Saturday, April 9, 2011

A new shawl: Mar esmeralda entre marismas

Hagakiri (Twig Pattern) and Madli's border
Hagakiri
The idea of making this shawl began when I shared some pictures of the last shawl I made (Hagakiri) on Facebook and my friend Þóra posted a comment on it asking how much it would cost to make a shawl like that one. I am REALLY bad  at putting a price to the things I make basically because I make them just for the fun of it. I have sold just a few of the things I have made (a couple of Icelandic pullovers and a headband, it is all I remember) to people that are not really that close but selling something to a friend... IMPOSSIBLE (at least for me). In the end we agreed to make an exchange which is much more fun than getting money, isn't it?

Hyrna Herborgar II
It always amazes me that everyrhing
 begins with just 7 stitched.
I replied to her comment inviting her to meet in the yarn shop, I would bring some books and she would choose the yarn she liked. So, we met, took a look of a few books, looked up in the internet and some other books that were in the shop until she finally decided that she wanted a Hyrna Herborgar.

That was great for me because this is one of my biggest favorites! I actually bought the book Þríhyrnur og langsjöl mainly bacause of this pattern. I really like the transitions it has, starting with the double yarn overs and the spider web sections and ending up with the amazingly beautiful edge, unlike Haruni, that is also very pretty but it has just one big leafs section and pretty edge. It is a lot of fun to knit something that changes so much so you are not doing the same forever.
  
About the yarn. She chose from Evilla Artyarn 8/2, which is also one of my favourite yarns to work with. I think that the color combination is wonderful but I must say that I wasn't so convinced about it at first because I thought that the colors were too unusual and my main corcern was that I wasn't sure about how the colors were going to "develop" across the shawl. And I think that Þóra wasn't so sure either but we just went for it!

As soon as I got home I winded the yarn and started to knit! At first it went a little slow because at the same time I was knitting this lopapeysa for another friend but still managed to have both projects done pretty quickly.

Hyrna Herborgar
First Hyrna Herborgar
I had already made a Hyrna before so I thought that knitting another one would be definetely easier since I knew all the tricks already. But the process of knitting this shawl wasn't as smooth as I thought it would be:



Hyrna Herborgar II Before Blocking
Just finished. Unblocked. It looks so ugly!

* After having knitted almost all of the first section of the shawl (double yarn overs)99 I realized that I didn't like how the colors were showing up so I frogged everything and started again but this time using the other end of the ball. Now it started to look very nice. Fortunetely this part of the shawl is a very fast knit.

* When I was kntting the second section, the spider web, which is very simple because it is the repetition of only two rows, another accident! I was almost done with half of it when my stitch count went off!! I looked at the charts... then looked at the needles... then the chart again... and so on for about 15 minutes without being able to find the mistake! (I forgot to say that it was pretty late already... around 2am maybe?) In the end I had a "FURY ATTACK" and started to frog and frog and frog. In total I went 16 rows back to finally realize that there was no mistake at all... I was just reading the wrong row from the chart!!!

After these two little "accidents" everything went smooth again and managed to finish the shawl really quick, even though the rows were getting ETERNAL!

Off the needles and ready to let magic happen: BLOCKING. What a wonderful thing! Once blocked I could see that the colors go great together... it looks kind of eatable!!

Hyrna Herborgar II Blocked
Blocking. I used 4.5mm needles and the result was a lot bigger than the one I made before using 4.0mm needles.
0.5mm make a HUGE difference.



So, after finishing this project two things (or rules):

1. Before starting knitting with these multicolored yarns: TAKE A LOOK AT IT AND SEE WHAT IS THE BEST END TO START WITH.

2. Which should be RULE NUMBER ONE: NEVER KNIT LACE WHEN IT IS TOO LATE AND YOU'RE TOO TIRED. Bad things can happen.

Hyrna Herborgar II
I really like the colors!

PS (and last thing): I wanted to say thanks to Rosalía who wrote a comment on Ravelry and described the colors of the shawl so beautifully that I used it as the titles for this post (and name of the shawl as well). I don't know exactly how to translate it into english... so if you have any idea? suggestions? Please let me know : )

Hyrna Herborgar II

19 comments:

  1. Te quedó muuy lindo! Voy a agregar este estambre a mi lista de must knit, los colores se ven preciosos en tu chal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gracias Martha! Los estambres de Evilla son maravillosos!
    Es posible encontrarlos en México?
    Yo los consigo aquí en Islandia.

    www.handprjón.is

    La página está en islandés. Para ver los estambres de Evilla pincha en la barra lateral izquierda donde dice Evilla/Randalína - litaskipt garn.

