Rán is the old Norse Goddess of the sea. She was married to Ægir who is the god of the ocean and king of the sea creatures, and is thought to have been a giant. Rán and Ægir had nine daughters known as the billow maidens.
Ægir apparently had a lot of cauldrons in which to brew ale, and the gods decided that because of that, he should be their host from know on. Ægir agrees, but on the condition that they bring him a cauldron large enough to warm the ale for everyone. Tyr remembers that Hymir owns such a large cauldron, and they set out to retrieve it. When they find Hymir’s abode, Thor eats so much that Hymir and his guests must go fishing. Thor almost the Jörmugandr (the Midgard Serpent) and boasts of his strength, but Hymir says that Thor can’t be very strong if he can’t even break Hymir’s chalice. The chalice was magic, and try as he might, Thor could not break it. Then a giant’s mistress told Thor to throw it at Hymir’s head, since that would break the spell. The chalice cracked, and Hymir allowed the gods to take the cauldron to Ægir. Thanks to this, the gods would now drink ale brewed by Ægir’s fire and hold feasts there.
Even today, giant cauldrons can be found in the granite of Ranrike. They are giant holes drilled into the granite shield.
The giant cauldrons were formed during the ice age, when boulders, rocks or pebbles were caught in eddies under the moving glaciers and drilled into the granite over time.
To join the Ranrike KAL and knit the Ranrike Shawl, sign up here.
Time to return (knitting-wise) to my roots. Ranrike is the old Norse name for what is now the area around the Oslofjord in Norway and northern Bohuslän in Sweden. The name comes from Rán – the old norse goddess or the sea – and refers to her kingdom.
Ranrike is famous for its rocky landscape and granite cliffs. And I’ve spent every childhood summer exploring the rocky landscape, hiding in caves or diving off cliffs.
The Ranrike Shawl is a crescent shaped shawl knit in a single ply fingering weight yarn from Zen Yarn Garden. The shawl can be knit in three different sizes.
Small: Wingspan: 48 in [122 cm] Height: 14 in [36 cm]
Medium: Wingspan: 60 in [152 cm] Height: 15.5 in [39 cm]
Large: Wingspan: 72 in [184 cm] Height: 17 in [43 cm]
1 skein will be enough for the small shawl, but for the medium or large size you’ll need 2 skeins.
The pattern will be available at a special introductory price of $5.00 CDN until June 6.
If you post a cast-on picture between now and then on your Ravelry project page (and link the project to Ranrike Shawl so I can find it), you are eligible to win a PDF copy of Ancient Egypt in Lace & Color – that is my upcoming book with 12 lace shawl designs inspired by Ancient Egyptian mythology (published summer 2012 with Cooperative Press).
This past weekend I was in Toronto for the annual DKC Frolic. I spent most of my time with the amazing Kim of indigodragonfly in her booth. There was a steady stream of people all day. Sometimes it was so crowded we barely fit into the booth. I got to meet a ton of people, and of course I got to see and fondle amazing yarn. Shaping Shawls was available, along with a number of my single patterns.
AND, what has to be one of my favourite things at these shows, I got to see amazing knitwear parading by all day. Here is a version of Huldran next to the Eyjafjallajökull Shawl.
I did sneak out of the indigodragonfly booth a couple of times during the day, to check out what else was around. So I had a chance to see Natalie Servant and Elizabeth McCarten in Debbie Wilson’s/Sheep’s Ahoy booth.
And I stopped into the Zen Yarn Garden booth to chat with Roxanne and Neville. While I was there, I showed Roxanne my almost-finished-new-design in ZYG Serenity Silk Single. I finished it on the drive back, and right now it’s blocking.
All in all, a fabulous time was had by all. I look forward to next year already.
This weekend is the weekend of the annual DKC Knitter’s Frolic. Last year was my first year there and I had a blast. So naturally I’ll be going again this year. I can be found on Saturday in the market place at the Indigodragonfly booth, along with Shaping Shawls, a bunch of printed patterns (including, but not limited to La Toupie), and of course Kim’s wonderful yarns.
