Self-Stitched September: One
Photographic evidence
I hate knitting sleeves. Everything zips along nicely and then I get to the sleeves and my will to live dies. I think I have twigged why I hate knitting sleeves.
Look at the photo. I'm wearing a Tangled Yoke Cardigan. It was originally knitted by Ms Old Maiden Aunt but it was gifted to me earlier this year. Lilith had knitted extra long sleeves because she likes having cosy hands. Look again. The sleeve is a full inch too short for me, if not more.
I have monkey arms, in other words. I already knew I had long legs because I struggle to find trousers long enough, but I never thought about my arms being long. Still, it explains my hatred of knitting sleeves - I have to knit them extra-extra-long and I had no idea.
Oh, by the way:
'I, Karie Bookish, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavour to wear handmade item(s) of clothing/accessories/ jewellery every day for the duration of September 2010'.
Yes, Virginia, I have chosen to participate in Self-Stitched September. I might not photograph every outfit I am wearing every day, nor will I blog my outfit every day (that way madness and narcissism lie) but when I do post, I'll link to the relevant handmade items on my Rav account (or otherwise document which items I have worn). It'll be interesting, although I'm still trying to figure out why I am participating.
- I want to wear handmade items more often (although I already do this)?
- I want to mix up the handmade items I wear (more likely)?
- I cannot resist a good meme?
So, today I'm wearing the Tangled Yoke Cardigan and my Echo Flower scarf/shawl. Let Self-Stitched September commence!
DK: Knit
DK: Knit is an exhibition of contemporary knitwear design by graduates from the Kolding School of Design currently on display at the Danish Cultural Institute in Edinburgh. Being both of the knitterly and the Danish persuasion, I thought I might as well check it out.
Unsurprisingly, most of the pieces are machine-knitted and at a fairly fine gauge. Some pieces explore garment construction (like the piece shown left), other pieces explore the idea of "fabric". One particular piece resembles a big pink bath sponge plunged on the floor - I can admire the skill in its construction whilst at the same time reject its aesthetic, can't I? - whilst another piece looks like an upmarket version of IKEA curtains (and uses the same stitch pattern as the Summit Shawl).
My favourite pieces are the ones which add twists to so-called classic knitting: items that acknowledge their debt to generations past whilst still trying to pave the way forward.
Hans-Christian Madsen has two pieces included in the DK: Knit exhibition and I really liked both. My favourite was the pullover shown right: a traditional Icelandic yoked sweater in subtle colours - but when you get closer, you can see that the colourwork yoke incorporates unusual materials.The surface is broken up - but by texture rather than colour.
Katarina i Geil also draws upon knitting traditions - most obviously from her native Faroe Islands - but uses cables in a really organic, free-flowing way. I am also impressed by her use of embellishment and contrasting texture. One piece is handknitted(?) in rustic wool with clever crochet ornaments in silk. Sadly my photos has not turned out well nor does she have any web presence, so you will have take me at my word.
For a handknitter, DK:Knit is not the most inspiring exhibition. I can see some possibilities in the play with surface textures, but I think fashion students will find it more worthwhile. I did enjoy my chat with the friendly staff and I was alerted to a new Danish bakery in Edinburgh. Mmm, tebirkes!
The knitterly content continues tomorrow..
Yes, there is more. Oh yes, there is more.
Something for the Weekend
My new autumnal knitting project. I started working on it last night whilst watching Digging for Britain, a programme about British archaeology. When I was a teen I wanted to be an archaeologist specialising in Neolithic sites (you get a lot of those where I grew up). Then I went out on work placement and realised that the majority of the job consisted in mapping the landscape and measuring soil depths. Clearly not my thing, but I still love learning about middens, neolithic settlements, and migration patterns. As you can imagine, I've always been a riot at parties.
Anyway. Knitting.
I am completely smitten with the new Kim Hargreaves collection, Touching Elegance. It ticks a lot of my boxes: sumptuous colours, defined silhouettes, 1920s/1930s styling and copious amounts of warm fibres. I was torn between Eleanor, Ella, Nancy, Mae, Nellie, Isadora, Patsy and Delores - I told you I was smitten - and have sort of hedged my bets a bit (more on that later when I figure out if I'm right in doing what I'm doing). The collection feels a lot more grown up than my usual thing, but I think the colour palette has a lot to do with that. As you can tell from the photo, I have chosen a less than sombre colour - Rowan Baby Alpaca in Cherry Red, kittens.
