Suitors

I need to find the Norwegian word for this, but it translates to "suitors." It is used for loose threads that catch on clothing and the little bits of wool and yarn that end up on the floor when spinning (particularly if, like me, you don't spin very well.) There are all sorts of fun traditions related to this. For instance, you can predict things about your potential suitor by wrapping them around your thumb or counting thumb widths as you go through the alphabet to get their first initial or reciting places you might meet them "cottage, kitchen, cellar, loft" or how far the relationship would go "on the path, to the door, to the church, the alter, the bed." In Norwegian folk belief, these small bits are part of the life thread and in her book Invisible Threads in Knitting, Annemor Sundbø suggests using them to decorate your knitting. This reminds me of the suggestion I follow occasionally of putting your orts in a clear Christmas ball adding the date and using it as a memento for the year.
Annemor shares the following (unattributed) quote:

A loose thread on a dress meant that a secret suitor was not far away. He is fair-haired if the thread is light and dark if the thread is dark.

What a fun tradition!

Quick and Cute Hardanger Candle

I've really gotten into Hardanger again lately. Of course, it helps that my seizures are controlled enough that counting is not a trigger. (Sadly, work that requires more analysis, like coding and sometimes even math, still trigger seizures or migraines.)

I found this adorable pattern for a candle the other night and today got the right colors of thread out of the Sonja Daughters stash at the lodge. It only took a bit over an hour. It will be put in a card for sale at our butik.

Free pattern from https://www.mabelfigworthy.co.uk/freebies.php

 Today I bought recycled polyester thread to try for my next quilt. It's Gütterman rPET thread from JoAnn. Recycling isn't fruitful if we don't use the results. Although, all this thread is only about 1 1/2 plastic bottles worth. And who knows if the spools are recycled (hopefully ALL thread spools are!) 

Color in Norwegian Ski Sweaters

Honestly, you could write a book about this, but I just want to share the two facts that interest me. Red shoulders or red patterns near the shoulders became popular when Norwegians were forbidden by invaders from displaying the Norwegian flag. It is a sign of Norwegian pride or anticolonialism.
Some older sweaters are white at the bottom and then the pattern starts about a third of the way up. The white part was intended to be tucked into the men's high waisted pants and showing that part was the equivalent of showing your underwear!

2019

In preparation for 2019, I'm starting this blog over. It will still be about my needlework and crafting, but I haven't been posting because quite frankly, I don't want to admin my blog, I just want to write. (For that matter, the way my seizure and migraine triggers work, admining is a bad idea.) So, I'm switching over to Blogger (which I use for other blogs) and starting over. If you want to see my old posts, they are available on the Wayback Machine here. And, yes, I know that I could export and import my old blog, I just didn't want to! If I think something is relevant, then I'll update it.

Some of the things I want to work on here are actually getting the Sons of Norway cultural skills awards for Weaving (I've turned in level 1, I'm 98% done with level 2), Knitting (I have done the knitting, just need to do the writing parts) and Hardanger (I have the skills, but haven't done any of it.) I also want to work on the Genealogy program and I'll probably put my stuff from that here as well. I actually originally joined Sons of Norway because I had learned about the cultural skills program from some of the people I met doing Hardanger embroidery, but I haven't actually done the work.