Inga Hat

Here is the Inga hat. (The free pattern in PDF form is HERE.) It uses Knitpicks' Merino Style DK but I went up to worsted weight wool to fit my large head. I was originally planning on adding more shades of purple in duplicate stitch. The width is perfect for my head but as you can see it is quite long.



I used four colors of stash wool but it is kind of hard to tell.



Surprisingly DH says he wants the hat. I am amazed he's willing to wear periwinkle. He insists the hat should be worn smooshed down as shown below.



My next project is a speed project. I'm going to immediately start the Put-It-All-Together Gloves from the book Kristin Knits in a zillion colors of Cascade 220. It is currently 4:30 pm Saturday and I'm vowing to have these to show you by Monday night. This should be easy to accomplish as they're knit in thick yarn and I will be watching tons of baseball between now and then.

Now I'm off to collect all our candles. We're celebrating Earth Hour by turning off the lights tonight between 8 and 9 pm.

Herrevott No. 4

Pattern: Herrevott No. 4 from the Norwegian booklet Selbustrikk (available through Arnhild or Nordic Fiber Arts)
Yarn: Nature Spun sport weight
Needles: Size 0 (US) dpn
I like the extra thickness and warmth from the heavier yarn and smaller needles.
There are chart errors in this pattern as well. In the column two columns over from the thumb gusset there are five errors - three dots need to be added and two need to be removed. Also, the thumb chart is missing a dot in the center of the left hand side of the thumb on the second row from the bottom.

Herrevante, No. 13

Unfortunately this outdoor photo of the gloves turned out somewhat ghostly due to the time of day.


These are the Herrevante No. 13 from the Norwegian Rauma Selbustrikk booklet (available through Arnhild ) knitted using size 2 dpns and some of my vintage Nylamb yarn. I really love Nylamb for gloves.




If you have the booklet, there is a tiny chart error. On Handleadd alt 5, the chart on the bottom of page 13, go to the far right of the chart and count up 10 squares and color in the square. The charts are clear and well marked and you really don't need to know Norwegian to knit these items.

Knitting in the Nordic Tradition

One of my top five knitting books of all time is Knitting in the Nordic Tradition by Vibeke Lind. Elizabeth Zimmermann reviewed it by saying, "One is strongly tempted to call this all-embracing book the ultimate in historic Northern knitting." It really is that good and although long out-of-print, you can still occasionally find inexpensive copies via Bookfinder .



This pair of men's Selbu gloves was done using a pattern from the book. You can see the dark spots at the base of the fingers where I added rows to make the fingers more anatomical. Not so attractive but they fit DH very well.



The book has several pages discussing thumb gussets and she calls thumb gussets which start on the back of the hand "Norwegian gussets" as opposed to the sore thumb gussets which stick straight out of the side of the hand. What really intrigues me though is this diagram of an unusual crooked thumb gusset - it only has increases on the inside of the hand. I definitely have to try that one out in my glove research.