two sticks and an afro

Nothing to see here...

2008-05-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I have no photos to show you. Boo. My nokia N95's camera isn't working. This phone has been a major stress, and I don't think I'll ever go back to Nokia again. UGH.

My other camera - the sony one- needs to be charged. When that's done, I'll get some pictures on, pronto.

I've been working on the Debbie Bliss yoke sweater (ravelry link, soz) in the Prima yarn. I must admit, I do like DB's prima yarn. It's 80 percent wool/20 percent bamboo and its dk (or sport weight, for you Americans out there). It's a lovely yarn that seems to marry both characteristics of the materials gone into them. The bamboo gives the yarn a lovely drape and lustre, and the wool gives it elasticity and makes it easier to work on the hands.

Due to a quirk of my gauge with my knit picks metal needles, I've had to abandon them, and use colonial rosewood needles instead. The needles are nice, but not as smooth as I hoped - but you have to 'season' bamboo and wooden needles, by running them through your hair and allowing the oils to build a patina of sheen on them. So because of this, I'm not zipping through the miles of stocking stitch like I thought I would.

If I knit too long, my fingers hurt, due to the 'grabby' nature of the wool against the wooden needles. Also, I'm afraid of knitting too long because I've been seeing a fair few of my knitterly friends having to wear wrist splints because of the repetitive action. So, to quote a well known Jamaican proverb: take sleep, mark death - which just means that you note the little patterns and use that to see the big picture.

So, yesterday I watched the Eurovision song contest. For the Americans on my flist, Eurovision is a deliciously campy song competition that happens around this time every year. It's over the top, with original lyrics and zany costumes. On average, forty different European countries enter, and only twenty five countries make it to the final. You have songs lasting for two - three minutes each, and people are encouraged to be as original and outrageous as they can.

The way how the Eurovision song competition is going now its very political. People in the respective countries are not allowed vote for their own talent, so you have to vote for another country. I voted for France's divine.

But the thing is, if you're not from the Balkans or the Baltics, your song doesn't get a look in. Pants. I thought Latvia's pirate's song was brilliant as well.

So, I hope to have some pictures up here. So far, the knit is all stocking stitch - rather boring, but soothing inthe sense that you can watch TV.

While I'm doing that, I'm thinking about doing my thermal in pieces, then seaming. I probably might do that, but then, I think about the dark yarn and change my mind again.

We will see.

Swatching for England

2008-05-16T04:41:00.000-07:00

Swatching for England. To the left, I'm doing the Yoke detailed sweater (how American sounding!) from Debbie Bliss' Coastlines. Instead of doing it in silk, I'm doing it in her prima yarn in emerald. It's a pretty yarn, a merino, bamboo blend. Bamboo gives the yarn its drape and lustre, wool will give me a bit of warmth and elasticity. I'm ruminating over the neckline, knowing that the silk tends to droop, hence that elongated neckline. Bamboo/wool might not have that same inclination to 'droop' but we will see.

Already, there's a problem. The pattern calls for 24stsx30rows on 4mm needles. I can only get 22stsx30 rows, so am reswatching in 3.75mm needles. Fingers crossed.

The picture to the top right is my swatch for thermal. I knitted a swatch, stuck it to my cork board with two clothes pins at its edge to imitate weight in order to coax it to stretch. The thermal stitch is very stretchy - as in, an inch. This is done in rowan soft 4ply (100 percent merino). So, will do 34" instead of 36" size on 3mm needles. The twisted rib for the cuffs was very stable - didn't budge from 2 inches - even after the washing and hanging (I treat my swatches mean, to keep them keen).

The jumper to the front is from Rebecca 36. It's just called 'brown sweater' and has cables and lace, done in a cotton/acrylic yarn called Leona. I'm subbing Leona with Rowan all seasons cotton in a green/grey/brown colour called 'military'. I got 20 balls of it on the cheap because it was being discontinued. I thought of knitting an actual military jacket, but this yarn wants to be this jumper. My gauge is on point, although I've never really done cable on a jumper before (did on Fetchings, but never on clothing). I haven't done a lot of lace, so this might ease me into the land of lace knitting.

I'm hoping to follow less of the US elections (go Dems!) a lot less, and focus on my knitting a bit more. No more ravelry for the nonce, because I do want to get these jumpers finished. The yoke one will be nice to wear in this changeable British weather - cool when it's hot, warm when its cool.

Next week, I hope to be half way through the body.

taps on microphone Is anybody out there?

2008-05-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello! I know, it's been a minute. I had to deal with some business in IRL, wherein I came, I saw... and got my arse kicked. So, I've been licking at my wounds for a while, and decided to get my knitting on.

I love knitting. No matter how bad things get, I can always rip back, and make something useful. In knitting, you can always fix mistakes.

So, without further ado, here's my tomato.

The usual specs:
Pattern: Tomato, by Wendy Bernard from the book No Sheep for You.
Started: March, 2008
Finished: May, 2008
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Stella in blue and cream
Needles: Aldi 4.5mm.
Mods: Did 140 sts at bust instead of 156sts, did pattern a couple of rows earlier.

Comments: I actually liked this topdown. It was easy peasy. I had issues with it though, in the sense that the pattern calls for negative ease - and the measurements were for 32" and 37" bust lines. So, since I'm 35" - I had to do 140 sts (instead of the 156 dictated by the pattern). In addition, I was leery re: the pattern on my bust, so, it's a bit high up (under the pits) and not across the 'girls'. The Debbie Bliss Stella is lovely: yes, it's prone to splitting, but it has a soft, lived in feel and look to it, and it takes the 4.5mm needle sizes nicely (the needle size recc'd for this yarn is 5mm).

I do like the yarn, but doing stranded knitting with such a thick yarn was tricky, because you didn't want it to be too tight, you know? I'd do this in a dk yarn next time, with some elasticity too. It's a nice sweater for this hot weather we're having. Not too hot, with all that silk and cotton. You could wear this baby against sunburnt skin and not feel uncomfortable.

Like a virgin?: This is the first time that I've completed knitting a topdown garment. There are advantages to this method, especially when you're knitting with limited yarn quantities. What's nice is that the seaming is minimal, and I appreciate Ms Bernard's necklines. They are nice and wide and there's enough stitch work for interest.

Oh that purple fingering yarn to the right? That's the swatch for my thermal in rowan soft 4ply, 100 percent merino yarn in an aubergine colour called 'Victoria' (I think).

Hmmm... I hear that the rowan 4ply soft stretches like a politician's lie, so I'm doing a swatch for gauge, and for how this yarn is going to behave. I've been hearing stories about doing the jumper in the first size (32!) because it will stretch to 35 inches when I'm done. Can we say, *okay*? But it's a jumper done in fingering yarn, and it calls for a commitment in terms of time and effort.

Sooo, because I'm incorrigible (what? You thought that I changed?! Uh...no) and my eyes are bigger than my stomach - have you seen Kim Hargreaves' new collection? I'm sure you have, I've been away. I like the fact that she has denim yarn in this collection. I want to knit either joy or glee. I like glee because it looks lady like - and I can wear a denim jacket that doesn't look like a denim jacket. Joy probably seems more my speed, but I love glee.

So, onward to doing this swatch. I'm going to wash it, stretch it and stick it on a cork board and see how it stretches.

I don't trust you, 4ply!

sighs I hate life

2008-03-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

You remember when Marian Cotillard won her Oscar and she said something about loving life and love?

Sadly, I can't say I'm enamoured of life at this moment:

My herringbone stitch for my tomato is giving me a warm time. This will be the fifth time I've ripped back - boo. The thing with my tomato is, I fall between sizes - in addition, the pattern calls for negative ease. So instead of 136 sts or 156 sts, I'm working with 140. Herring bone stitch is a multiple of 4, but the way how this design is, it seems to be a multiple of 4+2 at round 1 and round 4. Arrrgh.

In other life news, my partner and I have decided to withdraw from the adoption process - even though its more a matter of jumping instead of being pushed.

According to stats, it seems that we're neither wealthy enough nor do we have an adequate enough 'social circle' to adopt. Also, I don't have parental experience, which is important since this child won't be ours, as the social worker keeps saying. I now need to call my referees and tell them to stand down.

So, I'm a bit bummed right now. Off to rip my tomato back two rows.... again.

Ohhh la la! New Knitty!

2008-03-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

Have you seen it? Yosemite and ribbon scarf are mine! I have first dibs. Honeycomb is cool too.

Need to finish up my knitting. Yes.

See you Friday. :)'

Purple - or is it blue? Tomato

2008-03-08T12:53:00.001-08:00

My partner and I have been puzzling over this colour of yarn. I think it's an ultramarine blue (the first picture is really accurate), while my partner thinks its purple. I actually hope that it's blue, because I have too much purple yarn. It's going to be embarrassing when I knit up all this purple yarn - oy.

So, I decided to look up colour psychology and came up with my favourite colours and what they meant.

Purple: Associated with: creativity, fertility, joy, but also magic, evil, death and sex

Orange: Associated with: stability, reassurance, warmth, and is thought to aid digestion

Green:Associated with: nature and energy, calming and restful, balance (halfway between red and blue) security, stability

Blue: Associated with: calming and soothing; promotes intellectual thought; believed to keep hunger at bay; loyalty, serenity, authority, protection, contemplative, prevents nightmares.

Whoa.

Anyhoos, this is my first top down pattern, it's knit and tonic's Tomato . I must admit, it's the only pattern from No Sheep for You that I genuinely liked, so imagine my chagrin when knitting daily offered it for free! After I bought the book! Grrr. I'm not using the recommended yarn for this project (Blue Sky Alpaca's organic cotton) because I don't like it much. It pills dead easily (winding hanks into balls!), would be very uncomfortable on the size 7 needles and just feels really heavy.

I'm using Debbie Bliss' Stella, a cotton/silk/rayon blend. It has a nice slubbed texture (to hide the inevitable pilling), and the silk will have nice temperature regulating abilities. I'm doing it on the sevens, using the directions for the smallest size (but added additional stitches on the armscye so I can wear a t-shirt underneath without it bunching).

So far, the pattern is easy. I must admit, I scratched my head when it came to backward loop cast on (too loosey goosey, I understand why its used for lace cast on), and how to join the neckline into the round.

That was because I'm accustomed to knitting from the bottom up, so the needles dipping down threw me for a six.

The pattern is going well so far *knocks on wood*, and if I actually put my mind to it, I'd probably finish this by Friday - but alas, I have to tidy my house, fill out a stack of papers (an inch high!) and get some work done. It also doesn't help that I've started reading comics again - in earnest - as well as all those Navy SEALs romance novels *sigh*. They are so utterly trashy, like junk food for the intellect. So decadent, and so good. I'm shameless, I know.

Yum.

Oh, btw, flickr sucks. Because I live in the EU, my picture amounts have been shaved to nothing. What it means is that I have to go back to flickr and delete some of my pictures - or pony up $24.95 for a year.

So, what's your favourite colour? What's the psychology behind it? Surprise yourself!

Rip it good

2008-03-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

"There's dust on my guitar/ and it's all your fault/ and you've paralyzed my mind and for that, you suck/Ooohh"

I don't even remember who sang that song, but they used to show it on Saturday morning cartoons when I was a wee sprong.

Anyways, how have you been? As for me, I've spent the time reading good books by Suzanne Brockmann - who writes really good stories with characters that make me cackle until three am in the morning. Right now, I'm totally mooning over the plight of Jules and Robin - my gay one true pairing (OTP).

I've also spent the past two weeks knitting the short sleeved cardigan - only to face the facts: the slubbed, lived in texture of this yarn doesn't suit the crisp sunny nature of this cardigan. Probably a smooth cotton/bamboo or a bamboo tape would have worked. Alas, cotone cardi, we hardly knew ye.

So, I'm gonna rip it back and do a Tomato from no sheep for you. The Stella yarn is a slightly better yarn than the blue sky alpaca cotton (the recommended yarn) in the sense that the Stella yarn hides the pilling well, and with its silk/cotton/rayon mix, it should be comfortable to wear. I've never really committed to a top down garment to its completion, so I'm going to be putting the foot down on this baby. I want three tops for Spring, and this is top no. 1.

My weekend will be the following:

Rip yarn
Wind yarn in hanks, dampen and let dry
Wind into balls
Do swatch
Start knitting - Sunday night.

The grand thing - I'm wearing the heck out of my Phildar pullover. It's charming, warm and I might knit another one in another colour - and put on sequins and keep it 'for best'.

We will see.

I hope to update on Sunday (tomorrow evening), or mid week the latest. See you then!

Have you ripped back anything lately?

Spinning a yarn

2008-02-16T04:13:00.001-08:00

Right. So far, I've gone ahead and done the 34" bust size for that Lana Grossa Cotone no 5, pattern no. 5. I did the size smaller in the stella since I hear it grows 'some' and not much. I can live with that. Or rip it back if I'm not satisfied.

I've done it before.

The sleeves are more or less finished, although I have a fair few problems with the pattern. By the time you follow all the instructions, you're seven inches in, and yet the pattern asks you to bind off at six inches. Things that make you go, "*&^%!$ crosses."

So, last night, to keep my sanity, I took on a dare and started writing Sweet Valley High fanfic.

Not the high school/college variety, but the Sweet Valley Heights variety, when our well loved (and loathed!) characters are existing in their gated community and living out a desperately incestuous existence, what with all the boyfriend (now husband) swapping and the like. I used to read SVH and was always bemused at the fact that to date outside the SVH community was death.

Death.

So, someone said that John Barrowman reminded one of Bruce Patman at forty. He had that sort of charm that can be at times sweet, yet having a sinister edge. You'd be wanting to kill Patman, yet you would stay your hand and find some other punishment that sat lightly on your soul, because he was so *hawt*.

That was all it took and I wrote slash. Me, who shied away from writing slash in the HP fandom (and my OTP was a popular slash pairing), bust a move and wrote two stories featuring Steven Wakefield (the twin's older brother) and Bruce Patman.

*Awk*

I shan't link you to the stories because they are too risque, like Mr Barrowman himself.

I have a sickness.

Anyhoos, came across some yarn via ravelry. It's New Lanark, from Scotland. For 100 gs its about £1.80 for aran weight (150 m) and for 100 grams of dk it's about £1. Bargain. They have natural colours, some emerald colours and there's the option of 100 percent wool as well as a wool/silk mix. I ordered three balls to have a play with, because I want to do Nora Gaughn's tweedy aran cardigan that's for sale on the IK website.

The wool is relatively soft, and I hear it softens more on knitting and steaming. For all my anti-handwash vibe, I might have to bite the bullet and purchase more. I mean, I can make a man sized jumper for £18! £18! Compared to Rowan's price at £80! Bargain, that. It makes me wonder about the 'designer yarns' and their overheads.

Any 'Fibre whisperers' out there?

2008-02-14T02:04:00.000-08:00

I have a problem.

See, I want to knit this (look at model no 5 with the short sleeves) with Debbie Bliss Stella colour no 10.

Now, the Debbie Bliss Stella is comprised of 60% silk, 20% cotton and 20% rayon. All of these materials on their own are known to grow (silk grows when worn, so does some cotton and rayon, in my readings and experience) . However, I haven't really come across a complaint about this yarn growing while knit.

As such, I'm unsure if I should do size medium 36" bust, and just do size small (34" bust) instead, since I've a feeling that this yarn might GROW. Right now, I'm doing the sleeves first, and have sent out missives to those on ravelry who've used this yarn.

I do have my suspicions with the fact that Debbie Bliss tends to use a LOT of patterns with cables. Yes, ideally yarn needs to be elastic for cables, but Bliss also uses cables as some sort of structure with her yarn designs.

Help! I'm drowning, not waving.

Got gauge? Jazzy sings the blues

2008-02-11T06:38:00.000-08:00

"Born under a bad sign/ been down since I learned how to crawl/if it wasn't for bad luck/then I wouldn't have no luck at all"

Homer Simpson from The Simpsons Sing the Blues.

Normally, I'd scoff at Homer Simpson's fatalistic caterwauling, but that was before last week (after my vacation in the Land of the Navel), and my gauge swatching. I've been swatching samples all week. I have yet to start my thermal because my John Lewis didn't have the amount of yarn I needed. So I've sent off for some. Meanwhile, I'm swatching and singing the blues.

Normally, the reason why it takes me so long to start a project is substitution and gauge. Most times, I tend sub the yarn used for varying reasons, but all have to do with the fact that I live in the UK, and I have to work with what I've got. Also, I tend to obsess over gauge and make sure that it's perfect, including calculations and everything, so once I start to knit, I never look back.

With my swatching of these squares, I've come to some inalienable truths:

My gauge/tension is tighter on metallic needles.
My stitches are much neater on wooden/bamboo needles.
I spend a lot of time swatching.

So, what am I swatching? To the left in that purple/blue yarn is a short sleeved top by Filati, I think. I like the design but not the original yarn. Stepping into the substitute box is Debbie Bliss Stella - a silk, cotton, rayon mix. It's light and papery smooth to the touch, and the colour will work on me. Of course, the yardage sucks, and the yarn is 'high end', but I want it.

My swatch is on point for this yarn.

In the middle with that plum yarn: a Vogue top- raglan sleeves, with bobbles on the sleeves and a cable and bobble front. I love the bobble detail on the sleeves, but not in love with the bobbles on the neckline. I'm using Bergere de France magic. The 'magic' is supposedly for 5-5.5mm needles, but it's really chunky, and handled the 6mm nicely to form a good fabric. However, on my Aldi turbos (6mm), the tension is too snug, and on my 6.6mm bamboos, it might be a tad too big. I should have some 6.5mm circulars about, so we will see.

That teal yarn there? That's Cascade superwash 220 in Spruce. On my monitor, the spruce was a darker green blue. The tone was rather mysterious, like shadows in the snow in a coniferous forest. In real life, it's a TEAL yarn. I've nothing against teal, but dang. Anyways, it seems that the superwash is a bit thinner than its non superwash comrade. Crap. So, instead of me getting 18 sts to 4 inches on 5mm needles, I'm getting 20 sts. I don't want to go up a needle size (5.5mm), because it will look like lace.

Crap again.

Not many people make bamboo circulars, and once you go metallic circular with fine cords, you never go back. Good thing I don't mind knitting with straight needles.

Hopefully, I'll get something sorted, because I do want to wear more knitted stuff. Once you start wearing home made knit garments, its hard to pay scads of money for acrylic based clothing, really.

Dang.

Yo, Joe! Jazzy courts nostalgia, you might want to pass on this post.

2008-02-08T03:19:00.000-08:00

Readers, forgive me. It's been eight days since my last post. I've gotten my Rebecca magazine (I'm so casting on - once I've done my swatching) and wondering why people don't do double knit or sport weight patterns anymore. What's with all this aran and heavier yarn stuff? With 4ply and dk you can layer, will have garments that are light enough to wear in summer, yet giving you leeway for winter with layering. Also, it doesn't make you look like you've been doing a Winne the Pooh and getting stuck in the honey pot (or whatever vice you're stuck on). In addition, it really doesn't take that long to knit in 4 ply and sport weight. Really.

Also, I've been spending time on Ravelry as a volunteer editor, which just means archiving patterns and their links and prices as well as writing notes. These editing jobs are primarily the new Rowan RYC magazines, and the new Rebecca. I might do the new Filati too. Then, as the patterns get worked up, I'll be pestering people for pictures to pair with the new spring/summer patterns posted. The 'job' isn't hard, but it's rather time consuming.

Anyways, I haven't been knitting for the past couple of days, because I've become reacquainted with GI-Joe (the original Sunbow series, mind. Not the Dic series or the GI Extreme or Sigma 6), and have fallen in love with the cartoon and characters again - but for the first time.

Right now, I guess you know they are making GI Joe the live action movie to be released in 2009. It will be a good book end to the franchise, whose 25th anniversary is being celebrated this year.

GI-Joe was the first cartoon that I fell hard for. It was an ensemble cast of good guys fighting COBRA, a terrorist group trying to take over the world. Due to me living in the West Indies, we got the cartoon that was shown state side, so I know the "GI JOE, a real American hero" spiel by heart. At least three versions of the theme. Why, I can even sing the original song for GI Joe the animated movie (Cobra la) without prompting, and without irony.

Two variations of the songs. Flint (the guy wearing the beret) is pointing his hand in this one, the second version.

Duke (the blonde haired guy) leads the charge in the original. You see that black guy, Stalker, coming up to the front left of Duke? He's one of the original Joes in the comic- and helped formed the original team along with Hawk. Recognize.

What I remembered about the cartoon is the excitement, from Flint's shout of : "Yo, Joe!" and his gloved finger pointing in the direction of the charge, to the actual action of the cartoon episode itself, some life lessons (knowing is half the battle) and then the end credits which were just as thrilling.

The cast of characters were colourful as their names: Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, Cover Girl, Flint, Lady J, Gung ho, Roadblock, Dusty and then later (in the cartoon series), Shipwreck and Hawk.

In every episode, additional characters came thick and fast: Mainframe, Dial Tone, Ace, Lifeline, Doc, Airbourne, Airtight, Alpine, Quick Kick... I could go on and on.

Of course, such good guys actually deserve colourful and worthy opponents, like the megalomaniac Cobra Commander, with his rasp of a voice, and an unwavering thirst for world domination, Destro the arms dealer who wears the mask as a nod to his ancestors, and the Baroness, loyal to both men, but never being less than herself in the process. Rounding off the Cobra ranks was Zartan, and his gang (The Dreadnoks), the mercenary Firefly and the capable Major Bludd, who is not a poet but doesn't know it.

GI Joe had a fair bit of action, most times than not, you'd find yourself in the thick of the battle, or meet the Joes gearing up for said battle. The Joes and Cobras would clash anywhere - in space, on the roof of the world, in alternate dimensions... and I'd go with them, a willing participant in whatever the cartoon was selling.

But really, what kept me coming back to GI Joes were the characters - considering that this cartoon was just made to sell the Hasbro toys to boys - that's something.

The banter between Cobra and Destro would have me in stitches each episode. You got the fact that although Destro had to defer to Cobra Commander, he didn't much like it - or him.
"Of course, my dear Cobra Commander", he'd say with sarcasm so rich and thick, you wonder why he didn't choke on it.

Tomax and Zamot, the Crimson twins (video PG13 for language) would finish each other's sentences, and were brilliant, charming and resourceful, because they would have been successful anywhere.

There was also the fact that characters on both sides - not just the good guys- had their own moral code and sense of loyalty. Way before I read the comics, I knew that Stormshadow wasn't bad, he just had his own moral compass. Zandar may have been mercenary, but when his sister was in danger from a Cobra scheme, he'd throw his chips in with the Joes to rescue his sister. Same with Xamot when his brother was being held 'hostage' by the Baroness.

Those character studies would have been enough to keep me coming back, but then the cartoons had recurring adult relationships which showed another side of the characters, and earned my loyalty.

You see, earlier cartoons might have had established couples, but you didn't really see anything other than a kiss on the cheek, ala The Flintstones, or just staid couples like Daphne and Fred in the Scooby Doo cartons. You knew they were a couple, just because... but nothing more. Or, if the cartoon was 'edgy', you'd have the main character falling for someone, but that character would be a one off, and they'd wave goodbye with hearts in their eyes.

Meh.

GI Joe broke that mold by showing relationships with adults that weren't staid at all. There was kissing, the slight edge of jealousy, the sorrow of what could have been.

For the recurring adult relationships there was Destro and the Baroness, who were involved with each other, with kissing and all. Considering the fact that this was a kids' cartoon, such blatant sensuality between these two characters made my young life, and my heart go pitter pat.

Destro and the Baroness did more than just snog, Destro got jealous of her flirting with Flint (although it was part of a Cobra plan in the Eau de Cobra episode), and the Baroness actually destroyed Destro's ancestral home because his attentions were elsewhere (a blonde Cobra drone). Despite the drama, you got the feeling that they deserved each other and they wanted each other. That relationship was dark and exciting, and no less real to me than my parents' own. Sad but true.

On the Joe's side, you had Scarlett and Duke who were an item in the cartoon (but Scarlett and Snake Eyes were in the comics), but seemed more flirtatious and not as serious as Flint and Lady Jaye. I loved the Flint/Lady Jaye relationship just as much as I loved the Destro/Baroness one, because they were similar.

Both men respected their women enough to let them get on with what they did best (kicking you know what, taking names), expressed concern and flirted with their other halves. Love was never mentioned between the characters, but you felt it, and knew it. Flint's halting remarks when he expressed worry, his blush when Lady Jaye expressed hers (in front of Shipwreck), and the slightly snarky tones they exchanged were really a portrayal of a healthy relationship. No sacred cows, here.

However, those two relationships never made me pause and get a pang in my heart like the truncated one of Mainframe and Zarana in the episode titled Computer Complications.

Despite the fact that they were on opposing sides of the conflict, they had chemistry - and lo and behold, I found one of my kinks. Anything with truncated love affairs I'll read, so I can mourn over what could have been.

