Crocheted shawl and North Norway

September 9th

If you have been following my blog then you will know that this year we were in Norway partaking of a road trip north and then sailing in the arctic.  If however you are new here, a big hearty welcome, bring your coffee over and have a little peruse, hope you will enjoy your visit.

Our original intention was to sail Brimble (our boat) to Tromso in the north, but due to unforeseen circumstances we had to stop a few miles short and leave her in the north of Lofoton instead.  This did cause a slight hiccup in that we had very good friends who had planned their summer holiday around us arriving in Tromso and spending a couple of days with us there!

Chess championships meant Tromso was busy

So a taxi journey, an overnight stay and a  long ferry ride later we arrived  at the dock in Tromso to be met by our friends who had driven all the way from the UK.  There was much jesting over how it was quicker to drive then sail, felt all very Top Gear to me, and teasing that we could not organise a p*** up in a brewery as we had known for 12 months we wanted to leave the boat here in the north.  Enough about that, sore point.

Of course, where to stay as we could now not sleep on Brimble.  Would you believe we choose the one time when Tromso was FULL!  Norway was host to the world chess championships and delegates plus friends and family from over 80 countries from all over the world had taken over the town.  We managed to get the last room in a very expensive hotel.  Have you been to Norway?  It is expensive anyway, so when I say expensive even by Norwegian standards we are talking a colossal amount of money!

Chess: if you can't beat them, join them!

Everywhere in the town there were chess boards

Someone had even chequer painted their house!

Tromso has quite a bit to offer and we felt we could not come here and miss the most northern cathedral of the world.  We were lucky enough to visit for a midnight concert in the Arctic cathedral.  I cannot tell you how special and magical it was and how the beautiful signing and stripped down musical accompaniment echoed so chillingly within the cathedral.  Should you ever get a chance to visit and listen to the fantastic acoustics inside, then GO.

2230 at night and so light

A fantastic building dominating the landscape

First glimpse of the cathedral

We arrived early to look around the cathedral

The stained glass window
was enormous and impressive

Glass structure housing the boat 'Polstjerna'

Tromso had a real eclectic mix of buildings and architecture, ranging from old to very modern.  It was a pleasure to walk around the town and stop at cafes and soak up the atmosphere.  We were lucky with the weather too!








Tromso's newest building, The Edge hotel

Attention was even given to man hole covers!

Statues were in abundance within the town.

 

We enjoyed the museum of Amundsen



I loved this lady at the bus stop, notice
the chequer board flower bed in the back ground too!

But what holiday would be complete in the north without making a Nordic Shawl? 

 

 

I had promised myself that I was going to complete four shawls/scarves that I liked the patterns of before the year was out and this Nordic shawl became my second of a set of four.  The shawl is designed by Annette based in Switzerland and she has a delightful blog, if you have not come across it before, I urge you to take a look   here     I bought the yarn with this shawl in mind and wanted it to be my spring/summer shawl, choosing Rico baby yarn, soft and light was ideal for this project.  Link to pattern below.

 

This Nordic shawl became my road trip, sailing and tourist visitor make, which proved to be a great project as it was easy to pick up and put down at a seconds notice.  I had printed out the pattern, Annette's instructions are crystal clear and come with lots of colour photographs.  I did not make a mistake once, it was that easy to follow.

 

Easy granny stitches



The shawl begins to take shape

Crocheting in the car,
 following the excellent instructions

It's growing

Starting to add the border

Crocheting on the ferry

Early morning crochet on the pontoon by the boat

In Lofoton crocheting, it was a great backdrop

 

Crocheting on Brimble

 

The trim is almost finished, a Nordic shawl in north Norway

 

All that was left to complete this beautiful shawl was the blue trim, we flew from Tromso to the south of Norway and spent four days there and I managed to finish the shawl...just!  On the last row of the blue trim, I ran out of wool, with only a quarter of a row to go!  Why did I run out, was it the patterns fault?  No!  I changed the colours and did not go exactly with the order that was in the pattern and ended up using an extra row of blue!  That will teach me for not following a pattern exactly.  So the last quarter of a row had to wait till I ordered more yarn on my return to the UK.

 

 

The completed Nordic Shawl

But, hurrah! now the Nordic shawl is completed and I am a happy bunny.  It is light, muted in the main colour, with zest added in the trim and is a light shawl to wear.  I am one happy girl.  thank you Annette for such a great pattern.

Want to see the two shawls side by side...




The Nordic shawl, left, the Sunday shawl, right

 

To buy the Nordic pattern follow the link: here

 

 

 

 

♥Enjoy your week and hope the sun is shining wherever you are♥ 

 

 

 



Sunday shawl making

August 29th 


The main body of the Sunday shawl

During July the Internet within the crochet world was a buzz with road trip scarves and shawls.  There were four patterns that took my particular fancy and I decided that before the end of the year I would have made all four.  Two are now complete and I have almost finished the third.  These patterns are quick to make and fun to watch grow, plus you have something to wear at the end of it, what is not to like?

So my first foray into clothing was the Sunday Shawl by the talented Alia Bland. (Link below)  Apt too as I was beginning it on a Sunday, the flaw here being, I woke up on the day in question, decided I wanted to begin, but no yarn shops near me were open!  So it was to be a stash busting shawl then.  This left me with no choice but the burgundy red within my stores as the only yarn that would be enough for the main body of the shawl.  This too dictated that it was to be an autumn/winter shawl as the yarn was of a chunky weight.

The pattern is clear to follow and my first bought pattern at that!  Normally I trawl the Internet or use one of the numerous pattern books I have, but I wanted to jump on the band waggon and join in the discussions of how I was getting along with blog land acquaintances.  Within no time at all the main body was complete, perhaps a couple of three hours?

This did leave me to a dilemma as I don't know about you but once Sunday was finished with and it was back to work on the Monday, end of school term busyness set in,  how does it become so fraught and manic, the Sunday shawl was put to one side and forgotten...

Until that was as I was thinking about packing for holiday, when I realised that I would not have space for it and all the yarn needed to complete it and so it would have to stay behind.  So what to crochet whilst on holiday?  A different shawl pattern of course!  But that will be a future posting...

So I came home to a shawl that needed finishing but it was not until today, when I awoke to the most glorious of sun rises that I thought, that's it, today is the day.

The sky at 0600 this morning

So following on from the fantastic photographed pattern tutorial, I was able to complete the colour trim of the shawl in about 3 ish hours.  So the Sunday shawl is an apt name, as you could complete it on a Sunday, clever!

Using my new free gift blocking pins from Simply Crochet magazine this month, I am a sucker for anything with hearts, I set to blocking the shawl.  Kind advice was given through various crochet on line groups as how best to go about it and Alia (the designer) also agreed that she had blocked her picot stitches (the little jutty out bits on the end of the shawl)

Free with Simply Crochet magazine

Before blocking



Close up of picot stitches and how they were pinned for blocking

Left picot is blocked the right is not

The difference between blocking and not

Blocking was definitely worth it and transformed the shawl, I was in two minds as I liked it the way it was, but having blocked it, the whole garment seems somehow more finished and complete.

The finished shawl

The colourful Sunday shawl

Think the crocheted shawl matches my dress well!

I have loved making this shawl, the colours are not those that I would have chosen, but apart from buying the pattern, which I will use again, this shawl has only cost me time, and not so much of that.  I call that a win win.  So this will be my autumn/winter shawl as the yarn is chunky and will keep the evening chill off my shoulders.  The colours I think are quite suited to those seasons. 

 

The Sunday shawl pattern can be found  here or here

 



Have any of you made a shawl, what pattern did you use?