Back to Basics

Busy times in Casa Bookish. True to form I am working on lots of things I cannot show you - when you design for magazines they don't want any previews leaking out months and months before the actual magazine is published. And so I can only show one thing out of the .. eight? .. projects in progress.

This is the Stevie cardigan I mentioned previously. It is a Sarah Hatton design from Rowan Studio 24. I am knitting it in the recommended yarn(!) - Rowan Wool Cotton in 'French Navy' - and the real colour is a bit darker. It's a cracker of a pattern: a top-down, seamless knit which is always something I love knitting. The yoke is the only tricky bit and after you've completed it, it's plain stocking stitch all the way. I would probably have finished in within a fortnight if it weren't for all those other projects, but as it is I knit on it when I need to relax with my knitting rather than worry about maths.

Navy is a new obsession of mine. I recently did a massive wardrobe cull where I threw out clothes I hadn't worn in years, clothes that didn't fit, and worn-out clothes I couldn't justify wearing anymore. The cull made it easy to see what I actually have in my wardrobe and I was surprised to see a lot of navy. Navy is my new black, apparently.

And so I am knitting a navy cardigan. The style is classic and the colour will go with everything. I need wardrobe staples - I have plenty of funky cardigans and jumpers, but I need basics. Expect my rare moments of non-work knitting to reflect this!

I have had a look on Ravelry and inspired by Mooncalf's Pinterest board full of classic shapes, I'm thinking of  making a list of classic, basic cardigans and jumpers. I am terrible (terrible!) at sticking to resolutions but it'll be good to have a list around. So far I am thinking along the lines of Cecily Glowik MacDonald's River Pullover, Amy Christoffer's Acer Cardigan and Windsor Cardigan (she does fab basics), and Tanis Lavallee's Reverb.

Any classic/basic patterns you'd like to recommend?

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.

Thinking With My Fingers

I have been thinking about what unites all the things I do and the things I care about. It struck me that I need my hands in order to translate (or transmit) all the things in my head. I am far more eloquent when I write than when I speak. I express my ideas better when I draw or knit them than if I try to describe them. And I sit down to tap away at a keyboard when I feel I have a nebulous notion brewing away in my head. The Greek philosopher Plato once addressed the mind-body problem and how the mind and body can be connected. Plato was a great fan of 'the soul' and thought our bodies inferior. Philosophers have discussed this ever since (it's known as Dualism) - when I was younger, I'd scoff at my body and be firmly in Plato's camp. The life of the mind! Pure soul! These days I definitely cannot imagine life without my fingers acting as transmitters or translators. We all mellow as we get older, don't we?

Anyway, I began thinking about this because I am just back from a work trip to Yorkshire. I had my camera with me and I snapped a lot of photos - but mostly unexpected photos.

Who knew I'd ever take an arty photo of a horse grazing in a field as a way of expressing my innermost thoughts? But there you go: life is bright and sunny with a tinge of blue. Beautiful things are in focus, bigger things are rather blurry (but I'm pushing those to the back for the time being). And everything is good.

I want to thank everybody for the lovely stream of messages concerning Doggerland. When I first started talking about my idea for the collection, a few people told me it was a bit too “out there” so I didn’t know what to expect .. but I have received so much great feedback and so much support over the last week. I have been particularly thrilled by emails from strangers who told me about their own connection to the Doggerland area - if I can make people think about their personal/emotional connections to landscapes and knitting, I have done my job well.

This would have been an excellent time to insert a photo of sheep grazing on Yorkshire hills. Unfortunately I had to take those photos from a moving train and this is the best one. Try to spot the sheep:

I'll write more about my work trip to Yorkshire later - it was essentially a three-day knitting & yarn mini-conference at this place:

As I said, everything is good. I am meeting interesting people, I am being pushed out of my comfort zone, and I am thinking a lot with my fingers.

