African Flowers in snow

I have crocheted a first blanket for my granddaughter! I love this pattern, African Flowers. It's easy to crochet, it's nice to crochet, it's fast to crochet. It also allows you to use almost any colors without fear of them starting to quarrel. You can use all your left over yarns, it doesn't even matter if they aren't exactly the same thickness.

Here it is in the snow, waiting for a snow shower.

Close up:

Snow shower:

This used to be a common means of cleaning woolen garments and other textiles in the old days. You put them in fresh snow for about half an hour, shake off the snow and take them in to dry flat. It cleans most of the dust and refreshens the fabric.

A good advice when crocheting things like this: fasten the threads as you go... I always do that, because the amount of threads can be quite overwhelming.

My dust bin filled with threads, the floor around it was also full of threads! And this is only a very small part of them.

I'm happy with this blanket. I hope the little lady will like it too!

What next? I'm already starting to think about a bigger blanket...

Blanket for dark days

I started crocheting this small blanket in March, and now it's finally finished.

It's so dark, wet and cold in November. A red blanket makes life warmer. I used different sock yarns and a very thin weaving yarn to get a slightly thicker yarn.

Crochet Hooks

My father was very particular about his tools and equipment. He kept his hammers, saws, screwdrivers and knives clean and in order. They had to be of good quality (not an easy thing in the '50s, after the war). He said you do more harm than good with a bad tool. I'm sure he was right. During the years he gave me some of his tools, a hammer, a small pen knife, a tong. I still use them, but not always for the purpose they where designed for. The tong is now in my kitchen drawer. It's very useful when I want to pick bones out of salmon :)

My textile tools have to be good, too. I have bought new knitting needles, spindles, spinning wheels and sewing machines during the years. Now I'm buying new crochet hooks. Plastic crochet hooks are not always fun to work with, but I love the wooden ones.

On Thursday this week the postman brought me five wooden KnitPro double hooks and one Trapper Joel stainless steel hook. What a day! I had to try them at once! Among my UFOs was a hat in Bosnian crochet, for which I was using a hook from my youth, a steel hook from Inox, 4.5 mm (UK/US 7). The hook is too rounded for Bosnian crochet, but will do if you have no other choice. I like to work Bosnian crochet with a pointy hook. The hat would be a good piece to try the new hooks at.

From left to right: steel hook from Inox, five wooden KnitPro, Joel's hook made from a spoon handle, steel hook from Inox, steel hook from JMRA, my grandmother's homemade metal hook.
The yarn is a variegated 2-ply spun at Kehräämö Musta Lammas in Finland. I like this yarn with it's deep, clear colors. Some years ago the mill started selling so much carded wool for felting, that they decided to stop spinning. The hat is from Kerstin Jönsson's book Smygmaskvirkning, a Swedish book about Bosnian crochet

I tested Joel's hook first, naturally :) I think Joel had Bosnian crochet in mind when he made it. It's very pointy, which is good when you work slip stitches. My first impression was that I really like this hook. I tried the casting technique, where you keep the yarn and the hook in the same hand and throw the yarn under the hook instead of picking it from one of the fingers on the other hand. It worked quite good, but when I tried picking, I soon found out that works even better for me. I'm right handed, and the hook is made for a right handed person. It's very smooth, so the only problem for me was that the pointy hook sometimes got trapped in the yarn. I will work looser stitches in my next project, because that will solve the problem. I'm very pleased with this hook. Thank you again, Joel!

I like the wooden KnitPro hooks. They are smooth and light, but they are not so good in Bosnian crochet because of the rounded hook. The idea of two hooks in one is handy. I know that quite a few persons with joint problems have been able to go on knitting and crocheting with the lighter wooden needles and hooks. Wood can not be used in fine hooks, so I still have all my small stainless steel hooks in my hook cloth. My smallest wooden hook is 3 mm, and my smallest needle 2 mm, both from KnitPro.

