Tuesday, May 08, 2007

It is only Henry from now on

Henry might not be the best blogging project… only few rows get done daily and I’m far from the armholes. When I get to the armholes, I must cast on for more stitches, so instead of the rows becoming shorter then they will actually get longer. I have to wait until the beginning of the front neck steek for shorter rows. The row count will then be close to 170 and if I could do 17 rows a day, it would take me 10 days to reach the neck steek but 17 is too much, even 8 is much, so about a month’s worth of knitting should bring me to the neck. That can’t be true. Surely the knitting will speed up…???? I think that I knit 16 rows yesterday, and I spent too much time just knitting. I mean that the time spent was good and enjoyable but not much else that needs to get done here got done.

Here a shot of the backside, this is the place where I join the new yarn. Hardly any ends? It is because I have been using the so called Russian join. If you google Russian join, you will find many sites that explain how to do it, but since I first found it in Marina’s pages I refer to her. Scroll down to May 19th and there is a good explanation with pictures to show it.

And here a process shot. This morning I decided that the time has come for me to start having my breakfasts outside. I only drink coffee early in the morning and I have my breakfast later when the children have left to school. So I prepared my usual (currently) breakfast that includes berries (here cloudberries) and plain yoghurt and some müsli and tea with milk and some apple juice and headed for the steps that face the lake. Here my scenery from the spot. I sat there for a little while and decided that it was a bit early to be eating out and gave up and came in.

At least it is not snowing. At the moment.

It is going to rain instead.

31 comments:

  1. I cannot even begin to express the feelings of delight I get from looking at Henry. No kidding, such swoon worthy colours and the design!
    That breakfast looks very familiar, sans milk though, 'cloud berries' they're quite pretty little berries, what do they taste like? I don't know that I've ever even seen them.

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  2. Anonymous15:11

    Henry is absolutely beautiful! I think your worries about Fair Isle were unwarranted. Lately I've been doing production knitting for some local knitwear designers. I'm missing the passion that an exciting new project inspires so I will really enjoy watching your progress.

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  3. Anonymous15:27

    Happy Middle-ing!

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  4. It is a slow process if you're not Wendy! I try to do 10 rows. And it's faster if you just make a square knot ;-)

    Don't you love seeing the pattern reveal itself? Gorgeous!

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  5. Henry is gorgeous! And so is your scenery. I love seeing pictures of the scenery around your home. :)

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  6. What a beautiful piece! I for one will enjoy seeing it grow just a little here and there - it means I get to keep looking at it that much longer.

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  7. Henry is lovely!

    Also, your breakfast is yummy. I visited a friend in Sweden many years ago, and she and I ate a similar thing every morning. Now back in the U.S., no one else around me will eat plain yogurt... but I love it.

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  8. The colors of Henry are stunning and your knitting looks very even in the photograph. Please don't underestimate your own fair-isle skills. I read your blog regularly, and love seeing the pictures from the place you live.

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  9. Anonymous17:57

    Believe me, we will not be bored by Henry progress shots. It's like watching someone paint a masterpiece! Even the wrong side of the knitting is beautiful.

    I hope you get your spring soon. You've been very patient. :-)

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  10. thanks for the link to the russian join instructions!

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  11. Henry is breathtaking. Truly amazing; don't be in a hurry, enjoy the process of such a lovely knit!
    I don't blame you for stepping back indoors, but your breakfast makes me hungry!

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  12. Anonymous19:01

    I catch my breath every time a picture of Henry comes up on my screen. Thank you for posting your progress--I'm loving it. I also am enjoying the pictures of the area surrounding your home. Beautiful birches.

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  13. Henry is so beautiful. Please keep posting your progress. I love seeing the pattern grow.

    Your scenery is beautiful, too. I wish I had a view like that.

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  14. Such lovely colours. A. S. has a knack for adding in just the right amount of the unexpected.
    I do envy your climate, as I hate hot weather. Do you have midges in summer, though?

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  15. Lene, I hope you're enjoying the process as much as all your readers are! The colours and patterns are so subtly beautiful.
    I've only ever had cloudberries in liqueur form, but your breakfast with them looks so good.

