Sunday Craft Thoughts

Quite apart from celebrating my ten-year blogging anniversary, I have also been celebrating my thirty-mumble-th birthday this week. Among the many excellent presents, I received The Perfect Fit: A Practical Guide to Adjusting Sewing Patterns and The Sewing Book - both of which sent my heart a-flutter. I was also lucky enough to be given a sweater amount of ruby Kidsilk Haze and a shawl amount of burgundy Faroese wool. My sewing machine also arrived this week which called for a bit of fabric shopping. I feel very consumerist right now. However, my consumerism is linked to a feeling of wanting to become less of a consumerist. My fabric purchases have been very deliberate and are linked to my desire to have an almost self-stitched capsule wardrobe. I've been reading Sewingplum's blog intently and while I'm not yet at a level where I can consider making 6 (let alone 24!) staple wardrobe pieces, I can at least become a much more thoughtful dresser - and crafter.

The photo shows two of the fabrics in my stash. The one on the left is the Liberty cotton lawn which D gave me for Christmas. Right now I feel slightly daunted by this fabric. The fabric on the right is a Joel Dewberry cotton which is earmarked for my first 'proper' sewing project: the Simplicity 2501 blouse. It's a very versatile pattern (check out this very vintage-looking version!) and one I can imagine myself making several times. You might think I am batting above my weight with this pattern. We shall see. After all, I used to be a decent dressmaker back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I'm yet to find an equally versatile pattern for the lower pattern of my body. I'm also trying to decide whether I would ever feel confident enough to wear the Ceylon dress - I'm already pretty sure the Crepe dress will be a go-to pattern: it would look equally nice in neutrals and bold prints (versatility is the key to my heart, it seems).

As I have previously mentioned, I'm going to have a real go at making clothes appropriate for warm(ish) weather which makes knitting and crochet slightly trickier. Fancy is still on my list, but it will probably be the only big knitting project I'll undertake. I'll be looking into making a couple of small shrugs - Veronique ticks my boxes but it's also knitted in KSH and two projects in KSH might be a bit much even for me. Right now, though, I am contrating on a knitted art piece I shall be exhibiting at the Glasgow Tramway art gallery next month (link NSFW due to artistic nudity). I'm behind schedule and need to press on.

Finally: thank you for all your comments recently. I'll try to get back to each and every one of you!

Decennium

February 2001 I sat down and started a blog - I'm actually a bit hazy on the exact details of where and when - and somehow I've now blogged for an entire decade. Selected highlights (and low points)

2001: I began blogging (using my own software). I subsequently moved my blog to diaryland where I met DiscoDave, now my Other Half (although that happened much later). I also began meeting up with Copenhagen-based bloggers. We weren't all that many in those days and could fit our Xmas party into a small flat.

2002-4: I moved the blog to blogspot. My blogging became less about my hazy university social life and more about academia and books. A lot about books.

2004- 2006: I bough my own domain, bookish.dk, and turned my blog into a fullblown litblog. Heady days with publishers emailing me with lovely offers, getting linked by major US & UK newspapers, appearing on the radio and all that. I also gained a bonafide stalker in the process who had to be cautioned by Copenhagen police whilst I hid in my best friend's flat. That wasn't fun nor heady.

2007: My webhosting company pulled the plug on bookish.dk for no apparent reason (this happened to several other bloggers too). I set up this very blog instead after mulling over it for a few months. I missed writing way too much.

2008-?: Lit-blogging gave way to personal blogging gave way to craft-blogging. As a result I now show my face on the blog (and if you are a bit savvy, you can find my full name too). Blogging is now so mainstream that most of my offline friends are linkable. Social networking has become very intertwined with blogging and it is sometimes difficult to know when my blogging starts and ends (for more thoughts on this, I recommend reading Stuart's take).

Simply put: I cannot imagine the last decade without blogging and bloggers. Over the past ten years I have met a huge amount of clever, funny, witty people (and my boyfriend) through blogging. Some of you I have later met offline; some of you remain online friends. I won't do a rollcall because I will miss out too many people - and some of them have left the blogosphere too - but thank you to each and every one of you. It has been a real blast.

Can I make a simple request? If you happen to read this, would you leave a comment? You can say something about how you feel about blogging, if you blog (why (not)?), what your favourite blogs are .. anything goes. I would just like to hear from you - even you, dear lurking blog reader!