These characters were the ones that got me into the GI Joe comics - even though they were relatively expensive and hard to get in my neck of the woods (my brothers and I collected the Daredevil, X-men, and Spiderman series faithfully. I'd buy the GI Joes whenever I saw them, or read the ones my friends bought when they came back from the states). In the comics, I loved Stalker, Hawk's second in command as written by Larry Hama (but Stalker wasn't shown in the cartoons, Duke, the blonde haired blue eyed guy was pushed by Hasbro).

Then, I dropped out of GIJoe, because I didn't like the Dic series, and I thought Serpentor was nothing more than an overgrown toddler instead of the champion villain that he should have been (to his credit, Larry Hama explored it in the comics, but... I couldn't access all of the series). Optimus Prime of the Transformers died, and I moved on to other cartoons, like Gargoyles.

Of course, these things come full circle.

GI Joe came way before I got the internet. By the time I got the internet, I fell into the Harry Potter fandom, and for a good few years, I couldn't get out.

I've always liked GI-Joe, my first fiction loves and when I heard about the live movie coming out, I decided to google my favourite pairing, Flint and Lady Jaye. Were they still an item? Was Lady Jaye still snarky? In the comics she gave Flint a warm time, but then Flint was cocky, and his ego needed deflating anyways. Or did the comicverse break them up? From what I gathered, Covergirl was still around - and very much a member.

With this in mind, I toddled around the internet, pleased with the amount of stuff I remembered, glad that the magic of the series was still there, untouched by my adult cynicism. Real American heroes indeed.

I decided to read the files of the original Joes, still remembering my brothers and myself racing pell mell from school, dropping our school bags at the front door, sitting in front of the TV promptly at four.

In my readings, I mourned over Mainframe getting killed, and over the lost possibility of him and Zarana in my alternative cartoon verse. The Scarlett/Snake eyes relationship was shades of shock and LOL, in that he left her at the altar, his face got repaired, Scarlett reminds Snake eyes of his sister, there are Ninja Joes everywhere -and that they were still together. Shipwreck and Cover Girl were hooking up - in the cartoon he hit on her - and she gave him a cold shoulder.

Shipwreck ...and Cover Girl?

I can dig it. It could work.

Destro and Baroness had a child, I gather, but the child might have been kidnapped or mislaid. I smiled at reading that, because Destro and Baroness were always dramatic and tempestuous. If their path had run smooth, I'd have been disappointed.

Now older, I read the background to GI Joe, the voice actors, found out (to my surprise!) that I've watched ALL the Sunbow episodes, admired Larry Hama for putting up with so much for so long, and kick starting the mythos (for Hasbro) that made growing up in the 80s fun.

Tut tutted over the producer turning GI Joe into an international task force, since American military might doesn't sell so well overseas nowadays. You know, because the centuries of glory and honour of the armed services should be smeared by the last eight years (my dad served in my country's military. I have a great respect for the armed services. Shoot me).

Are you kidding me? GI Joe is very much an American institution, just like the stars and stripes, Old Glory, and the battle cry, "Yo Joe!" Only Americans can be so passionately earnest about God and country without it coming off as being ironic (Australians come a close second). Yes, the cartoon might have been a tad jingoistic, but hey, it was The Cold War. Besides, have y'all seen NATO operations in Afghanistan lately?

Annoyed, I shrugged that off, to find out about my favourite Joe pairing. I'd whinge about the approach and the casting to the live action movie later. Probably I'd weigh in on the whole Lady Jaye vs Scarlett debate on some message board and make my case for who was better. Later, after I see what Flint and Lady Jaye were up to.

Only to find out that Lady Jaye was dead.

Lady Jaye got killed.

So, I've spent the past week tracking down the DDP issue, as well as various back issues. It seems that DDP is losing the GI Joe license, and I was warned that the GI Joe comic books had a limited issue run, and I'd be lucky to get it, because this happened way back in '05. I ebay'd, and messaged and desperate, I went to my local Forbidden Planet to order the issue, only to find out that it was in store!

I bought the comic, and didn't read it until I came home. To be honest, the storyline didn't make sense, and for the world to fall at the Red Shadows' feet was laughable.

Although there were many things wrong with the storyline, the writer totally got the Lady Jaye/Flint pairing. In their last days together, Lady Jaye was angry, and totally blowing up at Flint even though he tried to placate her. In the last hours they had together, they have a real humdinger of an argument, and Flint drives away, leaving her to stew.

He's run off the road by Dela Eden (one of The Shadows), trapped in his car, Eden is sent to kill or capture him, whatever comes first, only to be foiled by Lady Jaye. lady Jaye drags Flint out of the car, and quickly tells him that no matter what happens, she loves him, and goes off to secure Eden, only to be caught off guard by her and gets killed (shard of glass to the heart).

I loved that part, the fact that Lady Jaye went after Flint, and told him that she loved him ("you big dummy"), and everything else was just noise.

In the epilogue (and normally, I hate the damned things, epilogues; most of the time they weaken the story), we get the Lady Jaye we know from the comics and the cartoons, the snarky take charge Lady Jaye. The one who joshes Flint, who can be at turns sharp and cool, shades of arrogant and prickly professional, but catches you off guard with astonishing warmth as well.

It's her funeral, and Lady Jaye is getting her final send off, the tones of the panels in the present are grey and sketchy, a contrast with the brightly coloured panels of Lady Jaye through the lens of Flint's memory; from their first meeting, his proposal, to marriage, to their reinstatement, and her death.

By the third to last panel, when we see Lady Jaye, arms open, face warm and wreathed with smiles, eyes bright telling him, "C'mere, Flint, you big lug. You know I love you, right?" I was already feeling the sting of tears. When Flint salutes her grave and says, "I love you too baby... I always will." I just broke.

That's the drawback to nostalgia, at times the ache overwhelms the sweetness of the moment.

With this in mind, I'm keeping an eye on the movie. If it touches me just a fraction of the cartoon and the comic books, I'll be content. The magic of the series is the characters, and how they are complicated and shades of grey.

I know it won't be all Flint/Lady Jaye and it shouldn't be. I'm hoping that it won't be all Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, although to appease the GI Joe fan boys, it might be.

The comic and the cartoon series had a bit of everyone trying to do their best self - even if it was as base as getting paid for one's services, misguided as trying to rule the world or putting life on line for defense of honour and country.

I hear Larry Hama will be a consultant to the movie, but in his interviews he comes across as apathetic, or a bit bitter.

I harbour no great hopes for the movie, but I'm going to see it whenever it comes out. No matter how bad it will be. I'll be going to the theatre alone and I'll sit in the back, watching a piece of my childhood on screen, and remember magic. When the theatre goes black, and everyone leaves, and I'm alone, I'll stand up, punch my fist in the air and do the battle cry.

Yo, Joe!

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

2008-01-30T14:23:00.000-08:00

"Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems. "
-- Rainer Maria Rilke

It's spring again, everybody knows its spring again... in knitting magazine land, anyway. It's the time to shuck off winter clothing in their world, to wash and fold bulky scarves and jumpers and put them to one side. In their world, the sun is already warm on our faces and skins, our bodies are toned and lean from shedding the winter weight, swathed in sinful silks, clad in cool cottons and linens.

In spring, we're like the models in the Rebecca magazines: frolicking in exotic lands, where the wind is as soft as a lover's touch, warm as a cherished friend's smile, and our hearts are as light as well... the sun.

We'll send postcards to our friends in the Arctic climes - so smugly drunk on our sheer existence, our messages will be absolutely inane.

"Wish you were here", we shall scrawl on the back of card.
Or, we'll click with our camera phones and send the picture of a beach with this text attached: "We chase the sun".

Don't mind me, I kvetch because I'm jealous.

I wish I lived in Rebecca's world; the models always seem to have such fun, and their necklines tell the tale (the second picture). They are open, inviting, not hidden by yarn, or censured by the cold. The models' necks are bare; enough to show off expanse of chest and flirt with the curve of breast, but modest enough to titillate.

Or probably, we could be like Interweave Knit models. Still happy, but because we're American, we'll be friendly with it. We'll invite you inside and show you our stuff close up and friendly, because we're like that.

We will not be Rowan models though, too fey, too delicate, too well bred. Summer might be the time to lounge in a crumbling garden, musing over the fact that the sun did set on the British Empire, but not to hang out in the kitchen beside the heater. They also don't seem friendly, and not the type to send drunken texts from Marrakesh while simultaneously chasing the sun, like we do, because we are friendly.

Right, because I can only extend analogies so far (I think this one broke), lets talk knitting magazines and their offerings.

At first glance, the Interweave Knit magazine seems to have a lot of the same ( cardigans - short to bracelet sleeve lengths). The only thing I'd really make right now would be the Auburn Camp Shirt, with its sweet details on the sleeves, the subtle patterning and the interesting collar (first photo). I must say, I do like the Aleita shell (look on the IK website), and the neckline of the printed silk cardigan.

In keen contrast, to IK , if I had time and money, I'd make everything from Rebecca's Spring/Summer magazine. It's funny how in the past couple of years, I've collected Rebecca magazines but never really looked at their patterns until recently. And when I say 'until recently' I mean like, 'last month.'

Hail ravelry, for showing me the way of the Rebecca.

Like Phildar, Rebecca has interesting twists when it comes to stitching and necklines. Unlike Phildar, I think Rebecca tends to like its cables and lace more. I also like Rebecca's pullovers, and the twist on ribbing that they revisit ever so often.

The only drawback is, since I've discovered my mad mad love for Rebecca, I find that the magazine isn't really available in the UK anymore. *emo tear* To get the magazine from Germany, inclusive of postage, would cost me about €15,00 (£11) - around the same price as a Rowan magazine.

I told myself that if Rowan's Spring/Summer offering was good enough, I'd forgo buying the Rebecca. Money is at a premium right now, and the principle of opportunity costs is all too real.

Rowan number 43 won't be bought by me this year.

It's good though, because most of my knits have been Rowan (Salina, Loll) and I need to expand a bit. I've never done a Rebecca pattern before, I now think its time. I've never knitted from IK either (have lusted, though. Have lusted in my heart). Am also eying up the thermal (Knitty.com). So, I can see myself getting a few jumpers/pullovers for my wardrobe.

Just as well anyway, because I'm frightfully cold, but refusing to buy jumpers because I can make them myself. Also, I have mad stash to come to grips with.

So, have you seen any knits worth slotting into that ol' ravelry queue?

ZOMG! I might have found a Bansky! :D

2008-01-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

First, a confession: I love graffiti, the brash lines and its kicky verve. I like the fact that the best graffiti seems to be in the worst areas: the more broken buildings , shabby and rambling - the brighter the colours, the more insane the art. Of course, graffiti has its own sort of humour - it is exclusive to the tagger.

Of all the graffiti artists that I've been acquainted with, I love Bansky the best. I admire his attitude towards art; that it should for a minute, cause someone to pause and react, either in admiration or amusement. For Bansky, he makes me do both. Long before the Jolie-Pitts of this world hurled the value of his work into the stratosphere, I was a convert.

There is something of the craftsman in the detailed stenciling, but given a roguish edge by aerosol can. In addition, Bansky has a very democratic attitude towards art that appeals: it is done on walls, in public places, and of varying sizes for the average man to see, instead of going to the Louvre, or the National museum. In terms of scale, he's done mural sized stencils, and sly intimate pieces.

His work also reverberates on varying levels: at first, you admire the art, wait a beat, and then you get the message. Whether it be gay bobbies kissing on the beat, or painting open skies on a wall in the Middle East before it got knocked down, Bansky challenges one to think, and isn't precious about it.

I've seen a few pieces of his when walking around London, and always swore at myself for not having a camera. So imagine my surprise hustling from my Saturday job, only for this window to catch my eye. I'm like.... could it be a Bansky?! :D

The building is an old one, and its in the process of being abandoned. I was tempted to buy a window cutter and get cutting! But that might be vandalism, and with me trying to adopt and all, a criminal record wouldn't really help out matters.

What do you think? Has Bansky struck Nottingham? Is an imitator? From what I can gather, it looks like a store Santa Claus with a dash of Lenin, holding a machine gun.

So, that made my week! I'm still knitting the sock, on and off, but the yarn is terrible. I shan't be doing the other one. I'm still waiting on Rowan's new 4ply before I decide on my colour for thermal.

On the knitting front, it seems the editor for Vogue knitting has been sacked. I know that people tend not to like Vogue knitting (the pejorative term - Vague), but I didn't mind it. Just like its name sake in the shops, the knit fashions were high concept, and very much haute couture.

It was up to the knitter to take whatever bits she liked from the designs and make it to suit herself, especially since most knitters of Vogue are supposedly advanced anyway. I actually liked knit 1 as well, but she's been kicked from that too. :*('

I hope that Vogue doesn't shape up to be Interweave Knits part 2. I like each magazine for different reasons. *sigh* Never mind me.

So, what have you been up to? :D

Still raining

2008-01-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

Ugh, will the rain ever stop?

Oh well, there's always yarn to make everything okay. *squeezes yarn fondly*

Finally, I got around to ordering some posh yarn, as a treat to myself for acing an interview. This is a lovely warm orange with lovely variations. It's 80 per cent merino, 20 percent cashmere and entirely too good to waste on a boring sock pattern. If I get a placement after my training, I'm going to order some Wollmeise yarn.

Although I'm not a fan of socks knitting (but love wearing a hand knitted sock, oh Jazz), this yarn is special enough for the right sock pattern. have been looking at Ravelry, and having fun at the socks that I'm seeing. Cookie A's sock patterns seem difficult, but I'm willing to try 'em. Decisions, decisions...

So, I think these are the colours for my mittens. I've never really done a pair of proper mittens before. Ravelry seems to have a lot of patterns, so again, I browse.

The multicoloured yarn is the regia sock yarn. Wool and bamboo should be warm enough, no? We will see.

The purple is rowan 4ply soft, shade 390. It looks rather like eggplant. It is a nice, dark purple. I'm thinking that this might be my thermal. The top would be light enough to wear in spring/summer, have a flattering neckline (so you won't overheat), and yet open to layering. I have a fair bit of purple in my wardrobe though - but what is one more? The top is nice enough to even risk wearing to work.

I'll wait on rowan's new 4ply line. There's a magenta that's calling my name, but I think this purple is quite sophisticated. Either way, I can see myself going with 100 percent wool. There won't be any silk with this baby, so I wander if I need to do a size up. I'm a 35 inch bust, and originally, I was going to do the size down, but I won't be using any wool/silk blend, so I might as well do a 36 inch bust. What do you guys think?

I'm still kniting the roza socks. The pattern is really simple. Simple to the point of boredom. All is not lost, I've learnt a new stitch (brioche), and I can actually see myself using it in place of plain ribbing, because it has an interesting texture. You'd need more yarn though, what with the yarn overs and all. Also, this is the second pair of socks I've made top down. The next time, I'm going toe-up, baby.

So, what are you guys up to?

Ugh, rain rain, go to Spain...

2008-01-18T10:33:00.001-08:00

and never come back here again.

Ugh, it's been raining for the past two weeks and I feel positively waterlogged. *sigh* I need to teach English in Barcelona.

Anyway, I'm being good. I'm spending all this month doing swatches. That green blob to the right- is my swatch for thermal, done with Bergere de France's ideal (40 wool/30 acrylic/30 percent polyamid). I like the yarn on first knit - non snagging, fairly soft to knit with and non itchy.

The only drawback is that there seems to be a 'halo' around the stitches. I'm not doing all that work to have stitches with 'halo' (click on picture to make it bigger). I've been told that Rowan yarns are coming out with a nice new '4ply/fingering yarn' within the next two weeks, and that I should *wait*. The colours are supposed to be brighter, which is good, because the original muddy colours in the 4ply yarn doesn't really suit me at all.

The swatch in the round isn't so difficult, and if you're not careful, you might find yourself doing two purl bands instead of one. It's an effective stitch - and an easy one.

That sock on dpns (so *odd* to be working with dpns after discovering the brilliance of knit picks flexible cords for doing stuff in the round) is Roza's socks by Grumperina. I'm doing this in a random yarn of wool/ramie blend (don't know the name, sorry), on 2.5mm needles instead of 2.0mm. The pattern is easy, even straight forward. It looks rather classy, a band in 3x3 rib, then a garter stitch band, and the rest done in brioche stitch. This design deserves a better yarn than the one I'm knitting with, but needs must.

I'm doing these socks on my off time. If I'm watching TV, I have the socks in hand. If I'm on the bus (and my fingers aren't freezing), its the sock and nothing but. In supermarket lines, meetings, and me waiting outside for half an hour (for an interview), I am knitting this sock. I must admit, I'm not a sock knitter per se, but I do like the architecture of socks.

That sock yarn (regia bamboo) and that purple ball of yarn (Lane Borgosesia- I should have bought 10 balls) are going to be swatched together. I'm thinking of using the sock yarn as in the style of fair isle. I got this idea based on this person's mittens . The sock yarn I have is a bamboo/wool/polyamide mix. It is teamed with a 4ply yarn - 100 wool. On 2mm needles. Will that be warm enough? Or should I just do 100 percent wool?

Isn't the knit jacket cute?

2008-01-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

I was cruising on ONTD today and stumbled across a few pictures of Jennifer Aniston, filming a movie that I shan't be seeing. But anyway, isn't this jacket too cute? Short sleeved, cropped, with a ribbed collar (do wish the scarf was less intrusive though).

I guess I better be taking that design class after all. I can see myself in this jacket, enough warmth for shoulders, back and chest on a cool spring day, yet light and versatile to wear in the summer over a tank top.

It would be classic enough to dress up, something over a sleeveless dress for church, or funking it up big stylie in the ensemble that Ms Aniston is rocking here. Why, I even like the putty colour. What kind of yarn? I think it looks aran weight, but it would have to be an acrylic/wool mix, or an acrylic, silk and cotton mix. What do you guys think? It's also a neat seasonal jacket, but I don't know about the belt. :/'

I also need to use up all my knitting yarn and enjoy my knitting time. I need to knit all that I can (and all my stash) in eight months.

This is because well... my partner and I have put our names forward for being potential adopters. ¬_¬

From what I've gathered, it's a bloody intrusive business, and a fair bit of palaver, and it takes up to twenty months (WTF?) from initial contact to actual child placement. Anecdotal evidence seems to be that adoption is fraught with hidden dangers within the UK. It's all a lottery, and some councils are better than others. It helps that we are a mixed race couple, but we will see. We have to get past the adoption panel first.

Haven't really been knitting anything (again, WTF?), but am planning to soon. I'm just doing swatches to design with. Zzzzz.

Man, it must be mad being a magazine editor

2008-01-10T14:07:00.000-08:00

From what I gather, magazine editrixes prepare winter issues in Spring and Spring issues in Winter. So, while we're in the midst of a cold January, shivering at the thought of a frigid February, the magazine pictures are of spring, with tank tops showing off cleavage and clavicle. The models are slim, all the better to show off the spring form, when our bodies are sleek and the winter weight slugged off. The light is mellow gold, and not the watery, bleary gloam that passes for winter.

Phildar has embraced the sun in its catalogues. Rowan will do so in February. So, this is jazzypom drooling over the patterns, and clenching her fists in frustration because she has to dress in layers. *le sigh*

So, how about the Phildar tops, then? As usual, I love their open - even exaggerated- neck lines. The simple shapes aren't too exacting, but relatively flattering and forgiving. The colours give the shapes a zip, and add life to the spring wardrobe. I love the green pullover with the exaggerated 'V' neckline. It's a nice summer sweater, warm enough for cool nights, but comfortable enough for hot days.

I like the linen coloured pullover, with its wide neckline and a pattern adding interest. I'm unsure about the belt at the bottom of the garment - I guess it prevents it from rolling up? Or, once you adjust the belt, you can get a soft volume to the bottom of the blouse?

Or the pink top (space dyed yarn) with open neckline and shirred three quarter sleeves? Drool. That's just divine. The pink jumper with the breton striped shirt underneath is cute. Very cute. I like the boldness of the hot pink juxtaposed against the stern navy and blue striped dress. Very smart, not too casual, not too try hard.

Ahhh to be a French woman - to paraphrase Oscar Wilde - they act as if they are beautiful, it is the secret of their charm.

Overall though, the patterns seem simple enough, making me want to take out Barbara Walker and give her a try. Or sign up for a day class in designing by Debbie Abrahams.

Yes, my fellow bloggers. I'm thinking about signing up for a design class. It is called, 'If you can't see it, design it.'

According to my knitting Svengali, Helen, I'm ready for a class, she says. I have the books of design how to and all this yarn in my stash, waiting to make patterns from it, but I can't leave well enough alone. She was listening to me talking about simple knitting designs with *pow* and how I don't see enough to make me want to cast on the sticks.

Also, I'd like to knit designs where the designer wants to make a good simple garment, without using up a lot of yarn (I'm looking at YOU, Debbie Bliss). Or designs where the stitch is the effect, not many colours (hello, Louisa Harding). I like Kim Hargreaves, but I need to knit other designers, try new things.

In other news, I've ripped back my neckline off the leafy Phildar jumper. I found the instructions online on the Phildar website, which make sense. Also, honestly, the neckline's been bugging me all this time.

I wore the jumper to my knit group, and everyone's eyes went towards my neckline. Especially Pat's. Pat is the neatest knitter I know, from cast on to finish. She takes her time at every step and she lives in the moment of knitting. Not that I'll ever be that perfect, but I know I can do better with the neckline, so I've reknitted it, and will get up fairly early to catch the light, so I can sew the neckline in, properly. I'm getting to the point where, I want it to be that if I make any mistakes in the work, no-one should know but me.

Anything else? I finished my long arm warmers from the Rebecca pattern. When the sun deems it fit to come out, I'll boast. I also have the DB cashmere gloves to sew up. I'll boast about those too.

Am thinking about my next garment while knitting various accessories.

Currently, I'm trying to scare up six balls of Jaeger aran in shade 546 (hello!), to knit the Central Park Hoodie. The yarn is so meant for that hoodie, I swear it. Or should I just join the cool kids on Ravelry and knit Thermal? It is a nice jumper, and I've been having my eye on it for a long while. The thing is, I hear the original yarn pills, and I'm shifting from the notion of knitting with 100 percent yarn, to knitting with mixed microfibre (read: acrylic) blends. Like say, wool and acrylic. I haven't really seen much in terms of fingering weight wool and microfibre. I hear that Rowan is coming out with some new colours for their 4ply wool, so I might hold off and just go with that. It's definitely a jumper that would get loads of use in my neck of the woods though.

Oh well.

Here's hoping that the sun comes out this weekend, so I can take some pictures of what I've done so far.

It honestly hasn't been much, because I spend all my time reading about the US candidates for President on my google alerts.

**political ruminations. Don't read if you are bored with the ongoing US race for Presidential nominees***

I do like John Edwards' stance on a lot of stuff, and think he should jostle for being a VP candidate to whomever the wins the Democratic election. As much as it would be grand for Obama (if he tones down the rhetoric a tad), I think the US likes its political dynasties. The Roosevelts, The Kennedys, and now Bush, Clinton, Bush and depending on if Hillary can mist her eyes some more (and get people to hear her now that she's found her 'voice') you guys in the US might get a Clinton third term.

As much as I think Ms Clinton is capable and a formidable woman who can boast of many achievements, when I hear her name, I just think of the twilight of the Clinton years. Bill Clinton's spotty international record, tinged with a bit of sleeze with the supposed impeachment and all. I know, I know that politician's personal lives aren't - nay - shouldn't be a concern, but as seen by the whole impeachment business, and how it galvanised the Republicans and the rise of Bush, underscoring the polarization in American politics. Clinton's personal life was a catalyst to that one, with the Republicans screaming about morality and such.

The Clintons were good, but they belong in the hallmarks of history, or on the sidelines doing good deeds. For all of Hillary's good intentions, she's still a representative of a particular time in US history (especially with the whole 'you get two Presidents for the price of one' speech that Bill Clinton used to say), where people might look back on in fondness, but that doesn't mean that you should go back again. The world has changed, China, India and Russia are stronger for starters - and WTF NAFTA? -and I'm worried that Ms Clinton's thinking hasn't.

Now, I'm not ragging on Ms Clinton because she's a woman. That's ridiculous. I can't rag on her, because she's done well for herself. She's a capable female, who's been the force behind her husband, but like Chris Rock said, "I have nothing against a woman President, but vote for her?"

In terms of the Republicans, Mitt Roomy leaves me cold, and so does Huckabee. I tend to distrust people who are all hipped on religion dictating politics. For all their Bible reading, did they forget the fact that Jesus said, render unto Caesar that is Caesar's? Practice your own religion and leave others to their own as long as their practices are within the boundaries of the law.

For all of Tony Blair's faults, even though he was heavily religious and followed the Catholic teaching, he forced the Catholic adoption agencies to realise that they couldn't discriminate against gay people, and he reviewed the laws on abortion (but didn't try to abolish it). I do like John McCain, but I think I like his personality more than his policies. Gulliani needs to stop with the 9/11. We get it. You were mayor, of New York at the time. You weathered the storm. Never mind the (alleged) danger that you put firefighters in with shoddy equipment and such. Grrr.

