Pattern: Kaldred

Here is a quick and easy pattern for Kaldred, a crocheted bracelet/bangle.

As the UK & US have different crochet terminology, I have included both. For the Danes among you, Kaldred also comes in Danish.

Tip: try embellishing Kaldred with beads, buttons, sequins or ribbons.

Materials: + Crochet hook size 4mm (US size 6 or G if you cannot find a 6) + Approx 20 yards of Double-knitting or light worsted yarn. I used Rowan Denim. + Knitter's needle for weaving in ends.

UK terminology: Row 1: Ch 8, sl st to form circle. Ch 2, turn. Row 2: 5 tr into circle, ch 4, 1 dc into circle, ch 2, turn. Row 3: 5tr into the circle you formed in previous row, ch 4, 1 dc in circle, ch 2, turn.

Repeat Row 3 until one repeat short of desired length.

Then ch 5 tr into the circle you formed in previous row. Make sure that this row “leans” the opposite way of your starting point so that when you hold the end and the beginning together they form a continuous circle. Join the two ends together by slip stitching along the side of the chained circle.

Weave in ends.

US terminology: Row 1: Ch 8, slip stitch to form circle, ch 2, turn. Row 2: 5 dc into circle, ch 4, 1 sc into circle, ch 2, turn. Row 3: 5 dc into the circle you formed in previous row, ch 4, 1 sc into circle, ch 2, turn.

Repeat Row 3 until one repeat short of desired length.

Then ch 5 dc into the circle you formed in previous row. Make sure that this row “leans” the opposite way of your starting point so that when you hold the end and the beginning together they form a continuous circle. Join the two ends together by slip stitching along the side of the chained circle.

Weave in ends.

Dansk opskrift: 1. omg: Hækl 8 lm, saml dem til en ring m 1 km i første lm. 2 lm, vend. 2. omg.: 5 stm i ringen, 4 lm, 1 fm i ringen, 2 lm, vend. 3. omg.: 5 stm i ringen du dannede i forg. omg., 4 lm, 1 fm i ringen, 2 lm, vend.

Gentag 3. omg. indtil ønskede længde.

Dernæst hækl 5 stm i ringen du dannede i forg. omg. Sørg for, at denne gentagelse af viften hælder den anden vej end den allerførste vifte. Hækl de to ender sammen med km langs den første luftmaskering.

Hæft ender.

Enjoy! God fornøjelse!

Making Things

Crochet. I have been absolutely obsessed by crochet lately. Today I made this little bracelet out of scrap Rowan Denim. Pattern tomorrow. If you're a beginner crocheter, you will love how simple it is. Two things:

1) I love crocheting with cotton. In fact, I know nothing better than crocheting with a tightly-twisted mercerised cotton. Knitting with cotton tends to ruin my hands but crocheting is a different story all together.

2) I am an awfully tight crocheter. I have to go up at least one hook size (if not two) because my crocheting is uncomfortably tight and dense. In fact, you could probably use my crocheted fabric to cut bread unless I change hook size.

My very first garment ever was a self-designed crochet jumper made from my Mum's cotton scraps. It was yellow, orange, pink, lime green, and red. I made five granny squares and crocheted them together to form a strip right across my generous bust. (Hey, I was seventeen!) Then I crocheted stripes alongside the bottom edge making up the pattern as I went along. And a matching stripy square for the back. And another two stripy squares for the two sleeves. I whip-stitched everything together, of course, and wore the wonky cropped granny-squares-across-bust stripy jumper with pride.

Funnily enough the jumper got "lost" in the laundry one day.  Thanks Mum.

She never did manage to lose the trousers I made from my late uncle's kitchen curtain. These trousers would be have been on-trend this season had I not wore them until they fell apart (the fabric with its fish motifs might also have pegged me as being slightly weird). I am a bit tempted to sew a pair of wide-legged trousers, but I'll definitely give the crocheted granny-square/stripy jumper a miss.

Quoted For Truth

"The idea is to say that curvy is not a problem it's very sexy. I think, when I see women like Nigella with shoulders, boobs and hips, they are beautiful. Stunning. They are sexy. To put that on the runway is very healthy.

This is our moment, it means we have to push people to understand that a body with shape is better than tiny, skinny girls. Who dreams of being like a teenager? The model is not the only prototype for women. To have freedom to be as you are, to use your body as it is, it's very positive." - Franca Sozzani, editor of Italian Vogue.

My emphasis.

There & Back Again

Mornings are less rough when you wake up to this view. The north-east coast of Scotland is gorgeous: expansive light, dramatic cliffs, and teeming with wildlife. During my days in Aberdeenshire, I spotted seals, puffins, deer, and more buzzards than I have ever seen before. I wish I could have stayed longer.

As always I paid Aberdeen Art Gallery a visit. It is relatively small, but has an exquisite collection mixing works by well-known artists such as J.W. Waterhouse, and Francis Bacon with less famous (but really interesting) artists like Phoebe Anna Traquair and applied arts & crafts, textiles, and metalwork within Scotland. As always I was drawn to Joan Eardley's work  as well as Francis Cadell's, but I also enjoyed the new exhibit on wartime watercolours.

For the first time I visited the Maritime Museum - just a short walk away from the Art Gallery.

