It’s Friday, Isn’t It?
I appear to be having one of those days when coffee is keeping me upright. I'm working, let there be no doubt about that, but I'm also clutching my coffee cup like there is no tomorrow.
First, though, there is the Booker longlist. After a few years where the prize appeared to be a tiny bit lost, the year's longlist reads like the Hay Literature Festival programme: Sarah Waters, JM Coetzee, Hilary Mantel, AS Byatt, Colm Toíbin, William Trevor and Sarah Hall. Respectable, safe and commercially viable authors.
I used to rant against how the Man Booker Prize was held up as promoting the best and most exciting literary fiction around and how big a sham this notion was - but I think that nowadays the public has seen through the "best and most exciting" hype and expect solid, slightly conservative literary fiction from their Man Booker nominees (and the Man Booker seal of approval has certainly turned into something of a canonisation tool, hasn't it?). At any rate, I should get back to Byatt's novel and pick up Toíbin's Brooklyn - and promptly forget that I may have picked up another three Georgette Heyers..
Oh help me shopping gods, for I have fallen in love with this skirt at the same time as I suddenly have to find an extra £850 in my budget. I have also found Totally Buttons - a site feeding my button obsession (I do not need any more. I have just acquired even more vintage buttons).
Finally, on a very pleasant note: yesterday David and I celebrated four years together. The four years have been rollercoasterish, filled with adventures both good and bad, but we've always been very good together even if Life kept throwing us curve balls for a wee while. Here's to far more years together and hopefully they'll be a tiny bit more .. staid.
(Photo? Our local foxes and their cubs playing in the sunshine..)
Isn’t It Romantic?
A few weeks ago my partner, David, came down with the flu and I succumbed a day later. I suspect it was the dreaded H1N1 flu, although we cannot be sure. I was cooped up in bed for a few days which obviously led to me devouring one book after another. That is, one Georgette Heyer regency romance after another. To be absolutely precise, fourteen Georgette Heyer books. I'm in withdrawal as we speak.
The curious thing is that I started to really get into the socio-economics described by Heyer. Usually she is praised for her knowledge of early 19th century fashion and her distinct language usage (la!), but as I was lying in bed reading one novel after one, I started paying attention to money. Who has money? Who hasn't? What do they do with the money? How does money flow through the novels? How does money connect and separate people? Gosh, I almost feel like a Marxist literary critic..
A Civil Contract sees an impoverished aristocrat marrying a wealthy trader's daughter and through the marriage attempt to improve his estate's farming conditions. It is not a wildly romantic novel (no passionate embraces; no swooning) but a rather pragmatic look at class differences and social aspirations. While the book is far from being Great Literature, I found it convincing and interesting. I'm not sure I will read it again (unless I discover an hitherto unknown passion for early 19th C drainage problems) but it is certainly one of Heyer's beefiest novels.
The Unknown Ajax is a straightforward read compared to A Civil Contract. The hero and heroine flirt, chase ghosts, encounter smugglers and fall in love. Lather, rinse, repeat. What I loved about the book, though, was the fact that the hero is a Yorkshire woollen mill owner(!) and Heyer devotes several passages to the discussion of fleeces, crimp, sheep breeds, and the economics thereof. Just the thing to read when you're in bed and too weak to knit.
At the end of it all David pondered if I like reading Heyer because of a) the fashion discussions (I am a costume history devotee), b) the Yorkshire sheep or c) the many, many dogs with distinct personalities? I like to think it's a combination of all three plus the sparkling wit, the often ludicrous language and the knowing use of literary references (like the Shakespeare, Pope and Byron quotations in Venetia, possibly my favourite Heyer novel).
Speaking of things Romantic, I have begun knitting the Percy (Bysshe Shelley) shawl in Old Maiden Aunt 2ply alpaca/merino in the Bracken colourway. I paged through my well-thumbed copy of Shelley's Collected Poems earlier today and was amused by the doom and gloom I encountered. I had forgotten how Gothic he can be..
Ah, and the title? Enjoy Chet Baker's version of it on YouTube..
On a Knitterly Note
Today's a very quiet day in Casa Bookish. I believe my parents are currently looking at marching penguins in Edinburgh Zoo (or possibly at shoppers on Glasgow's Buchanan Street - not that much difference, anyhow). I'm still in my jammies and have been working away on the body of my Pine cardigan. I might just reach the "put body on waste yarn" stage today. I'm almost excited.
First, just a brief link. Sarah Palin quit her job as governor of Alaska earlier this month because she is not a quitter (and something about basketball and dead fish too). Vanity Fair out her resignation speech through the capable hands of their literary editor and their copy editor. The result is very colourful.
The Interweave Knits Fall 2009 Preview is up. So far the consensus seems to be "it is not horrible". On preview, I like the Freyja pullover (although I don't get the spelling) and the Barcelona jacket (although I'm not sure about its fit on people with curves - it could end up looking very frumpy). The Trellis and Vine pullover is immensely wearable and, with longer sleeves, Rosamund's Cardigan is a must-knit (and I have the yarn already!). I would have liked to have seen a Eunny Jang pullover or cardigan - and maybe some fabulous lace shawl, but you can't get everything. Now to wait for the Vogue preview..
