Everything You Made by Hand

Last night I sat up finishing this little girly thing - a corsage made in Rowan Kidsilk Haze and adorned by red beads. I first tried combining old vintage white buttons and red beads, but it did not look quite right. I did like the effect of the vintage buttons in the centre of the corsage and may well use the buttons when I make another corsage. The pattern I used came from Rowan Magazine 47 and I really liked how easy it came together.

I have a few other Rowan corsage patterns kicking about and will try them out too, but this pattern can be endlessly modified, adorned and, if made slightly bigger, be turned into a fascinator. Friends have begun talking about weddings, and I really fancy making my own fascinator (because I'm slightly mad and/or refuse paying good money for something I can make myself).

(This reminds me of the recent discussion on Cargo Cult Craft about the Homemade Vs the Handmade look, by the way. How are out aesthetic tastes shaped by Ready-To-Wear goods? I remember seeing some haute couture dresses in an exhibition and being fascinated by handstitched hems. Would my imaginary handmade fascinator with its handstitched adornments look out of place at a wedding? I do not think so - and not only because my social circle in Scotland consists predominately of crafters, artists and makers)

Everything that you made by hand Everything that you know by heart

I am about to cast on for Harmony for the third time. First time I cast on during Doctor Who which was a huge mistake, because Doctor Who is incredibly awesome at the moment. Second time I cast on whilst at knitting group which is presumably why I cast on for the size two sizes up from me. Third time lucky, I hope.

(song lyrics by guesswho - YT link)

Don't Dream It's Over

It has been a day of upheaval here in Britain. Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister and then Britain finally got its new government five days after the election. And Neil Finn sported a moustache on BBC's Later With Jools Holland. Sadly, I'm all a-Twittering about that bit rather than the other bits..

.. I told my Other Half that I did not feel like breaking up my long-term relationship with Neil Finn (after all, it's been nearly twenty years - that is commitment, I'll have you know) but more like entering couples' therapy. My Other Half did not answer me. He is also not going with me to see The Crowdies next week. I wonder why?

Despite the upheaval and emotional turmoil (in more than one way - I am not that shallow), today has been a nice day. I was given a big box of posh chocolate because I did someone a favour. It was unexpected, but very lovely. I also have a finished object to show off (if I can decide whether it is a fascinator or a corsage).

FO: Millbrook

Ever had an idea for a garment that you really, really wanted and you cast on for it hoping that it would turn out exactly how it looked in your head? I'm happy to say that Millbrook turned out exactly the way I wanted. It is wearable, feminine (not girly) and has a strong vintage-vibe.

Of course I do not have the same body as I have in my head - I have a peasant-girl body with wide hips, short torso and big bust instead - but I still think Millbrook looks awesome on me (the buttonband does not actually gape). That is a very good thing, she says thinking of body-image issues and self-criticism.

Pattern: 115-25 Jacket with Lace Pattern by Drops Design (it is free!) Yarn: JC Rennie Supersoft in "Olive Grove". Coned and oiled for machine knitting. Used doubled. Needles: 5mm

Modifications: As previously mentioned, I did not like the original pattern as styled and presented by Drops design. So I altered a few things: I did not do YOs but M1L+M1R for the raglan increases; I shorted the sleeves to just-below-elbow-length; I crocheted loops around the neckline instead of on all edges (the neckline was too bare if I had omitted the crocheted edge entirely) and used the same yarn as for the rest of the cardigan.

The yarn is stunning. I bought it last year thanks to a tip-off from Swesser (and a huge thank you to her!). I was not too impressed whilst I was knitting as it was a coned, oiled yarn intended for machine-knitting - but once washed I just could not believe how tactile the Rennie yarn becomes. Very soft, beautifully heathered and the handle is phenomenal. I promptly ordered another cone (in an unusual colour for me) despite my best stashdown intentions. I cannot praise Rennie enough - particularly as my cardigan feels so very lightweight despite the 4ply being doubled-up.

If I were to criticise the pattern just a tiny bit, it would be the neckline. I started the garterstitch buttonband several rounds before the pattern said I should - otherwise you would end up with an odd stocking stitch section around the fronts. I have also added a few rounds of single crochets before the crochet loops and the neckline still feels a bit bare. Some might want to consider an actual collar or to start with a size smaller for the neckline to avoid the bareness.

My next project is likely to be another cardigan with a vintage feel - Harmony from Rowan 47. I like the Organic Cotton, but the shades wash me out, so I decided on Fine Milk Cotton in Water Bomb, a nice duck's-egg-blue. I'm planning on tiny red buttons and for the corsage to be teal/cream with red accents. Now to find my 2.75mm circs ..

PS. The Glasgow World Wide Knitting in Public Day has just been announced but, alas, I am working. Anyone up for a Sunday WWKIP?

