Nordic mitten and gloves

This winter my knitting passion has taken me down the road of mittens and gloves in traditional style and patterns of Norway and Scandinavia.

While in Sweden I found a wool shop in Sigtuna called Knocks, it doesn't only sell wool and is a magical shop with a real fire near the doorway. I asked them for Swedish wool and while my Swedish family of Van Asch all waited patiently on the street I finally found what I wanted - two skeins of a quite fine, 2ply sport weight wool from a company called Ullcentrum Oland. The wool is quite coarse but high in oils which makes it ideal for gloves that may get wet and take a bit more wear. I would say it is probably a bit too scratchy to wear next to the torso but on less soft areas like hands and feet it is ideal.  I have noticed that softer fine wools like Rowan felted tweed will wear through on the sole of the foot, particularly if you are walking around on wooden floors like me. The lovely people at Ullcentrum have told me that if you felt the item by putting it in hot water for a short amount of time, that it will soften.  When I say coarse, I don't mean that as a criticism, because it is perfect for mittens and socks which get a lot of friction.

The ethos behind the Swedish wool company Ullcentrum is also very lovely as the owner, Ann, originally started by collecting the unused raw wool from local farmers and turning it into yarns and clothing. Previously they were throwing it away and now this company supports many local farmers. The yarn is stocked all over the world so have a look at their website for where is your local stockist, I just ordered it direct from them as I wanted some more.

I found some patterns on Ravelry and also some from a book I just bought from Amazon.  I love the mittens with the pointed tops, not only are they cute but also they give you a lovely large space for a design on the back of the hand.  However, one does sometimes want to use your fingers so I also tried out the gloves.

The black and white contrast shows the designs off to their best, but the patterns aren't just decorative, oh no, there is a meaning in the patterns too.

Working in two colours on small circular needles gives the glove a double thickness.  I had to change to double pointed needles for the fingers, which are fiddly to be sure, but not impossible, and this book above gives very clear instructions on how to divide up the hand for the four fingers. The pattern on the black and white glove is called The Lord's Supper.  The border around the wrist is called a rose garland, or rosary to the saints and the main rose is the symbol of Jesus.  On the palm is a design which represents the communion wafer from the last supper. 

The brown and grey gloves are using some left over wools and I decided for these to knit the fingers in one colour so that they weren't so thick and cumbersome.

these are my fingerless version for when you need a bit more dexterity

I'm still experimenting with designs and styles, making some variations on the patterns and trying to perfect the technique.
This month I joined the hashtag on Instagram called #wipsandblooms so if you are a maker of anything you should join with us as there is a competition prize every month.

Knitting is a great stress reliever, it really is like a form of meditation and I absolutely love it.  I only learnt a few years ago, just by watching you tube videos, so if you want to own and wear something beautiful that you have also made yourself, faults and all, then start with small items and scarves to get an idea of how to shape and turn.

Later this month I shall also be involved with some knitting for charity and hope to pass along information about how to get involved in that, until then, happy knitting. 

Urban Jungle Bloggers and Woven Wall Hangings

Im really quite excited at the moment by two elements of interior styling and the use of colour. One of these elements is the re-discovery of house plants through the network of Urban Jungle Bloggers and the other is woven wall hangings.

If you are wondering what Urban Jungle Bloggers is all about then let me give you an idea here.  Set up by two lovely souls, Igor and Judith, they have brought an online community together of people who love house plants.  At first I thought it was for people living in the city but now I've met Igor and Judith I realise its for everyone who likes plants in their home and who like to style with them. 

As I've mentioned before, I attended a blogging conference a few weeks ago, primarily to meet in person the people behind some of the most inspiring things on the internet.  Bloggers are people who often are working in complete isolation and this can become far too inward looking if you're not careful. So when you meet the creators of a cool online community and they are really nice with a great philosophy and attitude, its a bonus for sure.

Having travelled extensively when I was in the music business, to over 42 countries around the globe, you find that some nations have very cool attitudes to life and I think that this is exuded by Igor and Judith in bucket loads. Their 'no rules' approach and philosophy is so rare these days, the idea to facilitate the meeting (virtually) of like minded people for no financial reason is a Karma which will return to them Im sure. This is also something I would love to emulate in my #paintpassion community.

Setting a theme monthly to their house plant stylings Im delighted to say that in my first month they have chosen my area - colour - to be the topic, giving it the hashtag #plantcolorpop (and don't forget its the American spelling of color not the English spelling - Colour.

Since working with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint(tm)for Painters In Residence, Ive continued to explore this paints properties and abilities. Becoming more and more free with my approach I've been developing a technique of working with a wet brush and just dipping the same brush into different colours, then working it with water and so on, to blend and wash.  Ive chosen to do this on some back boards as a way to practice but Im intending to expand onto canvases too.

The backboards give me the possibilities to try out colour combinations and see how they work with different objects on and around them.  So to my third element here, the woven wall hanging.

I studied textile and embroidery for A level in the late 1970's, so the revival of the this type of wall hanging has amused me enormously. Its been a right trip (in the hippy sense of the word) to pick it up again and be able to play around with it for interior styling. 

Last weekend I went to Yarnspiration2015, a day of workshops and socialising for people who love their yarns, like alcoholics anonymous for wool hoarders - where do you keep your hidden stash?, did you secretly spend the housekeeping on cashmere and silk yarn, oh the confessions.  Hello my name is Janice and Im a yarnoholic.

It's Fibre East at the end of July, a big yarn related show which I shall be popping along to and reporting back on.  Its my nearest big wool show, in Ampthill. 

Anyway, back to the wall hangings, Ive tried two on the small basic hand loom and one utilising a tapestry frame.  I don't want to give a tutorial here yet until I feel Ive tried out a few things and can tell you the do's and don't from first hand experience. Like anything, practice makes perfect so I shall practice a bit more and let you know.  

You can find Urban Jungle Bloggers here and I'd put money on it that after looking you will be rushing off to the garden centre.

Im back off to do some more weaving and paint sploshing now, please tag me and #paintpassion so I can see what you have been up to.