breaking the waves

Breaking the Waves is an awful, deeply disturbing film by Lars von Trier. It is the only film that has had me crying hysterically for the final half hour and I still can't lay eyes on Emily Watson without feeling uncomfortable. That said, it (obviously) made an indelible impression on me and this shawl does remind me of moonlight on deep water and I think that sometimes it's good to reclaim things.

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Daybreak by Stephen West (also available to purchase through Ravelry). I had noticed this pattern getting a bit of attention online but it didn't grab me until my lovely friend Lyn was knitting it. She explained to me about the striping and bells immediately went off in my head about yarns that I had in the cupboard that I could use for this shawl. In keeping with my desire to use what I have I was moved to cast on for it. I would now have trouble expressing how much I love this pattern, what a wonderful pattern it is, how much room there is to experiment with it. Basically it is a solid triangle of colour A, commence striping with colour B, then knit this border in solid colour B. But oh, it is so much more than that! Even following this basic formula, you can get fantastic results by using self-striping and variegated yarns. Add in some more yarns, some texture, some eyelets or even lace ... add to that, I really like the shape and construction - I feel as though I could knit this pattern forever.

Size: Large - span 170cm x depth 60cm.
Yarn: Rather than use two yarns and follow the A, A/B, B scenario, I actually used five different yarns - Noro Kureyon Sock, Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn, Heirloom Baby Wool 4ply, Naturally haven 4ply and Patonyle sock yarn.

Specifically:
Noro Kureyon Sock, 70 per cent wool, 30 per cent nylon, shade S233, 0.5 skeins - I think I was supposed to knit my mother a pair of socks from this, oops. I had heard that this yarn was difficult to knit with, that the stitches didn't pull through easily and I think that is what put me off. It may be more difficult to knit at a sock-worthy gauge but I loved knitting on it for this shawl. Loved the texture, loved the colour changes, even loved the odd too thick or too thin section. I have already bought another skein with a project in mind.

Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn, 50 per cent alpaca, 30 per cent merino, 10 per cent nylon, 10 per cent silk, shade 01 'Blues in the Night', 0.7 skeins - I received this in a stash swap and was attracted to the depth that the colours created. I love the soft fuzziness of this yarn. Unlike the Noro it is an absolutely consistent weight. It is not very highly spun.

Heirloom Baby Wool 4ply, 100 per cent wool, shade 407, 0.6 skeins - yarn hauled across the Pacific, tightly plied, very smooth. Needed to be used.

Naturally Haven 4ply, 100 per cent merino, shade 455, one skein - ditto.

Patonyle, 80 per cent merino, 20 per cent nylon, shade 1009 - the classic Australian sock yarn, a gift last year when we were there from my friend Jane. Also tightly plied and very smooth.

Needles: 3.55mm Addi circular.
Stash/recycle content: it all came out of stash - hooray!
Start to finish: Well, you can tell that this was a special knit by the fact that it took me only 11 days - 18 July to 29 July 2010 - and I knit on it solidly for that time, nothing else, which is entirely out of character.

Comments: Having read other people's comments about the pattern, I did make some technical modifications: worked an eyelet on the border instead of a M1 increase (it is still important though to keep those first and last two stitches really loose) and used a stretchy cast off method. I also worked the slip stitch column one row further (that is, into the first row of the border). I can also imagine doing an eyelet for all of the increases to create an airier version.

Then in addition to this, I had my own vision of how to do the colours and stripes. I worked the initial solid section and the border in the Misti Alpaca. The stripes are the rustic, softly plied, self-striping Noro Kureyon Sock contrasted initially with the smooth, shiny Naturally Haven 4ply in a navy blue until that ran out and then with the Heirloom Baby Wool 4ply in a dark blue. In between the change from one blue to the next is the red Patonyle stripe. When I looked at other people's finished shawls the ones that I liked most were those where the changes in the yarn colour appeared to segment the shawl laterally (or at least, along the length of the stripes) so that was what I was aiming for.

The Noro worked wonderfully with its long and felicitous colour changes - the intrigue of which shade would come next and when was certainly one of the things that kept me knitting. I also had to grit my teeth at a couple of points and stay loyal to the Noro colour vision, that is, not cheat and muck around with any of the colour changes or progressions. That was until I came to a blasted knot joining some dark green with lavender. Then I did join it in with the dark green that came just before the light green.