    Si te interesa yo te podría enviar para que la pruebes : )

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sjölin þín eru ótrúleg - alveg dásamleg listaverk! :-) Þú ættir að halda námskeið í því hvernig á að prjóna svona sjöl - ég myndi skrá mig strax!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Takk kærlega fyrir þetta : )
    Það er í raunogveru alls ekki erfitt að prjóna svona sjöl!
    Maður á að kunna að prjóna slétt, brugðið, yo, lesa töflur (charts?) og vera þolinmóður :þ
    Ég gæti kennt þér ef þú vilt :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I thought for sure you were going to say that rule #3 is not to block the shawl on your bed and leave loose pins around, at least not until after you have had a good 8 hours sleep to recover from that endeavor! It is gorgeous!! And I love the way the colors turned out. Not sure I would have thought to start at the other end of the yarn ball, but hopefully I will now! You are persistent - I think I would have given up and just informed the gal that it isn't going to happen. Glad you finished it so we can see it in all its beauty. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. :-) Það eina sem ég kann ekki af því sem þú taldir upp er að lesa töflurnar fyrir sjölin - átta mig alls ekki á því hvernig ég á að lesa úr þeim endurtekningarnar... ef þú kennir mér að lesa svoleiðis get ég kennt þér dúlluheklið í staðinn ef þú kannt það ekki? Kv. Kristín

    ReplyDelete
  7. Judi: hahaha, good rule! Actually, the same day I blocked the shawl we got some friends coming over for a coffee and some of them pointed this out! One of them was so worried that I would forget some pins on the bed. Until now: never happened and I have blocked quite a few shawls on my bed!

    About the colors, Evilla has wonderful color combinations! But yes... you have to check what ending you're going to use first because they are absolutely different.

    Persistent... oh yeah! :)

    Kristín: Gerum það! Ég get algjörlega kennt þér að lesa töflurnar. Hvaða sjal ertu með í huga?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Acá no se consiguen esas lanas, sólo importan algo de Debbie Bliss, Berroco, Lanas Stop y Katia principalmente, de repente algo de Noro pero las dan muy caras! Algún día te tomaré la palabra para probar Evilla :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gaman! Eitthvað sem þú telur henta byrjanda í sjalaprjóni!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fyrsta sjalið sem ég prjónaði var Spring Bandit:

    (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/rodprjonar/springtime-bandit)

    Það er mjög einfalt.

    Þá prjónaði ég Swallowtail Shawl:

    http://www.ravelry.com/projects/rodprjonar/swallowtail-shawl

    Sem er örlítið erfiðara.

    Það er kannski góð byrjun að prjóna Spring Bandit til að læra að lesa töflurnar. Kíktu á þau og láttu mig vita : )

    ReplyDelete
  11. That's one of the most beautiful shawls I have ever seen!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ok, takk kærlega fyrir þetta! Ég kíki á Spring Bandit, byrja að prjóna það og hef svo samband við þig þegar ég verð stopp... bestu kveðjur úr Mosó

    ReplyDelete
  13. Gerum það :)
    Kveðjur úr Firðinum :Þ

    ReplyDelete
  14. ohlala, the outcome of this shawl is terrific, the colors combine water, earth and autum and one would love to grab through the computer to touch it.. great work,
    all the best from Switzerland, Christa

    ReplyDelete
  15. Me encanta!!!! Necesito tejerlo!!! Donde puedo comprar el patrón?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Está precioso!!! hace tiempo que no veía tus trabajos este shawl está hermoso!!! y la lanita ni se diga, como siempre muy lindos tus trabajos

    ReplyDelete
  17. se me olvidó, soy Pelito en ravelry (Alejandra)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hola Pelito!!
    Menos mal que me dijiste que eras Pelito... no sabía que te llamabas Alejandra :p
    Es verdad... hacía mucho que no sabía te ti.
    Muchas gracias por pasar por mi blog... me costó un poco decidirme a empezar este blog hasta que finalmente lo hice y la verdad es que me encanta mantenerlo! He conocido personas muy lindas a través de este medio.
    Cómo has estado tú?
    Un abrazo grande.

    ReplyDelete