To Florence & Beyond

Meet Florence. Florence doesn't like to be photographed, so this will most likely be the only photo I'll ever take of this little thing. Take one ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze, a pair of 4mm needles, and start charting a lace repeat. Then simplify your lace repeat. Then simplify it again. Then realise you have probably just made something that looks like it is straight from a stitch dictionary (which it is not) and then sigh. And knit.

I always get asked about my naming practices. Florence is meant to replace Larisa, so I wanted a name that was both a European city and a girl's name. That probably means that next year I will make a Geneva, followed by a Venezia, and then a Paris (perish the thought). But this is the year of Florence.

And that leaves me with nothing on the needles. Woah! I am still designing things, though, but am yet to figure out where to take two specific ideas**.. it is so frustrating! I also know that I'll be starting my winter knitting in little over a week when the Nordic Tweed book hits the shops. What can I make in a week..?

Thank you so very, very much for the fantastic response to Karise. I cannot wait to see finished Karise shawls cropping up and I simply cannot wait to see what everybody will do with the pattern (remember: it is easy to customise). I seriously love seeing what other people do with my ideas. That is so cool. Oh, and Lilith is slowly restocking her shop after the Knit Nation carnage in case anyone wants to use the original yarn.

In other knitterly news, I happened to see someone wearing a long-sleeved version of this cardigan yesterday. The cardigan is apparently knitted in one piece and then you ease in the sleeves. It is so pretty, isn't it? I did a bit more research into it and it was apparently the it knit in Denmark in 2009. Trust me to finally discover all the good bits about Denmark when I do not live there any more..

Finally, my friend Jo gave me the link to Poppytalk, a cracking little blog showcasing inspirational design, crafts, and homes. Inspirational, not aspirational - I think that is a very important distinction to make. Bearing that distinction in mind, what are your favourite inspirational blogs? I yearn for colourful, beautiful things carefully curated.

** - since one idea involves a four-different-yarns-in-one-row colourwork lace shawl, I clearly need to step away from my design table.

Knitterly Musings & Some Links

I have spending considerable time trying to figure out what to knit for the forthcoming winter. The last two winters have been terribly cold and I want to make things that'll keep me both cosy and relatively stylish. A bit of a tall order as I tend towards wearing five layers in the midst of winter! Pinterest has been a huge help in figuring out what to knit. I have a board called Oh, You Pretty Things! (guess why) where I pin clothes and jewellery that catch my eye. I have been fairly ruthless, so while it is not a huge selection what I have pinned really captures my taste. And so I measure all my thoughts and ideas about winter knits against that board.

Having the board helps when I fall in love with knitting patterns that are really outwith the rest of my wardrobe (or what I'm trying to steer my wardrobe towards). I am hugely in love with Wilhelmina, for instance. I love the colours, the shape, and the reindeers. And it goes with absolutely nothing I own.

Would you still knit a cardigan even if it didn't go with anything in your own wardrobe? Or am I missing a fashion trick and Wilhemina does actually work with what I perceive as my style? Yes, I need your honest opinion.

I'll return to my winter knit search, so here are some random linkage for you to ponder:

• Marie Curie hopes you'll knit a giant tea cosy in the name of charity.
• If that feels like too big a project or you want to do even more good with your knitting needles, why not join the Big Knit in making tiny hats?
• Of course Atlantis was just off the coast of Scotland.
• Tilda Swinton is the fiercest woman alive. Fact.
• Hackgate continues to thrive here in the UK (this MeFi thread is still a good primer). This weird story about a bin bag was my personal favourite daily twist in this increasingly bizarre scandal.
• And here's one for the Doctor Who fans among you.
• You know that my twenty-year long love affair with his music has died when I don't even casually stroll down Byres Road hoping for a glimpse..
• The Minefield of Female Relationships is an interesting read, though I have reservations about .. aspects.

The Week That Was

The week in brief: One Karise shawl. This one was knitted in Old Maiden Aunt alpaca/merino laceweight. I used around 325 yards - an amount I find freakishly low. Okay, this is not a huge shawl, but it is decently sized. Weird.

One shawl pattern put up for sale. It has been really exciting and heartening to see the response. Thank you everyone whether you have commented on the shawl, added it as a favourite, queued it, or even bought it. Heck, I'm thrilled by it all.

One book launch. Tracey S. Rosenberg came to Waterstones to promote her first novel, The Girl in the Bunker. I was thrilled to get a signed copy at the meet & greet. I primarily know Tracey as a poet, so it has been really interesting to see her move into prose.

One Danish friend has been visiting. She graciously agreed to go along to the book launch, but we've also explored The West End and visited the new Riverside museum. Her visit has made me think long and hard about linguistic identity. Hopefully I'll remember to blog about this later.

One dinner with friends. A lovely Turkish-Mediterranean dinner which has left me reeling for the rest of the week. Something was clearly not okay with the food because I have been groggy, sluggish, and nauseated ever since Monday. I'll spare you the nasty details, but I'm still not feeling good.

