Syvstjernen plus One!

Phew, just finished blocking! Sticking over 200 needles in the carpet floor, crawling around on your knees is not my kind of fun!

This project had to be done. It's a between project, one that has been on my mind ever since I saw Jared's stunning Hemlock Ring Blanket. I saw it, and fell in love with the idea, his choice of yarn and color, and I had to make one for myself. Of course Jared found the perfect pattern for his, but I didn't want to copy it at this time, though I think I'll knit it some day anyway. I found three doily patterns, which I liked for a lap blanket, on this danish website. Once again the Internet came to the rescue, with loads of information, and I was able to translate enough to be able to knit the "Syvstjernen Doily". I'll get to the name later.

I'm glad I could provide my son with a chuckle and a laugh, when I told him, that I screwed up this doily BEFORE round one! That's right. I didn't notice until about round 65 or so. How's that possible? Easy. My thinking was that a doily knitted in the round must start with 8 stitches. So I cast on and worked round after round. Sometime during knitting, it bugged me as what the name of this doily's meaning was. So I translated and investigated. It means "The Pleiades" also know as the "seven sisters" or "Messier 45" (star cluster). I was scratching my head, because nothing in my doily suggested the number seven. I had eight "leaves" in the middle, so how come?

There was one sentence on the pattern sheet before round 1 started. At the time I just ignored it. Now I found out that it said to cast on "syv" seven stitches. It never crossed my mind that these three letters actually are a number. Anyway, since everything turned out to be alright I knit on.
Soon I encountered some sentences in red, which were hard, to not at all possible to translate. Sure I could translate it word for word, but that didn't make any sense. So what to do? I went to the Internet for help again. Greatest invention of all times! I found a danish website, Hyldemor, where Anni was writing her posts in English. She is such a dear and very patient, and she helped me with the sentences, which confused me. Thanks, Anni! Couldn't have done it without you!

One can probably knit from any language, as long as you crack the "knitting symbol code". As long as you know what "x" or "y" means, you are good to go. Because all we knit is purl, knit, and YO anyway. ;o)
"Many a night I saw the Pleiads rising thro' the mellow shade, glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid"
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1837-8, Locksley Hall

specifics:

pattern: Syvstjernen by Anders Andersen; English version of the pattern can be found here

yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino, color # 240 "leaf green" 100g/223yds. I've used 3 balls, with a few yds of the forth for the crochet bind off. (669yds plus)

needles: 45mm circular; I could have used a bigger needle size for this project, but I needed a long circular in the end, and a 4.5mm was what I had on hand.

size after blocking: 46" in diameter

start-finish: August 28th - September 2nd 2007

This lap blanket was knit so fast, that I didn't get to take pictures during the process. The yarn I wanted to use first, a 100% cotton yarn, turned out to be not the right choice, so I switched to Patons merino wool. I'm glad that I did, because it's warm and not scratchy, but I'll have to wash it by hand, which is very O.K. by me.

Also I feel a bit like a fool, because today I found the English translation for this doily pattern. So if you want to knit one yourself, just go to Yarn Over website and get going. This lap blanket can easily be used as a shawl or a table cloth as well. I LOVE the color, which was very hard to capture in the pictures, not one got it right, but close enough.