Monday, September 05, 2016

Linen stitch shawl


Mother Nature has treated us with glorious fall weather and I have been outside a lot; doing the usual fall activities: raking, collecting fallen branches, cutting grass, arranging firewood into piles in the wood shed. Yesterday I ended up on the roof of the wood shed and cleaned away all the moss, the hard old fashioned way, scrubbing the surface with a hard brush, which left my hands and shoulders aching and once I got up this morning, I promised myself that I would stay inside the house and do something light, like handwork.
Until the sun started to lure me outside… I might have heard myself murmuring that these beautiful fall days are going to turn into rain soon and I just might want to make the best of them as long as they last. I pottered around doing all sorts of little things for a few hours, took photos and finally I am in and I intend to crochet away for the rest of the day…
I figured out what to make next...
The thought process was fed by looking at all the various glorious knitted shawls in Ravelry. I looked for a long time at Melanie Berg’s designs, she has very beautiful ones and for a while I contemplated on making one of hers, but most of the time, I want to make something from the scratch, even when it leads to frustration and ripping and starting over. I do buy patterns and study their construction and techniques used to make them, just to learn and figure out new ways to do things. I knew I wanted to make a shawl, but what kind of a shawl?
The sun is low during this time of the year and the rays catch this old "ryijy" (design by Kirsti Rantanen, made by my Mom) in the mornings and every time I pass it, I look at the grey tones.
So a shawl with grey, not quite 50 shades of grey, but a few...
While searching the stash, I came across Navia Uno (Shetland wool, Faroese wool and Australian lamb’s wool) and paired it with Hjertegarn Kunstgarn autumnal tones (color 21) and I am happily hooking away linen stitch making a shawl. I intend to make it as big as I have yarn; the size is hard to tell yet, as the rows are getting longer quickly and every color repeat is going to eat more yarn.
Navia uno is lovely yarn, airy, light and soft, not flimsy but with lots of body. It has beautiful natural tones from sheep’s white to charcoal and dark brown and a few dyed colors as well. 50 gram ball has 350 meters. I think I have praised Hjertegarn Kunstgarn’s colors before here on the blog and I just love most of the colorways it comes in. My favorites are shades number 21, 24 and 17.
I love linen stitch (I’m using 2,5mm hook), it reminds me of woven fabric. This grey shawl transfers me back through times to rustic surroundings, where people lived in candle lit log houses, kept the fires burning through the winters and wrapped themselves in humble woolen garments… let me just think about the shawl and forget about the draft in those houses, constant hunger, runny noses and twenty other inconveniences I know nothing about.
Once again, it feels good to be settled into a project.
Wool with you,
Lene

9 comments:

  1. Just gorgeous, Lene -- I have been thinking about palettes like yours a lot lately!

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  2. Anonymous19:44

    Both the ryijy and the shawl are beautiful! I must find out how to do the crochet stitch, and I can't imagine the time and work your Mom put in hand tying all the yarn. What a treasure!

    annie
    California

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  3. Beautiful, Lene. You always seem to find a way to fill the cold, dark days with light.

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  4. Oh, your new shawl is going to be so beautiful. I've actually been wanting to start one in linen stitch—but knitted as I don't really know how to crochet—and have also been searching patterns on Ravelry and wondering whether to just strike out on my own to get what I want. I was surprised, in fact, to see that there's a crochet technique that ends up with the same woven-looking fabric. And, as always, your color choices are inspired.

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  5. This is just so very, very beautiful. and the colors are perfect!

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  6. Nice flowers! Love your crafting too ♥

    summerdaisycottage.blogspot.com

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  7. Grey and red - perfect colour combination.

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  8. I just feel sorry for those without shawls. I had a bunch of different colored handspun, mostly in browns. I stumbled across the Milk Run shawl pattern and that's what it became. I just love the natural colors of wool.

    Your design looks wonderful and I can't wait to see the finished shawl.

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  9. I used Navia Uno (which I luckily won as a KAL prize) for a small hap, and was besotted with it's lightness and texture the entire time I was knitting with it. I'll definitely use it again, if I ever knit down my stash enough to justify purchasing more yarn.
    http://ravel.me/quinn/3gift

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