At the moment, though, I'm really drawing my inspiration from North European and Scandinavian crafters: Petra O's blå sjal (blue shawl) with its lovely yellow edging, Sanne's Percy shawl pattern (rav) which is my next shawl project, Veera's fantastic and inspirational modern garden cardigan, Birgitte's strikingly blue Buttercup/Cornflower and Olesdatter's beautiful Rabarber (Rhubarb) cardigan. I think it is the way they approach colour and their chosen projects. Veera had An Idea and chose a colour which would support the idea rather than overshadow it; Petra used contrasting colours to showcase the contrasting lines of her shawl; and Birgitte went all out colourwise knowing that her chosen pattern could deal with a striking colour. Seriously inspirational stuff and they are making me think about how I can use colour in my forthcoming projects.
Where do you find inspiration for your projects? How do the work of other crafters make you reconsider how you approach your projects?
New Lanark: We’ll Be Back
My parents are currently visiting these shores and today we treated them to a visit to New Lanark, a former cotton mill village and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about an hour from Glasgow. I have long wanted to visit New Lanark although prior to my permanent relocation to Great Britain the words "industrial revolution" and "spinning jenny" would strike fear into my heart. In secondary school I had a very eccentric history teacher who persisted in drawing complicated diagrams of how 18th C machinery worked (he'd also draw diagrams of our town's sewer systems). Nowadays I connect "industrial revolution" and "spinning jenny" with local history and, of course, knitting traditions.Fear has been replaced by utter joy.
New Lanark turned out very different to what I had imagined. I had envisioned some lovely scenery coupled with archaic spinning technology. Instead I was greeted by mind-blowing nature, fantastic architecture, great whiffs of History and some rather delicious cake. I picked up a tiny bit of wool - some skeins of Flying Flock shetland/hebridean DK and some 'limited edition' New Lanark Aran - but the visit was far more about jaw-dropping sites and learning new things about my new homeland. Sadly the camera batteries gave out before we could shoot pictures of the amazing sights..
.. but it will not be our last visit.
My parents are here until the end of the week and we are planning a trip up the West Coast on Saturday. I'm thinking a trip to Largs possibly or do my Scottish readers have better suggestions? And no, unfortunately my mother's not hugely into knitting otherwise we'd visit the Old Maiden Aunt studio..
Friday Linkage And Such
Ooooh, nice location and a suitable size! I also like that it hasn't been refurbished beyond recognition (I have a particular bone to pick with developers putting Poggenpohl-knock-off kitchens into Victorian properties). Shame about the price, of course.
A few months ago David and I went to see the Swedish vampire film, Let the Right One In. It was more art-house than Hammer house and unsurprisingly it is set for a US remake so people do not have to endure subtitles or pale Swedish boys with bowl haircuts. While most aspects of the US remake fills me with dread - the director made Cloverfield and ambiguous gender portrayals are becoming significantly less ambiguous - I found it really interesting to watch the casting tapes of the three girls up for the lead which io9 posted recently. I know which girl I prefer but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. Also, do not miss the discussion on io9.
Psychotic Letters From Men was a recent MeFi find. Normally I would cast it a cursory glance, move on and not mention it here, but the site did remind me of the time I received letters from a blog reader who was convinced that a) I had an artificial limb and b) this was the biggest turn-on in the world for the guy. No wonder I let my old blog die a very quiet death..
Finally, Advanced Style cheered me up. It really proves that style ain't no age-thing.
FO: Abigail
To be honest, I thought it would take me longer to knit this little cardigan and that I'd have plenty of work-in-progress pictures, but I started and finished this little cardigan within twenty-four hours. I think it is a new record.
Abigail is my own pattern - straight from my head through my fingers and into a finished garnment. While I have a few things I want to change (the buttonband bugs me a bit, for instance), I'm happy with the way it turned out. I'm also very, very pleased that the cardigan used less than 150 yrds of DK weight yarn. Stash buster, anyone?
As previously mentioned, I used Patons Washed Haze DK which is a cotton-blend. I'm thinking that Garnstudio's Muskat would make a lovely substitute as would their Merino Extra Fine (I'm on a bit of a Garnstudio trip at the moment, so excuse me). I used 4mms bamboo needles and some wooden buttons I found in my stash.
And Abigail? Abbie lives in my building. She is one month old and very, very pretty. I hope her mother will like the cardigan - I have sized it so wee Abbie should get plenty of use out of it in the months to come. I'm now going to reknit the cardigan for another little girl (this time in Denmark).
And the Rest Will Follow
After having drop-spindled for a few weeks, I'm now happy enough with the results to try and spin yarn I might conceivably work into something worthwhile.
I've chosen some merino fibre in one of my favourite colours and am simply trying to spin as thin a thread as I possibly can. Depending upon how much I get out of the fibre, I may or may not ply it. Hopefully I will get enough to make a lacy cowl or even a tiny lace shawl.
Oh the excitement!
