Under the weather

When the weather gets nasty, like lots of rain and wind, Tina won't come out of her little red house. You can see her peeking through the opening but she stays inside curled in the hay in a dog like manner. It is like she is saying that she rather not be a part of the world but only a spectator.

The weather forecasts predict that central Finland will be swept by a storm during the next 24 hours which for us in the northern parts will bring more snow and strong winds. This week had lots of chores and I feel a bit wiped out.

I will go and ask if Tina would kindly move a bit and let me crawl into her little red house... (This picture is from last winter, we only have very thin layer of snow now.)

Some thoughts on Embroidery

I'm quite embarrassed of your kind comments on the embroidery! Thank you for each one of them...

But

I was not born with the skill, only with the passion for yarn and for beauty. Having the passion has made the hours more pleasant while trying to learn. Many many hours have gone by with needle and floss and what you have seen here on the blog are not my first attempts on embroidery.

Inspiration (or motifs) for embroidery are all over. When I look at the cookie I'm here having with tea, there is the shape of a cookie and some curves from a cookie presser (I don't know if that is the right word choice here) I could use for embroidery. There are fabrics, wall papers and books. Children's books are very good for sources for gathering motifs. Whatever shape or line or curve pleases my eye, I take it. There are also books for motifs entirely, maybe you want to take a look into this site of the Embroiderer's Guild, go for the book categories and there drawing and design.

I draw the motif into the right size. I study the lines and the curves and shapes and try to memorize the motion of the line or movement of the design. I try to know them thoroughly. And memorize them so that I don't need to transfer the design to the wool because I find it difficult. I like the freehand embroidery better. I just chalk in with tailor's chalk the main lines. I have the drawing by me so that I can see what I planned but I might choose to rearrange things along the way or add something or leave something out completely. I pick the color palette for the design but not for separate motifs, I decide the colors for them while I embroider.

Stitches depend on the picture and on the motifs and on the preferences as well. Today I feel the love for chain stitches but there is a soft spot in my heart for buttonhole as well, sort of like for stockinette and and lace.

The embroidery wool I use I buy from the Renaissance Dyeing. They have absolutely fantastic palette and really they have done all the work for me already when dyeing the wool. The wool is light and soft and a pleasure to make delicate and small stitches with.

I know what I'm about to say next might not work for everyone but this is so me that I'll say few words anyway. I'm built this way: I go for the mistakes, I search for them, I dig them out fiercely. I have to find them all not for the sake of the mistakes but for becoming better. Mostly the mistake is quite obvious to me, and instead of looking away from it, I underline it. I try to be honest. What went wrong and why the outcome is not pleasing? All the "what ifs" are good questions to me. I try to answer the questions too, find the solutions. This conversation is very private. Sometimes it takes time and there are occasions when I don't find a good solution. I don't tell myself that is is good when I know it is not. Very often I don't like my work when it is done. I don't think there are more than five things (maybe not even that many) that I have liked when finished. But I just have to keep on trying.

I can live with the mistakes. It is not the end of the world. I'm not afraid of them or making the same one again. Mostly they just leave me with a desire to try harder. Very exhausting at times. But would not trade this for anything.

Not even for ice skating.

Just a little peek into my Sunday

Frost Flowers and Leaves

The temperature is about -10 C and has been further down during the night. The world has turned into soft pastels. There is beauty all around.
When Tina came in after spending the night in her little house that has been furnished with fresh and clean hay for the winter she brought with her the scent of summer - she always points out that her perfume is called "Timotei" (Timothy-grass in English??). She is really the most good-scenting dog I have ever had or met. The first winter morning was spiced with a bit of summer. Let's hope the winter stays, although if it gets warmer and all this beauty is gone, it just means that I get to live it again, since the winter always comes up here.

The lake is frozen. There are frost leaves and flowers.

I know there is a shawl called Frost Flowers & Leaves designed by Eugen Beugler in "A gathering of Lace". I have some pastel blue in lace weight in my belongings. The red sweater is getting closer and closer to the finishing line (the knitting part only) and really it is time to start thinking about the next knit. That shawl would be perfect for a day like this. But the blue I have is very light, and the world is getting darker and darker and I'm a bit worried that light pastel blue would not feel appropriate when November comes. Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl has a lot of knitting to do and I know my color preferences follow the circle of nature and these few days with this light might not be enough to finish the shawl and somehow knitting that shawl in darker color would not feel right to me. (This does make sense to me...) I'm so glad the red sweater is soon done, because that intense red is getting disturbing.

PS. Thank you Ellen for giving advice to Joyce. I sincerely hope it helps. I wish I had more knowledge of this computer world. I know it is fascinating and one that can be as big a passion as knitting is. Sometimes, only in brief moments when knitting something big and tiring (like Katariina at times) I wonder, that when I get old, will I look back into my days and wonder why did I spend all my life with these tiny loops. But really I can't help it. I will have to follow my calling... the question this morning is, whether it be one lacy shawl or not. And one pastel blue.