On Friday evening, I’ll be teaching a double knitting class at Lettuce Knit. We’ll be knitting the Starlight Shawl, but of course the techniques learned apply to any double knitting project.
Hope to see you in Toronto!
If you are an avid knitter (or live with one), you are probably familiar with the idea of a stash. There seems to be yarn accumulating everywhere – pretty, new skeins from festivals, fairs, local yarn shops, and internet ones (which are particularly sneaky by delivering the yarn straight to your mailbox).
We all plan various projects that may or may not come to fruition, and in the meantime we continue to be tempted by new, different, beautiful colours and textures.
However, in addition to this new stash acquisition, there is the yarn that we’ve actually used for various projects. But most projects don’t use exactly whole numbers of yarn-skeins. So then there are leftovers. I, myself, have lots of drawers, bags, bins and what not of leftovers like this:
And what to do with it? It is, after all, very nice yarn. Just not enough to make anything out of, really. Well….. I guess I could make a third mitt. Or a doll-sized shawl. But what would I do with that?
Enter the piecework afghan. In my current project, each unit is very small. So small, in fact, that most of my leftover skeins can make more than one unit. In order to not make the finished afghan look super-busy and scrappy, I have sorted the leftover yarn by colour family. Right now I’m working on the blue section.
It’s really fun to revisit all this leftover yarn, and remembering the original projects. It’s like finding old friends again. So far I have yarn from mittens, shawls, sweaters, and scarves. As well as some samples from a couple of different dyers. All of the yarn is close to fingering weight, some a bit heavier and some a little lighter, but on the balance, it centres around fingering weight. And in my collection of leftovers, there is a LOT of fingering weight.
Can’t wait to move on to another colour family and visit some new (old) yarn. 
I’ll be teaching Lace Design and Shawl Construction at the Interweave Knitting Lab this fall. For more information on the Interweave Knitting Lab and to sign up for classes, click on the picture.
All the shawls for the next book are now completed, blocked and in the mail to Cooperative Press. The next step in the process is the photoshoot which will happen later this month. Looking forward to some pretty pictures.
There are twelve shawls in various colours – all beautiful yarn from Rocky Mountain Dyeworks, Cephalopod Yarns, Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, indigodragonfly, the Verdant Gryphon and Zen Yarn Garden.
Once the photoshoot has happened, there will be a fun little contest over on the Cooperative Press site. Stay tuned!
Still quiet here. But the quiet means that I’ve been knitting like crazy. The shawls for the book are now all complete. And I’m in the midst of blocking.
Naturally I have to sew in the ends of all the shawls before I block. No idea why I saved this for the end…… in many ways it makes a lot more sense to finish each shawl entirely as I go. On the other hand, getting 12 shawls ready for a book takes a long time. The first one was off the needles last summer. So if I had blocked it at that time, I’d probably have to reblock it now to get rid of the creases. Instead, I just seem to be having a never-ending blocking party right now.
Here are four of the shawls that I was busy sewing in ends on this morning.
It will take me a while to get through the blocking for all the shawls (I can really only block one or maximum two at a time), but by the end of the month they will all be in the mail heading to Cooperative Press and the photoshoot. Super exciting!
I’ve been knitting like crazy on various secret projects (mainly for the book, honestly) and that’s why it’s been so quiet. I still have a few more things to do for the book, but now I have cast on for the 12th and final shawl – which means the end is in sight.
I don’t have much to show for my efforts at the moment, but here is a sneak peek of one of the patterns in beautiful linen lace from Claudia Handpained yarns.
As I’m finishing up my cedar green shawl from the January post, I thought it was time to wind some new yarn. I have this lovely skein of Serenity Lace II from Zen Yarn Garden that’s been calling my name for a while now. So I brought out the swift to get started, and…..
Aaack! Do you see what I see?
The twine has disintegrated, and my swift is disabled.
Once I sorted out the various spokes and twine and what not, it turns out the fix is relatively simple. With some yarn to the rescue (leftover Eidos, as it happens), the swift was as good as new.
Phew. Now the yarn is wound, and I can get started on the fun stuff. Knitting it.
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