Oh well, I do need to stop reading politics and go knit. Honestly.

Have been busy, et tu?

2008-01-05T01:10:00.001-08:00

Hey you guys, welcome to my 2008. In adhering to the new rules I set myself a few posts back, I'm doing something I'll wear, in a colour that's suitable for me, and a little risky. See the pink arm warmers I'm doing. They are from Rebecca no. 30. The original yarn was cashmere, but alas, my finances are more plebeian, so I'm using Louisa Harding's cashmerino dk, her answer to Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino dk. I think the Debbie Bliss' version feels a bit more plush, and is less splitty, but Harding's yarn holds up much better, so I have to 'suck up' how it feels. I just hope that it keeps my hands warm.

The first picture shows me doing the yarns in the round on circular needles. Up to very recently -and by 'very recently' I mean last night- I was a dpn woman. I loved the symmetry of working with dpns, after the initial join and first row I was off into the spiral, not caring until the pattern said 'stop' or the yarn ran out.

But.

But, I've been really curious about knitting small diameter'd things like socks in the round, ever since I saw Nell (a valued knitter at our knatter) doing so. She spoke about the virtues of knitting small things in the round on circular needles, provided that the cord was long and flexible enough. I thought, how Archimedian with a dash of Ariel from The Tempest, give me cable needles long enough, so as I can gird the earth, and make cool socks.

I saw Nell over the holidays and she showed me what to do, but I kept getting my stitches twisted. Last night, when this yarn refused to stay on my bamboo dpns (all my dpns are bamboo, have not felt the need to move to metal dpns as yet, no), I got out my knit picks options with a 60cm cable. So snug, so tight, so right.

Nell recommends 90-120cms - but I don't have those- and I'm knitting small circles in the round. I can see myself doing sleeves like this - but I'd need a longer cable.

That Prima magazine that you see on the front, I bought it the other day because I downloaded a Debbie Bliss pattern (the Catriona vest) from their website, www.prima.co.uk . Thought I'd show some support, even though women's magazines aren't my thing. Yes, I know I need to lose weight, no, I don't need to update my wardrobe, thanks- and there's an unattractive version of Naomi Watts (no, it's not her) type model on the cover.

To be fair though, the magazine is helpful, it has articles on decluttering one's home, how to save on bills, et al. It's like a stylish and more expensive version of Woman's own - with its version of the knitting patterns to boot, and random true to life stories. Yes, there is a fashion segment, but they aren't as aggressive in presenting the fashion choices like In Style or Vogue, where you have to buy this now, or else you commit the cardinal sin of being desperately unfashionable.

In the middle are my Debbie Bliss garter stitch mittens that I need to sit down and organise. You knit these trapezium looking things, and they are supposed to spiral into a design at a 45 degree angle. In my mind, it makes sense. The angle of construction gives the garter stitch structure (because it can sag, left to its own devices), but in real life... I need to ask the hubster to read it aloud to me.

Knitting instructions make jazzy's head hurt.

What to say about the Debbie Bliss cashmere yarn? I got two hanks of it at the John Lewis knitting sale (this is where they get vexed and have a HUGE clearance sale on the yarns that haven't been selling briskly enough) and DB cashmere was one of 'em. I bought two, because the pattern called for two. I refused to buy three hanks because knowing my luck, I'd only need like, a meter to finish the actual pattern itself. So, I said to myself, if push comes to shove, I have the DB rialto aran in a similar colour to finish it off.

So said, so done. It's annoying to have the yarn finish before the end of a project, and for such expensive yarn, you'd think Debbie Bliss would have her pattern support organised. *sighs*

Anyway, I'm enjoying the new process of knitting in the round on circulars. While I'm doing this, I'm wondering what garment I should take on with the yarn I have.

I am also following the race to the white house in the United States and am hoping that Barack Obama might place, if not win. As a visible minority in Europe, at times I find the casual racism here a bit shocking (remember, I was raised outside of the EU). England is not bad, I think due to a fair bit of interracial marriages, and children of all faiths and colours going to the same schools, be it grammar or comprehensive. But I've been teaching English to a fair bit of foreigners (especially some Italians) and I have to pause when I hear some assumptions being made. Europeans aren't the only ones to have this attitude towards minorities, I find Asians (as in, people from the subcontinent, like Pakistan and India) just as bad at times. If a visible minority were to place at the highest pinnacle of the world's 'leader of the free world', it might make people pause a bit, and search their prejudices.

Right, no more seriousness in my blog. Hopefully, I will have an FO to show soon, and decide on which of the four garments I shall knit myself this year.

Well. I'm done

2008-01-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

*sighs* I'm done.

Knitting garments for me is like being in a relationship. It's dizzying highs, and terrifying lows, and rocky roads in between. At the end of a relationship, one tends to reflect, and regret. If I knew then, what I know now.

The pattern: Phildar Autumn '06
Time scale: took two weeks to knit back, front, two sleeves and neckline. Took two weeks to sew up, because I have to think about things. I tend to take my time in sewing up.

Comments: To paraphrase a comment someone said about Kim Hargreaves' : I love the designs, but I hate the patterns. I feel the same about Phildar. The directions for the neck were ridiculous. You are directed to knit the neckline separately, then knit several rows of stocking stitch in contrasting colour. After this, you back stitch the stitches, then release the stocking stitches.

I did this, only for the bloody stitches to still be live and unraveling! So, I had to whipstitch the stitches around the neckline. If I had to this again, I'd just whipstitch the live stitches to the actual garment itself and ignore the knitting of several rows of st st. I can understand why they wanted the ribbing to be knit separately. If you picked up the stitches, it might be too much, or too little.

My neckline is okay, I wish I had started it in the back, instead of the front. My neckline got better as it went on. It looks untidy, not not enough for me to rip it back.

Ch-ch-changes: I used Lana Grossa merino superwash big wool. It is a tad thinner than Phildar Quietude, I stayed with the 4mm needles because I liked the fabric - nice and dense. Due to my slick needles, my tension square was 22x27 instead of 19x27, I knitted one size bigger than me, and I got my perfect size. Did short row shaping at the shoulders. At the bottom ribbing, did 5cm ribbing instead of 1.5cm. The length helps, but I wear long tank tops underneath this bad boy, to keep my modesty and cover my belleh button.

I think I'd try the Quietude, or any merino/acrylic yarn blend. Merino is lovely, but it pills too easily. So far, this wool has held itself up, and I've been knitting with dry hands, and getting things snagged on it, and ripping and reripping... whew. I do have to give this yarn props. It's really stood its ground. Also, I'd do it in the round.

Overall: I like this jumper. Even the hubster commented on the shape and the nice open neckline. I have nine balls of Jaeger merino aran, and I think I'd probably have enough to do this jumper again.

What's next on the needles? I have 15 balls of debbie bliss Rialto. I rather like the cabled vest
that I have been seeing around ravelry lately. I can wear that over a shirt in winter, and get away with wearing it alone in summer.

So, done! Thanks for joining! I'll post some other pictures when I feel better about it.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T03:22:00.000-08:00

Hello all, so sorry I haven't been blogging for a while. I totally forgot that Christmas was around the corner, and in a weak moment, I said 'yes' to making Caribbean fruit cake for hubster. Please note that Caribbean fruit cake or black cake is not like English fruit cake, nor German stollen. It's a bit more complicated than that, and also, we don't have hard fruits on top of the cake, or coloured bits and lumps in the cake. Most people tend to puree the fruits and alcohol before adding it to the mixture. It's tastier that way, and you don't have to spent time picking lumps of fruit from one's slices.

First, you have to get dried fruit (currants, raisins, orange peel, etc), and put in a jar, fill to the brim with a mixture of sherry, port, and some 'coloured rum', like Morgan's from Barbados or Appleton from Jamaica and soak this mixture for a year. This prolonged soaking softens the fruit, and plumps them up with flavour. It also gives the fruit cake its distinct moist texture.

Then, on the day of baking, you have to make your own wax paper to line the cake tins by getting brown paper (the kind used to wrap packages), and spread butter or margarine on said brown paper until it gets soft and translucent with the butter grease. Then mix basic ingredients for pound cake, and blend fruit mixture till chunky and add to the batter. Add browning (which is just carmelised sugar burnt on the stove), bake for an hour, cool, and put in a cool (not cold!) place at least for five days before eating. You add a mixture (like a capful) of one part rum to two parts wine once a month if you wish to keep some beyond the Christmas.

Whew.

It's a lot of work to get Caribbean fruit cake done, and I don't really eat it to boot. But my Mum makes good fruit cake, and I mugged her recipe. The New York Times has a great article on Caribbean fruit cake, and a cool slide show to boot.

Hope your Christmas was lovely and bright. I myself didn't have much in terms of gifts, but a lot of gifts tend to be ill thought out and seems destined for landfill anyway, so the hubby and I decided to have a hiatus for the Yule.

So, what are your new year's resolutions? I'm following Penelope Trunk's advice and am just making one. According to the studies she quotes, if you just focus on one, you tend to make little adjustments to your life that benefits it as a whole.

So mine is :I'm going to stop biting my nails.

It means that I have to knit more. Yayyyy.

I'm almost finished with the leafy Phildar jumper. But that is for another post. I have to backstitch the neckline in place, only to find that I hate backstitch.

More anon.

an SOS

2007-12-15T12:59:00.001-08:00

Yeah, for all the three people who read this blog. If you actually see a pattern similar to the mustard cardi on the right, email me. Knowing my luck, it will be in a Rebecca magazine with a lace pattern (but they don't seem to have a stocklist in the the UK anymore according to my local yarnshop person).

I do like the cardigan and would even do it in the same mustard colour or a terra cotta colour. I'd probably do it in about 1300m 4ply (fingering) yarn bought from www.colourmart.co.uk. I'm thinking something soft, soft, soft. If I had the money, it would be cashmere, or wool/silk or cotton cashmere. *sighs*

Oh Santa, I've been a good girl all year, I have.

If I can't find the pattern I'm going to have to whip out that Barbara Walker book and bust a move. The stocking stitch might be the death of me, but whatever right? I'm going to have to sketch it, add about +4 -6 inches of ease and find someone with a knitting machine. Trust.

Wish us luck, eh?

Sour times

2007-12-15T12:03:00.001-08:00

Damn it. I remember reading on someone' s blog that they always liked Kim Hargreaves' designs but never her patterns. I didn't realize what they meant until now- Phildar's sleeve and armsyce ratio suck! I've even tried backstitch (ugh) and it didn't work. Then I found myself with scissors trying to take the sleeve from the body of the jumper and cut the yarn.

I won't even tell you the issues that leafy and I have had. We may need counseling. A mediator to give us space so that we can tell each other how we feel. I overshot the chart and did five leaves instead of four, but that was pilot error, and now the sleeves DO NOT slot in neatly. I'm not even looking forward to doing the neck, because instead of picking up and knitting around, I'm doing what the instructions say and knitting the band separately.

Normally, when doing a first knit from an unknown entity - I tend to follow the instructions to a T- because I'm mostly a self taught knitter, and different instructions might teach me something new. Already, I can understand why Phildar wants the band knitted separately and then grafted onto the neck edge, it's to get that sharp cast on edge going on. Oh well, we'll see how it works. I want to wear this baby for Christmas, but we need some space before we go Mr and Mrs Smith on each other's arses.

Oh, the paper underneath my jumper is erm... my nanowrimo work. It's about knitting, blood, guns and a dollop of romance that still makes me scratch my head. How the heck did that get in there? It helps that the guy is cute and Japanese but still... There's a strange scene with a yarn winder and yarn.
Ewww. I am twelve.

So, I'm thinking of knitting up some hand warmers, because I have some Louisa Harding (in pink) in the stash. Or the rainbow coloured Phildar pullover above in its recommended yarn. Because I'm a masochist. But it's just stocking stitch and ribbing, and it has belled sleeves and an open neckline, and it skims the body, and what's the worst that could happen? I rather like that top, it could work with the skirt action or jeans. I could wear it to hot countries and leave my structured jacket at home.

Or should I just do a pair of hand warmers? My fetchings look tatty, and I have some lovely pink dk yarn by Louisa Harding.

Here's hoping that by next week I'll have that bloody jumper on my back. For serious.

Wish us luck.

Phildar jumper :70 percent done

2007-12-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

A lovely blogger popped by to see the progress of my jumper! Awww... *blushes*. So, I'll show you where I am. In one week, I did the back and two sleeves (the colour isn't so grey, its more a spruce, like a dark peacock blue, or an intense teal, but its grey and rainy)!

I've never really knitted from a chart before, and I got mixed up. So, I've done colour coding for my charts! Blue is purl stitch, pink is knit stitch and yellow is the miscellaneous stitch manipulations that I need to do (like M1, p2tog, etc.).

For the back and front, I've made the length of the jumper 5mm instead of 1.5m. I need the length. I'm dead pleased about my first leaf and stem, and do hope to be quarter done with the front tonight. It's difficult doing this in front of the TV, so I've had to go back two rows. I might have to do a life line or two as well. But hopefully, I'll be able to do lace knitting with the whole chart reading.

I really think I want to get some knit picks harmony knitting needles though. My tension is a tad tight with the metallic needles. They are also a joy to knit with on the bus. I can keep my elbows tucked in, and if I can't finish a row, I just arrange my needles just so, and I never fear dropped stitches or the like.

That tears it, I'm learning French!

2007-12-07T04:19:00.000-08:00

English is my first and only language. If pressed, I can bumble about in Spanish, because I have no shame if my sentences are right or wrong, I just want to be understood. I have never really had much truck with French, until now.

Phildar has been holding out on us, my limey knit mates (or, I haven't really gone through the back issues until now, yeah... that's it). The catalogues are cheaper (only €5,50 vs €10,50 for the English version. To be fair, it's two copies of the same magazine, but still), and they have scads of back issues, from 2005, y'all.

Look at this cute- as-a button garter stitch hat. Slouchy, yet stylish and tidy. Isn't it just darling? Don't you like this vest, with the alternating garter and stocking stitch texture? The oversize collar can double as a hood if you exaggerated it enough. Along with the ribbed gauntlets (you can't call them fingerless gloves, can you?), the look is rocking without being too matchy matchy and try hard. I like the fact that the vest can carry over from spring to fall (my aim for knit basics 2008). I even like the payne's grey colour and think that it would look fab on me.

The stitch detailing for the red orange pullover is clever. Cunning ribbed patterns add interest to the top of the sleeves and neckine, the shirred ends of the sleeves give the look of volume that will never date, but always look quaint. I must admit, I'm not a fan of the oddly shaped pepums (is that the word?), or the use of i-cord for shaping. I'm too zaftig to leave my shaping to chance.

Really though, what I do admire about Phildar is their attention to stripes. Most designers tend to just do stripey stuff ala Breton, or Where's Waldo/Wally, with the broad swathes of white, broken up by tiny lines of blue, or alternating lines of red and white prison stripes. Not caring about the nod to size or colour placement.

Phildar does stuff better. Look at this top, they use two colours, biscuit and denim to give stripes a lot of interest. I particularly like the bust minimizing blue, and the button detail. It's nice to come across something that can be used for stash busting, as well as something that I'd be pleased to wear (I have teal and biscuit in my stash, rock!). It's also in cotton/acrylic (my stash). I'm thinking of doing it top down, because I only have six balls of teal and four balls of biscuit. Also, I hear the sleeves for this pattern as knitted is long. But I don't know how I'd do the khaki swatches between the bust and the armscye. Any suggestions?

Right! My additional new year's resolution will be to knit a pattern from a Phildar magazine in its original French. There shall be weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. But I heard tell ravelry has a French knitter's group. I shall have a butcher's.

Knitting challenge: knit basics for '08, care to try?

2007-12-03T03:07:00.000-08:00

For the past week, I've been looking at my stash, my patterns and the knitting and colour trends for 2008. With my master scheme of stash diving and clearing my knitting decks, so to speak, I thought that we could have a theme going.

First, though, let us take a look at the colour trends for 2008. The colour palette seems relatively cool, rather Scandinavian with its varying tones of grey tinting the greens and blues, and surprisingly, a pink that looks more like a dusky coral. I've read that the materials veer from organic to futuristic, and the clothing is more structured.

Based on the montage of fashions on this page, and the prolonged reading of magazines both online and in hard copy, I've identified four pieces of knitwear that will be a nod to the trends, but will suit me. That's the trick, your knitwear should suit you, and I'm coming to the conclusion that as much as I like my fair isle, and acrobatic patttern designs, my style favours the unobtrusive and stark beauty of the stocking stitch.

Also, just looking through the European knitting pattern books has been a revelation. For example in the Phildar books, the yarn is knit with needles 1 size smaller. It makes the fabric firm, adds structure and the garment is less prone to pilling. A dollop of acrylic to wool and cotton adds to the durability of the knitted garment. Reverse stocking stitch is quite lovely, and doesn't seem to be as prone to pilling as straight stocking stitch.

The criteria for your knitting basics should be as follows:

It must fit your wardrobe. Make knit pieces that you will wear. If you suit scoop necks (like yours truly) don't knit crew or v necks. You won't wear the garment, ask me how I know.
It must suit your lifestyle. As much as I like structured knit jackets, I won't wear them. I'd rather wear structured cloth jackets. My style seems to be slouchy minimalist, so I can see myself wearing my rendition of the yellow Chloe cardigan above.
Try and pick colours that suit you and your wardrobe, but don't play it too safe. I've discovered that I have enough green/teal yarn to make three full garments. I'll do it too, but I'm not buying any more green for now. No more browns, either.
The garments must be able to drift across two seasons. This is to make sure that you get as much wear as you can from the knitted garment. For instance, if you make a cardigan, you can wear it on a cool spring or summer's day. If if got chillier, you can pair it with a knitted vest for additional warmth. If you make a vest, you can wear it over a long sleeved garment to keep your back and shoulders warm, but can shuck it off as soon as the weather gets warm or you walk into a heated room.

So, with this in mind, my four key garments/ knit basics for 08 are:

A scoop necked vest. I'm unsure of the colour, to be frank. I'm veering towards the red orange yarn in my stash, because it will give a splash of colour to whatever garment I'm wearing. It will be done in double weight yarn because it won't add bulk to my frame or garments.
A cardigan. Probably two. One is definitely Central Park Hoodie, but I don't have the yarn for that yet. So far, I'm looking at Anna Bell's Cherry, a cardigan from Phildar and a slouchy cardigan ala Chloe. I might have to do evil design math, or ask a fellow raveller for help, but we will see.
A short sleeved vest: This might be in a heavier yarn, but I can wear a long sleeved top underneath and still keep warm.
A summer top. Something simple and pretty, but I haven't stumbled on what I want just yet.

Then, I'm thinking of accessories. Two years ago, I did two pairs of fetching gloves from knitty.com and I've worn the heck out of them ever since then. I need to add those. So, I am hoping to do:

Long arm warmers. They are useful for having warmth under your coats
A lace triangular scarf or a long rectangular stole. The scarves are good for traveling and will be lighter than my cloth scarves as well. I can literally stick it in the side of my bag when it gets too hot.
A snug cap that's long enough to cover my ears.

That's it, really. I'm toying with making a knit along, for anyone to join in their own time, or do a group on ravelry, but I don't have the discipline to mod or cheer the troops on, so to speak. If anyone gets to do this idea before me, feel free to do so, just give me credit where its due, and please invite me to the knit along!

What do you think?

Shoot, December already?

2007-12-02T15:29:00.000-08:00

I don't have any pictures of my pullover to show as yet... but I'm halfway up the back and my sleeves are already done. Am looking at my yarn stash and something needs to be done. So, I'm stash diving into all my pattern books. So, although it's only December (but Christmas is about three weeks away!) and Jan 2008 is just around the corner, here's my knitting resolutions in 2008.

Knit more. Seriously, I need to knit more. I tend to buy yarn, patterns, knitting notations, and do nothing with it. Seriously, I need to knit more.
Will attempt my first lace knit. It's about time. I have patterns, and lace yarn in my stash.
I need to knit other patterns apart from Rowan. I have Vogue, Knit 1, Phildar and online patterns in my stash. More variety in knitting patterns needed!
Expand on my colour choices a bit. Pink, charcoal and buttercup yellow.
No new yarn until I've used up two tops worth of the old stash.

That's about it, really.

You?

Everything changes, nothing remains without change

2007-11-30T05:56:00.001-08:00

I do understand why people have strong feelings towards change. Why change is regarded with fear and loathing.

I myself know that change isn't always sudden, immediate or shocking. Change is inexoriable, unyeilding and constant. The notion of change should be met with equanimity, even a sort of eagerness.

We grow with change.

This is what I told myself. It was time to break away from Rowan patterns, to see how magazines do it, to add some spice to the knitting. Now that I've taken up with this Phildar pattern, and am totally foxed by these dashed instructions. I'm doing the third size (hello, gauge issues) up and at the end, I should have 13 sts to cast off. My calculations tell me otherwise.

Care to see?

Starting amt of stitches =63

Cast off 3 stitches twice and 2 stitches once. (3+3+3+3+2+2=16)
63-16=47

Then cast off two stitches from each edge of following alt rows.
47-4=43

single decrease 3 times (here, I assume that it means single decrease one stitch at each end of row) 3x2=6

43-6=37

On foll 4th rows, sgl dec 4 times (4x2=8)

37-8=29

On following alternate rows, single decrease 3 times (3x2=6)

29-6=23 sts

Then on each edge of following alt rows cast off 2 sts twice (wherein 2 sts on alt row cast off twice - that's 2+2+2+2=8)

23-8= 15

Cast off 3 sts (on foll alt rows) once (3+3 = 6)

15-6= 9

When work meas 43 cm after ribbing, cast off rem 13 sts.

WHAT?!

Ugh. This is why I've taken so long on the sleeves. No one who's done this pattern on ravelry hasn't said anything about the sleeves and the stitch count, so I'm going to assume that it's my fault.

What am I doing wrong? Have I factored in too many decreases? Do you just decrease only once (as in, decrease stitches on one side of the work, leave the other side untouched until the other other)?

What am I doing wrong?

I think I might just leave the sleeves to stew, and then carry on with the back and front. I want to wear this top for Christmas and it's thwarting me! *Is thwarted*

Am I teh dumb?

Right now, I spit on change. Phooey.

ETA: A fellow raveler sent us some instructions. Her math is on point. I, am teh suck who now fears change.

I just went through it and I get 13. Here's what I reckon

(start with 63)

Rows 1, 2, 3 and 4 - cast off 3 Rows 5 and 6 - cast off 2

(16 decreased)

on alternate rows: sgl dec 3 times (-6) every 4th row: sgl dec 4 times (-8) on alternate rows: sgl dec 3 times (-6)

(20 more decreased)

cast off 2 four times (-8) cast off 3 twice (-6)

(13 remain)

Do you pick, or throw

2007-11-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

Sung to the tune Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Do you pick or throw when you're finishing a row Is your yarn tied in a knot, is it tied in a bow Do you throw your yarn over (un) like a continental soldier Do you pick or throw?

For the past couple of months I've been trying to come to some peace with continental knitting. I do admire its virtures of being quick and minimal movement (and I have gotten quicker!) but the purl stitches are not as good as the knit stitches in continental. So, I tend to get lines in my knitting and really odd tension. I guess this is why most continental knitters knit in the round - they avoid the purl stitch.

Alas, I need a perfect purl stitch, because I'm doing the sweater (catalogue no. n 460-T6-275) from Phildar, autumn 06. So, I'm doing the old English throw. I think I may do the body in the round, so I can keep an eye on the fitting.

So, because life isn't simple, it seems that my tension for this pattern is wackadoo. It's supposed to be 19sts x 27rows, and I'm at 22sts x 27 rows. So, I'm doing the large size (instead of medium) so that I can get to the medium. I didn't want to go up 4.5mm needles because I like the snug fabric on the 4mm needles. I did a sleeve today and the tension worked out, so yayy.
I do think that my choice of needles (knitpicks options) tends to make my tension tighter, because the needles are slick and metal. I do intend to get the wooden knitpicks needle as soon as I can.

I do like the mods on the sweater that I've just highlighted - the longer body for instance. I'll definately do the 5cm for the waist instead of the 1.5 inch. I'm keeping the orignial neckline though (ravelery link, soz). I love that wide scooped neckline, and will wear a camisole underneath to keep my modesty.

The yarn used is Lana Grossa cool wool. It's a 50 gram ball, 120 metres, worsted (slightly heavier than the English double knit) and goes for £3.95 a ball. Lan Grossa yarn is what I'd call expensive (on par with Debbie Bliss, Louisa Harding, et al) but it's a nice yarn. The colourways are rich, the yarn is sprongy and tactile. In terms of pilling, I've had it bouncing around my knit bag for a couple days and not a fluff.

Wish us luck. This the the most tentative I've been with my knitting.

Nanowrimo

2007-11-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

Hee, I'm actually writing a novel for nanowrimo.

Never mind that I'll have to do five thousand words a day (I'm already up to over 5000 words in two day, go me).

