Taking Comfort

Sometimes a project comes along that just makes you sigh with pleasure. This is one of those projects. It is work knitting, but it also feels like comfort knitting. This is a shawl pattern that is destined for my Doggerland collection. It is knitted in Navia Uno, a gorgeously soft yarn from the Faroe Islands. Technically it is a light fingering yarn - almost 3 ply - but I am working with it on 4.5mm needles which gives it a magical drape, yet a satisfactory weight to the fabric. I am currently on the second repeat of my stitch pattern - the world is distracting me a bit too much with other things, but I need to knuckle down as I have deadline knitting in addition to this shawl.

I am really enjoying working on this collection, though. Part of the fun is researching Mesolithic Europe but also thinking about materials that would have been available to the peoples at the time. I have decided against using glass beads and metal beads for obvious reasons - but how can I justify using wool when I cannot a) find any material on Mesolithic textiles and b) any evidence of sheep? Well, I am allowing myself artistic freedom to use wool but I will attempt to use relatively unprocessed yarn. Obviously knitters using my patterns can choose whichever materials they want, but I have had fun thinking about my choice of materials rather than just reaching for the merino/silk blend and that jar of glass beads.. as tempting as though it may be!

I have been reading a couple of non-related books, too. I gulped down Susan Hill's Howards End is on the Landing last night. I adore books about books and have a big section of my home library devoted to them. Sadly Landing is not so much a Book About Books but rather a Book About Famous People Susan Hill Has Met  - and it does suffer from it.

There are some very good bits tucked away in Hill's book: how to (not) sort books, the physical pleasures of reading a codex rather than an e-reader, collecting books over the years, and how to choose a title for book. However, the good bits are drowned out though by incessant name-dropping.

Did you know she had lunch with Benjamin Britten who liked her novel? That she once waited on a doorstep with TS Eliot? That E.M. Forster once stepped on her toes? That Kingsley Amis once said to her in 'a genuine tone' that he was very proud of his son? That she interviewed one Sitwell and recited Thomas Hardy to another Sitwell? That Bruce Chatwin's parents lived doors down from her? And so it goes on.

I am sticking to Anne Fadiman's wonderful Ex Libris, John Baxter's A Pound of Paper, and Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading. Hill's Landing ended up reading like chatter from a woman who has nothing interesting to say even about the most fascinating things. But did you know she once was on a reading panel with Roald Dahl who signed a book for her?

Sorry.

I better get back to work/comfort knitting. (Fortunately all this knitting coincides with the European Championship of Football - my homeboys won their first match!  I may have biked through Glasgow silently singing old football songs.. this is an expat thing, surely).

Drive-By Blogging

This week has been fun, stressful, and interesting. Prepare for bullet-points as I don't think my brain has the capacity for entire paragraphs. First some knitting bits:

• Rowan has published my Windsor hat pattern. It is free and you can download it from the Rowan website.
• I took part in another crafts/textiles conference at the University of Glasgow. Highlights: Edith Rattay from the Moray Firth Gansey Project speaking about East Coast ganseys with such authority and passion; Di Gilpin and Rosie Eribé asking questions about the heritage and future of Scottish textiles. It was a good day.
• I had a few more commissions for patterns come through my in-box. I am really, really excited!
• And because 2012 has been a fantastic year for me so far (which I needed after some very soul-destroying years not so long ago), I am throwing a mini-celebration. I'm knocking 12% off all my patterns until June 5th - just use "Love2012" when you purchase any of my Ravelry designs.

And some non-knitting bits:

• I finally read some books(!). I re-visited The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald after some 18 years. My first thought? "That'd be a breeze to teach." My second thought? "Damn, but it is slight."
• London Under by Peter Ackroyd was my next read. My Other Half has an affinity for psychogeography and recommended me the book. It was okay - but for a book about the London subterrain it did skim the surface an awful (if you'll pardon me the pun).
• I am quietly addicted to W.E.L.D.E.R. - a word game for iPods and iPads. I am yet to get beyond level 10, sadly.
• Eurovision came around and it was awesome. While I do have opinions on the proceedings, so far I am just listening to Loreen's "Euphoria" for the 464th time.
• And you may enjoy the Overthinking Person's Drinking Game. Hic.

