Sidelined

I'm shattered today after a long week, but I still limped into town for the summer John Lewis sale. I picked up a few balls of discounted Rowan Purelife Organic Wool DK. It matches some yarn I got for Christmas and I think a stranded self-designed pullover/cardigan might be on the cards this autumn. I have seen a few modern takes on a traditional Faroese cardigan and quite fancy doing my own twist. I have so many ideas. So very few of them ever become reality. It is frustrating.

Via my friend Angela: Women's Costumes in Movies. A fantastic blog entry about fashion, clothes, and old-school film stars.

Women's Costumes at the Movies: Faux Fashion Blogger Edition

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Lovely

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When I think of summer, I tend to think of long and languid days covered in a golden haze and ripe wheat fields swaying gently. Reality is very different: short bursts of humid weather, the urban jungle covered in a flimsy layer of sweat, and then rain. Except tonight has been an exceptionally lovely evening - the sort you usually only see in adverts. Our communal garden was filled with neighbours, an old man played a fiddle whilst children danced, the adults sipped Pimm's & lemonade, and all the trees were decked out with bunting. My other half had baked oatmeal and raisin cookies and I devoured a bowl of strawberries whilst being entertained by two Australians. I wish I had brought my camera but perhaps some moments are best preserved by our memories, not photographs. (this might be a good place to direct you to my mum's local rag's summer photograph competition and my current "favourite" summer photo)

Another lovely thing occurred this week. I was looking through people's projects on Ravelry when I came across a Canadian woman. Hmm, I thought to myself, hmmm. Something about her triggered something in my old brain (it used to be an Aston Martin but now resembles a Trabant). I looked closer, sent off a tentative email and, yes, Mysterious Ravelry Woman turned out to be May. Not just any May, but the May who was my supercool Canadian penpal way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She sent me mix tapes and I could barely form a sentence in English. Sometimes the world - and the internet - is a very tiny place.

Thirdly, my wrist appears to have recovered nicely thanks to my new wrist support, so I have whizzed through the first sleeve on my 4ply cardigan and now have one of the fronts on my needles. I shall miss the FIFA World Cup and not just because it allows for so much knitting time. Although my team, Denmark, did not acquit themselves with quite as much aplomb as I had hoped (cough), I have been enjoying the Cup so far - with a few notable exceptions. And we are heading into the second week of Wimbledon too. Maybe I will get my cardigan finished this summer! I need to ponder what to knit next.. Still or Calm?

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Midsummer

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Call for test-knitters! I have a pattern I need test-knitted before I can make it publicly available - we are talking one ball of Rowan Kid Silk Haze plus beads. Knitted lace. Get in touch by email (distantsunATgmailDOTcom) or via Ravelry. Today is Midsummer's Eve. In Denmark they will be lighting bonfires and singing songs right now. I always miss my Danish friends and family whenever special events come around. Midsummer's Eve, or Skt. Hans Aften, is that curious Danish blend of pagan and Christian traditions. You gather with people near water - beaches are popular although many places it will be near a lake - and when dusk falls, you set fire to a big bonfire adorned with an effigy of a witch which is said to "fly to Blocksbjerg" (most Danish names for Hell are places in Germany. I kid you not). Oh, and the Danes sing. We sing whenever we can and, since Midsummer's Eve is a Big Thing, we even have a special song (although most people prefer singing the modern version).

The photo was taken in 2006, my last Skt. Hans Aften in Denmark. I'm feeling a bit nostalgic tonight - especially because I know tonight most of my Danish friends are gathered just north of Copenhagen and I would have liked to have celebrated the longest day of the year with them. The older I get the more attached I become to my personal traditions and I have lost a fair few of them in recent years. It's a bit difficult to stage a big bonfire here in Glasgow without getting arrested for disorderly conduct .. "Honest, guv, I was just celebrating Midsummer's Eve. That old woman burning up? Well, it's tradition.."

FO: Peach Trees

Last May I went back to Copenhagen for a week's holiday. I had the pleasure of staying with a good friend, Peps, who had a spare room. If you have ever lived in Copenhagen, you will know that, as a rule, people do not have spare rooms: the apartments are tiny, every inch of space gets utilised, and you are lucky if a friend has the room for a sofa bed. So, Peps' spare room was the very height of luxury. I have known Peps since the late 1990s when we both worked for a computer gaming magazine. We started playing D&D together, she showed me how to cook hypo-allergenic food, and I supplied her with English-languaged books.

Peps turned forty this year and invited all her friends - including yours truly and D. We were unable to go, unfortunately, but I remembered what she said last year in May: "I love your lace shawls. I'd love to be able to knit one but maybe you can knit one for me at some point?" To my mind, this would be the perfect gift for Peps: something unique, something personal, and something very feminine.

Yarn: Rowan Kid Silk Haze, 2 balls in "Ice Cream" (discontinued colourway) Needles: 4.5mm (US size 7) Pattern: Ah, this is where it gets interesting..

I was searching high and low for a suitable pattern. Peps is petite, so I wanted something quite delicate which would not overpower her frame. She is also extremely feminine, so I wanted the shawl to reflect that (you may argue that a lace shawl is by definition very feminine, but I beg to differ). I pondered the Swallowtail shawl (but I have already made it three times), Ishbel (but we do not get along), and Zetor, to name but a few, but eventually settled on Nightsongs. I liked the graphic quality of the designs - Peps works in graphic design - but it was still very pretty and feminine. Perfect.

Except the pattern was riddled with mistakes. Shame that Kid Silk Haze is a bit temperamental about getting ripped back, or I would have gone for another design. The knitting experience marred my enjoyment of the finished object, so although I am told it is a very pretty shawl, all I see are those poorly constructed charts and the hours I spent trawling through Ravelry threads for errata.Something I did out of love for a friend did not end up as a project I loved. Alas.

I'm yet to hear from Peps, but I'm confident that she likes it.

In other knitting news, my new wrist support has already helped and I was able to knit at my usual pace last night, which means that my 4ply cardigan now has a completed back and a half-way completed sleeve. Huzzah!