" title="Knit one, read two"> Knit one, read two

2008 has been a busy year already and it does not look like it is going to get any less hectic with 2 professional exams and the wedding still to go. It also looks like being a busy year craft-wise.

Current projects include the knitted lace scarf for my Gran, my Double Vision blanket and the origami flowers for the wedding table centrepieces. So far, so good.

The list of projects currently under consideration runs a bit longer though. At the moment it stands as follows:

• Wedding shawl for me
• Wedding kilt hose for Steven
• Presents for a friend’s baby due in November
• Origami Christmas cards

Let’s deal with these in order:

The wedding shawl: despite the problems that I’m currently having with a simple lace scarf, part of me still thinks this is a good idea!

The kilt hose: do I really want to knit two gents’ knee-high socks? I love the thought of Steven wearing kilt hose that I’ve made him to the wedding, although I don’t know how he feels about it, but gents’ socks take a long time.

Baby knitting: unfortunately, I Knit had a special offer on a beautiful baby pattern book when I went to the knitting group last night. I’ve ordered a copy so haven’t had a chance to take a proper look and decide on particular patterns but from the quick look I had, I’m considering making a hat, jacket, blanket and bootees for the baby and a nursing shawl for mum. All of which would need to be finished the same week as the wedding shawl and kilt hose. I think this could be considered “too much stuff”.

Christmas cards: I love making my own Christmas cards. Christmas has become so commercial that I really like being able to send people something that I’ve genuinely put some thought and effort into. Last year was the first year for several years that I haven’t made my own cards, due to lack of time, and I wasn’t happy sending out bought cards. I bought an origami book recently that had a pretty modular origami wreath that my trial runs suggest would look great on the front of a card. I only have about 15 cards to make and the wreaths only require 20 separately folded modular sections each so that’s not that many, right?

Let’s have a look at the timeline:

Immediately – the lace scarf for my Gran has to be finished before the middle of June so doesn’t really impact on anything else.

Next 3 months – I’m studying and wedding-planning but should still have reasonable amounts of free time. I just need to juggle craft stuff with volunteering for DP.

August to mid-September – Exam season. All other bets are off but some mindless knitting will probably be a good thing. Unfortunately, all the knitting I’d like to do involves concentration.

Mid-September to mid-November – Run-up to the wedding. Any organising that hasn’t been done will need to be done now. Looking at my list of proposed projects, I’ll also be knitting till my fingers fall off!

Mid-November to start of December – Honeymoon! I’m pretty sure not much of anything will get done at this point.

December – Can I make my Christmas cards in the period between getting back from honeymoon and the last Christmas post? During which time, I’ll also be writing and sending wedding thank-you cards. Hmm, it seems unlikely.

So, in conclusion, I need to spend the next 3 months doing all the the things on my craft to-do list to be sure of getting them done in time and hope that I don’t come up with any new ideas over the rest of the year. It’ll be interesting to see how many things I actually manage to get done. Watch this space!

Lists are good; short lists are better; short-lists are best.

Research and preparation are key for this one. I am not suggesting you short-list the first options that you come across. Take your time and make sure that your short-list has enough options on it that you do not feel like you might be missing something but not so many that it stops being short. Do not go visit every wedding venue in the country, check out websites and brochures, make a short-list (we only visited 6 venues in person) and, unless they really are not suitable, book one of them. If you really do not like any of them, start a new short-list. Do not keep visiting lots of venues, trying on lots of dresses, listening to bands, etc. ”just in case there is a better one out there”.

Like sex, if you are not having fun, you are not doing it right.

I am guilty of forgetting this myself sometimes but when it comes right down to it, planning a wedding should be fun. If you are not having fun, think about why not and see if you can do something about it.

Pick what is important to you and budget accordingly.

Unless you are very lucky, you are not going to be able to afford to spend unlimited sums of money on every aspect of your day, so decide which ones you are not willing to compromise on. Maybe you really want fantastic photographs but wouldn’t mind a cheaper cake; maybe you want a 5-star chef to cook for your guests but don’t mind not having live music.

Perfection is not the goal!

I am not suggesting you settle for second best or that you should not strive to get your day exactly the way you want it. Just remember that the day is about celebrating the commitment that you’re making and not about the exact colour of the bridesmaids’ dresses. Sometimes you just need to remember to let go of the reins for a while.