I also bought a hook at the local yarn shop, a 2 mm (UK 14, US B/1) steel hook made by Inox. It has a plastic handle for easier grip. I have small hands, so the hook was far too long for me. I took some masking tape and made the steel part a bit shorter. This is a good hook for all kinds of crochet, even if I have a suspicion my shortened steel part will be too short for bullion stitch. Is that a good reason to by another one? Is there such a thing as "too many crochet hooks"?

My answer is no. Every new yarn needs it's own hook. If you have only one 2 mm hook, it might be the right size for the yarn, but it still doesn't work because of the shape of the hook and the handle. Sometimes I try 3-4 hooks before I find the right one. That's why I won't throw away my old hooks when I buy new ones. I even keep the impossible hook I found in my grandmother's button box after she died in the late '60s. My father thought it was made during the war, probably by grandfather, as a means to keep grandmother calm at a time when every new day could bring a dreaded message from the front line. I have tried the hook a couple of times, but I find it to be a very bad hook. What has grandmother crocheted with this? I don't know. She was a very skillful lace crocheter, so most of her hooks where much, much smaller, size 0,5 to 1,5 mm. This hook might have been for wool rather than cotton yarn. And yes, my grandparents did get that message. My uncle died in battle. Did grandma keep the hook as a memory? She kept the buttons from my father's uniform in that box, too. My father survived the war, and lived the rest of his life as a pacifist.

Bosnian Crochet

Hillevi's wristdistaff for securing fibers while spindling. Bosnian crochet in the back loop. Handpainted yarn from Limmo-design. Spindle "Comet" by Tracy Eichheim at Woollydesigns. Fiber merino-silk from Das Wollschaf

This blogpost about Bosnian crochet is an English version that is not translated, but completely re-written for Englishspeaking readers, thank's to Carol Ventura (dear Carol, you are a capable teacher, getting people to do things they have not thought of doing just by asking in a friendly way ;) of my blogpost in Swedish earlier this year. I have photos in that post that are not published here, so when I refer to my Swedish blogpost, please look at this link: Smygmaskvirkning

First some clarifying information about where I live. I live in Finland, my mothertongue is Swedish. My second language is Finnish. Finland is a bilingual country, very similar to Canada. The Finnswedes have lived along the western and southern costs of Finland for hundreds of years. We have strong bonds to Sweden, stronger than to Eastern Finland. Our culture has much in common with Swedish culture in Sweden. We have our own Finnswede media, but we also watch Swedish television, read Swedish books and magazines, listen to Swedish radio, but, and this is where we are oh so Finnish: we cheer for the Finnish sportsmen :) What could say more about a people than that?

Bilingual surroundings can sometimes cause confusion, because when you speak two or three languages in your everyday life, you mix things up. You think you are using the proper words, but you might have invented them yourself, or use a word that doesn't exist or that means something you didn't have in mind. It happens all the time, and usually there is no harm done (even if me and my wonderful Finnish husband, who just brought me a cup of French coffee, have communication problems sometimes!)

And now to the matter of this blogpost. Bosnian crochet is a technique where you use only slip stitches. By crocheting through the back or front loop, and by adding color, you can crochet quite nice looking things. The technique is best suited for small garments like mittens, gloves, and hats. It might have developed from tambour work, a way of embroidery where you use a small hook to draw the yarn through the cloth.

I got hooked by this old way of working crochet, when I read an article about tapestry crochet in the local handicraft guild's magazine. The article was written in Swedish, and strictly speaking it was an abstract of a Finnish article published in the magazine "Kotiteollisuus" in 1988. The headline of the abstract confused me, because it read "Krokvirkning", a Swedish term for Bosnian crochet. The writer, who by the way is a very skilled woodworker, obviously translated the Finnish term "kirjovirkkaus" (=tapestry crochet) without checking the accurasy of the word. This made me want to know more about crochet terms. Tapestry crochet, by the way, is called "flerfärgsvirkning" and "pälsbältesvirkning" in Swedish. English translations would be "crochet with many colors" and "fur-belt-crochet". Huh! How much more do you need to get confused :)

