Shepherd's knitting & tapestry crochet (Dutch)

Haken in alleen lossen en kleurenwerk zonder losse eindjes

De afgelopen tijd heb ik niet veel tijd voor handwerken gehad, maar ben ik toch bezig geweest wat dingen uit te proberen die ik nog niet kende: shepherd's knitting en tapestry crochet.

Shepherd's knitting is bekend onder veel namen. O.a. als slip stitch crochet, smygmaskvirking (Zweden), pjoning (Noorwegen), Bosnian crochet en zelfs nog meer namen. Het komt erop neer dat je alleen een steek gebruikt die in ons gebruikelijke hedendaagse haakwerk eigenlijk alleen gebruikt wordt om een ronde te verbinden als je niet in spiralen haakt en om bijvoorbeeld steken over te slaan en een stukje verderop verder te haken zonder de draad af te knippen: de losse!

Je haakt dus alleen in lossen en dit kan zowel door beide lussen van de steek eronder als door alleen de voorste of de achterste. Alle varianten geven natuurlijk een iets ander uiterlijk. Zelf vind ik vooral de stof die je maakt door alleen back loops (de achterste lussen) te gebruiken het mooiste. Als ik normaal gesproken in het rond haak, haak ik van binnenuit en kijk ik dus tegen de binnenkant van het project aan. Bij pjoning is het andersom en werk je aan de buitenkant. Ik weet er nog weinig van, maar ik denk dat het dan ook moeilijk is om er kraaltjes bij te verwerken.

De techniek geeft een dicht haaksel dat lekker warm is en in Scandinavische landen dan ook voor o.a. wanten en polswarmers gebruikt wordt. Daarnaast wordt ook de Kornäs trui (Zweeds sprekende deel van Finland) deels met deze manier van haken gemaakt: de basis wordt gebreid in kleurenwerk en de randen met versieringen in smygmaskvirking: lossen door alleen de achterste lus en met meerdere kleuren tegelijk, waarbij de niet gebruikte kleur wordt meegehaakt door deze mee te voeren op de steken van de rij eronder.

Verder kun je in lossen ook patroontjes maken door af te wisselen tussen alleen het haken van de voorste lus van de steek eronder en de achterste lus: als je tegen de achterkant van je haakwerk aankijkt en je haakt alleen in de achterste lus van de steek eronder, dan krijg je aan de goede kant (die van je af) een richeltje. Hiermee kan je dus ook zonder kleur al een heel leuk effect bereiken!

http://solhag.blogspot.com/2010/05/vafflan-lange-pjonevotter.html

(votter zijn wanten)

Andere leuke voorbeelden:

http://www.sheeptoshawl.com/blog/index.php?itemid=556

http://www.tapestrycrochet.com/blog/?p=23

http://solhag.blogspot.com/search/label/Pjoning

http://www.tapestrycrochet.com/blog/?cat=14

(Oeh, Eva-Lotta's heartwarmer..... *valt flauw van mooiigheid*)

Daarmee kom ik meteen op de andere techniek: tapestry crochet! Deze vorm van kleurenwerk zorgt ervoor dat je niet met enorme hoeveelheden losse eindjes zit en toch leuk met meerdere kleuren tegelijk kan haken. Net zoals je dat met breiwerk in kleur kan doen. Je bent echter niet beperkt tot alleen lossen, want tapestry crochet wordt ook veel in vasten en halve stokjes gedaan. In stokjes kan ook, maar ik heb nu gisteravond alleen in lossen geprobeerd en ik vermoed dat je voor kleurenwerk in stokjes strak moet haken om te voorkomen dat de meegevoerde kleur erg zichtbaar wordt. Moet ik gaan uitproberen!

Natuurlijk kun je ook hier variëren met alleen voorste en alleen achterste lus en behalve in het rond kun je dit ook rechtuit/plat haken en ook zonder dat je dan iedere keer opnieuw zou moeten af- en aanhechten! Dan moet je voor de teruggaande toer niet draaien zoals we dat gewoonlijk doen, maar achterstevoren haken. Ook een steek die ik zeker wil gaan leren, want da's wel stunthaken :-)

http://www.tapestrycrochet.com/

Oh, en kijk zeker ook even bij Danielle Kasner's Veritas Equitas en haar Vaasa mitts:

http://crochetcodex.blogspot.com/

Colour

Last Sunday was one of those days...
We were supposed to go out to an indoor fair, but I didn't feel too well alltogether. We decided to stay at home, but that didn't mean I was doing nothing at all. Not this time!

The day before we went shopping. We bought a pan, wooden spoons and some other stuff. We also bought some powdered madder and alum. Instead of having to other it and have it sent by parcel mail I was able to get natural plant dye powder just around the corner! Well, so to speak ;-)
As soon as we decided not to go out I figured I didn't have to wait until next week when my undyed wool arrives, because I have some undyed roving here and there and I have also some commercially treated wool in a natural colour. Normally I'd be doubting and almost wanting to study the whole process thoroughly before even thinking about getting started, but wool dying can be so simple! I just jumped in...


The commercially treated wool is impossible to crochet for me so I knitted a bit and got some of the skein to dye it like that. I also took some Whitefaced Woodland roving from my stash and threw that in with the water and alum too.
The one thing I don't have yet is a thermometer. I knew I had to watch the temperature closely to get a clear red from the madder, but I was actually looking for a reddish brown so I just gave it a shot.

