Stephen West Piece Out. Yarn Rowan Cashsoft baby dk. 4mm/4.5mm circular needles.
First completed project of 2012.
Monday, 2 January 2012
This beanie jumped the queue
Well, it's no use giving Dom his requested beanie in May, is it? Hope it stays on his head while cycling through the rest of the winter months.
Stephen West Piece Out. Yarn Rowan Cashsoft baby dk. 4mm/4.5mm circular needles.
First completed project of 2012.
Stephen West Piece Out. Yarn Rowan Cashsoft baby dk. 4mm/4.5mm circular needles.
First completed project of 2012.
Saturday, 31 December 2011
2011: A review of a year of knitting and stitching
As I return to this blog, I realise that over the last 6 months I have cured myself of the habit of being constantly connected to the cyberworld by technology - you can't blog or tweet or surf and knit at the same time.
But of course a consequence is that this blog has lain dormant.
So in the age-old tradition of New Year's Eve, I decided that a it's a good time to review the knitting projects of the year - while I have a chance of remembering what I've been doing. It would have been easier if I'd used this blog to keep a running record - but let's see how we go.
Let's try the chronological approach to start - and add photos and comments later.
Christmas 2010
Back-tracking a bit to the autumn of 2010, this was probably the start of the new phase of knitting. My good friend A had had a horrific accident, and broken her femur badly. I went to buy her a knitting project to keep her from climbing the walls during the recovery - legwarmers seemed appropriate. 3 hours of browsing and indecision later, I came away with Noro yarn and pattern. But I couldn't resist - and knitted them up myself to send her the finished result. A good decision as it turned out, as she wouldn't have had the energies to knit herself at that time.
I then started on a waistcoat for myself, before getting sidetracked into all sorts of other projects. (The said waistcoat still languishes unfinished - and is destined to be ripped apart to re-use the yarn in projects more suited to what I now want to knit.)
I think I then finished off an angora ruffle scarf (mohair de France - bought from the market in Nyons from French angora goats) that had been on the needles for years - and gave it to E. I had a captive audience for my creations!
And I started to spend time looking at pattern books etc in John Lewis - tuning in to the new world of interesting versus funtional knitting - and not a ball of courtelle or acrylic in sight!
I bought a Rowan Studio knitting book - and my daughter E earmarked 2 pretty tops - so we chose colours and bought the wool (rowan haze).
Christmas 2010: I used more of the angora wool to knit a scarf for my mother. I had intended to finish the pink bolero for E for Christmas, and got sidetracked into knitting another angora scarf and beret for Lizzie (using up the french mohair). (Those 6 balls of assorted pinks, purple and violet went a long way). Of course, E wanted a beret as well! And I finished the pink bolero in time for her to wear it to her graduation in January.
Wrapping the aforesaid bolero and beret to send it reminded me of receiving the Christmas box from my grandmother in the post. It was full of her various knitting projects for the year - lots of bedsocks as I recall! - and they all carried her scent of lavender water. So wrap up your finished articles in tissue paper and tie with spare yarn from the project. Spraying the tissue paper with your favourite scent makes the unwrapping of the gift a fully sensory experience for the recipient.
But of course a consequence is that this blog has lain dormant.
So in the age-old tradition of New Year's Eve, I decided that a it's a good time to review the knitting projects of the year - while I have a chance of remembering what I've been doing. It would have been easier if I'd used this blog to keep a running record - but let's see how we go.
Let's try the chronological approach to start - and add photos and comments later.
Christmas 2010
Back-tracking a bit to the autumn of 2010, this was probably the start of the new phase of knitting. My good friend A had had a horrific accident, and broken her femur badly. I went to buy her a knitting project to keep her from climbing the walls during the recovery - legwarmers seemed appropriate. 3 hours of browsing and indecision later, I came away with Noro yarn and pattern. But I couldn't resist - and knitted them up myself to send her the finished result. A good decision as it turned out, as she wouldn't have had the energies to knit herself at that time.
I then started on a waistcoat for myself, before getting sidetracked into all sorts of other projects. (The said waistcoat still languishes unfinished - and is destined to be ripped apart to re-use the yarn in projects more suited to what I now want to knit.)
I think I then finished off an angora ruffle scarf (mohair de France - bought from the market in Nyons from French angora goats) that had been on the needles for years - and gave it to E. I had a captive audience for my creations!
And I started to spend time looking at pattern books etc in John Lewis - tuning in to the new world of interesting versus funtional knitting - and not a ball of courtelle or acrylic in sight!
I bought a Rowan Studio knitting book - and my daughter E earmarked 2 pretty tops - so we chose colours and bought the wool (rowan haze).
