Knit & Knag Designs

What’s hot right now: Ranrike Shawl

Anna — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:38:51 +0000

In what’s a rather exciting development, the Ranrike Shawl hit the nr 2 spot on “What’s hot right now” on Ravelry.

Thank you everyone who made that happen – that’s so exciting.

I hope you’ll join in for the KAL running now until June 6 (as in cast on before that date – keep knitting as long as you’d like).
To sign up, you can get the pattern here, and then join the fun in my Ravelry group.

Ancient Egypt in Lace and Color – preorder

Anna — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:51:06 +0000

In Ancient Egypt, colour was a very important part of the arts and life. There were six basic colours – green, red, white, black, yellow and blue – and each colour symbolized different aspects of the world and life.
There are twelve new shawl patterns in the book – two in each colour. The book explains the symbolic meaning of each of the colours in ancient Egyptian culture. And each pattern is inspired by a story from ancient Egyptian mythology and culture.

The book will be published this summer (2012) with Cooperative Press and is now available for preorder.

The end of the feasts

Anna — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:48:21 +0000

In Lokasenna (Loki’s quarrel) in the Poetic Edda, Ægir had invited the gods for a feast at which he served home-brewed ale. Ægir and his daughters had brewed the ale in a giant cauldron. Ægir’s servants welcomed the guests. Many of the gods were there, but not Thor because he was in Jotunheim. Bright gold lit the hall, cups filled themselves with ale, and the place was peaceful. Many of the guests praised Ægir’s servants. Loki could not bear that and killed one of the servants. The gods were angered and chased him into the forest, and then returned to their drinking.
Later, Loki returned and found one of the other servants outside. He asked what the gods were talking about at the feast, and was told that they were discussing their weapons and their great skill at war, and that Loki was not welcome. But Loki entered anyhow and demanded a seat. Bragi (the god of poetry) says that the gods will refuse to make room for Loki at the feast, but Loki then called on Odin and reminds him that long ago when Loki and Odin blended blood, Odin vowed that they would always drink together. Odin asks his son Vidar to give up his seat for Loki and pour him some ale. But before Loki drank, he toasted the gods and pointedly excludes Bragi. Bragi offered him a sword, a horse and gold to placate him, but Loki insulted his courage, and then proceeded to insult the other gods present. Insults were traded back and forth until Thor arrived and threatened Loki four times to be quiet or the might of Mjölnir would break every bone in Loki’s body. Loki then states that he had said what he wanted to the gods, but now he would leave, as he was convinced that Thor would kill.
Loki left and hid in the Franang waterfall, but there he was captured by the gods and bound with the guts of his son beneath a poisonous snake. Sigun, Lokis’s wife, sat there beside him holding a bowl which caught the venom that dripped down. But when the bowl was full, she had to carry it outside, and meanwhile the venom dripped on Loki. Then he struggled so hard that the whole earth shook, and that is what people now call earthquakes.

Ægir was cursed by Loki that he would never again hold a feast in his hall. “May all that is here, everything you own, fall to the flames and drag you down with it!”

To join the Ranrike KAL and knit the Ranrike Shawl, sign up here.

Rán and Ægir

Anna — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:04:17 +0000

Rán is the old Norse Goddess of the sea. She was married to Ægir who is the god of the ocean and king of the sea creatures, and is thought to have been a giant. Rán and Ægir had nine daughters known as the billow maidens.

Ægir apparently had a lot of cauldrons in which to brew ale, and the gods decided that because of that, he should be their host from know on. Ægir agrees, but on the condition that they bring him a cauldron large enough to warm the ale for everyone. Tyr remembers that Hymir owns such a large cauldron, and they set out to retrieve it. When they find Hymir’s abode, Thor eats so much that Hymir and his guests must go fishing. Thor almost the Jörmugandr (the Midgard Serpent) and boasts of his strength, but Hymir says that Thor can’t be very strong if he can’t even break Hymir’s chalice. The chalice was magic, and try as he might, Thor could not break it. Then a giant’s mistress told Thor to throw it at Hymir’s head, since that would break the spell. The chalice cracked, and Hymir allowed the gods to take the cauldron to Ægir. Thanks to this, the gods would now drink ale brewed by Ægir’s fire and hold feasts there.

Even today, giant cauldrons can be found in the granite of Ranrike. They are giant holes drilled into the granite shield.

The giant cauldrons were formed during the ice age, when boulders, rocks or pebbles were caught in eddies under the moving glaciers and drilled into the granite over time.

To join the Ranrike KAL and knit the Ranrike Shawl, sign up here.

Ranrike Shawl

Anna — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:50:16 +0000

Time to return (knitting-wise) to my roots. Ranrike is the old Norse name for what is now the area around the Oslofjord in Norway and northern Bohuslän in Sweden. The name comes from Rán – the old norse goddess or the sea – and refers to her kingdom.

Ranrike is famous for its rocky landscape and granite cliffs. And I’ve spent every childhood summer exploring the rocky landscape, hiding in caves or diving off cliffs.

