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Dotted

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The crochet bag is almost finished. I just need to crochet around one particular edge, weave in ends and then add lining. I have found some fab lining material, but more on that in a second. I had completely forgotten how wrecked my hands become when crocheting with cotton. I grew up using cheap cotton and I had assumed that the cheap cotton was to blame for my aching hands. For this bag I am using Roman Pima Cotton, a very luxurious cotton that I'm loving to bits, but my hands are still utterly wrecked - particularly my thumbs. I'm used to being able to knit for hours on end, but I cannot work on this project for more than ninety minutes before I'm in pain.

Worrying.

I had planned a few more crocheted bags, but I think I shall be postponing these projects until my hands are much better. I wonder what I'm doing wrong? Hmm.

But back to this particular crochet bag. I was beyond thrilled when I found the perfect lining material in the Amy Butler fabric range. Just look at it - isn't it just perfect?! Of course I cannot work the lining until I have finished the bag properly, woven in ends, steam-blocked it, cleared the dining table, and unpacked my old sewing machine that I'm not entirely sure actually works and .. did I mention that I have fever, a sore throat and earache? Yeah, I should possibly focus on getting over this mini-flu (or whatever infection it is I'm fighting), but I'm just so darn excited about getting this project finished*. Uhmm..

(* somewhere my 15-year-old self is looking aghast and cringing at my enthusiasm).

So, well, I'm trying to nap as much as I possibly can (and I'm revisiting an old favourite read which I actually haven't read in about twenty years - more on this in a later entry) and I'm also having slightly feverish dreams about my next few projects.

But isn't that fabric just fabulous?! Sigh.

FO: Mosswell, Rust well

This was going to be a tale of woe, but like all the best stories, this took an unexpected turn. Once upon a time I bought some merino lace from 100purewool.com - I have an affinity for peridot green and their "Green Sausage"(!) colourway looked like a perfect shade. Sadly it was more yellow than I would have liked, so I overdyed it. It turned out acidic green rather than peridot green.

Fast forward some years and I decided to knit the Aeolian Shawl out of the yarn. The end result was pretty but still acidic green, so I decided upon another overdyeing session. The solution was a bit strong (never dye when you are sleep-deprived) and some parts of the shawl were a bit .. splotched. And I decided to overdye the shawl again.

Yes, this is why I first thought this was going to be a tale of woe. I was despairing by the third overdyeing session and I was worried when the shawl did not take the dye well. But this is also where the tale gets good: I pinned the shawl out deciding that I'd like to see the dry dyeing result.And I liked what I saw.

Granted, I'm an urban decay sort-of woman. I take photos of crumbling walls, overgrown buildings and burnt-out cars. The shawl actually looks as though it is rusty and has moss growing on it. I'm not sure how I can incorporate echoes of deindustrialisation, disenfranchisement, inhospitable cityscapes or abandoned buildings into my personal wardrobe, but I shall find a way. I live in Glasgow, after all.

Specifications: Pattern: Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman, free pattern from Knitty. Modifications: Yucca Chart x 6, Agave chart x 2 before Finale Agave Chart. No beads. 7-loop nupps. Yarn: 100purewool merino lace 950yrds/100 gr. Used 60 gr. Needles: Addi Turbo, 3.75mm.

Isn't the shawl just pretty?

Do you like the photos? We were out grocery-shopping when we walked past a doorway with fabulous old tiles. Our part of Glasgow is filled with old Victorian buildings and you see these doorways everwhere - although not always with fantastic colours or, to go back to the idea of urban decay, tiles missing.

Next on the agenda: I hope to reorganise my stash this week. It is long overdue. I have a walk-in closet(!) which doubles as yarn stash and spare-bed storage. I have boxes and bags stuffed with my yarn, but I want to start having a proper system. My stash is such a size that I am beginning to forget exactly what I own and where it is. I find it a bit overwhelming, but that is surely a sign that I should start weeding out old partial skeins and what-was-I-thinking balls of yarn. I have already tossed out some old projects and odds-and-ends today and it felt really good.

