Booklets

Afgelopen donderdag 3 oktober was het mijn beurt om deel te mogen nemen aan het 40e jubileum van De Afstap in Amsterdam.

Last thursday October 3rd it was my turn to join in the celebrations of the 40 year anniversary of the Afstap in Amsterdam.

Mijn ontwerp 4T was er al en ik mocht andere projecten presenteren en de héle middag kwebbelen over het kantbreien. Dát heb ik dus ook gedaan. Op de foto staat mijn mond eventjes stil...

My design 4T was already present and I got to show off some other projects and talk ALL day about laceknitting. So I did! In the picture my mouth is shut... for a while at least.

Op de paspoppen hingen een paar van mijn shawls: Diamonds are forever (wit), Aith en The Love Darg Prize Shawl (blauw).

On the 'dolls' were a couple of shawls I've made: Diamonds are forever (white), Aith and The Love Darg Prize Shawl (blue).

(All pictures above are made by Hanneke Bezem, thank you for giving me permission to show them). 

Ik had het zo druk met vertellen en bewonderen van de projecten die de bezoekers zelf hadden gemaakt en kwamen laten zien, dat ik amper tijd had om zelf nog even door de winkel te gaan... Gelukkig was er na nog tijd genoeg om dat even te doen.
Ik kreeg van Hanneke een erg leuk boekje wat ze zelf heeft geschreven over het breien van tassen. Ik denk dat ik het tasje ga maken van de allerlaatste bladzijde! Dank je wel Hanneke.

 I was só busy talking and chatting, I didn't have the time to check out the store! Luckily after closing time I did a bit of snooping around. Hanneke gave me a little booklet she had written about knitted purses (sorry, only in dutch). I think I'll be making the little purse from the very last page. Thank you, Hanneke.

Dit boekje past goed bij het boekje wat ik al had gekregen (ja, soms heb je geluk!) van Carla en Hilly: Warme handen. Ik heb hier nog niets uit gebreid, maar dank zij hun goede beschrijving van alle technieken kan ik nu WEL met kleuren breien. Dank je wel!

This little booklet goes very well with another booklet I got (for free, yes, sometimes I am a lucky girl) from Carla and Hilly: Warm Hands (YES, it's in english as well).
Haven't made a project from it, but I DID learn to work with colours thanks to their excellent description of (several) the techniques! Thank you girls!

En toen kwam ik thuis. Héél laat. En daar lag een pakketje. En ja! Nóg een boekje... En wat voor een... OTTO BEYER! In het nederlands (ik kan niet zo goed duits). Iemand dacht dat ik daar wel blij mee zou zijn. Reken maar! Dank je wel Mieke.

Then it was time to go home. I was home véry late. And when I got there, a package was waiting for me. YES.. another booklet. This time from OTTO BEYER! Lace... (all in dutch, happy with that because my german isn't that good).
Someone thought this would make me very happy and it did. Thank you Mieke.

Soms tref je het gewoon enorm!

Sometimes you just are lucky!

Aith

Al héél lang geleden is deze bijna onzichtbare shawl gebreid. Ik ben er ook erg lang mee bezig geweest om het allemaal op te schrijven en te breien... Maar aantekeningen maken nog geen patroon...

A lóng time ago, I've been knitting this almost invisible shawl. It took me a long time too to write it all down and knitting it. But pattern notes do not make a pattern...

In een van de nieuwsbrieven had ik al gemeld dat ik er mee bezig was, maar dat er telkens wat tussen kwam... Nu is het dan eindelijk afgekomen. En met anderhalve zonnestraal vanmiddag gauw nieuwe foto's gemaakt.

In one of my newsletters I mentioned I've been working on it and it got sidetracked due to other activities. Finally it all came together. And with some rare sunrays in this cold summer I managed to take some new pictures.

Aith. (formerly known as Shetland Sunset)

This shawl was knit before I even thought of going to Shetland. The yarn is so delicate and soft, I had to pay attention while knitting it. When the shawl was done, I decided I had to go to Shetland and see it (the island and 
the lace) for myself. I went October 2012. 
Aith is very small village on the island of Shetland. 
When I was there, I was merely passing on my way from Voe. I was struck by the remoteness of the location and the fact it was the only place where I saw birds and heard them singing. I stopped the car and listened to it. 
Back home, I realized I should have gone out of the car and experience the beauty surrounding me.
This shawl and Aith have something in common; if you don’t pay attention, you might miss it’s beauty.

