What You Can Do With Kaldred

One of the best things about designing and writing patterns? I get to see what people do with my idea. It is immensely gratifying and so, so, so cool. My crochet bracelet pattern, Kaldred, has been the subject of a crochet-along on Ravelry and people have come up with really fantastic projects.

And it was all kick-started by Merri who arranged the crochet-along after seeing Debi's this stunning version:

Crochet cotton with beads. Debi chose very earthy, bronze-like colours for her Kaldred and I think her Kaldred looks flirty and fun.

Colour choice play a huge part in determining your look. Denise of FabEWElous chose to make her Kaldred out of black crochet cotton and added jet-black beads for effect. I think this version does indeed look fabulous: very chic and very gothic.

Shelley of CrochetedSass has made several Kaldreds, each with their own style. She even made one as an ankle bracelet! I really like this particular bracelet, though. Shelley explains that she thinks this one is more a cuff than a bracelet and I agree: this chunky Kaldred looks casual and contemporary.

Thank you for allowing me to use your photos, ladies!

I'm sure there are many other ways you can use the Kaldred pattern. Why not use it to make a necklace or a headband? Use a very chunky/bulky yarn and make a scarf? Add sequins or buttons? I think it is one of those patterns you can vary endlessly.

ETA: Oh, my word. I just love this version crocheted by Anne (aka FrozenP) in gimp. So textural:

Norn

Many cultures have stories about threads, spinning, and weaving. After all, textile-making used to be an every-day activity (I nearly wrote 'part of the fabric of life' - language is full of textile metaphors). Norse mythology is no different. The norns are female beings of fate, of sorts, and 19th century images often depict the norns weaving at the foot of Yggdrasill (the world tree). I like to imagine the norns as being far less picturesque and a lot more unknowable than most of the imagery associated with them.

I don't know why I chose to call this jumper "Norn" on its Ravelry project page, in other words. Maybe because it reminds me of Scandinavia, maybe because I spend a lot of time weaving threads behind one another (the joys of colourwork).

But Norn it is.

It is working up relatively fast and the luse pattern is really easy to remember.

I am also very happy with the colour choice I made: Rowan Tweed in Bedale for the body, and Bainbridge for the contrast. Bedale is a nice, but not dull oat-meal colour and Bainbridge is a dark red with interesting flecks through it. Essentially I'm knitting Norn with the Danish flag colours but in a not-obvious and completely wearable way.

You can say what you like about 19th century appropriation of Norse mythology (and I don't have many nice things to say), but I do love reading translations of the Poetic Edda that go like this:

Mightily wove they the web of fate, While Bralund's towns were trembling all; And there the golden threads they wove, And in the moon's hall fast they made them.

In case you are interested in reading more about Old Norse texts and the sources of what we today know as Norse mythology, Heimskringla is an excellent place to start and many of their texts are even available in English. Their photo archive may be of interest too if you are of the visual persuasion..

Why the Overlap?

A good friend of mine, Emme, went to her knitting group the other day and noticed something (link in Danish): there is a huge overlap between knitters & people who read scifi/fantasy. She notes that Ravelry has at least 65 groups dedicated to fantasy but has just two groups for Copenhagen knitters. And Emme is really surprised by this overlap between scifi/fantasy-reading and knitting: "I don't get it". My first thought? "It's a geek thing." Emme responded to say that my response was a cop-out, it had to be something a bit more profound.  And so I'd like to ask you, dear readers, why this overlap between scifi & fantasy geeks and knitters?

(From my own observations, there are also huge overlaps called "librarians & knitting" and "GLBT-orientation & knitting", but we'll have those discussions another day..)

I like reading books, full stop. I like imagination. I like books that take our mundane lives and turn them inside out; books that take our world and expand upon it. Many of my favourite books tend towards the speculative end of the spectrum with a healthy dollop of misanthropy and dystopia. And I'm horrifyingly entertained by dragons, airships, and ray guns (not necessarily in the same book).