And the red, that just came out of nowhere but I felt that it was necessary to help define the architecture of the shawl. From the very beginning the yarns that I chose had reminded me of the sea and deep water. I blocked the edge irregularly, it reminds me of seaweed.

Confidence in my creative choices is something that has been building for me slowly over a very long while. I would always be so irked when some designer talked about 'playing with colour' - how could they be 'playing' if it turned out so well? My only memories of playing with colour were mixing paints at kindergarten, hoping that something amazing would appear and ending up with brown. Anyway, I do feel as though I took a chance and played with colour and texture in this shawl and it worked.

Verdict: This shawl was such a joy to knit. It starts out deceptively with only a dozen or so stitches and by the time you're doing the stripes they are so fascinating that you don't notice the stitch count adding up to the hundreds. Add to that the pleasure of tracking the colour progressions in the yarn and suddenly, when the stitch count is almost unbearable, you're at the border. Which made it the hardest bit for me because you do keep knitting and increasing but in a solid block of colour. I was tempted to put in a row of eyelets to remind me of bubbles but didn't want to overdo it. I can see though why some people have switched to a lace stitch on the border - you do almost need it to get you through!

I really felt quite bereft though the night this was blocking because I could no longer knit it. In fact, I love this pattern so much and want to encourage both the designer and potential knitters thereof that I'm doing a giveaway. Please leave a comment by midnight Sunday my time (which is currently PDT) and I will randomly select three readers and purchase the pattern for them (not send them a copy of my pattern but purchase the pattern anew three times over).

july reading

Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus - this was a boring book about stupid people. I was disappointed because I remember enjoying The Nanny Diaries (although I also really disliked Citizen Girl). Don't waste your time.

The House of Hope and Fear: life in a big city hospital by Audrey Young - having worked for the equivalent of the health department back in Australia and having done just that one Health Economics subject, everything that has been happening with health care reform, particularly health insurance, here in the US these past two years has been fascinating to me. This book combines stories of both doctors and patients at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center along with some commentary about the bigger picture - rising health care costs, lack of health insurance, pharmaceutical costs, undersupply of primary health care. Although this is not the strongest aspect of the book they are really interesting topics and I'm planning to read some more about them. Worth reading.

the oxford project

July is coming to an end and I am a couple of chapters away from my second book for the month. Well, my second reading book. I actually go through dozens of books a month - knitting books, interior books, art books, anything-that-catches-my-eye-at-the-library books.

Like this one, The Oxford Project by Peter Feldstein and Stephen Bloom. I love photographs of people, simple unpretentious black-and-white images particularly and this book contains hundreds, all taken in the town of Oxford, Iowa of the same people 20 years apart. It is fascinating to see how people grow up and age and the photos are accompanied by stories about the residents.

Like so many books, I found this at the library and then had to buy my own copy, that's how intriguing all these peoples' lives are.

one-armed gamble

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: One-sleeve Wrap by Heather Carlson from Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2007. I think that this is the first thing that I have made from Vogue Knitting.
Size: Small.
Yarn: recycled J Crew 100 per cent wool, same as I used to make my Sunrise Circle Jacket and Columbia Beret. It's about a 10ply/worsted weight so to get super-bulky for this garment I held two strands together.
Needles: 8mm.
Stash/recycle content: 100 per cent - hooray!
Start to finish: 24 May to 15 June 2010.
Comments: Why did I make this, given that it is a garment and yarn weight so very uncharacteristic of me? Maybe that's why. I was sorting through some old files and found the pattern and thought, oh, must make that. Now. So I did. It was great to use up what was left of that J Crew wool and I enjoyed the stocking stitch knitting and awesome cable. You rotate the cable needle 180 degrees before knitting the stitches from it - marvelous. What I really like about this is that it is unusual. So often when new patterns come out it is just same-old, same-old - the same shapes with slightly different stitch patterns, or hems or whatever. What struck me about this design when I first saw it, and why I was so excited about it again, is that it is not the same as everything else out there.

I actually worked this backwards, that is, started at the other end of the stole than that which the pattern indicated to ensure that I didn't run out of yarn. As such my cables are upside down but that's fine. I also worked them at slightly more random intervals. And I worked a row of double crochet along both edges to help it not to roll.

That's my friend Anne modeling again in the top left picture which gives the best idea of the colour and and the cable. And then that's me to the right showing what it looks like from the front when worn in one of those awkward bathroom shots. I've fastened it with a crochet hook because that was all I had to hand.

