On Frocks & Books

A few things to tide things over..

• With a few modifications, this is how I'd like to live. I would not sort my books by colour (in fact, it is a pet-peeve of mine), I would tone down the pattern-upon-pattern thing, and I would go for a different IKEA sofa*, but overall this is my sort of home. It has that Scandinavian-midcentury/vintage-thriftiness/art-junkie aesthetic I like.
• As I keep saying, I am not getting back into dress-making. Nope. Not a chance. Having said that, I am drooling over this sewing project. There is no way that I'd look anything like the girl in the photos, but that is one fetching dress. I never know what to wear during summer but I like the idea of wearing pretty cotton frocks. But I'm not going to make one for myself.
• Not getting back into dress-making does not mean I cannot look at gorgeous fabric, though. Spoonflower supplies a design/print-on-demand fabric service. Look! Steampunk-inspired fabric! Fabric inspired by early American feminist writer! UK-based company, Clothkits, sells beautiful Liberty fabric designed by Grayson Perry. Sigh.
• Meanwhile Danish ladies' magazines keep publishing lovely free knitting patterns (mostly donated by yarn companies). My recent finds include this awesome cardigan, and a very cool top. I might even have yarn for the top.. Hmmm.

* yes, I have opinions on IKEA sofas. I'm a bit scared by this.

And on a completely different topic, take a look at this MeFi post about the quality of paper used in contemporary publishing.

"Eight years ago we started to notice the shift in buying patterns from free-sheet Permanent Paper to groundwood paper for hardcover books. Groundwood is the type of paper used in newspapers and mass market paperbacks, and its production is such that it is much lower-quality and degrades more quickly than traditional book publishing paper." What makes a book permanent?

The discussion quickly descends into a "well, why print books at all now the digital revolution is here" argument. I have nothing against digital publishing nor against digital archiving (in fact, I support digital archiving as it allows for storage on an unprecedented scale whilst not taking up much room), but I do take issue with people saying books are going to vanish within the next thirty years because they are too low-tech to be anything but obsolete. Despite globalisation, that is a very First-World argument.

The Book's low-tech nature is exactly why it is going to survive - and why books needs to be of better quality. Needing the Book is not about cherishing the object itself, but understanding its role in the dissemination of knowledge. Oh, but the internet! Oh, but Kindle! Oh, but what about people who have no access to the internet, or have limited/censored access? What about people living in areas where electricity is a scarce commodity reserved for the elite? Picking up a book "only" requires you to be able to read. Using a Kindle or the internet requires compatible technology, electricity, the ability to navigate and process information online, stable access, knowledge of how to download content/patch your software .. and then how to use your reading device.

(I miss working with print culture - can you tell?)

Making It Real

Like most knitters I can get obsessed by certain patterns. I have designers whose work I really admire,  I have specific project types I tend to do over and over again, and I am drawn towards a particular aesthetic. Long-time favourite patterns of mine include Arisaig, Shirley, Flyte, Icarus and Aeolian. I have the yarn to make Flyte (mmm, Felted Tweed) and I have enough 4ply in various colours and qualities to make Arisaig about five times. My laceweight problem is well-documented, so obviously I have plenty, plenty, of yarns to choose between for Icarus and Aeolian. So, if the yarn requirements are not the problem - why am I not making these much-desired projects?

Last night I finally cast on for the Aeolian shawl. I was fed up waiting for "the perfect yarn" and "the perfect moment". I printed off the charts (mmm, charts) and located an old skein of 100purewool merino lace (i.e. non-branded Malabrigo lace) which I overdyed about two years ago.

And you know what? Even though this is not "the perfect wool" and "the perfect moment" I am really enjoying how it is working up.

The colour is ridiculously bright, but I'm reserving judgement before I start pondering another dyeing session. So far the acid green/lime yarn actually work with the pattern rather than against it. It looks fun and playful instead of all heirloom-ish. I like that. It was not how I had pictured the shawl (my imagined Aeolian shawl was rather vague but somehow super-dignified) but I'm happy to finally be knitting the darn thing.

And I can always knit it again in a more staid colour.

Also, my cardigan is now hitting the slow-growth stage (i.e. no more fun charts; a walk in the stocking stitch desert to follow) which may explain why I'm suddenly throwing myself at a complicated lace project. I'm woefully predictable sometimes.

Finally, a good friend of mine is participating in the Race for Life this Sunday. She has a blog contest in which sponsors can win some ace prizes including a generous Old Maiden Aunt gift voucher, Rowan yarn, an Ishbel shawlette knitted in Malabrigo sock (I saw this with my own eyes tonight - it is beautiful) among other things. Go forth and see for yourself.

Away for the Day

As today was a Scottish bank holiday, we both had the day off and decided to spend the day in a semi-productive way. We took the bus thirty minutes out of Glasgow and spent the best part of the afternoon walking a tiny part of the West Highland Way through fields of bluebells, hiking up fairly steep slopes and catching our breaths underneath old, gnarled oak trees. A beautiful sunny day with a defiant breeze added to our enjoyment, as did spotting several buzzards flying high over the Campsie Fells. Next time we will plan ahead, pack a proper picnic basket and maybe even check the map before we head out. We ended up on a bit of a detour involving a massive 19th century water reservoir (pretty, but not what we had in mind) which I'd be quite keen on avoiding on our next adventure.

PS. Eurovision? Wasn't it exciting?! Congratulations to Germany (who can almost afford to host the event unlike most of the other participants) and a big congratulations to Norway, a fabulous host.

PPS. I have cast on a shawl.

