Knit one, read two

Simmer dim

February 13, 2011 SusanLeave a comment

The bits and pieces of designing and re-knitting my own designs that I’ve been doing have started to feel a little bit like work recently. Since I already have enough things in my life that are actually work, I decided it might be time to take a little break and go back to knitting from other people’s designs for a little while.

First on the list is Simmer Dim (Ravelry link) by Gudrun Johnston. I love Gudrun’s shawl patterns. I knitted Aestlight last year (which I don’t seem to have blogged about before) from some Knitwitches cashmere and I wear it a lot. (I’m less keen on Gudrun’s jumper patterns – they look lovely but aren’t at all suited to my body shape.) I’m knitting this in the Fyberspates Nef lace that I bought at Knit Nation last year, which really is beautiful yarn. My hope is that between the simple, elegant pattern and the understated colour of the yarn, I’ll end up with another nice work-appropriate shawl. So far, so good!

Knitting in public

February 2, 2011February 3, 2011 SusanLeave a comment

Thanks to train cancellations and a general inability on my part to leave the house on time, I ended up catching the DLR to work yesterday morning rather than my usual train. I was also travelling slightly later than usual (see above comment about not being able to leave on time) so it was quiet enough that I could even get a seat. All of which meant that I managed to squeeze in some knitting time on my way to work.

There are very strict unwritten rules of etiquette in place on the London transport system. For example: you will not make eye contact with fellow passengers; you will not attempt to converse with fellow passengers (unless you are travelling together, at which point everyone else will pretend that they can’t hear you); in fact, you will attempt at all times to pretend that your fellow passengers do not exist and that you are alone in the carriage (while also not making it difficult for your fellow passengers to pretend that you don’t exist). Exceptions are made for reading other people’s newspapers over their shoulders and glaring at people whose earphones are leaking noise into the carriage.

The fun part about knitting on public transport in London (other than the fun of the knitting itself, obviously) is that it also seems to be an exception to the rules. For instance, when I travelled regularly by Tube, I often looked up from my knitting to realise that the whole carriage was staring at my hands, apparently hypnotised by the movement of my needles. Very occasionally, I even got into a conversation with someone about what I was knitting. However, the best bit (for me) is the (guilty) pleasure that I get from the terribly British embarrassment that some people suffer when they suddenly realise that they have been staring fixedly at a stranger’s lap for the past five minutes.

I’ve got sunshine…

January 29, 2011 SusanLeave a comment

… on a cloudy day.

It feels like London has been grey and overcast for months now but my current knitting is definitely helping to alleviate the winter blues. In fact, it’s so bright and cheerful that I don’t mind that I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve ripped out the swatch and re-started it (and, for once, I’m not being sarcastic). I’m working on a new design that I plan on submitting for publication so can’t say any more about what it’s going to be yet. However, I can tell you about the yarn.

The yarn is artesano 100% alpaca 4 ply that I bought in the Life Craft in Glasgow when Steven and I met up with Helen over Christmas. I love knitting with this yarn; it is beautifully soft (yet stands up well to repeated ripping out), the stitch definition is lovely and the colour is just amazing. So much so, that I always have a smile on my face when I pick it up to work with, even if it is to rip out the whole thing for the umpteenth time!

Barcelona

January 23, 2011January 22, 2011 SusanLeave a comment

Not the city (unfortunately) but the Amy Butler skirt pattern. Back in October, I attended an “A-line skirt workshop” at the Make Lounge in Islington and this is the result (excuse the not-brushed-my-hair-or-put-any-makeup-on picture).

I love this skirt. It has somehow ended up being a little big, despite fitting perfectly when I tried it on at the workshop. It’s still perfectly wearable though so I haven’t bothered trying to take it in at all.

The fabric is a red gabardine from John Lewis and is slightly heavier than the cotton that is suggested for the pattern but is the perfect weight for a winter skirt. The lining is a not terribly interesting grey/lilac polyester which I mainly picked to be a nice contrast.

I really enjoyed the workshop. The pattern is well-written and easy to follow anyway but, since this was my first time trying to make anything from a pattern, it was great to have someone there to guide me. I learned how to adjust the pattern to fit my measurements and a neat way of shortening a skirt pattern (particularly one that claims it only makes one length). As always with the Make Lounge, the evenings themselves were good fun, a couple of glasses of wine and some good company can make sewing a surprisingly social activity.

There is a guilty secret attached to this skirt though:

It’s not actually finished! There is just a very little hand-sewing left to do to attach the lining to the zip and to add a hook and eye at the top of the zip. Unfortunately, neither of these things are visible when the skirt is worn so I’ve been wearing it lots anyway and have very little motivation to do the finishing. Maybe now that I’ve admitted my laziness to the internet, I’ll finally get around to finishing it properly.

Ten Paper Penguins

January 19, 2011 SusanLeave a comment

… of the book variety.