Pattern: Aith
Design: MoniqueB working from pictures
Yarn: The Gossamer Web "Vorpal Bunny Ranch" 1000m (1250m/50gr) Tequila Sunrise
Needle: 2,5mm or US 1,5
Size: 66 cm x 170 cm./ 25"x 67"

(click on the pictures to zoom in!)

Finally some rocks...

 Friday I had the car to myself. I could have been making pictures of my shetland shawls ON shetland, but this was my chance to see the part of the islands we hadn't any plans on going to. With Hermaness still in the back of my mind, (Thursday) we didn't make it 'to' Muckle Flugga...*
 I thought I'd go and see what's up in Eshaness.

Near the otter crossing. Didn't see any otters. They usually pass at dusk or dawn.

On the way to Eshaness. Just off the road, a dirt road, sand, shore and ocean. Right at your feet. 

On every sign you see, the (old) Norse and English name of the town is mentioned.

Ronas Hill. The tallest hill of Shetland, standing more than 450 feet above sealevel. Shrouded in clouds the whole time I saw it. Couldn't come close to it. No road to the top (on my map, anyway).

On my way up the lighthouse of Eshaness, just passing Hillswick, you see on your lefthand the 'Feeding Seahorse'. It's a rock, battered by the ocean waves and it looks like a seahorse.
The reason the picture is not neatly horizontal is that it is quite difficult to make a descent picture with the wind blowing the camera almost out of your hands. 

According to the information on location: this lighthouse is 12 meters tall. And stands 61 meters above sea level. Reaches 25 miles out to sea with her light and was built in 1929. It is squared, because round lighthouses required specially made furniture. It was automated in the '70s. 

I'll ease you in to the pictures of the ocean. Remember, the wind blew out of land. A shame, the waves were very pretty, but not as fierce as I had hoped. I did had 2 coats on...

Well worth the trip, don't you think?

I did drive up to North Roë after this. But I didn't get to see the ocean there, like in Eshaness. I had to get out of the car, and hike for 4 miles (or more). And back... 

I wanted to see other places too. I made it up to Isbister and then turned around. Hills were very high there and the Methodist church was separated from the water only by the road... 

 I took the road back, from North Roe to Brae, up to Voe. There I had a toastie in the restaurant. Some very cute 'boys' walked in, dressed in kilts and flowers in their coat. The three of them were probably the escort of the groom-to-be. No bride in sight....
I got back to my car and decided to continue up to Aith. My friend had stayed there, and it was a really lóvely trip. One road only, up and down and very curvy.

It was also very quiet there. And suddenly a lot of birds. Small birds.
Then I was already almost back in Scalloway again. But.. I knew it would be Knitting Café in the Theater in Lerwick. I texted Amy I would be found there, when she got back from her Drumcarding Class.
A relaxed ending to a wonderfull day... 

Een prachtige combinatie / A wonderfull combination

Er is weer een shawl af. Het heeft wel héél lang geduurd voor hij af was! Vorig jaar ben ik al begonnen met het patroon te tekenen. Dat viel nog niet mee... Ik had alleen een foto.

There is another shawl done! This one took a very long time to get done. Last year I started with the charting of this shawl. That was pretty hard, as I only had a picture to go from..
                                     

Dit is de geshopte foto van de originele foto van Bruce. Zo kon ik een beetje een idee krijgen hoe de shawl er uit zou kunnen komen te zien.

(klik op mijn foto's voor iets meer detail..)

This is the photoshopped picture of the original. Made by Bruce. I did alter it, to get an idea how the end result might look. (click on my pictures for a bit more details)

 Ik heb al heel veel shawls online kunnen bekijken. Op de site van het Shetland Museum. De meeste originele shawls zijn 'directional'. Dat betekend dat het midden vaak maar in een richting gebreid wordt. Daarna wordt een nieuwe border gebreid en er aan gezet. Vervolgens komt dan de aangebreide rand.