I still am woefully oblivious to the proper techniques, of course, but I can feel I'm getting better at "feeling the fibre" as my fingers work it. I can't ever see my drop-spindling a sweater's worth of yarn, but it is very relaxing and quite fun. I even have my greedy eyes set upon some of this fibre and this once I get just that tiny bit better at my drop-spindling.
Then there is the actual knitting, lest we forget.
I've been surfing various Danish blogs and discovered that my Pine is apparently "en pine" (i.e. a pain). I had no idea.
I'm knitting from the Danish-languaged pattern which is said to be riddled with mistakes and nigh incomprehensible. So far it is making perfect sense to me, but I don't know if it is because I'm a) an intuitive knitter who tends to use patterns as springboards rather than line-by-line instructions or b) using my grandmother's brioche stitch method which I was taught at a young age or c) doing something very wrong and not realising it? At any rate, my Pine is progressing well and I'm enjoying myself. I may get back to the question of the pattern's difficulty/flaws after I've started the yoke.
But that is not Pine in the picture! It is a little baby cardigan I started last night in Patons Washed Haze DK.
The yarn is working up awfully well and I much prefer it to the Aran weight I used earlier in the year for another baby item. The DK is smooth and doesn't split unlike it's heavier sister product - the colour is also very pretty and (dare I say it) gender neutral. It is a top-down cardigan straight from the top of my head and I'm really enjoying the experience. I'm currently combing my vast collection of vintage buttons - I may have accidentally found more - for something suitable. And more pictures will follow.
Treasured
When I talked about independent bookshops and Glasgow, I mentioned that my neighbourhood has several excellent secondhand bookshops. This is my favourite: Voltaire & Rousseau just off Otago Street. Sometimes I even think it is my favourite bookshop in the entire universe, full stop.
As someone whose idea of a good time is digging through piles of old books long out of print, unsurprisingly I once went on a date to Voltaire & Rousseau with David, now my live-in partner. But the bookshop is an acquired taste. On the photo you can just about make out its first room - the £1 room - and it is symptomatic for the entire shop. Books are vaguely sorted into categories and then shoved into ramshackled shelves or stacked on the floor. Last time I was there, I dug through an entire box of literary criticism hidden behind a ladder. The main room is similarly organised/disorganised. This is not a place you go if you want to find one specific book. This is a place you visit to find books you never knew you needed - and you go frequently to keep up with what is in (visible) stock. I think it's a slice of heaven on earth.
A few links for your perusal:
- The Human Genre Project: "..a collection of new writing in very short forms — short stories, flash fictions, reflections, poems — inspired by genes and genomics." They are actively looking for contributors, so if you have a short story or a poem kicking about, do take a look.
- Adipositivity (NSFW) "..aims to promote size acceptance (..) through a visual display of fat physicality. The sort that's normally unseen. The hope is to widen definitions of physical beauty. Literally."
- From KnitWit: "..I love the reclamation of knitting from a largely private, domestic sphere and drafty community halls where it is too easy to ignore,to be a more visible social activity"
- And from the Domestic Soundscape, an amazing post on the connections between earth, animals, spinners and knitters. I cannot choose which quote to pull because the entire post had me going "yes, yes!"
- Finally, the last in a triptych of related knitting posts: the much-linked Golden Fleece? post by Needled/Kate in which she looks at the (rather absurd) notion that Scotland equals cashmere. Warning: this post will teach you things about EU law and textile history. She even suggests you read Walter Benjamin.
Meanwhile, I'm not quite sure if I have a cold, if I have the flu or whether my body is just playing tricks on me as per usual. I'm off to bed and I have a few Georgette Heyers (bought from Voltaire & Rousseau) to keep me company. Have fun, kiddos.
I Am Aware Of My Own Mortality
The other day I tried on a wedding dress.
Now before you all start screaming with joy and gushing - hold on for a minute and let me explain.
Principles is yet another UK clothes chain in deep financial doo-doo. It sells really nice stuff, though, and I went into one of their closing-down sales to have a gander. And I saw this which looks more like a 60ish mini-dress than a tunic. And I thought to myself: "If that no-good man of mine ever asks me, I'd want to wear a slightly hippie-ish 60ish inspired tatted-lace dress, wouldn't I (with these shoes)?" Sadly it was very shapeless, being a tunic and not a mini-dress.
Seeing my partner's facial expression when I told him? Highlight of my day, I tell you, highlight of my day.
And deep down it all felt a bit weird too.
Also in the "oh dear, I'm getting on in years" vein, several people around me insist on spawning. This has resulted in me spending several traumatic minutes combing the Ravelry database for acceptable baby knitting projects. So far I have found these patterns: Lucille (a vintage-inspired cardigan), Autumn Leaves (a simple cardigan with a patterned yoke) and the super-cute Fiona's Top. Clearly I need patterns for stuff that boys can wear too. Any recommendations?
Finally, todays' "neighbourhood" photo was taken yesterday at the North Kelvinside Meadow, a green space just two minutes away from our flat. The meadow is a disused space which has never had any housing on it and has been out of use since the 1970s. Local campaigners are now trying to persuade Glasgow City Council that we need to turn it into a meadow rather than flats. Cue guerrilla gardening!