In the Sea of Words

For some odd reason I appear to be catching up with myself at the moment. I am knitting things I queued years ago and I am reading a book I have been meaning to read for at least ten or twelve years: James Joyce's Ulysses. Once upon a time I sort-of specialised in Modernist literature - early 20th century experimental literature, if you like, which broke away from realist modes of expression. I mainly focused on Modernist poetry (I had major problems with prose at the time and abandoned fiction for several years - it's a long and dull story why) so I have big gaps where you might expect otherwise. Hardly any Virginia Woolf, very little James Joyce, just a smattering of DH Lawrence and no Djuna Barnes or Marcel Proust. I have been playing catch up ever since I rediscovered prose.

So far I am really enjoying Ulysses. I used to be slightly frightened of the novel - it is the big mythical beast of 20th century English-language literature after all - but I am relaxing into it in a most enjoyable way. A not-so-small part of me is itching to sit with a concordance and jot down marginalia as I slowly work my way through the book, but I am mostly just enjoying the reading experience. It is a more immediate way of reading the book and while I know I am missing layers of meaning, I like this informal way of reading. Because I was trained to read in a methodical, almost-clinical manner I am sometimes struggling to connect with some books, and I really enjoy when I can lose myself in a book.

(I did put an exclamation mark next to the bit which I'm convinced Ezra Pound "borrowed" for his Cantos. You know, just for old time's sake.)

Wholly unrelated, but then again: The Best & Worst Job Prospects in the Urban Fantasy Economy for 2011. Years ago I kept borrowing books from friends hoping that I could get into genre reading - specifically urban fantasy, supernatural romance and Celtic fantasy (the genres most popular with my friends) - but I struggled to get past the clunky writing. I still remember reading Laurell K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures (which came highly recommended to me) and being unable to get past the sentence: "He laughed bitterly, like shattered glass". When I learned that Guilty Pleasures were supposed to be the best book Hamilton has ever written, I twigged that I should probably just go about reading the kind of books I like and stop trying to emulate others' reading patterns.

I continue to be wary about reading recommendations, but Five Books looks useful: "Every day an eminent writer, thinker, commentator, politician, academic chooses five books on their specialist subject." I thought these looked intriguing: Sara Maitland on Silence, James Meek on The Death of Empires, Rebecca Goldstein on Reason and Its Limitations and Thomas Keneally on Russia.

My Favourite Obsession

People who lived through a certain obsession of mine will get a kick out of knowing I have found a pattern for Moulin Rouge mittens. Yes! Mittens with cancan dancers and a big red windmill! My life is complete! Maybe I should knit mittens based all my film obsessions. Any suggestions for Trainspotting, Velvet Goldmine or Hedwig & the Angry Inch mitts? Of course I already own Hedwig-themed yarn thanks to Ms Old Maiden Aunt. And no, I'm not asking about Star Wars patterns because there are plenty of those around.. I saw this little Ten Ways To Ruin Your Sewing tutorial over at Colette Patterns and thought it applied really well to knitting too. Here are the best bits but with a knitting slant added by yours truly:

1. Stupid self-imposed deadlines. I have been prone to thinking "I need to get this pullover done so I can wear it to XYZ." End result: I never finish the pullover because I work on it 24/7 and end up hating it. Or it ends up looking a shoddy mess and I won't ever wear it. Besides, no-one but myself cares if I wear a new pullover to XYZ.
2. The wrong fabric yarn. So you like that indie-dyed cashmere? And you're going to use it for a baby cardigan? Really?! You might want to talk to someone about that. Yarn recommendations are there for a reason. Substitute the recommended bulky-weight merino yarn with a 4ply cotton yarn at your own peril. If you are allergic to a fibre or the recommended yarn is out of your price range/you don't like the colour range, get clever about your yarn substitution. Also, using alpaca for a summer top = no-no.
3. Inaccurate cutting. Okay, there might not be an equivalent knitting faux-pas .. except if you ignore the given tension. I've tried that. I tried to knit Mr Greenjeans without checking my tension. I ended up with something which was four sizes too big. I do these things so you don't have to.
4. Winging it on a new technique. "Aha! So this project calls for a provisional cast-on? I don't know what that is, so I'll just use my normal cast-on. Oh, I need to unravel the cast-on and pick up new stitches? Where are my scissors?" Okay, so I have never done that, but that is because I love learning new techniques. But you get what I mean.
5. Expecting every pattern to fit “out of the box.” "It’s a rare person that most patterns will fit without adjustment of some kind. Sewing knitting patterns (and ready to wear) are made for a statistically average body, and chances are high that that body is not yours. I know it’s not mine. Learning to make the adjustments you need is just a fact of sewing crafting life." (quoting this for truth)
6. Being dishonest about your measurements. This is the big one for me, personally. I have a weird, distorted view of my body shape so unless I'm careful (and honest with myself) I end up knitting things that just do not fit.