I wanted to compare five related techniques, so I crocheted five purses with the same yarn, Novita 7-veljestä, and a pattern with 3+3 stitches and 4 rows. I will not go into details about the purses, because I think the photo tells a crocheter pretty much. A few things though: Bosnian crochet in the front loop looks very much like knitted purl stitches (purse 3). This confused Swedish textile people when they first started analyzing garments in the museums in the first decades of the 19th century. Bosnian crochet had fallen into oblivion almost everywhere, but luckily there were still people who knew the technique. In purse 3) you can also see a typical design in Bosnian crochet with two colors, the way the stitch divides the pattern. There are 3 stitches in each motif, believe it or not! The pattern also slants to the right, and this is something that is often used to create patterns in Bosnian crochet. You can see it in the photos of the cover of the Swedish book, and the glove in my Swedish blogpost.

The purses: 1) Bosnian crochet in the back and in the front loop 2) single crochet (double crochet in UK) in the back and in the front loop 3) Bosnian crochet in the back loop, two colors 4) single (double) crochet in both loops, tapestry crochet 5) single (double) crochet in the back loop, tapestry crochet. The Bosnian crochet was worked with my aluminum Bosnian crochet hook, and the single crochet with an Aero 3,5 mm (US E/4, UK 9). You can find a converter here: Garnstudio crochet converter

You can see the hooks I used in my Swedish blogpost. The flat aluminum and wooden hooks are of a type that was often used in Bosnian crochet at least in Scandinavia. The crochet hook is the Aero 3,5 mm I used in three of the purses. Hooks for Bosnian crochet were often made of old spoonhandles, sometimes silver, and with beautiful ornaments. I know at least one person who has made a hook in that way.

I very soon found that crochet terminology is not quite established, and that misunderstandings can spread very fast in blogs and the internet. I also found there is very little written in Finnish and Swedish about Bosnian crochet in the area I was interested in, the coastal area of Ostrobotnia (Swedish Österbotten, Finnish Pohjanmaa) in Finland.

As the guild's editor was interested in an article about Bosnian crochet, I started writing it. I added information about Bosnian crochet in Europe. Lis Paludan, the Danish textilehistory scientist who is especially learned in crochet, wrote her book "Haekling" about European crochet in the '80s. She has one chapter about Bosnian crochet in her book. The book was later translated into English, and published by Interweave Press under the name "Crochet, History and Technique". From what I read in other books, especially from Sweden, it seems that most of the texts goes back to Paludan. I could have found much more about this technique if I knew more languages, such as Bosnian.

Lis Paludan traveled through Europe in the '80s and looked at crocheted items in the museums. She found no crocheted pieces older than the late 18th century. Bosnian crochet seems to be older than other forms of crochet, and to be concentrated to the peripheral areas of Europe: Bosnia, Balkan, the Scandinavian countries, Scotland, the Baltic countries.

In the 19th century, and also in the 20th, Bosnian crochet was often crocheted very loosely, and then felted. That made strong, warm and soft garments. After I had finished my article, I learned from Caprifool in Sweden that his grandmother used very tight Bosnian crochet for workmittens. She felted and then brushed the finished mittens to be even stronger and durable. She and Caprifool used to have crochet competitions, sitting on their front porch crocheting away the fastest they could :) They used crochet hooks of the kind we are familiar with nowadays.

Hjördis Dahl, a textile scientist from Finland, wrote her thesis "Högsäng and klädbod" about textiles among Finnswedes. Hjördis Dahl mentions that Bosnian crochet has been used to some extent in the northern and southern parts of the Ostrobotnian coast. There is a photograph in her book showing a pair of very nicely crocheted white gloves. Marketta Luutonen, who is one of Finlands most highly learned and respected textile scientists, sent me two photos of Bosnian crochet in the Finnish National Museum in Helsinki. She was, by the way, the writer of the original article about tapestry crochet that was called Bosnian crochet in the abstract. She is in no way responsible for the misinterpretation. I used one of the pictures in my Swedish blogpost, here is the other one:

And that is about all I found. I asked people on a couple of Finnish Ravelry-forums for more, but nobody knew anything about history, even if a couple of crocheters were familiar with the technique.

