Monday, October 09, 2006

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!

24 comments:

  1. Laughing at the thought of you throwing the yarn across the room.

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  2. I like to knit socks two at once with the yarn from both ends, it works well. this is a monumental project you started, it is all consuming! I do love those.

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  3. Anonymous17:20

    I didn't realize Katariina was going to be that long. No wonder you had a lapse of resolution, but I am glad you are not giving up. It really looks like you can finish it by Christmas. :)

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  4. Thanks, Lene for the tip. I'll have to try working with one skein inside the other. (I think that's what you meant.) I'm not sure that tossing the yarn across the room will work for me, our cat might think it's OK to play with my yarn. Although, I might try it out, I spend more time untwisting the yarn then actually knitting.

    Thanks again!

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  5. Anonymous17:32

    Enjoy your trip. Looking forward to seeing the embroidery on Katariina.

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  6. This is going to be a 'long' sweater in more ways than one. Enjoy your time away, but I will miss you!

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  7. Anonymous17:51

    Your sweater is stunning! Near my cottage there is a fiber arts festival each summer as there are quite a few spinners, weavers and knitters in that area. But it's small compared to the one you went to (and no llamas!) Have a good trip.

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  8. Anonymous18:05

    I love the tunic length. And the colors. And the design.

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  9. It's already beautiful. I can't wait to see it finished! (That was a neat story, by the way.)

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  10. I had no idea of the length of this sweater until now. I can see why it may have felt monotonous at times, but it's just so darned beautiful.

    Thanks for the idea of the paperclip. Hope you are having safe travels again.

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  11. Katariina looks lovely .... your knitting is beautiful. I have been looking at the gallery pictures.
    Lin x

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  12. You've accomplished such a lot! It looks like you are knitting Mount Everest. It looks like you still have plenty of time to decide on a neck. Will you add embroidery around the neck as well?

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  13. Anonymous20:39

    Katriina is longer than I realized, but for sure more than half of her is already knitted. Beautiful.

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  14. What a work of art! A magnificent project & beautifully worked too.

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  15. Anonymous02:46

    Lovely work, Lene. And a beautiful story for naming the sweater. Safe travels and a light heart for the journey!

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  16. Anonymous04:52

    Safe travels, will be patiently awaiting your return..Katariina is so pretty, you've really gotten so much of it done. She will keep you so very warm.

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  17. Oh, Katarina is going to be long! very nice! Before you mentioned the possibly square neck line, I was wondering what you'd do for the neck, and thought of the Norwegian style closures. But square will be nice.

    I also like to throw my ball of yarn across the floor, but now I can't anymore, as my 2-year-old has gotten very interested in yarn and can do quite horrible things with a ball of this fascinating stuff in very little time!

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  18. This sweater will be an heirloom!! Gorgeous.

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  19. What a beautiful sweater Katariina is going to be. Square necklines reminde me of the Renaissance, so I think it would be quite appropriate! Katariina's story is a very moving one, isn't it? Thank you for sharing it. I didn't comment after I read your last post, as I was pressed for time. I do want to say I have enjoyed reading your blog very much this past year. If you had not written your blog, and written it in English, I would be completely ignorant of what life is like in Finnish Lapland. Reading your blog is like having a friend living in Finnish Lapland.

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  20. I adore that you name your projects and bring their personalities to life for us who enjoy reading.

    My little one enjoys reading about princesses, now I have a new biography to look for.

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  21. Oh wow! I too did not realize that the sweater was going to a long tunic. No wonder it's taking so long! ;-)

    I will definitely read the story of Katariina. You've made me curious--I want to know what happened to her.

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  22. Anonymous03:53

    Thanks for telling us about this romantic event of the Finnish history. I suggest you might teach us some Finnish history lessons through your knitting as you previously teached finnish and geography. Have a nice travel.

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  23. Anonymous06:47

    your link to the wikipedia article is bad. It should be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Jagiellonica

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  24. Hi Lene!
    I was on Vacation for over two weeks and am so happy to return home (my favorite place) and sit down here in the quiet of the day with my tea and catch up on how your beautiful Katariina is doing! Such a wonderful friend she is turning out to be for you. Your embroidery is so lovely and how exciting that you chose to name her after Catherine Jagiellon who was the Polish princess, I know that history story so well!
    I always thought what a beautiful love story that was.
    Lady Catherine is someone with great character and strength!

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