I need to make a decision about which colour to wear .. and that got me thinking: any rich colours I haven't used for a shawl? Any recs?
The Project of In-Between Time: Orkney
For the past fortnight I have been travelling. I am used to travelling but usually I travel for work, not pleasure. I had a lovely time and I'll be sharing stories from that journey soon. Suffice to say that my batteries have been recharged. I spend so much time working on things that I cannot show you until they have been published. However, I do work on the occasional design by other people. My Bute cardigan is nearly done, but unfortunately I made a major mistake when I cast on for the fronts. The Small and Medium sizes are practically identical up to a certain point and, yes, my brain chose the wrong increase. As a result one front is size Small and the other is size Medium. I will have to reknit the wrong size front (which would be the smaller of the two, of course) but luckily I have enough yarn for that.
So I cast on for another project and it is one I work on when I do any public knitting or have any in-between time.
This is the Orkney cardigan from Rowan 52. I have changed the pattern quite a bit - though not any essential parts!
Instead of knitting it flat, I worked the body in the round with steeks (including the neckline and the armholes) as I didn't see the need to knit a traditional fair-isle cardigan flat and then seam it. So much extra work for no good reason! I added 9 stitches for the front steek and 7 stitches elsewhere. First I secured the steek with crochet stitches but I didn't like the bulkiness (particularly around the armholes) so I redid the edges using the zigzag on a sewing machine - much better.
I also changed the colour scheme significantly.
The original cardigan uses 13 colours in Rowan Felted Tweed DK and is rather bright when you see it in real life. The Rowan photos show it as being rather muted, but you have yellows next to purples with turquoise is another of the dominant colours. I just wanted to take the colour scheme somewhere else and turn it more autumnal. I did a coloured in version of the fair-isle chart before I changed colours around so I could see which colours were dominant where - I really recommend doing this if you are planning on recolouring any big fair-isle project. In the end I substituted the Camel (beige) with Phantom (brown). I used Ancient (a blueish khaki green) instead of Bilberry (purple) and Rage (red) instead of Watery (turquoise). I am generally using fewer colours as well as they tend towards the cool green-brown-red end of the scale.
Interestingly the sleeves use the same patterns as the body but the colours are changed around. The change in colours make a huge difference and people have been astonished when I point out the patterning is identical. I'm trying to impose a certain order on my colour scheme by using Rage on the sleeves whenever I've used Ancient (and vice versa) and Camel where I've previously used Celadon, but I'm not sticking to any substitution rules, really. Whatever looks nice. The sleeve looks a bit brighter than the body and I've used less green than I had anticipated, but I like how it looks.
Ravelry users reported that the fit was on the snug side, so I have gone up a needle size and also a size up from my usual Rowan size (which is Medium) - the lower part of the sleeve is still snug and I think the body will be a tight fit, but we'll see what happens when I block the cardigan. Felted Tweed DK likes to loosen up during blocking.
And I am already thinking about buttons. 
All of the buttons have been purchased from Textile Garden over the last year or so. I am somewhat partial to the lower left set but I do have some plain coconut shell buttons I could also use. First, though, I need to finish the two sleeves and the bands, block the lot, and ease in the sleeves. I am in no hurry with this cardigan so there will be plenty of time to decide upon buttons. Maybe even purchase some more?
I think I'll have enough yarn left to do another colourwork cardigan - maybe one emphasising slightly richer colours?
The Ythan Hat
Let's talk a little about what goes into a producing a design.
I will usually start by sketching and annotating the sketch with keywords. Then I start to look for yarns that will work with the idea and if I haven't worked with the yarns before, I will swatch to check stitch definition and drape. Next on the agenda: a skeleton pattern. This pattern is pretty rough-looking, though you'd be able to follow it without any difficulty. It has a full set of instructions, a rudimentary chart and my first sketch. The sample is knitted using the skeleton pattern. After the sample is knitted, I will clean up the pattern: eg. making sure the same abbreviations are used throughout, special instructions are spelled out, flesh out the materials section, and checking the charts are clear and correct.