Now, what about the word "krokvirkning" that confused me? Well, the terms for Bosnian crochet in Swedish are many. We call it smygmaskvirkning (=slip stitch crochet), gammelvirkning (=old crochet), påtning (I have no English word for this, but it's a technique used for making cords and for nålbindning aka nalbinding), gobelängvirkning (=gobelin/tapestry crochet), bosnisk virkning (=Bosnian crochet), and krokvirkning (=hook crochet). "Kärt barn har många namn", as we say in Swedish. A dear child has many names. The most common term right now is smygmaskvirkning.

The Scottish/English term shepherd's knitting for Bosnian crochet is also a bit confusing, as it is clearly a crochet technique. The term has been in use since the late 18th century. "Bosnian crochet" of course indicates the area where the technique has been widely spread.

This little excursion into the world of crochet terms taught me, besides my first rows of Bosnian crochet, that crochet terminology is far too big a field for an amateur to try to explore in a few weeks alongside all the other things in life that have to be done. But it was a fun place to visit. If some of my readers have more information, or want to correct mistakes or misunderstandings (there must be some, as I have no one who could read this through before publishing), I would be happy if you let me know. I would gladly return to the subject later.

Smygmaskvirkning

                                               Mina kroknålar och virknål Aero 3,5

Jag har ett yrke där ord är viktiga: jag arbetar på bibliotek. Våra användares intressen spänner över en väldig mängd ämnen. När kunden kan sin terminologi och vet vad han vill ha är det oftast lätt att hitta litteratur. Men när kunden använder ord som inte är allmänt vedertagna blir det svårare. Då får vi diskutera oss fram till vilken bok, tidskrift eller sajt som bäst motsvarar det som frågas efter.

I höstas läste jag en artikel som hette "Krokvirkning". Alla bilder föreställde flerfärgsvirkning, vilket gjorde mig fundersam. Jag började titta på terminologin i böcker och på nätet. Jag upptäckte snabbt att terminologin i virkning kan variera mycket och till och med vara missvisande. Hade någon bett mig söka litteratur om krokvirkning, hade jag med största sannolikhet sökt fram Kerstin Jönssons bok Smygmaskvirkning. Men det var inte det artikeln handlade om. Troligen hade artikelförfattaren, som är en utmärkt träkarl förresten, använt en hemgjord översättning av finskans "kirjovirkkaus", som på svenska heter "flerfärgsvirkning" eller "pälsbältesvirkning". Eller så hade han tänkt på ett dialektord från Korsnäs för de fina tröjor de stickar/virkar där: "krokatröjon".

Krokvirkning är en av de benämningar som använts för smygmaskvirkning. Andra termer är bosnisk virkning, påtning, pinning, gammelvirkning. På engelska heter tekniken "Bosnian crochet". I Skottland kallas den "shepherd's knittning". På finska heter den "piilosilmukkavirkkaus", direkt översatt "smygmaskvirkning". Norrmännen och danskarna kallar tekniken "pjoning", tyskarna "Gobelinstich" och fransmännen crochet de Bosnie". (Lis Paludan, Haekling)

I endel områden har man använt en särskild virknål, en kroknål, i smygmaskvirkning. Jag har köpt mina från Slöjdmagasinet. Man virkar löst, för tekniken lämpar sig bäst för plagg som skall vara porösa och varma, som vantar t.ex. Ofta filtar man plagget lätt. Det finns ett par böcker där tekniken med virkkrok visas, t.ex. Kerstin Jönssons Smygmaskvirkning. Lis Paludan har ett kapitel i sin fantastiska bok Haekling, som är slutsåld för länge sedan, tyvärr. Hjördis Dahl nämner tekniken i sin avhandling om finlandssvenska textilier, Högsäng och klädbod.

Nå, det slutade förstås med att jag skrev en artikel om smygmaskvirkning. Den publiceras i nästa Spånkorgen, Stundars Hantverkargilles medlemstidning. Jag hittade inte så väldigt mycket litteratur, vilket dels kan bero på att det inte finns så mycket, men också (och det här gör mig alltid irriterad för att jag är så lat och inte lär mig flera språk) för att tekniken varit vanligast i Europas randområden. Om det finns litteratur på bosniska, serbiska, kroatiska osv så hittar jag den förstås inte. På finska hittade jag ingenting, på svenska och danska en del, norska sökte jag inte på. Jag hittade inte något riktigt bra på engelska heller, men eftersom jag koncentrerade min text till Finland, sökte jag inte på allvar.