And here's to ten more years.

Rhapsody on a Windy Night

Today I wore my February Lady Sweater for the first time in months and I was reminded of a recent conversation with knitting friends. Last I went to my regular knitting group, most of us were working on cardigans or sweaters/jumpers knitted flat. This gave us pause for thought because the past few years we have all been very busy knitting top-down cardigans and jumpers/sweaters these past few years. So why have many of us suddenly gone back to the dreaded seamed cardigans where you cannot try on the garment as you are knitting and there is so much post-knitting finishing to do?

My February Lady Sweater has not aged well. I knitted it out of New Lanark Aran which is a sturdy no-frills yarn with good memory, but even the yarn's good memory has not preventing the cardigan from sagging under its own weight. The garterstitch yoke has stretched which means baggy underarms and a cardigan that is too long in the body. Yes, my FLS has been washed and dried (several times) but the yoke does not spring back into shape.

Out of curiosity I then tried on my other top-down garments. My red cardigan also suffers from the 'saggy yoke leads to sad cardigan' syndrome as does my beloved handspun garterstitch yoke cardigan although I have not worn it as often as either my grey or red cardigan and so it still maintains some shape. I've worn Liesl maybe five times so it still looks brand new, but Milbrook looks a bit tired even if the yarn itself is very light-weight. My only top-down garment which still looks fit for fight? Forecast. Maybe the cables keep it in shape?

Question: how has your seamless, top-down cardigan or jumper/sweater weathered being used over, say, one or two years? Has your project kept its general shape or has it turned into a sad, saggy unflattering lump like my once much-loved FLS? I'm particularly curious about the cardigans that were all the rage maybe one or two years ago - the 'three buttons at the top' cardigans. You know, FLS, Moch cardigan, Amelia, Tea Leaves, Tappan Zee etc.

Maybe I have been unlucky and maybe my knitting friends have been unlucky - or maybe top-down seamless knitting needs to be thought about more carefully?What's your take on seams vs no-seams?

In other crafty news, I have finally made a decision on which sewing machine to purchase. I have gone for JL300C which is a re-branded Janome. Essentially it is the Janome DC3050 without the 20 decorative stitches I didn't want or need - and it's £30 less too. I'm getting it next week and I am ridiculously excited. I should probably send D. into town to pick it up or I may be tempted into buying some of the new Joel Dewberry cottons: some of his prints are quite Art Noveau, others rather Art Deco, and I'm weak in the presence of references to early 20th C visual design.

I'm currently knitting: nothing! It's true! I need to cast on for an art piece I'm exhibiting next month. I just need to shake off this lethargy of mine. I'm currently reading: Zadie Smith - On Beauty. Again with the lethargy, though, as I'm only twenty pages into a book I ought to be flying through..

Pssst.. title.

In Her Soft Wind I Will Whisper

Lady on the left? My great-grandmother. She would have been ninety-five today. The photo was taken in the early 1950s outside her cottage and she is with two of her sons, K and T.

I have several photos of her; my other favourite is from the 1930s when she was approached by a travelling salesman who wanted her to become a hair model. I presume she shot him one of her withering glances. The photo shows her with long, gorgeous hair. I was told it was chestnut-coloured. The photo is black/white.

I was lucky enough to grow up around her. She minded me when I was pre-kindergarten and I spent most of my school holidays in her cottage. Her cottage did not have running water until I was maybe seven or eight and never got central heating. I can still envision her sitting in her chair in front of the kerosene-fuelled stove. She'd knit long garter stitch strips from yarn scraps and sew them into blankets. I think she was the one who taught me to knit. She was certainly the one who taught me how to skip rope.

Happy birthday, momse. We may not always have seen eye to eye, but we loved and understood each other. And I still miss you.

Title comes from this beautiful farewell song (youtube link). Post reposted from 2009 and 2010 with Momse's age amended. I continue to miss her.