Of course, since I'm just writing this by the seat of my pants, it's a lot of nonsense. But the main action takes place around a yarn shop, and there are assasins and guns. But it takes place in a yarn shop and stuff.

So, since I promised you something related to knitting in my blog, behold an excerpt from my Nanowrimo. With a disclaimer and all that - it's not been revised. Also, the work (as scrubby as it is) is mine. Respect mah copyright!

The scene is this: Daniel (one of my main characters) is on the lookout for F, (another character) and he finds himself in a yarn shop.

The colours could thrill, he admitted, his eyes noting the grid of yarn ranging from blues to reds, following the reds as they slid into florid pinks and manic oranges before happily skipping to yellows and soothing into creams.

It was not only colour, but texture; some yarns were balls of the colour of eclipses, deep blacks and blues, so dark that they absorbed light, instead of reflecting it outwards. Other yarns had hints of shimmer in them, and they flirted and flitted with the swings of luminousity and movement, some balls were hazy as half-remembered dreams and others with patterns so sharp, they were a blur on the eye.

Then, there were the – needles- he assumed, looking at pointed plastic sticks as thick as his arm tapered to a point. They were made for knights to joust with for honour and the hand of a fair maiden, not for knitting.

Despite his annoyance, Daniel had to smile.

That's like, the only thing that's close to making sense. I'm actually enjoying the process. I don't think I'd ever see a publisher in this lifetime, but I'm happy.

Are you doing Nanowrimo? Have you ever been tempted?

What's your personality type?

2007-11-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

I've always avoided this question, but today I didn't. I'm at a loose end right now, so I did the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey Temperment sorter Test .

It seems I'm an INFJ. I was going to roll my eyes at the description: Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging, but it's the first time that a test has accurately identified me as an introvert, because I am. Even though I can be sociable, and am interested in the welfare of my work and acquaintance mates, I do like to keep to myself. I think that's why I like knitting, or don't mind going camping with the hubby.

This paragraph is frighteningly accurate:

Usually self-expression comes more easily to INFJs on paper, as they tend to have strong writing skills. <- that's true. I can write myself into an interview, but in real life interviews, I tend to choke and stumble. Many people have actually commented on my writing skills over the years.

Since in addition they often possess a strong personal charisma, INFJs are generally well-suited to the "inspirational" professions such as teaching (especially in higher education) and religious leadership. Psychology and counseling are other obvious choices, but overall, INFJs can be exceptionally difficult to pigeonhole by their career paths. <- that's also true. I'm trying to get out of an 'inspirational' profession, but to quote Michael Corleone in Godfather III, "Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in".

Perhaps the best example of this occurs in the technical fields. Many INFJs perceive themselves at a disadvantage when dealing with the mystique and formality of "hard logic", and in academic terms this may cause a tendency to gravitate towards the liberal arts rather than the sciences. <- that's also true. My strong suits were history, literature, philosophy. I always balked at Math, until I started knitting anyway, and seeing how Math follows logic. Dammit, if I'd only known about this fifteen years ago!

Then, if that didn't sweep the rug from under my feet, this bit of prose did:

"They are, in fact, sometimes mistaken for extroverts because they appear so outgoing and are so genuinely interested in people -- a product of the Feeling function they most readily show to the world. On the contrary, INFJs are true introverts, who can only be emotionally intimate and fulfilled with a chosen few from among their long-term friends, family, or obvious "soul mates." While instinctively courting the personal and organizational demands continually made upon them by others, at intervals INFJs will suddenly withdraw into themselves, sometimes shutting out even their intimates."

Man, this feature contributed to a lot of broken relationships over the past couple of years. That old chestnut, "It's not you, it's me" got a lot of use over the years. But I really meant it.

Famous INFJs: Goethe, Chaucer, Robert Burns.

So, what's your personality type? Are our blog personalities compatable?

I'll try and have some knitting on this blog soonish.

Everyday above ground is a good day.

2007-11-08T02:53:00.001-08:00

Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, why did it take me so long to discover Scarface?! Oh, yes, I know why, it's because those nihilistic rappers took the movie and made it their own: doing up their houses in the same lurid red and ivorydecor, with the pool underneath the stairs, and the TV in the bathroom with an ocean of a hot tub.

Calling themselves Tony Montana, and giving their albums names like, "The world is yours" and "Push it to the Limit." I was also put off by the posters, you know, the one with Tony Montana holding the grenade launcher, and screaming, "Say hello to my leettle frien' "

Also, it didn't help that every Italian male in their twenties I know was dressed like they escaped from 1983, pre "Miami Vice", post disco with that white double breasted suit, and the oversized lapels. The imitation of Pacino's Cuban accent didn't help either, especially with, "Who put dis deal together? Me? Who I trust? Me!" (An Italian imitating a fake Cuban accent by an Italian American? Priceless.)

Don't get me wrong, I've always been a fan of Al Pacino. I loved him in The Godfather trilogy, The Devil's Advocate, and Heat. Hell, I saw Oceans 13 because of him (not a fan of Pitt or Clooney, no.). But I'd never seen him in Scarface. Saw posters, heard about that ghastly chainsaw scene, but didn't go beyond that.

So, what brought this about? you may ask, and I'm rather embarassed to admit it. I was reading a particular author's work, and she has a series of books out, about men who serve in the US Navy SEALS. So, she mentions this character's name, Vincent DeInnocentis and how he looks like Al Pacino, and that's why they call him "Godfather"(code name, nothing hokey). So, I'm thinking about Al Pacino as Micheal Corleone in Godfather I (1st photo, the other photos are from Scarface).

You know, that face Al Pacino has then, earlier in the film? Iit's a nice face. Lean, with striking features of hooded eyes, a strong nose, a mobile mouth. But his face is not yet not fully formed, not yet lived in. When he smiles, it's easy, but reserved, because that's how Micheal is. He is stillness, has the core within him to live apart, to distance himself from his family's business, because it doesn't define him - not like it defines his brothers.

Not yet, anyway.

Moving on. So, I read two other books within the series, and Vincent kinda resembles Al Pacino in Scarface. I'm like, "Scarface? As in, "Say 'ello to my leetle fren'?" or, "When you **** with Tony Montana, you ****ing with de bes'?" Scarface? Really? And then, I cocked my head to the side, rather like a puzzled dog and tried to think how Al Pacino looked in that movie, and can only come up with him and the grenade launcher, at the end. Or him sitting in front of that false front of a tropical background, with his coat slung over his shoulders and his arm in a sling. And I'm like, "really?" and felt bummed. Why not Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, with his whipcord body, tough guy bravado and face creased in sly smiles?

Sighing, because well, although I avoided Scarface despite it being a cult movie, and all the baggage it brings, it seems I must see it, to see what sort of face Al Pacino has in that movie. The one between The Godfathers and Carlito's Way.

Well, wow.

What a face Al Pacino (as Tony Montana) has in this movie! It's tough, and very much lived in. Montana's face is a barometer of his moods: a satanic mask with hellfire eyes when angered at a percieved double cross, almost handsome when happy (because Tony Montana is not handsome, he's striking, yes, but not handsome). His body has a swing to it, sometimes jittery, due to the drugs, but always cocky, always powerful. Montana is shades of charisma and cruelty, which simultaneously makes him atttractive and repellent to his nearest and dearest.

The movie itself is definately a Greek tragedy, with our antihero coming from nothing, seizing chances, making the right choices and getting money, power and his woman, a fey and cold blonde. His pursuit for the whole world and everything in it literally destroys him, but he goes out with a bang; when he's all pumped up with coke, riddled with bullets and literally seeing his burgeoning empire now ashes at his feet, in his mouth and nose, he looks at his assassins and snarls/screams the immortal words, "I'm still standing!" before he's blown away.

Wow.

So yeah, I'm converted. I love Scarface, for its themes of greed and obsession and impotence. It is truly a cautionary tale and nowhere near as romantic as rappers want it to be. It's a story about a bad man in an even worse business.

What probably appeals, is that although Tony Montana is no hero, he still has his own moral code, and he went down fighting. The story isn't exactly Macbeth (although it has a few key themes in common) but its compelling.

Tony Montana is all passion and no control, all faith and nothing to believe in, and when he finally takes a stand, it gets him killed, in large part because he destroys his own support systems.

Tragic.

And yes, I can understand why the writer used that celluloid image for her character in her story. Vincent DeInnocentis is tough, and has his own moral code, but unlike Montana, he doesn't really have those sociopathic tendencies and a drug habit that could stun an African bull elephant. He's lived (although he's relatively young), and his character is formed, so he deserves a face like Montana's. It really fits, and I think I have a new literary crush, even though he's already gotten his girl. *sighs*

I'm the suck.

On the knitting scene: I was supposed to do a jumper for Nanowrimo - the National Write a Novel Month, wherein you write 50,000 words in 30 days? Instead, you're supposed to do 50,000 stitches in 30 days (about a jumper's worth). I wanted to do central park hoodie in Rowan All Seasons cotton. I've done the gauge stitch and casted on twice, but the yarn isn't for that jumper. Maggie Righetti is right, you need to listen to your yarn.

My all seasons is murmuring sweetnothings for me to turn it into a miltary jacket but with slightly belled sleeves, ala Phildar. It's also telling me in hot whispers that I need to get a calculator, some graph paper and hop to it, because it would be fabulous, but I'm studiously ignoring it. I don't want to start whipping out calculators and Barbara Walker just yet.

At the moment, I'm still crocheting my squares for charity, and trying to talk myself out of doing a short sleeved garment for winter. But winter in my neck of the woods hasn't been winter for a while, with all that global warming.

So, have you discovered something new that you've perhaps dismissed before?

A Book Review!

2007-11-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Book: Crazy Aunt Purl: Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit When He Split (Paperback) Laurie Perry.

For the benefit of those who don't really follow online blog personalities, Crazy Aunt Purl is the moniker undergone by Laurie Perry. A Texican who migrated to California, she got married, invested her selfworth and mental wellbeing in her husband, only for him to split. In despair she started a blog to chart her new life and its progress as it were, and well, her blog just became great. She was nominated for Blog of the year in 2005/6.

In the world of knitting, Crazy Aunt Purl is rather like the yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) in the sense that you go to her blog to garner a laugh and get the odd insight be it life or love (for knitting). No patterns there!

The difference is that The Yarn Harlot was born in the land of knitting; she knows the language, has the passport and changes the moods as well as dictating the trends. On the other hand, Crazy Aunt Purl is a new migrant, and her struggles with knitting and subsequent joy in the craft rather mirrors the snags and highs in her new life, post divorce.

If you've read her blog, you'll have an idea about the book: each chapter is like a blog entry, one subject debated at length in short bites. The book is divided into three sections, each showing desperation, a stumble and then recovery. There are patterns in the back, a bit quirky, nothing special (although I like the lace scarf and cap).

To be honest, I think her blog is much better than the book. The blog posts feel spontaneous, quirkier and a bit more complete. In contrast, the book seems to have been edited to the point of stiltedness. The stronger 'entries' in the books are those lifted from her blog (about 15 percent). In the blog, her speech candence comes out more, as well as that Southern sensiblity and sass. In the book... not so much.

If you're not a knitter, don't let it deter you from having a read. It could have been any hobby that gave the author focus and made her find herself, so to speak. There are a few good chapters that make you think, especially the one where the author enters into a relationship with someone and recognises that although he may not be the one, he made her feel special and worthy and notes that although its not love, it means something.

As someone who's gone through a similar patch regarding relationships, it's an important lesson to learn, and something I tell all the girls I meet.

Overall, I'd say relegate this on library loan, and read the blog instead. I can't sell this book on, because I inadvertently ruined it. :/'

Kim Hargreaves has a new pattern book out

2007-10-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

It is The Darkhouse collection and you can see an overview of the patterns here. What to say? The designs are classic without being boring, enough gothic to give them an edge.

My PC is bugging, so I can't upload all the pictures I like. Boo. This one Emily suits me to the tee. Look at the scooped neckline, the sweet eyelet details at the cuffs and hem. Look at Storm, a cardigan done in Rowan's big wool. Kim Hargreaves makes bulky sexy, and slimming by adding shaping and eyelet stitches. Oh, I might not be as lithe as that lass to the right, but I know that that shape can work with me. Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have bought those other books on Amazon.

This book is direct from Ms. Hargreaves' website, which is unfortunate, especially since the WearDowney mavens (a far lesser effort) have their book on Amazon.

I can almost hear the platoon of knitters casting on now.

Consumption versus... another view?

2007-10-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Had to go to London to visit my stepdaughter, and it was lovely to see her, although I had to hid my knitting! Also went to Uniqlo to pick up some classic pieces. I bought:

a scarf that absorbs solar power to keep me warm!
a skinny black cardi (to look smart)
two tops.

All for under £30. Not necessarily a bargain, but for the quality, I'm happy. I love Uniqlo clothing: it's well made, doesn't fall apart or loose shape in the washing machine and has a sophisticated colour selection. I don't buy woolen goods from Uniqlo though, after the buttery softness of designer yarns, I find their merino/lambswool blend a tad itchy. I'd rather knit woolen cardigans for myself. Am I wrong?

Anyhoos, had a come to Jesus chat with my stepdaughter over the weekend. She seems to think that I'm letting myself go appearance wise. I don't dress up anymore, or shop, and she finds my hobbies of knitting and inline skating offputting. To be honest, since I've started recycling in earnest a couple of years ago, I've changed my consumption habits, some have been:

Not buying glossy magazines: I try and do most of my reading online. So for my gossip fix I'll go to ONTD, and for news, I'll look to BBC World. If I do buy papers, it's the Sunday papers. Then, I recycle them.
Buy the best clothes I can afford, and make them last: I've gone off stores like Primark and Topshop - where the clothes may be fashionable but they fall apart so quickly, and especially with Primark, where clothes can be as little as £1, it's really frightening. I'm trying not to buy clothes because I 'want' to be on trend. I'm trying to buy clothes that will last for years. In this regard, I'm following the lead of French women - buy the best clothes I can afford, and just make them last. This means taking control and responsiblity for what I put in my body and how I maintain it by making sure I stay the same size all the time.
Finish using whatever products I buy so that I can recycle the containers: I used to be a product gladfy - I'd buy a facecream this week, and one next week - only to have six opened bottles of product in varying stages of use. Earlier this year I've decided to use up the bottles, (and carry them to my local recycling facility) and oh my, I've been a bad girl! Now, I've decided on what my face product is going to be (Neal's yard - organic and the containers are recyclable).
I think twice about what I buy before I do: Will I wear this jacket/trousers/shoes everyday or almost everyday? Can this item of clothing go from smart/casual, and vice versa? Can I wear it layered? Alone or not? When I buy a garment, I now expect to wear it until threadbare. Same thing with shoes.

All these thoughts were in my head as I flicked through the magazines that my stepdaughter had. The articles were along the line of: How to get star style with high top swag? The makeup to buy/try NOW! These magazines seem to drive consumption by telling you what to buy and what to wear, all masked in the sly chatty tones. You get the feeling of derision by the fashionistas if you want to dance to your own stylish drum, although they do say otherwise by showing the great and good in the styles du jour instead of the classic and the quirk. Hmmmm.

Also, with the amount of money that you spend on fakes and knockoffs, if you save long and hard, you can have a stylish version that you can keep for years and years.

Anyway, lest our thoughts get serious, I've been knitting. Yayyy. Stuff I've been doing:

A charity square. My square was supposed to be 8 inches square. It ended up being 11 inches. Hmmm. I haven't the heart to rip it. Yet.
I now know how to knit continental. My tension is loosey gooesy in continental, but I can knit wicked fast. Faster than how I normally knit, and I'm relatively quick. I could see myself doing continental for a moss stitch - going down a few needle sizes.
I'm knitting Roza's socks. It's the first patterned sock knitting I've ever done. I've done a pair of socks before, but the basic Opal sock knit version. I can see why people like sock knitting: it's portable, doesn't call for much committment (mismatched socks are cool!), and you can use gorgeous yarn without breaking the bank. I only have 300 m of yarn, and grumperina's socks call for 394m. I might only do one sock with the yarn I have (70 percent wool/30 percent ramie) because it's sturdy and serviceable.
I'm waiting on my 3.75mm needles from get knitted. The knitpicks options needles never seem to be in stock. I do wish to start my icarus shawl. Never have done lace before, and my thoughts are of fear and trepidation.

Right! There are more things to say, but will keep schtum for now, for I shan't jinx them.

TTFN.

ETA: Oh my Lord, Kim Hargreaves has a new book coming out. I'm selling on my Weardowney book for this one. Oh yes.

Our love is a ball of yarn

2007-10-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hello! Been trying to post to my blog from yesterday, but blogger wasn't having it. So, anyway, My Friend Pat came around to my house on Sunday with a suprise! It was an old fashioned ball winder! It's lovely, and although it doesn't have a clamp, and I have to balance it on my knee, it's all good. I've never wound balls of yarn so fast and so neatly!

So, here's what I did over the weekend, I frogged my topdown cardi, because it wasn't working. It was too chunky, and more for a 6mm needle than the 5mm I was working with. So, the balls have been wound, and am thinking of doing Japel's Cropped Ribbed Cardigan. It would be topdown as well as warm and relatively stylish. Then, I wound balls of yarn from wool to mohair.

Right now, I'm at the stage in between the major projects: you know, that stage where you have your tongue tucked in the side of your mouth as you consider what next to take on. Whatever shall I put your resources of time and yarn into? That rugged hooded Central Park Hoodie, or the smart Cherry by Anna Bell. Or, should I step off the ledge with only breezes to cushion me as I grab my needles and first lace pattern?

To be honest, I don't think I'm going to be doing as much knitting as I'd like to, because I'm still looking for jobs. *sighs*

Oh well, whatever next I knit, it will be using up the stash. I have some nice yarn and it's time to show it off. Stay tuned for the swatching sessions!

With me, you get feast or famine.

2007-10-12T04:43:00.000-07:00

At last! Kim is done! Just a selection of poses I'm doing with my camera. Now that Kim's done, the day is balmy, almost tropical (despite the cloud cover, but then again, we have cloud cover in the tropics too). I do like the finished article! I think the best thing that works with this piece is proportion. If you must wear this boob tube, try to wear it with a volumious shirt, or something floaty. Also, try for long sleeves, and a T-shirt that is long in torso as well. You want this to have the effect of a cinched waist, or else you'll be sorry. So, I bring you four poses. This is how I'm going to wear my Kim: Cabled boob tube - over my hoodie (which is a lightly woven cotton). This top also works with negative ease. Although the finished size is 32.5inches (42.4cm) and my boob size is 35 inches, the negative ease makes the top stay up. I think I could have taken in the waist a bit more.

Enjoy the view!

Details:

Pattern: Kim by Sarah Hatton, from Rowan Studio 1
Needles: 3.25mm and 3.75mm straight bamboo needles + 1 cable needle.
Yarn: x3 balls of Rowan felted tweed in Pine
Time taken: officially? Six months in terms of someone casting on for me. Really? About 4 weeks.
Modifications: None. I am a lemming.
If I knew then, what I know now?: I'd have done it in the round, even though I don't have a 3.25mm circular needle. I probably would have gone down to 3mm.
Gripes: Pattern was awkward at the beginning. Once you get over that hump, it's all good.
Advice for anyone?: If you can, do it in the round. The seaming is important in terms of making sure the sides match. But ignore the palaver and do it in the round. I'd have done it on 4mm needles, since my gauge on knitpicks circulars tends to be a bit tighter.
Next on needles?: Nothing too demanding. Alas, I'm still suffering under the slings and slurs of unemployment, and that needs to change. I need to start contributing to craftser and ravelry, so I need a job, STAT! Will finish that hat.

Book review: Weardowney's Pattern book

2007-10-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

Behold, a post inspired by the Weardowney book I just bought yesterday. It's glizty, artsy, fashionable, flirting with pretension, off kilter and perhaps, to some of you, obnoxious. If you feel this way about the post, you might feel the same way about their book. It's really not for everyone. I will upload some straightforward fashion shoots into my flickr account and give you the link, but bear with me in terms of this post.

A potted history of Weardowney then. Two women: their combined histories include, being a former model, then a knitter to John Galliano, now a 'House' to lauded knitwear, as well as running their own knitting classes, and bringing out a biannual magazine which is a magpie of their influences: music, photography, catwalk fashion, and the environment. So, in retrospect, of course they would have done their book the same way. How silly of us to even think otherwise!

The first thing is, half of the book is devoted to knitwear: its history, new developments and the personae behind the fashionable movement of knitwear. We get essays on John Galliano, Jean Paul Gautier, Vivienne Westwood and Sonia Rykiel and how they changed knitwear. Then, there is a nod to the present new kids on the block like Claire Tough, and an overview on the knitting blogs and how their irreverence has changed the attitude and face of knitting (which is the weakest part of the essay).

Afterwards, there's a short lesson on how one can 'see' the knitting designs take form. On a flyleaf, Downey shows the anatomy of a knitting design - a mini dress/ tunic done in garter stitch scoop neck, vertical eyelet lace with garter stitch bands. Then, you flick over the fly leaf to see the completed design in all its glory. "Gorgeous," the reader breathes, fingers quivering on the edge for more - will we get the pattern? No, we don't. Curses!

In the other half of the book we do get the patterns. Of course, since these women are fashion mavens, the photography is moody. the models contorted into pretzel like shapes to show off a seam, or a particular technique. If you really want to see how the actual designs look on a dress form, go to the back of the book. That's really pragmatic and very forward thinking- a nice touch.

The designs are an interesting and surprising mix. In the Weardowney shows, their knit wear is more to do with a sort of quirk in mind. A bit of tongue in cheek, a kind of raspberry to the fashion establishment. They do knitted bloomers, knitted stockings with and without feet. They offer knitted shawl coats, which you throw over a confectionary of a dress so that you don't freeze. In their shops, they sell kits with funky accessories (scarves and the like). I expected to see more of that in this book. The quirk, the irreverence for the grandmother's knits. Instead, we get the flash of fashion with scoop neck tops and pretty eyelet skirts. There are some pretty striking cardigans, and then surprisingly, some conventional patterns. Two knitted tops for men, and an oversized cabled vest for women. I expected some accessories, like the cape they had on the Amazon cover (which, surprise! Didn't make this cover).

For designers who normally have a 'theme' in their shows, the patterns in the book did not feel so unified. Is it snooty, sexy, carefree, selfconscious or comfortable? I felt all of these things while looking at the patterns.

The patterns come with schematic diagrams (yayy!) a bit on the small side, but there. The patterns are mostly done on 3.25 -4mm needles. I think the cabled patterns were done on slightly bigger needles, but I need to check again. The yarns are mostly Rowan - cotton glace, bamboo soft, 4ply cotton, 4ply soft and Rowan felted tweed. There is a cool tunic dress of 4ply cotton in white, juxtaposed with a pink lurex shimmer. I rather like the effect it gives, and would incorporate it into my own knitting.

So, overall, do I like the book? Yes, yes I did. The essays are something to come back to and to digest accordingly. Would I knit patterns from the book? Again, yes, I've been itching to knit a skirt from hemp, and I think the peacock skirt in Weardowney is just the ticket. Do I recommend the book? Yes, but with reservations: if you want your books to be nothing but the knit patterns, no, don't get this book. If you are a basic jumper and jeans girl, who scoffs at fine gauge materials, look elsewhere. You might want to try before you buy with this one.

Overview:

Pros: Good essays on knitting designers. Attractive display of images, good overview of the knitting culture as portrayed. The gallery of designs at the back is a nice touch. There are a lovely designs that feel 'dressy' in ways that a majority of the knitting designs don't. This is aided by the (relatively) fine gauge of the yarn used.
Cons: Duplicates of designs in some ways. Like, the waffle jacket is almost the same as the jacket with chevrons. The book could have been more 'tied' to their quirky personalities in terms of less conventional jumpers and such.

Rating: 3/5 stars. For such an enviable catalogue (present and past), the collection could have been stronger.

Stitching and Knitting show

2007-10-12T01:25:00.000-07:00

Helllo! I'm back from the Stitching and Knitting Show, held at Alexandra Palace, home to BBC's first TV arial in the 1930s, and a jolly part of London to visit: attractive, with wide spaces and some hills! Surprisingly (or not!) I didn't buy any yarn. Firstly, there was a lot of alpaca, which is a lovely yarn, but I can't really get on with it against my skin. There was a lot of sock yarn (A LOT of sock yarn), and space dyed yarn. I must say, I do like sock yarn in terms of the jewelled like colours and yardage, but enough withthe space dyed yarn already. Most times it looks terrible when knitted up (all. That. Pooling.) . I did not take many pictures because the stall owners didn't like it. A few had signs that discouraged such photography. Fair enough, I guess they wanted to keep their shots exclusive.

