Caller Herrin'

Koud. Heel koud. Moet ook, want het is winter. Ik loop 4x in de week met de post en heb héél snel een muts op. Man nam er een mee uit Zweden en een jaar later liep iedereen er mee. Op zich niet erg, maar leuk is anders.

Cold. Very cold. It should be, it's winter. I'm delivering mail 4 times a week and am wearing a hat very quickly into the season. Husband had brought me one from Sweden and a year later everybody had one. No problem, but I like something original.

En ik had wat vrije tijd. De Sixareen Kep had ik in 3 dagen gebreid, maar daar was de hele bovenkant effen. Dat gaat veel sneller. Het patroon wat al een tijdje in mijn queue stond op Ravelry was ook van Kate Davies en had over de hele muts patroon. Ik heb amper voorraad voor dit soort projecten, dus dat werd kiezen.

I had some free time and remembered I had knitted the Sixareen Kep in 3 days. Having said that, that has a top with no pattern and the one I chose to knit has a pattern all over. This was designed by Kate Davies too. The thing is; I hardly have any stash to use for such projects. What to use??

 Op het laatste moment nog geswitched van kleuren. Ik wilde de lichtblauw met de donkerwit. Dat heb ik toen gecombineerd met de echte wit. De rode en gele kleuren en de indigo (lichtblauw) zijn van het zelfde garen (Heritage) als de Kep, de wit komt van de Rams en Yowes deken en de donkerblauw komt uit een goodiebag van Jamieson & Smith; die kregen we bij de Ravelry Meet Up tijdens de Shetland Wool Week...

At the last minute I switched colours. I wanted the lightblue with the darkwhite, but instead I took the real white. The red, yellow and creamwhite are from the Heritage Collection, the white is left over from the Rams and Yowes Blanket and the dark blue is from the goodiebag we recieved at the Ravelry Meet Up evening during Shetland Wool Week.

Zoals je ziet heb ik de muts maar op TWEE naalden staan. Ik brei hem namelijk op de breiriem. Dat is zó handig en ik brei veel sneller. Het werk wordt ook veel gelijkmatiger.

As you can see I have the hat on only TWO needles. I'm using my knittingbelt. Very handy and I'm knitting much faster. And the project is knitted more even.

Dus... was deze muts in 4 dagen af. Zaterdag begonnen en maandag al de punt er op. Die had ik niet zo mooi gemaakt; die heb ik uitgehaald. Dinsdagmorgen heb ik een nieuwe top er aangebreid (niet volgens patroon...).

So.. this hat was knitted in 4 days. Casted on Saturday and Monday the tip was knit. I messed it up; frogged it and reknitted it my way Tuesdaymorning. (not the given pattern).

Dinsdagmiddag moest ik met de post lopen en had ik lekker warm mijn muts op. Hij is nog niet gewassen, het garen is nog niet open gaan staan; ik vermoed dat hij dan nóg beter zit.

Tuesday afternoon I had to deliver the mail and I was wearing my hat. It's not washed yet, the yarn hasn't opened up yet. I suspect it will be even warmer after that and will fit perfectly.

Een héle goede reden om dus meteen nóg maar een muts te breien: Snawheid.

A very good reason to cast on immediately for another: Snawheid.

Pattern: Caller Herrin' or Snawheid
Design: Kate Davies
Yarn: all available at Jamieson & Smith
Needle: 3.0mm or US 2,5

Taking shape

Het is nog maar een paar weken geleden dat ik blogde over mijn pogingen om te leren spinnen. Ik heb meegedaan met een #spinchat op twitter, erg leerzaam. Ik heb de kunst afgekeken op de spinavond in Leeuwarden en thuis flink geoefend. Ik moest en zou een dun regelmatig draadje spinnen. En ja hoor, het is echt zo. Oefenen helpt.

It's only a few weeks ago I blogged about my attempts wanting to learn how to spin yarn. I've joined the #spinchat on Twitter, very educational. I've watched the ladies on the SpinEvening in Leeuwarden and learned a few tricks. Then went home and practiced a lot. I really wanted to make a thin thread. And yes it's true; practice makes perfect!