Finally, I missed my own personal goal of finishing my 4-ply cardigan by the end of the FIFA World Cup 2010. I still need to knit one sleeve and one front, plus all the finishing flourishes. It is a shame, but I did sustain an injury to my wrist. I'm tentatively rooting for Spain tonight, although Denmark does have long-standing football grudges towards Spain.. but I really haven't been keen on how Holland has been playing throughout this tournament..

Friday is for Finishing, Fine Bags and Finking Of New Stuff

Two-thirds of Britain are enjoying a heatwave. Meanwhile Glasgow is 14C with light drizzle. I dream of blue skies, warm weather and sitting outside with an iced coffee. Maybe that is why I'm making a summery bag? Actually, this was the very first pattern I ever queued on Ravelry: Inga's Haekelbeutel. An easy bag assembled from 16 crochet squares. I'm teaching a session on crochet squares next week, so I'll be able to use my bag as an example of what you can do with squares. The square Inga's bag uses is very plain, but you can obviously use which ever square you want (Ravelry examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). The assembly is pretty ingenious - I'm saying this before I have assembled the bag - and you can even use knitted squares if you don't like crocheting. And did I mention that the pattern is free?

As for the real reason as to why I'm making this bag right now.. well, I had a long and tiring day at work yesterday, which made for some comfort yarn shopping. I got a full bag of Rowan Milk Cotton DK for £12 (down from .. £47, I think?) and some select balls of Pima Cotton which I knew would be perfect for this Haekelbeutel. I'm pondering what to do with the Milk Cotton - I'm thinking either Anais (which a girl in winter has handily just made),  or maybe just a quick top-down raglan a lá Japel's Cropped Cardi (but with different neckline, a lace pattern, buttons and .. totally different, really).

Summer knits on my mind and the summer is nowhere to be seen.

The Mosswell Shawl is off the needles and currently being overdyed. I'm a bit sceptical about the dye solution, but we'll see..

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Midway

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The 4-ply cardigan has been pushed aside for a little gratuitous shawl knitting. The shawl has been worked on and little now and then, but I feel so frustrated with my cardigan that I thought I would give Mosswell (i.e. Aeolian) some love. As always, a shawl actually works up quickly once you pay it some attention. I zipped through the Set-up Edge Chart and am now midway through the Main Edge Chart. Another few rows and I will have a finished object. I feel almost faint. Still not head-over-heels with the pattern. It is exceedingly well-written, well-charted and well-explained, but it does lack a certain oomph. Perhaps I expected too much from the woman behind Laminaria (still my favourite shawl pattern), but I thought the stitches would flow into each other far more than they are. This is not to say that I am not enjoying knitting my Mosswell (because I am) but it is a different experience to what I had anticipated.

It is also very green which is why Mosswell will be given a little dye-bath once I have bound off. I hope to give a slightly more, er, "mossy" look. If not, I'll just rename the darn thing. Blackwell. Brownwell. Mudwell.

Oh, I nearly forgot.

Come autumn I will be releasing a couple of patterns for some scarves (just in time for Christmas knitting - you'd think I had planned this).One of the scarf patterns is currently with test knitters, but I thought I would let you catch a glimpse of my swatch. Once Mosswell comes off the needles, I will start working on the scarves in earnest and write more about the design process.

Oh, but for more hours in the day.

A couple of links:

  • The early reviews of Christopher Nolan's Inception are in - and they are frighteningly GOOD.
  • I chuckled at this list of imperfect Romance heroes/heroines. Oh no, Lady Alys is tall and odd-eyed! Prudence Lancaster is bespectacled and plain!
  • 'Till Derrida Do Us Part' is the loveliest thing I read for some time. Other Half read it and said: "your mother would kill you". I replied: "I'm pondering if having a wedding ceremony just to interrogate the idea of "the vow" would alter the contextual meaning-making of the vow to such a degree that it could no longer be said to be a vow but rather an avowed non-vow?" Then he threw me out of the living room. Men.
  • This method of making iced coffee looks very inviting - and possibly also a bit too daunting to someone whose idea of a good cup o' java is wholly dependent upon how much sleep she has had.