I saw the Habu knitting and saw what the hoopla was all about. Knitted steel, silk and figue (a relative of the pineapple plant) make such a lovely drape and fabric! But I didn't like the colours for me (my skin has orange tones, it doesn't get on with muted colourways and the bright ones were too bright). I also felt quivet for the first time. It's so LUSH! Unlike wool, or alapaca or any other animal fibre I've felt. It literally collapses into nothing on your hand but drifts like a fluffy cloud over your shoulders. The trader was Danish, and her quivet gathered from rocks and lichen in Greenland (that's how it's harvested, by gathering the bits of quivet down left on rocks and plants, then spun and dyed). She was selling 100 grams for quivet for £52 (104 US). Too rich for my blood (although I can see why the price is what it is). The quivet is the second picture on the right.

Rowan, Collinette, Get Knitted, Laughing Hens and a lot of other proprieters had stalls. Rowan (third picture) had a stall teaching people how to knit and crochet. So did simply knitting. There were a load of students at the show (quite a few were French) and they got busy with the sticks, to cast on and off.

I also saw a lot of knits on real people from Rowan Studio books 1 and 2. So immensely flattering! Please Rowan Studio books, go back to the fine gauged knits that you started off with. The big, chunky knits by the Royal College of Art and Design people were clumsily executed. I saw the Nora Gaughan knit from VK fall 2007 on a short, rotund woman. I like it! So beautifully skimming the figure and adding length and interest where there wasn't any. It was done in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran however, and as such, it started to pill. Ugh.

The last picture with the glass window is the hall of Alexandra Palace. It will be the last stitching show held there for a while, since the place is due for remodelling. From what I gathered by a stranger (when asking him for the directions of said place), there were plans afoot to tear a part of the building down for a leisure centre. Of course, the local community is in arms, and he thinks that the wolves of overhyped progress will be held at bay. I hope so, I'm all for tradition, it's what gives us identity and keeps us sane in this old world. Why has everything got to be new?

So, what did I buy? Just the Plassard Luminere yarn (reminded me of a Berroco yarn, the same one that Valpuri was done in), and a gauge slash needle sizer slash ruler slash magnifying glass by knit picks from Get Knitted.com. I also bought a pattern book by Wear Downey, but that shall be in a different post.

The online knitting designer's handbook

2007-10-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

So you wanna be an online knitting desinger? If so, you just need a dollop of creativity, and Barbarba G. Walker's Knitting from the top.

If you actually have this book to hand, and a modicum of creativity (or a few fashion magazines with knitwear to inspire you) you've got it made. Just an initial skim of a raglan topdown one button cardigan reminds one of a popular online designer's creation. The only difference is that the latter just throws a rib pattern below the bodice, but it's the basic shape and form (complete with button!)- but with short sleeves instead of long(p. 50, fig. 23).

Or if you want to make a cape/flared jacket, look at pg. 53-54 and you're all set.

It's not cheating per se, because it's a basic shape, but it just goes to show that with this book, you're already quids in on saving money buying the basic topdown patterns online, because Ms. Walker spells it all out for you. Yes, duckie, there is even a way to do topdown set in sleeves and it's very straightforward.

Knitting from the top is only 120 pages long, but oh my, what a lot of information in these pages! There are about 12 chapters, and each chapter covers a basic design element (raglan pullover, cardigan, seamless cape, seamless skirt, sleeves sweaters, pants and caps). Within each chapter, Walker breaks down the principles for you, and doesn't go further than third grade Arithmetic.

Ms. Walker's writing style is straight forward. She doesn't meander as much as Elizabeth Zimmerman, nor is she as overenthusiastic as Maggie Righetti can be at times. As a result, the prose is clean, and relatively uncluttered. In addition, the clean, basic diagrams help to bring her points across.

I'd say, if you had to choose between Knitting from the Top or Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English, I'd go for the former- more bang for the buck and less Math if you're not that inclined. In addition, there's a simple stitch glossary at the front, about 20 different increases explained on page 20 and a short section on how to chart your own patterns, and how to convert piece knitting into the round.

I can truly see why most (if not all) the popular online designers cite this book (although not Chapter and verse). It really allows you to dictate your knitting. Immediately, I can see myself utilising the set in sleeve method (if I can avoid sewing in a set in sleeve, yayyy), or knitting Kim Hargreaves' Salina from the topdown, so that I can have perfect fitting shoulders!

Drawbacks? Well, the cover is old fashioned, the processes are shown in black and white photographs (when illustrations or coloured photographs would be better), and the typeface and the outlay of the papers are dated, but really, the information gleaned from the pages overshadows the frumpiness.

It's a really good book to have. Highly recommended.

ETA to add images from the book. Thought it would be appreciated. :)

Book review: knit knit

2007-09-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

The pictures are taken from Knit Knit: profiles and projects from knitting's new wave, by Sabrina Gschwandtner (2007): Stewart, Tabori and Chang. The following designs - cover art, Fibreglass Teddy Bear by Dave Cole (the head alone weighs 400lbs), City of Stitches, Isabel Berglund, and Convertible Cardigan by Wenlan Chia.

I guess it had to happen sometime, knitting gets on the ascent, new designers are established, old designers are rediscovered and someone has to come along and document it. To paraphrase Derek Walcott, she's the scribe capturing moods and words while the knitting designers wrap their heads with yarn and draw blood with needles, so to speak.

On one hand, as an English graduate, I appreciate of the power of words, of the fact that paper is the perfect techology: easy to produce, easy to access and short of fire and acid it is relatively sturdy. I'm also aware of the fact that getting studies published is one way to give a hobby validity. On the other hand, I tend to approach such efforts with caution, because such offerings tend to veer on the stuffy and underwhelms one.

With Knit Knit, I'm glad to say that I'm wrong.

What helps is that Ms. Gschwandtner is a knitter, and the maven behind knitknit magazine, so the love for the craft is apparent and makes for easier reading. A caveat however, if you're looking for a knitting book with pretty pretty clothing patterns, this is not the book. You do get a couple of great garments by Anna Bell (Bridie) and Wenlan Chia (see cardi above), but the book isn't focused on garments. You get patterns for a 1000lb teddy bear, a knitted room calling for 150 balls of 50 g cottons (for a start!) and mini sweater earrings (about 1/44 of an inch).

Because I'm pressed for time, I'll just break the comments down into pros and cons.

Pros: Designers all, the great, the good and the quirky. Some designers have I haven't even heard of before (Catherine Lowe, with her 35 page knitting patterns) and other designers that I've seen around the internets, but never really investigated the scope of their work (Dave Cole's ginormous American flag done with earthmovers). There are the populist designers - Norah Gaughn, Teva Durham and Erica Knight - and other designers that you might not necessarily know, but you might know their patterns (the Knitta Please posse). The book is lavishly photographed, the interviews are interesting, and the patterns are inspiational.

Cons: The patterns are quirky, some of the designers probably shouldn't be in there (in terms of influence on knitters or knitting), and it's a book that would be more for the coffee table than the patterns actually being used.

Overall, I do see myself getting this book eventually (this is not my copy, it belongs to my friend, Pat) and I'm torn between giving it 3 or 4 stars out of five. I can't give it a five, because it doesn't seem like a book I could use, but it's really pretty.

Kim

2007-09-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd show you where I am with kim so far.

This is Kim from the first Rowan studio. If you look at my Ravelry page (or just google 'Kim' by Sarah Hatton) you'll see the finished knit. Essentially, it's a ribbed and cabled boob tube.

At first, this pattern stumped me because it was so badly written. You had to increase stitches whilst casting on and with instructions such as this: Row 1 (WS) K2 [0:1], (P1, inc purlwise in next st P1, K2 P2* to last 11 sts, K2 P2, inc purlwise into next st P1) 0 [0:1] times... only to find that there are TWO Row 1s and it was enough for me to leave the pattern and yarn in my knitting bag for the next five months!

But the weather draws cold, and one needs warmth without bulk, and this is the ticket. It will also look good over a simple T-shirt or top. I can't wear felted tweed against my skin, more the pity. It would be a cool top for the summer.

So, details, no?

Pattern: Kim by Sarah Hatton Rowan Studio 1
Yarn: Rowan felted tweed x3 skiens in pine (a deep mossy green, not so blue/spruce as in the top left photo).
Needles: 3.75mm + 1 cable needle
Size: small - it's best that you knit this with negative ease, just so that the tube stays up.

Sarah Hatton - my new favourite designer.

2007-09-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Ms. Hatton isn't a new designer. She started working with Rowan from issue 37. But she's really come into her own between 2006 to now. She has a new book out with designs for the whole family, with the new Rowan wool yarns. Look here for a total browse.

She has also done the sweetest designs for felting to the point where I'm thinking of buying it just because.... even though I don't do felting.

I do like Ms. Hatton's style. It's a wink to the classic without being too stuffy, high fashion without being too OTT.

Oh! Also, have you seen Martin Storey's new work. A few of the jumpers are actually simple enough for my hubby to wear. Well done indeed.

Are there any new designs y'all are gung ho about?

Stick a fork in me because Blithe is done!

2007-09-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Also, because I'm as plump as roasting hen.

Pilates, here I come.

Pattern: Blithe, by Kim Hargreaves. The pattern is very well written: there's alot going on in the pattern, but it spells it out so that you can do it at once. The pattern is interesting, and has a lovely tailored result to it. The next time I do this pattern, I'll do it in the round, because the stocking stitch (the back piece) damned near killed me with boredom.

Yarn: Paton's 4ply tumble rich yarn in chocolate. The yarn sucks: plasticky, splitty, the less said about that the better. In retrospect I should have used the yarn provided. Next time.
Mods: Different yarn, short row shaping for shoulders.
Size: 34" - could have gone up a size - or lose a stone! Will do the latter.

I got tagged by hunnybunny!

2007-09-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

So the rules are simple, use the letters of your middle name to describe yourself, and then tag five people. True story, I used to go by my middle name in prep school. I still think its a friendlier name than my first name. Once I reached high school, I had to use my first name.

Dang, I have been at this for an hour, halp?

Creative. I like to be creative, hence the love for knitting.
Harried, I tend to be rushed all the time.
Eager to learn new things.
Rhythm I can dance very well when no one's watching
Y - my favourite question to ask
Loyal- intensely so. It's a bad habit though.

No tags here, but feel free to try.

On being that girl

2007-09-15T14:14:00.001-07:00

When I grow up, I want to be a zephrstyleknits girl. I want to be able to dress unconventionally, to slink hither and yon with my own breeze as I move from place to place, garments gently swaying in the wind.

I want to be that girl.

The girl that makes men stumble when she does that smile, the tongue between the teeth (the trait which looks more beguiling and childlike than childish and retarded), the quirk of the eyebrow showing amusement. The quick shrug of shoulders that is more eloquent than words.

Yes, that girl, the one that makes old men stand a little straighter and feel a lot younger. The one that every guy falls just a little in love with, the one where all women want to be her best friend, because she's smart and non threatening.

That girl wears something like this: a simple knitted top teamed with a lacey camisole, smart trousers and a flower tucked behind her ear. Look how cunning the top is, cap sleeves, garter stitch, a lacey cropped swingy tunic in a colour that doesn't ask to work with anything. It is enough to be cute. Look at the oversized shell buttons! Look at their placement and the leather thong!

I've been squeeing like a mad, mad thing ever since the pattern was posted.

But the the thing is, like my friend Helen says, I'm not that girl. I am more sporty casual, with a knitted hoodie, fingerless gloves and a fatface bag strapped across my body. Instead of smart pants I wear jeans, and hiking shoes.

I'm the sturdy girl, the one who has to think thrice before knitting something, because once knitted, it has to reflect my style, the casual, the sturdy, the solid. Someone who wears a hoodie, because she takes public transport (as well as being a pedistrian) and for whom clothes are more than an expression of personality, they are also a comfort and a home (hoodie up to protect the neck and face, pockets for mp3 player and phone).

To be honest, I need to take more risks in knitting.

I'm trying to get out of the mindset of dark colours, and sturdy shapes. With knitting, I can and should be able to experiment (within reason) with colour, and shapes, and try to explore my inner unconventionality. If I don't like it, I can rip it back, right? I tell myself. On the other hand, my knits have to reflect my way of living, my personality and the fact that I expect these knits to pay for themselves by me wearing them to death.

That top is too cute to be worn to death. It's a top designed for clever layering, for mild summer knits and college days. It's for that girl with laughter like a brook and her tongue between her teeth. It's not a top for hikes in the peat district, with a knapsack on my back. *sigh*

It's okay, I've gotten used to being sturdy girl, but damn it, I want to be that girl, and tear down my bloody stupid topdown to use the yarn for Juliet.

Baby's first swatch

2007-09-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a lovely day, so I got my camera and started taking pictures of my stash to upload to Ravelry (to the people giggling in the penny section, shut up. I mean it).

The stash is a fearsome thing, and you should go and look at my lovely stash - but I digress. While digging through my stash, I found the first swatch I ever did.

It felt so strange, in my hand, this swatch. It is more than just a piece of knitted cloth, this is the culmination of a yearning to create, to hold colour. It is a true mark of me being here, even when I'm gone.

I don't know if I've ever told you about how I started knitting.

Like many things in my life, it started with Harry Potter.

Harry Potter belonged to Gryffindor house, its colours a blaze of sun and heart, red and gold. I always wanted a Harry Potter scarf, to have my neck warm against the bluster of raw wind that we in Nottingham get from time to time, but the scarves were too thin, too bulky, not gold enough, not red enough, too thin, too thick.

There were a lot of possibly mabyes, but honestly, nos.

I knew I'd get my Harry Potter scarf, it was just a matter of when.

Inspiration struck when I was on the tram one night in December, when I heard a jangle of metal, and saw a girl knitting a scarf. Her needles were shiny pink metallic things, turning a thin piece of string into something substantial, something useful.

She was knitting her boyfriend a scarf, she said, and my divine architect was moved.

"Yes," I remember saying, being charmed by the ease and skill of her craft. "I want to do that, I shall learn to knit a scarf."

There was a John Lewis in the town, and they had yarn, and then I found out that my Spanish friend knew how to knit. I asked her to teach me how - and we bought this yellow yarn (the top colour is accurate) because it was bright - a bit of sun to hold in one's hand- to keep the gloam of winter away.

We also bought 4mm needles. That night was a Friday night, we huddled in a gothic bar, and Maria showed me how to do the long tail cast on.

Then, I struggled through the knit stitches. It was difficult, because Maria didn't know the terms in English (she learnt to do this in Argentina) and her way was awkward. Undeterred, I found a tutor at school (I was doing classes there), and she taught me the knit stitch, then stocking and rib. It was brilliant to know the myriad possibilities with just two sticks, two stitches and a piece of string. Two, it seemed, was the magic number!

After that I got the Stitch and Bitch book and that's all she wrote. I knitted a pink scarf, then a lace scarf and moved on to jumpers. There was so much to learn and so little time and hooyah, see the hill take the hill.

Strangely though, I haven't gotten around to knitting myself a Harry Potter scarf. I knitted one for a friend in the US (a fellow HP fan) but never one for me.
I couldn't knit this scarf in cotton anyway - it wouldn't keep!

And also, I don't think I'm a Gryffindor anyway, thumping on ceremonial drums about my goodness and bravery. I'm interested in how things work, and am insanely loyal to a cause. I veer between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but the latter house colours seem much more me.

This swatch tickles me pink, because I can see my progress in the space of two years (it seems I started knitting in 2005) in terms of twisted stitches and uneven tension.

All I know is, this swatch is the reason why I love knitting - you can literally hold time and memories in your hands, like a personal pensieve**.

It's odd, the first swatch. I shan't throw it away at all.

** In the HP books a pensieve is a container that holds your memories for a time (you fish them out of your head/temple with a wand), while you look at them, rather like a three dimensional moving image. There's more to it, but not everyone who reads the blog is an HP fan.

My next project

2007-09-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

So, the other day, I was in Cornwall on a holiday. My hubby likes camping, and since his like for it outweighs my disinterest, I go. I don't mind sleeping on the ground, or coooking my meals outside. I even like the time away from the hum of electrical appliances, and the seven mile hikes. I don't even mind sharing a toilet, or using a chemical one.

But what I hated was the shower arrangements. The showerblock was fifteen minutes away, and I'd get up in the morning, clad in my shortsleeves and boxers and stumble to the showers. I'd move briskly halfway, because it was so cold, and mumble under my breath about the lack of a hoodie.

To be honest, I hate the ready made hoodies. They tend to bag too easily (no matter how expensive) and just look a certain way. I thought to myself, "C'mon Jazz, you're a knitter, knit something".

I know I wanted a hoodie that was snug, that I could wear it around town- as well as on a camping trip - something warm enough to wear around an English campsite, but flattering enough to wear it to a big city. It had to be warm, and kinda stylish. I knew that cables would figure into it somewhere (for the warmth), but I didn't want it to be too fussy, as cables can be if you're not careful.

Then, I saw this 'Central Park Hoodie' from Knitscene, and it was a wrap.

Unfortunately, I can't wear tweedy yarn against my skin, and since I tend to wear shortsleeves under my hoodie (layering, it's what's for fashion), the itching was a no no. I wanted to knit it in Jaeger extra fine merino yarn - but the colour that I have 9 balls of (shade 546) is finished. The yarn itself has been discontinued for a couple of seasons now.

The one I got was like an auburn (dark red orange colour), but the nearest is a burgundy, and I do not like that colour. I'm not feeling the urge to try and gather other potential balls by using ebay either.

I might knit Valpuri in the Jaeger instead. It's a nice top that would work with layering, a long sleeved shirt underneath.

Blame my friend Pat for the sudden interest in Cables.

I shall.

So I'm knitting Central Park Hoodie in Rowans all seasons cotton. In a colour called military . The texture of the colour is more like Rowan denim after it is knitted up.

From my research (reading blogs), it seems that the ASC takes cabling nicely, and the acrylic gives the cotton a 'spring like' loft, so that sagging should be minimal. I've knitted with a cotton/acrylic blend before, and it's really a good mix.

I'm tempted to knit the entire thing in 4mm needles (instead of 5.oom)- a tighter knit should guard against the sag, but I'll have to swatch first, and do some Math. I've ordered an extra ten balls of ASC (it was going cheap) so that I can have yarn to do so.

But not before I finish my Blithe. I'm doing the back now, and when I settle, I'll do the sleeves as well.

Blogger, why you do this to me?!

2007-09-03T00:56:00.000-07:00

I was really going to give this entry a snappy title, like "Back in the Saddle Again." or "Knit 'em in, and purl 'em out" but Blogger refuses to let me load my pictures. Auuugh. *stabbity at blogger*

Anyways, if you're interested in my pictures, you can have a butchers here at my flickr account.

I'm almost finished with the front of Blithe. The reason why it's taking so long (relatively) is the fact that I'm doing both fronts at the same time. I can't say that I'd recommend the yarn I'm currently doing it in - Patons diploma gold 4ply 'wool rich' yarn. First, it's splitty, then it just feels like plastic. I'm no yarn snob, because I like Paton's Haze, which is a rich cotton/acrylic blend. That's very soft, and really lovely to knit with. This diploma gold is terrible - even my cast on looks raggedy (cable cast on) For the back, I'm going to try a tublar cast on, just to see if it's any neater.

Anyways, have been swimming around at ravelry, and I have come to the conclusion that Norah Gaughan is a goddess. She is so clever! Everything she designs is worthy of a second look. Her designs are articulate and intellectually engaging.

I'm panting after this catalogue/booklet - her first designs for Berroco yarn in book form. But Berroco doesn't ship outside of Canada, and another place is quoting $16.90 US *dies* for shipping a booklet to this side of the pond. The book itself is $15.95 US. *dies again* I can see at least four things I'd like to knit, especially this piece. So brilliant! I'm only sorry that I can't get the particular yarns (merino) that are comparable to the Berroco gauge, but I'll try.

Anyways, that's it for now. I need to finish vacuming and get some lesson prepartion done for my class at 13:00.

I'm on Ravelry!

2007-08-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

And holy time suck, Batman, it's taking all my moral strength to resist just diving in and forgetting about the little things, like jobs, social life and money.

Anyways, I'm jazzypom on ravelry, since cranberry was taken.

Hopefully, when I get back, Blithe should be on its way to being done.

Behold, the last brown thing I'll ever knit

2007-08-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

This colour is supposed to be chocolate, honest. It's a dark brown, I don't know where the purple came from, but it's the best I can do with my camera phone.

To be honest, I do like having a camera phone - it makes the act of taking pictures so much more casual than an ordinary camera. For an ordinary camera, you have to remember to carry it with you, to take pictures, etc and it's all a palaver. But with a camera phone, you carry the phone with you anyways, so to just slide the lens cover back and start clicking is expected. And it's fun.
I guess you want specs on the pattern, huh?

Pattern: Blithe, by Kim Hargreaves.
Yarn: Paton's 4ply diploma gold in a true dark brown. You know how some other yarn companies tend to make their browns rather bitter, with a chalky undertone to them that's nasty? Or the other browns that tend to be more ochre than brown? Well, this is a pure brown. The colour of a good organic chocolate sort of a brown. The yarn is 'wool' rich - 55% wool, 25% acrylic 25% percent nylon. It feels smooth and firm in the skien, but when knitted up, you do feel the plastic, especially if you're like me, and accustomed to knitting with 100 merino wool.
Needles: 2.25mm and2.75mm - Actually, I had to cast on with 2.5mm needles, since they don't seem to sell 2.25mm needles nowadays, due to reasons beyond my ken. Knitting with needles this size creates a firm, shaped fabric. It's something that the French designers seem to do as well - they go down a needle size to get this fabric. I assume that it will keep its shape more and pill less.
Pattern size: !'m doing a 34" bust. Because that's what I am, you know? It will be stretchy enough to wear tops underneath, because it's supposed to be a vest.
Pattern ease: I'd say it's for an advanced beginner. You have to know knit stitches, purl stitches and do basic shaping. Haven't had to rip back, yet. Good times.
Enjoyment of Pattern: Great. What I like about Kim Hargreaves is that she's all about the stitch work- whereas other designers like colour work, or the fusiness of yarns as a design slight of hand, Hargreaves uses stitch work to create a neat top. I'll wax poetic about madam Hargreaves in a future post (and ask y'all to write to her and ask why she doesn't put out a book of patterns). I also like working in 4ply than heavier yarns (but guess who bought 9mm and 10mm knitpicks options needles from get knitted? I need a keeper).
What I've learnt: That stitch markers go on the needle, not on the stitches. Who knew? No wonder I was having problems keeping stitch count and formation! :(

While I do like the colour of this blithe, I think this will be the last time I'll knit something in brown. Depending on the pattern, I might knit this again, either in a pale yellow (the yarn that I got) or a nice pink- it's a bit too flirtatious for brown, I feel. But it will make a nice work vest for the winter, oh yes.

This post will have to hold both of us for a time. The partner is itching to go away and camp - I'll be going too, and carrying my knitting to boot, here's hoping that I'll get loads of stuff done while I'm away.

Cheers!

Got stash? I got stash! Let me show you it!

2007-08-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Oh blogger, why art thou beingst a butt? I entreat your good humour so I can post my electronic missive.

Anyways, I thought I'd show you all my stash. You know, since we are friends and all. I'd also like to share with you my insights *snerk* on my yarn choices and how they've changed over the years that I've been knitting.

When I first started knitting, I'd collect balls of yarn willy nilly. I'd buy one ball with the premise of knitting up, and if I liked more, I'd come back. I knew nothing about the weight or type of yarn. I just bought it (and ask people to send yarns for me) because it was pretty. But knitting yarn companies, they tend to discontinue yarn with the blink of an eye, so my first stash (first image) is disorganised: the odd balls of yarn in colour, weight of yarn, et al. It looks a muddled mess, no?

My second stash of yarn (the one with the GAP bag in the right corner) shows my prejudices more. I like yarn that's 4ply or double knit, with colours that are jewel like rather than pastel/chalky. My colours veer on reds and greens. I like wool in all its permutations, I prefer cotton with an acrylic/wool mix and am being seduced by bamboo. I also buy yarns in numbers of six to ten so that I can get a decent top out - when I get around to knitting said yarn.

Speaking of yarn and weights, I've noticed that not a lot of yarn companies do 4ply yarns anymore. Why not? There are a lot of other yarns: Rowan has a new cashsoft chunky, a heavy yarn (cacoon), a couple of aran weight yarns (a tweed and kidsilk aura). Debbie Bliss has a new aran weight yarn (rialto), Louisa Harding has two new yarns out which are aran weight, Sublime has an aran weight as well, and sirdar click is coming out with a double knit yarn. But really, there are no 4 ply yarns. What's up with that?

The reason I ask is that I'm trying to find a suitable yarn for Blithe. Heh. Remember that? Well, I've been trying to find a yarn that speaks to me. The original yarn for this pattern is 4ply cotton, but I don't like knitting with a 100 percent cotton. It's like knitting with string. Also, the yellow is more a spring like colour than fall. That bright melon colour is katia which is a bamboo/cotton blend. I think it's a bit heavier than a 4ply though. But I shall keep that colour, oh yes. The green that is nearer to the picture of Blithe is a Bergere de France tweedine 30 wool/70 acylique. It's very soft, and when it's knitted, it's tweedy. A lovely yarn, but the play of colour will take away from the structure of Blithe. The green nearest to the yellow 4ply is the Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 100 percent wool. It's a nice yarn, okay colour, but I wanted something more military. Nice, but no cigar. The other yarn - the last colour is a a good, dark brown. Patons's diploma gold, 4ply. 55 wool/acrylic/nylon blend. I think the last colour might be the best. Pat has suggested a navy blue, but there are many colours of navy blue, and that's for another post.

