Merula Designs

Seventh Heaven – Smaller Version

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Hello! Today, we’re visiting De Wieden again, one half of the Wieden-Weerribben National Park. The last time I took you here was on a cold and foggy December day – the day of the Seventh Heaven photo shoot (see this blog post). Remember that big slip-stitch-and-garter ridges scarf made with sock yarn remnants?

This time it’s an agreeable 20˚C (68˚F), sunny with some clouds and quite a bit of wind. And this time we’re cycling through De Wieden instead of walking, bringing two Seventh Heaven scarves along for another photo shoot – the original big one and a new, smaller version.

Here they are side by side. The smaller version is about half the width of the original scarf and slightly shorter (approx. 21.5 cm (8½”) wide x 1.82 m (71½”) long).

Below, I am wearing the smaller Seventh Heaven scarf tied in a pretzel knot:

It is long enough to be wrapped twice around the neck with the ends tucked in and worn as a kind of cowl:

Zooming in for a closer look at the stripe pattern:

I’m being photographed on a bicycle bridge looking out over the landscape. To get an even better view, let’s leave our bicycles behind for a while and walk through this gate next to the bridge:

The footpath behind it leads to a bird watching tower:

And this is what we can see from up high – water, strips of boggy land, straight lines. Clearly a man-made landscape, witness to the peat extraction of the past:

The wet peat from the ponds was dried on small strips of land. In some places, overintensive peat cutting resulted in ever smaller strips of land that were washed away by wind and waves, forming lakes (wieden). In other places, the remaining labyrinth of waterways is great for exploring in a canoe or other small boat.

De Wieden is an important habitat for many bog-loving plants and wildlife. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to photograph any of the rarer species, like an otter or a dark bluet (a damselfly), so this not-so-rare hawker dragonfly will have to do for now.

Well, back to the scarf. For the smaller version I used two balls of Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball Crazy, (100 g/420 m; 75% wool, 25% biodegradable nylon), in colourways Stone Washed and Kleiner Fuchs (Small Tortoiseshell).

The contrast between the two colourways is stronger in some places than in others, but the quiet shades of blue of the one always provide a great backdrop to the cheerful colours of the other. The alternating colours look fun in the I-cord edges, too.

I have updated the Seventh Heaven scarf pattern to include an addendum with instructions for this smaller version.

The Seventh Heaven scarf pattern can be found here on Ravelry
(in English and Dutch)

Those of you who have already purchased the pattern do not need to do so again. You will have received an e-mail by now and can download an updated version. As before, the proceeds of the pattern sales will go to Dutch nature conservation organisation Natuurmonumenten, for creating the circumstances that will hopefully lure the almost extinct large copper butterfly back to De Wieden.

Thank you for your support. And if you are going to knit a Seventh Heaven scarf, big or small, I wish you happy knitting!

In Seventh Heaven

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Hello! In between shopping for gifts, knitting gifts, wrapping gifts, and doing everything else that needs doing at this busy time of year, I’ve also wrapped up my Seventh Heaven scarf project. I have been working on it on and off for many months and have now uploaded the pattern to Ravelry. It’s been a fun and colourful journey. Let me tell you about it.

It all began with my search for a simple knitting project, and the idea to do something with my sock yarn remnants and other small bits of fingering-weight yarn.

Inspired by the first knitting booklets I had as a child, I started knitting swatches in simple garter stitch and slip stitches.

I chose a very deep navy blue yarn as a background for my colourful scraps – Isager Sock Yarn, a blend of 40% alpaca, 40% merino wool and 20% recycled nylon. Both the alpaca and the merino wool are ‘easy wash’. Easy wash is an environmentally friendly way to make yarns machine washable without felting or shrinking. I haven’t used this yarn before, but can now say that it is pleasantly smooth to knit with and softens up very nicely after washing.

It was a joy to knit a few rows every day, and the scarf grew and grew.

It wasn’t until I’d knit quite a bit that I realized the colours I was using reflected those of my surroundings in spring and summer, in particular the flowers and insects in the wetlands of De Wieden.

I was using the bright greens of fresh young reed stalks and grass…

… the blues of bright skies and damselflies…

… the pinks and purples of thistle, ragged robin and orchid…

… and the orange of the large copper, a dazzlingly beautiful butterfly. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to photograph it, because it disappeared from De Wieden about a decade ago. Very sad, but all hope is not lost (more about that further on).