Decisions Of Various Kinds

After some research and a lot of deliberation, I went to two sewing machine demonstrations this past week. I tried four different machines:

• Elna 2800. I tried this one at The Life Craft. I quickly felt comfortable using it and it was easy to use. It is just a smidgen too basic for my needs.
• Elna 3210. I tried this one and the following two at John Lewis. Weirdly enough, I knew immediately this was not the machine for me. I did not like the placement of the reverse key, and I found choosing a stitch more hassle than it ought to have been.
• Janome Excel II 5024. I like this machine a lot. It is sturdy, intuitive to use, and it comes with a good selection of feet.
• Janome Dec0r 3050. The only computerised machine I tried. It was easy to use, is very versatile, and comes with a good selection of feet.

I kept the two samplers I made just so I could compare stitch quality between the 5024 and the 3050.

If I knew I were to become a control freak quilter who needed absolute even stitching, I would go for the 3050 in a heartbeat. The 5024 has even stitching, don't get me wrong, but the 3050 has that computerised evenness down pat. I'm just not cut out (boom!) to be a control freak quilter.

On the other hand, I'm not sure I'm willing to pay £100 more to get super-even stitching, three buttonhole options, and a whole lot of decorative stitches that I will probably never use. The 5024 is the best mechanical machine I've tried, it does the basics plus a bit more, and it does its thing very well. It is a real workhorse of a machine, and I enjoyed working with it.

I just really like that keyhole buttonhole that the 3050 has to offer, dammit. And the machine is just, well, prettier than the 5024.

Decisions, decisions.

Meanwhile I have been really inspired by all your comments about a Spring-Summer wardrobe. I have also kept a close eye on the Colette Patterns Spring Palette challenge in which people have defined their sewing goals for Spring 2011. I haven't made it that far yet - for obvious reasons outlined above - but I have actually begun to think about cohesive wardrobes and deliberate colour palettes for the first time in my entire life (bar my university years: black with a dash of black for that intellectual look).

I created a palette at ColourLovers which helped me identify five colours that will form the basis of my Spring-Summer crafting this year: Citrus colours balanced and anchored by two neutrals (I particularly like the cool brown). Crazy as it may sound, I already have yarn and fabric that reflect this palette but it wasn't until I sat down to play with colours that I realised this. I think having this palette in mind will also help my buying habits.

Colourlovers is a great site, actually. Not only does it let you create a palette of your own choice (or find suitable colours created by someone else), but it lets you create a pattern based upon your chosen colours , and then you can transport that pattern to Spoonflower where they'll print your very own fabric. If I were rich, I'd totally design my own freaking wardrobe down to every last detail.

I may not be a control freak quilter, but I can still get a tad obsessive at times.

Swatching & a KAL

I had planned to enjoy an evening of Sit & Knit A Bit at The Life Craft when Life Stuff happened and I had to pull out. So instead of a knitterly night with some of Glasgow's loveliest crafters, I'm sitting at home under a blanket with a cup of tea. Things could be worse, I suppose. NOT knitting in public means I get to knit something complicated. I decided the other week that I'm going to knit Fancy from the latest Rowan magazine and before I pull the ball bands off my chartreuse Kidsilk Haze, I wanted to swatch the lace pattern. I knitted a quick swatch using some leftover Haze, quickly realised I would want to rip back and also be able to see the stitches, and then started over using some old Freedom Spirit. I may need to practise this stitch pattern quite a bit before I switch to Kidsilk Haze.

You see, it's not your typical 'yarn over/decrease' lace pattern; it is a sort of 'drop stitches, knit & purl 5 stitches through the back and add yarn overs at odd moments' sort of lace with hardly any rest rows. I thought the pattern looked Estonian and a quick google actually brought me to a blog devoted to Estonian lace which had posted a video showcasing a similar technique. The stitch pattern is not identical but the technique shown will be useful for anyone planning to make Fancy - I certainly wish I had seen the video before I had started swatching. It would have saved me some grim moments of knitter's doubt.

The same knitter who posted the video linked above has an entire YouTube channel devoted to unusual knitting techniques - most of Eastern European origin from what I can tell. I have bookmarked her tutorials on Estonian lace techniques and will be watching them with great interest as soon as I get some spare time(!). They look useful in a 'ouch, my brain hurts' way. I love that sort of stuff.

In case you are interested, Mhairi of Flavaknits and I have joined up for an informal Fancy KAL. I don't expect it to be a quick knit but it will be a challenging, fun knit. I'll be posting about my progress and sharing tips - hopefully more people will join us?