Verdict: Very happy. This is a great piece and I'm looking forward to some cold weather.

liquor and wine

Something that makes me laugh here in Washington State is that to buy anything with a greater alcohol content than wine or beer (which you can get at a supermarket or corner shop) you need to go to a state-run Liquor and Wine store. In a country where the cultural narratives are so founded on individual freedom and a passion for small government this strikes me as bizarre. At the same time, this can be an opportunity for me to ponder Australia's drinking culture where there is a bottle shop selling everything alcoholic at pretty much every supermarket and pub, so basically, everywhere.

Anyway, here is my own version of liquor and wine:

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: My own. Yes, just improvised by me - keep knitting until the yarn runs out, do some eyelets along the way, a few rows of garter stitch, change to reverse stocking stitch, cast off. It is difficult for me to tell you how incredibly out of character this is for me. I am someone who is most comfortable with (ahem, needs) the certainty of clear rules and boundaries. I follow instructions. I have a deep-seated belief that they are there for a certain reason and that if you don't turn around three times and pat your head in between adding the milk and the vanilla essence to the dry ingredients that your chocolate chip cookies won't turn out properly (for example). It has taken me some time to accept that sometimes instructions are just there to protect the manufacturer from complaints or litigation on the off-chance that something should go wrong, and to think and judge for myself on some of these matters.

Oh and of course, this scarf is not a kusha kusha.

Size: 115 by 30 centimetres.
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze (70 per cent mohair, 30 per cent silk) in shade liqueur, one skein; Lion Brand LB Collection Wool Stainless Steel (75 per cent wool, 25 per cent stainless steel) in shade wine, two skeins. The first part of the scarf is knit with both yarns held together, the second part with two strands of the wool/stainless steel held together.
Needles: First part, 5mm; second part, 3.25mm.
Start to finish: 1 April to 16 July 2010.
Stash/recycle content: The Kidsilk Haze came from a stash swap, the Wool Stainless Steel I bought a while ago out of curiosity.
Comments: Ah, Kidsilk Haze, cult knitting yarn. Again, one of the first luxury yarns that I became aware of in my knitting career and although I did once have a couple of balls in a bright pink (why?) I gave them away at some point so this is really the first time that I have knit with it. It was lovely but I'm not quite blown away by it - may have to give it another go sometime. I'll see how the mohair content is to wear.

And the Wool Stainless Steel, local approximation of the Habu cult luxury yarns. This I was just curious about and still am about its potential. What would it be like if you knit with two or more of the different colours together? How many strands do you need to knit together to get a fabric that is really malleable?

So, what did I do? I cast on 54 stitches on 5mm needles with a strand of the Kidsilk Haze and of the Stainless Steel Wool and knit in stocking stitch, slipping the first stitch of each row, until the KSH ran out. Then I swapped to 3.25mm needles and two strands of the WSS on 3.25mm needles, increased the stitch count by knitting into the front and back of each stitch and continued until the yarn ran out. Along the way I threw in a couple of rows of eyelets, some ridges of garter stitch and changed from stocking stitch to reverse stocking stitch and back. And that was it. It came out the length that the yarn allowed for.

Verdict: I'm pleased with how this turned out and still curious about both yarns. I'd like to try crocheting the Wool Stainless Steel to see what sort of fabric that creates. I'd also like to see whether it felts and what sort of fabric that creates. I also enjoyed knitting at such a fine gauge with it double stranded, it really allowed for some meditative knitting.

baby quilt

Another secret - secret sewing this time. I wish I were better at showing works in progress rather than foisting miraculously finished projects upon the internet but this time I had no choice. A dear American/New Zealand friend of mine and her Japanese husband are having a baby and, long inspired by the lovely baby quilt that Allison of 6.5sts made for Di at Clementine's Shoes some three years ago, I made a baby quilt.

This quilt was made almost entirely from stash; the only new thing is the printed twill tape which was custom printed by lillalotta. Everything else was from stash and upcycled and is significant in one way or another.

From the left:

- linen from shirts bought at Value Village in Redmond (where the recipient grew up), dyed with decaffeinated Earl Grey Tea.
- dark blue twill tape, originally the belt from a dress bought at the same VV.
- twill tape with text taken from the Class Book of Geography: adapted to the education code of the colony of Victoria (1894) (that's where I come from).
- beasty-printed linen from a Thomaiy blazer that I bought at the MECWA op shop on Chapel Street in Windsor and lugged across the Pacific with me; I love this print.
- my favourite black and white graphic, a cotton twill also used in my vintage fabrics quilt and to make a child's apron.
- blue linen from the same dress as the dark blue twill tape.

