the yarn.

And these are Elise´s Koolaid socks.
They still have that artificial scent because Elise hasn´t used them yet.
Johanne was amazed by the "expert" dye job. Is she perhaps a natural born dyer?
Surely it couldn´t be sheer luck...

All in all that was the most memorable day in 2006.
Johanne would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Wendy who acted as dealer kindly sent her the Koolaid.

Let´s hope for just as much fun in the year to come.
GOTT NYTT ÅR!

The wristlets that got away

Not all the wristlets that Johanne made before Christmas met a fate worse than death.
Some of the lucky ones managed to escape Ludvig Scissorhands.

These are the wristlets for Ludvig´s nursery teacher Eva, who has been seen using the ones she got last year a lot.
The pattern is inspired by the traditional Norwegian "Lusekofta" and the beads are from Wincent garner.

The other teacher got a beaded hairband that peabrain here forgot to take a picture of.
But she intends to make one for herself soon, because it looked rather nice.

This is for Karen in London, who loves black and gold. The beads are Japanese from Pärlshopen.

And this is for Johanne´s friend Anki who frequently wears wristlets. She likes multicoloured beads.
The beads are from Nysta and the pattern is inspired by a wristlet in Nina Sagulin´s book "Sticka".
It takes forever to thread – literally – thousands of these beads.

Knitfriend Erika once said that if Johanne had been born a native American her name would be
"Woman who knits with beads".

Lesson learned

The hats for Johanne´s nephews have been nearly finished for ages. Only the pompoms remained to be done.
Honestly how hard can it be to make pompoms? Or bolltofsar as they are called in Swedish.

She was beginning to fear that Santa would come and snatch them out of her hands while she was still trying to finish them.
And the bolltofsar were the most important things about those hats, her sister had stressed.

Johanne certainly didn´t want to repeat what happened with the white cardigan she made for herself last summer.

She had decided she wanted to wear it for the dancing round the Maypole on Midsummer Eve.
And though the cardigan in plain white stocking stitches on really tiny needles was a real drag to knit, she ploughed on. On and on.

Finally it was just the little matter of sewing on the buttons. Midsummer was drawing close, but Johanne still felt as if she had plenty of time.
Just quarter of an hour before the Midsummer dancing was about to commence she got the darn buttons done. Some people like to live on the edge – except Johanne isn´t one of them.

In the end she someone did get to wear it to the Midsummer dance.

Mummy, I´m cold. Can I borrow your cardigan, please?

The Barfing Dragon

It´s very hard to be angry with your children for long. Even when
they´ve just ruined your knitting with the aid of a pair of scissors.

And especially when they fondle the Malabrigo you´re knitting with and exclaim:
– Oh, how soft! Can you make me a hat for me with this yarn, please?

Last winter Johanne made her son a sweater with a dragon. It did take some
time and wasn´t finished until January. Ludvig was delighted when he tried it on
and didn´t part with it again until sometime in early June.
(luckily it was a very cold spring last year)

– Now I want a hat with a dragon, Ludvig proclaimed soon after the sweater was done.
– And it has to breathe fire.

Johanne showed the finished dragon hat to the father.
– No, it doesn´t look as if it´s vomiting, he said.
– Oh, good, Johanne said. With uncertainty.
It now goes under the name of "The barfing dragon-hat".

Perhaps you´re wondering what Johanne bought her daughter´s teacher
for Christmas. Well, luckily the teacher knits too, so Johanne simply went
past Maria´s yarn shop again and got her some Malabrigo.
All well, that ends well...

I´m sorry, but I´m not feeling well...

Little angels?

Shouldn´t there be a warning sign on these things?
Something like:

"Scissors can seriously damage your knitting."

Last night Johanne sat down to finish the wristlet
she was making as a Christmas gift for her daughter´s teacher.
It was nearly all done. Just a few rows left and some sewing up to do.

Then she discovered that a certain someone had cut the yarn at the
very beginning of the wristlet. And it just couldn´t be fixed.

That certain someone was most probably five-year-old Ludvig.
Luckily for him, he was asleep at the time of the discovery.
And Johanne has calmed down now. It´s alright. No need to worry.
Besides it´s forbidden to smack children in Sweden.

But there was no time to knit another wristlet, so the teacher had to be
given something BOUGHT.

This morning Ludvig readily confessed to having cut the wristlet
with the pair of scissors and said he was sorry.
He seemed to have absolutely no idea of the trouble he caused.
– But why did you have to frog it, mummy?

