Sunday Sunday
Sunday, Sunday here again a walk in the park..
The day started with me drinking my morning tea whilst listening to BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour where I was informed that knitting was a "post-modern, ultra-chic habit adopted by the very, very cool." So now we know.
Then I began preparing for the Barcelona skirt sewing demonstration I'm doing Wednesday. I cut out the pattern pieces, read the instructions, and then laughed with relief. The skirt is very easy - just three pieces plus zipper and lining - and although I've not done much dress-making in the last fifteen years, I am confident I am not going to mess this up. Famous last words, of course.
The afternoon was spent in the communal garden. We live in a Victorian tenement flat and we share our garden with four other blocks. The plan is to make our communal garden sustainable and organic - today we attended a workshop on turning a tenement garden into a place to grow food (alongside all the other needs it has to fulfil: drying space, bicycle sheds, bin sheds, recreational space etc). A lot of the residents realised that edible plants were already growing in the garden - some planned (like potatoes, various herbs and strawberries) and some rather unplanned (St. John's Wort, barley and gentian). We discussed getting some fruit trees whilst having herbal tea and cake under the existing Cypress trees.
At this point I felt very middle-class.
Then D & I meant to go blackberry picking. Well, bramble picking since they call blackberries brambles here in Scotland. As you can see, though, the berries are not quite ripe yet (neither are the elderberries). So I went for a little walk through our neighbourhood instead.
The North Kelvin Meadow is just around the corner from our flat. There is a short video posted on its site which lets you see the beautiful space for itself - it is basically a waste ground between tenements which has been "adopted" by local people. There are tiny allotments on the site now but mostly it functions as breathing space for local wildlife and as a "wild" natural habitat in the middle of a busy city. I like looking at the ex-whiskey barrels that have become micro-allotments. Actually, I like spending time there, full stop. The Meadow is very peaceful.
(As you can imagine, though, developers are quite keen on getting their hands on the Meadow (it is right in Glasgow's prime property area), so there is an ongoing campaign to let the Meadow remain a meadow.)
On a personal note, I went for a walk (and a good cry) because I had some very sad news from Denmark. Sometimes I feel very far away from family & friends, and I am unable to travel back right now (for various reasons). It makes me feel powerless and downright awful. I love Glasgow - it feels more like home than anywhere else I have ever lived - but sometimes I do wish I still lived in Denmark. It would make moments like this one a bit easier to handle.
FO: Haematite Shawl
Quickest shawl ever? Kim Hargreaves' Opal ("Haemitite") was done in little over 24 hours and it was not as though I sat about knitting constantly. I can see this shawl becoming a stash-buster (and I say this thinking of some mystery red mohair in my stash) as it was so quick and fun to knit. It was also the perfect knitting group project: garterstitch with one tiny detail to remember on each row. Verdict: a winner.
I sat knitting the majority of it during The Life Craft's inaugural knit night which was really fun and relaxing. Congratulation to Von and the rest of the Life Craft staffers for being officially anointed with an unannounced visit the very next day by Ravelry founders, Jess and Casey, and Scotland's knitting designer star, Ysolda Teague. The Life Craft is a great new addition (I nearly wrote addiction) to Glasgow's West End craft scene and I'm so so pleased by all the positive buzz the place is generating.
I may also have bought some yarn whilst there, but since I have just finished some things, I'm okay with that. I'm trying to operate a "yarn out means yarn in" policy at the moment. I picked up some beautiful Shetland 4ply by Colorimetry which is destined to become part of my fair-isle winter mitts which I am (gasp) currently drafting.
Relics
"Legend has it that you don't fully quality for your West End passport unless at least one item in your house comes from Relics."
I have only lived in Glasgow for four years, but by that standard not only do I carry a West End passport, I'm an ambassador for the West End. I love Relics and visit a least a couple of times a week - which you need to do in order to snap up the really good stuff. Through the years I've picked up vintage buttons, Dave's bought me the best knitting bag, we have found Soviet ceramic tiles, a Muirhead Bone drawing/lithograph from the trenches at Ypres (behind the vase), and dozens of other small pieces.
This week I found this beautiful 1930s vase you see in the photo. It may look a bit naff in the photo, but in real life it has a wonderfully subtle glaze and the flowers have a gentle glow. I fell in love with it the second I saw it, but it was not until I saw a woman pick it up saying "I might get this later.." that I realised that it had to belong to me or it would haunt me as The Vase That Got Away. And so I forked out my £3 and went on my merry way.. It is now sitting in front of the living room fireplace. I absolutely love it.
