Books 2011

Larisa & the Halfway Point

How can this be July already? To celebrate, my Larisa scarf is now available to download for free from Ravelry. Recent events in Casa Bookish:

  • We went to see the new Riverside Transport Museum here in Glasgow. It is smaller than you think and the interior is painted a strange lime-green hue which makes everybody look jaundiced - but it is an interesting space. It'll be good to see more imaginative projects shoot up alongside the Clyde river.
  • When Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon is the third-most intellectually challenging book I have read this year, you know I'm in trouble. It was hugely enjoyable, actually, but I feel guilty for not reading Clever Stuff. Maybe I should consult this.
  • Don't knit lace when you are tired and stressed. Trust me on this one.
  • As a household of news junkies, D and I have been glued to BBC News 24 and The Guardian's coverage of the UK phone-hacking scandal. MetaFilter has a great primer if you are unaware of the scandal (and stay for the comments).
  • I had a stressful day trying to upgrade my blog software which turned out to be incompatible with my host company's servers. As you can tell, I managed to work things out, but I'm always thankful for UK hosting suggestions.

Glasgow had her annual Two Days of Summer but we are back to heavy rain, grey skies, and woolly-wear appropriate temperatures, huzzah! I am tempted to re-start Fenris which I had to rip out as I had grossly mis-calculated my measurements vs sweater measurements. Are you still working on your summer knitting?

The Not So Gentle Art of Reviewing

I was asked by a publishing company if I wanted to review a knitting book. My only problem was that the publishing company has a back catalogue of, well, novelty knitting books and so I was sent Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Knitting when I showed a decided lack of interest in a Harry Hill knitting book. I think the Harry Hill book might have been better because the Brocket book confuses me. The Gentle Art of Knitting is pretty in a comfortable, yet aspiring way. The photography is lovely, the layout is stylish (but not dauntingly stylish) and the writing has a spring in its step. I was not surprised to find that Brocket is a blogger because her writing has a certain immediate, chatty style to it. I know I'm supposed to be charmed by her book and herself, but I have problems with the book.

I am well-educated middle-class woman who likes making things. I also like things with a story. And I appreciate aesthetically pleasing things. I am the target audience for this book but I feel condescended towards:  Reading The Gentle Art of Knitting I feel like I am not good enough because I have not chosen the right wine to go with my knitting (but Jane can help!); I am not good enough because I did not pick up 20 skeins of Cascade 220 on my last breezy weekend trip to New York (but Jane did!); And I am not fun and retro enough to have a knitted tea-cosy for my teapot (but Jane sure is!). There is a sense that my own life is slightly lacking but that Jane Brocket hovering behind me will gently correct all my tiny flaws.

I am not sure where this lingering sense of inferiority is coming from. Ms Brocket's designs are not exactly earth-shattering: a knitted apron, a bog-standard ripple crochet blanket, a chevron scarf.. There is exactly one pattern I like in this book - a pair of pillows - while the rest of the patterns feel nondescript. Designs do not need to be complicated, of course, but I somehow expected more from a book with such a heavy emphasis on aesthetics. I somehow expected a cohesive design strategy..

(There is even an strange bit devoted to "cult knitting patterns" which has her describing the Clapotis scarf and The February Lady Sweater. This section feels very odd, very tacked-on, and oddly dated.)

It is a UK book, yet most yarns used can only be bought in a handful of shops throughout the country. We are not even talking unicorn yarn here, just straightforward US workhorse yarns: Cascade 220 and Blue Sky Alpaca. If Jane Brocket wants to use yarns that is more exclusive than what you can find in your average UK yarn shop, why use quite plain US workhorse yarn? Why not track down The Natural Dye Studio? Fyberspates? The Knitting Goddess? If exclusivity is not her aim, why not promote UK companies? Rowan? Debbie Bliss? Sublime? Her readers will thank her for being able to buy the suggested yarns.

But then again it's a book for knitters that do not knit. It is lifestyle porn in the same way as Nigella's cooking shows, Kirstie Allsopp's TV crafting and the Sunday newspaper colour supplements are inviting you to buy into a lifestyle. As a knitter who does like to knit, I am not sure what to do with this book.

I have tried hard to think of The Gentle Art of Knitting's unique selling proposition but I cannot really find one. At the end of the day it is an aspirational lifestyle blog locked into a book. There are many knitting and lifestyle blogs out there - many of which are far better than this book - and I can read them for free. I can also buy far better pattern books at a fraction of the price.

I'm sure I wouldn't have spent nearly 700 words on the Harry Hill knitting book. I'm also sure I wouldn't have felt so disheartened either.