Het lukt me zelfs een beetje om langere stukken zo dun te houden. Want in het begin was het chunky en cobweb binnen een paar meter. Het is wel spannend, wanneer hij ophoud met draaien en ik let niet op draait hij zo terug en knapt het draadje.

I even manage now to do this for a bit longer. In the beginning it was chunky and cobweb within a few yards. It's pretty exciting; when the spindle stops turning I have to pay attention before it starts to unwind again and snaps the yarn.

Ondertussen had ik besloten dat ik dit jaar niet meer nieuw garen mocht kopen. Ik heb genoeg, lijkt me (ong. 140km...)
Maar over spinnen is niets afgesproken (met mezelf). Van de week was er een Handwerk Winter markt in ons eigen dorp en daar was het niet alleen ongelooflijk druk, (positief!) maar ook erg interessant. Ik heb IJslandse lontwol gekocht en een kluitje geverfde zijde. 
Ik heb er nog niets mee gedaan, maar mooi is het wel!

In the meantime I had decided to go Cold Sheep (no more yarn this year). I've got plenty already (about 87 miles).
But for spinning nothing was agreed to (by myself). And just this week in my own village was a little Craft Winter Market. It was very busy with people (a good thing) and very interesting. I've bought Icelandic Roving and a bit of dyed Silk.
I haven't used it yet, but it sure is pretty!

Tijdens de #spinchat (op zondagavond rond 19:00) heb ik gevraagd hoe ik nou een 1ply kan maken. Blijkt dat je het garen een schokbad moet geven zodat het een beetje vilt. Ze noemen dat 'Vollen' (ik herhaal wat ik heb gehoord). Op ravelry werd dat bevestigd, dus dat heb ik gedaan met het plukje wat ik had. Van 8gr heb ik 53m gesponnen. En een schokbad gegeven. Twee keer leek me voldoende.

During the #spinchat (sundaynight 19:00 Local time A'dam) I asked if it was possible to make a 1ply thread. The answer was a shock treatment; hot bath, cold bath. They called it 'Fulling' which is a stage before felting. (i'm only repeating what I'm told..) Conformation on Ravelry made me do it twice. I had spun 57yards with 8gr of roving.

En toen werd het leuk!

Then the fun began!

Mijn eerste handgesponnen swatch! Dat is een heerlijk gevoel. Het is een groot proeflapje, dat wel; 15x19cm op nld 3,5mm
My first knit HANDSPUN! That felt really good. It's Shetland roving, only fitting to knit up a (new pattern) Shetland design. This is only 2gr. Pretty big though; 6"x7" on US4.

Ik ga nog niet een héle shawl zelf spinnen, maar dit is een mooie belofte.

I'm not going to spin my own shawl, but this is a very pretty start.

Trip of a lifetime...

Ik aarzel om deze woorden te schrijven maar ik doe het toch.
I'm hesitant to write these words, but I'll do it anyway.

January 2012. No. June 2011. The first time I hear about the Shetland Wool Week. It sounds great, ít's pretty close and there is NO way I can go. Our son was ill, I had to work and there was no budget at all. My husband was unemployed. What was I thinking.
October 2011. Wool Week in full force. The sécond it was over, I mailed if there would be the another one. Reply was they had to evaluate and I'll hear from them.
Our son was doing better, commissions kept coming in and I started saving. You just never know. Right.

In the meantime I had announced my plans wanting to go to Shetland and she replied she had already been there. We planned a meeting on Jan 6, 2012. She would tell me all about Shetland.
Little did we know, the announcement for the next woolweek was thát day! I came home from my friends house, discussed it with my husband and I bought the ticket the same evening.
You can read from this I'm stupid. I had no means of transportation on the island or to the airport for that matter. I hadn't even booked a house to stay in during that week. I had no idea it would be out of season too, which is from May to September. I just had to go.

In the many weeks that followed my husband, children, parents and friends must have gone seriously insane from my ranting about Shetland. In the meantime some friends volunteerd to come along and in the end Ammerins actually did go with me. Which was a good thing. She's a very experienced traveller. The language wouldn't be much of a problem for me, but she planned a lot of stuff on the itinerary that I probably didn't plan to go to in the first place.

