My second project! It's a little pouch. I wanted to try the flat/oval start, and I wanted to play with a new stitch.
Here's the reverse side, which is also extremely cute.
The yarn is some random oddball, obviously variegated. It's a 2-ply acrylic that is fairly thick. I used a bit more than an ounce and have about a quarter ounce left.
I'm not 100% sure it's the right size. I might add a bit more. Or undo a round of stitches. Or leave it as is. I'll probably use a drawstring closure if/when I add one.
The Björsbo stitch is very similar to Oslo stitch. Oslo is UO/UOO F1, and Björsbo is UO/UOU F1. When making the new thumb loop, the working yarn goes over rather than under itself. That's the only difference. It still goes through the back loop from front to back, then twists and goes under the old front-of-thumb loop. It's also called a Finnish 1+1 stitch with a plaited edge.
The site where I saw this stitch is here: https://en.neulakintaat.fi/109. The site author says that the stitch is known from Björsbo and also from the Carelian Isthmus of Finland. It's also somewhere in the middle of this page: https://needlebinding.com/asle-stitch/
I like the horizontal ridges of the front side and the pebbly texture of the back side. I am pretty sure I'll use this stitch again. I wonder what it will look like in a monochrome single-ply, similar to the hat I did in Oslo stitch?
The flat start went fairly smoothly, too, though as usual, it took a few tries. I did a chain with a Likely Number of stitches, then started down one side of the foundation chain. I skipped a few of the chain stitches to act as a turning chain, similar to crochet. When I got to the other end, I did 3 stitches into the starting loop of the chain to make the turn and then went back down the other side of the foundation chain. I think I did the same kind of 3-in-1 increase when I got back to the other side. And then I just kept going in the usual spiral.
To join new yarn, I ran the tail of the new yarn through some old stitches, then went through the same path as the old yarn (more or less) and kept going, tucking in the end of the old yarn over the next few stitches. It seems to work pretty well though I wasn't always careful about the path I used to tuck in the tail of the new yarn.
The pouch is big enough for my cellphone and more beyond. Or big enough for a large tarot deck. Or a small notebook and a pen. At some point, hopefully, I'll record the dimensions and stitch gauge and number of stitches and rounds.
I'm not sure what I'll do next. York stitch, since it too is so similar to Oslo? Another hat either in Oslo or Björsbo? A project in Mammen or Korgen or Fåberg or Finnish 2+2? Simple looping or looping with a twist or Danish? So many possibilities. And that's just the really simple stitches. There are entire stitch families I have yet to explore.
Today I went to a handweavers guild sale. I picked up some wool yarns that might be suitable for nalbinding, or maybe for knitting or weaving. Dunno how I'm going to make sure they don't have moths. We're done with really hot weather for the summer so inside my car on a hot day is not an option. My freezer is too small. And I've not had good luck with the oven method. Most are caked up so washing isn't a great option, either, since I don't want to skein and rewind everything if not absolutely necessary. Putting them in the dryer, possibly in a mesh bag, is probably also a bad idea.
I also found a few fun books and booklets. They had the Adele Cahlander monograph on Bolivian Tubular Edgings. They had Linda Hendrickson's book on Tubular Tabletwoven Necklaces. And they had a few printouts of very old things (either Strands or a newsletter) from the Braid Society. I don't remember if there was anything else. I had hoped to find some weaving tools but there wasn't much left by the time I got there and nothing appealed.
Linda Hendrickson's book is more like her little pamphlets in terms of content. But that's OK -- for the sake of completeness it's fun to have.
I have some of the same info from elsewhere that the Adele Cahlander monograph goes over, but it's very nice to have what may well be the original source. She uses a charting style that is similar to the way she charts patterns in her book on sling braiding.
And that's it from me today.
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