Christmas 2010: I used more of the angora wool to knit a scarf for my mother. I had intended to finish the pink bolero for E for Christmas, and got sidetracked into knitting another angora scarf and beret for Lizzie (using up the french mohair). (Those 6 balls of assorted pinks, purple and violet went a long way). Of course, E wanted a beret as well! And I finished the pink bolero in time for her to wear it to her graduation in January.
Wrapping the aforesaid bolero and beret to send it reminded me of receiving the Christmas box from my grandmother in the post. It was full of her various knitting projects for the year - lots of bedsocks as I recall! - and they all carried her scent of lavender water. So wrap up your finished articles in tissue paper and tie with spare yarn from the project. Spraying the tissue paper with your favourite scent makes the unwrapping of the gift a fully sensory experience for the recipient.
Our legacy is others' inheritance
The friend of my daughter got married recently. Within hours facebook was full of pictures of the event ... I had no idea who was who, yet of course the picture were of the families and friends of the person posting the pictures. I am sure all the pictures will have lots of meaning for those who were involved - and it;s got me thinking, as I return to practically creating tangible 'things' (as opposed to just trying to keep my head above the waves in the cyber-pond of frenetic info-consummation that often masquarades as communication).
We are so overloaded with the digital image, taken in the here and now, and posted for all to consume. It's often infobesity. Our ipods are full of music - but which are the tracks that move us? - those that help us remember a good time, or a difficult time.
I do worry about what we might be losing because of the age of easy consumption that we are in. Perhaps the recent return to 'austerity' helps redresss the balance between consumerism and short-termism, towards a greater sense of legacy and responsibility.
As a gardener, I'm creating a micro-environment that I hope will outlive me and will be a net addition to the universe (though I must say, it's much easier when I try to work with nature, rather than against her. So the potatoes in Provence just cannot compete with drought this year. We'll eat tomatoes instead).
And as I knit and stitch, the process of creation creates a physical, not digital end product. It's not instant gratification - click and upload - and that's the joy of it. And as a physical entity that is given to someone else, or worn by me, the artefact is enriched with another patina of meaning
We are so overloaded with the digital image, taken in the here and now, and posted for all to consume. It's often infobesity. Our ipods are full of music - but which are the tracks that move us? - those that help us remember a good time, or a difficult time.
I do worry about what we might be losing because of the age of easy consumption that we are in. Perhaps the recent return to 'austerity' helps redresss the balance between consumerism and short-termism, towards a greater sense of legacy and responsibility.
As a gardener, I'm creating a micro-environment that I hope will outlive me and will be a net addition to the universe (though I must say, it's much easier when I try to work with nature, rather than against her. So the potatoes in Provence just cannot compete with drought this year. We'll eat tomatoes instead).
And as I knit and stitch, the process of creation creates a physical, not digital end product. It's not instant gratification - click and upload - and that's the joy of it. And as a physical entity that is given to someone else, or worn by me, the artefact is enriched with another patina of meaning
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
The sociability of stitching
Our communities and social networks have been changing ever since the era of the hunters and gatherers and before.
Knitting, quilting and sewing circles, usually in geographically and / or culturally local areas have been with us, in many forms, for just as long.
Now we often live geographically distanced from our communities of shared interest, families, friends. Yet as we have become more disjoined from our physical support communities, so unimagined advances in technology and the growth of cyber-social-networking enables us both to stay connected with our geographically and time-poor friends and family, and to connect with new global communities of interest.
I am quite amused to see how the patterns of social beings are being reinvented and transformed today.
So it is that the roots of communal knitting circles are now marked by an annual worldwide knit in public day. I joined in on Saturday 11th in London - which I heard about through the Internet.
And I connected with a collective of people with a shared interest. And with at least 2 individuals that I would never otherwise have crossed paths with in the sprawling mass of millions of people who inhabit or pass through London.
Twitter and facebook have their uses. But they cannot create those moments of syncronicity which are instrumental in weaving our connections through the happenchance of the meeting of interests, minds and physical presence from which something might grow.
And just because there was a dedicated day for world wide knit in public - this does not mean that for the rest of the year I have to knit and stitch only in private, or symbolically in my work.
In fact, only the other evening I bravely got out my knitting in public. Eventually a bloke on the next table said "I can't believe you're knitting in a pub in Mayfair!" And so connections were made, conversations and banter were enjoyed.
And last Friday A and V (the two women I had met at the WWKIP day) braved the rain to visit the wilds of South London, and we spent an evening swopping yarns (ie our life stories) at Rebato's, my local Spanish tapas bar.