Jag virkade fem påsar med samma mönster men olika teknik, att ha som illustration:

Alla påsarna är virkade med samma mönster: 3 maskor på bredden och fyra varv på höjden. De smygmaskvirkade är virkade med krok, de övriga med virknål Aero 3,5. Garnet är Novitas 7 bröder, ett ganska grovt och mjukt sockgarn.

1)  smygmaskvirkning med nedtag omväxlande i bakre och främre maskbågen 2)  fasta maskor med nedtag omväxlande i bakre och främre maskbågen 3) smygmaskvirkning med nedtag i bakre maskbågen 4) flerfärgsvirkning med nedtag i båda maskbågarna  5) flerfärgsvirkning med nedtag i bakre maskbågen.

De två flerfärgsvirkade påsarna visar ganska tydligt varför Korsnäströjans virkade partier virkas med nedtag i bakre maskbågen: det går det snabbare, eftersom maskan blir högre än med nedtag i båda maskbågarna, och mönstret drar inte lika snett.

Smygmaskvirkningens mönstereffekt används ofta i det slags mönster som man kan se på den högra vanten på Jönssons pärmbild. Marketta Luutonen skickade mig ett foto föreställande en fingervante i Nationalmuseum i Helsingfors:

                                          Courtesy Marketta Luutonen, Finlands Nationalmuseum

I Finland har smygmaskvirkning förekommit i Österbottens kusttrakter, med koncentration till norra delen. Det finns några plagg i lokala muséer, som t.ex.de vita fingervantar som finns i Björköby. Smygmaskvirkning verkar vara en äldre form av virkning än fasta maskor och stolpvirkning. Ordet "gammelvirkning" har använts i Sverige på 1900-talet, efter att man hittat några plagg som man först inte kunde teknikbestämma. Smygmaskvirkning i bakre maskbågen är förvillande lik stickade aviga maskor. Men om man försöker repa upp plagget, upptäcker man snabbt att det inte är stickning.

"Krokning" då? Det är tunisisk virkning, och den tekniken ska jag inte skriva mer om än att man behöver en lång virknål, eller en rundvirkningsnål, eftersom man plockar upp en maska på nålen ur varje maska på varvet, och avmaskar dem en efter en på tillbakavarvet. Om du vill titta på en trevlig bild, kolla Caprifools blogg.

Elsas design

Det finns så många underbara textilbloggar. I dag visade en arbetskamrat mig den här: elsasdesign. Har ni sett något ljuvligare, skickligare, helt förtrollande?

There are so many wonderful blogs about textile. Today a colleague showed me Elsasdesign. Have you seen anything more lovely, skilful, absolutely enchanting?

En mössa, a cap, myssy

Svenska, English below, Suomea alla


Jag är mycket förtjust i den här flerfärgsvirkade lilla mössan, som finns på museet Myrbergsgården i Vörå. Den är virkad i rött och mörkgrönt yllegarn. Den är påbörjad mitt bak, i rundeln, virkad runt, och sedan har sidorna virkats.


Titta på det fina mönstret i rundeln: det är osymmetriskt. Möjligen kunde virkerskan inte räkna, eller så tyckte hon att det gjorde det samma om det var jämnt antal maskor. Men det är just den här lilla detaljen som gör mig så glad! Det ger mönstret dynamik och fångar ögat, för det utöver det exakta och förutsägbara som är så vanligt nu när nästan alla kläder görs av maskiner.

Sådana mössor användes av barn och kvinnor i Vörå under början av 1900-talet. En del gamla kvinnor bar den ännu på 60-talet under vintern. Barnens mössor var färggranna och fint virkade. Kvinnornas kunde också vara det, men helt enkla enfärgade virkade eller stickade små hättor förekom också. Den vuxna kvinnan täckte ofta sin mössa med en duk när hon gick ut, särskilt om hon gick utanför den egna gården. Mössan har blivit naggad i kanterna av mal, och sedan lagats med en enkel stoppsöm.