Our photoshoot in De Wieden took place during last week’s foggy walk. My husband carried the scarf rolled up around a long cardboard tube (sticking out from his rucksack) so that it wouldn’t get all crumpled. It’s hard to believe, but the muddy field he is standing in, is a beautiful flower meadow earlier in the year.

This is Seventh Heaven in its full length – a little over 2 metres (80”) long. As you can see from the purple/pink/orange section folded over at the top, the ‘wrong’ side also looks good, with the colours more blended.

It is a generous scarf, but still very wearable.

Because of the fingering-weight yarn used, it is not bulky at all. The colours show up really nicely when the scarf is tied in what I now know is called a Pretzel Knot.

What more can I tell you about the Seventh Heaven scarf? The name was a gift from reader Lynn (thank you again, Lynn – it’s perfect!) and refers to how I feel when I’m in De Wieden, and also when I’m playing with yarns and colours. It has stripes in garter stitch and slip stitches, alternating the background colour and the yarn remnants. Oh, and let’s not forget the lovely I-cord edges!

I thought of giving the Seventh Heaven pattern away as an early Christmas gift to you, my dear readers and Ravelry friends, but have changed my mind. Instead I am turning it into a gift to the large copper .

Large Copper, Photo by Hans via Pixabay

In other words, from now through 2024 I’ll donate the proceeds from all sales of the pattern to Dutch nature conservation organisation Natuurmonumenten, as a contribution to creating the circumstances that will hopefully lure the large copper butterfly back to De Wieden. And it’s not just about saving one almost extinct subspecies of butterfly – the measures taken will also benefit other insects, plants and animals.

The Seventh Heaven scarf pattern can be found here on Ravelry

It is available in English and Dutch. Besides instructions for knitting the scarf, the pattern also contains tips on choosing yarns and colours for your creating own Seventh Heaven. Should you decide to knit one, I hope it’ll give you just as much joy as it has given me!

Seventh Heaven Scarf

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Hello!

First of all, thank you to those of you who suggested better names for my Simple Sock Scrap Stripe and Slip Stitch Scarf – great suggestions, all of them!

When deciding on a name for a knitting pattern, besides choosing something I like, it’s also about how findable it is on Ravelry. Taking everything into consideration, I’ve decided to go with Lynn’s idea and call it Seventh Heaven Scarf. Thank you, Lynn! It’s not just great because of its reference to the seven Ss in the original name, but also because for me, playing with yarn and colours is one of the fastest routes to seventh heaven!

In case you’d like to knit something like my Seventh Heaven Scarf, too, I’ll give you the preliminary pattern here. It’s going to be a fairly large rectangular scarf in garter stitch and slip stitch stripes (but it can be made in any size). This is what mine looks like so far:

Measurements
I’m aiming for a width of approximately 45 cm/18” and a length of 1.80 m/71” or a little longer.

Yarn
Main colour (MC): 220 g of fingering-weight/sock yarn in a very dark or very light (semi) solid colour. I’m using 5 skeins of Isager Sock Yarn (50 g/193 m; 40% alpaca, 40% merino, 20% nylon) in colour 100 Navy blue.
Contrast colour (CC): 220 g of fingering-weigh/sock yarn remnants (+ some extra just in case). Anything will work: solids, semi-solids, variegated and/or self-striping yarns.
(These are estimated quantities. The actual scarf may take a little more or less yarn.)

For my scarf I’ve chosen 22 different yarn remnants of at least 10 grams each. They include: Lana Grossa Meilenweit, Regia 4-ply, Schoppel Crazy Zauberball, various hand-dyed yarns from indie dyers, Drops Fabel, Zitron Trekking XXL and other yarns that have lost their labels.

To remind myself of the order I’m planning to use my CC yarns in, I’ve split them up into 3 smaller groups, photographed them and put each group in a separate plastic bag.

Needles and Gauge
Knitting needles: 3.5 mm/US 4 (For socks I’d use 2.5 mm/US 1.5 needles for these yarns, but for a drapier scarf I’ve gone up several needle sizes.)
Gauge: 23 sts x 50 rows = 10 x 10 cm/4 x 4” in stripe pattern.