I've seen a lot of shawls online, in the database of the site of the Shetland Museum. Most original shawls are knitted directional. The center has one pattern/set that is knitted in one direction only. Then a second border is knit and often grafted to the center. Then the edging is added.

 Ik had bèst veel werk om het border patroon uit te zoeken. Nabreien en uitproberen, opnieuw tekenen omdat het niet uit komt en opnieuw breien. Nog maar een keer naar de foto kijken. Nog een keer tellen. Nog een keer breien. Zo leek het middenstuk nog makkelijk! Maar dat was het ook niet. Geloof me, er zitten nog 'fouten' genoeg in...

I díd have a lot of work on the unraveling of the border pattern. Knitting it, watching if it looked like the picture at all, recharting, re knitting, adapting and trying again. Watching at the copy of the picture, knitting again, and counting a lot. That made the centerpart look easy! But that wasn't the case. Believe me, there are still plenty of 'fault's  in this one..

 Ik had al contact gehad met Bruce, om te vragen of ik de shawl na mocht breien, op Ravelry advies gevraagd wat een redelijk aantal herhalingen zou zijn voor het midden. Of ik de shawl mirrored of directional zou maken. En wat het dichtst bij het origineel zou komen. Want tenslotte had ik maar een halve foto.

In the meantime I had contacted Bruce, to ask if I was permitted to copy knit this shawl. I had asked on Ravelry what would be a reasonable amount of repeats in the center. Whether or not to mirror or directional knit the shawl. Just to come as close as possible to the original. After all, I only had half a picture of the shawl..

 Uiteindelijk is dit het meest dichtbij wat ik bij het origineel kan komen. De aanhechting van de rand ziet er iets anders uit. Ik vermoed dat ze de onderrand eerst heeft gebreid en de rand aan de lange kanten tegelijk met de shawl zelf. Het is mij niet gelukt om de rand met gaatjes/omslagen zo te krijgen.Vooral omdat ik al begonnen was met het breien van het midden. Maar hij lijkt best goed!

In the end this is the closest I could get to the original. The edging is a bit different. I suspect she knitted the edging first and then knitted shawl and both edgings on the long sides at the same time. I couldn't manage to get the rows of yarnovers/holes to match in the end. Mainly because I had already started with the center. But I came very close...

 Nu stuur ik de foto's naar Bruce met de vraag of ik toestemming kan krijgen van zijn tante, die het origineel heeft gebreid, om deze shawl te publiceren en het patroon te mogen verkopen.

Now I will send the pictures to Bruce, hoping to gain permission from his aunt, who knitted the original, to publish this shawl and sell the pattern.

Het garen is bíjna het zelfde als dat van de Shetland Sweetheart. Hier zit geen kameel in, maar angora. (met cashmere en merino). Daardoor is hij best kwetsbaar...
Ik heb gelukkig nog méér garen met kameel in precies dezelfde kleur...

The yarn is almost the same as of the Shetland Sweetheart. In this there is no camel, but angora. (with cashmere and merino). That makes it extra delicate...
Luckily have móre yarn (with camel in it) in the exact same colour...

Info:
Pattern Aith
Yarn: Vorpal Bunny Ranch "Tequila Sunset" by The Gossamer Web.
Needle: 2,5 mm
Length Width: 66 cm x 170 cm./ 25"x 67"
Start official with the charting: November 2010
Done: 28 October 2011
Will be available for purchase soon..

Toen had ik me iets bedacht...
Ik heb heel veel uren naar shawls op internet gekeken. Ik wil ze eigenlijk nog liever in het echt zien!
Dus heb ik besloten van al het geld dat ik verdien met patronen, workshops en opdrachten mezelf naar de Shetland Eilanden toe wil breien!!! Ik hoop volgend jaar te gaan, wanneer ze (hopelijk) weer een Shetland Wool Week organiseren in oktober.

Then I thought of something...
I've spent many an hour on the net watching the shawls. I truly want to see them for real!
So, I decided to save my earnings of commissioned knits, pattern sales and workshops and work my way to the actual Shetland Isles! I hope to go next year, when they organize another Shetland Wool Week in October (not sure yet..)