Books 2010: Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger/ Rachel Seiffert: The Dark Room

My first Sarah Waters book was, appropriately enough, her first published novel, Tipping the Velvet. In 2003 I wrote: "..less than the sum of its part, but her evocation of a Victorian London filled with gender-benders and rent boys was thought-provoking: what did Dickens and his contemporaries omit from their tales?" Sarah Waters has come a long way from the seedy underbelly of Victorian London. Some would say that her books are less entertaining these days; I would say that Sarah Waters is beginning to show some impressive novelistic chops. The Little Stranger is not Waters' opus magnum. It is an uneven novel - less sure of where it is going than Waters' other novels - and the dénouement will be too open-ended for some people. I really enjoyed it, in other words. Where once Waters threw Everything and the Kitchen Sink into her books, she leans back here and trusts herself as a writer. Her first two novels were particularly unsubtle, but The Little Stranger thrives on subtlety. I understand if other readers find its lack of resolve frustrating, but I would argue this may be the point of the novel. I said it of Alan Hollinghurst and now I shall say it of Sarah Waters: the Big Important Novel will happen at some point soon. As for now The Little Stranger has preyed on my mind that Waters' other novels have failed to do.

I have not read anything else by Rachel Seiffert and the decision to read The Dark Room was a quick 8am "I have to have something to read at lunch" grab. Twelve hours later and the book is finished. Another uneven read, but unlike The Little Stranger, the unevenness stems from an author unable to join the seams and smooth out the kinks in her material. The subject, the effect of the Second World War on Germans, is too big and too complex for Seiffert. Symbolic gestures replace genuine characterisation - the disabled boy becoming a fervent nationalist; the collaborator standing in for an absent grandfather - and the entire novel falls a bit flat. I think the second story of The Dark Room's three would make a good companion piece to Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, though, as they share similar characters and a similar setting, yet tell two quite different stories.

Next: I think it is time to move away from books set circa 1940-1950.

Knitting Millbrook

My Millbrook cardigan is technically done. I have finished knitting it, in other words, but there will be quite some finishing to do. 1. I have knitted with oiled yarn, so I am yet to see what the actual fabric will look like once the oil has been washed out (note. I did knit a swatch and washed it - but that was with another colourway one year ago). This cloud of unknowing feels quite exciting and a bit whatwasIthinking.. Right now the knitted fabric has a flimsy feel to it, but I expect/hope for the fabric to bloom.

2. I am thinking of reverting to the picot-edging used in the original pattern. The neckline feels quite bare. Last night I tried knitting a little collar and it did not look quite right. Then I crocheted an edge around the neckline which stabilised it, but still looks too bare.

3. I still have not decided on buttons (this will have to wait until I have washed the cardigan and figure out just how stable/unstable the buttonsholes are - cf. flimsy material). Currently pondering whether to crochet buttons myself.

4. And, finally, the usual flurry of finishing: weaving in ends, tightening buttonholes, blocking (as it is a lacy cardigan) etc.

I have tried Millbrook on and it is a seriously cute, vintage-looking cardigan which is perfect for spring/summer-wear. I need to think more about what I need to have in my wardrobe and Millbrook fulfills a need I did not even realise that I had: a light woolly cardigan to wear underneath my spring/summer jacket.

This sudden realisation that I need to knit wearable pieces stems partially from the Millbrook epiphany, but also from reading Cargo Cult Craft. Essentially a sewing blog rooted in a love of social history, Cargo Cult Craft is a thought-provoking blog with eye-candy. I am quite intrigued by its Fashion on the Ration! project:

I’ve allotted myself 66 clothing “coupons” — the 1941 ration for each man, woman and child in Britain. Like the original, my ration will have to last me one year — from January 23, 2010 to January 22, 2011. Armed with my ration, my stash and period tips and techniques, I will maintain my everyday wardrobe while sewing a wartime wardrobe from vintage patterns and style sources.

So far Fashion on the Ration has been a bit of an eye-opener for me, despite my initial misgivings ("gimmicky" and "bit precious"). By thinking very hard about her choice of material and what basic needs her clothes have to fulfil, the blogger is engaging with her clothes-making in a very interesting way. My favourite part? She jots down notes on what she has learned from every project. And I'm learning from her despite my craft of choice being different from hers.

PS. I have finished reading Sarah Waters' "The Little Stranger". More on that soon.

The Candle in the Window

I put a lit candle on my window-sill tonight. It is a Danish tradition to do on the evening of May 4 in memory of May 4, 1945, the evening the Nazi Occupation of Denmark ended. I lit the candle in memory of family members, now long gone, who fought with the Danish Resistance. I also lit the candle thinking about democracy and the forth-coming British general election. I cannot vote in this election, and I have a sinking feeling about its likely outcome, but I appreciate living in a democracy (albeit one with a wacky voting system). I liked this little re-drawn map of Europe (and in related news, my Eurovision Pundit Podcast debút)

And BIG, MASSIVE congratulations to the Hand-Knitted Pirate who is now Doctor Hand-Knitted Pirate.