Pattern notes:

  • The scarf has 3-stitch I-cord edges (photo below). The first 3 sts of every right-side row are knit in the colour of the previous row.
  • When changing colours after the 3 edge stitches on right-side rows, always pass the ‘new’ yarn in front of the ‘old’ yarn.
  • The scarf can be made in any size or yarn weight you like. Decide on the measurements you’d like, knit a generous swatch, and then weigh and measure it. Based on this swatch, calculate how much yarn you’re going to need and how many stitches you need to cast on. The instructions below are for my size.
  • Always cast on an odd number of stitches.
  • Work the same number of rows with every remnant or vary the number of rows.
  • For a smoother transition from one CC yarn to the next, switch to a new CC yarn on a wrong-side A, C or D row (see below).
  • All slip stitches are slipped as if to purl (i.e. inserting the needle from right to left), sometimes with the yarn held in front (wyif), sometimes with the yarn held in back (wyib). Sl1 = Slip 1 stitch; Sl3 = Slip 3 stitches, Sl4 = Slip 4 stitches.

ABCD stripes
Basically, the scarf is composed of 4 different pairs of rows – A, B, C and D:

A (CC garter ridge):
Row 1 (RS): With MC knit 3 sts, switch to CC and knit to end.
Row 2 (WS) (CC): Sl3 wyif, k to last 3 sts, sl3 wyif.

B (MC garter ridge):
Row 1 (RS): With CC knit 3 sts, switch to MC and knit to end.
Row 2 (WS) (MC): Sl3 wyif, k to last 3 sts, sl3 wyif.

C (CC slip stitch pattern starting with a k st):
Row 1 (RS): With MC knit 3 sts, switch to CC and (k1, sl1 wyib) to last 4 sts, k4.
Row 2 (WS) (CC):  Sl3 wyif, (k1, sl1 wyif) to last 4 sts, k1, sl3 wyif.

D (CC slip stitch pattern starting with a sl st):
Row 1 (RS): With MC knit 3 sts, switch to CC and (sl1 wyib, k1) to last 4 sts, sl1 wyib, k3.
Row 2 (WS) (CC):  Sl4 wyif, (k1, sl1 wyif) to last 5 sts, k1, sl4 wyif.

INSTRUCTIONS

Cast-on and set-up rows:
With MC cast on 111 sts.
Row 1 (RS): knit.
Row 2 (WS): sl3 wyif, k to last 3 sts, sl3 wyif.
Work rows 1 and 2 two more times.

Start working in stripe sequence:
(The swatch above shows one complete stripe sequence.)
Rows 1-20: Starting with A, work A and B five times in total (= 10 garter ridges alternating CC and MC).
Rows 21-22: C.
Rows 23-28: B, A, B.
Rows 29-30: D.
Rows 31-36: B, A, B.
Rows 37-38: C.
Rows 39-40: B.
Rows 41-60: Repeat rows 1-20.
Rows 61-72: C, B, D, B, C, B.
Repeat these 72 rows until you’ve almost reached the desired length.
Work 4 rows in MC in the same way as set-up rows 1-2. Bind-off loosely. Weave in ends, soak and block.

Knitting with all these bits of yarn in different colours is such fun. My first little ball was the yellow-green of the Euphorbias in our front garden. The second one is a variegated blue and green yarn:

It’s like fresh young hawthorn leaves against a blue sky.

I’m enjoying knitting up the greens and can’t wait to get to the heavenly blues and then the flowery purples, pinks and oranges.

Note: This is only a preliminary pattern – I’ll publish a complete downloadable pattern on Ravelry later, when my scarf is finished. I hope everything is clear so far. If you’re going to knit your own Seventh Heaven Scarf, have fun! For any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll try to answer asap.

Raspberry Ripple

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Hello!

The long, very hot and very dry summer finally seems to be coming to an end here. I’m ever so grateful for the rain we’ve had the past couple of days, and am hoping for lots more as everything is parched. The only thing that has done well in our garden this year are our grapes.

My summer knitting projects are also nearing completion – more about those soon, I hope. But today, it’s Raspberry Ripple day!

First of all, here is a shawl I finished knitting quite some time ago and have finally blocked. The shawl pattern is called Morbihan, but I’m calling this version Raspberry Ripple.

The yarn I’ve used for it is John Arbon’s Knit by Numbers 4-ply. It’s a 100% organically farmed Falklands merino, and each colour is available in a gradient of 6 shades. The colour shown here is called Raspberry (what else?), and in total I’ve used eight 25-gram mini skeins – 3 of the darkest shade and 1 each of the other 5 shades.