But sometimes my secondhand purchases get slightly out of hand. Today, in a different secondhand shop, I picked up some 1950s sewing patterns. This is all well and good, except both patterns are for 32" busts and my sewing machine does not work. I am pondering listing them on eBay, so they can go to a good home and I get (some of) my money back. Or I might hang on to them. Because I tend to hang on to things.
A few links to tide things over until I finish some projects/we have enough light for decent photos/anything to happen:
- The Language of Fashion - do crafters/DIYers use a different set of words to professionals?
- Do Typefaces Really Matter? - yes, they really do and I once wrote 106 pages about that. Good times.
- Weaving In Ends as You Knit - blog post in Norwegian but with instructive photos.
- Skirt Week - Inspirational Links to free sewing projects of the skirty kind.
- My Fault, I'm Female - stories of women who've been made to feel it's their fault that they are female at work, at home, or wherever.
- DK: KNIT - the Danish Cultural Institute, Edinburgh, is hosting an exhibition on new knitwear from Kolding Design Academy. I'm going!
- Crowded House makes frontpage on Metafilter. I rejoice despite not liking their new album.
Next up: dinner. Slow roasted pork shoulder in jerk sauce with baby potatoes and a fresh garden salad. Rainy days always make me eager to cook proper food.
The Knight With A Galleon On His Head
A friend of mine has crossed the North Sea to visit us here in rainy Glasgow. We took her to the Cathedral district yesterday. D. and my friend walked up the Necropolis while I lounged decoratively on a bench.
Afterwards we went inside St. Mungo's Cathedral - one of my favourite places to see stained glass windows here in Glasgow (and you'd be surprised by just how much stained class you find here - both in public and private homes).
My favourite window keeps changing. Yesterday I fell in love with this slightly barmy one: The Knight With A Galleon On His Head. I'm sure it has a real title or epitaph, but I like my version much better than "David Tavish Farquar, the 16th Duke of Skirlie In Memory of His Brother Simon, Lord of Colcannon".
Time for tea and buttered scones, I think. A busy day lies ahead.
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..
Seesaw
One of the things I love about living in Glasgow is that you can walk through a park on a perfectly ordinary afternoon and suddenly you are in the middle of King Lear. I should really make a point of buying tickets for Bard in the Botanics and I think I might opt for Twelfth Night now that I've seen quite a chunk of Lear.
One of the things I do not love about living in Glasgow is marching season. My bus was caught behind a march the other day and I had plenty of time to think about sectarianism in Glasgow. It truly saddens me that people choose to fuel divisions within a community rather than challenge long-held prejudices and sectarian behaviour.
This is Glasgow life. A constant see-saw of good and bad things. Thankfully the amount of good things happening outweighs the bad things.
Autumn/Winter collections from various yarn companies are beginning to show up around the web.
I am slightly underwhelmed by the Drops collection and can only really see myself making ac-018 (don't you just love the fetching Drops names?) although the ee-324 is very cute novelty pullover.
The new Rowan Autumn/Winter collection have been leaked, and I enjoyed Rowan 48. The Alisa stole is beautiful, the Inga cardigan looks quite Scandinavian (and I mean that as a compliment - imagine it in monochrome and styled with minimalist clothes and accessories. Wowza.) and I love, love the Lidiya dress. Being much more mindful of my queue, though, I am mainly torn between between Rowena (on the left - I already have a commercial black pullover very much in that style) and Vera. I will need to see the magazine in real life before I decide which of the two pullovers I will end up queueing. I also have my beady eye firmly fixed on Rowan Lima for a winter project, so I hope there'll be some fabulous pullovers or cardigans for that yarn.
Not that I am doing much knitting at the moment. I have bought a new wrist support for my poor wrist, so hopefully that will help its recovery. I have completed swatching for a scarf pattern I'm going to write up later this summer (no previews, sorry). I have also knitted a few rows on my 4ply cardigan, but small needles are proving quite painful to hold.
Hold on, though, for a finished object. I finished it some time ago but could not post anything until it had been gifted to a good friend.
With A Slice of Cake & Heaven
I could not resist showing you a proper photo of how my Harmony cardigan is progressing. I finished the last bit of lace today, so it is all stocking stitch (and sleeve shaping) now. I have trawled Etsy and eBay for some suitable buttons - I know I am only halfway through the first of five pieces, but I have my eye firmly on the end result. I am thinking along the lines of these buttons or possibly these - I will start rummaging through my button boxes(! - it is true. I now have more than one big button box) once I have an idea of just how ornate the cardigan itself will look.
Oh, I love planning.
I think Harmony might be keeping me company during the World Cup in football (i.e. soccer for you non-Europeans). I really liked the Olympics knit-along earlier this year, and Harmony, being both a labour-intensive project and a relatively straightforward knit, would do me just fine as a World Cup project as I cheer for the Danish football team and weep bitterly into my cold buttermilk soup when they lose.
