Adventures on Arran

To my great delight and surprise, my partner whisked me away on a trip to the Isle of Arran this weekend. The Isle of Arran is about two hours away from Glasgow by train and ferry, but I had never been.

I twigged I had arrived among kindred spirits when we noticed small sheep statues along the coast.

The easiest way to get around Arran is by bus - we asked to get dropped off at Sannox about 8 miles north of the ferry terminal. Sannox stems from the Viking place name "Sand Vik" (Sandy Bay) - always a pleasure to see places my Viking ancestors have been!

We headed towards Glen Sannox - the walkers' guide labelled this "an easy ramble with stunning scenery". The first part of the path was easy (and we stopped to eat brambles - Arran clearly has a micro-climate quite unlike the mainland).

The path into Glen Sannox became less friendly (and more boggy) after we crossed the stream. We walked towards Coire na Ciche (The Devil's Punchbowl) with the slopes of Goatfell on our left and the peaks of Cir Mhor and Caisteal Abhail in front of us. I was worried about how my injured left knee would hold up (especially as the path was not as gentle as we had imagined) - but although I was in pain, I did not have to resort to the heavy-duty pain killers and my knee only caused me to stumble occasionally.

We couldn't resist a selfie (though I look odd!). I wore my trusty Snorri jumper and i have a bit of a story to tell about the hat I'm wearing - but that's for another day.

No filter! When the sun came out, the colours were breathtaking. The clouds rolling over Cir Mhor (the peak in perpetual cloud) kept getting darker, though, and the already brisky wind got stronger. It was a beautiful, rich landscape. Wildlife was all around us too - we saw so many red deer that we got jaded (though I am sure they were not "wild" animals, just "managed"), various birds, the ever-present sheep and I even caught the eye of a little adder. But it was clear that we needed to head back before the clouds caught up with us.

It was just after midday, but it felt later. We retraced our steps, had the last of our packed lunch and then caught the bus (the bus - there are no other busses on Arran) making an almost full-circle of the island before going home.

What a lovely, special day. I don't get to go on adventure with my partner as much as I'd like but our trip to Arran was just perfect: stunning scenery, the best company in the world, apples in the backpack and I even cast on something very special whilst there. Magic.

Panic On The Streets of Glasgow: Over.

If you tried to visit this site recently you will have noticed that a) you couldn't connect and b) now that you can connect, some of the content is missing. The company that currently hosts this site had big issues with a server and finally recovered most of the site after nearly 24 hours. Most. I lost a couple of photos and about a month's worth of blog posts. It could have been much worse. I once lost four years of blogging thanks to my Danish web host going bust.

So, I'll be backing up data this Saturday morning and then knitting will commence. Phew.

Knits For Little Scamps - A Review Of Sorts

I love visiting Copenhagen. I lived there during my twenties - my formative years in many ways - and so many of my good friends live there. Paradoxically I didn't know Signe Strømgaard when I actually lived in Copenhagen, yet whenever I visit we make sure we get to hang out. Signe is an incredible woman: funny, warm, down-to-earth and smart. I am so proud to call her my friend. And Signe is a fantastic knitting designer.

Her work has appeared in Knitty, Twist Collective and Petite Purls. Signe has also worked extensively with Danish yarn company Filcolana (you can find many of their patterns freely available on Ravelry). Signe's background in graphic design shows in her knitting designs: there is a modern, graphic quality to most of her work. Combined with Signe's ever-present sense of humour, it was perhaps inevitable that her first book would be one filled with modern, colourful children's patterns for kids aged 2 to 10. If you like Scandinavian children's clothes, I think you'll love Knits For Little Scamps.

I'm not even going to pretend to do a review because a) it'd be one long post of THIS IS AMAZING and b) I am totally biased but this is a great collection of modern kids' patterns. Cue picture spam of my favourites.

(Love this shows the design on both boys & girls, in a huge range of colour, and on a variety of ages. BOOM - design statement! )

(Love the simplicity and the bold stripes. And the jumper + trousers = YES. I'd wear this.)

(You cannot tell from the smallish photo, but that's an interesting cable detail)

(This girl takes no prisoners. Also, that hat is so cool that teenagers will secretly sulk that it's for their baby sister or brother)

(I totally love this cardigan. I want it for myself. Again, I love the styling. She looks kick-ass)

(Aksel gives good face. Incidentally this is knitted in one of my favourite Danish yarns - Håndværksgarn by Hjelholt)

(Work that pose! Again, totally wearable with clean lines)

(This is just Signe's design sensibilities in a nutshell)

Knits For Little Scamps is published as a hardback book in Danish - but is available in English on Ravelry as two e-books (KfLS 1 and KfLS 2 - the toy pattern in included in both ebooks).

Congratulations, Signe. You are awesome and I am so proud of you x

(all photos © Signe Strømgaard, 2014)

Stuff & Nonsense: When Perfectionism Rears Its Ugly Head.

The past fortnight has seen my usual companion at Casa Bookish - perfectionism - almost grind my work to a halt. I think a designer needs to have a dash of perfectionism in her. You need to pay close attention to detail - such as stitch counts, style sheets, how colours work at the photo shoot. Designing can also be a long, hard slog of making numbers work, getting the placement of a detail just right and finding the best way to phrase a tricky instruction. But if perfectionism stops you from every accomplishing anything - if your search for perfection means you never release a pattern - then you need to let go.

"That Isn't Exciting & Original" - How Nothing Is Ever Good Enough

Recently I have really struggled to let my perfectionism go. I have one project that I have designed six times and ripped out five times. Each of those six designs has been completely different - different construction, different variation on the core concept, different stitches - and I haven't liked any of them. I do not want to like my design; I want this project to be as amazing, special and perfect as it is in my head; I want to love it like I have loved no other design.

