I’m so proud of my little self. I should probably retire from knitting now.
I also have NO CLUE where I will ever wear this.
Adventures in Knitting – First Lace Wrap
Musings on Knitting and Life
Remember this? I started knitting this lace shawl/wrap thingy back in April last year after finding myself in Portland with nothing to knit and a fabulous yarn shop close at hand which sold lots of colours of Seasilk.
Well, here it is today, washed, pinned out and ‘blocking’. And utterly and completely and totally FINISHED. It just needs to block and dry and then you can see it in all its glory.
It’s the first bit of true lace I’ve ever knitted and I must admit that it’s been somewhat of a struggle. The actual knitting wasn’t that tricky, though I did have to learn how to cable without a cable needle, but keeping track of where I was in the pattern was hard (the cable edgings had a pattern repeat of 8 rows and the diamonds in the middle in rows of 12) and managing laceweight yarn is a nightmare, with stitches dropping all over the place. It didn’t help that the main times I knit are either when watching TV, knitting socially or keeping an eye on the Minx. This job required FOCUS and tons of it.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to rip back to a lifeline, undo several rows or spend ages dropping back through the pattern to fix some silly little mistake I hadn’t noticed at the time (and being a Virgo I’m afraid I just can’t leave mistakes). On several occasions I had to abandon the project for weeks or even months on end, so fed up was I by the slow progress and the repetitive pattern. On more than one occasion I wondered whether I would actually ever finish.
But I kept plodding on, picking it up after it had been abandoned, relearning the pattern, knitting a bit here and a bit there and forcing myself to tink back to fix mistakes. In December last year I vowed that I wouldn’t start anything new until I had finished all my works in progress. I’m not normally so persevering, and this could so easily have ended up as a tangled ball at the bottom of my knitting bag, but the silk yarn was beautiful and expensive and I really wanted to wear the finished article. And so I pressed on.
And it occurs to me that knitting is a bit like life – if you keep going; if you keep adding stitch after stitch after stitch; if you pick things up and start again however difficult things may seem; if you force yourself to go back and fix mistakes; if you keep doing the right thing however little progress you appear to be making, if you just take a deep breath and apply some focused concentration to the job in hand, then one day, instead of a tangled mess, you will find that you’ve created something special and beautiful, of which you can be very, very, very proud.
Proper pics soon. More details, as usual, on my Ravelry page.
Funnily enough when I was researching my family tree last year I discovered that I am descended from a long line of Spitalfields silk weavers. And here I am 200 years later, still ‘weaving’ silk.
Sandra’s Studio
Remember the Wrist Worms?
Isn’t this just the perfect place to create them? It makes me want to dive for my crochet hook.
{Image of Sandra Juto’s studio from her blog www.sandrajuto.com }
Amy Ruppel for the Working Proof
Writing grumpily about ghastly interiors is actually quite exhausting, so let’s move on to something altogether more charming and uplifting.
You know what a big fan I am of Amy Ruppel.
Well she has just produced a beautiful print for The Working Proof, an online print gallery and shop with the mission of promoting both art and social responsibility through a series of limited-edition prints.
Amy was inspired by the forests near her home in Portland, Oregon to produce the above print. Buy it from the Working Proof for $45 and 15% of the proceeds will be donated to American Forests.
The forests of Washington and Oregon are so very beautiful. I feel like getting the above print for the Minx, who will, I’m sure, miss pine trees enormously if and when we get back to the sparse, deciduous forests of southern England.
Happy Tape – Japanese Masking Tape
How crazy is it that I’m seriously considering dropping $50 on a selection of cheerful packing tapes and a dispenser? And just when I’m thinking that the house needs a serious de-clutter?
The pictures are so cheerful and apparently hit exactly the same colour-loving sweet spot in my brain that beautiful yarn does - ‘ooh. pretty. colours. BUY’. And I know that the Minx, who is in the throes of a long and passionate love affair with Sellotape, would spontaneously combust with delight.
But for the moment, I shall content myself with the ogling the pretty pictures. Maybe I’ll get myself some as a reward if I ever manage to tidy my desk. All these beauties are available from Happy Tape’s shop here, please don’t tell me if you buy some.