I have travelled before. My parents have shown me and my 2 younger brothers a lot of Europe in their little car. Culture and sightseeing was preffered above sunshine and beaches. I didn't mind at all. Later, at highschool I was in London for a week and at artschool in Italy for 2 weeks. When the main group went left to the academia of Venice, I went right to the backstreets and see if there were any nice things over there to look at. I already went to school every day, I wanted to see the actual city. The same in Milan, Como and Ravenna. With my husband and children we've been to Germany and Italy too. But that was years ago.
Shetland would be different. It was the ONLY place in Europe NONE of my relatives have been too. That is a plus.

Finally it's October. Time to go. I'm happy and in retrospect I looked relaxed, but believe me, I wasn't.
I've never been on a airplane. This was the first trip I had planned on my own, for myself. It worked out because Ammerins went with me, I'd probably be lost between checking in and reporting to the border security...

In the previous posts you can read what we all did. I've taken more than 500 pictures, some video's. I'm still chatting with fellow knitters we've met during wool week. We've been on the covers of websites, I talked on the radio, blogged about and we ended up in the Magazine of 60North. Wonderful.

Back home something started to happen.
I felt like I changed a bit. The islands kept popping up every day. All the time. The sights, the lack of sound. The things we've seen. The landscape was so unusual to me, I still couldn't believe it, eventhough I've been there, and looking back at pictures.
I lóve it. Normally I really am fond of something different. Why can't I stop thinking about it.

Luckily I also work as a mail-delivery-person (to put it correctly...). That gives me time to think about it even more.
I'm a chatty person. I talk a lot. When I can. I don't have many friends that visit me. The internet helps in that way now. In my head it's quite busy too. Always a lot going on. Anticipating things with the children, work and knitting. A lot of knitting.
But since I got back from Shetland I felt different about the knitting. I felt really small. I didn't meet many people that knit lace like I do. Most of the knitters and spinners knit other stuff.
I wanted to go to Shetland to see the lace I know from pictures, for real. The pictures on the website of the Shetland Museum are excellent. They lack only one thing. SIZE!

I was totally overwhelmed by the lace I saw in the Museum (Lerwick) and Heritage Centre (Unst). It was SO thin and delicate. And knit áges ago in bad lighting and dark houses. Handspun yarn. Am I a lace knitter?? Nah. Are you kidding? No. Not me.
I can knit every pattern I saw. I can write it down and reproduce it without 'thinking' about it. Honest. But then and there I realized one thing: with yarn this fine spun, there is NO room for errors. No tinking back. No doing over. If you breath to hard, the yarn will break! And it was TWO PLY!
So. Where does that leave me??? Skilled? Sure. Qualified? No. (not yet??).

And this afternoon I realized something else. The only two times it was quiet in my head was the day we heard our son had cancer and the day we were on our way to Sandness. Our son is doing fine, and the way to Sandness is an experience I will never forget. It's a good thing. Silence. You just have to experience it.
In my mind I associated the silence in my head with the one experience I had with it before. And that was when I heard the bad news.
Shetland was one big positive experience. Every day. Every minute. Except in my memory. It was so overwhelming I couldn't handle it.

There is only one way to cope. I have to go again.

I've decided that this year will not be a good time to go; 2014 is better. I've started saving again. My husband has a job until September this year. We'll have to wait and see how it works out after that.
I hope that the next time I'll set foot on Shetland soil, I'll be more relaxed and not so eager to see and do it all. I've asked my friends again to come along. It will be a trip we'll never forget.....

Gelukkig Kerstfeest! Merry Christmas!

A Passion for Lace wishes everybody a merry christmas and all the best things (like health, happiness and fortunes) for 2013.


My husband is on the road today, in Sweden. But in our hearts we're together. Be safe!

Heel veel liefs, Lots of Love, 

Monique

New Addiction (probably)...

Je weet dat eiland wel, waar ik laatst was, toch? (ik durf het haast niet te noemen...).
Ik heb daar in Voe vrouwen héél dun garen zien spinnen. De mevrouw die ik in Lerwick tegen kwam spon zelf akelig dun garen. Mijn reisgenote had haar spinnewiel mee en spon zo lekker ontspannen...