- the batting is one layer of cotton flannelette sheet.

- the back is made from a pair of cotton Japanese pyjamas that I bought at Value Village in Capitol Hill (my local knitting group where I met the recipient).

The wonderful sashiko stitching was done by knitting friends Liz (red on the front) and Jen (white on the back). I made the quilt by laying the right sides of the front and backing against each other, adding the layer of batting and sewing around the edge, leaving a 20cm or so gap. then I trimmed the seams, turned the quilt inside out (or right sides out, really), hand stitched the gap closed and top stitched around the edge. The only 'quilting' as such is some stitches on the dark blue twill tape to keep the layers from sliding around too much.

I am delighted with this quilt. It turned out pretty much exactly the way that I had envisioned which is a real treat. Now, I do know another baby who hasn't received a blanket from his mummy yet ... must get onto that.

best kept secret?

I am not fond of the Victoria's Secret brand - those overblown images of young girls with overblown bust lines does not appeal to me and I would never consider buying underwear from them. (Do they even have maternity bras? The whole idea of lactating, leakage, mastitis etc would not seem to fit well with their sexualised mammary aesthetic.)

But did you know that they also make clothing? I was shopping at Value Village a week or so ago when I found a really great t-shirt claiming to be 'Fashion's Best Kept Secret' with the initials VS. Being someone who has absolutely no need of the signature Victoria's Secret figure enhancements, I mostly just wear t-shirts because blouses simply gape when buttoned up across my bust. So finding a great t-shirt, it doesn't even have to be the perfect t-shirt, is a real challenge. And I think that I have found a really great t-shirt.

I ordered a few online (partly because I didn't want to set foot in one of the shops) - there are many styles but I just went for simple scoop neck, cap sleeves. They are 100 per cent cotton, lots of colours to choose from and quite reasonably priced. Who would have known?

woolsthorpe

My first adult garment for the year. Completed some weeks ago but it took so long to finish that I didn't think a couple more would hurt.

The Vital Statistics Pattern: Woolsthorpe by Martin Storey from Rowan Classic Vintage, Book 28.
Size: 12
Yarn: 100 per cent wool recycled from a J Crew sweater bought at a thrift store.
Needles: 3.25mm and 4mm.
Start to finish: 17 October 2009 to 21 June 2010 - eight months and I think that I had all but the sleeves and finishing done in the first two weeks. I'm really disappointed that it took a total of eight months because the actual labour ceratinly didn't, it was all of the getting sidetracked and putting it aside to work on something else and whatever that, while it dismays me, seems to be my way of working.
Recycle/stash content: 100 per cent for the yarn, the buttons are from Nancy's Sewing Basket in the Queen Anne neighbourhood of Seattle.

Comments: I knit this garment almost entirely to the pattern. The only modification was to have seven buttons instead of six as I felt they were better spaced that way. There is a lot of 1x1 twisted rib in this cardigan and by the time I finished the ribbing for the back I thought that I may never be able to face it again. That said, the effect is lovely. I worked Vogue single row buttonholes for the first time - very pleased.

Verdict: I can't wait to wear this. I was quite pregnant when I cast on for it - oh wait, that's why it took so long, there was the first six months of a baby's life in there as well - so I was never that confident about the fit but there was nothing to worry about. (It is actually kindly modelled in these photos by my dear friend Anne but it fits me too). It does look decidedly vintage and I am delighted about that. The yarn has produced a luxurious squishy fabric and I love the colour. Very happy.

keitodama

Guess what came in the mail today! Well, by FedEx actually but that was only because there was no other mailing option. Yes, I got tired of trying to decipher the diagrams that I had found on flickr and was too scared of the Russian bittorrent to download it (would that even work? would your computer just get very sick?) so I navigated through amazon Japan and lo and behold, Keitodama 137 has arrived on my doorstep.

There are fifty-odd pattern in here, knit and crochet and a mix thereof. It's really interesting to see the range of garments and shapes that are offered in a foreign seasonal publication (this is a Spring issue so I'm assuming that it comes out quarterly). Quite a few dresses, quite a lot of crochet (some of it a bit scary), knit and crochet together in the same garment, bag and choker accessories and a completely different aesthetic to an equivalent (maybe?) Western publication like a Rowan magazine (and little of the styling finesse which I do think counts for a whole lot of the appeal of Rowan magazines). There are a couple of things in here that I like, although the sizing is way off for me and I'm not sure that I could follow the knitting diagrams as well as I could the crochet ones.


