And that's the problem.

Nothing will ever match the perfection that's in my head. I am now working on the sixth version of my idea and it's coming out really nice. Fact: I sold the second design to a third-party publisher who absolutely loved it. It worked for them in their context - it was totally good enough.

So where does all this stuff and nonsense come from?

Figuring Out Why I Am Being Hard On Myself

I spend a lot of time sitting on my own sketching patterns and charting things. I spend even more time in my own head. As a result I tend to lose track of what is exciting and new because I have already thought through my designs several times and spent hours swatching my ideas. It's easy to start talking myself down because at this stage I will have lost sight of what excited me about the original ideas.

Here's the thing that I keep reminding myself:  nobody else will ever be that jaded about my design. No one else have been through the entire process of initial idea and swatching through pattern-writing and wailing about numbers to blocking the sample and arranging photo shoot. No one will ever be able to say anything about my design that I haven't already thought.

I also know that  once the design is finished and published, I will adore it to bits .. because by that stage I will been knee-deep in another pattern that's sucking the will to live out of me! I am only halfway joking..

So, Some Tips For Moving Beyond Perfectionism

• Acknowledge to yourself that you have a bad bout of perfectionism. Admitting it is the very first step!
• Realise that you will always be your own worst critic.
• It's better to publish something than nothing.
• Take baby steps. Publish a hat if you are really afraid your latest cardigan pattern isn't good enough.

Some Other Tips:

• Never throw out a design. What you hate today will look amazing two months from now.
• If a design really doesn't feel right for what you are doing, consider other ways for it. Would it make a great pattern for a magazine? Self-publishing? Perfect as a freebie included in your news letter? Can you base a class around the pattern - maybe that hat is perfect for teaching Magic Loop.
• Try playing around with different gauges. If your idea looks silly and stupid in fingering weight, try swatching it in worsted.
• Reach out to trusted friends and peers. Show them a photo or a swatch. Ask for their honest opinion. Listen carefully to their feedback.

Do you have problems with perfectionism? Does it stop you releasing patterns? How do you deal with it? I'd love to hear your thoughts x

Books & Wool, But Of Course

I gave away about 80% of my books when I left Denmark and I can still see ghosts on the shelves, though I merged my collection with Dave's when we started living together. So many books.

Reading my 2006 blog posts I sounded so cavalier about culling my book collection:

"Red is for never again, never, no, it is so replaceable and it was fun but now the thrill has gone

Yellow is for what a lovely edition, I’ll never find it again and my library wouldn’t be complete without it.

Green is for of course, without a question, it’s part of me and good memories of dear ones.

I may not have a driver’s license but I have many books. I’m putting tiny stickers on their backs: red, yellow, green. So far at least 100 books have been marked with red: Borges*, Jonathan Safran Foer, Ian McEwan, DH Lawrence*, Jane Austen, Thomas Mann* and, er, Marion Zimmer Bradley. The yellow category is the difficult one. Which of Margaret Atwood’s works are yellow and not green? Should I put a bright yellow sticker on John Ruskin or is that a red (because I’m sure there’s a nicer edition out there)?

As I go through my books I realise I’m a flirty reader. I pick up books, break their hearts & spines and drop them cruelly. So many books I never finished: Anita Brookner, Iris Murdoch, James Kelman, Samuel Butler and John Barth. I’m so sorry but it’s not you, it’s me.

And the green books. My friends, my family. Alasdair Gray, Jonathan Coe, AS Byatt, John Donne, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Pullman, Ezra Pound and EM Forster. I pet you gently and remember when I first encountered you. You are in my blood. You are going nowhere.

*victims of the bad edition rule"

And so we're back to 2014. Still so many books and they are not alphabetised. Fret.

Speaking of books, I am currently reading David W. Anthony's The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. It's an interesting look at the Proto-Indo-European language (the ur-language that spawned English, Greek, Hindi, Russian etc) and how PIE is reconstructed following linguistic rules. Anthony also looks at words and concepts that are found throughout the descendants of PIE. Words relating to wagons and wheels, certain types of animals and - relevant to my working life - textiles.

Anthony traces the possible origin* of the word wool - *HwlHn- as PIE contains roots for sheep, ewe, ram and lamb. He argues convincingly that these linguistic fragments point to a domestication of sheep. He also looks at archaeological evidence from Uruk that indicates sheep began being bred for their wool around 3350 BCE. The book then follows the linguistic fragments as they start to spread across the PIE areas. *HwlHn shatters into *Hwel- or *Hwol- .. but the word fragment doesn't always mean "wool". Sometimes it means "to felt", "something made of felt/wool", "to press" or "to weave". Anthony even looks briefly at whorls and spindles. Most of the book is devoted to horses and wheels (as the title indicates) but I did enjoy the dip into textiles. I'm now settling into a section on Neolithic farming in the Caucasus. As you do.

PS. Lots of people have posted pictures of their bookshelves (shelfies?). Do join in!

A Month Ago: Unwind Brighton

Can you believe it's been a month since Unwind Brighton - that magical yarn event which felt more like a rock festival than anything else? No, me neither. So, in honour of Throwback Thursday, I thought I'd dig through my photos and conjure forth some memories.

Shawls at the p/hop stand.

My friend Karen's amazing, amazing bunny dress.

The Eden Cottage stall (before the marketplace opened; afterwards it was pandemonium)

Polo & Co from France

We heart John Arbon's Knit by Numbers DK

And the stunning Triskelion Yarn from Wales

And a pair of knitting geeks comparing mustard/brown shoes

Yeah, I loved Brighton and all the fabulous people I met there.