Beaded natural white scarf for a bride

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Artanis

I thought that at the end of November everybody is already thinking about Christmas and therefore I was surprised when I received a scarf order. And what an order it was! A beaded scarf for a bride. I had used beads before but only in small projects like ring bearer pillows and hair flowers, I knew that the methods I was using for these two things were too time consuming for a large project. So I dived into YouTube and found a suitable method for a large project (just type “dental floss beads lace” into YouTube if you are curious) where I wouldn’t have to chase beads around and at the same time the end result would still look good. I just substituted the dental floss with a slender needle.

I used the same natural white 100% wool yarn that is so soft that people have hard time believing that it is actually 100% wool and not something else such as merino. The yarn also holds form beautifully after blocking and is very warm. The beads are clear with silvery insides and they shimmer in the light but do not dominate over the shawl, just compliment it elegantly.

The scarf itself has a lily of the valley pattern and is triangular. But I will only show parts of it today and keep the whole scarf a secret. Hopefully I will be able to someday show the scarf where it belongs – on the shoulders of a beautiful bride

I just love the way the beads are in the nupps and bring a slight elegant shimmer to the shawl. Don’t you?

And here is the beaded scarf all packed and ready to go to its bride.

I you would like something similar for yourself or for a gift just stop by my Etsy shop and send me a custom order there or write to me directly from the contact page.

Lace Bridal Shawl, Perfect for a Wedding Cover-Up

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Artanis

One day a lovely lady walked into my store (figuratively speaking) wanting to buy a ring bearer pillow for her daughters wedding. She loved what she saw so much that she ordered a shawl for herself.
We hunted for the pattern and found one in one of the Estonian lace books that she loved and after making the changes into the pattern that she requested I started knitting. It was so good to knit, the natural white soft woolen yarn that I use just flew through my fingers because the pattern was so logical. The lace edge is extra wide on it, almost like the lace edges on the big square Haapsalu scarves.
The end result was very beautiful, a perfect cover-up for weddings when you need something to warm you. But also a great thank you gift to your mother, mother-in-law or your chief bridesmaid.

With it being approximately 60 x 170 cm this lace bridal shawl is perfect for wrapping around you and keeping you warm when you need it.

Bridal Wrap for Flower Loving Bride

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Artanis

Today was a very fun day. I handed my camera to my husband and asked him to take pictures of me. I got several new scarves and shawls that needed documenting and we did get pictures of all of them but I’ll only show you the one today – the bridal wrap with flower field pattern. To see the other shawls and scarves you need to either have some patience or look through old posts (I will put some new pictures up to the appropriate posts).

But let me introduce the flower field bridal wrap. I wrote about knitting it in spring (and showed you a sneak peek) while explaining that I’m knitting it with light blue yarn because my favorite flowers are blue – cornflower and anemone hepatica. The scarf is the biggest thing I have knitted so far and also the most traditional as these kind of big scarves are the ones that the women in Haapsalu started knitting in the second quarter of the 19th century.

The final measurements are about 130×130 cm (51×51 inches)

Here you can see nicely what the traditional parts of a Haapsalu scarf are. The body in the center is surrounded by a wide border that is separated from both the body and the lace edge by narrow garter stitch borders

This is the flower field pattern in the center. It is from the book “The Haapsalu Scarf” by Aime edasi and Siiri Reimann.

Here you can see the border pattern also from the book “The Haapsalu Scarf” and the lace edge that I modified myself to match the other patterns.

When looked at a right angle the nupps (bobbles) really stand out.

And also a “beauty” picture:

And the shawl ready for traveling to its bride. If you want one similar to this one contact me or stop by my store.

A glance into Haapsalu Lace Center

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Artanis

In my last two posts I wrote a bit about the Haapsalu IV Lace Day and showed some pictures of the lace knitting competition and the knitted lace wedding dresses on display in the Haapsalu Lace Center. This time I have a couple of pictures more to show from the Haapsalu Lace Center. I am always amazed by the craftsmanship and the ideas that handicraft makers have. If you happen to travel through Haapsalu make sure to visit because there are so many things that I didn’t take pictures of and they also have different exhibitions going on all the time.

In the lace center there are some shawls that are knitted and on display, and I do have to say that the blue background suits the shawls perfectly (I may be biased because my favorite color is blue) and they also used a blue background for the entries in the kitting competition. All the shawls also have the name of the pattern included, for example this shawl is knitted with the pattern “Hagakiri”.

Displaying the patterns on shawls is a beautiful way to do it, but as there are so many different patterns it would need a huge room where to put all of them so some patterns (and they are really only a fraction of the patterns that exist) are being displayed as swatches.

The shawls for sale are packed into beautiful gift boxes and arranged on the shelves by color. Traditionally the shawls were knitted mostly from natural white yarn (occasionally also with black or grey yarn) but now you can find shawls in all colors. They are the perfect gift to give to a mother-in-law or a bride.

Now this is what I love, we all know about lace parasols but this here is a lace umbrella! The lace has been put under a clear umbrella and so you can look stylish even in rain as was demonstrated clearly on the Haapsalu IV Lace day when it started raining during the lace demonstration. What a brilliant idea to use in your wedding instead of regular ones that can ruin your wedding pictures. The umbrella is knitted by Pille Schneider.

I was really intrigued by this parasols color, what do you think was the yarn colored like that or was the parasol colored after it was knitted?

And a parasol does not necessarily have to be white…

The patterns of Haapsalu Lace can be used in so many places. Here is a beautiful lace cardigan and on the shelf to the right of it you can see socks and hats and all sorts of other things inspired by the patterns.

And lastly something I know my girls would love – lacy clothes for dolls. They are knitted by Pille Schneider, Aasa Jõelaid, Miralda Piper and Mirje Sims.

Knitted Wedding Dresses – Haapsalu Lace Center

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Artanis

An elegant wedding dress is one of the things that helps to accentuate how beautiful the bride is. To me knitted wedding dresses are the most elegant ones of them all. I have not yet had the honor to knit one but luckily there are plenty of other talented knitters who have.

At the end of August I went to Haapsalu to the 4th Haapsalu Lace Day. I wrote about the day itself in my last post but besides the things I talked about there I also took some pictures of the lace dresses in Haapsalu Lace Center. I do have to apologize that the quality is not the best, my camera is pretty old and I don’t know that much about taking pictures. But I do hope that the beauty, elegance and craftsmanship of these lace dresses will be apparent nevertheless

The dress on the left is knitted by Ege Paju, to see the whole dress scroll down a bit.

This first dress is knitted by Marge Heeringas

The dress in the center is knitted by Helmi Mändla and the bolero is knitted by Aime Edasi

And here is the full dress knitted by Ege Paju

This beautiful dress suitable for flower girls was knitted by Merle Saulep

The red dress was knitted by Pille Källe

This last lace wedding dress was knitted by Ester-Vileida Viilup in 1974. At first the dress was white with pink underdress, but after the wedding it was colored so that it could be used for other occasions.

As you could see from the pictures there is lot more to see in the Haapsalu Lace Centre than knitted wedding dresses. I do have some more pictures that I want to show you in my next post but even after these there is still a lot to see and they constantly add new items to their exhibition. So if you like lace and visit Estonia then you definately have to go there!

Artanis Wedding Lace

Ring Bearer Pillows, Garters, Wedding Shawls and Bridal Scarves

Beaded natural white scarf for a bride

Lace Bridal Shawl, Perfect for a Wedding Cover-Up

Bridal Wrap for Flower Loving Bride

A glance into Haapsalu Lace Center

Knitted Wedding Dresses – Haapsalu Lace Center