A letter to my friend, Pat.

2007-08-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Pat

Wow, this is an embarassment of knitterly riches. First Rowan comes up trumps with a good issue, I fall for Debbie Bliss and now this.

Kim Hargreaves has such a STRONG fall collection. I see at least three pieces that I want on my needles today. I love everything about Still (the jumper in the pink Calmer yarn, with the square neckline and tight sleeves) even the colour. I see that Evie is just Blithe - but in another yarn (Cashsoft 4ply), colour and without buttons. Hmmm... have you knitted with the cashsoft before? Is it machine washable? What's the price like? I'd do my Blithe in that yarn, because of its warmth and softness.

I'm two minds about the suggested matchmaker merino, but I shall buy a ball tomorrow, knit a swatch and see how it feels after a wash and steam. If it gets soft enough apres blocking, it's on like popcorn.

Yes, you have a good eye! The Debbie Bliss cardigan in Vogue is the same one in her book: I shall get the Vogue issue just for the charts. I do prefer the girl in Debbie Bliss' book though: she doesn't look emaciated like the girl on the VK cover and I think the cable in lilac is a nice subversion of colours for cables, especially when you compare it with the hohum grey that VK has.

Ah, to think that I was just going to cast on for Blithe in the 4ply cotton I had - despite my second and third thoughts. I do see myself selling that 4ply cotton if anything: or just knitting it for spring, since knitted cottons are rather heavy. But I agree with you with the 4ply yarn. Wool or a warm, light mix is better .*sighs*

Brown, charcoal or military green? I'm drawn towards brown, and I think the rowan cashsoft brown is yummy. You?

Well, off to look at Kim Hargreaves' work again, and drool. Have you checked out the new Interview Knits as yet? The cover jacket is to die for.

Best regards,

jazz

Oooh, a book rec!

2007-08-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

For the kind reader of this blog, I'm sure that you have digested my musings on knitting and pattern designs (or at least, skimmed through stuff) and you know that I'm in the midst of doing a topdown jumper.

I have always thought that it takes a certain skill to be able to weild art and technical details together to create a knit garment, and then to add your own stamp on it is nothing short of magical. I still think this of design, I really do. But it hasn't stopped me from wanting to know the ins and outs of the design process myself. Not because I'm clever enough to design (uhhh.... no), but because I'm inquistive enough to want to know how the process works.

There are books out there for us inquistive knitters: those of us who are content with buying pattern books and working from them - but want to be savvy enough to know when their tech writers were wrong, or when the devil's printer is acting up. I've come across Elizabeth Zimmerman - and perhaps I'm from the generation that grew up on instructions from Japan - where they had loads of easy to follow diagrams because not many people in the 1980's knew Japanese. Also, in the age of digital, where one is taught that a clean, linear writing style is one to be aspired to, the free wheeling, contrary style of Ms. Zimmerman confunds me. Or perhaps, I'm not inspired enough to search through the dense prose for the truth.

I promise myself I'll give the book a try one day. Just not today.

For today, I'm trying Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti.

For starters, Righetti writes in plain English. The book is over 400 pages long, and I didn't even find myself glazing over her chapter of knitting math.

Righetti speaks about different types of bodies, and how to knit for said body (I'm a pear shape, so it was helpful to me). She also speaks about how to do set in sleeves so that you can knit them downward from the armhole instead of from bottom up. That's brilliant, because it saves on error in terms of sleeve length. She also discusses shortrows and darts, and how to do different necklines for jumpers. She discusses the drawbacks of various stitches, and gives you pointers for finding the colours which are best for you (I'm currently contemplating a soft knit jumper, and this is coming from a woman who couldn't abide the colour and concept of pink).

In addition, the principles in the book are aptly illustrated by black and white diagrams. Joy.

The only drawback with the book are the patterns included. They are very dated, but it's good to see how she approaches the pattern process.

I might not design a jumper for myself, but I can see the book being a great help in terms of the patterns I pick in the future.

Of rants and mumbles and such things (or, just a general update)

2007-08-09T02:37:00.000-07:00

So.

(I need to stop starting my posts with so. But I like the word 'so.' Such a wealth of meaning behind said word. So.).

I love Fall (or Autumn for the British) where layers of clothing are encouraged, and designers reach for colours that one tends to miss in spring. Fall brings colours like chocolate, cranberries, nutmeg and pine. Colours which swirl together in a blend of light and dark, of red/rose gold on punget earth.

Colours which speak of warmth, life and Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Not many yarn companies do 'fall' colours that I'm enamoured with.

I think it's because I live in the UK, and most women here think of fall/winter with colours like slate, fog, ice, biscuit and tundra (think I'm lying?Look at the Sublime colours). I think it's tied to tradition here, and the lanscape because in the winter, the UK can be extremely grey.

Which is why I have a love/hate problem with Debbie Bliss.

As my friend Pat will tell you, I've been heard to hiss (yes, hiss with silibants) at people when they try and angle Debbie Bliss in my way, I tell them that she is dead to me.

Dead.

I hate Debbie Bliss' yarns. Their expense with so little yardage in comparison to other yarns. They pill easily, are prone to breakage and that Bliss makes her gauge so wonky that you can only use her yarns for a spot on gauge.

Boo, Bliss. Just boo.

That's sneaky.

On the other hand, I love her colours. Debbie Bliss knows colours and has an exisquite colour sense that is unmatched by other UK yarns. Yes, even Rowan. Rowan's new yarns tend to be the traditional British winter colours - leached of intensity and warmth - for the first season. Bliss always brings the colour for her first season of new yarns.

Another thing about Debbie Bliss is the fact that her patterns tend not to correspond with reality. I did a pattern of hers once, for a 34" size, and it came out at 38". Her earlier patterns did not have a schematic either, and I refuse to knit without a schematic - that's like buying flat pack furniture without visual instructions. Just as how I expect spending money should make my version of the product comparable to the prototype with flatpack, the same should be for my knitting.

Also, with Debbie Bliss, I tend to find that I only like one pattern in her pattern books, and dismiss the others. Like this one. Love the cover slipover Catriona - Debbie Bliss shines when it comes to cable patterns for women and babies - although the cynic in me thinks she uses cables so that we can by more yarn - on the other hand, when she goes for simple, it tends to fall flat.

So I haven't looked seriously at Debbie Bliss' designs (not even to buy her book) until now. I like Patrica, Frances, Lily and Romy. I especially like Romy - a simple shape of a cardigan (like a child's smock) yet the cables and moss stitch add interest and is just a good design. Then too boot, the book has schematic diagrams. I'm so sunk.

Even though I've done The Unthinkable, the undesirable, the unspeakable, I am not mad.

I have bought Maggie Righetti's book Sweater Design in Plain English.

I will read through this book before I cast on a Debbie Bliss design.

Nay, I will read this book before I cast on for any other knit pattern. I'm not skilled or clever enough to design my own stuff, but I want to be knowledgable enough to avoid the mistakes of the designer and her tech writer.

So. What of my knitting, you ask?

I have not been knitting per se. It's been too hot to knit, too bright. I have been going out more, doing cross country rambling on Sundays, baking on Saturdays. Mondays to Fridays I've been looking for employment.

Of course, I should probably let you know a bit about my background.

I am a migrant to the EU. Have been here for six years, taught for one. Worked in other jobs for the other five.

After teaching in an English high school, I decided I did not want to teach anymore, and tried to find alternative employment. Unfortunately, since my degree isn't from a First World University, and I didn't know the system/interview culture, I was hard pressed to find employment that suited my strenghts, to be honest.

In addition, since I'm a migrant (but not an asylum seeker) I could not ask the state for job advice. To add insult to injury, even though I was working and paying emergency taxes, I had to wait three years in order to qualify for local student rates for my education.

Long story short, my professional life has been deferred for five years.

True, I have spent those five years working where I could: teaching on the weekends, doing bar work, and the odd student jobs here and there while I got my (other, First World) Higher Education, because well my first one wasn't doing me any favours.

So, while looking for professional jobs, I've been reading books and blogs (I'm not picky) in terms of trying to sure up my resume, and coming up with new ways of selling me, the product.

In this light, Penelope Trunk isn't a bad blog.

Her advice may sound quirky and is totally different from the attitudes my parents instilled in me, but it makes me think. Not that one will follow the advice without tweaking it, but she makes me think.

Some of her nuggets of wisdom are:

In interviews, it's more important to work on being liked than appearing competent - you can be trained for competence, but if people don't like you, you're screwed.

Gaps in resumes can be explained away, and it's actually A Good Thing to have a gap in a resume, because it shows some sort of restraint in applying for jobs.

People will rather work with someone they like despite their chronic incompetence, rather than someone who's super competent, but disliked.

A resume is a selling tool not a summary of work experience.

Never eat alone. Network, network, network. Only befriend people that can be useful to you, because your social contacts is only strong as your weekest link.

The thing is, I did myself a disservice with doing odd jobs it seems, because once you work 'down' it's harder to work up. My brother-in-law's son-in-law actually waited (didn't work) six months (he used to work in The City as an accountant) before the job of his dreams came on his radar he and got it (working with National Parks).

My actually working 'down' just to get food on the table, some sanity and routine in my life (because staying home is the suxors people, I'm saying that now) will actually count against me in interviews. The fact that I worked in the summers just to finance my way through school for the rest of the year might strike against me.

The hell.

I'm applying for Admin/logistics jobs right now, because they demand a good grasp of written and spoken English, computer literacy and typing skills (they'll train you for everything else), and I'm unsure of myself. I can do the work, and I do want to do something that engages the brain, and isn't dependent on hourly rates - where if there are no people there I gotta go home- and my payslip is screwed.

I cannot do it through Nottingham agencies, because they demand experience for temps. Whereas in London agencies, they tend to test you then send the information on to the potential employer, who (more times than not ) accepts you as a temp, giving you invaluable experience.

*sighs*

So, I need to tweak my resume, and tailor it to this job. I also need to write a killer covering letter.

I have an interview at the jobcentre next week, and here's hoping I'll be in full time employment which engages the brain because I don't want to be home beyond September not earning money.

Wish me luck.

Of Top downs and new fall designs.

2007-08-02T01:15:00.001-07:00

My progress on the top down so far. I've had to rip two inches back on the body, to three inches below the armpit. Personally, I don't like frogging, although I'm not afraid of doing it. I don't take the decision lightly, but when it's done. It's done. Fast, ruthless and with a steady hand.

No tears, here.

While knitting the sleeves, came to the conclusion that alas, I must frog. So I have. I need to start decreases at three inches below the armpit instead of five. It will follow my shape better.

It's been interesting doing the topdown. My partner is actually in awe of the process, in terms of its elegance and ingenuity. He is tickled by the notion of knitting while the garment is on one's body. My reactions have been more along the line of an academic interest. I can see why the topdown method is the preferred method for American designers. Once you know how to do topdown, it's just a matter of getting a stitch dictionary, some math skills for sizing and hey - a cottage industry in your home. I can see myself using the topdown as a way of using awkard amounts of yarn up - like that one skien wonder that Japel of Glampyre fame uses, or just exploring the joys of the garter stitch ala Brooklyn Tweed.

Apart from the academic interest, and the appreciation of said technique, I can't say that I'd totally abandon piece knitting for knitting topdown. I think it's the amount of different circular needles lengths for one piece is offputting. You need about 16" (40 cm)for neck, 24"-32" (60-80cms) for the body and about 6" (15cms) for sleeves. So to knit one longsleeved garment in the round, I'm looking at 3 different lengths. Whereas with piece knitting, at most, I need two, unless I'm changing needle sizes.

However, I can see myself trying to incorporate much more circular knitting into my life, especially when it comes to fair isle such as this:

I've tried fairisle on knit and purl sides. I can do it, but if knitting in the round makes it easier, I'm all for it. I also find that I'm becoming more open to steeking, because I dislike 'V' necks and turtle necks, which seem to be the default necklines for said patterns. For people with a bra cup size of C and over, I think scoop necks and square necklines tend to break up all that chest space and adds some sort of interest, like if you wanted to wear a cami underneath in a constrasting colour, or material.

What are your thoughts on the new Rowan? Issue no. 42?

On my behalf, I like the magazine in terms of its shapes, the push of colour (cables done in that tapestry/noro style yarn? Inspired. If only my husband liked knit wear) and little details. In terms of knitting stuff for me however, I've seen three or four patterns that make the hands itch.

This:

It's really an interesting pattern. Done in Rowan's new yarn, Cocoon. I love the horizontal detailing, and the generous rib.

Yes, yes, yes.

On me it might look as if I've tucked into the biscuit tin (these are models in the photos. Three sizes smaller than myself, as well as 6 inches taller) and scoffed 3 score of chocolate creams.

That would be a bad look, wouldn't it?

*sighs* I fear so.

I do like the pattern though. I might do it for my stepdaughter - and pretend that I bought the design at a chi chi shoppe, because she's wary about handknits.

I think the design is fab enough to risk the scorn. You?

I also like this top. Very much so. Enough to even spring for the recommended yarn (never mind the bad penmanship on the post it note) .

Rowan Cocoon again. It's 80 percent wool, 20 percent mohair. It's a heavier version of kidclassic (wool, mohair and alpaca mix, I think). I think the colour scheme for the yarn is limited based on my LYS- a charcoal, a cream and a grey, I think.

I'd do this in a cranberry, or an orange, if I could.

I'd do this top for me, but probably incorporate some shaping around the waist, so I don't look like a dumpling. But I like this top. Normally, my partner and myself will go a rambling, and it would be nice to have something warm and handknitted for the times I do go.

There are other new Rowan books coming out, like Kaffe Fasset's knits - which I'll buy. Since I'm an English knitter, he's supposed to be a part of my knitting heritage (never mind the fact that he's American, he's been in England for almost thirty years).

There is also the design book by Weardowney coming out in the fall. Very elegant, with a nod to vintage, a sly kiss to the catwalk, but very much wearable. My friend Pat is all twitterpated over the new arrival (in October) and she will buy the book on first print. I'll wait until the errata is corrected.

I have a backlog of knits that I need to do for the fall/winter season. Like slipovers in many colours for my wardrobe, and a cardigan to schlep around the house in.

What's new in your WIPs?

Oh, Snap!

2007-08-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new Rowan magazine? No. 42. This page
has some of the new stuff. So does this one . I also like the new shapes with big yarn. The new yarns are okay- a bit problematic. They have cacoon which is mohair/merino blend, a cashmere silk blend that costs the earth, and the merino tweed is lovely. It's nice to see improvement in Martin Storey's new work but Marie Wallin, Rowan's lead designer is conservative.

Can't wait for their new books though.

What new patterns are you hoping to knit in fall?

I thought I was a Hufflepuff.

2007-07-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!

Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

But not tonight

2007-07-30T03:46:00.000-07:00

So sorry that I've inactive.

The past couple of days have been lovely, so the hubster and myself did a seven mile hike (and I'm still sore!), and I've been making use of the sunshine in terms of walking into town, skipping in the sunshine and just trying to lose the winter weight. It also seems that I might have to distance myself from fat people (I'm lucky, in that my only obsese friend lives 5000 miles away - and she's doing something about her size) because obseity is contagious.

Huh. It seems my mum was right, about your friends being a reflection of yourself. Size 8 (UK) peoples, where art thou?

I'm not fanatical about my weight, no but I live in Europe, and anything over a size 14 (US 10) relegates you to the big girls' section in the store. As Ms. Westwood says, it's convient to be a (UK) size 12. I'm trying to stick to that, although to be a size 10 (US 6) would be ideal, because I'm short. Also, my family (on my father's side) has a history of diabetes and high blood pressure, so it behooves me to be on this side of size 14.

Knitting wise, I've been okay. No lie, I'm not enjoying the topdown at all - I know that it's because of the yarn. It's splitty, snags on needles (even dull bamboo) and I think any yarn over 4.5mm (aran weight) for me feels unweildy, and unforgiving. I do miss working with 3.75mm (US 5) needles and comparative sized yarn. I think I knit faster then.

Also, I've got a new phone (Nokia N95) and wow. For the past two years I've been using the Sony Ericsson k 750i and it's a nice phone.

The infterface of the SE K750i is easy to move around, and the T-9 capabilities (predictive texting) is so much easier than the Nokia's. Who knew?

My main reason for getting the Nokia is due to the hubster's influence, I'm afraid. He likes the GPS system that the phone boasts (with an internal tracker) while I was (and am) attracted to the camera. 5 megapixels - and something that I'd carry around everyday, instead of having to think about getting out my Sony camera.

I'll miss my Sony Ericsson k750i though. *sighs* It is a great phone.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

2007-07-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I'll be at my local Waterstones.

The forecast is of rain in my part of the world.

At best, it will be a drizzle tap-dancing on our umbrellas, dampening the hems of our robes, the damp cockling the brims of our makeshift magical hats.

Tonight, I'll be wearing the first Harry Potter scarf that I ever knitted. It will be wrapped around my neck, a hug against the cold. For the last time, I'll share the wonder of magic with the children in the city.

I might knit too, while I’m in line – since it was the thought of a Harry Potter scarf that spurred me on to learn the craft- a sort of homage in my own way.

I’ll be knitting a hat for an imaginary house elf.

Our faces will be sticky from sweets that the store has given us, our excitement almost palpable as we jostle for space and to be one of the first in line, and we'll be counting down to magic at midnight.

I’ve heard tell that there’ll be magicians at the event and bets to see who’ll make it through the war, and who won’t. My partner has asked me if I want to go alone, because he knows the tears I’ll shed. Over the past two days, I have been felled by sentiment, emotions hitting me at odd angles.

I’ve run the gamut of Snape worthy sneers and invectives to an almost Luna like dismissal, and I’m happy about it, because I’m not indifferent.

I cannot be indifferent.

I’ve asked him to come with me, to soothe the tremor when I hand over the reserve slip and get the long awaited tome in return -because magic is stronger when it’s shared.

When I've finished the book, it will be dawn (I'm a fast reader).

As the sun rises, daylight will touch on magic, and turn the gilt of gold on my adult copy of Harry Potter to paper, and I'll smile sadly, knowing that this part of my life is over, and remember that I believed in enchantment, just for a little.

I'll genuflect on Harry, the spunky orphan that charmed my heart because of his innate decency and his two friends, no less great because they were his sidekicks.

I'll remember the generation before him: Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, James Potter Sr., Peter Pettigrew – because it is right that his name should be here - and Sirius Black, who probably thought that they'd live forever, that after Hogwarts life would be perennial summer, before The Dark Time of Voldemort, and the dawn of twilight that marks adulthood in some ways.

The twilight that says that life at thirty is not what one imagined, nor would one imagine even as a worst case scenario. Why, with prisons of the mind and body, treachery in the heart and fear of the known dwelling in the attic, it is easy for people to fade away, to live as they can, not as they should, and how each action is a choice, and each choice a consequence.

I’ll remember how much I appreciated Rowling’s nod to all that, to the hazardous terrain of adulthood, and how it’s easy to class people as good wizards and Death Eaters, not realizing that for most of us, we live in the nuance of the in between.

*sighs*

I'll miss Harry Potter, thank you JK Rowling.

our love is a ball of yarn

2007-07-19T02:37:00.000-07:00

You know how it is, that first meeting with an attractive ball of yarn.

You go into your LYS, and find stacks of yarn, divided by brand, source material, expense.

There is a grid of colour on the walls, each ball pitching an idea, hoping to be on your needles.

There's the insecurity of the novelty yarn, fussing with its sparkles and light, hoping to catch your eye. Yarns with print so bold, they brand themselves on your conscious, inspiring you to pick it up, fondle and move on.

Your eyes dance from ball to ball, each yarn an excited suitor wanting a space on your dance card. You have no cares in the world; like a bee in a meadow, or like a butterfly moving from flower to flower.

It doesn't matter, because you have time to look, to squeeze, to think - whatever shall I make with this? Is this the right colour for me? Nah. Moving on - because at times, all you need is yarn, and the air that you breathe. Life is good.

Then, it happens. Your eye is snagged by a particular yarn in the corner. It doesn't fuss, doesn't preen, does not need to. You buy just one ball, to see how you'll get on with it, mind. No harm ever came from a pretty ball of yarn.

But like in all relationships, probably your infatuation didn't work out. You try to explain to your friends. Yourself.

The yarn.

"It's not that you aren't pretty," you begin, trying to come up with some excuse why you only bought one ball of yarn that you won't use, and can't see yourself buying more, not wanting to appear shallow, or worse, feckless.

"It's just that... well..." you gesticulate, finding out that a shrug of shoulders isn't as elegant and eloquent as novelists make it out to be, and that sometimes, you just have to grab for that old chestnut. "It's not you, it's me."

The yarn is Louisa Harding's Impressions - the same ribbon, string, mohair yarn I spoke about in the last post - but in a different colourway. I bought this yarn the first time the line came out in the UK.

I love this colourway - it's as if you stumbled onto a lake in autumn, on a day so crisp, so fine you laugh with simple joy.

There's the leaves in the colours of fall, ranging from amber, to blood orange, slumbering in a lake so still that you can see the shock of the blue sky threading through, with the black edges holding you back on the sturdy earth, keeping you from doing an Ophelia, your dress floating with the fall of leaves from the trees above.

All this, before you wake up from that ever so vivid dream, blinking the mist and mohair from your eyes and going, "Oh."

Man, I love this yarn, but it has mohair in it, and mohair makes me itch, although I admire the effect it gives.

These gloves are for a friend of mine. She's here at Sectus the Harry Potter convention in London. It is the last book in the series, and we've argued, made up and now will commisserate at the events of the last book.

The gloves are my commencement present.

I'm going to London on Sunday to see her, and to give these gloves to her, and hope that she gets even a fraction of the joy I had knitting them, flirting with the yarn, trying to find a relationship with it, only to say, "It's not you, it's me."

The ties are done in Rowan wool/silk in an olive green colour.

Can't say I like that particular yarn, bought a ball for a panta, but the girl left before I could cast on. The ball I got was replete with knots, and the yarn pills easily, I think it's the silk.

Is simplicity best, or simply the easiest? part 2

2007-07-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

My favourite flavour of ice cream is vanilla. Or, if I wish to go wild, grapenut.

It is a choice that makes my husband wonder, especially when we peruse the chilled section at the supermarket. He'll want the rocky road swathed in caramel and studdied with nuts- that mashup of flavours on the tongue- while I'll stick to vanilla.

"Why vanilla?" he asks, passing the shopping cart to me while reaching for a carton of icecream.

"It's simple," I say, "and simplicity is hard to get right."

The more I knit and collect patterns, the more this statement resonates with me.It's easy enough to overwhelm with design features and the rest of it, and I have knitted garments that I do not wear as much as I should do, because I find them too busy. I love knitting the complicated, just to see what I can do.

See the hill, take the hill, right?

But there is a quality to simplicity that I am liking more and more. The use of clean lines to showcase the yarn, or to use colours in such a novel way, it makes knitting new. Hence me being drawn to the phildar patterns as of late, and now picking up Sarah Dallas' Knitting.

I'm of two minds in recommending this book: one is that it's not all knit garments and I bought it for half price. There are the odd pillows, cushions and toiletry bags - stuff that I wouldn't really knit - not with an expensive yarn like Rowan, anyways. The blankets and such would be good to use up your stash of brightly coloured acrylic (and we all have those). The colours are presented quite nicely, and it is nice to get design ideas.

On the other hand, the garments here (cardigans, children's jackets) are really quite sweet, and I'm giving slow, hungry looks at the wrap cardigan on the cover. I do love the fact that the grey breaks up the black and gives the cardigan a sort of form. Yes, it's acres of stocking stitch, but it's something that I could see myself wrapped up in, it's stylish while transcending trends.

Overall, the book is divided into colour themes, and there is a variety of saturated colours to sharpen the simple lines of patterns into something special. The concept is centred around beach holidays in the UK, so there are nods to blankets, hotwater bottles (English summers are rubbish, don't you know?), cushions and clothing (cardigans and a cute moss stitch top).

The patterns are simple, and if anything, you'll be better off waiting to see if the book will be on offer (be it Amazon or any store) before buying it, but it's worth a look, if not a space in your library.

Is simplicity best, or sometimes the easiest? part 1

2007-07-15T04:51:00.000-07:00

Normally, I'm what you call a monagamous knitter. I tend to cast on for one project, then stay on said project to completion. It's not to be holier than thou, or whatever, it's just me.

But I'm glad that I did those Harding gloves, just because I've my topdown raglan back on the needles and am raring to go. Hooyaah!

See the hill, take the hill!

