May 18, 2003
“Magnhilds løper”
I was very drawn to “Magnhilds løper” in Kunststrikk med nye monstre, page 16. I want to make an oval doily for a friend, and this one seemed both elaborate and simple enough to make a good first project.
Hmmm... I suppose I better find out what “løper” and “duk” mean. They appear frequently in the titles of patterns in these books. I have been suspecting “duk” is “doily” but I'm not really sure. Maybe I better ask Mona and Kari!
In preparation for starting this cloth, I ordered a cone of 10/2 Pearl Tencel® from Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer at Heartstrings Fiber Arts. For those of you unfamiliar with Jackie, she's a wonderful source of information and encouragement. Her notes on knitting the “Hyrna Herborgar” Icelandic Shawl are most wonderful, and were a great inspiration for starting on this blog.
The cone of yarn came, I sat down and cast on 8 stitches on 2.5mm Crystal Palace double point needles, and then the slipping and sliding began! This yarn is advertised as being a bit thicker than size 20 crochet thread, but it seems finer to me, as well as much, much slicker! Now I don't usually have trouble starting a doily in the round, but this time I dropped needles, dropped stitches, and had a wild half hour or so! I did eventually get the doily started, and once I got a few rows done it became much easier.
The instructions are reasonably easy to follow, though I would say that some knowledge of doily construction is assumed. For instance, the initial instruction tells you to “Legg opp 8m på s-pinner nr. 2 1/2.” I understand this to translate, roughly, to “Cast on 8 stitches on a 2.5mm needle.” There is some confusion about the translation of “s-pinner” and “r-pinner” (mentioned elsewhere in the pattern). It isn't clear to me (and wasn't clear to Mona) if they are talking about two different physical needles (as in different needles for various parts of the doily), or different types of needles. If anyone can clear this up, I'd be most appreciative! Margaret Heathman's Knitting Languages defines “Strikkepinne” as simply a knitting needle or a straight knitting needle. “Rundpinne” is defined as a circular needle, so s-pinne and r-pinne may simply be abbreviations. This would make sense, if you assume that you need to cast on your initial stitches on a double point needle (which would be straight) to start the doily.
At any rate, you cast on 8 stitches and join (this step is also assumed). Then you knit the first and second rows, and the instructions for the third row read, “I,r.” Well, okay, but that consumes only one stitch. What now? If you take a look at the photograph of the cloth, or if you know something about how doily instructions are often presented, it becomes clear that you repeat this instruction 8 times, for the eight points of the central star motif. The instructions for the first 34 rows of the doily follow this convention, being repeated 8 times.
There are a number of other phrases in the pattern that aren't in the basic knitting translations. After receiving the translated phrases from Mona, I pondered how best to present this information without violating the author's copyright. I decided that I would simply provide the translated phrases, but not enough of the context to make much sense without purchasing the books. These translations are intended to serve as a guide for English-speaking knitters who have purchased a copy of the book. They aren't of much use on their own.
The list is as follows:
Row 21: “Str 6m fr, ...” (When you encounter an instruction like this, you are performing a manuever to shift the position of the marker.) In this case, you will knit six stitches, and then move your marker to that new position. The round will begin at the new marker position.
Row 34: “Ta 1 m tilbake, eller r.” = Slip one stitch backwards after knitting it (from the right needle back to the left needle). This is another instruction that involves moving the marker. On the next row it will be important to have this one stitch included in the next section. The “eller r” instruction literally translates to “or knit” but my inference is to do this special thing with the first stitch, “otherwise knit.” Round 34, as most even numbered rounds, would normally be a plain knit round (also not explicitely stated in the pattern, but assumed). There may be a general instruction to this effect in the introductory pages to the volume.
Instruction before the first new section, after Round 34 of the initial center motif:
“Her begynner du på spissene, som det er 2 av.” = Here begin the “pointers” of which there are two. At this point you begin working back and forth. Round 1 gives the full instructions for the pointer (no repeats), and ends “vrang tilbake.” which translates to purl back. Rows 5 and 7 of this section read “Som 3. omg.,” or As Row 3, meaning to repeat round 3. The pointer directions are pretty straightforward, ending with the instruction (on round 52): “Dra trådren gjennom.” This translates to “Pull the thread through.” Here is a photo of my doily at this point:
The “pointer” extends to the right, and the remaining stitches of the original eight-pointed star are resting on an Addi Turbo 2.5mm circular needle that I switched to about row 30 of the central motif.
With the next instruction, you shift things around and begin work on the second pointer. The instructions in Norwegian read “39m settes over på r-pinnen. Begynn den andre siden som den første.” The translation: “Put 39 sts on a needle. Start on the second side as the first.” Again there is a bit of confusion about the needle translation, but I don't think it much matters. I put my 39 stitches on a double point needle to hold them out of the way, which I think is the essential point of the instruction. Here is another photo of my doily with the second pointer underway (at the top of the photo). The DP needle with its holder is at the right.
After the two pointers are complete you pick up stitches around the edges of the pointers, joining them to the stitches on hold from the central motif, and knit another 40 rows on the larger oval. But that's a blog for another day