You know the island that I've been talking about so much lately? (I hardly dare mention it again...)
I've met women that were spinning terribly thin yarn. The lady in Lerwick spun her own yarn at an alarming thin size. My travel companion brought her own spinning wheel and was so relaxed..

En wanneer je thuis komt en heel blij wordt van een foto die Ammerins genomen heeft, dan is er iets aan de hand. Ik denk dat het spinvirus heeft toegeslagen. Ik heb geprobeerd het zo lang mogelijk uit te stellen. Er is namelijk zo ook al genoeg te doen en spinnewielen zijn nou niet iets wat je zó even aanschaft.

And when you get home and get very excited with a picture Ammerins took, something has happened. Probably the spinning virus took hold of me. I did try to fight it and held out as long as I could. A spinningwheel isn't something you just buy like that.. 

Afgelopen woensdag was er stitch'n'bitch. Vruchtbare grond daar; ik maakte daar ook al opnieuw kennis met Kantbreien in 2008 geloof ik. Ammerins had me horen zeuren over dat spinnen, hoe het werkt, waar je het beste mee kunt beginnen en zo. Maar ik hield de boot af. Ik kan eigenlijk niet nóg een hobby gebruiken. Het bleef echter knagen; het hoort bij het breien. Het is het begin. Je leert vezels kennen, opbouw, constructie, kwaliteit nog voor je een breinaald hebt aangeraakt.
Dus duwde Ammerins me die avond een mini spintol in mijn handen met een pluk merino en huppekee, aan de slag.

Last wednesday was stitch'n'bitch meet up. Fertile grounds up there, I renewed my knowledge of laceknitting in 2008 there.. Ammerins had heard me nagging about the spinning thing, how it's done, where to start. I tried not to think about it, the last thing I need is anóther hobby. It stayed with me, nonetheless. It's a part of knitting; the beginning. You have to learn about fibers, build up of yarn, construction and quality even before you pick up knitting needles.
So Ammerins shoved a small spindle in my hands with some roving (?) and put me to work.

En wat denk je! Nèt wat voor mij. Klein, schattig, en binnen een paar minuten al een paar meter draad! Oh jee, daar ga ik! Binnen 2 dagen zat een nieuwe tol al op de post naar me toe. De Kolibrie K14 was precies goed en al kant en klaar op de site, lontwol erbij en ik kon bijna meteen beginnen.

And what do you know... Júst the thing for me! Cute, small and within minutes I had spun a couple of yards of yarn... Oh my god, I'm hooked. Within 2 days the new spindle was on it's way to me. The Kolibrie K14 was readymade and just right, some roving to go with it and I could start almost right away.

Ik heb ooit eens gespint toen ik nog maar net een tiener was, mijn moeder heeft het me geleerd op haar spinnewiel. Maar omdat het nix voor mij was, heeft ze hem jaren geleden verkocht. Nu met zo'n klein tolletje is het makkelijk om 'overal' te doen. Ammerins vertelde me dat met een lichtgewicht tolletje je makkelijk dunner garen kunt spinnen dan met zo'n grote. En warempel.. Na een uurtje had ik dít er al op zitten!
De draad brak nog maar 4x, de tweede keer nog veel vaker. Het lukt me dus om een redelijk dunne draad te spinnen.

I did spin when I was in my early teens. My mother taught me on her spinningwheel. But because it was not the thing for me (back then) she sold the wheel years ago. With this little spindle it's very easy to bring with you anywhere. Ammerins told me with this small spindle it would be easier to make thin yarn. And after just one hour look what I got so far!
The yarn only broke 4 times the first attempt. Later it broke more often, but the yarn was more even.

Ik ben nog lang niet klaar voor het echte werk, nog veel oefenen, maar ik vrees dat er in 2013 gesponnen gaat worden.. (link voor NL)

I'm not ready for the real thing yet, but with practise I could come far. I guess there will be some spinning in 2013... hahaha.

Wovember

Just a few weeks after I came back from Shetland, the month of Wovember started.

Accompanied by a very educational website and posts it's a great way to learn a lot more about WOOL, sheep, and using it to make wonderful things.

