Process knitters enjoy the time when they start a new project the most. I'm a product knitter and I most enjoy the feeling just before I finish up something. I'm starting to have that glow from St. Enda as I'm almost at the shaping on the top front piece. Then I seam and add neckline and I'm done. In fact the minute I woke up this a.m I had a wonderful feeling of knowing I'm almost finished with another sweater. Seeing my finished items really makes me happy and gives me a sense of accomplishment.







I've been thinking a little about my next sweater. I have the Tiur yarn to make the Dale of Norway Kashmir sweater but I hope I can restrain myself. Poor Trondheim is languisihing not because I don't like the design or colors, but because the Emu Superwash DK reminds me too much of acrylic. Yuk. Still, I need to finish Trondheim so I'm probably not going to start any new sweaters for a while. I have been checking out Eriskay in Alice Starmore's Fisherman's Sweaters. I'm not sure it is complicated enough to keep my interest but I have some yarn I could use for it and I think I'd wear it often.

Frostrosen & Nordasno Mittens

So far I've done four of the Nordic Fiber Arts mitten kits. Here are the Frostrosen mittens done in Rauma Finullgarn. I've also done Rosebord, Solhav, and Nordasno. I love the designs but the fit of these mittens is odd with excess mitten at the fingertips. I tried to change the design to make the mittens the right length with less-than-wonderful results on the Nordasno mittens as seen here.




Recently I found out that this extra length is apparently traditional. From Carol Rasmussen Noble's Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves,

" It was during World War II that women's mittens were introduced into Shetland with the influx of Norwegian refugees. Norwegian people usually wear mittens with stars on them; gloves are less popular. Suddenly in Shetland, mitts became popular and have remained so.

Rather than making a mitten that really fits the hand well, Shetland knitters make them very long to accommodate their design preferences - they need more room on the mitts to include the double motif they're so fond of...

To wear the mitts properly, you pull them down a ways on your arm, and they tend to flop a bit at the fingertips."

Well there you go. It seems Shetland (and I'm assuming Norwegian) mittens are supposed to be too long in the hand. Who would have guessed?

I really like Knitting Fair Isle Mittens & Gloves and am thinking of making the Tartan fingerless gloves next. They are the perfect project for knitting while watching my favorite tv show set in the gorgeous highlands of Scotland, Monarch of the Glen on BBC America.

Virtual Yarns now has a kit for my favorite Alice Starmore sweater of all time - Lismore from Celtic Collection. I could buy yarn for 2-3 sweaters for the price of the kit though. The colors are slightly different in the VY version but I think I like the new colors better (look at the cushion colors to see the difference).













I don't really knit with mohair a lot and I'm not sure I like spinning it either. But it definitely dyes up beautifully as this photo shows. The colors were more brilliant on the mohair than on the merino top. I suspect I'll enjoy spinning this more and the eventual yarn can always be used for a Spontaneous Scarf.



For those of you who live in the area, May 17 and 18 is the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta at the fairgrounds. Not as exciting as Maryland Sheep & Wool of course, but it is better than nothing. The feature display this year at the Fiber Arts Fiesta is a huge bead quilt to commemorate Sept. 11 done by hundreds of beadworkers around the world. I doubt they'll let me take pictures to put on the blog but I'll bring a camera to perhaps photograph some of the demos.