Born to knit

A Daft Decision

Johanne has started knitting a bolero. It´s from the Rowan magazine no 39,
a pattern called Carolina.
You can hopefully see a picture here if you scroll down.

The bolero is being made to go with a specific dress.
And that is why Johanne decided to go for a shade of Kidsilk Haze called "Nightly".

The body was easy and quick to knit. Now all that is left is miles and miles of lace.
The good thing about knitting with very dark navy blue yarn is that noone will
ever be able to spot the mistakes Johanne has made and can´t be bothered to rip out.
Who in their right mind would even try to frog Kidsilk Haze, anyway?

The bad thing about knitting with very dark navy blue yarn is that noone will
ever be able to see the lace at all.

Now you see it.

Now you don´t.

Though, the camera flash makes the lace a lot more visible than it actually is.

Johanne phones her friend Nicole to complain about the misfortunate choice of colour.
Nicole: Well, I did try to tell you.
Johanne: No, really! When?
Nicole: I said you should maybe go for the lighter blue colour.
Johanne: Arghhh!

The problem is that Nicole is a polite American who has not yet realised
that when dealing with stupid Swedes being coy about things will get you nowhere.
You have to be upfront and go for the kill.

What Nicole should have said is this:
– Listen pea-brain. Who do you think is going to see the lace if you make
it in such a dark colour? Noone – that´s who!

Celebrity Visit

A little while ago we had a celebrity guest here at Born to knit.
It was Barbro who came all the way from Värmland for a visit.

Barbro posing in front of Johanne´s yarn shrine.

She did manage to stop by Marias garn on the way.
And it was Barbro´s lucky day, because new yarn from Denmark in luscious colours had just arrived.

Barbro also brought gifts: a laser sword for the young padwan and some of her own handdyed merino for the rest of the family to enjoy.

And rummaging through her rather extensive bead stash a few days later
Johanne found the perfects beads for the yarn that is destined to become wristlets.

Born to knit´s own professional yarn model now
has his own ideas about how to best model yarn.

Looking at Barbro´s blog this week Johanne discovered that
Barbro has made mittens with goats on them.
And those goats look peculiarly familiar.
It´s a pattern that Johanne´s mother, who is also called Barbro, made
for the mitten exhibition!

The two knitting Barbros have made friends over the internet and exchanged patterns.
It´s a small world!

Smitten by Mittens

The mitten exhibition at Hemslöjden (the Craft shop) in Bollnäs was extended,
but finally came to an end the week before last week.

This is what it looked like from the inside looking out.

And from the outside looking in.

Johanne´s mother Barbro had made most of the mittens,
but three pairs were actually Born-to-knit-designs.

And Barbro´s friend David, who lives in London, had also contributed
with a pair of his making.
They finally arrived in Hälsingland they after a little detour to Bermuda,
courtsey of the British postal system...

Both photos were taken by Barbro.

She is already busy with her next exhibion. It will open at the museum in Edsbyn in December.
And it will not only be about mittens, but about other old and new knitted garments, too.
Johanne would of course love to go, as it will no doubt be well worth seeing.

Barbro´s workshop with all some of her own handdyed yarn.

Last Week´s Catch!

Hands up anyone who could resist a skein of handpainted
laceweight wool called "Chocolate Rose" (drool).

Before going to Syfestivalen in Sollentuna (the Sewing and Stitching Show
in Stockholm), Johanne had promised herself she wouldn´t buy any more yarn.

Only two weeks earlier she had spent (mumble mumble) pounds
at Ally Pally in London.
And, it may come as a surprise, but children get fed up eating
porridge all the time.

In fact, Johanne wasn´t going to go to Syfestivalen at all, in the first place.
But then her mother Barbro came for a visit that particular weekend.
And being a good daughter Johanne agreed to accompany Barbro,
so her poor mother didn´t have to go all the way out to Sollentuna alone.

The sacrifices you have to make, eh!

Isn´t Johanne a picture of suffering?

The Swedish Knitting Guild, Sticka, had a stand at Syfestivalen.
Their new pattern booklet on socks and legwarmers had arrived
from the printers just in time.

And guess who made the legwarmers on the cover of that very booklet?
Yes, indeed. It´s a Born to Knit-pattern.

In case you´re wondering – when Johanne doesn´t knit, she does Scottish country dancing.

Testing testing

Power has apparently been restored to the "insert-image-button" over night.
Johanne has no idea how. Maybe it´s because she asked the King himself for help.

Because she is at work (shhh, don´t tell her boss) there are hardly any photos of
knitting to show on the blog. Except for two old ones taken a long time ago.

The one above is Alice Starmore´s Henry VIII, made from a Virtual Yarn´s kit.
Johanne made it back in 2003 and had to take time off to recover after finishing it.
The colours were so lovely that she couldn´t stop knitting until it was well after midnight
every night.

And just because she can, here is another photo of a sweater finished even longer ago.

This is the Born-to-knit-version of one of Solveig Hisdal´s design.
The pattern is from the book "Poetry in Stitches", but the yarn
is old Rowan Donegal Tweed, now sadly discontinued.

It´s Johanne´s all time favourite yarn.
She still has some skeins in her stash – enough for one last
sweater. And she´s saving that for a rainy day.

Trial and error – mostly error

In the last few days Johanne has made several attempts to post to her blog.
It´s been very trying, because it seems to be impossible to upload pictures.

Johanne´s computer skills have never been very impressive, but usually when she
uses the "insert image"-button an image is inserted.
Now for no known reason, nothing happens.

The Born-to-knit-blogger has consoled herself in the best possible way, by buying more yarn.
But you´re not going to see any of it here until the "insert image"-button
starts working again, see.

But is she bitter?
You bet she is!

And now she´s getting back to her knitting.