The visual crochet instructions are very dense. My next task today will be to make some enlarged copies of the instructions and erase any extraneous information so that the diagrams are not so crowded. Then, to choose a yarn ...

hooked on

Anybody else with an eighties childhood remember those dreadful 'Hooked On ...' compilations? Hooked on Jazz, Hooked on Classics. I actually only remember the ads on television. I really wish that I had watched less television as a child and learnt to crochet earlier. Anyway, hooked on crochet, that's me.*

I actually started out with crochet, long before I learned to knit, but after completing a queen size crochet bedspread I kind of took a break, started knitting and it fell by the wayside a bit. Until recently. There seems to have been more crochet around recently, lovely granny squares and potholders and the like. I've always found crochet to be faster and making the Icelandic Jacket really got me back into it.

Did I ever get around to showing the yarn that I chose to make Bergamot? I decided on Jo Sharp Classic DK Wool in the shade Mulberry. I have been working away at it and am very happy with the results. So far I have completed the body (back and fronts all in one piece to the underarms) twice over in the small size, the body again in the medium size (current incarnation) and one sleeve is a small and the other a medium. I have also added waist shaping somewhere there amongst the bobble rows. My current dilemma is how to blend the size small sleeve with the size medium body. This thing is going to fit!


My other current crochet obsession is this lacy dress from the Japanese magazine Keitodama (issue 137). The pattern is for an 84cm bust (ha ha) in a 3ply/light fingering weight yarn. I'm going to have to scale things up a bit (a lot?) so am swatching in some heavier yarns like this 4ply/fingering weight Rowan RYC Siena (100 per cent cotton, shade sloe).

* The alternative was a happy hooker reference and that's really not me.

june reading

Well it was a close call in June. I just couldn't get into this book, or at least couldn't get into it in the sporadic page-or-two-here-and-there manner in which I was reading it. And I put off really getting down to reading it until this past week, and only because the end of June was fast approaching and I had a resolution to keep.

Anyway, another fine Dandy Gilver mystery - Bury her Deep by Catriona McPherson. This is the third book in the series (and the third that I have read) and I was struck again, as I was by the first volume, at the length of some of the incredibly convoluted sentences which, should one not keep one's wits about herself, require her to return again and again to the top of the paragraph in order to retrace her reading steps, so to speak, in an effort to rediscover the gist of the narrative.

I did enjoy this in the end and had to read the last hundred pages all in one sitting because once the narrative revved up I couldn't bear to put it down (even if it was past midnight). Dandy Gilver is a wonderful character and still fresh after three books. There are a few more in the series and I'm looking forward to reading them (well I have to; it's a series so I have to) but am going to look for some lighter works of fiction for July. Something with sex perhaps, and vampires.

juliaaaaaaaaaa!

Red-letter/-hair day - Australia has its first female prime minister. Congratulations Julia Gillard! I am so excited.

the thin green line

Ever since completing the doily quilt top some, oh, nine months ago (I really have to get on top of this too many unfinished projects at once thing) I have been umming and ahhing about the sashing - to sash or not to sash. About a month ago I was pondering the use of decorative machine stitching using perle 8 cotton and, having indeed located the correct shade of green in the meantime, last night I finally got to it.

Rather than sewing a whole new nine-patch square or risking making a mess of the completed quilt top I just mocked up an edging using some spare embroidered doily blocks. I sewed the green lines (on the wrong side) and pinned them to the quilt top to approximate what effect this sort of accent sewing might produce.

I am delighted to have come to the conclusion that the quilt would not be enhanced by adding the stitching. There is a lovely flow at the moment between the blank blocks and the embroidered blocks; any sashing or stitching would break that up and instead strengthen the geometry of the quilt. So, no extra stitching - hooray! Now I just have to quilt and back the whole thing. Actually, after nine months what I need to do is iron it.

willow, weep for me (part 4)

Or, 'Make do and mend' (the mend bit).

This is my lovely Japanese-made Willow pattern tea pot which I bought at the Salvation Army in Seattle. The whole set was there but as it has gold trim and was not suitable for use in the microwave or to go through the dishwasher there was really no place for it in our house. But the teapot, the teapot I could just rinse out every now and then and it didn't need to go in the microwave. You just make a new pot of tea.