And I knit.

And I think it has to do with imagination and creative space. Knitting is just a ball of string which you loop together in a manner which you find pleasing. You can have an entire jumper in a ball of wool: it's bigger on the inside, if you like. You can knit optical illusions, crochet ray guns and buy steampunk-themed patterns. And make your own chainmail, of course. All these things that you can create yourself whilst playing with numbers and watching Game of Thrones - what's not to like?

(Or could it just be that fantasy/scifi happen to be very, very popular genres?)

West End Walk

Hey babe, take a walk in the West End..

Open the gate..

What will you find?

A chance encounter with beauty..

..or something else inside?

Maybe just a place to rest for a while.

Then close the door and whisper 'bye, bye'.

Swatch Done; Now Moving On

One crap Johnny Depp film later, and I finished my Rowan Fine Tweed sampler/swatch. I still need to steek and block it, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. I also learned that I have to watch my tension on the diagonal stripes section as it does pull in a bit. I cannot wait to start knitting the jumper in the DK weight.

The yarn is very soft - softer than I thought it would be, actually. The red shade - Bainbridge - has lovely tiny flecks of orange running through it. I love that about it. However, I'm wondering if the single-row stripes shouldn't be a third colour? Navy? Apple green? Brown? Brown might just work.

We watched Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate which I remember seeing in my favourite Copenhagen art-house cinema back in the late 1990s. I remembered it as a real Euro-trash turkey and I was right. However, I had forgotten its high camp value which went some way towards making it watchable. Look! Depp has grey temples! Now he doesn't! Oooh, the bad stunt double is flying and you totally cannot see the wire-work!

I remember liking the book, The Dumas Club, on which The Ninth Gate was based. I also remember the book having a great of interesting sub-plots which had been completely exercised from the Polanski film - most notably the The Three Musketeers sub-plot which gave Pérez-Reverte's novel its title. Oh, when bad films happen to decent books.

Speaking of books, I am current reading Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. I shall be forever grateful to Lori that she made me pick up a Vonnegut book in the first place. I'm having a slow day, a day off, and I shall now return to my favourite reading space with a cuppa tea, my favourite blanket and Cat's Cradle. August is off to a good start.

PS. thank you for your comments on swatching/not swatching. You are a bad bunch - just as bad as me! - for not always swatching!

Swatching for the Future

Do you swatch? To tell you the truth, I rarely swatch except when I suspect that either my tension will be off-kilter or when I'm unsure about colour combinations. It is a terrible thing to admit to (not) doing and it is definitely a case of do-as-I-tell-you, not do-as-I-do. I'd be a nightmare parent. But I am swatching now, except I am swatching with Rowan Fine Tweed (4ply) rather than Rowan Tweed (DK). I wanted to make sure that my chosen colour combination for Finna will work - and since my local Rowan stockist did not have the full range of the DK weight colours (any day now, though, any day), I took the opportunity to sample the fine gauge instead. The combination is a thing of beauty and I am marvellously excited about getting started.

I'm tentatively starting to think about my autumn wardrobe. Apart from Finna (and another jumper or cardigan I'm yet to decide upon), I want to make a couple of go-to skirts. I have some beautiful green corduroy stashed away which is crying out to be a 1970s-style A-line skirt with pockets (must.have.pockets) but I cannot find the right pattern. Then there is the green-cream-orange apple-print cotton which is just on the right side of 1970s retro kitsch, but which could be ruined by pairing up with the wrong pattern. I've looked at Burda and Simplicity, but pattern suggestions are very welcome.

Even more excitement: the Crocheted Jewellery group on Ravelry is hosting a CAL (a crochet-along) of my Kaldred bracelet all August long! I love seeing what people do with my patterns and I'm having so much fun looking through people's projects.

So jumpers and skirts and a few patterns to write-up .. phew, it is going to be a very busy autumn in Casa Bookish craft-wise. How is your craft basket looking?