With A Slice of Cake & Heaven

I could not resist showing you a proper photo of how my Harmony cardigan is progressing. I finished the last bit of lace today, so it is all stocking stitch (and sleeve shaping) now. I have trawled Etsy and eBay for some suitable buttons - I know I am only halfway through the first of five pieces, but I have my eye firmly on the end result. I am thinking along the lines of these buttons or possibly these - I will start rummaging through my button boxes(! - it is true. I now have more than one big button box) once I have an idea of just how ornate the cardigan itself will look. Oh, I love planning.

I think Harmony might be keeping me company during the World Cup in football (i.e. soccer for you non-Europeans). I really liked the Olympics knit-along earlier this year, and Harmony, being both a labour-intensive project and a relatively straightforward knit, would do me just fine as a World Cup project as I cheer for the Danish football team and weep bitterly into my cold buttermilk soup when they lose.

A brief, brief interlude into Eurovision-land: I am going out on a limp here but I think Armenia might be marching towards glory. It is a tentative prediction as this year's contest is really too close to call, so call this "my gut feeling" prediction more than anything. I would also watch out for Albania (a great slice of electro-pop), Turkey, Georgia, and this year's surprise contender from Cyprus. Other pundits are leaning towards Israel, but I'm really not getting it,  while the early frontrunner Azerbaijan has come across limp and forced, so surely that is out of the running..?

Finally, there is nothing quite like being pigeon-holed with sweeping generalisations.

Also, this On the Rocks cover is one of the best Lady Gaga cover versions I've heard alongside that Paparazzi cover version (stay tuned all the way through the video - it gets better and better). Speaking of Gaga, have you read the Caitlin Moran interview? I had my own heroes when I was seventeen, living in Nowheresville and feeling completely Other, but my heroes were males writing songs from a male perspective (though Otherness arguably did play a part as core members of the band were gay). Later I discovered Polly Jean, of course, but I would have loved to have a prominent woman in pop culture playing hard and fast with mainstream gender perceptions (no, Madonna doesn't count for several reasons).

Now, excuse me, I have a date with a slice of carrot cake from Auntie M's Cake Lounge, my new home away from home.

Honey, I'm Home

I am home after three days working in Yorkshire. The sun was out the first two days and our surroundings were beautiful and very rural. During one meeting I spotted a pheasant walking about on the small hill outside and predictably enough I saw plenty of sheep, cows and even deer. I do not live far from nature here in Glasgow, but it is nice when you do not get a constant background hum of traffic. And I got a lot of knitting done during meetings, in the evenings and on my epic five-hour-long train journeys.

Harmony is working up really well. I am past the first lace chart and the rib section and well into the second lace chart. It is my sort of project, really - lace charts, fine gauge yarn and a staggering amount of knitting to be done - and I'm happy to sit knitting it.

Harmony is my only project  at the moment, though, so I will need another project to keep my sanity.  I have a gazillion ideas in my head right now (most of which involve completely  insane fair-isle, thank you Ben) but I may have to stick to summery yarns right now which limits me a bit.

I have been catching up on the Eurovision Song Contest - I was stuck on a train during the first semi-final which was heartbreaking and had to rely on text messages from Other Half ("Poland's a pervy Hungarian animated short film") which was fun, but Clearly Not the Real Thing. You can still catch me talking ESC on BBC World Service's Digital Planet but for me it is now all about the second semi-final. I have high hopes after seeing energetic songs (and Belgium/Russia) making it out of the first semi-final, so I'm hoping the trend will continue with Turkey, Romania, Azerbaijan and Denmark qualifying easily with a surprise surge of love for Cyprus. I also think Armenia will do well.

Just before leaving for Yorkshire, I followed an amazing thread on MetaFiler. MeFi is a decade-old message board and one night a user posted that two friends of his had found themselves in a potentially dangerous situation - could anyone help? Newsweek has a comprehensive look at the story, but you will want to read it all unfold on the MetaFilter site. Best of the web, for sure, and proof that social networking has more to it that celebrity tweets and Farmville..

Under the Peach Trees

Strange week.

• Finished a shawl. It is a gift, so I am not posting information or pictures before the recipient has opened her present. But it was an underwhelming knit: the pattern was horrible, the colour unlike me and it took me forever to finish. I know the recipient will love it because the shawl is so, so her and that makes it all worthwhile.
• Ripped back several rows of my 4-ply cardigan because I had mistakenly thought I did not need to check the chart. I did. Fine Milk Cotton still holding up really well despite the abuse.
• The Crowded House concert veered between being sublime (hello, In My Command), cringe-inducing (one of their new songs goes "In Amsterdam / I fell under a tram" - whatever happened to knees and kitchens? I want references to knees and kitchens back) and downright embarrassing (security guards being very obnoxious to anyone wanting to dance). And Neil Finn still sported a moustache.
• Other Half had to go to hospital due to a dodgy knee. He is fine now, but I was all over the place for about three hours. This is love feels like: one huge pool of worry.
• Finished reading John Buchan's The Power-House, a novella without a plot but a lot of sinister innuendos. It reminded me of Mark Gatiss' The Devil in Amber which I read a few years ago. This is not a compliment. In Buchan's defence, he was writing within the period.

I am now packing for my Yorkshire adventure. I borrowed Miss Old Maiden Aunt's Tangled Yoked Cardigan so I had something to keep me warm during my stay. Of course, my adventure coincides with the sudden arrival of summer but you never know about the British weather.. yes, all the stories about changeable British weather are true. I am also packing my 4-ply cardigan project and am pondering whether to bring a tiny one-skein project too (funny how becoming a Knittah changes your approach to packing your suitcase). I'm also charging my iPod (and if you have Spotify access, I have compiled a Spotify playlist for the journey).

I hope for a better week ahead. I have the Yorkshire adventure lined up, but even more important: next week is Eurovision week! I will be missing the first semi-final, but will be all hyped up about the contest nevertheless. Woot!