Doggerland: Ronaes

So here we are. I released the Ronaes shawl pattern on Monday. It is the first of the Doggerland patterns to be published and I do so with a sigh of relief.

I'm really proud of Ronaes - it was one of those designs that just fell into place really quickly and where the finished object looked even better than I had imagined.

(I have issues with the way I look in the pattern photos: oh, all the issues that arise when you stare at your own face and body as you edit photos and patterns - but I think that's a topic for another day.)

The original Ronaes was knitted in Garthenor 1ply - a beautiful and bouncy laceweight. It's called a cobweb on Ravelry which I think is a touch misleading. It's more like a heavy 2ply or a light 3ply. Maybe if I spun yarn I'd have a better idea? Looking at all the different yarn choices made for Ronaes in the Doggerland KAL is my favourite activity at the moment.

Also this week I could finally share some really exciting news. The Island Wool Company is the UK importer of the fantastic Snældan yarns. They love the Doggerland collection so much that they asked if they could team up with me. Imagine that. How could I say no? So, apart from Ravelry, the Doggerland patterns will pop up on the Island Wool Company website. I have already ordered some Snældan 2ply in Mist, so I can knit myself another Ronaes.

And in final Ronaes news, Louise Scollay of the excellent Knit British blog took an early look at Doggerland - and especially Ronaes:

What excites me about this collection is the connection to landscape and the past, and also a sense of otherness – something I often feel keenly in my own landscape.

So here we are.

The past fortnight has been crazily busy - but I'm happy to say that I'm meeting some absolutely fantastic people as part of the general insanity. If you're reading this, you are one of them.

Thinking With My Fingers

I have been thinking about what unites all the things I do and the things I care about. It struck me that I need my hands in order to translate (or transmit) all the things in my head. I am far more eloquent when I write than when I speak. I express my ideas better when I draw or knit them than if I try to describe them. And I sit down to tap away at a keyboard when I feel I have a nebulous notion brewing away in my head. The Greek philosopher Plato once addressed the mind-body problem and how the mind and body can be connected. Plato was a great fan of 'the soul' and thought our bodies inferior. Philosophers have discussed this ever since (it's known as Dualism) - when I was younger, I'd scoff at my body and be firmly in Plato's camp. The life of the mind! Pure soul! These days I definitely cannot imagine life without my fingers acting as transmitters or translators. We all mellow as we get older, don't we?

Anyway, I began thinking about this because I am just back from a work trip to Yorkshire. I had my camera with me and I snapped a lot of photos - but mostly unexpected photos.

Who knew I'd ever take an arty photo of a horse grazing in a field as a way of expressing my innermost thoughts? But there you go: life is bright and sunny with a tinge of blue. Beautiful things are in focus, bigger things are rather blurry (but I'm pushing those to the back for the time being). And everything is good.

I want to thank everybody for the lovely stream of messages concerning Doggerland. When I first started talking about my idea for the collection, a few people told me it was a bit too “out there” so I didn’t know what to expect .. but I have received so much great feedback and so much support over the last week. I have been particularly thrilled by emails from strangers who told me about their own connection to the Doggerland area - if I can make people think about their personal/emotional connections to landscapes and knitting, I have done my job well.

This would have been an excellent time to insert a photo of sheep grazing on Yorkshire hills. Unfortunately I had to take those photos from a moving train and this is the best one. Try to spot the sheep:

I'll write more about my work trip to Yorkshire later - it was essentially a three-day knitting & yarn mini-conference at this place:

As I said, everything is good. I am meeting interesting people, I am being pushed out of my comfort zone, and I am thinking a lot with my fingers.

A few links &c:

• You can still pre-order my Doggerland collection and get 20% off. Hurry, though, as the offer only runs for a few more days.
• Stories In Stitches is a new venture from the amazing Donna Druchunas. Stories in Stitches combine so many of my favourite things: story-telling, knitting, writing and social history - not to mention that strange (but so exhilarating) sense of continuity and connection across places and ages you get when you combine all those things.
• A very interesting interview with Harry Potter star, Emma Watson. Yes, really. I was struck by her take on feeling insecure and trying to balance her own self-perception with how others perceive her.
• Finally, a great article about how the Eurovision Song Contest can be read as something other than just a way of life six-months-long week-long fun evening. It's a way of nation-building in the 21st century.