Brief Encounter

  • I have a nice pile of unfinished projects I had really hoped to have finished by now. Thank you, Upstairs Neighbour for flooding our bathroom and completely derailing an already busy week.
  • I have been running so many knitting and crochet tutorials this month. It has been completely overwhelming but in a good way. My brain is slightly fried and I feel like I've used up all my good craft-related jokes.
  • I'm nearing the end of one design process and will begin another one next week. I have been asked about my design process. Right now my process is all about meeting needs I discover in my many, many tutorials. I'll get back to this in a later post.
  • First, though, I'm packing my bags and heading off to Yorkshire for work. I'm off to spend quality time with some good people.
  • My first quilt is currently displayed in the window of The Life Craft. How blooming exciting and slightly humbling. They are now offering ceramics classes - I'm tempted but I really do not need another craft. I have no time for another craft.
  • I have been reading a lot of crap this week. Balogh's One Night For Love may very well be the worst book I've read in several years. This plot outline should give you an idea why. However, my brain is too fried for anything vaguely decent. I even had trouble following The Brontës Went to "Woolworths", for heaven's sake.
  • I really need a long holiday. Looks like that's not exactly in the cards just yet..
  • Maybe getting a proper night's sleep would be a good place to start. And then it's time for Yorkshire.

Fenris & the Lady

I finished a book the other day to my great relief. I have been struggling with books for a few months now after the disastrous Zadie Smith - On Beauty almost-read. Refusing to finish On Beauty, I picked up several books only to put them down after a few pages and so it went for a few months. Wilkie Collins' The Law & The Lady isn't a great book by any stretch of the imagination , but it kept me reading and I'm very thankful for this. Sweater In ProgressMostly I have been working on my jumper, Fenris.

I have just finished the body; it includes so fairly dramatic waist-shaping, short-rows to shield my lower back (which is always cold) and short-row bust shaping ala Knotions' excellent guide. I am now working on the sleeves using the method I 'unvented' when knitting Snorri. I suspect I will also snip off the bottom ribbing and reknit it again like I did with Snorri. We shall see.

Fenris will have a circular yoke with some colourwork. Fenris is, of course, the monstrous wolf in Norse mythology which bit off Tyr's hand. While I am not planning on having disembodied hands nor wolves roaming around the yoke, I am idly pondering some Norse-inspired motifs. It all depends upon the colours I will have at hand. I only have the one colour in the yarn I'm using but its texture and appearance matches New Lanark Aran fairly well, so I have been digging through my stash to find suitable oddments (successfully locating some green, grey and brown bits).

Which brings me to: If any of you have oddments of New Lanark Aran (5g - 10g) in pinks, cream or blues - or in a similar yarn - please do get in touch and we can work out a swap or something. I refuse to spend £10+ just for a few yards of contrast colour.

I'm still working on my Fancy but I think I'm going to turn it into a shrug. Despite swatching and going down a size, it is still coming out huge. Future plans include writing up a couple of patterns (two freebies, one non-freebie), sewing a few skirts, and hopefully then have cleared out my knitting basket in time for the winter collections to arrive. Mildly ambitious..

A few recent favourites from Ravelry:

  • Paper Daleks: this one caused a minor discussion in Casa Bookish. (I'm still not going to knit you a Doctor Who scarf, Dave. It doesn't mean I don't love you. It just means I think it'd be a great beginner's project and I'd be very happy to teach you how to knit)
  • Cactus Blossom: I love the vibrant green colour coupled with Noro. Yum.
  • Julia's BSJ: So awesome-looking in Kauni. I'm leaning towards making one for my pregnant colleague. I do not know that many pregnant women so it's now or never..
  • Vintage St James: So gorgeous, it makes me want to make a striped sweater with a big kick-arse bow.
  • Grey Miette: How pretty! How wearable! I must, must, knit myself a grey cardigan!

Books Read 2011: Jasper Fforde - Shades of Grey

Years ago a good friend visited me in Copenhagen and somehow persuaded me into reading The Eyre Affair, an obscure first novel by a British writer. I had misgivings but my friend has good taste in things. Like countless others before and after me, I loved the book and Jasper Fforde is not an obscure author any more. He is more like a cult phenomenon - much in the same way as Terry Prachett (of whom I've never been a fan, incidentally) and Monty Python (who I love) he inspires devotion and fanaticism. You bond with other people over his books. You give them to friends and hope they'll come back laughing hard. Having said that, the Thursday Next novels which started with The Eyre Affair were a case of diminishing returns after the first three books and I never got into his follow-up series, Nursery Crimes. My interest in reading Shades of Grey was the unlikely combination of my friend Kirsten loving it and Adam Roberts calling it a failed high-concept sci-fi book (Pot Kettle Black, Mr Roberts). Shades is a more serious, darker book than what I expected from Fforde. Okay, so his dystopian vision is still filled with silly puns and comic asides, but the world is a sinister place where nasty things do happen to good people. The book is also more science fiction than his previous books (which were pomo-literary-comic-fantasy-detective-thriller-fiction) which is particularly noticeable in its world building. However, I wish I had known that Shades is the first of three novels, so I could have understood its pacing a lot better. The extensive world building takes up almost 2/3rds of the novel and the plot does not unfold until very, very late.

So, I had a mixed reaction to Shades of Grey but I know I shall be reading the next two novels in the series because I do love a good dystopian novel and the plot set-up is really quite intriguing even if I had to read 250+ pages about The National Colour Grid, the importance of maintaining a colour dynasty, beigemarket dealings in colour swatches, and homing slugs.