Finally, I got enough increases to separte the sleeves from the body (as seen in pictures one and two). It took much more increases (as dictated in cosmic pluto's pattern) to get the sleeves to meet under my armpits, and I think they are a bit big (my arm circumference is 21cm, but the sleeves are 24cm) it's all good though, I can wear stuff underneath the cardigan and not having to worry about bunching and jumping. Did I say life was good? Yes, I did.

Now that the sleeves are off, I'm just doing the body, and hopefully, I should be finished with this sharpish. Instead of decreasing/increasing this time around, I'll be doing ribbing (1x1) for basic shaping, like the blue sky alpacas cardi.

To be honest, I don't know about this whole topdown process.

I can see its uses: you use less yarn, and can literally see your way through your design in that you cannot help but be involved. It's also a good way of feeling a three dimensional design, sort of modular knitting. I can see it being useful for the one skien wonder shrug that Glampyre has going on, and knitters like Brooklyn tweed have made an art out of doing Zimmermanesque topdown stuff, but I don't know my feelings towards this method as yet.

I don't know if it's because I've done piece knitting and the results have been okay and that I actually enjoy piece knitting.

If I failed, it wasn't because of the pattern, it was to do with the yarn (felted tweed is itchy), me not really noting my measurements, or just the whole new knitter syndrome. I have nothing against piece knitting, and my yarn is soft enough to make sure the seams don't scratch the bejesus out of me.

I don't even mind sewing up - the trick is not to rush, and read and plan as much as you can before breaking out the needle and thread.

So far, cosmicpluto's pattern is spot on, the instructions are straightforward (I'm doing the topdown 2.0 version), and I'm just enjoying the notion of doing something new and different.

I shall not disparage the topdown process though, it's a bit of all right, and I'm sure that it will make me a better knitter.

It's a process that's simple and although it might not be the best (I probably say this because there's little in the way of topdown patterns with inset sleeves - what's up with that, dawg?) it's sure as hell the easiest.

Speaking of simplicity being the best, easiest and the rest of it, I have a book recommendation to make. I'll do it in the next post, however, because blogger doesn't seem to be working with me and images.

There's something between us

2007-07-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

Full disclosure : on wet, damp, sad days, when the rain streams against my window panes like tears, I like to read a good love story. Be it comic book, fantasy, or conventional novel - works for me.

Like a good stocking stitch pattern, there is something soothing about a good romance: interesting characters (I don't have to like 'em, but I demand that they be interesting), a decent plot, the dance between the characters as they fall in like and then stumble into love. Then, because the concept is predictable as knit one side, turn and purl the other side, there's a conflict, realization, admission and then happily ever after.

For now.

I have no problems with for now.

The thing of it is that most romance novelists, perhaps embarrassed by how easy plot contrivances are, tend to try and wordsmith throughout the entire novel. Each sentence is bejeweled with meaning, bordering on hyperbolic: the characters can't hurt; they must ache for what is not there. Then there are the adverbs and adjectives. Oy.

If people smile, it is seductive, if they speak because they are overcome, their voices are husky. Their touches are 'sensual caresses' and when they have sex, it's an 'all consuming passion'.

We will not even get into the extended metaphor - for example the book that I'm reading - the guy identifies himself as a hawk (a hawk!) and sees relationships as conquests, and he is pitted against this woman called Angel (gagging over here) who, when she casts around for calm, she envisions a rose in the winter (Janis Joplin, anyone?).

I have heard of purple prose, but this novel I'm reading is damned near aubergine. My eyes are stuck in mid roll so I'm staring north-north west right now, and typing this entry askance.

The thing is, you can get the required emotion across with simple words. For instance, daft punk and a song in their animae Interstella 5555. The song is called something between us. The words are simple, curiously affecting, and it makes my eyes mist, just like the weather outside.

In a way, knitting designers can be like writers: some like to fuss, to show off their designing skills at the expense of the pattern or reader. Others tend to be like Daft Punk, they know that some things can be simple, using the colour and luster of the yarn to show off the pattern.

I wonder where Louisa Harding comes in. On one hand, the woman loves her colour and fussiness. Her yarns are colourful, beribboned, fuzzy, and space dyed. Yet, her designs are simple, bordering on well... a sort of laziness at times.

This glove is from her Accessories book. They will be a gift for my friend’s Mum. The pattern is relatively straight forward. You cast on twice the amount of stitches that the glove needs, decrease (hence creating a flounce) to needed stitches, rib, increase for thumb and then do enough stitches to cover the backs of hands, then cast off. The pattern itself is simple, but the fussiness of the yarn gives it an edge.

Specifics: The Yarn is called ‘Impressions’ and it’s a ribbon/string/mohair sort of blend. The mohair gives it the dreamy halo and warmth, the ribbon its colour and the string (of a darker hue) gives the whole effect‘grounding’. It is as if the yarn were dreams at the edge of waking, almost real, but with a shimmering quality to them.

The pattern is dead easy; I did the pair of gloves in one day on 3,5mm and 4,00mm needles. One ball did both gloves with half of the yarn left over. Impressive.

I’m still ambivalent towards Ms. Harding’s designs. On one hand, I admire her cleverness, the way how she will pair a hazy yarn with a crisp one, and the garment seems to be half real/ half vision. The colours of the yarn are candy bright and busy enough so that the designs are dead simple. On the other hand, she does the same thing: A-line jackets with cables along the edges, or shrugs that drape over the shoulders.

I’m still knitting in the round, have yet to slip my sleeves. *headdesk*. I've my thoughts on doing stuff in the round, but I'll keep my counsel until the knit is done.

Ugh. Blogger is being a butt. They've deleted the picture of the book. Huh.

You can have a butchers of her stuff here : http://louisaharding.co.uk/BB%20insperations.html

Do it again

2007-07-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

So.

I'm still knitting this cardigan top-down and in the round. No-one ever tells you the bad things about a new technique, you notice? Like, if you make a mistake and have to rip it back, it's both two fronts and a back. *sigh* Also, no one ever tells you how mindless the knitting in the round with stocking stitch is, but I can probably see myself reaching for this cardigan (if it comes out rather decent) frequently, because it's not fairisle, or my Loll, or anything that is rather striking.

But because I love you all, I'm going to tell you a few of my favourite things right now. As in, the things that are calling me away from my knitting, like a siren song.

1. Do It Again - Chemical Brothers. As usual, these boyos do not disappoint: this tune has a hearty, bouncy beat, fun lyrics, and a catchy hook (Do it again). So if you want to dance this Saturday night in the comfort of your room with your underwear on and your laptop being your own boombox have a listen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xidZW3x8AGo

2. Eoin Colfer: Half Moon Investigatons and The Artemis Fowl Series.

Before I start my review, I must admit, I tend to stay away from books with smart assed teenagers. I taught them in school, I don't need them in my fictional life, YKWIM? The only exception to this rule was Harry Potter, because he started off life as a sweet, surprisingly well adjusted boy then he turned into the species of teenage boy-man.

Then, just to be difficult, I don't like Terry Pratchett *cue shocked silence* because I find his sense of humour so twee and his annoying footnotes don't help either.

So all this to say, that Eoin (pronounced 'Owen') Colfer's characters should not even get a look in.

I resisted his writings for a long time due to these two factors, but before I went on holiday, I bought both the Artemis Fowl books and Half Moon Investigations. Colfer has a sense of humour rather like Pratchett (but without the twee) and a sort of twist in the phrasing that really works. Even with the first hand narrative -which I normally can't stand- the narrator's voice in Half Moon Investigations is funny, wry and highly observant.

Artemis Fowl is a series you'd either like or loathe. Fowl is an early teenage genius, and unfortunately for everyone else, he knows this. You will either find yourself rolling your eyes or just enjoying the mechanics of this boyo's mind. Mr Colfer obviously enjoys his young protagonists, which is a treat to see. The supporting characters in both Artemis Fowl are relatively enjoyable, could be a bit more three dimensional (you find the adult characters in the Harry Potter series to be just that), but that's a small wrinkle in an otherwise smooth read.

If you're in the mood for snappy comebacks, a sharp turn of phrase, and interesting characters, I recommend Mr. Colfer.

3. Nokia N95 : Forget the i-phone - it's expensive, and newer techie stuff by Apple (apart from their computers) never works in its first incarnation anyway (see: ipod, ipod shuffle, etc.). To add insult to injury, it's going to cost you about $2000 US a year just to get your technology on. Enter the nokia N95:

To quote Gidzmodo.com

"The smartphone has a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, which they say can take dvd-like video clips. It also has a 2.6-inch QVGA screen, and runs on the well supported Symbian 60 OS. It also has HSDPA and EDGE cellular data. Oh, it has nice Flickr integration with the photos you take.

And it's got this "2-way slider" thingamabob that kicks out both a numeric keypad and media control keys."

All I gotta say is, sweet. When I got my Sony Ericsson k750i, I thought it was the business. Now, it's still a nice phone, but pales in comparision to the pretty.

So, what are a few of your (new) favourite things?

In essence, downloading my life

2007-07-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

In every woman, a beast slumbers. Usually, it’s sedated by gentility, and hampered by good upbringing. We all know the beast, the one that strains at its leash, wanting to snap and rend and tear if and when its provoked. The beast can be roused due to varied stimulants: a man, a love rival or being wronged by a tutor giving you a really, really bad grade.

My inner beast comes out whilst travelling, it seems. I’ve just spent the past five days in Italy: two of those precious days in Rome, and found myself swearing and spitting like a mofo. I sounded like a cross between Jules of Pulp Fiction and Katt Williams, a potty mouthed comedian.

Various scenarios and the reactions of yours truly were as follows:

*stepping on the zebra/pedestrian crossing only for the car not stopping, and having to jump backwards onto the curb*

“The road guide mother%!”*&^%! Do you read it?”

“You’re stepping out on the road, jigga! On the road! Where there are no traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and me going at 70 km an hour! What are you *(&^%$! Get off the road!”

And so on and so forth.

Most aggravating, really.

Apart from those two days in Rome, it was fine. The trip was a goodbye of sorts. My friend has met a Spanish girl, and it is True Love.

Because True Love demands sacrifice, noble gestures and vivid flourishes, he’s upping sticks and relocating with her to Northern Spain. She is settled there- in every way- and does not see herself anywhere else. He does not see himself anywhere without her, so he goes.

But not before giving her Italy, however (it seems those were the magic words. “Come with me,” he said to her, “and I will give you Rome”).

I wish them the best.

So, what are my views of Italy, you ask? All roads led to Rome at one point, and you can see why. The Romans were Colossuses (Colossusi?), leaving imprints of themselves in this world, and even after millennia, they are still there. The bold sculptures and structures are their own kind of magic.

Really, it was too hot to knit in Italy. But I actually found a yarn shop being manned by this old lady. I could not resist the addition to my stash, and bought six balls of dk yarn in a purple. It’s 50/50 wool and acrylic. Very plush and very soft. If it were up to me, I’d have stayed in the shop for an hour longer, but I was with company, and my friend wanted to offer his love the sights of Rome, and I was loath to disrupt the mood, and keen to see the centre of Rome. So we went.

A stitch in time

2007-06-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

I know, I'm all about the puns today. I tell myself it's because I'm English.

Or a Sun reader.

Regrettable puns are in the blood, as much as two sugars and milk for a cuppa. My Italian friends gag at the thought of milk in tea, so when I'm around them, I take a squeeze of lemon and a teaspoon of sugar. Healthier?

Perhaps.

Right.

Speaking of healthy, please ignore the keyboard. I know that it seems I'm growing cultures, spores for the destruction of mankind, trying to take over the world ala Pinky and The Brain but that's my stepson's doing, not mine. You try telling males to be tidy, not to eat around the PC. See if they'll listen.

I hear germs shore up the immune system. Honest. Haven't had a cold in ages. Healthy as an ox.

I did promise you that I'd speak of increases, and other such things. The thing with the raglan topdowns, is, you start with with a certain number of stitches, which accomodates the circumference of your neck, and the tops of your shoulders. You then increase every other row until the stitch markers meet under your arm pits. As a result of this, your stitch increases are very important, and they should not be messy.

Madam Zimmerman speaks of the M1 increase, but you find that modern patterns for topdowns ask for the yb&f (yarn back and forward) increases, because they form a ridge (note the line descending from the stitch marker) and are rather decorative.

I've never come across this increase in a pattern before, so I had to search. Essentially, you knit until you get to the first stitch before the marker. You then knit into the next stitch on the needle, but don't drop the stitch off the left needle.

Then, you knit into the back leg of the same stitch, inserting the right needle under it from front to back (rather like doing a 'purling' motion underneath the knit stitch) and you should have an extra stitch. Knit normally into the stitch where the marker is, and continue knitting until you have to increase again.

This picture shows you knitting 'the back leg' (thank you Debbie Stoller) for the same stitch. It's rather like an awkward purl stitch, hence the forward part, I reckon.

Voila! You should have an extra stitch! If done correctly, you should have a ridge forming like the first two pictures seen above. It's imperative that you have the stitch markers in the correct place so that there's a neat angle coming down the shoulders.

Or else it looks a mess.

Like mine does. But that's fine, because you shouldn't be staring at my breasts anyway.

I tell myself.

Purple reign

2007-06-29T03:46:00.000-07:00

As promised, my progress of the top down raglan. Now, I'd classify myself as an intermediate knitter (as said before), and have made jumpers but all have been done in 'piece' knitting. According to Elizabeth Zimmerman, topdown knitting is an exercise in thrift, because it doesn't waste unnecessary yarn, unlike say, piece knitting with the sides hanging down and the 4 stitches or so lost to seaming.

So, since I have only 795 yards of this particular yarn, I think top down knitting is the best way of going about things. I'm working from a rough pattern from cosmicpluto knits. As per her instructions, I direct you to her pattern/blog, but can't distribute her instructions here.

Fair enough.

I'm not really following her pattern to a T however, since this sort of knitting is supposed to be 'unventing' - i.e. - you're doing what you feel like.
With these pictures, I'm just showing you the increases of the sleeves. The stitch markers (that red thing at my armpit) should meet under my arms. Once they do so, it's all good in the hood, as I can focus on the body and probably offload 100 stitches or so to boot.

The neck and borders are done in moss stitch. As much as I like garter stitch, I think it looks better on smaller needles (like 3.00-4.00mm) and holds better on said needles. Garter stitch tends to stretch and flop about on larger needles, I find.

The yarn used is Begere de France magic. Its recommended weight is for 5.5 mm needles, but I'm going a size down (5.00mm) to give the top more structure. I'm using knit picks circular options with a 32" cord. I was attracted to the yarn due to its depth of colour.

You find that in the UK, the cheaper UK yarns tend to be either in natural colours (like biscuit, stone, white, natural) or in candy bright colours. Since I'm not a fan of either, I despaired finding a cheap workhouse yarn in a colour I could live with, why, much less even love.

The Begere de France yarn is helpful, because it comes in darker colours, and is relatively cheap (under £2, so I should be able to make a short sleeved jumper for around £16- and it's what I wish for. Weee!)

If you've been observant, you'll notice that the borders for this incarnation of the top down is moss st, while the first was ribbing. As much as I loved the ribbing, I thought it didn't provide enough contrast with the stocking stitch as it were, and I didn't really want the reverse stocking stitch this time around.

With the colour being so dark, it's the textures that need to work with the yarn, hence the stocking stitch body with the moss stitch edging.
The yarn is 50 superwash wool and fifty percent acyrlic. On first knit, against the shoulders it does feel a bit rough, and should soften up on washing (if the swatch is anything to go by). It does feel substantial on the shoulders, even with its capelet imitation (as it's doing on my shoulders right now). My only grouse with the yarn is the fact that it's not spun tightly at all, so it splits. You can't really crank up the speed as one would like to.

Sadness, all around.

For the next post, I'll tell you about the increases.

I'ma be your black Kate Moss tonight

2007-06-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Apologies to Kayne West's new ditty Stronger. It's a really good song, West took Daft Punk's song and slowed it down to a quarter of its speed. It works, although the video isn't worth the six million dollar price tag.

So, we all know about Rowan's studio books right? They come out every two to three months, and the designs are supposed to be cutting edge. Normally, they have some designs that I can wear from time to time, it seems that for this book, I need to have the panache and the bone deep fashionista attitude of La Moss, because she makes any mess look good.

For your viewing pleasure, let me give you a butchers.

Holy batwing, batman! This is just... wrong. Kidsilk haze, no shaping, fine gauge, so in addition to it being awkward it's going to take you ages to knit. Let's move on.

Alright, I like this top. It's rather Phildarish - the stocking stitch square top with big buttons. It's done in Rowan double knit cotton. I must say, I've never knitted with this yarn, although the colour ways are good. Next.
Westcoat? Vest? It's cute, but I don't know if it's worth spending all that money and time to knit. It is cute, yeah. With its cinched motion under the breasts, giving your modest breast cup size some va va voom. I can't hate, I love small breasts, they work with fashion better.

Well, this is a granddad top. I do like the twisted cables at the bottom. It's a nice design feature. I should steal it and run. I can't say I like anything else about the top, but still. Sweet.

I'm actually still knitting my topdown. The increases are messy, but it's purple, I'll be wearing it in my house to cover my shoulders, and no one will be the wiser. I'll take a picture of my knit and post tomorrow, musing about the topdown process and my reactions to it so far.

Who you're gonna call? Stashbuststers!

2007-06-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Remember the yarn I was bitching about? It's the brown sheep cotton fleece in 'raging purple'. It's more blue in the screen than it is in real life. If it were actually like that in RL, I'd have been pleasantly surprised. It's more of a lavendar in reality than a periwinkle as it is in the photo. The other yarn is an eggplant colour, and this is the purple that I truly love. Not many yarn companies seem to be able to do that deep, light absorbing purple though, pity.
The last time we left our erstwhile heroine, she was all a twitter over the Phildar patterns and wondering what to knit next. Well, things have happened since then. I've sent off the french pattern to be translated (and hope to get it in the next two weeks), and I'm going away for a short holiday and might pick up some yarn. So, erm, as a result of this, I have to stashbust. I do like the blue sky alpaca yarn's cropped cardigan, but I cannot justify buying another pattern right now, so I'm trying to do a copy. A bootleg, so to speak. *cough*
I've never attempted a topdown raglan before. I guess it's because my circular needles (before I got the knitpicks options) were rubbish: very stiff plastic cords, rough surfaces... yeah, Pony circulars are the rubbish. I'm actually using Bergere de France Magic yarn which is 50% yarn and acrylic. The yarn is a lovely colour, like an egg plant, but it's very splitty and you cannot knit by touch alone. The yarn is heavier than aran weight (takes a 5.5mm needle), but I'm using a 5mm needle because I want this cardigan to have a bit of structure.

From what I've seen of this cardi, it seems to be a top down raglan - with no button holes, so I'm going to imitate. The neck and sides seem to be ribbed, and the sleeves are in stocking stitch for the first three inches, then ribbed to the end. The bottom eight inches seem to be in 1x1 ribbing as well.

If I find that I need closures, I'll get a toggle or some hooks.

Due to this being one piece, it's going to be back and forth in stocking stitch for a while to come. That's okay though, after the madness that was Loll, this suits me down to the ground. Also, I want to know what it feels like to knit seamlessly. Will I abandon piece knitting for knitting in the round?

I'll try and detail as much of this process as I can before I go away. I don't think I'll be carrying my knitting with me, because the Med is blistering this time of year.

Update: I'm not really comfortable with the kb&f increases, it looks a bit messy because I don't know what I'm doing. If it looks really bad, I'll rip back, and do an M1 increase. If it's good enough for Elizabeth Zimmerman, right?

Voulez vous trichot avec moi?

2007-06-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

Yes. Well, never did French as a foreign language in school. Lived in the West Indies, Spanish was the first language of choice. If you got an 80 per cent and over, you were allowed to do French or German. I got 60's. Don't hate. Anyways, thought you'd like to see more Phildar patterns (for those on my list, visitors to my blog who tend to know more English and American patterns). This magazine is out of print. It's Autumn 2005, I think.

The genius with Phildar designs is that they don't try too hard to dazzle. They don't need the purl bands across breast or belly, nor do they need the rivers of lace nor the intrusive lines of cables oddly distorting one's form. The designers aren't slaves to the 'knitting tubes' in the round approach either, nor do they need the fine fine yarns like some designers.
The grandpa cardi is the first thing I'm going to knit! I'm trading patterns for these ones, because the book is out of print. Unfortunately, Phildar didn't start offering their catalogues in English until '06, so I'm just going to have whip out my french/english dictionary and bust a move. My stepson did French in high school, and he's gamely offered to 'give it the old college try' as it were.
Don't you love the neckline of this top? I find the Phildar patterns aren't afraid to open the necklines. The English tend to give it a sort of a 'school marm' treatment, as if showing clavicle is the surest way to being a Scarlett woman. I find the American designers like their 'V' necks, but there's nothing wrong with showing the flesh, because even if you have to wear a top underneath, it's still interesting, and attractive. Sunblock like woah, however, is needed. This is the pattern that set off the yearn for the Phildar magazines. I remember this blogger called Skinny Rabbit knitting this baby, and I wanted it so badly. But although I read her blog, I wasn't a commenter, and you had to (and still have to, I believe) comment like mad. But how many times do you need to hear that "You got mad skillz with the needles, yo." (She does). So, it's eluded me... until now.
Normally, I'm not a fan of turtlenecks, because I have a chest. Not Dolly Parton boobs but I have a chest. I'm on a quest to reduce weight, because I'm feeling sluggish. Off, damned winter weight! Normally, in turtle necks, my boobs look ponderous because of that wide expanse of yarn/cloth without anything to break it up (see? Another reason to love Phildar? They understand the aesthetics of 'the chest'). The yarn is cunning because it's not a solid, more of a dapply feel, so there's the colour broken up already. Then, the sleeves are shortened, so there are layers, so you're not seeing expanse of yarn in another direction. It allows you to do layers and create interest. Then, the crowning touch - the detail of the pom poms to the left. It creates asymmetry, drawing your eyes to the left of the breasts and breaking up the expanse of cloth.
Man, by my descriptions, one would think that I'm a clothes horse. I wish! I'm too poor for that, which is why I knit. I'm also too lazy for that. Dressing well takes a bit of thought for me. I'm not like my stepdaughter who shimmies into anything and it works for her. But she's relatively tall (5'8"), so her limbs are elongated and pretty damned perfect. Or even like Kate Moss - she just throws anything on and it's haute fashion. Too bad that Kate couldn't have brought her magic to the Topshop franchise, because her stuff is cheap!

Right. Off to college. To finish my last assignment.

Law and ethics.

Big whoop.

Time to have a little whine and a moan

2007-06-18T06:39:00.000-07:00

Why can't yarn houses sell a good, solid purple?! Whyyyyyyyy?!!!

I don't have my camera to hand, (unfortunately), so I can't show you the purples that I've ordered from online, and compare how they actually look in the skien.

Online, the purples are either very deep (like Phildar's purple in their bamboo yarn) or very bright (like Brown Sheep's Fleece Yarn for 'raging purple'.

Only, when I get my yarn it's the blandest mid tint of purple that I've ever seen.

Can anyone give recs for a good and deep purple/eggplant/auberginey yarn? I'm too dark to be wearing midtint purple.

Thank ye. Preferably in 4ply or dk.

Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with you.

2007-06-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

So, in John Lewis scoping for yarn the other day (as you do), when Helen, knitting svengali, asks me if I can knit something for charity. "It won't take long," she says. "Just half an hour, tops." I'm like, "OK, what do you wish me to knit?"
"Caps," she said. "With pom poms."
Well, it would be churlish to say no to knitting caps for charity, no? So, I consented. Imagine my surprise when I was told it would be for bottle tops, for a drink company called Innocent.
I had seen the the knitted caps on the bottles before, some time last year, but I thought nothing of it. It seems that for every bottle sold with a cap on, 50p goes to Age Concern, a UK charity. They buy blankets, pay heating and what not for the elderly.

According to the directions of the booklet, you cast on 28 st in a dk/worsted weight yarn. Knit 12 rows, then k2 to get 14 rows and k2 again to get seven rows. You then break the yarn about 25 cms long, thread it through the live sts on knitting needle, tighten then sew the side. After that you make a pom pom and sew it on the hat. I have my two guys from orange posing beside the hat.

This is the booklet with the instructions. You have beginner, intermediate and advanced patterns. I did the beginners, because I wanted to see if I could do continental knitting without having a cow. My pink cap is done in continental knit while my green and white cap is done in english (the knitting that I usually do). It seems that I knit tightly in continental. I'm assuming because I haven't really gotten a handle on my tension yet. I'm still trying to make my thread 'flow'. The sheep posing in the spun yarn cap (I swapped with a lovely woman from craftster, and she sent me a delightful sample of her spun yarn. I'm sure she'd get a kick out of it being used for charity) is called Purlo, she's a gift from my Spanish friend.

The 'stool' that Purlo is sitting on is my Garnier face cream.
If you can, please go to the Innocent drinks site and try and do a little hat with a pom pom for charity. Every little helps!

There's so such thing as a free knitting pattern. At least, not anymore.

