FO: Dragonfly

I adore this cardigan and it has already a great deal of use after I finished it last week. It is soft, warm and fits really well. The colours make me happy and it is really easy to co-ordinate it with the rest of my wardrobe. I have worn it for jury duty, worn it whilst cavorting around Glasgow museums with overseas guests, and I even wore it outside as a light jacket whilst knitting under an overcast sky. Basic factsheet: I used just over ten balls of Patons Jet, a discontinued wool/alpaca blend, in shade nine. It sheds a lot whilst you knit with it, but I am yet to discover any post-completion shedding. I'd happily use this yarn again (and will since I have sweater amounts in charteuse in my stash). I knitted it up to a slightly tight gauge (as I don't trust my gauge around alpaca) on 5.5mm/US 9 needles. I replaced the FLS gull lace with an Andalusian stitch pattern and used negative ease as shaping device (it works with my body type). Finally, I found three vintage buttons in the old button stash.

But I think it is time I move on from my top-down, garter-yoke/raglan cardigans with top-only buttons. Dragonfly is my third cardigan to be loosely based upon the FLS idea and I think it will be my last. It is time to explore other ways of constructing cardigans although the FLS construction fits my body type very well and lets me have fun with stitch patterns and textures.

Zombies!

"My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it's dead forever. So perhaps they are being a little over-pessimistic when they conclude that zombies might take over a city in three or four days" - Professor Neil Ferguson, Imperial College London

Science ponders "Zombie attacks" (BBC). It sounds wacky but apparently it can help scientists understanding virus pandemics. I knew my good friend M. (an international expert on infectious diseases) would eventually come up with a really good explanation for his zombie film collection.

The Best Little Country in the World?

What happened to churches as places of sanctuary, Denmark? Was it really necessary to get combat-clad police to raid a church at 2am in the morning? Are leading politicians serious when they say "it was a lot more gentle to do the raid at night; imagine what a scene it would've caused by day" because being dragged from your bed at night by SWAT teams attacking you with batons does not strike me as being particularly gentle. I'm disgusted, I'm angry and I'm deeply, deeply ashamed of being Danish. Yet again.

PS. I'm also very interested in learning where these people will end up as it has been made abundantly clear by the Iraqi government that they will not be admitting the refugees. For shame, Denmark, for shame.

Blog Giveaway

Remember this cardigan? My green alpaca cardigan with its handspun yoke? Well, today it just got "favourited" for the 300th time on Ravelry. And so I'm throwing a tiny blog giveaway just to celebrate.

Just comment on this post - it'll require an email address, your name and you telling me what your current favourite object on Ravelry (or a craft blog) happens to be right now.

Most likely I'll need to approve your comment (my spam filter blocks everything with a link or anyone who hasn't commented before) but do not fret. All comments will enter into the giveaway. Winners are chosen randomly.

Prizes? As I said, it's a tiny giveaway but there are prizes. And they're straight from the stash.

• 1 skein of handdyed DK weight merino yarn in "Bramble" dyed by Old Maiden Aunt. It is an exclusive and not available to purchase on her site.
• A pair of vintage button ear rings (silver studs) handcrafted by yours truly.  I've made several pairs for myself and they're supercute.
• A crocheted flower brooch (yes, handmade and perfect for your favourite coat) - I have three of these to give away
• My Ishbel shawl/scarf in KidSilk Haze.
• And, finally, a selection of vintage buttons from my vast collection of vintage buttons.

And have fun and feel free to link. Winners will be announced next week.

ETA: Some people report they're unable to comment due to proxy problems. This problem should now be solved.  If you continue to have this problem, just drop me a line at distantsunATgmailDOTcom, rav message me, let me know on Facebook/Twitter etc. I'll put in a placeholder comment for you.

Dotty

Friday afternoon I packed my tote bag and headed out for my favourite spot in the local park: underneath the trees where the sparrowhawks hang out and close to the little corner which houses several foxes. I sat there with my knitting and then I had a visitor.

Magic Tricks and Music Halls

Yesterday I found a new favourite place in Glasgow. Walking into Tam Shepard's Trick Shop is like walking into another world, another era. The shop could have been straight out of the 1930s - except for the Obama masks and the nu-rave-esque wigs. It is a place where the owner will start a Victor Borge routine when he learns you are from Denmark, where a shop assistant will disappear through a hole in the floor, you can choose between twenty different kinds of fake moustaches, and tiny kids stare with much fascination at plastic spiders. Tam Shepard's Trick Shop is a family-run business and it has been going since the 1880s. You can see faded music hall posters bearing the names of ancestors and old photos of dishy dames performing magic tricks. "That's my great-grandma," the woman behind the counter informed me. Glasgow has a very proud music hall tradition, actually, and tomorrow we are off to The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall for a steam punk craft show. The Panopticon is the oldest surviving music hall in Britain - the place where Stan Laurel of Laurel & Hardy made his stage debut, no less, and where a young Cary Grant performed while he was still Archie Leach - and it is a beautiful, almost derelict building. The Panopticon Trust has been trying to save the building for about a decade now but it is still fragile. For more information (and a bit of singing), this youtube clip from the AyeWrite literary festival features Judith Bowers, local historian and secretary of the Panopticon Trust, talking about the music hall. If you are local and you have never been, you can visit the building during the Glasgow Doors Open days in September.

Finally,  I recently subscribed to My Vintage Vogue which is a tumblr feed featuring glamorous photo shoots from the Vogue archives. And I refuse to believe there has ever been a woman quite as beautiful as Cyd Charisse..