The Ranrike Shawl is a crescent shaped shawl knit in a single ply fingering weight yarn from Zen Yarn Garden. The shawl can be knit in three different sizes.
Small: Wingspan: 48 in [122 cm] Height: 14 in [36 cm]
Medium: Wingspan: 60 in [152 cm] Height: 15.5 in [39 cm]
Large: Wingspan: 72 in [184 cm] Height: 17 in [43 cm]
1 skein will be enough for the small shawl, but for the medium or large size you’ll need 2 skeins.

The pattern will be available at a special introductory price of $5.00 CDN until June 6.

If you post a cast-on picture between now and then on your Ravelry project page (and link the project to Ranrike Shawl so I can find it), you are eligible to win a PDF copy of Ancient Egypt in Lace & Color – that is my upcoming book with 12 lace shawl designs inspired by Ancient Egyptian mythology (published summer 2012 with Cooperative Press).

DKC Frolic

Anna — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:58:30 +0000

This past weekend I was in Toronto for the annual DKC Frolic. I spent most of my time with the amazing Kim of indigodragonfly in her booth. There was a steady stream of people all day. Sometimes it was so crowded we barely fit into the booth. I got to meet a ton of people, and of course I got to see and fondle amazing yarn. Shaping Shawls was available, along with a number of my single patterns.

AND, what has to be one of my favourite things at these shows, I got to see amazing knitwear parading by all day. Here is a version of Huldran next to the Eyjafjallajökull Shawl.

I did sneak out of the indigodragonfly booth a couple of times during the day, to check out what else was around. So I had a chance to see Natalie Servant and Elizabeth McCarten in Debbie Wilson’s/Sheep’s Ahoy booth.

And I stopped into the Zen Yarn Garden booth to chat with Roxanne and Neville. While I was there, I showed Roxanne my almost-finished-new-design in ZYG Serenity Silk Single. I finished it on the drive back, and right now it’s blocking.

All in all, a fabulous time was had by all. I look forward to next year already.

Toronto, here I come!

Anna — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:50:54 +0000

This weekend is the weekend of the annual DKC Knitter’s Frolic. Last year was my first year there and I had a blast. So naturally I’ll be going again this year. I can be found on Saturday in the market place at the Indigodragonfly booth, along with Shaping Shawls, a bunch of printed patterns (including, but not limited to La Toupie), and of course Kim’s wonderful yarns.

On Friday evening, I’ll be teaching a double knitting class at Lettuce Knit. We’ll be knitting the Starlight Shawl, but of course the techniques learned apply to any double knitting project.

Hope to see you in Toronto!

Leftovers

Anna — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:08:09 +0000

If you are an avid knitter (or live with one), you are probably familiar with the idea of a stash. There seems to be yarn accumulating everywhere – pretty, new skeins from festivals, fairs, local yarn shops, and internet ones (which are particularly sneaky by delivering the yarn straight to your mailbox).

We all plan various projects that may or may not come to fruition, and in the meantime we continue to be tempted by new, different, beautiful colours and textures.

However, in addition to this new stash acquisition, there is the yarn that we’ve actually used for various projects. But most projects don’t use exactly whole numbers of yarn-skeins. So then there are leftovers. I, myself, have lots of drawers, bags, bins and what not of leftovers like this:

And what to do with it? It is, after all, very nice yarn. Just not enough to make anything out of, really. Well….. I guess I could make a third mitt. Or a doll-sized shawl. But what would I do with that?

Enter the piecework afghan. In my current project, each unit is very small. So small, in fact, that most of my leftover skeins can make more than one unit. In order to not make the finished afghan look super-busy and scrappy, I have sorted the leftover yarn by colour family. Right now I’m working on the blue section.

It’s really fun to revisit all this leftover yarn, and remembering the original projects. It’s like finding old friends again. So far I have yarn from mittens, shawls, sweaters, and scarves. As well as some samples from a couple of different dyers. All of the yarn is close to fingering weight, some a bit heavier and some a little lighter, but on the balance, it centres around fingering weight. And in my collection of leftovers, there is a LOT of fingering weight.

Can’t wait to move on to another colour family and visit some new (old) yarn. :-)

Interweave Knitting Lab, Oct 2012

Anna — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:35:32 +0000

I’ll be teaching Lace Design and Shawl Construction at the Interweave Knitting Lab this fall. For more information on the Interweave Knitting Lab and to sign up for classes, click on the picture.

All done

Anna — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:17:23 +0000

All the shawls for the next book are now completed, blocked and in the mail to Cooperative Press. The next step in the process is the photoshoot which will happen later this month. Looking forward to some pretty pictures.

There are twelve shawls in various colours – all beautiful yarn from Rocky Mountain Dyeworks, Cephalopod Yarns, Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, indigodragonfly, the Verdant Gryphon and Zen Yarn Garden.

Once the photoshoot has happened, there will be a fun little contest over on the Cooperative Press site. Stay tuned!