2007-06-12T02:41:00.000-07:00

So, this morning I stumbled upon an interesting discussion about the new issue of Knitty (have a butcher's here http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=175868.0) and people were complaining about how the designs were a bit of a miss, and have been for a couple of seasons now. Blah, blah, blah.

I must admit that knitty.com's aesthetic has shifted a bit. It's mostly socks and baby clothing and since I'm entranced by neither, I haven't really been hanging around the site much. I also think that there isn't as much sleekness to the designs as there used to be before, they now seem to be a bit... lacking.

To be honest, it's a trend that's been happening for the past year. The submissions to magknits and knitty are slipping in quantity (and quality? Subjective point that), and it's not the moderators' fault, it's just the designers of note putting a price tag on their talent, and a mere $75 US or whatever the one off fee for submitting designs isn't enough for them anymore.

There was a time, you used to be able to get good, solid knitting designs on the web.

For free.

But with the onslaught of paypal, etsy, craft magazines approaching web designers of note for book deals and patterns for their magazines (Glampyre, Knit and Tonic and My Fashionable Life for starters), internet knitting designers are now becoming their own brands and representatives. To be fair, designing clothing patterns are labour intensive; in terms of measurements, figuring out technicalities, and keeping an eye of an overall aesthetic that will please the potential buyer. Then it's the whole thing of modelling, etc. etc.

So as a sort of 'gesture' the feted knitting designer might throw out a pattern for a pair of socks, a hat or something for babies. Since none of the options suit people like me (hate knitting socks, don't wear hats, won't have children), I'm in a quandary.

Right now, there's an embarrassment of riches re: knitting patterns (and keep an eye on the crochet, it's getting there quickly. If craft interest were stocks, I'd buy into crochet and beading now). People have money and they are willing to spend it on patterns that actually *work* when you're done. No-one wants boxy or unstylish anymore, and are willing to put money towards good knitting designs. That is buyer's demand, people.

My complaint (and it's my journal and I can complain) is that the patterns are a false economy. Say, a pattern goes for $6 (£3). If you want to buy 6 patterns from the designer, you're looking at $36 (£18) which could buy you a knitting book with at least twice that amount of designs. It's a bit expensive when you look at it that way, which is why I'm dying for knit and tonic's and my fashionable life's books to come out. If I'm going to spend $36 on knitting patterns, might as well they come in a book, with pretty pictures and printed instructions instead of a PDF download, no?

Also, with all the designs on the internet (all paypal'd and PDF to boot) is that you can't really trade patterns anymore. There used to be a time that one could trade a pattern, see how a designer worked for her and then keep an eye out if another pattern cropped up. If they liked what they got for free, they'd be willing to buy the pattern at a cost and another designer was born.

Now? Ixnay on the pattern swaps, and you have to buy patterns from the designer on faith, and hope that your effort following her directions doesn't suck. I've actually done that. Paid for a pattern only to find that it's not as brilliant as its made out to be. No space for buyer's remorse, here. NO returns. I can't get a refund because it's akin to returning used earrings and underwear to a store (this does not affect your statutory rights as a customer).

Fair enough.

It's only $6.00, right?

BUT in internet circles its frowned upon if I offer the pattern(s) for a trade, to the point of being suspended (or at best, harshly spoken to) by various craft sites which is unfair. I'm stuck with a sucky pattern for me that might be another person's brilliant fit. * Now that is unfair.

So, to sum up (finally), as long as there's money in them knitting designs, there won't be so much good 'free' knitting designs online. It's happened to internet programmes (remember when Abode was free? Napster was viable? I do), and the rest of it. Remember when everyone was glad that certain prestigious magazines were trawling the internet to 'pick up' new designers and the rest? How y'all were elated that 'the man' finally recognised these people's skills and change the face of knitting?

Well, we now have to pay for it.

Basically, the gambit has been so successful, in terms of potential designers using the hits off their websites to get themselves publishing deals. I can't hate, if I had the talent and the drive, I'd do so too.

So, what do you think? I wish this were set out like a live journal account so that we could have discussion, but its not.

Anyway, out to buy lunch. See ya.

*Now, I'm not really speaking as someone who expects free patterns as my due. So far this year, I've spent almost $100 US on various pattern books (Loop d Loop Crochet and Knit, Knit 2 Together, Gaughn's Knitting nature, subscribtion to IK, the odd purchase of Vogue Knitting and Knit 1's, Rowan Pattern Books, Phildar, etc.) so I understand and appreciate designers having to make a living like everyone else.

Because my eyes are bigger than my stomach

2007-06-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

Love this cabled pattern - don't you love this cabled pattern? Of course you love this cable pattern. Balderash, I refuse to believe you if you said you didn't. It's actually done in bamboo.

A question: why's bamboo yarn so expensive though? Can someone tell me? If it's readily available, recycleable and gentle for the earth, why the heck has it got to be so expensive? Like, you know the drill: one ball costs €3,30 (£2.30) you think, that's great, right? But the yardage is questionable, and it takes about 12 balls to do a long sleeved top. As it is, if I used the recommended yarn, this top would set me back €75 or £53! After my tussles with Rowan Calmer, I don't think that I'll ever make that sort of investment in a yarn again. The kicker is, I usually knit to a small size (I'm a size 10/12 UK about a europe 38/40 or a US 6/8) with a 34" bust - and yet, I have to pause when it comes to the recommended yarn.

€75!

Damn. But the pattern is cute, with its wide sleeves and A line shape, you could wear a long sleeved shirt underneath if it got too cold. The top would be skimming enough to forgive the bulk of your long sleeved T, hide the excesses of the biscuit tin and would just be really cool in the wardrobe. Although I think the blue is fine, my wardrobe doesn't support that sort of blue. I'm too orangey-brown for this kind of blue. On the other hand, you don't want to do such a dark colour to obscure all the cable work. Decisions, decisions.

Probably a dark grey? Hmmm.

Here's the thing: with the bamboo yarn it gives the top the drape that it has despite all the cabling without it being too heavy or bulky. If you did it in cotton, it would stretch, if you did it in wool, with its elasticity depending on the yarn, the cables would be akin to having the snugness of a fist so you might not get the drape that makes it attractive in the first place.

I could see a cotton/elastacine mix working for this, like a lana grossa point (the yarn that Durnham uses in Loop d Loop due to its stretchability) and probably Calmer. But to be point, on the latter yarn, I'd only buy Calmer again if it were on sale. It's a good yarn, and I'm in love with it, but the price is crazy.

I like the sleeveless top here, with the ribbed neck and waist edging. I love the sweep and scoop of this pink blouse. I'm not a fan of the crew neck or the little tiny 'V' knitted vests, because of the shirts I wear. I have four skiens of Merino yarn that's crying for this project. I'd do two: one in brown and green to wear over my shirts in winter and fall.
So. Details.

Had to order this magazine for these patterns. They are from Phildar spring 2. Although the shipping is a b*tch, I can't get Phildar magazines in my parts of the UK. Vogue, Rebecca, and the ubquitous Rowan, yes. But Phildar, no. I hear that they tend to micromanage their image, so not just any one can carry their products.

When I visited Paris all those years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of the yarn shops. My French was horrible, and it seemed that the people there weren't too happy to see my pounds sterling either. So I bought a magazine as a keepsake for my sojurn in Paris. I was told that next time I travel to France I should try smaller towns. My experience should be better. We'll see.

What makes Phildar patterns so fab is their sensibilities - very streamlined, very neat. The clothes are designed to waltz into your wardrobe and give it substance as well as style.

Whereas American designers tend to be on the extremes : either the rather very simple stocking stitch in the round tops ala the chicks at Zeyphr designs or eyewateringly complicated ala Norah Gaughn. British knitting designers tend to be surprisingly conservative and sweet - even the people at Weardowney - and can be on this side of boring.

But I digress - with Phildar, the designs seem to be neat and relatively foolproof - once you get over the hurdle of pattern issues (I know that the patterns can be hard to grapple with)- no -one has ever really gotten a Phildar pattern wrong once they've finished it. I love this Khaki jacket -it's done in cotton, three quarter sleeves and very cool.

I'd love to do it in a military green (like a dark jungle green) just so that it can go with my wardrobe. It's simple, elegant and seems fun to knit. I don't have to think, you know? Just doing it while watching TV and the rest of it.
So, what do you think? Answers on a postcard.

Right now, it's getting too warm to knit, so I'm actually buying crochet hooks.

The crochet renaissance seems to be American led, and as a result, the hook sizes the designers like seem to range from 3.25mm to 6.omm.

This is interesting for me since I'm used to the 1.00-1.65mm hooks. Like I said, when I was a child I crocheted.

Back in the day, we'd crochet doilies for coffee tables - one big one as well as two little baby ones. My mum was an exceptional crocheter. She'd do doilies as a sideline with flounced edges and ancora thread. The ones that were the precursor to space dyed, you know what I mean. Like, you'd have blue stripes then white, none of the fading or pooling that we mourn over, but just solids of colour. Mum would also startch these doilies - like really strong starch so that the arch and flare of the flounces would stay up, just so.

I've never really thought of crochet as wearable art - all those holes!- due to my youth. I know crochet as curtain materials, something for towel edges and little flowers for hats and bags.

So, full disclosure. I'm girding my loins to crochet that orange coat from Teva Durham's book. Yes, I know it's advanced, and that I'll cry tears before I'm done. But it will be something, no? I've ordered (and gotten) one skien of blue apalaca organic cotton to knit with. I fear that this jacket may be a bit too heavy, so if I'm not too taken with the sample of the organic cotton, I think I'm going to go lighter. The jacket isn't really for layers anyway, no? It's more clothing as art, and you'd wear it on a lovely summer's day.

Stick with me kids, it's gonna be an adventure.

Oooh, I've been tagged to do a seven things meme! Oooff!

2007-05-31T13:44:00.001-07:00

Wow. Seven things you don't know about me. Thanks for the tag, jayjay!

1. I'm a certified badminton coach -

I have the certificates and everything. Haven't played for years though. When I crossed the pond to the UK, I took my badminton and squash rackets, but haven't played since I've been here.

2. My first love was in the US peace corps.

He was lovely, the relationship was intense and when we ended it, I thought that I would die. I didn't though and I wonder why, because I was so dramatic. For a few years after that, whenever I saw someone of similar height and colouring, I'd pause.

And yearn.

We were good people, but not for each other.

3. My favourite song is Stardust's Music Sounds Better with You .

No matter what mood I'm in, it makes me dance and giggle like a little girl. I also do this little half soft shuffle no matter where I am. It's rather embarrassing when I do it in the town square. I have it on my mp3 player and play it all the time.

4. I'm a nail biter.

I want to stop. I tell myself I will stop. One of these days. I will.

5. I've written fanfic in the Harry Potter fandom. I've written loads of meta. I've also been a beta reader.

Strangely, I've grown like my fanfic better. I think I have a distinctive narrative voice, and good characterisations. Although I'm known for my meta. A beta reader is someone who reads people's fanfic and makes suggestions, be it continuity, grammar, vocabularly etc. I was a damned good beta reader, with my help I actually got people into selective writing communities.

6. I've written fiction. All sorts of fiction, mostly to do with minorities

But not in that emo self searching way that it seems you have to do. I like my characters to get on, and have whims and reasons. I should go through my stash (I keep the manuscripts in my yarn stash!), and actually take my writings and get them organised.

Not necessarily for sale, but just because I can.

7. When I was fourteen I read Homer's The Odyssey and the Illiad. I wanted to read Paradise Lost but the nuns stopped me.

I attended a Catholic school, which understood the tension between the Pagan and the Christian, and kitted out their library accordingly. That's why I like Neil Gaiman so much, because he acknowledges such tensions in his work, and creates his own mythos. I wish I could do that.

Bonus fact about me:

My writing style and writing outlook are influenced by comics. Particularly Marvel and DC. My mum made my brother read comics as a child, so that he would be tempted to read books without pictures. I grew up with my brother, an avid comic books collector. As a result of this, I have a fetish for writers who can paint a visual.

Sorry about my lack of photographic skills

2007-05-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

I just thought that you'd like to see more images in the book. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing the cover of a book, but not the images, you know what I mean? Well, this long... cardigan? Column of crochet? Architectual wonder? Is the 'Wedding dress' photo of the book. Ms Durham sets out the book rather like the workings of a fashion show. You have the day time clothes and accessories. The flirty, the coquette, the classic and all over attitudes of fashion, until you get to the Wedding Dress, where the designer shows off his skill and aesthetic to a T. Oh, if you click on the images they become bigger. But you know that, right?

I like this skirt. It's done with a cotton/lyrca blend. There are a lot of patterns in this book that calls for stretch, which is good, because we know how inflexible crochet can be when it comes to stretch. I'm almost tempted to do this skirt, just to see if I could do it. :)

It seems that Ms. Durham learnt from the criticism of the first book (people were saying that the models were too thin, the measurements too ana), so her models look solid. Curvy. Strong. Some on this side of zaftig. The measurements start at at 32" bust and waltz up to 48", I think (my cms to inches are a bit dodgy). Also, as is stated before, there's a lot of cotton/lyrca blends that she calls for, so that there is some stretch to the garment. She also uses wool (big sigh on my part, I'm trying to get away from wool, but there isn't a lot of elastic tweedy acyrlic/cotton blends out there, no?), so have a care.

I love this shawl. I think it's called a Solomon knot - paired together with the three dimensiona doiles. Fab, no?

I really need to do a good review of this book, but so many assignments, so little time.

What I'd say is, this book is stronger than her Loop d Loop book for knitting. Although I admired her aesthetic for the knitting Loop d Loop, there wasn't much to move me to knit things for myself, especially when you compare it to Norah Gaughn's Knitting Nature.

Ms Durham also gives little asides, as in, what inspired her to do X and Y, and there's a delightful yarn about her grandmother. She seemed as mad as Fat Tuesday, but a thrill to hang with.

I can't vouch for the clarity and ease of her chart following, so I don't know if there are any erratas to boot.

As a novice crocheter, I appreciate the fact that she has 'beginner', 'Intermediate' and 'Advanced' on her projects, so I know how much tears I'm going to spill.

I do hope this potted view of the book has helped you to decide if you want to get it or not!

I drool - a quick review on loop d loop crochet

2007-05-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

So, a confession. Way before I knew the way of the sticks, I used to crochet. Now in the West Indies, you didn't really crochet clothes or even follow a pattern per se, you'd learn from your Mum, or your Grandmum, and through imitation, you might innovate and the rest of it. So, I learnt how to do chain stitches, make flowers and do the odd doily. But since I was not one for high teas, or entertaining, the skill of crochet fled into the unconscious, and laid therein, slumbering. Debbie Stoeller's The Happy Hooker crochet series stirred my interest. Learned to do a few stitches, and the patterns were cute, but didn't move me with their aesthetic. I was waiting... with hooks stashed to one side, being all Cindrella singing, "One day my Prince will come."

Oh Teva Durham, how I heart thee! Her patterns came, laid their lips on my brow, and oh! I now yearn to pick up the hook, to do as she does, to imitate, yes, but oh! How the heart sings at her patterns, the cunning of her stitches. Prithee kind reader, look to the mustard boots of the top page. Isn't it just fab! Very chic, tres elegante. I lust.
And oh! Look at the delicate socks, juxtaposed against such healthy calves (I have a pair myself, developed from teenage soccer and badminton high jinx). Look at the crazy pavement of the patterns, rather like runs in stockings gone mad. Oh, so charming they are.
But Ms. Durham doesn't leave it there. No, like a true artist, she goes for the clothes as well. Look at the rustic crocheted jacket, with the doilies - the earthy colours make it so special. Normally, when it comes to clothing, I tend to want to change the value of tones. But no, this is perfect.
This orange gorgeousity is what made me decide to throw knitting to the wind - for now. Look at how it hangs, look at the lovely negative and positive space of the pattern. It looks like a dream out of a boutique, one that you'd pay arms, legs and half a torso for. So what if you couldn't walk, play or eat? This is dream crocheted into form, loops of desire coming into being.

Ah Teva, I wake, perchance to scream and sob at the patterns (is there any errata online? Does anyone know?).

Knitting, I take leave of you my darling. To go back to my first craft, to see... well... if it could work this time. You understand don't you, darling?

Stick a fork in me because I'm done! (kinda)

2007-05-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Right. Apologies for the smeared mirror. But I'm done! Well, sorta. There are bits of strings all over the place, but I'll sew that up later on tonight while watching Prison Break. I have to tidy the strings and ends away.
Back of Loll. I'll retake pictures when the weather is brighter, but just thought that you'd appreciate a view of the back. The cardigan is a bit short, so I'll be wearing longer bottoms underneath the cardi. My style is much more casual than spit and polished, but some more length would have been good. Note the shaping at the waist. It's a nice touch that makes this pattern pop.
Finally, I've licked short row shaping. It was raining cats and dogs yesterday, and the internet was off, so I thought well it was better late than never. The blogs "Nona knits" and "purlwise" do have some good hints on how to do it, but I had to spell it out myself. I'll share my observations on short row shaping in a later post.
Close up of the curve of the neck. A slip stitch rib around the neck. Fab pattern!

The Nitty gritty.

I thought that you'd like a round up of this pattern. I consider myself an intermediate knitter: as in, I know how to follow a pattern, am not afraid to rip, change or make alterations to pattern when needed. I think my outlook is more advanced than my skills to be honest.

Needles: 5.5 mm needles . The pattern called for 5 mm needles, but due to the elasticity of the Rowan Calmer yarn (and my first time knitting with said yarn), I had to go up a size. The fronds at the end of the sleeves, back and sides call for 4mm needles. In retrospect, I should have also gone up a size (4.5mm).

Yarn: The pattern calls for 8 balls of yarn, but I actually used seven. I think it's because I went up a needle size, or something. I might use the other ball of yarn to make knitty's shedir. I need a cap.

Methodology: I did the sleeves first, both at the same time because the pattern for the sleeves had no shaping (and I was afraid of the pattern) and it was a nice way to 'work' into the architecture of the pattern. I'd advise you to do that if you ever start an unfamiliar pattern. Do the sleeves first. I then did the back , and you remember the dramas I had with that (two posts down), and the fronts for the last. Picking up the neck line and knitting it around was straight forward, so yay.

It's been so long since I've actually knit a garment, and have forgotten how long it takes to sew up. I also wanted my sleeves to be perfect re: the set in, so I ripped and reripped. The hubster actually gave me some good advice in terms of working from the top arc of the sleeve to the end of the armscye, so that if there is any bundling, it's all in the arm pit.

I did the smallest size for this cardigan because I have a 34" bust. The other size up was 38" and that had too much ease for me. The pattern seems to work on six stitches, and I didn't want to push my luck in adding an additional three stitches, but if I were to do it again, I might do so. I wish it had been 36" for the upsize, because of more room with tops underneath as well as installing a zipper. I'm not going to do that now, but I'm still thinking about it.

So, I'll tidy up Loll, wait for better weather to take some pictures.

:)

Pilot error

2007-05-18T10:35:00.001-07:00

I don't know why blogger is being a butt.

Anyways, called Rowan today and one of the design team talked me through the problem, so I know what I did wrong. Pilot error and all that. When I've finished this baby (whenever), the post will be one of tears and woe and triumph over adversity.

So, this where I've ripped back to so far. It's twenty-three stitches less than the back shaping.

I hope to buy the Teva Durham Loop d Loop crochet - and hopefully, will post some pictures up here. It might take some time though, because I'm ordering off Amazon, because it's cheaper than buying stuff in Waterstones - and I am not bothered by staff. :)

I swear, I'm defecting to crochet...

2007-05-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

Really, I think Loll has broken me.

I have stands what I thought I stands, and I can't stands no more, to paraphrase Popeye (terribly), but seriously, this pattern although cunning (tip my hat to Ms. Hargreaves, yes), is the yuck.

I cannot follow it blindly believing in its clarity and competence. I have to be doing schematics on graph paper before I commit it to yarn, because I refuse to tear stuff again and again.

First of all, I'm at the neck shaping, and it says that I have to rib 8 sts then slip them on to a holder and neglect those while I knit and shape the neck on the other side. So twenty rows later, I have a shaped neck (as seen on the right - although it's folded over) and a pretty steep step to the right which doesn't match the back (hint: where the magenta coloured thread is).

WTF?

I've actually read the pattern three times, and really, it doesn't make sense, not in the schematics provided (God bless schematics, never trust a pattern without 'em), or in the reality. I know that Helen (my knitting svengali) always says that I need to be 'zen' with the knitting and such, but come on now, you mean to tell me that they couldn't sort this knitting pattern out, especially with the book in it's third or fourth printing?

Ugh.

Thanks for the comments in my blog. I seem to be petting them with great fondness and feeding them sticky cookies.

I thought about the buttons, honest - but I attempted the button holes - but they break up the stitch border, so I'm doing the pattern without button-holes and installing a zip, a tip from the beauteous poster at A Mangled Yarn.

Now I can understand why people decide to do top down knitting - it seems to be less open to nonsense.

It doesn't help that I remember crochet being something of a morale booster, wherein you could do an activity in a couple of days, instead of the months it's taken me to do this pattern. I have four assignments due June 11. Four. Yet, I've fobbed off studying time, friendships and yes, even food so that I can get this top done for the summer.

And yet.

So, after Loll, I'm going to take a little break from knitting for a while - and turn my hand to crochet.

The main factor which tipped my decision to crochet is the new Teva Durham (apologies if the name is spelt wrong) Loop d Loop crochet. Every pattern is inspired, and I'm tempting to trade in her Loop d Loop knitting book (although it hasn't come from Amazon as yet), because there are so much more exciting things in her crochet version.

There's this fab orange crochet coat that I want - I must have. It's destined to be on my back - or me just doing it and probably selling it to someone for the price of the yarn, and just put it down to process, instead of product.

There's this cute top in Stoller's Stitch and Bitch Crochet that I'm eyeing, called cup cake. The only thing that's stopping me, is me wondering if it's too cute for my tastes. But I can wear it with a denim jacket, and make it edgy.

So, I've called Rowan yarns, asking them for help with the pattern, they say that the designers might call me today -depending on my place in the queue.

Sigh.

More pictures from 'no sheep for you'

2007-05-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Wow. This first jumper - aran design to boot - is made from Rowan Calmer. It starts at 11 balls of Rowan Calmer for a 36" bust. Can you say "Wow!" It doth boggle the mind, the fact that you can do such complicated cables with cotton yarn. It also means that in order for me to attempt this I'd have to find £80 just to make this jumper - or I could do it for quarter of the price in an icky colour of Calmer that doesn't suit. Okayyyyy.
This other jumper is a beauty. It's cabled X's and O's with cotton/linen yarn blend. I actually have some yarn that would suit. But do I really need another complicated cardi? In addition, it doesn't have any shaping - and I'm a bit too zaftig not to need shaping, if you know what I mean.
Finally, I think (knock on wood) that I'm almost breaking the back of this Loll jumper. On the needles I now have the two fronts (flourish of trumpets here). I do want to put buttons on this thing, I do and I need to do a buttonhole that won't break the pattern or have me swallowing my stitches. I really haven't gotten to grips with yfwd and the rest of it yet. *sigh* This colour is true to the ball. Thank ye Gods for the little light we had today. I wish Calmer had more saturated colours like this, oh I wish.

Anyhoos, just thought that you'd actually want to see some pretty pictures.

Also, I need to get some 4.5mm circular needles, it seems that American knitters have no truck with straights, but the straights I had to hand (Pony circulars) are terrible. Ugh.

I might just go back to crochet after this Loll. It's breaking me.

No sheep for you - a quick review

2007-05-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

Got this book from Amazon the other day - it's cheaper than getting it from Waterstones, and the yarn stores I know don't really sell anything beyond the basic pattern books (eg. Rowan, Filati, Rebecca, etc.). I wanted this book because I'm trying to distance myself from wool - not because I'm a vegan per se (erm... I'm not), but because I'm allergic to certain yarns with wool in them (eg - Rowan Felted Tweed), and also, I like the fact that other yarns may have a smaller environmental footprint. So with this in mind, I thought that I'd get the book. Overall, it's a decent read in terms of different yarns and their properties. I thought the book could have delved a bit deeper into various yarns and their shortcomings. It's a small gripe, but one neverthelesss. Like, if you wanted to say make this mosaic jumper (pictured below) in cotton instead of its orginal silk yarn, what are the factors that I should take into consideration? Or if I wanted to make Tomato Soup (below) in 100 silk instead of that particular Blue Sky Alpaca's cotton, what should I know?

There are three to four decent patterns in this book - this gorgeous mosaic jumper with lace sleeves is made from silk, and if I had the money, I'd splurge just to make this jumper. It is fab.

This jumper is by Wendy Bernard from Knit and Tonic. It definately has her sort of style. I know the model wearing it in the picture looks sort of hefty, but it's a flattering jumper nevertheless.

Alot of the patterns in the book are rather boring to knit, and sort of uninspired. I would have been happier if the book had more info on the properties of various yarns, and the substitution table could have been a bit more detailed. The book will stay in the library - for now. I might off load it soonish.