Our meeting was a prime example of syncronicity at large in the world. And talking of worlds - next Saturday's outing is to the Stitched Science exhibition at the Science Museum, London. Knitters from all over the world have contributed stitched and knitted elements ranging from DNA to a fully knitted solar system. It'll be different, that's for sure.
Knitting, quilting and sewing circles, usually in geographically and / or culturally local areas have been with us, in many forms, for just as long.
Now we often live geographically distanced from our communities of shared interest, families, friends. Yet as we have become more disjoined from our physical support communities, so unimagined advances in technology and the growth of cyber-social-networking enables us both to stay connected with our geographically and time-poor friends and family, and to connect with new global communities of interest.
I am quite amused to see how the patterns of social beings are being reinvented and transformed today.
So it is that the roots of communal knitting circles are now marked by an annual worldwide knit in public day. I joined in on Saturday 11th in London - which I heard about through the Internet.
And I connected with a collective of people with a shared interest. And with at least 2 individuals that I would never otherwise have crossed paths with in the sprawling mass of millions of people who inhabit or pass through London.
Twitter and facebook have their uses. But they cannot create those moments of syncronicity which are instrumental in weaving our connections through the happenchance of the meeting of interests, minds and physical presence from which something might grow.
And just because there was a dedicated day for world wide knit in public - this does not mean that for the rest of the year I have to knit and stitch only in private, or symbolically in my work.
In fact, only the other evening I bravely got out my knitting in public. Eventually a bloke on the next table said "I can't believe you're knitting in a pub in Mayfair!" And so connections were made, conversations and banter were enjoyed.
And last Friday A and V (the two women I had met at the WWKIP day) braved the rain to visit the wilds of South London, and we spent an evening swopping yarns (ie our life stories) at Rebato's, my local Spanish tapas bar.
Our meeting was a prime example of syncronicity at large in the world. And talking of worlds - next Saturday's outing is to the Stitched Science exhibition at the Science Museum, London. Knitters from all over the world have contributed stitched and knitted elements ranging from DNA to a fully knitted solar system. It'll be different, that's for sure.
Monday, 13 June 2011
Getting carried away
In the final years of the last millennium I bought and moved into a wreck of a house in a semi-rural location in Berkshire. I don't remember doing any knitting there.
But I had discovered gardening. That's not quite true. Gardens and outside space had been important to me in all my first-married and subsequent family houses.
And I'd always loved visiting gardens wherever I travelled.
But this was the first garden that I had to create from scratch.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Curious and curiouser
I'm not a natural completer-finisher. I'm a recovering perfectionist. I'm consistently continuing to practise the art and expertise of procrastination. And my usual strategy for procrastination is displacement ...
But something curious is happening. In the last seven days there have been continuations, new beginnings and things brought to completion. What is perhaps most curious is the speed with which some of the new beginnings of the last seven days are also on the list on the things brought to completion.
So - what's the list for this past week, that's knit and stitch related ...
1. The warp and weft carpet cushion is complete. Not just finishing the knitting of the main event - but knitting a striped back, weaving in the ends, blocking, sewing it together, putting it around a cushion pad - and finding it a place in my London apartment. (true completion)
2. I knitted on a flight from Marseille to London (new beginning ... I've been trialling bringing knitting and needles through security for probably 6 months .. this was the first time I actually brought it out to knit on the flight!). (new beginnings for works in progress)
3. I've finally fired up my newly bought London-based sewing machine (a John Lewis entry just-one-up-from-level-entry-machine that has a lot of the same logic as the Frister Rossman Cub 3 that was my 21st birthday present from my parents and is still going strong, albeit with a tendancy to be temperamental on tension - but aren't we all after 36 years of usage without enough servicing / tlc?). (new beginning)
4. Having got to a complicated bit on an angora tunic for E ... it's been temporarily put aside .. as other needs started to press - though the fact that I have been putting the work in progress into a scrappy freebie cheap cotton shopping bag (through security and on the previous flight) has been part of the triggers of this week's completions. (work in progress)
5. I decide to attend the Stitch Crawl event in London for WWKIP (world wide knit in public) on Saturday 11 June (so I needed another decision for a knitting project to take)
6. I had to decide on a project to take with me: the angora tunic I reckoned would need too much concentration - so I thought I'd get a head start on an Xmas present for L (fingerless gloves with mitten cap is the request - so I started on a hat, of course!) (new beginnings)
7. Finished the hat ! (oops - completion of something that should have been work in progress ... but the fingerless gloves with mitten cap that would complete the set looked far too complicated to start ...)