This is what my Raspberry Ripple Shawl looks like spread out:

I like wearing triangular shawls scrunched up and wrapped around my neck like this:

Morbihan was first published in English only, but now I’ve also translated into Dutch. The pattern can be found here on Ravelry in both languages.

Morbihan was eerst alleen in het Engels beschikbaar, maar ik heb het patroon nu ook in het Nederlands vertaald. Het is hier op Ravelry te vinden.

Raspberries, how I love them. Not just their colour, but their taste, too. If I want some for a dessert, I need to make a trip to the supermarket. We do have wild raspberries around here, but they are rare.

It’ll soon be woolly-shawl-weather again, but at the moment it’s still warm enough to be ice-cream-weather. So here is my simple (no ice cream maker needed) recipe for Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream.

Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

(makes approx. 1 litre)

Ingredients:

  • 250 g raspberries
  • 130 g caster sugar
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 250 ml milk
  • 250 ml double cream

1) Place the raspberries in a small saucepan with 30 g of the sugar. Cook on medium heat, stirring from time to time and squashing the raspberries with a wooden spoon. Simmer for about 5 mins without the lid on. Push through a sieve with your wooden spoon. Discard the seeds and the last bit of pulp left in the sieve. Leave to cool.

2) Whisk the egg yolks and the remaining sugar together. Pour the milk in a pan and bring to boiling point. Pour the hot milk on the egg-and-sugar mixture, whisking all the time. Return the eggy milk to the pan and heat slowly, stirring until it has thickened slightly (make sure it doesn’t boil!). Leave this to cool as well.

3) When the raspberry sauce and the custard have cooled completely, whip the double cream until it forms soft peaks. Gently fold the cream into the custard. Pour the creamy custard into a container (holding at least 1 litre).

4) Pour in the raspberry sauce and make swirls and ripples using the handle of a wooden spoon. Cover, place in the freezer, and freeze overnight.

Enjoy!

PS: More details of my Raspberry Ripple Shawl can be found here in my Ravelry project notes.

Knit Leaf Earrings and Pendant

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Hello!

The past few days have been lovely, weatherwise. Quoting Goldilocks, neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right. Over the past two weeks we’ve had several hot days, though, with one when our outdoor thermometer reached 39 ˚C (102 ˚F) in the shade. Pffffff, waaaay too hot to have a pile of knitting on my lap (we don’t have an air conditioner). What is a person who can’t NOT knit to do on days like that?

Faced with that conundrum, I thought of knitting something really small. Some more of those Gift Leaves, but even smaller than the ones I knit before, for an earrings-and-pendant set. At first, I thought I’d use embroidery floss – all those lovely colours to choose from!

But that didn’t work as it is completely non-stretchy and terribly splitty (duh, that’s the essence of embroidery floss), which made knitting and especially a sl1-k2tog-psso-manoeuvre sheer torture. Rummaging around for something else, I came across some small remnants from my Tellina cowls. Remember them? (Click on images to enlarge.)

This what I had left after knitting two cowls:

Since then, I’ve used part of the leftover yarn for a Blogiversary Bag and a Soothing Sachet, but there was plenty left for this set (and more small future projects).

If you’d like to make a set, too, here’s what you’ll need and how to go about it.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

  • Two 1.25 mm/US 0000 knitting needles
  • Small quantity of fine fingering-weight yarn
  • Tapestry needle
  • Pair of ear wires
  • Metal or leather necklace

Optional:

  • Three 4 mm Ø and three 2 mm Ø beads
  • Sewing thread
  • Needle small enough to pass through smallest bead

The yarn I used was Manos del Uruguay ‘Fino’ (70% Merino; 30% Silk; 448 m/490 yds/100 g) in the colour Velvet Pincushion. The pendant took only 0.50 g and the earring leaves even less.

I used ear wires in this shape (the kidney-shaped ones and hoops will work as well, but not the ones with a small closed eye):

HOW TO KNIT THE LEAF EARRINGS AND PENDANT SET:

  1. Download the free Gift Leaves pattern from Ravelry.
  2. Knit 2 leaves size S for the earrings and 1 leaf size M for the pendant, knitting 2.5 cm/1” long stalks.
  3. Weave in the ends at the leaf tips. Use the yarn tail on the stalks to sew them into loops. For the earrings make the loops flat by sewing the beginning of the stalk next to where the stalk ends and the leaf begins. For the pendant fold the stalk in half towards the back of the leaf and fasten it behind the place where the leaf starts.
  4. If you like, sew on beads to resemble little raindrops drip-drip-dripping from the leaves. (I used clear glass beads with a silver lining and white sewing thread.) Fasten the sewing thread to the back of the leaf with a few small stitches and let it come out at the leaf tip. Pass the thread through the larger bead, then through the smaller bead, back through the larger bead and into the leaf tip. Fasten off at the back.