I'm very fond of this small tapestrycrocheted cap, that you can see at the museum Myrbergsgården in Vörå in Western Finland. It's crocheted in red and dark green woolyarn. The cap is cast on in the middle of the circle at the back, crocheted in rounds, and then the sides are crocheted. Look at the fine pattern in the circle: it's not symmetrical. I think the crocheter couldn't count, or then she thought it didn't matter. It's that small detail that makes me so happy! It makes the pattern interesting and dynamic, something beyond the very exact and predictable that is so common in our days when most clothes are made by machines.

These caps were made for children and women in Vörå at the beginning of the 20th century. The children's caps were richly colored and finely made, but also the women's caps could be colored. Women also used knitted or crocheted small caps in one color only. They wore a scarf over the cap when they went outdoors, especially if they went to the village. Some old women still used a cap under their scarf in the '60s. The cap has been eaten at by moths, and it has been mended with a simple sockdarning.

Olen hyvin ihastunut tähän pieneen kirjovirkattuun myssyyn, joka löytyy Myrbergsgårdenin museosta Vöyrillä. Se on virkattu punaisesta ja tummanvihreästä villalangasta. Myssy on aloitettu keskeltä takaa ympyrällä, ja sitten jatkettu sivuilla. Katso ympyrän kuviota: se on epäsäännöllinen. Luulen että virkkaaja ei ole osanut laskea, tai sitten hän ei ole katsonut laskemista tarpeelliseksi. Juuri tämä yksityskohta viehättää minua paljon! Se antaa kuviolle jännitettä ja tekee siitä mielenkiintoisen eri tavalla kuin meidän ajan koneella tehdyt, helposti ennustettavat kuviot tekevät.

Tällaisia myssyjä virkattiin lapsille ja naisille Vöyrillä 1900-luvun alussa. Lasten myssyt olivat värikkäitä ja huolellisesti tehtyjä. Myös naisten myssyt saattoivat olla värikkäitä, mutta myös yksivärisiä neulottuja ja virkattuja pieniä myssyjä käytettiin. Naiset peittivät myssyn huivilla ulkona, varsinkin jos he poistuivat omalta pihaltaan. Jotkut vanhat naiset käyttivät myssyä huivinsa alla talvella vielä 60-luvulla. Koit ovat maistelleet myssyä, ja sitä on parsittu samalla tavalla kuin sukkaa.

                     Myrbergsgårdens loft -  The loft at Myrbergsgården -Myrbergsgårdenin luhti

Virkad påse, crocheted purse, virkattu pussi

English below Suomea alla
Det är virktider :) Jag verkar inte kunna hålla mig, nej. Därför gjorde jag en påse åt min  Bosworth midi slända. Jag tog ett vackert sländtrissemönster från Mary Olkis Virka rutor och rundlar och sedan improviserade jag resten. Sydde en innerpåse i siden, överblivet från julfesttunikan. Och tvinnade en snodd på min Comet minislända, satte till tofsar.
Och det snöar, äntligen!

It's crocheting times :) I don't seem to be able to keep away from it, no. That's why I crocheted a purse for my Bosworth midi spindle. I took a beautiful spindlewhorllooking pattern from Mary Olki's book Virka rutor och rundlar and improvised the rest. I sew a silk lining, from a patch left over from my Christmas tunic. And then I plyed a cord on my mini Comet spindle and added tassels.
And it's snowing, at last!

Nyt on virkkaamisen aika :) En pysty irtautumaan siitä, en. Siksi virkkasin pussin Bosworth midi värttinälleni. Otin kauniin värttinän kehrää muistuttavan pyörylän Mary Oljen kirjasta Virka rutor och rundlar (Virkattuja vuodepeitteitä) ja improvisoin loput. Ompelin silkkivuoren joulutunikan kankaasta jääneistä tilkuista. Ja sitten kertasin nyörin Comet minivärttinällä ja lisäsin tupsut.
Ja lunta sataa, vihdoinkin!