It's a very elegant teapot, a good shape, dripless pour (oh so important), makes two cups. So, you can well imagine that I was devastated when I dropped the lid and it broke in two upon the floor; I thought that I was going to have to bid farewell to my otherwise perfectly good teapot.

But no! This is where them mend comes in. My lovely friend Heidi Kunkel is a potter and she was kind enough to make a new teapot lid for me which was no mean feat. Pottery shrinks twice during the making process - once when it is bisque fired and once when it is glaze fired - so to get a teapot lid to fit so perfectly into a teapot is sheer artistry. And she added the little blue motifs and birds as a finishing touch. I love it.

And, whereas I certainly wept over my broken teapot lid when it happened, now every time I look at my teapot I smile and am reminded what a wonderful friend I have. Thank you Heidi! (Ah, thank you also for making this for me some, um, twelve months ago - I cannot believe how the time has flown.) Heidi sells her pottery online and in person at the Fremont Market here in Seattle - please do visit her!

clemence

More instant gratification knitting. This yarn came in a grab bag from Value Village and I had to use it straight away.

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Clemence by Katya Frankel, available free through Ravelry.
Size: smaller size.
Yarn: Noro Transitions in colourway 21, 55 per cent wool, 10 per cent silk, 7 per cent alpaca, 7 per cent angora, 7 per cent cashmere; almost one skein.
Needles: 7mm circular needle.
Start to finish: 1 to 2 June 2010.
Stash/recycle content: 100 per cent.
Comments: As I was using a heavier weight yarn than the pattern calls for, I cast on only 72 stitches for this then just followed the chart.
Verdict: Self-striping yarns - there have been problems before but I'm really happy with how the lace pattern breaks the striping up on this item. And what strange yarn this is, so many different fibres, a slightly thick-thin ply with bits of stuff in it. Very Noro but I love it.

willow, weep for me (part 3)

There is a wonderful second-hand book store in the University District of Seattle called Magus Books. I always find something when I go there, like this lovely volume - Blue and White: The cotton embroideries of rural China by Muriel Baker and Margaret Lunt (ISBN: 0283984813).

Needless to say I had no idea that blue and white embroidery was done in China - I always think of silks in those rich jewel tones and lots of metallic embroidery. There are lots of wonderful examples of the embroidery itself, like the child's vest below, as well as information about the symbols and their meaning. And then there is a heap of charts as well so that you can do your own, although unfortunately, no actual blue willow pattern although I'm sure that you could cobble something together from what is there. You, meaning me, one day, when I find the time.

I recall seeing a crochet cushion cover once in one of my favourite magazines - World of Interiors - from which I have derived so much inspiration. The cushion cover in question was ... I'm having trouble remembering but what it puts in my mind is blue and white crochet with the stitches making up a picture, stitch by stitch. Ok, quick internet search, I believe that this is called tapestry crochet and I would prefer that to cross stitch or needlepoint I think which are not my fortes.

I would love to do one of these Chinese embroidery charts in this tapestry crochet style.

willow, weep for me (part 2)

I'm not sure now whether the brooch came first or the idea to knit the, um, capelet but they are a happy match.

The Vital Statistics Pattern: Yves by Kim Hargreaves from Rowan 36.
Size: One size.
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool, yarn held double, in colourway 57 Commodore, three skeins (yes, the same yarn that I used to knit the ill-considered shrug bug. Remember I had a skein left over? Well I had to buy two more so that I could use it up ...)
Needles: 12.75mm and 15mm.
Start to finish: 19 May to 24 May 2010.
Recycle/stash content: Hmm, does that count - spending money to make money? Buying more yarn in order to use up yarn that you already have? Anyway, I got to use those needles again.
Comments: This was a real instant gratification project for me. When I had that one ball of the Big Wool left over, I recalled a pattern that I had liked that was made from it ... and so it goes. Actually, Yves is not knit from Big Wool but another (I think now discontinued) Rowan yarn called Plaid but it worked well for the project. Having always eschewed navy blue as too matronly on me, I am very drawn at the moment to inky blues. And I love the brooch on it (the pattern called for a ribbon or a cord with pom-poms - not an option.)
Verdict: This is a bit of a departure for me but I do like the finished product a lot and hope that I wear it.