Another great post is courtesy of the new Twist Collective: Shop Talk, by Sunday Holm, hits so many of the marks for me. "Requesting that the shop photocopy a particular pattern to avoid paying the full purchase price of a book." is a huge pet peeve of mine (can you tell I used to work in publishing?) as is Getting a less than warm welcome which I remember vividly from a certain defunct yarn shop here in Glasgow. Sunday's article is well worth a read and even a re-read.

Finally, Jess and Casey of Ravelry-fame and -foundery are coming to Glasgow. Join us all for a knitting picnic in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens - more information on Ravelry in the various Scottish/Glasgow groups - and a big thank you to Vonnie of The Life Craft for alerting me to this! See you there?

Coming Up For Air

I have been so busy lately that it is a wonder that I have managed to knit a single stitch. Note to self: don't take time off just before your busiest time of year; it will come back to haunt you. I have been hung up on boring and not-so-boring work-related things, that last week's relaxing jaunt to Aberdeenshire feels like it took place last year. But somehow I've still found time to cast on a small baby cardigan for a pregnant co-worker. I'm using oddments of Rowan Extra Fine Merino for a top-down raglan cardigan (I'm using this pattern for numbers but not for much else) and it is zipping along just fine. I have done so many top-down garments now that I find it difficult to think of something new to say, so suffice to say that I think it'll be done by the end of this week .. which is not bad going seeing how hellishly busy I am.

And when things calm down once more I will proceed with a proper autumn knit. I've been eyeing some gorgeous new autumn clothes in various shops. I'm head over heels with this little dress and I'm loving the fact that purple + moss green appear to be this season's musts. I never used to pay attention to clothes or fashion, but since I began getting into knitting/crocheting again, I'm noticing things that I never noticed before: necklines, shoulder construction, drape, fit, ease, fabric, fibre etc. And I feel silly because I used to feel that fashion was something I was expected to be interested in because of my gender - and I rejected this due to being a raging feminist - and now I stand around cooing over a neckline or colour.

If I ever start going on about shoes, shoot me.

But seeing the new autumn lines going into shops do make me yearn for a real, proper autumnal knit. I think it'll have to be purple (and not moss-green because some people claim green cardigans are all I ever knit) and be a really snuggly knit. Just a few more days and I can see the end of the tunnel.

You know, I might even have time to read. I caught up with Anne Donovan very briefly today and we had a lovely conversation about knitting and books. Although I do love knitting and yarn, nothing beats a good book. I miss my books and I want to return to my current read. It is one of those books you have to keep in touch with or it leaves you. And then my next read will be David Mitchell's new novel and I'll have words to share about the Man Booker Prize (as always).

FO: Foxglove/Revontuli

A miracle happened today. The light drizzle stopped and the sun came out just as we were gearing up for a quick Finished Object shoot. The gods somewhere must like my new shawl/scarf as much as I do. The pattern was one of the first I ever queued on Ravelry, Revontuli-huivi. The yarn is Kauni Effektgarn, an Estonian 4-ply with long pattern repeats and I used 6mm KnitPro needles.

The majority of the shawl was knitted during epic bus journeys to-and-fro North-East Scotland. It was a perfect travel knit - long stretches of knitting/purling and a bit of interest ever so often. I quickly fell into a rhythm and could knit whilst keeping an eye on the ever-changing landscape. I think I would have thought this a bit of a boring knit if I hadn't been on the road. The yarn really does most of the work for you.

The pattern is well-written and well-charted. The yarn is rustic with beautiful colours - but it also nearly lifted the skin off my yarn-carrying finger (I knit Continental). I cannot imagine myself knitting Kauni (or its siblings, Aade Lõng and Evilla) at a tighter tension or for a full garment. I would need to wrap band-aids around my fingers in order to survive - and I'm not sure I'd find that particularly fun.

But, gosh, my shawl is beautiful. It blocked out very big, I love the colours and I know this will become my go-to scarf this autumn/winter. It is my favourite knit for quite some time and I feel a bit silly that I did not knit this a long time ago.

Have you seen the new Twist Collective? Oh my. I'm in love with at least four or five patterns (which puts the cat among the pigeons as far as future projects are concerned). My two must-knits are Hallett's Ledge (I have some vibrant purple Troon Tweed kicking about) and Cityscape (I might redrawn the chart so it includes some Glasgow buildings), but there are plenty of gorgeous patterns I can see myself wearing.