Knitting on these small needles is fiddly and for me required good, bright daylight. But it is really rewarding. For comparison, below you see a Gift Leaf in size M knit with ordinary sock/fingering-weight yarn on 2.5 mm/US 1 needles next to the pendant in size M knit with fine fingering-weight yarn on 1.25 mm/US 0000 needles.

Early one morning, while I was quietly knitting a leaf with the French windows wide open to let in as much cool air as possible, a young great tit came to visit. After fluttering around frantically for a bit, it alighted on the highest perch in our living room: the wooden eagle on top of a book case.

I was afraid it would hurt itself trying to get out, but between the two of us my husband and I were fortunately able to guide it back outside safe and sound.

These leaf earrings and pendant are quick little items to make for yourself or for gifts. One earring leaf took me about 30 minutes to knit, the pendant a little longer, plus a little time to sew on the beads. Here are a few pictures of me wearing them to give you a sense of scale.

Goodness, how I’ve aged since the Tellina pictures were taken just three years ago. Or is it that this picture lacks the rosy glow of the make-up I was wearing in the earlier pictures?

Here you can see how the stalk is fastened into a loop to make the leaf hang flat facing to the front:

And this photo shows how that is different for the pendant:

I chose green for my leaves, but who says that leaves need to be green? Why not choose a lovely autumnal colour, like warm red, fiery orange, bright yellow, or earthy brown? If you like making fiddly little things and are going to knit yourself or someone else a set of these, I wish you happy knitting!

Pyrus Blanket

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Hello!

Do you do it too – Google anything and everything? Although I was tremendously looking forward to the birth of our first grandchild, I also felt slightly uncertain about my new role as a grandmother, having grown up without grandparents. So I Googled on ‘How to be a grandmother.’

Terribly silly, I know. Still, I found quite a few helpful tips. But also this one: ‘Whatever you do, DO NOT KNIT!’ That really had me in stitches. I’ve been knitting since I was five years old, and now I should stop?! Well, you can imagine that I disregarded that piece of ‘wisdom’.

For most of the things I knit to welcome our grandson I used existing patterns, but I also wanted to design something myself. And after much pondering, sketching and swatching, I came up with the blanket you’ve already seen at the top. Here is another photo of it folded:

And here it is spread out on the floor:

Our daughter’s becoming a mum inevitably made me think back to the time she was a baby herself. From the time she was just a few months old until the age of seven, another mum in our street with a daughter about the same age looked after her when I was working. She had a wonderful time with that family.

When we moved away to where we live now, I made them a patchwork cushion for a farewell present, embroidered with a tree and the words: ‘A family’s love shelters like a tree.’ Obviously I can’t show you the actual cushion, but here is a (slightly grainy) photo from the pattern magazine (Ariadne, June 1991).

I am well aware that not all families provide loving shelter, and also that some have only very few branches. But still, I love the sentiment, and it was what I was thinking of when I knit our grandson’s blanket. I called it Pyrus Blanket for the big old pear tree in our garden – a truly sheltering presence. (Pyrus is Latin for pear.)

The Pyrus Blanket is covered in the pear tree’s oval, sharp-tipped leaves. The branches of our pear tree spread out like a many-armed candelabra – nothing like the straight lace ladders in the blanket.

Those were inspired by an espaliered pear tree with vertical branches in De Fruithof.

De Fruithof is an orchard about 30 minutes cycling from our home with some 800 different historical fruit trees. It also has a 750 metre long espalier pear tree avenue.

I should, perhaps, have knit the blanket in pure white, to represent the pear tree’s blossoms.

But I’ve taken the artistic license to knit it in creamy, undyed wool, because that was what our grandson’s parents preferred.

The yarn I’ve chosen is Drops ‘Merino Extra Fine’ – a 100% wool DK-weight yarn that won’t break the bank, is machine-washable, super soft and shows up the stitch pattern beautifully. It also has the Oeko-Tex 100 Class 1 classification, a very strict standard that guarantees that the yarn is free of harmful substances and safe for babies and infants.