Small But Perfectly Formed
As you may have noticed I’ve become slightly obsessed by all things tiny and dollshousy recently, so I was thrilled and delighted to see a dolls house, would you believe, get a full editorial spread in last month’s Elle Deco UK.
Of course in order to hold its own against the fabulous full size apartments on show, this was of course no ordinary dolls house. It’s a pretty vintage 1960s house full of lovingly collected vintage furniture and showcasing miniature versions of designer Deborah Bowness’s handprinted trompe l’oeil wallpapers, put together by Bowness and her friend Emily Chalmers of East London vintage store Caravan.
I sort of want to move in immediately.
Adventures in Knitting – I Saw Three Gifts
Just a quick and very belated knitting update. I thought I ought to knit the Minx and the Husband something for Christmas seeing as they’re always watching me knitting things for myself.
I made the Minx something called a Calorimetry from some novelty handspun I found on here on Etsy.
The Husband got a Windschief cowl to match his eyes in DK Silky Cashmere in the Limited Edition Old Jade colourway (and yes, he is spoilt) from Sundara (this is so he can’t complain about the amount of money I spend in that woman’s direction).
And I, because of course I can only knit unselfishly for so long, treated myself to a pair of fingerless gloves in merino silk Opulence in the completely stunning Chocolat Chambord colourway from the Woolen Rabbit.
I have promised myself I won’t start anything new until I’ve finished all my works in progress from last year. So I’m currently plodding through my Lace Shawl, my Interminable Blanket and a sweater I started knitting at the tail end of lat year.
All details as before on my Ravelry page – come and be my friend.
While We’re On The Subject of Granny Squares
I came across these fabulous pictures in Holly Decor8’s Interior Styling pool and had to share them with you.
I am now having to sit on my hands I’m so desperate to start crocheting a granny square garland. What a great idea. And absolutely gorgeous styling too.
{Idea and pictures from Dottie Angel. This is why I’m learning to crochet. I also want those knitting needles – does anyone know what make they are?}
Gigantic Granny Square Afghan
Today is the Minx’s fifth birthday. And so of course she comes bounding into our bedroom this morning full of energy and excitement and shouts about presents.
For some reason it seemed particularly dark and I felt even crapper than I usually do when it’s time to get up, but it had been raining all night, which would explain the darkness, and when I asked the Husband what time it was (he keeps the alarm clock on his side of the bed) he said ‘oh, it’s twenty past seven’. I felt so dreadfully unrested that I asked him to double check but he reassured me about the time and we hauled ourselves out of bed and downstairs to begin the unveiling of half a ton of Disney Princess/Calico Critters/My Little Pony crap tempered with the occasional improving book.
This process had been going on for about ten minutes and I was just about to start making birthday waffles when I happened to glance at the clock on the VCR. Which said 3:52. Yes, my Cambridge-educated Husband had got his long and short hands mixed up and we’d all got up at 3.35 am. And of course after that the Minx was so excited it took her ages to go back to sleep, and she woke up again for the final time at 6.30 am.
So if you thought that today there would be a moving eulogy to my five-year old daughter or even any substantive blogging at all, then, dear readers, you are very much mistaken.
Instead here are a few pictures of the Gigantic Granny Square Blanket I crocheted for the Minx’s new dolls house.
She had expressed some disappointment that the blanket provided (a thin scrap of dark blue jersey) was too small for the sofa bed, so I decided to make the dolls their very own gigantic granny square afghan. I was very pleased with how well the yarn went with the decor and it seems that the (rather creepy) dolls are too.
This is another step in my ‘teach yourself to crochet’ campaign. After a few false starts I can now granny square along fabulously thanks to the Purl Bee’s excellent instructions. I’m almost tempted to start on a full-size gigantic granny square blanket just for us.
The yarn is the scraps from my first ever pair of socks. It’s fascinating to see how differently the yarn works up in different patterns.
Today I Am Mostly…
…crocheting.
It’s going to be a tiny gift for the Minx’s birthday, of which more anon.