Elope! (or at least think about it)

This is not as silly a suggestion as it might seem. If planning is all getting a bit too much, you can always fantasise about running off and having a quiet ceremony, just the two of you and some witnesses. If it really all gets too much, then go ahead and do it! You can still have the big reception afterwards to let everyone else celebrate with you but it will ease a lot of the pressure. Your families should start speaking to you again eventually.

Keep information on a need-to-know basis.

Families (and friends) love playing Chinese whispers around wedding preparations. What you thought were perfectly innocuous statements will be taken completely out of context, exaggerated beyond all belief and you will end up spending lots of time trying to placate angry family members over things that are not even a problem in the first place. The best time to tell people what you are thinking of doing for any particular aspect of your day is when it is already booked and can not possibly be changed.

I finally admitted that I just don’t want to knit a jumper from 4-ply yarn. Or, at least, I don’t want to knit a jumper from this 4-ply yarn:

So, I’ve frogged my Isabella and, instead, have cast on a Lace Ribbon Scarf. This is going to be a birthday present for my Gran. There aren’t many people who’d appreciate getting a scarf for their birthday in the middle of June but if anyone will, my Gran will. It’s supposed to be a fairly light-weight scarf anyway but given how easily she feels the cold, she might even prefer a heavier one!

The pattern seems simple to follow and I’m sure the fact that I’m making lots of mistakes already (6 rows in) is because it is past bedtime and not because the pattern is difficult. Pictures of completed scarves on Ravelry look really pretty so I’m hoping this will turn out well. If it does, I might make one for myself as well. After all, I do have a jumper’s worth of yarn to use up, now.

… coming soon to a wedding near you?

A little while ago, I spotted some beautiful origami table decorations for a wedding over on the Style Me Pretty blog. Being me, I saw the decorations and immediately thought, “I can do that”, despite not having done any origami for years!

Since it’s a typical rainy bank holiday Monday, Steven and I spent this morning folding flowers.

We’ve been experimenting with different styles and different ways of displaying them and think we may finally have hit upon our favourite combination.

All we need now are some pretty vases and the patience to fold many dozen more identical flowers!

Edited to add – Looks like we might have found the vases:

Sometimes I try something and fail; sometimes I try something and succeed.

Fortunately, tonight was definitely in the latter camp and we now have a new cutlery drawer fitted!

Only I could decide that assembling and fitting the drawer myself, including drilling the holes for the handle, was easier than trying to schedule the kitchen fitting company to come back out. For once though, it appears I was right.

Steven and I spent yesterday enjoying the sunshine whilst walking in Kent. We drove out in my car, put the roof down, turned the music up and only got a little bit lost.

My car, posing at the foot of Snowdon, not longer after I bought it.

I’d forgotten just how much fun the MG-TF is to drive. Not to get too technical, it’s got a reasonably powerful engine, low centre of gravity and lots of torque meaning that you can throw it around corners and bends. Also, the engine always seems to have that little bit more to give when you put your foot down. I’m not sure I’ve ever managed to have it flat out on British roads. Of course, all this is done while driving sensibly and carefully, not endangering myself or other road users (no matter what my passengers sometimes say).

The walk itself was lovely. I would link to it on Kent County Council’s site but until it’s been updated with the corrections that I’m going to email them, I would hate to be responsible for anyone else attempting it with the current directions. For example, “14.Turn right, then take the next left – a bridleway into the woods.” should really have said “14. Turn left, then right – a bridleway into the woods.” Thank you very much to the local with the dog who managed to put us on the right path! I realise that the council can’t be held responsible for farmers taking down the old fences (with waymarkers) and replacing them with new ones (without waymarkers) but getting left and right the wrong way round in a walking guide is just bad.

There are no pictures from the walk, unfortunately, as the batteries in my camera had died. I discovered this trying to take a picture of what was described in the guide as “a small metal bridge”. For once, the council were absolutely spot on, the bridge can’t have been more than two feet long.

Since we were in the area, we decided we’d continue on (by car) to Canterbury once we had finished the walk and wander round the city before finding something to eat. I love Canterbury; it is one of the few towns that every time I go, I find myself thinking, “I could live here.” It is a pleasant mix of historic town with student town and has a decent-sized town centre without being too big. It doesn’t hurt that it is very pretty, either.