The Pyrus Blanket measures 75 x 100 cm (approx. 30 x 40”). All patterning is done in the right side rows, with relaxing purl rows on the wrong side. The garter stitch borders have a special edge stitch that I learnt from a girl in the hospital where we were both staying as young teenagers. Among the less pleasant memories, I have very happy ones of us knitting long colourful garter stitch scarves.

(For anyone who doesn’t know this edge stitch yet, I’m explaining it in the pattern.)

I don’t know if I would enjoy being called a tree hugger, but as a family, we do have a thing for trees. Our daughter has also painted a tree on the wall of her little son’s bedroom. When it’s not in use, his Pyrus Blanket often hangs on the back of the chair under that sheltering tree (not always so neatly folded, of course).

Well, that’s the story of my Pyrus Blanket. I have written up the pattern in both English and Dutch, and it can be found

here on Ravelry.

As always, thank you for reading. And should you decide to knit a Pyrus Blanket for a new arrival in your life, or as a gift to someone else: happy knitting!

Gift Leaves

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Hello!

Do you remember my plan to knit all kinds of things from small bits of leftover sock yarn? My plans often take a long time to grow into something tangible, but after the Soothing Sachets here is the second project: Gift Leaves.

I’m calling them Gift Leaves for several reasons:

  • Because I’ve given myself the gift of time to play around with something not exactly useful.
  • Because I’ve written up the pattern as a gift to you.
  • Because the leaves themselves can be given away as gifts.

I’ve made them in three sizes: Small, Medium and Large:

With a length of approximately 6.5 cm/2.6” (excluding the stalk) the large leaves are still fairly small, but quite a bit larger than the small ones of only 4 cm/1.6”.

Fastening the beginning of the stalk to the base of the leaf to form a loop, the leaves can be used as gift tags.

Perhaps knit from the same yarn as the gift inside.

They can be fastened onto a zipper.

Or used to decorate jam jars with tealights inside for a quick, simple, inexpensive little gift.

And a medium-sized leaf with a looooong stalk can become a bookmark. Extra special given together with a book, with the leaf colours matching the book cover.

(The book is A Wood of One’s Own by Ruth Pavey, by the way. A gift I received from a friend.)

Solid colours look good. Self-striping yarn works, too, if the stripes are not too wide and the yarn sections used are chosen well. And I think especially some of those ‘busy’ hand-painted yarns are fun for Gift Leaves.

A free download of the pattern with plenty of colourful photos (in English en ook in het Nederlands) can be found

here on Ravelry

Together with a special skein of yarn, a print-out of the pattern might make a nice gift for a knitting friend, too.

Have fun! Xxx

Hydrangea Story

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Hello!

Why do we knit? Or rather, why do I knit? (I can only ever speak for myself.) Sometimes it is because I want something to wear that I can’t find in the shops. Other times it is because I want to give someone else a knitted embrace, toasty feet or warm hands. Often it is because I need something to occupy my hands and soothe my mind. Or I see a pattern and think: That is so beautiful – I’d love to make something like that!

This time it was the yarn that did it. The yarn in the photo above. It is a new Rowan yarn called ‘Felted Tweed Colour’ – a sibling to their all-time favourite ‘Felted Tweed’, but now in a slow gradient of colours. The palette was developed by the famous designer Kaffe Fassett. As soon as I saw it, I thought: Wow, those colours!

I chose the colourway called ‘Frost’. It doesn’t remind me of frost, snow or ice at all, however. It reminds me of hydrangeas. Maybe you remember my blog post about cycling to Giethoorn this summer, when I took this picture:

A few days ago, I popped over to Giethoorn again. This is the same spot at this time of the year:

Here the hydrangeas have lost all their colour. In other places there are only lacy skeletons left:

But some hydrangeas have retained their colour and just become more muted than in summer:

It’s these that the ‘Frost’ yarn reminded me of.

And what did I do with the hydrangea yarn? I combined it with some Kidsilk Haze to knit another Story Lines shawl. At first I thought of using some pale pink from my stash:

But then I decided that the contrast was too strong and chose a purple shade called Dewberry instead.

I took the finished shawl along to Giethoorn and asked Albert Mol if he was okay with being my model. Listening carefully I thought I could hear him say: ‘Of course darling. Fabulous idea!’ (Albert was a very gay person in every sense of the word.)