I dared to enter a blogpost I wrote and it got published on their site. I had to edit it so that it had less words, but the heart is still in it.

You can read it (again) here; LINK

In the meantime I've knitted the Sixareen Kep, designed by Kate Davies. My daughter is wearing it all the time!

Here, the kep was still in progress.

The green part is the inside that needs to be flapped back for a soft inside. All yarn is Heritage Yarn by Jamieson & Smith (the green is PoshYarn).

My next project was a hairband by Kate, and it was intended for myself. But I ended up giving it to my mother too, I'm not the headband type.. It's still pretty..
This has a combo of Jamieson's of Shetland (red/sunrise and brown/grouse), heritage yarn (cream) and white natural and grey by J&S
The inside is also green PoshYarn

I'm VERY glad I was on Shetland, especially during WoolWeek! I've learned so much, seen pretty things, an amazing island, great people and to be honest I think about it every day.

There is still a lot to learn and do. So.. I will talk about it more, probably not that much about Fair Isle, but surely about lace. I cannot stop, sorry....

The calender is already hanging on the wall! Very happy with that too...

St. Ninian's

On the very last day we were on Shetland, we visited Saint Ninian's Beach. It was on the way to the airport, a slight detour. But worth every minute of it. This beach is special because it's a tombolo. It's a sand bridge between 2 pieces of land/rock and the ocean meets the beach on 2 sides.

We were in luck, the sun was shining, it was windy, so lots of waves.

Halfway down, we spotted a seal. It was keeping it's eye on us too. He dove under, came up, spotted us and disappeared in a wave and came up a bit further.
He noticed we came closer and closer... Then he went under and never (seem) to come up again.
Until Amy turned around and saw he made a run for the other side of the water behind us!
He left his prints on the beach..

An amazing goodbye for such a pretty island.

When I came home, someone asked me to knit a shawl with the famous cockle shell pattern. I decided, because it's directional, that the shawl needed to be knit in 2 parts. When that was done, I grafted it in the center, looked at it, and in an instant St. Ninian's came up in my mind...

So.. there you have it. A wonderful experience, a great island, an old pattern and a stunning lace shawl..

The yarn is Merino, Silk, Cashmere in lóvely Dark Red Roses (one of a kind skein).

 The shells meet in the center; when you wear this shawl the shells go in the same direction.

 Pattern will be available December 1, 2012

Pattern: St. Ninians (written and charted)
Design: MoniqueB.
Yarn: 1030m or 1120y  Merino/silk/cashmere 70/20/10 Dark Red Roses OOAK Dye For Wool
Needles: 3,25mm or US 3
Size: 195cm x 73cm or 79" x 29"
Start: Nov 3 2012
Done: Nov 19 2012

12 times ...

 Scalloway

 Hamnavoe

 West Burra

 West Burra

 Fort Charlotte Lerwick

 St. Ninians Beach

 Sandness

Hermaness

East Burra

 Eshaness

 Unst

 Hamnavoe looking at Foula

Do you like these? I do! So.. my dad is making these pictures into a calender for 2013....
Thanks dad.

Plans

The  plan to go to Shetland was to see some lace for real. Not just from pictures, but with my own eyes. I have been staring at internet pictures for too long.

I wanted to go to the Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick, the Heritage Centre in Unst and any other place where there would be lace to see and take in.

But the island had other plans. As you have already noticed, the posts I entered so far have all been about the island. Rocks. Moors. Ocean. Roads. Silence. Not a word about Lace.

Monday I did get a quick look on lace in Lerwick, just before the workshop of Kate Davies would begin. Someone pulled out a display and there it was! The shawl I had only known from the internet and even had made a swatch from that picture! Can you see my reflection? It was so small. I kind of freaked out. Normally I would take time to sit, watch, take in, make notes and sit in admiration.

2012

I made this swatch 'ages' ago and now I saw that my swatch was 'fat'. Not even CLOSE to being as fine as the original. But that's okay.

2010

Or the Weddingshawl I had seen on the website of the Archive Museum and used as inspiration for my design for Jamieson & Smith: the Shetland Bound. (not bound as in tied up, more like: on my way to Shetland).

 original

Bound

I started noticing I didn't stick to the plan to take it all in. Only at home I found out I had also seen the Love Darg Shawl original when I looked back at the pictures at home.