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  16. Beautiful colours, beautiful knitting, beautiful scenery! What a wonderul view you have - even in the dismal weather you seem to be having it looks gorgeous from here in London!

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  17. Lene - I thought taking 20 mins/row was a lot, but your rows may be a bit shorter than those on my shrug, but they are way more complicated. I had to pick up 292 stitches on both fronts and the neck of a shrug by Erika Knight. It is for my 17 year old GD, who has a birthday in July.
    Do you find it difficult to knit for teenagers. It seems sometimes that they chose a pattern, you start and before you are finished they have changed their mind! I am sure I was the same as a teenager, but that was so many years ago and I conveniently forget!
    Best wishes to Henry!

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  18. Anonymous00:06

    Your breakfast looks delicious and healthy (although I'm not familiar with cloudberries) and Henry is beautiful. I'm going to find out what a Russian join is.

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  19. I know how you feel blogging about a project like Henry. I'm working on Rheingold right now and it gives me blog-block. Its hard to think about new things to say on something that at best grows a half-inch per knitting session.... sigh.

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  20. Anonymous06:11

    The Alice Starmore sweater I made took me twelve years (and witnessed four transcontinental moves). Slow is relative. Yours will be beautiful.

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  21. Henry looks stunning indeed.
    I think Fair Isle something between raving lunatics and knitting goddesses, though. I never had the guts to try one, maybe because I somewhat dislike the spiralling patterns but I have something like pomerangranates on Venetian brocade in my mind, one day I'll get a sheet of graph paper and do it. One distant day. Maybe, like, tomorrow, I have some cashmere around.......

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  22. Henry is breath-taking. I am in awe! This is why knitting is a true artform.

    As for cloudberries... what a delicious treat! Growing up on the island of Newfoundland, Canada, cloudberries (or bakeapples as they were sometimes called) were a rare and delicious find. Yum!

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  23. Anonymous20:04

    What a beautiful breakfast spot and peaceful since the kids are gone to school. I suggest you continue to try it every few days and one day soon, the temperature (and sunshine) will be just right. The sweater is gorgeous even if it is slow. Besides, you won't want it till next fall, right?

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  24. Anonymous20:45

    Henry is beautiful. Oh, if only I could see such beautiful work coming from my own two hands! I am too frightened of Fair Isle, however, so I will have to ooo and ahh over your beautiful work and that of others.

    Mmm, cloudberries look divine. I have never heard of them, of course, in Texas, but I didn't know of them in Alaska or Norway either, when I lived there. Thank you for sharing the scenery - I could lose myself for a few minutes, anyway!
    Malena - fwmld@hotmail.com

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  25. Your "Henry" is fantastic. I wish I had the time to devote to that big of a project. Welcome to the Fair Isle clan.
    Are "cloud berries" grown in Finland? I have never seen nor tasted them in the United States. Until a few years ago, I thought Huckleberries were an imaginary berry created for a cartoon...oh, no...I picked and ate them until I felt ill, in Montana. They taste somewhere between a blueberry and blackberry, very small, very juicy. Tell us more about these berries you have so deliciously photographed.

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  26. Henry is looking very regal! Well worth the slow but oh-so-interesting rows.

    The russian join is confusing to me. It seems that Marina needed to add one more picture to the process. Could you elaborate, maybe a couple pictures?

    Hope you have some brilliant sunshine to warm your steps for breakfast time.

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  27. Frontside OR backside, I'm so enjoying the progress pictures.

    (And now I'm craving berries. Thanks a lot, Lene. ;-) )

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  28. Wow! Can I joun you for breakfast? I'll bring some yarn

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  29. It is so nice to eat breakfast outside, isn't it? I love that sort of breakfast although I prefer súrmjólk which is thinner than yogurt.

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  30. I meant to add, thanks for the link to the Russian Joint technique, I have never done that before and it looks like a wonderful way to avoid weaving ends.

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  31. Henry is gorgeous; that's so much more impressive than my little ladybugs.

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