One adventurous sweater surgery session. I took scissors to my red alpaca cardigan yesterday. I hope it works or I will have wasted a lot of expensive yarn. I also feel slightly sick thinking of this. I'm now re-knitting one sleeve. Onwards and upwards, eh?

One major news scandal just continuing to unfold. The News International/News of the world scandal has been the gift that keeps giving for this news junkie household. Whilst I have been feeling out of sorts and reclining decoratively on the sofa, this news story has kept me completely enthralled. And appalled.

Who knows what next week will bring..

FO & Pattern: Karise

Yesterday I cast-off the laceweight version of my Karise shawl. Today I tweaked the charts one last time, had a final proof-read and, with a deep breath, uploaded the pattern to Ravelry. Karise is now available to purchase, in other words.

A few words on the pattern.

Karise is designed to be modular. That means that it is entirely up to the knitter how many times the various charts are repeated. I have given my own suggestions, of course, but because the charts flow organically into each other you can do exactly what you like.  You want to knit Chart A once but Chart B thirteen times? Or maybe Chart A 5 times and Chart B two times? Go for it.

Secondly, I have given a suggested yardage of 370-420 yards, but my shawl (pictured above) took less than 300 yards as did my laceweight shawl. I suspect I may just be  a freak, so I upped the yardage just to be on the safe side.

And the name? Karise is named after a small town in Denmark. These days Karise is mostly famous for being mentioned in a terrible, terrible song, but the Danish 19th romantic play Elven Hill takes place just outside Karise. Seeing as the original sample uses the colourway Ghillie Dhu - which means 'guardian tree faerie' - I could not resist.

Karise is pronounced Ka-REE-Seh, incidentally.

I have a few more design commissions, so watch this space. I also have the best idea for a shawl/scarf thingy but I'll need to play around a lot more as this idea is slightly outside my usual comfort zone..

Small Problems Are Good Problems

Where can you buy titanium pins? The laceweight version of my Karise shawl is now off the needles and is blocking on the living room floor.

(When we move from this place, I shall miss the awful wall-to-wall carpeting .. when I block shawls)

Evidence of Knitting

"You know, you never post anything about knitting anymore," my friend said. When I looked back at recent blog posts, I was startled to find that she was right. I write a lot about potential knitting but I rarely post about Stuff Wot I Have Knitted. Clearly I need to make amends although I have not been knitting super-exciting things. The Skald shawl. Looks pretty, non?

I chose to knit Spring Trellis by Linda Choo which is a free Ravelry pattern (and well-written too). I ended up running out of yarn and had to omit the nupps on the border. I quite like the contrast between the lace and the solid border, but would have preferred the shawl with nupps.

The yarn was Sirri Tógv 1ply - a Faroese wool which I purchased on my last visit to the mothership Copenhagen. I loved working with it: it was rustic, sheepy, woolly, and beautifully unprocessed. However, it took five rinses to get all the natural lanolin out and instead of the soft, gorgeous fabric I had imagined, Sorri 1ply had bloomed to such a degree that my shawl looks like a cat has slept on it. No, like a cat has slept on it for weeks.  The marriage between pattern and yarn proved to be an unhappy one - the yarn would have worked far better in a simple garterstitch shawl - and lessons have been learned.

I have more Sirri yarn kicking about. I'll need to think carefully about what to do with it.

I got as far as the yoke on my Fenris jumper when I realised I had to rip it out. I loved that yoke, I tell you. I had combined Nordic motifs that I've known and loved my entire life - particular that wheel design which reminds me of the Trundholm Sun Chariot. The Chariot was found very close to where I grew up and the Bronze Age wheel motif is so .. it is part of my psyche, you know?

For the body and sleeves I used a pure wool aran (sold to me as bulky!) which I bought at a very favourable price in my mum's local supermarket. Denmark's great for yarn, I swear (although not so great in other ways but that's for another day). I used remnants of New Lanark aran for the colourwork yoke. A big thank you to Paula and Bronwen who gave me scraps that I'll incorporate - in that way the jumper won't just represent Denmark but also Scotland.

A bit of a departure for me: baby knitting! A colleague is expecting a baby and I wanted to make her something she'll actually use (rather than a fancy baby cardigan that'll languish in a drawer).

The patterns are from Erika Knight's excellent Natural Nursery Knits (probably my favourite baby knitting book) and I used oddments of Patons Washed Haze DK. I really like the booties, actually. They are knitted flat, then seamed quickly up the back. I managed to squeeze out a pair during one knitting group session. Score.

Finally, a black hat. I still need to do a modelled shot, but the weather has been too good!

I used some workhorse aran (again from my mum's supermarket) and got the general gist from a Norwegian hat pattern although I didn't follow the pattern exactly (I lost it, ok?).  I knitted this with winter in mind. Last year I knitted Intuitive and loved it for about two weeks before I lost it on a northbound bus. I am not going to face another winter without a black hat.

I'm currently working on a laceweight version of Karise. There won't be a separate pattern for the laceweight version - just some extra numbers added to the pattern.

So, yes, I do knit. Look! Evidence!