fuzzy little alien

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Fuzzy Alien from Creepy Cute Crochet: zombies, robots ninjas and more by Christen Haden.
Size: One size.
Yarn: Dune by Trendsetter Yarns, 41 per cent mohair, 30 per cent acrylic, 12 per cent viscose, 11 per cent nylon, 6 per cent metal.
Hook: 4mm crochet.
Start to finish: all done on 8 June 2010.
Recycle/stash content: 100 per cent - hooray! The yarn was from my stash, I got it at a yarn swap. The embroidery and antennae were done with the aforementioned Red heart acrylic. The stuffing came from a thrifted cushion.
Comments: This was my first 'amigurumi' project and I wasn't thrilled by it. The book has indeed very cute patterns but I didn't find the instructions very clear and it was a pain to have to flip to the back for the basic body part instructions.
Verdict: Cute.

wwkipd

Today was World Wide Knit in Public Day. We hung out at Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill and knit (and crocheted) some slugs, mushrooms, leaves, gnomes and fuzzy little aliens which we then left behind in the playground for the (hopeful) delight of local children.

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Knitted 'Shrooms by Abby Kroken.
Size: one size.
Yarn: Ugh, Red Heart Super Saver 100 per cent petrochemical-derived nightmare yarn. I can't believe that people would actually knit with and wear anything made from this, it is truly horrible, it almost crunches when you knit with it. It's also weather proof and we wanted something that could stand the rain if necessary.
Needles: 4mm double-pointed needles.
Start to finish: All done within about half an hour on this auspicious day.
Recycle/stash content: 100 per cent - all the yarn came from the thrift store.
Comments: Cute pattern and I like the idea of a child somewhere maybe having a vague memory of the day they found a mushroom in the swing. Maybe they'll keep it, maybe they'll learn to knit
Verdict: I hope to see them popping up all over the place.

spode

Not yet part 2 of my Willow saga but in the same vein - SPODE!! All of the transferware that I have ever purchased new has been Spode, mostly from the Blue Italian range and on sale. I stress on sale because the stuff is expensive. I used to buy one piece each payday, whatever was marked down that fortnight. Now I just shop at Goodwill - $3.99!

This plate is from the Aesop's Fables range featuring 'The Lion and the Fox'. It is in perfect condition; I'm guessing that its previous owner had it on display because when I bought it, it still had one of those wire and spring plate display hangers hooked around it. Who parts with their Spode?

willow, weep for me (part 1)

I grew up with blue and white transferware. Because it comes in so many different patterns, it is easy to build up a dinner set's worth from disparate pieces. When we came to the US that is what I went shopping for at the thrift stores. And of course, thrift stores being what they are here I had plenty to choose from.

My favourite transferware design is, I think, the classic 'Blue Willow'.

I did feel a bit, well, childish, reverting to exactly what I had grown up with and the plates don't really go with our contemporary cutlery. But then I came across an awesome and wonderful book that put all that to rights -Wary Meyers' Tossed and Found: Unconventional Design from Cast-offs. (I highly recommend this book. I borrowed it from the library, then I bought it.)

It turns out that Linda and John Meyers, the super-creative folk behind Wary Meyers, also like Blue Willow (yes, silly that I need a book to justify my crockery choices but oh well, whatever works for me) and have done some great work with the concept, including this chair. I would never have imagined a graffiti-esque, Posca-pen version of the blue Willow design, but fortunately they have and I love it. (Complete aside - anyone else recall the advent of middle-class white private-school boys with their Posca pens 'tagging' the seats on public transport in 1990s Melbourne? Groan, I do.)

Anyway, I am filled with a renewed and newly justified love for the Willow pattern so when I saw this kitsch little brooch at Goodwill on Mother's Day, I just couldn't resist. And it fits perfectly on my newest knit, but more on that next time.

ps - Wes Montgomery, Willow, Weep For Me.

may reading

The Outlander by Gil Adamson - This book took a bit of getting into; in fact, for about the first hundred pages I wasn't sure whether I would persevere. By halfway (200 pages) I was enjoying it and the rest was great. I saw this book in a bookshop and reserved it at the library where it became almost immediately available. I felt sorry for the bookshop but gee I love the library. Interestingly, the word 'revenant' appeared in this book, a word that I came across for the very first time in the book that I read last month, If Ever I return, Pretty Peggy-O. Same word, two books in a row.

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter by Sharyn McCrumb - More sheriff fiction, the next in the series to If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O. I found the plot rather unlikely (just as the first but enjoyed the writing and the characters.