Dust From A Distant Sun

What a lovely day. The postman brought me the April issue of UK knitting magazine Let's Knit in which I appear. Elaine from the editorial team contacted me back in January and after my busy few months I had actually forgotten I was going to be featured. A nice surprise. I spent an hour in bed looking through the magazine. I particularly liked the editorial on how to tie knitting into the key fashion trends of the season. Sometimes I think knitting likes to live in its own little fashion-bubble so it was nice to see how knitters can relate to, ahem, the normal world.

The postman also brought me some clearance-priced yarn from Kemps (that place is responsible for about half my yarn stash, I swear). I stocked up on RYC Cotton Jeans for some forth-coming baby-knitting projects as well as some RYC Natural Silk Aran which is earmarked for a stashbusting project. Lovely textures and colours at a good price. I was chuffed.

I continue to be chuffed about my Fancy jumper too. The combination of an Estonian lace stitch and Kidsilk Haze = heady stuff.

The stitch pattern is now so intuitive that I can knit it on my commute, at knitting group and in front of the TV. Madness. I'm really enjoying working on it.

I am still worried about the sizing though. I have gone down a clothes size but it still looks very wide. As a result I'm changing the garment a tiny bit: the jumper is supposed to hit you around the lower hip-area, but I'm going to make it shorter so it has an almost cropped appearance and I'm going to shorten the sleeves too. Hopefully it'll sort out the dimensions. I still wonder if it weren't meant to be knitted on 3.5mm needles instead of the recommended 4.5mm?

I want to share a project made by a friend from my knitting group. I was lucky enough to see this crochet blanket in person earlier this week and I was blown away.

It really makes me want to sit down and make my own crochet blanket .. but that way madness and stash-enhancement lies.

Plus I'd go slightly nuts after the first twenty motifs.

My main knitting group is actually so big that it has several divisions: I met the blanket maker when I happened upon the South Side division at the Tramway. I was only there to take down my knitted sculpture but was very, very pleased to see so many familiar and lovely faces. My partner was on hand to help me and was so amused by what he called "a tribal encounter" that he had to take a photo..

.. I have no idea what he means!

Finally, get yourself ready for Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011! I participated last year and found some new favourite blog reads. I'm in two minds whether I will participate this year (time constraints plus I feel like I have already written about some of these topics) but I know I'll be reading a tonne of fabulous new blog posts as a result of K&CBW.

Knitting Fancy: Stitch Primer

Fancy was the very first pattern to grab my attention of all the spring/summer previews. It is a deceptively intricate jumper knitted in Kidsilk Haze - I say 'deceptively' because once you twig how the stitch pattern works, the pattern is very straightforward. First of all, if you have knitted Laminaria, Echo Flowers or even Aurantium Blossom, then you will be more than comfortable knitting Fancy. Yes, boys and girls, this is an Estonian-style stitch pattern. Equally, if you are a relatively experienced crocheter as well as knitter, Fancy's stitch pattern will remind you quite a bit of making shells.

However, if you are neither a crocheter nor familiar with Estonian stitches, do not fret. It is just a matter of being able to read your knitting, feeling confident about dropping stitches and twigging when to do all those wrap-around the pattern asks you to do.

1) Get into a rhythm of counting 1-2-3-4-5. The stitch pattern is nothing more than a 6+1 pattern repeat and within that 6 stitch repeat you just need to count your cluster stitches. 1-2-3-4-5.

1a) On the second row of the pattern you will have a set of two purls right after one another. The first of these purls marks the end of your 6 stitch repeat and the second marks the beginning of your next repeat. Confused? I have a handy little graphic ready for you:

(ETA: this graphic shows you how it looks from the right side. You'll be knitting this as a purl side, so either flip the graphic around in your head or read your knitting from the right side)

Basically you just need to remember your 1-2-3-4-5 rhythm. If you lose your way (which is easy on this row), you just need to look for your two purls side by side and you'll be as right as rain.

2) Once you have conquered that second row, you are laughing because what you have done so far will guide your way for the rest of the knit. On the third row you do your best Estonian needle dance - back and forth, back and forth - whilst count 1-2-3-4-5. I find it easiest if I match the placement of the wrap-arounds to the placement of the wrap-arounds on the second row. Cue another schmancy graphic!