8. so spent Friday evening looking for a simple pattern for something to knit on Saturday ... found one and started it off (new beginning)
9. In the meantime - I think on Friday - started and completed making a bag (from a kit bought cheaply in the sale, partly because of the fabrics that I knew the intended recipient would love! , also because I knew that I would be able to use the kit as a template for other bags (new, in progress, finished!)
10. and over the next few days worked on prepping and stitching a patchwork quilt that had been work in progress for 7 years or more
11. Saturday - went to the Stitch Crawl for WWKIP in London and came away with 2 new friends (only 6 rows done on the new beginning scarf --- but that wasn't the point) and a real sense of connection with the variety of people who are involved and contributing to the world of knittery and stitchery
12. Saturday - returned home and, from start to finish, completed a sewn "project bag"
13. Sunday - added bling to the aforesaid project bag, and completed another bag - including knitting i-cord. Both bags were from totally recycled stuff that I already had.
14. Sunday - and then tidied up the mess before S returned.
So what's the completion tally for the week;
- cushion (completed)
- 3 bags (started and completed)
- hat (started and completed)
- patchwork (restarted)
- 2 new connections
- sewing machine (learning curve mastered)
plus lots of tidying up and organising, and doing the washing, so that my flatmate Sarah doesn't come back to complete chaos!
I have to return my energies to the day-job tomorrow. My personal challenge is how to get the same energy for creativity + implementation into my commercial life .. when so often the paymasters play lip-service to innovation ... which is ok as long as it doesn't rock the boat ... and demand instant results without understanding the creative processess or the time things actually take to do.
But something curious is happening. In the last seven days there have been continuations, new beginnings and things brought to completion. What is perhaps most curious is the speed with which some of the new beginnings of the last seven days are also on the list on the things brought to completion.
So - what's the list for this past week, that's knit and stitch related ...
1. The warp and weft carpet cushion is complete. Not just finishing the knitting of the main event - but knitting a striped back, weaving in the ends, blocking, sewing it together, putting it around a cushion pad - and finding it a place in my London apartment. (true completion)
2. I knitted on a flight from Marseille to London (new beginning ... I've been trialling bringing knitting and needles through security for probably 6 months .. this was the first time I actually brought it out to knit on the flight!). (new beginnings for works in progress)
3. I've finally fired up my newly bought London-based sewing machine (a John Lewis entry just-one-up-from-level-entry-machine that has a lot of the same logic as the Frister Rossman Cub 3 that was my 21st birthday present from my parents and is still going strong, albeit with a tendancy to be temperamental on tension - but aren't we all after 36 years of usage without enough servicing / tlc?). (new beginning)
4. Having got to a complicated bit on an angora tunic for E ... it's been temporarily put aside .. as other needs started to press - though the fact that I have been putting the work in progress into a scrappy freebie cheap cotton shopping bag (through security and on the previous flight) has been part of the triggers of this week's completions. (work in progress)
5. I decide to attend the Stitch Crawl event in London for WWKIP (world wide knit in public) on Saturday 11 June (so I needed another decision for a knitting project to take)
6. I had to decide on a project to take with me: the angora tunic I reckoned would need too much concentration - so I thought I'd get a head start on an Xmas present for L (fingerless gloves with mitten cap is the request - so I started on a hat, of course!) (new beginnings)
7. Finished the hat ! (oops - completion of something that should have been work in progress ... but the fingerless gloves with mitten cap that would complete the set looked far too complicated to start ...)
8. so spent Friday evening looking for a simple pattern for something to knit on Saturday ... found one and started it off (new beginning)
9. In the meantime - I think on Friday - started and completed making a bag (from a kit bought cheaply in the sale, partly because of the fabrics that I knew the intended recipient would love! , also because I knew that I would be able to use the kit as a template for other bags (new, in progress, finished!)
10. and over the next few days worked on prepping and stitching a patchwork quilt that had been work in progress for 7 years or more
11. Saturday - went to the Stitch Crawl for WWKIP in London and came away with 2 new friends (only 6 rows done on the new beginning scarf --- but that wasn't the point) and a real sense of connection with the variety of people who are involved and contributing to the world of knittery and stitchery
12. Saturday - returned home and, from start to finish, completed a sewn "project bag"
13. Sunday - added bling to the aforesaid project bag, and completed another bag - including knitting i-cord. Both bags were from totally recycled stuff that I already had.
14. Sunday - and then tidied up the mess before S returned.
So what's the completion tally for the week;
- cushion (completed)
- 3 bags (started and completed)
- hat (started and completed)
- patchwork (restarted)
- 2 new connections
- sewing machine (learning curve mastered)
plus lots of tidying up and organising, and doing the washing, so that my flatmate Sarah doesn't come back to complete chaos!