Johanne receives a request she can´t refuse

The handpainted alpaca has become a Swallowtail shawl.
It´s been washed, blocked, wrapped and the sister who is the recipient
has been told to open the packet before she goes off to Gran Canaria to spend Christmas there.
It´s not as if she´ll need a warm wooly shawl when she´s lying by the poolside.

The hats for Johanne´s nephews are nearly done. They just need pompoms.
Things seem to be under control.

Then the phone rings again. It´s her sister Filippa calling to tell her that her little boys
are in desperate need of new cardigans.
Dear, oh dear.
There will not be enough time to knit both of them cardigans before Christmas.
But never mind. It´s the perfect excuse to buy some of that Malabrigo yarn Johanne has been
lusting after for so long.

She suddenly finds herself in possession of said yarn in two different shades of blue.
And she just can´t resist starting to knit with it.

Meanwhile behind the sofa the Dala Floda-sweater has lost all hope. It has reached a state of apathy.
It doesn´t even try to fend off the wool-eating carpet beetles that keep getting closer and closer.

It´s not fair. Why do I have to stay at home?

She flits from shop to shop just like a...

In Johanne´s flat in Stockholm the phone is ringing.
(insert ominous sound)
She picks up. It is her dear sister Emelie.

Emelie talks about the new brown winter jacket she has just bought.
And very quietly she adds that it would be nice to have a purple
lace shawl to go with it.

No way, Johanne thinks to herself. I couldn´t possibly cram in making
a lace shawl in the few weeks that are left before Christmas. I´ve only
just started those hats. And then, of course, there is the little matter of
the Dala-Floda-sweater.

She manages to put the phone down without committing herself further.
And she feels very pleased with herself.

Two days later as she passes "Maria´s yarn shop" on the way home from
work she spots her very dear friend Nicole in there. It would be rude to
only wave and walk on by, wouldn´t it?
So Johanne goes inside, just to say hello.

When she steps out of the shop half an hour later she is carrying a
small bag containing some handpainted brown and purple alpaca.
Maria is a true master when it comes to dyeing yarn.

Now, Johanne has never been much of a believer, but she´s beginning to
suspect that she is only a small part of a much bigger plan. Where the alpaca
comes into all this she has no idea.
She just has to wait and see.

A dark and stormy afternoon

It´s already dark outside and the wind is howling. A woman is seen hurrying towards the Old Town of Stockholm.
She´s heading for a shop with a sign that reads "Anntorps Väv", which means "Anntorp´s Weaving" in Swedish – but don´t let that fool you. There is plenty for knitters to find in there too: Noro, Colinette and Sweden´s own top-of-the line yarn from "Östergötlands ullspinneri", a very soft wool yarn in vibrant colours.
And nothing else will do when knitting hats for small children.

The woman has wrapped a big lace shawl around her head to avoid recognition, but to no avail. She´s already been identified as our new knit blogger who passes under the name of Johanne.

She can soon be seen leaving the shop carrying a small white plastic bag with a yarn content. Or maybe the bag is more medium sized – could that really only be yarn for two small hats?
Johanne is smiling serenly.

Meanwhile, back in her flat the "Elizabethan Ingeborg-cardigan" is trying to comfort the abandoned Dala Floda-sweater.
– Don´t worry, sweetheart. You´ll be done eventually. It took her ages to finish me, too. She even ran out of yarn and had to send off for more from Scotland – what a plonker! But it´s just the way she is.

Jade Starmore´s Elizabethan jacket combined with the Norwegian pattern Ingeborg, finished around Christmas two years ago after a long struggle.

Part III: In which something behind the sofa is wimpering

Johanne has two nephews, both of whom she loves dearly,
Hampus, 4, and Leo, 2. Sometimes she knits them things.

Last week their mother, Johanne´s sister Filippa phoned her with a
request on behalf of her sons: New knitted hats with pompoms
for Christmas.

Their old hats, that Johanne made two years ago, are now so small they
don´t even cover the top of their ears. And the pompoms have fallen
off. Filippa is at a loss. The winter in Sweden can get cold.
Very cold.

Johanne gets a warm, fuzzy feeling when she hears this. Who could
possibly resist such a request? Definitely not her.

– Two small hats will take no time at all to make, Johanne says to herself.
She´ll return to the Dala-Floda-sweater as soon as she´s done. It won´t
even know she´s been gone.

Johanne truly believes this. She´s such a fool.
She doesn´t even notice that the Dala-Floda-sweater has fallen behind the sofa,
where it now lies neglected feeling sorry for itself.