I just find it easier to keep my place this way. Also, it'll help mirror your stitches neatly. At least that's what I tell myself.

3) And miraculously you are halfway through the stitch pattern around this stage. And this is where it gets really straightforward if you can read your knitting. Why? Here's why. The stitches line up!

As you can see, the next time you're doing your clusters, they'll line up on top of the previous rows in a manner that'll let you count 1-2-3-4-5. The third of your cluster stitches will be on top of that nice little stocking stitch line running below. Again, it's useful if you lose your way as you no longer have just the two purls side-by-side (as explained above) to keep you right: now you can also keep an eye on symmetry and make sure that you haven't inadvertently done six-stitch clusters etc.

And that is pretty much you sorted!

I would advise you to swatch the stitch pattern nigh obsessively in a non-sticky sportweight or DK yarn until you figure out how to do the stitches. Use correspondingly bigger needles as the cluster can be tight to work otherwise.

Final note on Fancy so far: I find that sizing does run large. I have gone down a size but you might find that going down a needle size works better for you.

Hope it helps prospective Fancy knitters. I'll post a proper photo of my progress so far later this week (no, the photo above is not my actual project).

Addendum: this is the nerdiest post I have ever written!

The Day Before the Day

I'm so excited about tomorrow! The Tramway was heaving with activity today: stitching, story-telling, music , and beautiful people creating beautiful things.

BSJ

I found the cutest little ode to the magic of knitting at Signest's blog. It brightened my morning no end. (Make sure your speakers are on.)

Knit Like Fury

Get involved. There is still time for you to knit a square and send it in to Janssen & Jetson. If you are in Glasgow, why not volunteer? You can help stitch the blanket together, you can donate your time and ushering skills, or you can help spread the good word.

Is 'Sixthly' Even A Word?

First of all, congratulations to Ms Old Maiden Aunt whose yarn was just featured in the new Winter edition of Knitty. I particularly like how the Knitty people have made a lovely page banner out of a close-up of Lilith's yarn. The yarn was used for Palisander, a beautiful scarf by Denmark's own Signest (congratulations to you too, obviously!). Man, this knitting world is really freaking small at times.. Secondly (and just to prove my point), there is a photo of yours truly, Ms Celtic Stitcher, and SoCherry in the February edition of UK knitting magazine, Let's Knit. We were just knitting away at The Life Craft's knitting night and somehow a photo made it into a magazine. In all honesty, I am only an occasional guest at The Life Craft's knitting nights for one reason or another, but I am a huge fan of the shop and have enjoyed their hospitality on many (camera-less) occasions. It's great to see the gals (and guys!) of TLC getting national attention.

Thirdly, since Friday I have knitted 1 back, 1 sleeve and 1 front of my Purple Rain cardigan. You have to love 7mm needles and their Instant Gratification factor. I hope to have the cardigan finished by the end of the week which sounds bizarre to me after having spent five months knitting another cardigan (more on that one later). Seeing as my working week will be marked by a work-related train journey north, I should perhaps start planning my next big project..

Fourthly, I have already planned my next big project. In fact, I have planned my TWO big projects which will keep me occupied the next few weeks and then some. I recently bought some Rowan Silky Tweed in a delicious mustard yellow and my skeins are destined for the Acer cardigan by Amy Christopher (rav link). I have admired that cardigan for a long time and as the yarn is a light aranweight with excellent stitch definition, I get the feeling it'll be a match made in knitting heaven. My other planned project is Fancy from the new Rowan magazine. The photo does not show it, but the jumper has a goddamn fabulous Estonian-lace-ish stitch pattern going for it. I'm helpless in the face of Estonian-lace-ish stitch patterns, so a Fancy in chartreuse green Kidsilk Haze will be on my needles soon. I first thought of making it in black but then decided I was clearly mad.

Fifthly, friends mentioned above have persuaded me to give my red alpaca cardigan some time in the knitting basket. Time to let me get over myself and my body image. It's not the cardigan's fault that I had a few too many mince pies at Christmas nor that I'm more Christina Hendricks than Nicole Kidman body-wise. The alpaca'll probably wet-block really well too. Cough.We shall see.

Sixthly, speaking of celebs, I could not resist looking closely at the Red Carpet fashion at yesterday's Golden Globes and I loved the 1930s cut of Angelina Jolie's green dress. Very Old Hollywood and yet very current. Sigh.