Dale Book NR 235: “Julevott Adventkalender”

Dale of Norway's Book 235 IN NORWEGIAN ONLY!!

That’s Dale of Norway’s Book NR 235 and it’s in stock (for now) at Kidsknits.com.  It includes instructions for several winter and Christmastime gifts to knit, such as hats, mittens, scarves, afghans, ornaments, etc., including the “Julevott Adventkalender” (mini-Christmas mitten advent calendar) you see on its cover.

All of the other Dale books we carry include knitting instructions in English, but this one does NOT.  This one is only available in Norwegian and if you’re lucky enough to speak Norwegian, great, you’re all set.  However, even if you can’t tell your “garn” from your “pinne”, you’ll still be able to make the mini-mittens, for all of the mittens’ charts are included in the book and they’re really pretty universal.  (Plus, if you have questions, you know where to find me!)

 

How to make a tassel

The tassel from my "Fair Isle Hat"

A few folks have asked me how I made the tassel on my Fair Isle Hat that’s in the Fall 2011 edition of Vogue Knitting.  Not too surprisingly, to save space and to fit more designs into their biggest issue of the year, VK trimmed away any pattern info, like tassel instructions, that some might consider unimportant.  What, the tassel is important to you?  Me, too!  So here are my original tassel instructions for you, thanks to the roomy nature of the internet:

Tassel

Wrap MC and CC together approx. 30 times around width of a credit card. Insert tapestry needle threaded with approx 10” of CC under all wraps; tie wraps together tightly. Remove card.  Wrap one end of approx 16” of MC 10 times tightly around loops, approx ¾” from tied-off top; thread loose end of MC through tapestry needle; feed needle from top of wraps down through middle of tassel.  Thread both tied-off ends at top of tassel and end of I-cord down through top of tassel; tie ends  together tightly inside tassel. Trim bottom of tassel evenly.

Ruth’s Tiger Lily

I want to share with you a wonderful photo I recently received from a very talented customer:

Ruth in her green version of the Tiger Lily Jacket

That’s Ruth modeling her green version of my old Tiger Lily Jacket design.  Isn’t her knitting just beautiful?!  And I love those Falk greens together; they work so nicely with the floral motifs in Tiger Lily.

If you have the Tiger Lily pattern (printed pattern or kit available through above link; also available now as a PDF through Ravelry) the Dale of Norway Falk color substitutions for this green colorway are:

A = Spring green / moss green #9133

B = Natural #0020

C = Dark Olive #8972

D = Citron #9725

I did my original Tiger Lily Jacket, years ago, in Heilo, reflecting the orange and rust shades of the Tiger Lilies in my yard:

The Original

Not everyone wears a whole lot of orange.  Not every Heilo shade stays around forever, either.  So, whether by choice or lack thereof, quite a few different, yet lovely, Tiger Lily colorways have been knit up over the years.

So what colors would you like in your Tiger Lily?

 

Fair Isle Hat in Vogue Knitting Fall 2011 – chart errata

Fair Isle Hat from VK Fall 2011 - See chart errata below

There are few things I enjoy more than bumming around bookstores, so I generally prefer to pick and choose my knitting magazines from my favorite stores, rather than to receive them all via subscription.  Recent events might force me to change that strategy a bit, though.

Somehow, a wonderful Ravelry knitter already has her Fall 2011 VK before the bookstores around here do. So she’s seen it, she’s even knitting away with my pattern, before I’ve even seen the VK rendition myself. Thankfully, she was kind enough to post a couple of comments on the design’s Ravelry page, mentioning errors she found on the VK chart. Not only that, she was extra-super-sweet-with-a-cherry-on-top; she scanned the chart and sent it to me so that I could see where the misprints were.  And, they are:

1) There’s an extra white stitch showing in the upper right quadrant of the lower snowflake.  Column #9, Row #14 should be worked in the Main Color (MC), black.

2) See the vertical line of smaller diamonds that goes between the snowflakes? There are extra white stitches showing (just to the right of the top) on the 3rd and 4th diamonds (counting from the bottom up.)

I haven’t been able to go over the text yet, but naturally, if you have any questions about it, please don’t hesitate to post any questions here.  Once I finally get my copy, I’ll let you know if I find anything further.   I hope you’ll get a chance to see the Fall 2011 VK; there really is an especially nice collection of stranded work in this issue!

ETA: Now that I finally have the magazine in hand and can read their full text, I see they have a mistake in the text, too. Their row #’s are off by 1 in the “Beg chart” and “Crown shaping” sections. The first S2KP symbol on their chart is on the first st of Row 34. For it to be centered over that first st column, the text instructions should tell you to work it over the last st in Row 33 + the first & second sts from Row 34. Given the row #s in their chart, be sure to work straight through rnd 32, work to 1 st before the marker (at end of rnd) in rnd 33, then work your first S2KP decrease.

ETA: Vogue Knitting has corrected their chart and published it here on their site. The new chart is fine…as long as you begin your decreases one round earlier than indicated in the text of the original (printed magazine) version, as explained above.

I’ve been told that the corrected chart and the corrected text will be in the upcoming PDF.

Fair Isle Hat, Vogue Knitting Fall 2011

That’s my “#08 Fair Isle Hat” that just came out in Vogue Knitting Fall 2011.  While I was waiting for the black and white Cascade 220 Sport to arrive from Vogue Knitting (seen above),  I made up the prototype in charcoal heather and natural Dale of Norway Heilo, for my oldest son, Christian, below.

Christian's Fair Isle Hat in Heilo

ETA:  If you choose to knit it in Heilo, you’ll want 2 balls of the background color (charcoal heather, in this case) and 1 of the motif (natural).  If you want to knit it in Falk, I did one that took  every last little bit of 1 ball of the background (you might want 2 balls, to be safe) and 1 of the motif.

A few Heilo shades added to the Yarn on Sale page

Check out the updated Yarn on Sale page – I’ve added 4 discontinued shades of Heilo – yep, H-E-I-L-O -  to the clearance page!

Dale’s Ladybug design in my Girlybug colorway

Dale of Norway has an extraordinary number of beloved designs for children, but I guess the most beloved of all would have to be their “Marihone”, or “Ladybug”, sweater.

Dale of Norway's "Marihøne", aka "Ladybug", baby sweater knitting design

I have more than a few customers whose first reaction, upon hearing that someone is expecting a baby, is to order up yet another batch of Dale Baby Ull yarn for yet another baby-shower-show-stopping Ladybug sweater.  The original lively colors and adorable motif work well for any little lovebug, male or female.  Yet lately, as more mothers happily broadcast the sex of their little bundle months before the stork makes his delivery, I’m getting more requests for girly colorwork Dale designs.  Actually, they have quite a few of them, but I really liked the idea of combining an all-time favorite with some of their more girly shades of Baby Ull to come up with my own “Girlybug” colorway.

My pastel "Girlybug" colorway for the Dale of Norway Marihøne, or "Ladybug", baby sweater

I’ve charted these pastel shades out so that they correspond with the colorway color numbers in the Dale of Norway “Marihone” pattern.  If you’re using one of the original, out-of-print patterns, you’ll see they number the shades “MC, CC1 thru CC6″; if you’re using the current Book 8102, you’ll see they number those same charted values as “color 1 thru color 7″.  Either rendition will work with my colors, below:

Baby Ull yarn colors used in my pastel version of the Marihøne, or Ladybug, knitting design