Now comes the stage where the other half of Team Bookish gets involved - and that is him in the photo to the left. David will redraw my preliminary sketch and work on the actual photo shoot. A photo shoot includes finding the right location, making sure that the clothes work with the knitted item, and obviously taking the photos.
Working on the Ythan hat pattern was no different except that suddenly David had to step in front of the camera and I had to take the photos. It was interesting to swap places but try to look at the difference between the photo of David and the photo he shot of me some five minutes later. One of us is a talented photographer - the other one is a middling amateur!
I am not posing in the photo, I'm not dressed for a shoot, it is the same location, and we are using the same camera .. but Dave's just a far better photographer than me. Something about the way he uses light and understands depth of field.. well, I just cannot do what he does with a camera.
However, I can knit and I can design and this is the Ythan hat.
Ythan is the fifth pattern to be released from the Doggerland collection. The first four patterns were all about the periphery of the Doggerland region but I wanted to travel into the heart of Doggerland with this pattern.
Ythan is inspired by the carved artefacts - particularly antlers - that have been uncovered from the seabed underneath the North Sea. Most of the artefacts just have a few lines incised across the antlers - nothing major in terms of decoration or ornamentation - but I wanted to explore the idea of carved lines and how simple lines across a surface can be both functional and decorative. Knitted ribbing is a great example: it is elastic (functional) but also provides vertical lines (decorative). And what would happens if you sudden added texture (twisted stitches) and a very simple motif of vertical lines to the ribbing?
I'm tempted to say that just like the North Sea, this design has a lot more going on under the surface of things.
(And next time David will be back on photography duty.)
A Trip to Holmfirth
I usually love train journeys. I love the sounds of travelling on a train, I love having time to looking at the landscape, and I love knitting on trains. My ideal holiday would be a train journey across a country or a continent. It is just so relaxing.
Except if you are travelling down the East Coast of Britain on a hot and sticky Sunday in June. Then a train journey is hell on earth. After a five-hour journey, it was a joy to arrive at my destination in Yorkshire.
I have been to the Rowan Yarns HQ several times now and after the initial excitement of my first visit, I am now able to appreciate the Mill for other things than OMG, I recognise that cardigan and gosh, that's a lot of yarn. This time I closed my eyes and soaked up the quietness of the setting and recharged my batteries.
Most of the Mill is devoted to offices, but the workshop room never fails to make me smile. It is a riot of colour and textures - the walls are laid out like a giant yarn shop (though nothing is for sale), the tables and chairs are covered in Rowan fabric and every nook and cranny features Rowan projects. The photo above shows the Wool Week 2012 collection (patterns for which you can download for free from the Rowan website) tucked away in a corner with a Kaffe Fassett pattern library on the shelves underneath.
As workshop rooms go, this is hard to beat for location and creative spirit. As you can imagine.
I was there to preview the Autumn/Winter 2013 Rowan collection. It is always odd to preview winter garments and yarns in the height of summer, but yarn companies work with long lead-times. I know that just this past week they were shooting the Summer/Spring 2014 magazine which means that the Design Room is now currently hard at work on preparing for Autumn/Winter 2014!
(Needless to say, the mannequins on the right have nothing to do with autumnal or winter knits- I just loved the simple styling and the fruity colours.)
I cannot say anything about the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection - simply because it is yet to be released (although it will be released in a month or so). There are several new yarns and it is always one of the highlights of a Mill trip to see these. I have my own personal favourite already - but I always try to remember that I am not there for myself - I am there to assess how knitters will respond to the new yarns. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it!
Unfortunately I suffered from insomnia whilst visiting Holmfirth, but it meant I could work on the Stevie cardigan by the lovely Sarah Hatton. Because I live in Scotland, I'm doing the long-sleeved version(!) and I'm knitting it in Rowan Wool Cotton in French Navy. It is a top-down cardigan and I'm into the body section now which means perfect knitting night project.
The train journey back was much, much better. And I even managed to catch a glimpse of Antony Gormley's The Angel of the North.