Go buy a sheep!

I went grocery shopping with my firstborn Sonja yesterday. She only lifted her eye brows when I collected onion peels into a plastic bag when all the other people around me were collecting salads, tomatoes, carrots and such. I told her to get some greens for our salad while I was treasure hunting by the onions. With a happy grin on my face I told her that the peels would make beautiful colors. She was not impressed.

Today early in the morning when she came into the kitchen she saw this:She took one long look at me and said in a sarcastic voice: "Go buy a sheep! Wouldn't that be neat?!"

I was given a piece of advice not to use my best yarn for these dyeing experiments. But being the one who dances with fool, I did not take the advice. Instead I took out of my closets some natural white Gems Pearl and Opal. And turned them into these:

On the top is Gems Opal after being dyed with madder with some lemon added to the dye bath. Actually Opal went to the after bath but the color is stronger there because when preparing the first dye bath I did not let the madder roots boil enough to let out good color. So Pearl is a lot lighter. I used alum with Pearl but not with Opal.I'm fine with these colors (the colors in the photos are sligthly off), not thrilled but fine. And have plans already for Pearl. What I was worried of a great deal beforehand was turning the beautiful soft yarn into stiff and hard material but that did not happen. I have tried the yarn already and it is still very soft and nice.
There was some snow on the ground in the early hours. It was gone shortly but winter is creeping closer. Warning of slippery roads was given to the areas north and east from us.Some of the trees look sort of sad. Very little of summer is left...

Yesterday while I labored with Katariina (she has become a big and heavy girl) I listened to podcasts. I just love this internet. I have admired BrooklynTweed's knitting and photos for some time and now I got to "meet" him. He was interviewed by Purlman. Warm thank yous to you both. And finally I got to meet Yarn Harlot as well. Have you seen Cat's Let's Knit 2gether? Go and see her site!

PS. Miina sends her sincere thanks for each one of you for being so caring. She does have a coat, it is pictured in the archives in October 15th, 05.

Some knitting and some dyeing

After a busy week away being home again feels so right (even though there is LOTS of laundry and other work to do to set things on the right tracks). I took a walk in the morning with the dogs. Tina was full of energy, she chased away a herd of reindeer but old Miina is really showing her age. She is getting slower by the day and it makes me sad. I know the day when we have to say good bye can't be very far away. She is not sick, she is just old and tired. We first heard and then saw swans on the lake. They are leaving. It is winter time soon. Today I had winter tires put on my car. No sight of snow yet.

I had Katarina's sleeve with me while away and almost finished the second sleeve. There is a Red Sweater KAL and I joined it. Thank you Anne for inviting! This should not be too hard since my red Katariina is approaching the last quarter. Sometimes no matter how good my intentions are I seem to fail KALs... I am dreaming of dyeing. A lot.
I have some good books ("Craft of the Dyer" - color from Plants and Lichens - by Karen Leigh Casselman and "Lichen Dyes" by the same author) about dyeing to read. Thank you Niina! You have given me more than you realize.
I have been waiting to build up the courage to jump right in dyeing with natural dyes... but have been at the same time a bit worried of turning my yarn and fiber into these not so nice pale brownish colors.
This morning I did not have a bag with me to collect any plants but I intend to do it later this week. So far I have been only admiring different plants without knowing too much about them. Now I'm growing an interest to know them or rather to know what colors they are hiding. I guess there is no other way than just to go ahead and do the mistakes and then learn... and join another KAL. I have looked at my stash with new open eyes. There are lots of yarns in colors I don't care of any more. And now I know they can have a second chance... they can dive into a dye pot and be reborn. One of these skeins is going to dive tomorrow. I have some chopped root of krappijuuri (Rubia tinctorum) soaking...

Katariina

Thank you for all the lovely and kind comments on my blog birthday! They all make me glad and give me more reasons to blog.

Over the weekend I traveled with my good friend down south about 600 km to see quite a big handicraft fair. The area indoors was packed with all kinds of different and beautiful and interesting handcrafted items and there were even two alpacas! I bought some yarn (!) and linen prepared for spinning, natural dyes (!!!!) and a pair of hand carders (old ones). I'm thrilled about the natural dyes but I'll tell you more about them later on. I'm again short of time, I'll have to take another small trip tomorrow and I'll be gone for the rest of the week and should be packing now but when I saw the amount of comments I just could not leave tomorrow again without posting.

1200 kilometers on the road was good for Katariina. Katariina is the name for the twined red/orange sweater.

