Day Four: Worn

I am wearing two handknitted garments in this photo:

1. My Nev Shawl.

I have found a big grey shawl incredibly wearable to my great surprise. I shall have to make more neutral-coloured accessories. This revelation comes as no surprise to nobody but me: neutral colours go well with many things.

2. A handknitted sweater I have never mentioned before.

This is indeed handknitted but not by me. It is an ex-display Rowan sweater - Sarah Hatton's Beatriz from The Lenpur Linen Collection - which I was lucky enough to pick up in Yorkshire last year during one of Rowan's garment sales. It is an incredibly comfy sweater and I wear it often (usually without my bra strap showing - sorry about that). The Lenpur Linen has softened a lot with each wash and the entire garment has a beautiful drape. If you have ever wondered where display garments go to live, you have your answer now.

I am slightly incredulous that I am wearing something knitted to sample size as I am apparently too large for any of the New Look sewing patterns. And before you ask, yes, I have tried on various other (ex-)display garments and can fit all but the most fitted ones. Sizing seems very arbitrary at times.

I do wear all my handknits but some knits get worn more than others. The two knits mentioned are worn often as are my Snorri sweater, the Forecast cardigan, the Haematite shawl, and the Art Deco shawl. I wish I knew what make these knits so darn wearable..

.. which brings me to the pertinent question: what makes you wear a handknitted item over and over again? Is it fit? Colour? General it-goes-with-everything-ness?

Find more blogs participating in the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week by googling 2KCBWDAY4.

Day Three: Embellishing

On the recent British census form I was asked about what I feel to be my national identity. After having thought for some time (which included an inner dialogue about the post-Enlightenment construction of Nationhood) I wrote Danish-Scottish. I have begun to cheer for Scotland in international sports tournaments which either marks me as masochistic or Scottish. I prefer the latter. However, you can take the girl out of Scandinavia but she'll always love white walls. And this takes me neatly 'round to today's topic of embellishment.

Being Scandinavian, I am not supposed to understand embellishment. Nordic style is all about sleek design, functionalism, and less is more. I remember reading an interview in my mum's favourite magazine: a fashion designer was asked what her favourite colours were and her answer stayed with me because of its über-Danishness. She loved "white, black, grey, and recently I have introduced bold colours like navy and nude to add edginess." Oh, Denmark. Thankfully people like Julia and Birgitte prove that Danes do actual colours and we do them well.

I digress. But you can see why someone having grown up with Nordic minimalism would find embellishments difficult. When I think of embellishing my knitting and crochet, I approach it like a true Dane: I take away more than I add. Some examples:

My St. James top. The pattern is a simple top-down raglan with waist-shaping. The original pattern called for a bow. I disliked the bow: it was floppy, left a gaping hole in the neckline and looked like a last-minute addition. I wanted something decorative, yet structured. I ended up crocheted three small motifs which I sewed on. I think it works because a) the motifs do not overwhelm the top and b) they are made from the same yarn as the actual top. It would not have worked half as well if I had chosen a different yarn.

Another red project: Red Redux. Another simple top-down project which needed very little embellishment. I found some handmade buttons on Etsy - four matryoshka dolls in red, yellow, green and orange - and that was all the garment needed to look 'finished'. Nowadays I must admit that I think the combination looks .. clichéd .. but at the time I liked the combination of a simple garment and striking handmade buttons. Today I would probably have used different buttons.

Speaking of buttons, they are my perpetual downfall. I have boxes of buttons in my stash closet. I find them secondhand (although this is getting more difficult, damn you craft revolution), they are great holiday souvenirs, and I am being given a lot of them by friends and family. I was recently given my great-grandmother's sewing box which holds a lot of memories and D's mother has also given me her own collection of buttons - a gesture I find incredibly touching.

Recently I have begun using beads in my knitting projects - my Larisa scarf pattern uses beads quite effectively, even if I have to say so myself (note to self: check up on what's happening with that pattern) - and I have also begun experimenting with adding fabric to my knitting and vice versa. I'd love to improve my freehand embroidery too, so I can add small, deft touches to finished objects. I am not talking about Versace-level embellishments, though.

So, morale of the story: I am ambivalent about embellishments but mostly because I am torn between 'understatement' and 'it needs something else'. And I'm a magpie when it comes to buttons.

Find more blogs participating in the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week by googling 2KCBWDAY3. I opted to write about the wild card topic today.

Day Two: Skilled Up

If you have ever played any role-playing game such as Dungeons & Dragons or World of Warcraft, you will be familiar with a system assigning numbers (your "stats") to indicate how good you are at something. Using D&D as an example, if you are very nimble and agile you will have a Dexterity of "15" (or higher) and if you are extremely clumsy, your Dexterity may be a "7".Your skill levels are modified accordingly, so a person scoring high in Dexterity will receive a bonus when performing acrobatics.

Now my personal stats run fairly average but I do get a hefty modifier to my knitting skills rolls. If only life were like a role-playing game and all the tasks revolved about figuring out knitting patterns..

.. but it is not and the last year has actually been quite odd from a knitting perspective. I can knit pretty much anything nowadays but I have been suffering from a lack of knitting mojo. It is odd: I have a beautiful stash, I'm blessed with fabulous knitting groups and friends, and I have allocated crafting time .. but somehow Mr Mojo just went out the door for a very long time. It felt as though all my knitting was pligtstrik, or 'i-have-to-knit-this' rather than 'i-want-to-knit-this'.

Technically I have not changed much from the knitter I was last year. I have not learned any new cast-ons or improved my entrelac - but I have become much more mindful about my knitting and what I choose to do with my knitting time. I have learned to disregard much of the Ravelry hype, avoid local knitting drama and not be distracted by what others think. Instead I have begun discovering who I am as a knitter and as a crafter. I can do so many different things but what do I want to do with them?