In hindsight I think a little more contrast would have been a good thing. In some places the Felted Tweed is exactly the same shade as the Kidsilk Haze. The stripes are visible, but don’t stand out very much.

The back view below shows how the Felted Tweed Colour yarn moves gradually from one colour to the next, forming wide stripes.

I’ve given this shawl a wider garter stitch band at the end. Neither the Romantic Ruffle nor the Dainty Droplets I used for the other two Story Lines shawls (shown in this blog post) seemed right for this yarn. I used the Basic Bind-off also described in the pattern instead.

Some of you may remember Albert Mol. For those of you who have never heard of him, he was a Dutch dancer, writer, actor and comedian. Giethoorn has honoured him with a statue because of his role in the 1958 comedy film Fanfare that was shot in the village. As there are many people in Giethoorn going by the name of Mol, I suppose he must have family roots here as well.

Part of the action takes place in Café Fanfare, which hasn’t changed much since then:

Fanfare is about two rivalling local brass bands that both want to win a competition and are prepared to do anything to prevent the other band from winning. It is in black and white and obviously rather old-fashioned, but still great fun.

Just like Café Fanfare, the rest of Giethoorn (called Lagerwiede in the film) is still very much like it was back in 1958, too.

If you feel like watching some fun slow tv on a dreary December day, Fanfare can be viewed here on YouTube, with English subtitles. (Albert Mol plays the role of one of the conductors, much younger than his bronze statue and without beard.)

And in case you’d like to make a similar Story Lines shawl, it takes 2 skeins of Felted Tweed Colour and 2 skeins of Kidsilk Haze. The Story Lines pattern can be found here on Ravelry, and my notes about the hydrangea version here.

I wish you an enjoyable weekend, with something fun to do, watch and/or knit!

Story Lines

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Hello!

It won’t come as a surprise that I love knitting. To me (and I know to some of you, too), seeing a knitting project grow stitch by stitch and row by row is immensely satisfying. Although I haven’t written much about books until last week, I love reading a good story just as much.

Now I’ve combined the two and knit a story in the shape of a shawl! Or rather two shawls, knit along the same lines but telling different stories.

The watery blue version of Story Lines, as I’ve named the design, tells the saga of a drowned village.

It is a slightly asymmetrical triangle that starts off on a light and airy note – transparent stocking stitch stripes with widely spaced out garter stitch lines. Later on, the plot thickens and the lines are knit closer together.

A village really did drown in the lake where these pictures were taken.

It was the village of Beulake. Extensive peat extraction had already made the area vulnerable. And when the dykes broke during a storm in 1776, Beulake disappeared beneath the waves. Only the church, where the villagers had fled to, was spared.

Fortunately no lives were lost, but the people who lost their homes must have shed a few tears. A row of Dainty Droplets seemed a fitting ending for this shawl.

Although the basic pattern is the same, the other shawl I knit has a different tale to tell. In fiery reds, it tells a love story from a time long gone by.

This story is set against the backdrop of a castle ruin, not far from the lake of the drowned village.

It is Toutenburg, the remains of a medieval castle in the town of Vollenhove. An utterly romantic spot. There is a moat around it, with a lovely fountain.

This version of Story Lines needed a different ending – a Romantic Ruffle. I’m not really a ruffle-y type, so I’ve kept it modest.

Story Lines is a very easy knit. The only reason I wouldn’t recommend it to an absolute beginner is that the thinner of the yarns used takes a little experience to handle.

The design combines two types of yarn: a lace-weight mohair/silk blend and a fingering-weight single-ply merino yarn – 1 skein (50 g) of the former and 1 skein (100 g) of the latter.