Also in the photo: fabric. It's a long story but I have been roped into doing a public sewing demo next week. Don't ask. I'll be making an Amy Butler Barcelona skirt complete with lining and a hidden zipper. I'm petrified as I have not done any sewing for about two decades and all my sewing terminology is in Danish. Sewers everywhere, weep for your art and craft. On the plus side, I got to choose the fabric myself and I cunningly chose a design which matches my autumn knitting project. It'll be fine but I will be poring over sewing instructions and blogs the next few days.
Also on the agenda the next few days: a Joseph Beuys exhibition (I'm not huge fan of Fluxus, but I also have to step outside of my comfort zone now and then) and DK:KNIT, an exhibition on experimental knitting design hosted by the Danish Cultural Institute in Edinburgh (this means I'll be in Edinburgh on Monday, by the way. Give me a shout if you want to meet up for coffee).
Assorted linkage: Other Half loves this poster but I just cannot get beyond how Freudian it is. Or is it just me? Save the Words! is a beautiful application although most of the words are surely inkhorn terms. And this Icelandic jumper spotted at the Reykjavik Pride Parade is just about the best thing ever.
Five Years
Five years ago D. told me that he was somewhat partial to me. I replied that I enjoyed our conversations too. Then he hit me over the head with a sledgehammer (metaphorically speaking) and so five years on, we could sit down to a lovely anniversary dinner tonight.
So if you will excuse me, I will now join my Best Friend/Other Half for a quiet evening in our living room. It has been five very good years together and I'm very much looking forward to another five and then another five and..
PS. Stravaigin 2 pulled out all the stops tonight. Brownie points for the table right by the balcony, but the food was sensational. Roast sweet potato, fennel & feta stack w black olive hummus + Moroccan spiced chicken kebab, pink grapefruit & almond quinoa w harissa yoghurt & toasted flatbread + purple coconut rice parcels, peanut butter & orange ice cream w candied chilli peanuts.. One of the best meals I have ever had. Wow.
PPS. D gave me a signed first edition Alasdair Gray hardback. Goosebumps, I tell you, goosebumps.
PPPS. And I'm torn between five new knitting projects. I need someone to hold my hand and help me decide what to do next. D is surprisingly unwilling to spend several hours going back and forth between various books and stash compartments.
FO: Mosswell, Rust well
This was going to be a tale of woe, but like all the best stories, this took an unexpected turn.
Once upon a time I bought some merino lace from 100purewool.com - I have an affinity for peridot green and their "Green Sausage"(!) colourway looked like a perfect shade. Sadly it was more yellow than I would have liked, so I overdyed it. It turned out acidic green rather than peridot green.
Fast forward some years and I decided to knit the Aeolian Shawl out of the yarn. The end result was pretty but still acidic green, so I decided upon another overdyeing session. The solution was a bit strong (never dye when you are sleep-deprived) and some parts of the shawl were a bit .. splotched. And I decided to overdye the shawl again.
Yes, this is why I first thought this was going to be a tale of woe. I was despairing by the third overdyeing session and I was worried when the shawl did not take the dye well. But this is also where the tale gets good: I pinned the shawl out deciding that I'd like to see the dry dyeing result.And I liked what I saw.
Granted, I'm an urban decay sort-of woman. I take photos of crumbling walls, overgrown buildings and burnt-out cars. The shawl actually looks as though it is rusty and has moss growing on it. I'm not sure how I can incorporate echoes of deindustrialisation, disenfranchisement, inhospitable cityscapes or abandoned buildings into my personal wardrobe, but I shall find a way. I live in Glasgow, after all.
Specifications:
Pattern: Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman, free pattern from Knitty.
Modifications: Yucca Chart x 6, Agave chart x 2 before Finale Agave Chart. No beads. 7-loop nupps.
Yarn: 100purewool merino lace 950yrds/100 gr. Used 60 gr.
Needles: Addi Turbo, 3.75mm.
Isn't the shawl just pretty?
Do you like the photos? We were out grocery-shopping when we walked past a doorway with fabulous old tiles. Our part of Glasgow is filled with old Victorian buildings and you see these doorways everwhere - although not always with fantastic colours or, to go back to the idea of urban decay, tiles missing.