Pre-order Doggerland - Join the Journey.

After so many months of hard work, Doggerland: Knits from a Lost Landscape is finally available to pre-order through Ravelry. The first pattern will be the Ronaes Shawl (as seen in the photos) but I will write more about the shawl when I release it on June 10. The idea for the Doggerland collection first came to me when I was looking at artefacts in the National Museum of Denmark's Prehistory section.

I was looking at a bone antler fragment carved with beautiful, simple designs when my partner started reading aloud a piece about the lost region of Doggerland – a Mesolithic landscape now lost to the North Sea between the UK and Scandinavia (Mesolithic means "Middle Stone Age"). I loved the simplicity of the carved antler and I loved the story of a lost landscape that once formed a land bridge between Denmark (where I grew up) and Britain (where I now live).

The prehistory sections of The National Museum of Scotland and the National Museum of Denmark yielded much inspiration: worked flintstones, carved antler bones, well-preserved fykes, and excavated shell middens. Motifs and textures are either directly taken from Mesolithic artefacts found in the Doggerland region (or surrounding areas) or use them as visual cues. The Mesolithic period was characterised by very geometric designs: lines, dots, circles and simple shapes. Shapes and motifs you will find throughout the collection, both in the knitting patterns and the illustrations.

It is difficult to determine what types of textiles Mesolithic people made, what materials they used and how they wore their clothes. Textiles are made from organic materials and therefore they decay over the thousands of years between the Mesolithic Era and today. Occasionally archaeologists unearth tiny treasures: a maritime excavation off the coast of Denmark discovered one single thread of spun plant material, for instance.

The Doggerland collection does not seek to recreate Mesolithic textiles - but it wishes to prompt the imagination. Choose your materials with care - and think about the landscape and environment to which they belong.

Designing this collection was an exercise in psycho-geography for me and I would like to think that knitting these designs will become a journey through your personal landscapes too. I wanted to tell the story of a lost landscape but also remind you that we all walk in landscapes like Doggerland. Where we live was once covered by sea and in time will once again be covered.

The Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived 10,000 years ago were not all that different from you and me.

Doggerland: Knits from a Lost Landscape is available to pre-order until June 10. It costs £12 which is a special pre-order price (on June 10 going forward it will cost £15). The patterns will be released every few weeks and will be available as single downloads at £3 each.

Phew. I feel emotionally drained now!

Almost There: Making Doggerland pt 3

It is odd. By all accounts I should resent working on Doggerland, but I am still in love with the collection. The yarns are beautiful, I still think the idea behind it is intriguing, and I enjoy pulling it all together. And it is being pulled together.

Patterns are out being looked over by technical editors (the people who make sure every t is crossed and every i is dotted). I am busy with pattern layouts and making sure everything looks coherent and right.

Perfectionism appears to be my worst enemy, actually. Some of you have called me out for that and I want to thank each and everyone for doing so. I have been battling with perfectionism most of my adult life, and although knitting design does not give me ulcers (unlike academia), I am still very hard on myself. I am learning to let go.

The photo above is a great example of my perfectionism. It is an out-take from one of the photo shoots (it doesn't show enough pattern detail to be a great pattern photo). I was really panicky about the photo shoots and looking back, I don't know why. Sure, I don't have a professional photographer at my disposal and the equipment used isn't worth tens of thousands of pounds - but the photos are great nonetheless.

It has been a long time coming to this point and I have learned a lot about myself and my work processes over the last year(!).

• You are only as good as your network.

I have been lucky insofar my professional network has been incredibly supportive. I'd particularly like to mention Fiona from The Island Wool Company, Ella Austin, and Elly Doyle who have all listened to me with patience and offered brilliant advice when needed.

• Don't be hard on yourself. Be kind.

That one is pretty self-explanatory! Doggerland has been a project so close to my heart and I think I let it get too personal at times.

• Know when to stop.

And this brings me to what is going to happen next.

Doggerland will be going on pre-order Monday, May 27 at 12noon GMT until June 10 when the first pattern will land.  Following on from June 10, patterns will land in your inbox every few weeks. You can buy the patterns individually too, of course, but the collection is the cheaper option (particularly if you opt for pre-ordering it).  At the moment you can expect 8 patterns - all accessories - but I may add one or two (or three) to that count.