As we live in a small home some things in the process took some improvising, but I still managed to do all the steps needed. Instead of rinsing the wool the same day I let it soak and rinsed on Monday after coming home from work. Indeed, reddish brown! :-D Would it get lighter when drying? I didn't hope so as I really liked how it came out. Rinsing, rinsing, rinsing and finally hanging the wool to dry. One day later, today, it still looks the same reddish brown colour that reminds me of a red fox!
I'm afraid the temperature has been a bit too high, but luckily the wool didn't really felt. I'll comb it and if I feel like it I'll take out my spindle. Let's see if we can make something almost from scratch! Almost: as we don't have much space and as I don't have a carder (I still have to learn how to spin properly!) I really can't work from "raw" wool so I use washed roving instead. Still almost from scratch :-) I hope to be able to make something nice. Also something small as this was only 50 grams of roving and 25 grams of the commercially treated wool, but hey, you have to start somewhere!

A few pics over here

Shrugmania

So, there you have it!
For the first time I'm crocheting a bigger wearable that's not something like a shawl. It's a shrug!

Lately I find myself browsing Ravelry a lot in search of nice shrug patterns. The one I'm trying now shouldn't be too hard for someone who has never made a real wearable before, but should give me some understanding of how these wearables are made. As I'm a real plus size with still no understanding of how to make a wearable that fits me there's a good chance the shrug won't fit, but I don't mind that much. It's about the joy of crocheting and the learning experience more than it's about the end result and I'll probably find someone who will enjoy the piece to give it away anyway.

I did make shawls before last year and still having a lot of health trouble you probably can't imagine what is was like for me to create a base chain with the right amount of stitches. I had to keep recounting over and over again, starting anew several times and seemed to lack a lot of concentration yet. Going back to my old job in other circumstances than before helped me in refinding concentration again. My memory works a lot better, I don't have to write things down all the time and my comprehension of new stuff is also a lot better and quicker. Now here's the victory:
Making a base chain of 141 stitched in one attempt only, succeeding to recount it just to be sure in one attempt as well!
It may not seem like a lot, but it almost made me cry from happiness. It also made me realize how far away I've been because of several health issues. Now finally there's is significant progress and I'm so happy about that! I also realize there may still be periods during which really crocheting anything big isn't possible, but we'll see about that in the future, because this may also be part of a total recovery that's just coming very slowly in the last couple of years and of course I hope for the latter!

Back to the shrug: the Magic Shrug from Lisa Gentry.
I'm still working on the body and will probably need the rest of the week to come to finish that and then onto the collar! In the meantime I still browse Ravelry on the lookout for other shrugs to try. The shrug has hypnotized me, for sure!
Me and my obsessions... I'm probably mad enough to watch Alice In Wonderland and not raise an eyebrow at all!

Hiatus?

Wow, there has been a big hiatus here...
Life's been a roller coaster ride for us in the time that lies behind us.

In the last couple of months I've heard of people becoming ill or dying much more than I can handle. I didn't know all of them personally, but everytime it was a shock to hear the news. About 5 years ago there was a same sort of period in my life and it makes me scared, almost panicking. Something I thought I was over... At this moment I can say that I am and I try to live conciously without forementioned fear. It works!

Somehow, New Year's Eve felt like a new beginning and all the more so when it became the start of February. Mum has had a ckeck up with another lung physician. The X-rays were positive, stating stability or even a diminishing. She's feeling a lot better, hair is growing back and the negative effects of the chemo therapy start to go away.
We knew there was a good chance for stability, but still... I needed to hear that again some months after the last treatment. For me this was quite stressful (believe Mum was a lot more at ease!), but now we can all breathe again and enjoy life!

Finally a very good friend who's in a divorce found a new home for her and her daughter. The divorce is official and now she can finally make a new start and build up a life again! As soon as she gets the key we want to go and have a look.
Another good friend got the divorce papers too and can also make a real new start now.
A third very good friend started a training in natural horsemanship right before New Year's Eve 2009 that will take several years next to her office job. Quite an adventure, but so far she feels so much at home and doing this training makes her very happy.

It seems more people are making a new start with things in their life or sometimes their complete lives and it makes me happy! We also had to say goodbye to our lovely neighbor whom we have know for 21 years. A sweet man, loved by many, who lived to be 93 years old and still enjoying everyday he was around. A true example!

During the winter I've been ill a lot and my energy still runs low. I have missed a couple of birthday parties, had to stay at home a lot, luckily managed to keep working in my part time job, but next to that there wasn't much left for other occupations. I still have to catch up with emails, other stuff that has been lying around for months and pick up crochet again. Slowly I am and the feeling of wanting to create something is back again.
I realise there's a chance that life will always be like this: months of working, being busy and doing stuff and times when nothing is happening due to illness and lack of energy. Still, we notice improvements in the last couple of years and now I'm starting a mindfulnesstraining in April. I do hope this will help me to participate more complete in life and I've always loved yoga and meditation, but just didn't so enough with it. It will be relaxing anyway, but so far 25 years of working with it has shown a lot of progress because of this training for a.o. people with more or less permanent health problems so I'm positive about what it can do to me.

A new start! :)