Next on the agenda: I hope to reorganise my stash this week. It is long overdue. I have a walk-in closet(!) which doubles as yarn stash and spare-bed storage. I have boxes and bags stuffed with my yarn, but I want to start having a proper system. My stash is such a size that I am beginning to forget exactly what I own and where it is. I find it a bit overwhelming, but that is surely a sign that I should start weeding out old partial skeins and what-was-I-thinking balls of yarn. I have already tossed out some old projects and odds-and-ends today and it felt really good.
Finally, I missed my own personal goal of finishing my 4-ply cardigan by the end of the FIFA World Cup 2010. I still need to knit one sleeve and one front, plus all the finishing flourishes. It is a shame, but I did sustain an injury to my wrist. I'm tentatively rooting for Spain tonight, although Denmark does have long-standing football grudges towards Spain.. but I really haven't been keen on how Holland has been playing throughout this tournament..
I Need Distractions
My great-grandmother's bedspread/blanket arrived today.
Every single square was knitted individually in moss-stitch and then sewn together before she picked up stitches, knitted an edge, cast off, and crocheted a decorative edge. (So much work. I can deal with the huge amounts of mustard yellow in the spread, in other words.) I wonder if I should drape it over our sofa.. We live in a rented flat, so some of the furniture is not exactly to our taste (particularly the pink-yellow chintz sofa).
Thank you for the comments on Becoming Less than a Magpie. After writing it, I went straight to Ravelry and started weeding out my queue. It has gone from 247 patterns queued to 77 projects queued. It feels very liberating. I know the new autumn/winter collections will be hitting the web soon, so I am prepared to see my queue get a bit longer, but I am keeping the following self-imposed rules in mind:
- Will it flatter my figure?
- Will it work with existing items in my wardrobe?
- Do I already have similar objects in my wardrobe?
- Will I get any use out of it?
In other words, I will assess concrete things like gauge and shape as well as abstract things like style and wearability. Also, I will no longer be queueing fifteen patterns when one well-chosen pattern suffices.
Style is quite abstract, isn't it? I am not fashionable (although for one brief month back in 1995 I was outrageously trendy) but I do think a lot about style. Being Danish I have grown up with a certain Nordic aesthetic - you might best know it from countless IKEA catalogues. Scandinavians like their simple lines, plenty of light and very little nonsense to their architecture/furniture/designs. A typical Danish knitting design would be something along the lines of Topstykke, Duet or Granite. Plain knitting with a little twist. On the other hand I have never been a very good Dane and I turned into an bit of an Anglophile when I was very young, cue the love of tweedy things with cables and fair-isle (or, in other words, everything Rowan). Add to that, an uncompromising love of Modernist art and design (and that pesky Scandinavian mid-century modern influence) and that is pretty much where "my style" is at.
See why my queue has shrunk so much? Yeah.
Now I'm off to wave a tiny Danish paper flag about. The Danish football team is playing their first World Cup match today and I'm slightly worried as they are meeting one of the top contenders, Holland. It is going to be tense and I still cannot knit.
Under the Peach Trees
Strange week.
- Finished a shawl. It is a gift, so I am not posting information or pictures before the recipient has opened her present. But it was an underwhelming knit: the pattern was horrible, the colour unlike me and it took me forever to finish. I know the recipient will love it because the shawl is so, so her and that makes it all worthwhile.
- Ripped back several rows of my 4-ply cardigan because I had mistakenly thought I did not need to check the chart. I did. Fine Milk Cotton still holding up really well despite the abuse.
- The Crowded House concert veered between being sublime (hello, In My Command), cringe-inducing (one of their new songs goes "In Amsterdam / I fell under a tram" - whatever happened to knees and kitchens? I want references to knees and kitchens back) and downright embarrassing (security guards being very obnoxious to anyone wanting to dance). And Neil Finn still sported a moustache.
- Other Half had to go to hospital due to a dodgy knee. He is fine now, but I was all over the place for about three hours. This is love feels like: one huge pool of worry.
- Finished reading John Buchan's The Power-House, a novella without a plot but a lot of sinister innuendos. It reminded me of Mark Gatiss' The Devil in Amber which I read a few years ago. This is not a compliment. In Buchan's defence, he was writing within the period.