I changed it a bit, because I wanted to add some hearts to the pattern (in one border).

The workshop by Kate started, finished and I was on my way back to find Amy. Didn't go back to see the shawls again for that day.
Soon it was Wednesday. After we'd been to Sandness, the evening had been planned for Talking about Lace with Mary Kay, Gudrun Johnston and myself. The designs by Gudrun are well known by many, but the fine lace by Mary was very new to me. It was VERY delicate; like knitting with hair. Only 2 ply. (sheep)Hair. Handspun.

Mrs. Mary Kay:

And all our lace on the J&S wool bed (very luxuriously handmade bed):

Mary's lace left top, Gudrun's lace left bottom, MoniqueB 's lace right

The next thing I knew it was already Thursday and we were on our way to Unst. Expectations were again véry high. The lace there was on the internet, but only photographed by people that have been there. Time to take my own pictures.

After a wonderfull trip, actually having a great time on board of the ferry to Yell and to Unst, thanks to the travelpills, we stepped out of the car at Muness. We had seen a sign:

 

It's a lovely little castle with a grimm past.
Back in the car, to Haroldswick: Heritage Centre. We drove past it once, in search of it...
Parked the car, went in, nice and warm. Hanged our coats and went in for a look.
I think my brain went left, while I went right. There was lace on display. THE LACE I CAME FOR (well, almost). OLD. FINE. Delicate. Handknit. The party begun.
I recognised a lót of patterns, but in an order I'd never seen. Some of the shawls were so delicate, we weren't even allowed to take pictures. The lady told us, she had one of her own, an real heirloom, and could photograph that one. Even finer than the lace by Mary Kay.

 Thanks to Amy, I now own my own knittingbelt. It's working out great!

Drawers pulled out show the most amazing garments in fine lace; socks, gloves and tops.

I had promised friends to also take a look at a shawl on display in the kabinets. The Williamson Stole. We have been working and swatching very hard to recreate it:

Picture Nita Bruce 

But it wasn't there anymore! The kind lady told us that shawls could only be on display for 2 years maximum and then were put back for several years. They are so delicate, the light takes away from it's structure and holes fall into the lace.
We did ask, and one of the ladies was so kind to help us find it. Taking out rolls of old lace shawls. The Williams Stole is still illusive, but we saw some darn fine lace. Imagne it being knit in a badly lit room, 100 years ago!

I was in luck. There were several other pretty shawls to see.
After I had calmed down, we had a lunch with the other ladies visiting and chatting with the locals about lots of stuff.

Amy told me we could do a bit of walking at Hermaness. It would be a short drive and decide to take a walk or not. I really wanted to see Muckle Flugga, but after a good hour walk, I realised that wouldn't be an option. I have to be happy with the postcard I bought at Baltasound.

And it was great! Do you notice the box with the blue top? Open the lid and there are folders with information about the location! And a guestbook! The piece of concrete on the left is an eyesoar compared to the two incripted rocks. We opened the gate and had the road to follow.

The brown on the left is dead bracken (fern). These were wet hills, pretty high up and again: silence. We did meet some sheep; one dead, others alive... hihi.

It was amazing, just like Sandness and Eshaness. I kind of 'understood' why it's said that people here 'are' frugal. You don't have a lot to begin with, so you better hold on to it, incase there comes a time when you don't have ány...

As you can see; we did A LOT. I can hardly fit all the pictures on my computer. My head is filled with impressions, thoughts, ideas, feelings, questions. I'm still thinking about it every day.. Not in a bad way, but it was an experience of (my) a lifetime. Doing something for this day, having a great time, and doing something different the next day, and having a great time again!
The weather was great. We've seen hails of rain, clouds, sun, blue sky, NORTHERN LIGHTS (although briefly). I dó want to go back. But I first have to get my head around this trip.

The travel pills did their magic again on the way back. I shed a little tear when we lifted of Sumburgh Airport, sad to go.. On Edinburgh we had a 4 hour lay-over and hung lazy on the chairs of the waiting area. Time to go home..