This was my absolutely awesome Christmas present from Steven this year – a reproduction set of the first ten Penguin paperbacks ever published, which was created for the 50th anniversary of their launch. Since the launch was in 1935, this means that the set is 25 years old!

The set is in almost pristine condition (especially for its age), just some minor fading on one end where it must have been sitting in the sun. The books themselves look like they’ve never been read. As well as the books, the set includes a pamphlet with short blurbs about each of the authors and press clippings of reviews from the launch.

The books are:

Ariel: a Shelley romance, André Maurois

A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

Madame Claire, Susan Ertz

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Dorothy L. Sayers

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Twenty-Five, Beverley Nichols

William, E. H. Young

Gone to Earth

Carnival

(Where I’ve included a link, the book is available from Project Gutenberg, but I should point out that both Agatha Christie and Compton Mackenzie are still under copyright in the UK, even if some of their work is public domain in the US.)

Amazingly, I had never read any of these, although I’m now well on the way to rectifying that.

Story of a design – Oren

January 15, 2011 Susan4 Comments

The initial idea for Oren came from childhood memories of walks in and around pine woods. Every summer, my sister and I spent two weeks of the school holidays with our grandmother in Fife. Every so often, in the evening, my gran would announce that we were “going to see the rabbits” and we would take a walk up to and through the nearby pine woods to watch the rabbits playing. We also used to collect pine cones on these walks, for no other reason than we liked to pick them up as we walked. Occasionally, we talked about using them for a craft project but we never seemed to get round to it; we just kept adding to the bag that my gran kept in a cupboard.

At some point, many years later, it occurred to me that a shawl that resembled pine branches with cones hanging from the ends could look quite pretty and Oren was the result.

The body is simple arrowhead lace with an easily memorised 4-row repeat. The border is a little more complicated, incorporating directional increases and decreases for a slightly scalloped effect.

The name Oren comes from the Hebrew word for “pine”. I admit to having no idea how the Hebrew should be pronounced but I say “Aw-rren”.

This shawl was supposed to be a present for my mother-in-law but since it wasn’t ready in time for either her birthday or Christmas, I think I might have to keep it for me!

Oren is now available from Yellow Ginger Designs and Ravelry.

Silver linings

January 13, 2011 SusanLeave a comment

2011 has not started well. So far, Steven and I have both been ill, someone crashed into our car (while it was parked and empty) and I’ve broken a tooth, resulting in the need for a root canal treatment. I don’t like spreading negativity, which is why I haven’t been posting but I’m finally starting to see the silver lining in all the time that I’m spending on the couch — I’m getting lots of knitting done.

(I’m still working on finding the silver lining in a huge dent in the car and the root canal.)

Brown paper packages tied up with string

December 25, 2010 SusanLeave a comment

Our Christmas tree with everyone’s presents ready to go:

One purchase that we made in Brighton that I didn’t mention in my last post was a huge pile of brown paper that someone had saved from parcels from department stores in Brighton and Hove. Steven had already been considering brown-paper based wrapping (apparently I’m no longer the only person in the house who gets the crafting bug at Christmas) so when we saw the collection of 1950s paper, we decided it was fate and it had to come home with us.

I love the various old labels that were still attached. (If you click through to the larger version of the bookseller’s label, you can see it’s date-stamped 28th December 1954.) In fact, I loved the labels so much that I carefully didn’t use any pieces with labels to wrap my presents so that I can use them for something else in future — not that I know what yet!

Speaking of stamps, Steven created some lovely rubber-stamped gift tags for us to use.

I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m still amazed that something this simple looks so amazing! I foresee lots more rubber-stamping in my future.

For now, however, I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my Christmas day. Merry Christmas!

Vintage shopping

December 20, 2010December 18, 2010 SusanLeave a comment

Steven and I spent a lovely day last Saturday in Brighton. We wandered round and round and in and out of lots of little boutiques, galleries, and craft and design shops, which Brighton seems to have by the bucketload. We also hunted through lots of the antique-vintage-junk shops and came home with some interesting purchases.

I know it doesn’t look like much now (particularly in this photo) but I have big plans for this workbox. I’m going to strip it down, re-paint it, polish it up and replace the fabric lining. Once it’s done, I think it will look really good alongside the vintage sewing machine.

We haven’t decided where we’re going to hang this next find, yet. I think it would add a nice little touch of colour to our black and white bathroom and it would certainly be appropriate in there! Steven seems to be pushing for it go somewhere a bit more prominent but I’m not sure I’m up for that.

We also picked up a box of Christmas decorations. They are not terribly posh or fancy but they are a bit jazzier than our usual decorations and have really brightened up the tree.

Speaking of vintage decorations, look what else has found its way on to the tree this year:

Greenwich when it snows

December 18, 2010December 18, 2010 SusanLeave a comment