Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Mittens next

Stormy winds kept me awake last night. Even though I did not catch much sleep I had plenty to dream of.

I have all these beautiful cakes on my desk. The yarn in the last post was an addition to this stash.

Pirkkalankaa

I'm not comfortable doing fair-isle knitting. Whenever I try I am never satisfied with the results.
With these books I should succeed in making some mittens.
With these I should be able to perfect my technique.

And these pages of Latvian mittens provide all the inspiration one could ask for. If you have not visited these pages yet, go and see the galleries of mittens.

I wonder if it was the winds that kept me awake after all.

24 comments:

  1. What wonderful, wonderful yarn you have, and what exciting books! I am confident that what you produce will be fabulous, as always.

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  2. All those colors still glow like jewels to me. Maybe the wind was partly to blame but your mind seeking its next challenge must account for some lack of sleep.

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  3. Anonymous00:19

    My eyes are still spinning from looking at all of those Latvian mittens. 4,500 mittens is alot of collective knitting mojo and I suspect the winds may have been blowing some of it your way. What a feast you have laid out on your table! All of those yummy colours and those books as well. Handplagg is one of my favorites. I find myself pulling it off the shelf so many times, not so much with any purpose in mind but just to enjoy the beauty of it. I look forward to seeing the mittens.

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  4. Anonymous01:29

    Wow! Thanks for the inspirations. I had not seen those mittens and now have lots of colors and patterns dancing in my head as well.

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  5. fantastic colors!! I think you can knit great mittens! here are two more links:
    charts:
    http://www.liis.lv/majtur/darbmac/raksti.htm
    knit items:
    http://www.liis.lv/majtur/darbmac/cimdupa.htm

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  6. Anonymous01:55

    I can't wait to see what you will make! If I had all that beautiful yarn, I probably couldn't sleep either, but I'd be up a few times in the night to admire it. I especially like the cover of The Art Of Fair Isle Knitting. While the wind howls outside, you will be warm inside with your lovely books and yarn. Does the cat curl at your feet?

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  7. Ah, the drooling has gone into over-drive..beautiful wool cakes, such lovely colours, what inspiration!

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  8. We are also having very high winds. It is taking trees down - they are falling on the power lines and schools and businesses are closed. Some folk have been warned that they may not have power until the weekend!
    Delicious colours of yarn. Thanks for the Latvian Mitten site - I bookmarked it!

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  9. Lovely pallet. You'll feel like a painter and I'm sure you'll master the technique in no time. What an exciting adventure lays before you!

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  10. Mina olen onnellinen sinut näyttää historia lta latvialainen lapaset!
    Kiitos. Se on tosi lumoav lukea.
    kaunis väri lanka!

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  11. Anonymous10:37

    Oh boy, such pictures... I have 15 skeins of Pirkka and several books on my table, but no ball winder, and I have never managed to make a decent center pull ball by hand. But help is coming: my brother promised to make me a nostepinne. And if we get some snow here in Helsinki, the kids will be out all day and I have free from work till mid-January. I think Mary Olki will be my best friend this winter...

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  12. Anonymous13:26

    My gosh, this is yarn p0rn to its fullest - such absolutely amazing colors! The books also look highly interesting - I think with everything together you'll have a lot of fun! Enjoy!

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  13. The Latvian mittens are amazing. The yarn will make fabulous mittens. I look forward to the progress pictures.

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  14. I have always been fascinated by ethnic knitting. Maybe we should have a mitten knitalong.

    On a slightly related topic, Interweave knits had a great story about Scottish herring girls and their ganseys in the latest issue.

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  15. Anonymous16:44

    I have a mitten in process from some time ago - from an Interweave pattern that I've temporarily misplaced! My fairisle technique is questionable, but all I can do is practice. I just bought Eunny Jang's Anemoi pattern, but what I'd really like to do is design my own.

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  16. Wonderful, beautiful photos of your yarn! You inspire me with that buffé of wool!

    I've just begun my first pair of fair isle gloves, and have finally come to terms with the technique. I'm sure you will be able to, too, you are such a talented knitter.

    Looking forward to seeing your progress.

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  17. Anonymous17:56

    A beautiful palette for the winter... and the warmth of mittens at the end of that wooly rainbow.

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  18. Funny, I have fair isle (or maybe just stranded) gloves on my mind, too! It must be the season. :-)

    You have an enviable stack of knitting books there.

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  19. well, your desk looks like a colorful composition to rivl any latvian mitten!

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  20. Anonymous00:43

    Oh, such gorgeous yarn and books... good luck!

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  21. Your yarn and your books look wonderful! I can't wait to see your mittens.

    But speaking of yarn... at the beginning of the month you had a post showing a couple of skeins of Blue Moon sock yarn, in Falcon's Eye colorway, where did you buy it? I've looked at a couple of online stores (including Blue Moon) and haven't been able to find that color, is it a new color?

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  22. Anonymous06:27

    I finished two pair of Flower Rain mittens with lovely Pirkkalankaa yarn. How I love the colors! Wish I could walk into their store!

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  23. Anonymous12:44

    Fair Isle knitting eludes me as well. Twining technique helps me to keep the tension good, gets rid of the snagging loops and makes for a double thickness very warm garment.

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  24. Anonymous15:51

    You have the Alice Starmore book!!!!!!!!!!

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