I have to return my energies to the day-job tomorrow. My personal challenge is how to get the same energy for creativity + implementation into my commercial life .. when so often the paymasters play lip-service to innovation ... which is ok as long as it doesn't rock the boat ... and demand instant results without understanding the creative processess or the time things actually take to do.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
The warp and weft of our lives
My tangle of yarns has been living in bags and boxes in france for the last 8 years, a riotous rummage of mixed colours, weights and textures. The project on the needles - both a cause and a consequence of my magpie tendencies - was a "something" based on the carpet pattern by Kaffe Fasset in his 1985 explosion onto the design scene Glorious Knitting.
The mid 80's. I think I was knitting a lot of traditional fairisle /intarsia at that time ... But life was too short and too busy in 1985 with 2 very young children and a thesis to finish writing up to seriously think that I would ever complete the 'Crosspatch' sleeveless pullover in 4 ply Shetland wool. I did about 6 inches ... And then it languished in the bottom of a drawer, as a testament to misplaced enthusiasm untempered by practicality.
I think it was finally culled and sent to recycling sometime around one of my moves.
The fact that it was being knitted for my husband - who at the time of the moving cull had become my ex-husband -probably hastened it on its way.
I don't remember my intentions for this 'something'. It was definitely a post divorce project. I guess it was a symbol of journeying into some sort of unknown.
Whereas in the past I would have played safe by sticking to what the pattern said - even a designer like Fassett gave exact yarns to buy and charts to follow - here I had started branching out by incorporating different weights and textures and following the inspiration rather than trying to complete a garment that would look exactly like the one in the book.
I had been inspired to be more creative with textured yarns by a one-day free embroidery workshop I'd attended in Windsor. That embroidery project called on the same jumble of texture and colour in different weights of wool and ribbons: a far cry from the counted cross stitch and other meticulous embroideries and Honiton lace created by my paternal step-grandmother Dorothy.
Yet both this 'something' and the free style embroidery had been hiding untouched for almost a decade - probably since my impetuously impractical pursuit of the provencal dream. There's not much time to knit and stitch when you have a 200 year old crumbling wreck to restore, while still trying to run a business in the UK and continue helping the fledgings fly the nest. You don't need freestyle embroidery where your whole life is freestyling around you.
But knittery and stitchery are forgiving friends. When the time is right they call to you gently and once more the process of working in their colours and textures is a comforting reminder of how weaving in the threads of our experiences, dreams and memories of others is what creates the rich tapestry of our lives - Our work in progress.
Now I know that the "something" will become a cushion; and it won't take another 10 years to complete. That's a promise to myself that will be a joy to keep.
The mid 80's. I think I was knitting a lot of traditional fairisle /intarsia at that time ... But life was too short and too busy in 1985 with 2 very young children and a thesis to finish writing up to seriously think that I would ever complete the 'Crosspatch' sleeveless pullover in 4 ply Shetland wool. I did about 6 inches ... And then it languished in the bottom of a drawer, as a testament to misplaced enthusiasm untempered by practicality.
I think it was finally culled and sent to recycling sometime around one of my moves.
The fact that it was being knitted for my husband - who at the time of the moving cull had become my ex-husband -probably hastened it on its way.
I don't remember my intentions for this 'something'. It was definitely a post divorce project. I guess it was a symbol of journeying into some sort of unknown.
Whereas in the past I would have played safe by sticking to what the pattern said - even a designer like Fassett gave exact yarns to buy and charts to follow - here I had started branching out by incorporating different weights and textures and following the inspiration rather than trying to complete a garment that would look exactly like the one in the book.
I had been inspired to be more creative with textured yarns by a one-day free embroidery workshop I'd attended in Windsor. That embroidery project called on the same jumble of texture and colour in different weights of wool and ribbons: a far cry from the counted cross stitch and other meticulous embroideries and Honiton lace created by my paternal step-grandmother Dorothy.
Yet both this 'something' and the free style embroidery had been hiding untouched for almost a decade - probably since my impetuously impractical pursuit of the provencal dream. There's not much time to knit and stitch when you have a 200 year old crumbling wreck to restore, while still trying to run a business in the UK and continue helping the fledgings fly the nest. You don't need freestyle embroidery where your whole life is freestyling around you.
But knittery and stitchery are forgiving friends. When the time is right they call to you gently and once more the process of working in their colours and textures is a comforting reminder of how weaving in the threads of our experiences, dreams and memories of others is what creates the rich tapestry of our lives - Our work in progress.
Now I know that the "something" will become a cushion; and it won't take another 10 years to complete. That's a promise to myself that will be a joy to keep.
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