Knitting Mojo – has it gone?
Have you ever experienced that your knitting mojo disappeared?!
I wrote about it before, but now I’m going to teach a workshop on how to find your knitting mojo!
What is Knitting mojo?
Knitting Mojo:
- The feeling that keeps you knitting
- Keeps the knitting ideas coming
- Makes your eyes eat the colors in the yarn shop
- Makes your fingers wanders over the yarn fibers
- Makes you spend hours on Ravelry, Pinterest, Instagram finding patterns to knit
- And a lot more!
But sometimes someting awful happens: you look at your knitting without ever wanting to knit a single stitch!
It’s like someone has cast a spell on you: what on earth where you doing before? With all that boring yarn and needles. And why on earth you buy all that yarn?!
Ouch!!
That is painful!
Going from having a hobby that you love, that keeps your hands busy, makes you create wonderful things, to this? Not ever wanting to knit again.
That’s bad!
What to do when the knitting mojo has gone?
I have tried it enough times to know how to handle it!
- Relaxe – take to some time not to worry about it
- Surround with things that inspirere you
- Be prepared!
“Be prepared”?! Thats so much easier said than done! When you’ve got you mojo working, you don’t ever expect it to disappear, so why prepare for it? Well because it can be a “life saver” for you mojo if it happens and if it don’t you’ll find that it can be a very special place to go to for inspiration.
It’s at the knitting festival, Knitwork Stockholm 2017, I’ll be teaching a workshop called “Find your knitting mojo”. At the workshop you will learn how to make a “suitcase” full of stuff that inspires you and make you glad! In the next weeks I’ll share much more about keeping your mojo working, both here and on Instagram and Facebook.
Read more about and sign up for the workshop – the workshop will be held in Danish.
The night before winter solstice
Winter solstice is my birthday.
For many years I thought it was the most depressing day of the year to have birthday. It’s the darkest day of the hole year – we only have 7 hours of daylight in Denmark.
In the later years I have learned to appreciate the magic of the solstice – it’s the day the light returns.
I’m trying in my own small ways to contribute to break the taboo around mental health issues by trying to remember to speak up. Continued
To inspire and to be inspired
The inspiration to make the shawl, My Dearest Karin, came from Karin Larsson and her amazing work with textiles and home decoration.
My Dearest Karin
Danish is my mother tongue but Swedish is my grandmothers tongue and it talks to my heart like no other language.
I’m doing it; asking for test knitters
Do what you don’t dare.
Summer in Sweden
I’m in Sweden this summer. In our old and wonderful house.
I have 3 weeks vacations – and just few freelance assignments to do, but that’s okay.
It’s been years since I last had vacation like this, I don’t have to do anything. I can just relax and follow my breath. I love it.
And then… I open my Instagram, and starts to question myself:
Oxygen Shawl
Knit like a fairy godmother or why I call the shawl Oxygen
To me a shawl means warmth, comforting and protecting. A way you can embrace yourself with love and support.
How to knit a shawl
– a beginner knitting tutorial
“I can tell you – it’s a wonderful shawl” quote Miss Fluffy
This beginner shawl pattern is made with inspiration from the traditional Faroese shawls.
WARNING: New technical term may occur. Don’t panic just contact me and I’ll see if I can help you.
It’s designed to be easy for beginner knitters. All you need to know about knitting is how to cast on and how to knit. If you don’t know yet then take a look at Instagram where I have some simple knitting videos.
You need:
- A circular knitting needle
- Yarn
- 2 place marker (plastic rings to mark where to decrease) and a needle.
I used some nice sustainable yarn, Icelandic Lett Lopi yarn, which was leftovers from the sweaters I made for Christmas – using the stash is allways sustainable! I added some grey wool and a silke yarn for the lace edging. This shawl is knitted from the top down, so you can make it as small or as big as you want it.
I used:
- 200 gr Lett Lopi in dark brown and off-white. (50 g(1.7 oz) approx.100 m (109 yd). This yarn made the shawl light like a feather.
- Approx 100 gram of the other yarns.
- Cicular knitting needle size 7 mm
Shawl Knitting Pattern for beginners
Cast on 3 stitches, put a place marker on the needle, cast on 20 stitches, put a place marker on the needle, cast on 3 stitches.
1.row. Knit and just move the place marker from one side of the needle to the other, when you get to them.
2.row. Purl. (or knit if you prefer that – I don’t have a purl video yet)
3. row. Knit 1, increase 1, knit 2, increase 1, move the place marker, knit 20, move the place marker, increase 1, knit 2, increase 1, knit one.
How to increase? I have a small video right here
4. row. Purl.
5. row: Knit 1, increase 1, knit to the placemarker, increase 1 before the place marker, knit to the next place marker, increase 1 after the place marker.
Continue knitting until the shawl is big enough (Warming! Can a shawl ever get big enough?!) for you to start start the lace edge.
Lace knitted edge
Don’t panic! Laces aren’t that difficult.
In this pattern I wanted it to be like oxygen bubbling to the surface and not that strict. So here we go:
1 purl row: 1 purl, *1 yarn over, 2 purl together, 1 purl* end with a purl.
On the following knit row you just make sure you have 20 stitches in the between the place makers.
2. purl row: 1 Purl, shift the pattern a bit so you don’t get the holes in the lace right above each other.
When the edge is big enough you one knit row and then a purl row where you knit: 1 purl, *1 yarn over, 2 purl together* end with a purl.
Then knit one row and a purl row. Cast off.
Get a needle, bend the last lace row up and stitch it carefully. Fasten the yarn ends.
Wash the shawl in lukewarm water and let it dry flat on a towl. When it dry, steam it, be careful so you don’t iron it.
Voilà: a beuatiful shawl to keep you warm.
Oh did I leave something out? Yes, I desided to make two row of lace pattern to soften the change of colors. The a purl row I knitted like this: 1 purl, *1 yo, 2 purl together* and end with 1 purl.
The picot edge is a simple picot crochet edge:
US: Start by single crochet (sc) all around the shawl.
Next round: start with 1 sc , *3 chain stitch (cs), 1 sc in 1.st chain stitch, skip 1 st, 1 sc in next stitch*, repeat *-* all around the shawl. End with a slip stitch. Cut the yarn and weave in ends
UK: Start by double crochet (dc) all around the shawl.
Next round: start with 1 dc , *3 chain stitch (cs), 1 dc in 1.st chain stitch, skip 1 st, 1 dc in next stitch*, repeat *-* all around the shawl. End with a slip stitch. Cut the yarn and weave in ends
Knit an easy shawl
I have always dreamt about shawls, huge, warm, beautiful and handmade.
I knitted my first two shawls in 2000. In a week in february and a week in june, both of them to keep my hands working while I was in grief. The first shawl was very warm, not that huge and not that beautiful. I never used it and ended up trowing it away (that lovely alpaca yarn! I should have dyed it!). The second time the yarn wasn’t that great, but the shawl got big and I didn’t have enough yarn so I had to add some different colors. The shawl got very warm and huge, but not that beautiful. I still use it in our house in Sweden and I love it.
So in 2006 when my son got cancer and my hands needed something to do, I wouldn’t knit a shawl! The shawl was at this time still related to death and this time there was going to be a lot of life! So instead I worked on my special throw.