norwegian folk shawl pattern

The shawl in yesterday’s post has gotten some attention and I thought I would dredge up the pattern for the people who have asked. Brought over from my LJ archives and edited.

“I thought I would post a recipe for a Norwegian shawl, in the school style, as I’ve heard it called.

Susanne Pagoldh says in her book Nordic Knitting that you need 1300 yds of wool for this.
You cast on the outer edge in the example I am giving. Since I am using a fingering weight yarn and a size 5 (I think) needle, I will CO 580 sts. A heavier yarn ( and correspondingly bigger needle) would probably be about 350-450 sts. I haven’t done one like that, so I’m not sure. Mark the center stitch with a marker or a thread.

The rule on this shawl is to K2 together at the beginning and end of each row, and K2 together after the center stitch marker each row. (dec 3 sts each row) This ensures that your shawl gets smaller. It ends up as a kind of boomerang shape, very long.
I knit each row (garter st) for about 16 rows, and then do this:
keep doing your standard decreases, and *K2 together, YO* for one whole row.
Do 3 rows in the garter stitch pattern, and then do one row in the *K2 together, YO* pattern.
You could follow that with with 8 rows of ribbing, or just more garter st, and then do another set of eyelets, as above.
After that, I do a longer stretch of garter, maybe 12-16 rows, and then the eyelet set again. And repeat until it’s done.
Once you are done knitting, you can crochet around the whole outside, or not. You can add fringe on the bottom edge, or not.
Very simple! and open for interpretation.

This shawl is both functional and elegant, and is sure to get you tons of compliments.”

(alice is maybe 10?)

has it been four days yet?

well, golly I think it has. Must be time to post to the blog. I actually have this task on a list for the weekend. I don’t know how many times I have come out to the computer to post and gotten distracted, and then gotten distracted from that… and so on. Do it, now, Bramble.

Nothing like the smell of fermenting cabbage to let you know it’s a good day.

Our local farmer’s market has started up and I bought everything for making kim chee, baby bok choy, daikon radish (I use the greens in the ferment, too), garlic, green onions. The ginger, salt, and chiles needed had to come from offsite, but it’s going on now. I could make up a gallon a week and then have some for a few months! Oh heaven.
Speaking of local, last night’s dinner was comprised of food that was almost all grown or at least processed in this region. flour, olive oil, and vinegar were the only imported items. Wild caught salmon, salad greens, potatoes, blackberry vinagrette, locally baked bread. I’m no foodie, but, damn that was good.

Alice knocked me out with her combinations of knitted textures today.

I made the shawl but not the sweater.

I love wool! I love wool! I love wool!
There, I’ve said it.

Speaking of wool, I have been knitting knitting socks. The end is in sight on this pair of socks for a swap, and it needs to be. I got my partner’s socks in the mail Friday, so now I feel abashed. I can’t show a picture of my knitting til I get them sent, I suppose, although I said right out what I making several posts back. let it suffice to say that I am extremely happy with the progress, late-ish though it may be.

Thursday I wrote a bunch of notes for a blog entry and then scrapped them as being too self-deprecating. Worth keeping is the clarification of the aesthetic that inspires me/I am striving for. It went something like “organic outcroppings from structured technique.”
Look at kjoo’s shop for example.
My work seems flat, but I think it because I have looked at it way too much. Plus, it is a bit flat.
I am praying to break through my aversion to trading my work for money. What’s up with that? I am sure I subvert my success by being unable to imagine myself succeeding.
Wow, that’s profound.
It’s okay if people pay people to make what they do not! Or more specifically, if I am one of the people that gets paid!
Anyhoo, my problem is really that I imagine myself successful in an entirely different economic paradigm, and I need to get out of my hobbit hole and rewild the world I live in.
Which is, incidentally, what I am already doing. :)

knitting news

so you see dear people, I am not a daily blogger. It comes and goes with me, my desire to sit in front of this box. I have been so busy lately that I have two letters received over the past two days that I have not read yet! If that is any indication.

Happenings:
I have been diligently working on my socks for a certain swap. They look really good.
One of the best things about this current round of knitting, (which has been very educational, lots of lace) is that I now know how much I enjoy working on small needles. I got 3 sets of needles in the mail on Saturday and the 00s seemed so big in my hands after holding the 0000s. The above swatch was done on 0s, I think.

I should make mention of that background which is in so many pictures. It is my ironing board, some funky ol thrifted number padded with a couple blankets and a piece of cheap but lovely cotton. My main workspace for non-knit projects, and sometimes a cat bed, sadly. I love my ironing board.