The Light Is Pale & Thin
Oh, 2013. You are off to a slow, slightly bemusing start. Life is slowly creeping back into Casa Bookish. The suitcases are nearly unpacked, the laundry basket is nearly empty, and the fridge has been emptied of all holiday food. I still feel exhausted and I get easily winded, but I am feeling much better than I did just a few days ago. We've caught up with several friends and everybody seems to have been laid low with something this past holiday season. One thing is certain: I'll be getting the flu jab next winter season! No need to go through this %&¤#! again if I can help it..
So, I've been crossing off items on my giant To Do list. One of the top items was "preparing patterns for release" - and I crossed that one off my list today. All three yarn club patterns are now available for general consumption via Ravelry - you can buy them individually for as a bargainous e-book collection. Seeing as the original yarns are not available, I've worked together with Old Maiden Aunt yarns to find good colour substitutions.
At the same time I am busy designing some new things - I currently have two new designs on the needles and three other designs somewhere in the process between sketch and knitting.
In-between all my sample knitting, I have been knitting on my Bute cardigan. I cast off the second front last night which means I only have two sleeves to go, huzzah! I'll be block the back and fronts this week and hopefully get the body seamed, so I can pick up stitches for the button-band. I have a couple of different button styles to decide between but we'll cross that hurdle when we get to it.
Resident Photographer ran off with the camera today or I'd show you the unblocked pieces.
And if a blog entry could have a colour, this entry would be pale blue-grey with a dash of pink blush. The colour of winter slowly turning on its heel. Just like this photo from the Botanic Gardens we took late last year.
FO & Pattern: Serpentine Avenue
Remember the old joke about tombstones reading I told you I was ill? It was one of my uncles' favourite jokes, bless their socks.
Though magnificently Gothic, Serpentine Avenue is not my tombstone, but it does allow me to say I told you I was knitting!
It is the first pattern release for the Karie Bookish Knits/Old Maiden Aunt autumn 2012 yarn club. At the moment it is only available to yarn club members, but the pattern will be made available for general consumption in January 2013 as part of an ebook.
The shawl was written for OMA Bluefaced Leicester 4ply. It used approximately 375 yrds and is knitted on 4 mm needles.
But I want to write a little bit about the design process involved in designing Serpentine and the other yarn club patterns.
When Lilith of OMA first approached me, I started out by creating a moodboard on Pinterest. Lilith had decided on yarn bases by that point and then dyed up some samples for me. What a privilege it was! I sat there surrounded by yarns and beautiful colours - and I had to figure out which yarn/colour combinations I wanted to use.
It was around that time I started sketching patterns. Lilith and I had already decided upon Sherlock Holmes & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a common reference point between us. So, I wanted something gothic, something Victoriana, something vaguely burlesque, and something steampunkish.
And so I ended up with a stack of swatches and a stack of stitch patterns.
I finally cast on for Serpentine during the Olympics Opening Ceremony - it was to be my own Ravellenic Games project - but it flew off my needles. The only snag I hit was trying to decide upon the cast-off edging. I first used an elaborate crochet cast-off and it worked nicely. Then I changed my mind as I know a lot of knitters are not very comfortable with crochet. It was a step too far, I felt. The crochet cast-off will be used in another pattern down the line.
The second cast-off was a picot cast-off. It was pretty - it was very pretty - and I was happy with it for a long time. I finished designing and knitting the two other yarn club patterns - and suddenly the picot cast-off did not work. Don't ever try to tinker back a picot cast-off on a shawl, dear readers. It was not fun and I did it two days before the photo shoot.
I am really looking forward to seeing people's shawls. A lot of people have already talked about its Gothic and Steampunk feel - and I am so, so pleased that people have made that connection. It was very much the intention.
Then, the photo shoot.
If I look pale and flustered, it is because I wore a corset. I could hardly walk and talk at the same time - however did ladies waltz in corsets? I bought the corset especially for the photo shoot from Corsets UK - my corset is of far better quality than I would have assumed given the very reasonable price tag and they have good customer service. I also bought some stunning handmade earrings from Cherryblossom on ebay - again, highly recommended.
And now back to work. You know, I told you I was knitting..