I am now packing for my Yorkshire adventure. I borrowed Miss Old Maiden Aunt's Tangled Yoked Cardigan so I had something to keep me warm during my stay. Of course, my adventure coincides with the sudden arrival of summer but you never know about the British weather.. yes, all the stories about changeable British weather are true. I am also packing my 4-ply cardigan project and am pondering whether to bring a tiny one-skein project too (funny how becoming a Knittah changes your approach to packing your suitcase). I'm also charging my iPod (and if you have Spotify access, I have compiled a Spotify playlist for the journey).
I hope for a better week ahead. I have the Yorkshire adventure lined up, but even more important: next week is Eurovision week! I will be missing the first semi-final, but will be all hyped up about the contest nevertheless. Woot!
(Ain’t) Misbehavin’
I like late nights. I like staying up till the world around us grow quiet and I can hear myself thinking. I like caffeinated drinks: coffee, tea and various soft drinks. And I like working away until I finish things and then have a long, meandering chat with the Boyfriend. Unfortunately my body does not agree with me and so today I am incredibly shattered to the point that I began crying in public today for no apparent reason. Embarrassing, yes, and also worrying.
Pledge to myself: I'll quit misbehaving and begin listening to my body again. Everything else is just plain silliness and I'm too old to be silly.
A few random links:
- Les Garcons de Glasgow. A Glasgow street style blog. I'm slightly unsettled by how many of these people I know (sort of) and how many photos have been taken in our neighbourhood. Also: looking like a drunk East German hairdresser circa 1983 is really not cute (or go the whole way and get yourself a Trabi)
- Caring for Your Intro-Vert: I spent years and years thinking I was a quiet extro-vert. Yeah, I know. Link via Anna.
- Interior Design from Scandinavia. My old Copenhagen flat looked like a cluttered version of this photo. You can take a girl out of Scandinavia..
- And if you are in London, make sure to catch the V&A exhibition on quilting. It looks fabulous and I wish I lived close enough to actually make my merry way there. So catch it on my behalf, mm?
In My Arms
My first birthday present was given to me today by David (a day early!). I was so thrilled when I realised it was a ticket to see Mr Rufus Wainwright live later this year. I have seen Rufus on three earlier occasions, but this one will be just him and a piano. Cor.
Now to wait a few more hours before I can start to unwrap the rest of my presents. Whee.
Catching Up With Myself
Sitting comfortably? Good.
Just before Christmas our computer finally died on us. This was not totally unexpected after some emergency surgery earlier this year, but still came as a surprise as the computer had been really fine and well until we left it for a few days in order to travel to Aberdeenshire (a journey which was traumatic enough sans computer death - we were stuck on snowy roads for nearly three hours as traffic stopped moving following a black ice accident). On our return there was no response. I went out into the heavy snow to get spare parts, but spare parts did not work. We had to leave the UK knowing that our little home was without a working PC. It was not a happy thought. As you might have twigged by this very update, we have managed to bring a swanky new PC into our life and I'll end this extended metaphor before it gets out of hand.
So. Holidays, then. Aberdeenshire was snowy and cold. Denmark was surprisingly less snowy and not as cold. I had fun introducing David to Danish Christmas traditions and we all enjoyed ourselves eating far too many home-made chocolate nibbles, reading books and watching TV. On the picture on the left you can spot a bit of my parents' garden (we loved watching the variety of wildlife eating treats left for them) and also a bit of the beautifully trimmed Yule tree (spot my mum's folded stars? She's thinking of doing craft fairs next year).
We also made it to Copenhagen where the lovely Kirsten Marie graciously let us borrow her flat. This was a real treat as I usually see an insane amount of people whenever I'm in Copenhagen and do not really get to spend time in a city I called home for twelve years. Last time I saw 19 people in three days. This time we saw three people in 1-and-a half days. The rest of the time we just walked around the city, shot a few photos, walked some more, defrosted our cold bodies with super-expensive coffee (I had forgotten how expensive Denmark is!) and walked even more. Yarn shops may also have been involved, but more on that in a later post. Finally we made it out to regular blog commentator Darth Ken's flat for yummy food and great conversation. I continue to be ambivalent about my erstwhile home, but I cannot deny it was great just letting myself relax into a familiar space.
Scotland is still snowy, dammit. It is also really, really cold in our flat and I may have given in to this "heating the flat" thing because I'm almost wearing as much indoors as I am when I go outside. And we have a swanky new computer! Tomorrow's New Year's Eve (Hogmanay) and we are determined to have a very quiet night after the rather leisuredly busy Christmas.
So, tomorrow: an FO, some new yarn and a tiny bit about something else.