Catherine Jagiellon (Katariina Jagellonica in Finnish) was a Polish princess who was married to Duke John (Juhana Herttua) of Finland in 1562. Catherine's journey to this cold and remote northern country was long and troublesome but she brought with her a breath of Renaissance Air to Turku Castle where she stayed only for a short period of 8 months. Her wardrobe was exquisite. Duke John was a brother of Erik XIV who was the King of Sweden at that time and Erik did not approve the marriage. Catherine and John were captured and taken to Sweden for imprisonment. Catherine was given an opportunity to escape back to Poland but she pointed out to the captors the text on her ring that read "nemo nisi mors" and chose to follow her husband. This is not the whole story but some of it. It might be the embroidery that I'm thinking of doing that brought to my mind the story of Catherine.I don't care to count the rows to see how many hours have gone by with Katariina. But I have been in a good company of a loyal woman who chose to follow her husband to uncertain future and I'll try to be loyal to my Katariina till the very last stitch. For a moment I thought of taking something else with me for the trip but then decided to have the other sleeve with me. I'm not sure if the neck opening is going to be square, somehow it appeals to me at the moment. There was a question in the comments if there was any way to avoid the twisting of yarns. There is not. But the twisting comes bearable if you are using only one skein of yarn where the other end comes from the inside and the other from the outside. Here I have the red yarn running from the inside. I use a safety pin to lock the yarn and then I just lift the ball and let it unwind every now and then. When knitting at home I throw the yarn skein far from me so that the long yarn can take more twist and I don't need to unwind quite so often as with shorter yarn. But now I must run. Be loyal to your wool this week!

One whole year!

Dear You,

One whole year has gone by with blogging. I sincerely thank you all for reading and commenting.

Been enjoying your comments and seeing the count of the visitors grow.

I have behind of me a very difficult year. All this in my personal life. The blog has been a place to escape to and the place to sort of "count the good" and focus on them. When I named the blog Dances With Wool I hoped to be able to dance with joy when the year had gone by, I am able to dance, but not quite the way I pictured before. But a good dance is made of slow and melancholy walzes and passionate tangos and happy jives and what else? Dance can be ballet or ethnic or modern or old fashioned. This year has had them all.

Athough my mother talked to me in Finnish I chose as my blogging language English. I don't know this language well enough and have often times hoped that I blogged in Finnish since there would be so many more things I could express in my own language but I wanted to have this as a personal learning tool and to be able to connect with friends and knitters from far away places. In the early stages of blogging I checked quite frequently the dictionary but lately I have become a bit lazy and know that my spelling/word order etc. is lacking but I try to practise some forgiving towards myself. It is only human to be wrong and is good for the character.

I have been very bad in answering the comments and it is only because of the too short 24 hours one day has. I wish there would be one more hour ear-marked for correspondence only. Knitting information has been of poor quality as well but I wanted this site to be more inspirational than tutorial.

I am amazed that I'm still writing 12 months after the first post. I have not been sure of it always. But I'm glad I am here today writing this.

So

Dearest You,
would you like to come and Tango...
or maybe Waltz
or try a bit of River Dance
or Finnish Polka
or Country Western
or ---
with Wool with me for another year?

Autumn Colors

I had to go out this morning. I had million other and quite important things to take care of inside today but the sun came out, colored the sky beautiful blue and the remaining leaves on trees rich yellow. I looked out of the window, took my boots and camera and went out. There have been so many grey and rainy days in a row that seeing sun was a treat. Soft sun rays were like loving touches.I must admit that the red/orange twined sweater can be a bore at times. Yes. We are having a crisis. But so far I have not abandoned her. Yesterday I had to go and buy a new circular needle because I felt that the stitches were like glued to the old circular. So do you think it helped? Not really, and I see this as a very bad sign. Beth gave me a little bit of advice having socks on the needles just in case when I took this twined journey but I thought I would not need socks, I thought that the sweater would be fine, just fine. I should have listened to Beth. I have reached the waist line and I must confess that I just about have had it with this for time being. But if I drop this now, will this ever be done? Maybe I just should keep on twining.
There is this little voice in the back of my mind telling me that I'm wasting all my good knitting time when waiting since this sweater is very difficult to drag around and I don't have anything (nice and easy) to knit on the road at the moment.
Luckily there has been some distraction... these little skeins of yarn that have been dyed by Niina with natural dyes. Look at the little yellow skein - the color is like from the pictures of the leaves from above. When quilting I dyed some cotton and linen with fiber reactive dyes and I have once attended a weekend course with natural dyes, but it was a very long time ago. It was a fall after extremely rainy summer and all the yarns came out different hues of green. Lovely green even when the color should have been sort of yellow. Every now and then I have thought about trying dyes again...
The red/orange sweater - being the only (so far allowed) creative outlet - forced me to consider other alternatives outside knitting. I have been spinning a bit of Corriedale.This color did not speak to me. It is beautiful blue for spring and summer but at this time of year it felt out of place. So I dumped it into a kettle.Poured some reactive dye over it and let it boil for a while. And it turned into this blue. Very dark and difficult to capture the right color. I tried in shadowand in sunshine.After doing this skein the dye bath was still very strong. So I threw in some white Shetland. It should be done soon.

What if I spin some grey singles and ply with white and then dye... I'm not sure I can turn back any more. Something tells me that a new journey has just begun.

PS. About the wild birds... I have them served from best china with good wine. I just eat, don't shoot or clean or cook. Just eat.