Also, I could kick myself. Some of my best friends have just been to KnitNation in London - and I forgot all about asking them to buy me some Wollmeise yarn. I did not want much - just one skein for a small scarf - but I completely forgot and seeing as Wollmeise yarn is normally as scarce as unicorns I probably won't get another chance (unless KnitNation happens again or I go on yarn-buying vacation to Germany - I don't know which is most likely).

Speaking of vacations, I did enjoy my mini-vacay but unfortunately it has meant that admin work has been piling up and I will be spending the rest of my Sunday filing papers and writing up reports. I think this calls for tea and buttered crumpets.

Now With Knitting Content!

Am I sad because I tried to see if I could knit something without posting a WIP photo? Am I extra sad because I failed? Regardless, this is a WIP photo taken something during the Aberdeen excursion and the shawl is now just three rows away from being done. I suppose I could have waited a day to write about the shawl but, really, why keep all the fun to myself? Again I have delved deep into my earliest queued patterns on Ravelry. The shawl is Revontuli and I'm using some Kauni Effektgarn which I was given Christmas '09 by my very lovely grandmother. I have very little say at this stage, except it is a very enjoyable travel knit and I'm very pleased by it. More details to come once I've knitted the last three rows/blocked the shawl within an inch of its life.

Now for some speculative knitting and crocheting. I have five projects I'm really, really fancying but I cannot decide which one(s) to opt for.

1. Inga. A crocheted cardigan with a seriously cool collar. I'm worried about my body shape vs the shape of the cardigan. I'm also considering changing the colours to slightly more grayscale (with teal/avocado tones mixed in).
2. Dominika. I'm loving the statement-piece-esque feel to this cardigan/jacket, but am I really ready to wear anything with a heart-pattern? Will this be too shapeless for me?
3. Blanket. The name and the photo do not do this drapey cardigan justice. I would love to make it in dark raspberry tones with a thread of ochre stitched on for interest. But is it too boxy for me? Will I actually knit an entire afghan and add sleeves to it AND keep sane? I do love it. It's a beautiful project. I continue to be a Martin Storey fan.
4. Dandle. A seriously cute cardigan with an interesting slip-stitch pattern by the shoulders. I had a real 'wow' moment when I saw it, but I cannot believe that I'm contemplating a Super Bulky knit. I'm Super Bulky myself, for heaven's sake!
5. Homestead. Another Martin Storey design and one heavily influenced by Scandinavian knitting traditions (which makes my heart go all a-flutter). I simply love the design. It reminds me of my heritage. It is also knitted in Baby Alpaca DK which is one of my absolutely favourite yarns. I can see myself wearing this a lot. But it's not very dressy and I'm in the mood for a dressy knit. I'm thinking a neutral background and a delightful dark red contrast? I could see this being knitted up in Felted Tweed too.

(I also really really like Periwinkle but even I can see how its shape is all wrong for me). You may have spotted a common denominator. I fear I'm getting mildly addicted.Any feedback would be gratefully received and very appreciated. Even feedback along the lines of "you are a daftie for even consider XYZ!"!

I think I'm also entering a new phase. I go through colour phases, you see, and I think I'm leaving my red phase and heading towards deep violets and strong purples. Some people might say that I knit green stuff and then occasionally use other colours, but that would just filthy, filthy lies.

Now back to my last three rows on the shawl. Utterly delightful project.

Five Years

Five years ago D. told me that he was somewhat partial to me. I replied that I enjoyed our conversations too. Then he hit me over the head with a sledgehammer (metaphorically speaking) and so five years on, we could sit down to a lovely anniversary dinner tonight. So if you will excuse me, I will now join my Best Friend/Other Half for a quiet evening in our living room. It has been five very good years together and I'm very much looking forward to another five and then another five and..

PS. Stravaigin 2 pulled out all the stops tonight. Brownie points for the table right by the balcony, but the food was sensational. Roast sweet potato, fennel & feta stack w black olive hummus + Moroccan spiced chicken kebab, pink grapefruit & almond quinoa w harissa yoghurt & toasted flatbread + purple coconut rice parcels, peanut butter & orange ice cream w candied chilli peanuts.. One of the best meals I have ever had. Wow.

PPS. D gave me a signed first edition Alasdair Gray hardback. Goosebumps, I tell you, goosebumps.

PPPS. And I'm torn between five new knitting projects. I need someone to hold my hand and help me decide what to do next. D is surprisingly unwilling to spend several hours going back and forth between various books and stash compartments.