The yarns I used for both shawls come from an indie dyer in my little corner of the world. She creates many gorgeous colours. Below you can see the mohair/silk blend I used on the left, the 1-ply merino on the right:

‘My’ indie dyer is happy to ship world-wide,  but those of you not living in the Netherlands could also look for yarn closer to home. Here is a list of very similar yarns from indie dyers all over the world:

  • Canada: Lichen and Lace (Marsh Mohair/1-Ply Superwash Merino Fingering-Weight)
  • France: La Bien Aimée (Mohair Silk/Merino Singles)
  • Germany: Walk Collection (Kid Mohair Lace/Cottage Merino)
  • Ireland: Hedgehog Fibres (Kidsilk Lace/Skinny Singles)
  • Norway: Norne (Kid Silk/Singles)
  • Sweden: Fru Valborg (Fuzzy Mohair/Merino Singles)
  • UK: Qing (Kid Mohair Silk/Merino Singles)
  • US, New York: The Wandering Flock (Laceweight Mohair Silk/Fingering Weight Singles)
  • US, Oregon: Ritual Dyes (Fae/Crone)

Some people find a triangle a difficult shape to wear and I understand. Worn in a traditional way it can look old-fashioned. But it can be worn in so many ways, as already shown in some of the pictures above. Here are some more ideas.

Worn nonchalantly with the two long ends on one side:

Rolled up with the point at the back of the neck inside, worn much like a rectangular scarf:

With the ends knotted loosely:

Or scrunched up cosily:

The shawl has a versatile shape and can tell many different stories, depending on the colours chosen. Choose icy shades for an arctic adventure, greys for a ghost story, greens for a jungle book, or………………… The possibilities are endless.

If you’d like to knit your own Story Lines,

you can find the pattern HERE ON RAVELRY. 

In addition to the Dainty Droplets and Romantic Ruffle shown here, the pattern also includes instructions for a Basic Bind-off that ties everything up neatly. And there is a Dutch as well as an English-language version.

Well, that brings us to the end of today’s story. Thank you so much, dear photographer, for your patience and for capturing everything so well. And thank you, dear friends near and far, for reading and for your always kind support!

Soothing Sachets

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Hello! Well, everything went more or less according to plan this week, so here are the lavender sachets I promised you last week. I call them Soothing Sachets, because lavender is not just known for its moth repellent qualities, but also for its soothing scent.

The ones in the basket above are still scenting our home. But they won’t be doing so for much longer, because they are meant for gifts. Let me show them one by one.

This is the first one I made, after several discarded attempts. It is very simple, from self-striping sock yarn.

It closes with a button. Because of the way the sachet is constructed, the stripes are twice as wide compared to a sock.

It was fun rummaging through my button box for just the right button.

All of the sachets use the same basic pattern. The next one is also very simple – colour blocks with a thin asymmetrically placed contrasting stripe.

The stripe is repeated in the button band.

Together with a box of calming herb tea, it’ll make a nice gift for a friend going through a stressful time. It is made from a combination of beautiful plant-dyed mini skeins.

The one below was made from some ordinary mottled sock yarn. A few stripes and garter ridges make it perfect for tucking under a sporty person’s pillow.

In this way even the smallest yarn scraps can be used.

For the next one, I again used colour blocks – this time embellished with a few tiny buttons…

… to match the mother-of-pearl button on the back.

Just the thing for someone’s lingerie drawer, I think. I made it from some of the tiny balls of yarn left over from my first ever published pattern – Tellina.

The Tellina cowl itself would also be a great project for using up some yarn remnants or mini skeins. It can be found here on Ravelry.

The Soothing Sachets have a fabric lining, sewn from small pieces of cotton fabric. No need to buy anything specially – any thin cotton will do, as long as it’s a colour that doesn’t show through the knitting. I used bits of an old pillowcase.

Making a lining sachet may be a bit of a pain for some, I thought, so I tried leaving it out and stuffing a knitted sachet with unspun wool with some lavender in the middle.

It is an option, but I don’t like the result as much as the lined version – its shape is less crisp and its scent is too faint to my liking.

So, why not knit a few first and then spend a cosy afternoon with the sewing machine on the dining table, and all other tools and notions needed at hand, to finish them all in one go?

Finally, here is my Pièce de Résistance 😉. Again made from self-striping sock yarn, but this time with a duplicate stitch heart on the front…

… and corrugated ribbing for the buttonhole band.

Won’t that make a nice gift for a beloved child? (Caution: Sew the button on very securely, or for small children leave it off and close the entire opening.)

Some of you reading this will be receiving one of these small scented gifts in the near future. My gift to the rest of you is the pattern (in English and Dutch). It contains instructions for knitting (including the corrugated ribbing) and finishing the sachet as well as a heart chart.

Click here for the free Ravelry download.

These Soothing Sachets are simple things, but with a bit of creativity they can become great little gifts. Have fun!

PS. Remember to make a few for yourself, too – to tuck under your pillow and keep the moths away from your knitting and spinning baskets.