Work In Progress: Doggerland

The weather in Glasgow is hawt - as in 'I need to stay indoors or I shall melt' hot. I have put aside my cardigan project for the time being - although I did find time to separate for back and sleeves - and I have been yearning for a shawl project. Small, light and portable is acceptable for Surprise Summer knitting, right? I had no shawl patterns on the go, so trustworthy Ravelry came up trumps with a delightful shoulder shawl and so I cast on for it the other day. I abandoned it just as quickly. The shawl was not to blame - it was beautiful and very well-written - but I kept going "but if I change that and, oh, you could insert a lace repeat that spanned that section.." Evidently I did not want to knit a shawl; I wanted to design a shawl. I have long wanted to work on a new collection and today was that day. I am currently working on a chart quite unlike anything I have ever worked on before. My other patterns have all been triangular, aimed at beginning lace knitters, easy to modify and rather intuitive. The new shawl pattern will be a semi-circle, aimed at confident lace knitters (although it still has rest rows rather than lace worked on both sides); and you won't be able to combine charts as you please. Working on this is exhilarating, scary and a learning curve. I cannot wait to show you the final shawl.

However, what I can show you is the moodboard I put together for this collection and also explain a bit about the inspiration behind the collection (which will contain other patterns than just shawls).

The collection has a working title of Doggerland, although that is likely to change. Doggerland is a submerged landmass between Great Britain and Denmark which was last inhabited during and after the last great Ice Age to hit Europe. Today Doggerland is covered by the North Sea but once it was a rich, fertile habitat for prehistory humans. Maritime archaeologists are incredibly interested in Doggerland as the seabed may yield fascinating insight into Mesolithic life.

The Doggerland collection is using yarn from the North Sea regions - Britain, Faroe Islands, and Denmark - to explore organic textures inspired by Mesolithic prehistory.

I took a lot of inspiration from visits to the prehistory sections of The National Museum of Scotland and the National Museum of Denmark. I took a lot of photos on worked flintstones, carved antler bones, well-preserved fykes, and excavated shell middens. Lately I have also thought a lot about the landscape - although this is a construct at best - with peat bogs, rolling hills, estuaries, ferns, moss and lichen. Colours play an important role in me imaging Doggerland - expect a lot of earthly tones combined with mossy greens and pale greys.

And so back to work..

Exciting News!

I have been sitting on this news since January - finally I got the proof through this morning and I can share the exciting news with everybody.

The pattern will be available to download for free from their website very, very soon.

The Wedding Blanket

This one has been under wraps for a very long time. I am a member of Glasgow Knit'n'Stitch - Glasgow's biggest knitting community with almost 400 members. When I first moved to Glasgow, I knew very few people and GKS was instrumental in me connecting with people outside my very small circle of acquaintances. One of my closest friendships is with Elaine of SoCherry. Elaine is getting married this year and this led to some of us discussing what to make her and Future Mr SoCherry. Originally we wanted to make them a quilt but once other members of GKS heard about our plans, the plans .. grew. They grew so big so rapidly that the focus was quickly shifted to a communal project - one that everybody could contribute to no matter their skill level or amount of time they could devote.

And so The Wedding Blanket project began.

We briefly contemplated using The Great American Afghan pattern book, but it did not have as many sampler blocks to choose from and several of our less experienced knitters expressed concerns.

Instead we chose to use a US knitting pamphlet - Leisure Arts no. 932 - which contains 60 different sampler blocks ranging from beginner-friendly squares to rather complex cables. It proved a great choice and I would heartily recommend the sampler to anyone wanting to increase their skill sets by making a blanket. You have a good selection of squares to choose from and all of the patterns are clearly written out.

We already knew that Elaine loves her Aran-style blankets and although we finally ended up with a mix of lace and cables, the emphasis is very much upon texture and cables. This also influenced our choice of yarn. Paula and I were in charge of the yarn-sleuthing. Again, we had a set of criteria: it had to be British, it had to be cream-coloured/natural, it had to be aran-weight, it had to be pure wool and it had to be superwash. We also had a budget in mind which made yarn-sleuthing even more fun! Eventually Lilith of Old Maiden Aunt came through for us and we ended up with an amazing yarn: superwash Bluefaced Leicester Aran. (Lilith is currently dyeing this base and fourteen GKS knitters can vouch for how incredibly nice yarn is! We feel very privileged that we were allowed to knit with it before anybody else!)

With everything in place, what followed next? Three intense months of knitting.