It also has an Oxfam bookshop, which is either a blessing or a curse. I picked up a couple of books to scan and submit to Project Gutenberg, which I’ll post about later.

Having dragged ourselves out of the bookshop, we ended up in the fantastic Cafe Mauresque restaurant for dinner. This is a really nice Spanish/North African restaurant serving cous-cous, tagines, tapas and paella. I couldn’t resist the lamb tagine but when I saw the size of the portion, I wished I hadn’t bothered with a starter! The main courses look expensive but considering the amount of food and the quality, they’re well worth it. The lunch and tapas menus look like excellent value, as do the desserts but there was just no space left to try them. Maybe next time.

I recently bought Nancy Bush’s book, Knitting Vintage Socks. I was looking for good patterns for men’s socks and realised that several of the patterns I had added to my Ravelry queue were all in this same book. I decided that it was obviously my destiny to own this book and ordered it.

The book contains a selection of 19th century knitting patterns updated, where needed, for modern yarn, needles and jargon. There is a section on the history of the periodical that the patterns were originally published in and a section on how the author went about updating the patterns. Given my work with Project Gutenberg and, more especially, my interest in their Craft bookshelf, I found these sections just as interesting as the patterns themselves.

Not that the patterns need much by way of support. There are 20 patterns; a mixture of ladies and gents. I have only made the Gentleman’s Fancy Sock pattern so far (see this post) but I will definitely be making more of these. The patterns are clearly written, with charts where appropriate. The book itself is spiral bound, which is very handy.

There are only two things that I would change about this book. The patterns are only given in one size, which may not be a problem for more experienced sock knitters, but as a new sock knitter I was relieved that the pattern I wanted to make was given in the size I wanted to knit! I realise that the original patterns would only have been published in one size and that it would have taken a lot more time and effort to provide the patterns in various sizes but it would really have added to the value of this book.

My other complaint is that the patterns have been published under their original names, which means it is not immediately clear what size the updated pattern is intended for. There is at least one pattern that has been sized as a ladies sock using modern yarn and needles but was originally published as a child’s pattern, with “child” in the name. Since only the name is listed in the Table of Contents, it is unclear how a reader is supposed to know that this is actually a ladies sock without reading the whole book.

These are reasonably minor complaints though and I can highly recommend this book to anyone looking for traditional or gents sock patterns.

(Click the image for the full version of the cartoon.)

Fortunately, my upgrading of this blog didn’t end with sharks. It has ended with some new features that don’t appear to be working, some new features that are working but I don’t know what to do with them and some old features that don’t work as well as they used to.

Oh well, at least I don’t have to feel like the rest of the world is leaving me behind, in blog terms anyway.

(And I highly recommend xkcd.com to anyone who is a maths or technology geek.)

Steven and I have never been a particularly traditional couple when it comes to gender roles. My favourite story is of the day that I spent buying a sports car and playing golf, while Steven shopped for clothes. (It was a suit for his graduation but it’s a better story if I don’t mention that.) For a while now, Steven has been trying to convince me that if we have children, he should stay home while I go out to work (assuming we can survive on just my salary).

There are good reasons why this makes sense but what mainly seems to be driving it is Steven’s thought that it would be horrible to have to go out to work every day while I got to stay at home! However, Steven’s been home this week while I’ve been out working and I’m just about convinced.

For instance, I came home last night to this:

That is a home-baked Victoria sponge with real whipped cream and fresh raspberries. Not only that but there was a risotto in the oven and clean laundry. I think I’m convinced.

Today I finished the Gentlemen’s socks for Papa!

I really liked the stitch pattern for these, which came from “Knitting Vintage Socks” by Nancy Bush. I wasn’t so keen on the toe or the heel used though, so next time I make them, I think I’ll do those differently. Given that these are only my second pair of socks, I just wasn’t brave enough to try anything different with these ones.

The socks are being beautifully modelled in the photograph by Steven. The good news is that I’ve managed to get them back off him and pack them in my suitcase to take them to Glasgow this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll find some time to pop in and see Gran and Papa and give Papa the socks. They’re only two months late as a birthday present!