Vacation Knitting



I found the picture I was looking for, and most of the others. It really is a good thing that Bjørn Oddvar copied my pictures onto a CD for me, as my computer absolutely will not read that one memory card, the big one with over 200 pictures on it - the first two weeks of my trip to Norway, essentially. Now I have the CD figured out. He added some of his own pictures too, including when we were both taking pictures and he got some shots that were really good, as well as pictures of his son & family who live in the U.S., and some pictures of the deer he shot last fall. He knows that I am a vegetarian - he must have done that to see if he could get a reaction from me. That's okay - I did my best to gross him out by telling him about all the sugar we eat for breakfast here. I even pulled up International House of Pancakes on the internet and showed him pictures of pancakes with ice cream and whipped cream and fruit and syrup and powdered sugar, and told him that is breakfast. Norwegians eat bread for breakfast. You can put various things on it, including meat, cheese, jam, leftover potato salad, or whatever. One morning when we were getting out the breakfast things, Bjørn Oddvar put the jam next to my place, telling me that he could not eat something so sweet in the morning. That was when I told him about American breakfast foods. He said I could make some pancakes. I like Norwegian breakfasts. It is very convenient to eat that way, and starts the day with good, nutritious food. Lunch varies a bit more. One day I was invited to lunch with Ragnhild's parents, and they had rice pudding. That was lunch, not dessert. It was very good, but they asked me about whether we ate any similar food here. Rice pudding in the U.S. would probably be more likely either a dessert, or perhaps breakfast. We also have other similar foods like oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits, and other hot cereals, which we eat for breakfast. Bread (sandwiches) are typically lunch here. So it was an interesting conversation about differences in eating habits. Another difference I might not have noticed is that they eat with a knife in one hand and fork in the other, and they pointed out that I ate with one hand instead of two. The differences are interesting, but I don't think that one way is better than the other.

What was I talking about? Oh yes, those mittens. This was the first time I tried knitting this type of mitten, although I have made plenty of fingerless gloves, with and without shaped fingers, as well as gloves with closed fingers, and regular mittens. Still, this design had me slightly intimidated. It was not difficult. All you need to do is knit as usual up to the point where the fingers are about to begin to separate. On the outside back of the mitten, pick up one stitch between each two stitches, and place the new stitches on waste yarn. Continue knitting the fingers until finished. I went back and finished the thumb next, I think, but it really doesn't matter. Place the picked up stitches from waste yarn onto two dpn's, attaching yarn and knitting them. Cast on stitches to reach across the front of the mitten, and attach. Work a few rounds with ribbing across the front stitches, and then continue as for a normal mitten. I got the instructions from Folk Mittens, but theirs are in a single color and a twined knitting technique is used. I chose two-color knitting, and a motif from Everyday Knitting - Treasures From A Ragpile. The Folk Mittens version also has closed glove fingers rather than open.

I started this project, in Peer Gynt yarn, before leaving home. I didn't dare to knit on the plane on the way to Norway, but had my knitting out soon after arriving. I showed my work, and explained what I was doing, to several people and they seemed to be fairly impressed. On the first trip into down-town Stavanger, in one of the shops, there was a pair of covered gloves just like the ones I was knitting except for slightly different motifs! Another interesting thing is that, although I mail ordered my yarn in the U.S., I was aware that it originated in Norway. I didn't know where in Norway. It turns out that Peer Gynt yarn comes from Sandnes Mill, which is very close to Stavanger. So my yarn made a full circle and returned to the place where it was created. The mill has some great deals on yarn, and is where I bought the sock yarn I am using for the Summer Solstice socks, as well as some superwash wool. Unfortunately, the shop closes at 4 p.m. sharp, and we got there with only about 20 minutes to shop, or I probably would have found a lot more to buy. The best deals on traditional sweaters (kofter) were there too, but they were machine knitted (as are most of the other kofter I saw for sale in other shops), and I decided that I can knit my own. The shop also had shelves full of novelty yarns and various sweaters and things ready to wear, some in novelty yarns. More shopping time would have been nice. Why can't we have a yarn factory/shop like that around here?