Born to knit

A Warmhearted Workshop

The Norwegian writer and knitter Annemor Sundbø has been here in Stockholm these last few days giving workshops. I was there today and met her for the first time. It was memorable.

After dedicating 25 years of her life to saving sweaters from a ragpile Annemor now teaches Norwegian knitting traditions. She gave one of the most interesting talks that I´ve ever heard and if you ever get a chance to attend one of her workshops – don´t miss it!

First we learnt about Setesdal sweaters and got to try a bit of embroidery. I´m not going to show my sample because it would ruin the reputation of the Setesdal embroidery. But here are two examples of Annemor´s:

A simple and stylish way of embelleshing a mitten.

 

If you´ve ever wondered how to make your buttonholes a bit more ornamental – this is the sollution!

Annemor had brought some of the lovely sweaters she has made – and a whole pile of Selbu mittens, both new and old.

Mittens rescued from the ragpile.

The only disappointment was that Annemor couldn´t bring her NEW mitten book about mittens with animal motifs. It´s out tomorrow – and bound to be another best seller for her! It´s called Norske votter og vantar and published by Det Norske Samlaget (fniss). Go buy.

The workshop was held at Slöjdhuset and organized by Länshemlslöjdskonsulenterna in Stockholm.

Next weekend I will give my own first workshop at Syfestivalen and I´ve spent most of last week preparing for that and trying to calm my nerves.

I´m going to talk a little about how to make knitting patterns and give a few useful tips. Those who wish to try a bit of stranded knitting are welcome to drop by and knit a few rows. I´ve prepared some easy patterns suitable for beginners.

In fact I became so inspired that I made a hat pattern that is really easy to knit – even though it might look complicated. You can never guess where my inspiration came from, I bet.

I still have to come up with a name for this pattern. Wouldn´t a Norwegian name be suitable?

This is the top ten list for popular Norwegian names for jenter:

1. Thea

2. Emma

3. Sara

4. Julie

5. Ida

6. Hanna

7. Nora

8. Ingrid

9. Emilie

10. Amalie

Now, why isn´t Johanne on that list?

 

Out of the Blue

Oh, look what I found here – my long neglected blog!

Well, it has been kind of busy here at Born to knit lately. I have been preparing for an upcoming event. Syfestivalen i Älvsjö. (The Stockholm Knitting and Sewing Fair)

When I was asked if I wanted to do a workshop there I found myself feeling well flattered – so of course I agreed. I mean, how hard can it be to talk a bit about knitting and to teach other knitters a few tricks?

Now I wonder what on earth I was thinking. Yet I do look forward to it with slight trepidation. 

To calm my nerves I decided to knit with blue yarn instead of pink. Blue is supposed to be a calming colour. Plus I added some blue beads to be on the safe side.

I love the resulting wristlets. They are my favourites at the moment.

Next on the agenda were a pair of new, blue Gerbil mittens for my daughter. She lost the Gerbil mittens I made for her last year. After three days. Three days. Yes, of course I´m bitter.

I´m probably mad to make her another pair.

This time I´m going to knit an Icord that will keep the mittens together and she can hang them around her neck. And no, I don´t care if the other kids at school will tease her...

We´ve had our gerbils Maggie and Molly for nearly a year now. Do you want to see how they are doing?

People who don´t like rats or mice should look away now.

Too late.

 

This is Maggie. She is so fat she´s had to go on a diet.

And this is Molly. She´s a lot more picky about her food.

But she will chew everything else. Like my Designer´s Guild curtains...

This weekend was the last out on Edö for a while. We´ve closed up for the winter and will be hibernating in town. 

Autumn is definitely my favourite season.