So, there you have it. I hope you'll find it's been worth the wait. Thank you to everyone over the past year who has been sending me supportive messages, asking me about the patterns and generally been good eggs.

I am going to go take a big breath of fresh air now.

Kirkja in May

Yesterday was such a lovely day. It was finally warm enough to walk around without a jacket, the rain stopped, and the bluebells were out in full force. Dave told me to put on some lipstick and head out for an impromptu photo shoot. I recently had the rights to my Kirkja shawl returned to me, so I grabbed it off the shelf. I love its rich, warm yellow hue and it looked so beautiful in the hazy sunshine.

You may know that my paternal grandmother was Faroese. I have had some great conversations with Fiona from The Island Wool Company about the wealth of inspiration I gain from North Atlantic knitting traditions. Kirkja is an example of my magpie tendency: rather than sticking to traditional shapes and patterns, I wanted the shawl to reflect the Faroese love of geometric patterning and simple shapes. So, it's an updated, funkier version of a traditional Faroese shawl: no garter stitch, no shoulder shaping but some neat straight angles.

You can now buy Kirkja straight from Ravelry (right here) - it was designed for one hank of luxury handdyed sock yarn (my shawl is knitted in Old Maiden Aunt Superwash Merino 4ply in "Buttermint") and 4mm needles, so it's the ideal stash diving project! Kristen has knitted a beautiful Kirkja in a neutral-green hue, so if you're not one for bright colours, check out her ace version.

(In related news, stay tuned for actual & real, proper Doggerland news by the end of this week.)

Casa Bookish has seen quite a few friends pass through Glasgow over the last few weeks which has meant I've had to spread my workload really carefully and keep social media interactions to a minimum. Unfortunately it also meant that I didn't have time to write my customary Eurovision blog entry this year - but I have received a deluge of lovely messages after Denmark's win (my personal favourite finished fourth, though). Thank you!

Now back to working on more lovely things. It is always so nice when I am getting close to the point where I can start to write about them!

Sorting the Stash

In the interest of showing you that a) I am not a domestic goddess and b) I have hoarder tendencies when it comes to yarn and books, I took this photo in the middle of tidying the living room.

Pictured: two hours of sorting my stash (about one-fifth of my stash is visible), two woollie horses, a felting project, a dressmaking project, and about one-third of our books.

The stash looks pretty bad in the photo, but it'll look a lot better soon. My biggest downfall is that I have no designated space for things. I would love to have my own studio space with designated storage space and some book shelves just for yarn/craft-related books. Right now I make due carving out an office space in the kitchen and a working space in the living room. It is far from ideal as I spend too much time hunting for specific balls of yarn and needles - but it's better than if I had still been living in my flat in Copenhagen which was oh.so.tiny compared to my Glasgow home. I just keep moving boxes around the house and it gets frustrating at times.

I sort by stash by amounts & weights, to a certain degree. Sweater amounts are kept together, laceweights live together in two boxes, and I keep my odd balls in three containers so I can dip into them for swatching/accessory-making purposes. The Doggerland yarns are also kept together. Lately I have become tough on small oddments of yarn. I used to keep them, but I have begun to realise that it's better for my sanity (and storage facilities) if I let them go.

Quite apart from the massive amounts of yarn in Casa Bookish, I actually struggle most keeping all my notions and needles organised. Yarn is relatively easy, but how do I organise buttons, sewing needles, threads, gauge measures, cable needles, stitch holders, safety pins etc? My knitting needles are currently all jumbled up in boxes - I know some people have beautifully organised needles with plastic pockets, folders and what not. That's never worked too well for me.

Anyway, another couple of hours and the stash will be beautifully organised once more. It's always darkest before the dawn, mm? Oh, and here's a little something I'm working on in Snældan 2ply (NOM).

The mysterious project is resting on top of my Bute cardigan which now only needs one sleeve and a buttonband before it's ready to go. And I might write more about the Snældan project in my next Doggerland post. I've made some decisions. But first I have tidying & organising to do.

(I really want to tackle those gorram book shelves too. I used to have my books alphabetised by author (then under author by publication date) but somebody in this house doesn't believe in that system.. )