A brief, brief interlude into Eurovision-land: I am going out on a limp here but I think Armenia might be marching towards glory. It is a tentative prediction as this year's contest is really too close to call, so call this "my gut feeling" prediction more than anything. I would also watch out for Albania (a great slice of electro-pop), Turkey, Georgia, and this year's surprise contender from Cyprus. Other pundits are leaning towards Israel, but I'm really not getting it, while the early frontrunner Azerbaijan has come across limp and forced, so surely that is out of the running..?
Finally, there is nothing quite like being pigeon-holed with sweeping generalisations.
Also, this On the Rocks cover is one of the best Lady Gaga cover versions I've heard alongside that Paparazzi cover version (stay tuned all the way through the video - it gets better and better). Speaking of Gaga, have you read the Caitlin Moran interview? I had my own heroes when I was seventeen, living in Nowheresville and feeling completely Other, but my heroes were males writing songs from a male perspective (though Otherness arguably did play a part as core members of the band were gay). Later I discovered Polly Jean, of course, but I would have loved to have a prominent woman in pop culture playing hard and fast with mainstream gender perceptions (no, Madonna doesn't count for several reasons).
Now, excuse me, I have a date with a slice of carrot cake from Auntie M's Cake Lounge, my new home away from home.
Day Five: Location, Location
Fourth Edition is taking part in the Knitting & Crocheting Blog Week, and you can read more about that blog project here.
One of my favourite places to sit and knit (or read or think) is the Kelvin Walkway which runs along Glasgow's River Kelvin. I live quite close to it and on warm, dry Sundays, I spend a lot of time sitting here. Occasionally my knitting gets stolen by a playful dog, but it is all part of the charm.
I adore this particular spot because you have your back to the world and just for a short while, you can pretend you are sitting in the middle of wilderness rather than in the middle of a large city. I have seen kingfishers, peregrine falcons, foxes, and deer here. All a five minute walk away from Byres Road, a busy shopping area.
However, this is not where I tend to spend most of my knitting time. Glasgow gets a lot of rain and blustery winds. And so I grab a takeaway coffee and head to my favourite bench in the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens.
I like spending my afternoons off in here. I am sheltered from cold winds and sudden rain. The view from the bench is spectacular and the scenery changes from visit to visit. It is a wonderfully calm place to sit and knit (as long as you can mentally block out screaming children as you get many yummy mummies parading their trophies playing with their toddlers in the front part of the Palace) and nobody minds if you sit there all afternoon.
And I cannot resist showing you a close-up of "my" bench. Yes, it is wrought iron and, yes, that would be a squirrel. All the benches have the same squirrel-pattern and I think it wonderfully whimsical .. although you do get an awful lot of real squirrels hanging about the Botanics and the Kelvin Walkway (sadly not the indigenous sort but the grey squirrel).
Although I knit a lot in public (including public transport), I do most of my knitting at home. I have a sofa to myself and curl up every night with my latest project. Blankets nearby, coffee cup full and light a-plenty. No photos, though, and while I wish I could blame poor light conditions, the living room is just that tiny bit too untidy to show anyone right now. I also quite like leaving some things a mystery ..
For your listening pleasure, I have compiled a short Spotify playlist of Glaswegian/Glasgow-based bands. Enjoy - if you live in a Spotify-enabled country, of course - these tracks are really the sound of Glasgow.
Knitting In Public: True Stories
The couple approached me as I sat knitting. The woman told me that she had recently begun knitting again and that it was so nice to see a young woman knitting in public (I'm now the age when I appreciate being called a young woman). She then moved away to look at some flowers; her husband sat down on the bench next to me.
"So, do you have a special man in your life?" he wondered. I do have a very special man in my life, yes.
"Do you ever KNIT FOR HIM?" His voice grew a bit louder. I admitted that I do occasionally make something for my man.
"Do you KNIT HIM JUMPERS?" Yes, I knit my special one jumpers.
"I bet he LOVES your HANDKNITTED JUMPERS!" The man shot his wife a significant glance. "What a LUCKY MAN!"
Pause. Then his voice grew even louder.
"What about socks? Do you knit socks? Do you ever KNIT SOCKS FOR YOUR MAN?! Ach, NOTHING SAYS LOVE LIKE HANDKNITTED SOCKS!"
And that was when the woman decided she needed to go look at flowers far away from me and my knitting needles.
Happy Easter
This is what happens when you go for a walk on a sunny Easter Sunday.
You come across a giant horse in a parking lot..
.. wildlife (not pictured: curious fox darting about on the opposite river bank) ..
.. and little surprises lurking in the woods.