Spelsau wool

WOW--thanks for visiting my blog! It's Monday, April 16--a very blustery day of wind and rain. I am happy to be home, cozied up with my computer and yarn. I hope to share with you some of the knitting people/places/things I see as I travel around the US and the world. For 2007 I am staying put, but I hear Europe calling me for next year. I'm crossing my fingers! This week I am figuring out how to blog. I sure would rather be knitting the Norwegian mitten I have been working on. I got the pattern somewhere when I was in Norway in 1997. (Sorry, but I don't know where.) My projects always need to age sufficently before I can work on them. The only problem with that is that my gauge has changed in ten years. Maybe you can see how the little people in the cuff are kinda loose. My death-grip on my needles grows ever tighter as I search for The Finest Gauge I'll Ever Achieve. Anyway, I am really enjoying knitting this mitten as the chart is complex. The yarn is one of my favorites, Norsk Kunstvevgarn, and is 100% Spelsau wool. (Spelsau is a Norwegian sheep breed whose fleece is composed of a hair and a wool.) Here's the front: Here's the back: Alas, I don't know where to get that yarn in this country, but the company that makes it has a website in Norwegian (http://sheep-isle.dk/Ull/ull1.htm) and you can see photos of Per Hoelfeldt Lund showing a fleece and more. When I visited his mill long ago, he was hospitable and showed me around the place. Particularly, he wanted me to see one of the defining characteristics of the breed--the curl at the end of the locks of wool. That's all for now. Stay warm and knit!