As Aberdeen is an oil industry city, the museum had plenty of information about the black gold and the 1970s oil boom. I was slightly saddened by how this recent event had pushed a lot of Aberdeenshire's fishing heritage into the periphery. The small exhibition on herring fishing made me think fondly of Kate Davies' Caller Herrin hat. I seem able to find a knitterly angle to most things these days..

Finding a knitterly angle to my last port-of-call is not difficult, though. Wool 4 Ewe is a lovely independent yarn shop and I visit them as often as I can.

This time around I was there by special invitation from the friendly Wool 4 Ewe team in order to run a workshop on triangular lace shawls.

Teaching lace shawl knitting is always rewarding because there are so many different aspects to cover: construction, yarn & needle choice, chart-reading, and post-knitting care. I find it quite a technical topic to teach and I try hard to balance all the technical information with fun hands-on experiments.

I'm happy to say that all my students left all excited and enthused about knitting lace shawls. The Wool 4 Ewe team asked me which shawls I would recommend to beginners. I gave them this list of free patterns which I hope you will also find useful. All links (and roads?) lead to Ravelry.

• Kiri by Polly Outhwaite
• Adamas by Miriam L. Felton
• Holden by Mindy Wilkes
• Bitterroot by Rosemary Hill
• Lavalette by Kirsten Kapur (no charts!)

I left the shop empty-handed although the new-to-me Manos Del Uruguay yarn called Serena called out to me with its subtle colours and beautiful blend of alpaca and pima cotton. It is really pretty. I am just so snowed under with projects and commissions that I have no idea when I would have time for an indulgent little project. I am not complaining: such is life..

.. I did manage to finish China Mieville's Embassytown whilst travelling. More on that book soon.

Lovely Things

This has to be my song of summer 2011. It's so lovely in all its pomo pop glory.

Other lovely things right now:

• I find this picture of David Tennant in the Fright Night remake strangely compelling. I always did have a weakness for almost-Glaswegian men wearing eyeliner.
• "Not since Bowie before him had anyone been as responsible for raising awkward questions between parents and their sons as Brett Anderson." Suede is back in fashion here in the UK - so the media say. Suede fell hard from grace when fey, lithe men wearing girls' shirts were displaced by laddish beer lout music (i.e. Oasis). I particularly liked the quote: "Apparently it wasn't just me who'd been sat at home in 1995 doused in glitter and eyeliner watching Performance on repeat" .. oh no, dear journalist, oh no.
• I should rewatch Velvet Goldmine soon too.
• Moving on from eyeliner and glitter, how about a Warhol Spock? Okay, so it's Leonard Nimoy wearing makeup but it's slightly different..
• My beloved kiwi band The Phoenix Foundation is being championed by the mighty hipster godfather himself, Jarvis Cocker. Going Fishing is always on my iPod. Kiwi music is the best, honestly.

And with that, I am off to back my bag. Not-so-sunny Aberdeenshire awaits and I have books and knitting to pack.

Ode to Joy (& Knitting Lace)

Just as you are, perfect Just as you are I'll give you the time you deserve

I was listening to an old album the other day while I was knitting up these two swatches. Quite apart from reminding me about another time and place in my life, it also made me think about the place knitting has in my life.

On a very personal level, knitting is about mindfulness. It makes me slow down, it clears my head and it makes me focus on the moment. I have always been very good at thinking thirty steps ahead of myself, of overbooking my diary, and of trying to be too many things to too many people. Knitting has changed me in many ways, but I think this is the most important one.

Some people swear by knitting plain stockinette in the round, others by turning heels and planning toe decreases. I love knitting lace. My head is at its quietest when I follow lace charts - at their best, the charts are simple and elegant ways of conveying complex information - and I love learning intricate repeats of  yarnovers and decreases. And I love the amazing transformation known as blocking.

Blocking is simple: you soak your shawl in water, you pin it out to dry and somewhere along the line your knitting goes from being an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan. Look at the photo. I knitted two identical swatches and blocked one of them. Isn't it amazing? Imagine if life could be controlled in the same manner: "ooh, life's a bit lumpy and crumpled up today, so I'll just soak it in lukewarm water for 15 minutes and apply a few pins.."

Today has been a day of making charts in Excel (there are plenty of great tutorials available online, so I'm not going to bother writing one up, sorry!) and of writing about knitting lace. It has made me reflect on the joy that I feel when I knit lace - and how I approach lace knitting.

I do not arm myself with blocking wires, lifelines, or special lace chart reading tools. I just use a pen to mark my position in a chart, I use one safety pin (to mark the centre stitch) and I use cheap stainless steel pins. Words are so interesting: to arm oneself .. as though I was about to wage war on my knitting or seeking to conquer a chart. No. Lace knitting is my personal time. It is self-indulgence (for, lo!, I rarely wear my shawls), it is downtime, and it is peace of mind.

Three quick non-lace links (and congratulations to non-knitters making it this far): + Pop Culture paper-cuts. How many do you recognise? And did you know that Silhouettes are named after Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister imposing harsh taxes after The Seven-Year War? I wonder what will be Gideon Osborne's legacy? Nothing as enduring nor as artful, I'm sure. + How to Knit A Giant Lego Brick Doorstop + Top Tips for Budding Lyricists - why you shouldn't write what you know and why it is sometimes okay to make up your own language.