Like others, I am rediscovering plain knitting and I am a huge believer in 'less is more'. I am knitting for myself, to my own taste and in my own time.

To go back to the roleplaying terminology, it is as if my massive knitting modifier is now working in synergy with my WIS modifier. I suspect that means I've levelled up over the past year although I hadn't realised this. Maybe life is like a role-playing game and all the tasks do revolve about figuring out knitting patterns..

Topic: Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Find more blogs participating in the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week by googling 2KCBWDAY2.

Day One: Yarned

I often get asked which is the best yarn I have ever used. I never know how to answer because, for me, the quality of yarn is wholly dependent upon what project I am doing. When I think about yarn, which I admittedly do all the time, I just try to think about it in context. What type of project am I making and who am I making it for? How will the object be treated, how will it be used and how often will it be used? Do I need to think about maintenance? In other words, every yarn has a purpose. - Something About Yarn - Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2010

I wrote this last year and it still rings true to me. Thanks to my livelihood, I see and use a lot of different yarns and I have rarely come across yarn that isn't fit for purpose. I will freely admit that out-and-out novelty yarn like Rico Pom-Pom isn't for me but it is a great yarn for the right sort of knitter. Likewise, I am a huge, huge fan of Rowan Kidsilk Haze but I know several knitters who cannot abide the texture, the fibres or how it knits up.

If I look at my personal stash, it is clear that I like really fine yarns (i.e. lace weight yarns).

I cannot explain this love of lace weights because I can only wear so many lacy shawls without looking like I'm taking part in a Victorian Era re-enactment show and yet I am forever knitting and stashing yarn not much thicker than regular sewing thread.

I am currently knitting a very, very basic triangular shawl using Noro Sekku, a 2-ply cotton/wool/silk blend. It is a typical Noro yarn with surprising colour changes, thin & thick bits, and it is slightly overspun. It works well with a very simple stocking stitch shawl but as a knitter I think I am definitely gravitating towards less showy yarns.

When next in Scandinavia I have a mind to stock up on Snældan 1ply, a brilliant Faroese/Falklands yarn, and Navia Uno, a strange lace yarn which combines a high-twist 'thread' and an underspun core to great effect. Both yarns look very unremarkable in the skein, but they knit up beautifully. My current blog header is a close-up of Navia Uno, incidentally. Later in the year I hope to have time to knit with Garthenor's organic 1-ply wool. I wish that Blacker Design did fine yarns because I would love to try some of the different breeds and also support British producers whilst I'm indulging in my favourite past-time.

Find more blogs participating in the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week by googling 2KCBWDAY1.

FOs: Cowl & Quilt

What a great spring weekend. Perfect for finishing projects and take photos of said Finished Objects in the park.

First up, my new favourite piece of knitwear. A super-simple cowl knitted in the round out of three different silky yarns. It feel luxurious, it is easy to wear and I love the play of textures. It is not a shouty piece of knitwear - it does not go look at me, I'm handknit! - but it is really versatile. It'll live 'round my neck until proper summer hits Scotland.

I have rav'd the cowl here and I recommend trying to pair up very different yarns and textures. My next big knitting project is all about textures too but more on that later.

Now my next project and one which gave me that amazing did I really make that? feel which I rarely get with knitting these days (sad but true).

My first quilt, y'all.

The second weekend workshop took place yesterday and I managed to finish piecing the top, sandwich the layers, quilt the whole thing and do the binding. No wonder I'm exhausted today!

An error on a sewing machine supplier's part meant that instead of freemotion quilting we had to choose quilt patterns that we could finish with straight-stitching. That sudden constraint worked wonders for the class' creativity, I think, and people became very engaged in thinking up quilting designs rather than worrying about getting their patchwork perfect. I chose to do an asymmetrical starburst on top of my (mostly) symmetrical design. It may be difficult to tell by the photo but the starburst is oddly effective. The interplay between the patchwork with its rigid lines (and made from geometric prints) and the asymmetric quilt lines lets your eye travel - and also looks far better than any freemotion attempt on my part would have done.

My good friend Kirsten Marie wondered if I enjoyed quilting and if so what I enjoyed about it.

Honestly, I am not sure if quilting is for me. I am not a very precise crafter - I work best on the basis of intuition and fudging things - and I think you need to be anal rentative into measuring things twice and following rules to really enjoy quilting.

Having said that, I am really bowled over by my first quilt of mine and I really liked seeing it come together. I enjoyed having an idea in my head regarding colour and seeing how that idea panned out.

And I liked how everybody's quilts in my class looked so different because of fabric choice and how personal all the quilts felt as though they really did reflect the personalities of the people making them.

(I think my quilt looks modern, colourful and Scandinavian - I think that runs pretty true to my taste!)

Will I be doing more quilting? Probably, yes. I do think the cost of materials is fairly prohibitive and I stress out during certain parts of the process, but I will probably return to this craft occasionally. I like snuggling up in blankets, after all, and there is something to be said about making your own quilted blanket..

Bluebells

We went to see Patrick Wolf at Oran Mor tonight as part of a belated birthday celebration. And what a good time we had.

I hope you enjoy Bluebells linked above. It's one of my favourite songs. Strangely comforting. Patrick is finally beginning to enjoy some mainstream radio success here in Blightly after having made wonderful music for years. I am a hipster at heart - I liked him better when he made less mainstream stuff, dammit - but it is gratifying to see all his very hard work paying off. Go see him if he plays a concert near you. He's good.