Pavlovsky Posad factory shawls

 

 

When in Russia, one tends to take these shawls for granted. I already had the orange paisley one below, and then was able to buy another one here at the local haberdashery: "Atele Elegant".

 

 

Pavlovsky Posad factory shawls have been made since the middle of the 1800's. The shawls usually have a floral center, come in different color themes, and are extremely warm, in spite of being thin.

Due to its size, it is hard to get a total shot. This shawl is 140cmX140cm -- about 55"x55".

This is my new shawl, bought as an early Christmas present.

 

I was so pleased they had it in the "bolshoi" size -- it is 180cmX160cm, about 71in by 63in. I wanted one large enough to wrap totally around "and back" to keep my arms draft free. I love the "not so bright" floral pattern on this one: I think I even might have a Russian tray similiar to this pattern.

 

Another shawl I got out: this is at least 10 years old, or even from the 80's!

 

(Another link for these shawls)

Time for Shawls

I'll be posting a parade of shawls as I get them out for the winter:

below: square Orenburg style shawl with the cat's paw pattern in "coarse" mohair -- sheds! (needs to hibernate in the freezer to shrink the fibers some)

 

 

true square within a square Orenburg shawl, fine silk and mohair:

 

 

Earth Strips Wrap Stole ON HOLD

One week after original posting below: decided Italian blend was too fuzzy and just a tad bit thicker with a dark blend through each strand, so gave in and ordered the Kidsilk Haze needed. Rowan certainly has gotten a gold mine from all of us through this particular pattern. So it's back to working on those WIPS ... and learning how to do glove fingers without getting bored to death.

I'm using Kidsilk Haze, Douceur et Soie, and Italian mohair for this pattern. The colors will be slightly different, but I'm looking forward to having this on my shoulders this winter.

 

Treats from WEBS

... Rowan 42 (with crumpled corner, grrr) and Elsebeth Lavold's Hempathy for a Tarot bag from Iriewoman.

 

start of Gansey gloves

Here's the start of a pair of Gansey gloves with Jaeger Matchmaker and size 1 1/2 (US, not metric, sigh) needles. Already see a mistake in the moss stitch, but I'm going to leave it -- this is a learning pair.

 

Evening reading

I've spent the whole day "on" the internet: a little on Ravelry, and the rest of the day, in-between tea breaks, on my Bloglines blog listings.

Time to stop, and grab one of these for some reading pleasure:

 

TOMORROW I'll work on a swatch to start a glove ....

Gloves ... my new challenge

Now that I've finished organizing things for Ravelry and Flickr , I have settled into getting geared up to make a pair of gloves.

Below are pictures of a pair of Estonian gloves that fit me well.

 

 

 

So I will attempt to figure out the gauge, get out the wool, and go over the on-line available booklet from Nanette Blanchard

 

to start my own pair. I'll probably do Nanette's "colorblock" pair first, and then go on to my own.

First Snow, Nov 14

Notiing too dramatic, but winter has officially arrived.

 

(Knitting) Down memory lane

When we were Russia (the USSR) in the mid-80s, we went to Helsinki, Finland several times.

We spent most of our time in Helsinki shopping at Stockmann's -- for everything from food to snowsuits to dishes. It was wonderful -- we just took our items to the counter, told the clerk to send them to the "export" division, and our purchases were put on the train and sent down to Moscow.

Our kids were little, and we stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel where the hotel maids put lots of chocolates on their pillows at night! Stockmann's was such an integral part of the expat/diplomatic life in Moscow that children often thought that "Stockmann's" was the capital of Finland.

We never had the chance to do much sightseeing in Helsinki iteself, but I once managed to get downtown to a store that had wools for weaving and knitting. I had noticed that everywhere everyone seemed to be knitting mittens! That started my love for mittens, and I bought some lovely Finnish fingering weight knitting wool - Pirkkalanka fingerweight.

During the same period, we had a lovely December train trip to Tallin, Estonia, where I saw even more beautiful mittens. And then Lipbeth Upitis's book, Latvian mittens was published, and I was hooked forever.

The Pirkkalanka that I still have left after 20+ years is fine: it looks good, smells nice, and is ready to go! I have just found a shop in Helsinki on line that still carries the wool, so I'm hoping to order a color card to see what colors I "might" need.

Lizbeth Upitis started quite an interest in stranded and geometric patterns with her Latvian mittens: others, like Nancy Bush ,have published patterns in Piecework and Interweave Knits magazines. There just isn't enough time though to make all the lovely ones!

There are also bi-lingual Finnish knitting blogs where one can see examples of Finnish patterns, the "newly" popular Selbu patterns with a book about them, and of course, there are blogs with Norwegian mitten patterns.

Spending a LOT of time ...

on Ravelry, sigh. Which means organizing books on LibraryThing , the knitting stash, and having those "oh, what pattern DID I buy this wool for" moments.

I'll catch up here eventually, with projects.
Wendy Johnson's Toe Up socks knitted with Blue Moon Fiber Socks that Rock wool

 

 

and Foliage knitted with Cascade 220 wool