Laurabelle in progress
What is it? You’ll have to wait until 2006 to find out!
I’m debating whether to name it after my Swedish grandmother (Laurabelle), or its eventual shape/inspiration (a Svenska Hjärta, or “Swedish Heart“). Currently, I’m leaning towards Grandma, tak sÃ¥ mycket.
If I only named patterns after my grandmas and their siblings, I’d have quite a bit of material to work with — they were each one of 13 children! My Grandma Fern was a crocheter, I’ve got several afghans she made. Great-Grandma Dorothy and all her friends were quilters. But it was my mom’s side of the family who knit.
Knitting has been a creative way to keep warm in Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries for years (most of which were ruled by Sweden at one point or another anyway!). From tvåändsstickat (twined knitting) to modern Swedish designers such as Elsebeth Lavold and Inger Fredholm, there’s always something interesting coming out of Sweden, knit-wise. They even learn how to knit in elementary school, as a matter of course. If only I’d learned how to knit back then! Can you imagine?
Cool . . .I have two Swedish grandmothers myself! Both knit/crochet/embroidered, as did my aunts. . . One tried to teach me as a child but I did not pick it up until recently, and they are all unfortunately passed on now.
Andrea — I’m going to try to get down to Florida for a visit with my great-aunties sometime soon (the baby of the family is probably pushing 70 now), since rumor has it they knit strangely. (Possibly a mutant form of continental…whatever it is, I hear it’s much, much faster than the way I knit!)
“I must say” I thought that I was the only one who remembered Ed Grimley 🙂 Can’t wait to see what Laurabelle is.
Tanya