I have been getting tons of materials from the library. My turn finally came around for Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle, and while I already have all these other projects going on, I couldn’t resist and had to cast on for the irish diamond shawl (linking here to an example found on flickr…)
I am decidedly all about shawls and stoles these days. Long have I been of the mind that it is perfectly acceptable to wear blankets in public (I think I have mentioned this) and shawls are an extension of that. Finally I am free of couture delusions! HAH! Just give me a rectangle or triangle of fabric and I will be clothed!
In that Folk Shawls book, there is a pattern for a Victorian Wool Peddler’s shawl, and the story she tells has it that red shawls were traditionally worn at market by women selling wool goods. I am so making myself one of these. I have an itch to get to market. I have a general all-around travelling itch, actually. I am ready to quit the cleaning job and get out on the road for a spell. It’s not going to happen though, not for a couple months anyway.
Anyhow, I haven’t enough inventory to go anywhere, and with all the errands I have to run today I won’t be making anything new. I am buying Opal a horse riding helmet this afternoon as she is going to an equine expo with Sharin on Saturday. I am thankful that she is getting so much horse time, that kid, and I am holding my breath waiting for this good thing to end. (Remember, Bramble: live in the moment, make the most out of what is available right now. Enjoy it while it lasts.)

There are some whomping huge developments in the family life I should mention. I withdrew Opal from public school yesterday. For a number of reasons. The school scene here is so chokingly provincial, I am sick of living as a minority in a Dominant Culture. Opal has some overwhelming behavior issues to boot, and all the things weren’t meshing so well. So it’s back to homeschooling (well, unschooling, you know) two daughters, at least until next fall.

Okay, right. I am off to the next thing now. Tomorrow!

today’s experiences and some thoughts.

and also some knitting.

I had a rich day, spent lots of time with nature. Things I did: saw a harrier hunting not 10 feet from me; lay in Mark’s little boat just to let the current rock me; spyed the moon through maple leaves; stretched out on the warm rocks in the driveway next to a snake, each of us checking out the other; sat for half an hour under a larch tree, blending with it, and willing the seeds I gathered and planted from that tree to hatch and grow; and shucked oysters brought to me by Sharin, and sucked the salty water and slippery beasts out of the shells.
Now at the end of the day I feel so good!

As promised, here is a page from The Night Life of Trees. This is a book “of art and folklore from the Gond tribe in central India. In Gond belief, trees stand in the middle of life, and the spirit of many things lie in them. They are busy all day, giving shade and support and shelter and food to all. Only when night falls can they find rest for themselves, and then, under quiet dark skies, that spirits that live in them are revealed.”

The Creation of Trees.

more to come.

Okay, here are the thoughts. I tend to be fairly spacey, forgetting about commitments and general maintainence, and that’s not good.
I became aware of something developing in my life today, an internal organization, ooo, that sounds dry, let’s say I am learning how to feel the threads that connect me to the things I need to keep track of. For example, I have to make a pair of socks for a swap, and while there isn’t a set deadline, I am determined to not procrastinate this time! My heart is set on making a pair of pomatomus, which puts me on a bit of a learning curve. First step has been to mull over the choice of yarn. I decided on this yarn, which I have been ravelling from an abandoned project I got at a thrift store years ago:

it is very thin, and I needed smaller needles than I had, so I went and bought some 0 dpns. (The pattern calls for 2s and I know I am loose knitter, so I start two sizes down.) Then I made my first gauge swatch. Which turns out to be too big!
All this taking place along a stretch of time, mind you, and in the meantime, I am getting a bit restless, so I turn the gauge swatch into something possibly useful:

which didn’t turn out good at all, but hey maybe somebody will like it. I am really poor at figures, and this is supposed to be a Firebird, but didn’t it turn out too cute!

I quickly figured out I was going to have to learn the lace pattern for the socks on a bigger yarn than I will ultimately be using. So:

I nailed it.
Now, I am waiting for my smaller needles to arrive in the mail (I went ahead and ordered 00s, 000s, and 0000s, it’s been too damn long since I spent money on myself if you don’t count this, tight last couple of months), and while I wait, I am working on a Sunrise Circle jacket for Alice, which is itself a preparation for making myself one!

All this is relatively mundane, but it serves to illustrate how I have been able to carry the thread of an idea through several stages without losing it, and of course, I simultaneously have many other threads running between my fingers that I am keeping track of with similar processes.
After years of forgetfulness, I am excited about this ability! and, best of all, this “method” is enhanced by, not dependent on, written lists.

so yeah.