Elaine had no idea, of course. Parcels were exchanged under the table; secret meet-ups were arranged; Tam Shepherd's became our mid-city drop-off for parcels & yarn pick-up; cryptic messages were sent out; and at one point Lilith was distributing yarn from the back of her car in the pouring rain. Yes, it felt rather like we were running a drug gang!

Looking back it is incredible that nobody slipped up and that everything went so smoothly.

One GKS member even knitted her square in Australia whilst there for work. Another GKS member had yarn sent to her in Amsterdam where she now lives. I know several other people wanted to have taken part - Emma and Mags, I am thinking of you - but the planning stage was no more than a week at best. It was so touching to see just how many people were keen on getting involved and how much Elaine and her fiancée meant to people.

Then one Sunday not so long ago most of us gathered at Paula's house to finish the blanket. It was a very special afternoon watching squares turning into strips turning into sections turning (finally) into a blanket. I imagine making barn-raiding quilt would have been a bit like this: women gathered together making something. We worked at it from every angle - at one point one person was crocheting the double crochet edging and another person was crocheting the lacy edging on top. Chain gang, if you will pardon the pun!

And we finished the blanket!

From left to right: Alison, Fiona, Paula, Karie, Catherine, Janice, Lynette, and Julia.

Not present: Jules, Lisa, Kathleen, Eleanor, Kerry and Gloria.

Photographer: Lilith.

Gloria also created a beautiful scrapbook detailing how much work went into the blanket, how we had made it and how much it was a labour of love.

And we did think of it as a blanket of love. For me, personally, the blanket represents how much I learned from being involved with GKS; how my life has changed since I embraced being a Knitter; and just how amazing knitters are when they get together. We make things and we give so much of ourselves to others through our making. I made this blanket together with thirteen incredible women with each their own story - and we made it for a couple with their own story-making.

(I hope that made sense. I am not usually this sentimental!)

And then everything almost went haywire. We had planned a small knitterly hen-night for Elaine and we wanted it to be a surprise. On the morning of the hen-night Future Mr SoCherry texted me to tell me that Elaine had had to leave work due to a nasty migraine. Eventually we managed to coax her out to a quiet knitting night but certain members of GKS did have mild panic attacks prior to that.

Subterfuge was finally done away with - and we presented her with the blanket. I think she liked it.

Fourteen knitters, three countries, two continents, three months, fourteen hanks of Old Maiden Aunt BFL Aran and A LOT OF SUBTERFUGE..

.. equals one blanket of love.

Day Five: Conference

Today I attended a conference on the economics and culture(s) of wool. It was an interesting array of people assembled - from Jamiesons and Smiths' Oliver Henry via New Lanark's Aynsley Gough to environmental artist Kate Foster's explorations of sheepscapes. I had been invited by organiser Marina Moskowitz and interestingly I found myself spanning several areas as an (ex-)academic, as an educator, as a designer, as a retailer and as a consumer. It was quite a ... position. We dealt with various issues throughout the day. What was/is the reality of sheep farming in Scotland past and present? How does the Scottish landscape inform our decisions regarding  production and consumption? What is "heritage"? What is the reality of working within the wool industry? What does "wool" mean?

I have previously worked with The Wool Marketing Board so some aspects of today were familiar to me (i.e. how does the wool get from the sheep on the field into your yarn stash?) but I was really struck by other aspects. Kate Foster's work was deeply thought-provoking - not only was she the only speaker to talk about sheep as actual animals rather than products but she also engaged with the changing Scottish landscape and asked troubling questions about authenticity and identity.

I did not get a chance to speak with Kate, but I hope she will be back. The idea of my little knitting project coming from continual acts of violence is very unsettling.

Other topics we explored: 'locality' and negotiations of space/place; actual socio-economic implications of handknitting; textiles as identity-making; and the future of textiles within Scotland.

It was a hugely rewarding day. I came to it with a cold and a fair bit of apprehension (it has been years since I last did anything vaguely academic) but I left feeling re-charged and inspired. Maybe this knitting life of mine does have an over-arching narrative despite my misgivings.

(Apologies for the lack of photos. I meant to bring my camera and show you some of the beautiful Jamieson & Smith samples, but I forgot it at home (along with my purse and my tissues). You can always knit them in your head.)

I do want to know: when you think about Scottish knitting, what do you think of?

You can find more blogs participating in the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week by googling 3KCBWDAY5. If you have come here as part of the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, thank you for visiting. I'll still be here once this week is over and I'm usually blogging about arts, books, films, language besides all the craft stuff. Do stick around.