A few links &c:

• You can still pre-order my Doggerland collection and get 20% off. Hurry, though, as the offer only runs for a few more days.
• Stories In Stitches is a new venture from the amazing Donna Druchunas. Stories in Stitches combine so many of my favourite things: story-telling, knitting, writing and social history - not to mention that strange (but so exhilarating) sense of continuity and connection across places and ages you get when you combine all those things.
• A very interesting interview with Harry Potter star, Emma Watson. Yes, really. I was struck by her take on feeling insecure and trying to balance her own self-perception with how others perceive her.
• Finally, a great article about how the Eurovision Song Contest can be read as something other than just a way of life six-months-long week-long fun evening. It's a way of nation-building in the 21st century.

Pre-order Doggerland - Join the Journey.

After so many months of hard work, Doggerland: Knits from a Lost Landscape is finally available to pre-order through Ravelry. The first pattern will be the Ronaes Shawl (as seen in the photos) but I will write more about the shawl when I release it on June 10. The idea for the Doggerland collection first came to me when I was looking at artefacts in the National Museum of Denmark's Prehistory section.

I was looking at a bone antler fragment carved with beautiful, simple designs when my partner started reading aloud a piece about the lost region of Doggerland – a Mesolithic landscape now lost to the North Sea between the UK and Scandinavia (Mesolithic means "Middle Stone Age"). I loved the simplicity of the carved antler and I loved the story of a lost landscape that once formed a land bridge between Denmark (where I grew up) and Britain (where I now live).

The prehistory sections of The National Museum of Scotland and the National Museum of Denmark yielded much inspiration: worked flintstones, carved antler bones, well-preserved fykes, and excavated shell middens. Motifs and textures are either directly taken from Mesolithic artefacts found in the Doggerland region (or surrounding areas) or use them as visual cues. The Mesolithic period was characterised by very geometric designs: lines, dots, circles and simple shapes. Shapes and motifs you will find throughout the collection, both in the knitting patterns and the illustrations.

It is difficult to determine what types of textiles Mesolithic people made, what materials they used and how they wore their clothes. Textiles are made from organic materials and therefore they decay over the thousands of years between the Mesolithic Era and today. Occasionally archaeologists unearth tiny treasures: a maritime excavation off the coast of Denmark discovered one single thread of spun plant material, for instance.

The Doggerland collection does not seek to recreate Mesolithic textiles - but it wishes to prompt the imagination. Choose your materials with care - and think about the landscape and environment to which they belong.

Designing this collection was an exercise in psycho-geography for me and I would like to think that knitting these designs will become a journey through your personal landscapes too. I wanted to tell the story of a lost landscape but also remind you that we all walk in landscapes like Doggerland. Where we live was once covered by sea and in time will once again be covered.

The Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived 10,000 years ago were not all that different from you and me.

Doggerland: Knits from a Lost Landscape is available to pre-order until June 10. It costs £12 which is a special pre-order price (on June 10 going forward it will cost £15). The patterns will be released every few weeks and will be available as single downloads at £3 each.

Phew. I feel emotionally drained now!

Almost There: Making Doggerland pt 3

It is odd. By all accounts I should resent working on Doggerland, but I am still in love with the collection. The yarns are beautiful, I still think the idea behind it is intriguing, and I enjoy pulling it all together. And it is being pulled together.

Patterns are out being looked over by technical editors (the people who make sure every t is crossed and every i is dotted). I am busy with pattern layouts and making sure everything looks coherent and right.

Perfectionism appears to be my worst enemy, actually. Some of you have called me out for that and I want to thank each and everyone for doing so. I have been battling with perfectionism most of my adult life, and although knitting design does not give me ulcers (unlike academia), I am still very hard on myself. I am learning to let go.

The photo above is a great example of my perfectionism. It is an out-take from one of the photo shoots (it doesn't show enough pattern detail to be a great pattern photo). I was really panicky about the photo shoots and looking back, I don't know why. Sure, I don't have a professional photographer at my disposal and the equipment used isn't worth tens of thousands of pounds - but the photos are great nonetheless.

It has been a long time coming to this point and I have learned a lot about myself and my work processes over the last year(!).

• You are only as good as your network.

I have been lucky insofar my professional network has been incredibly supportive. I'd particularly like to mention Fiona from The Island Wool Company, Ella Austin, and Elly Doyle who have all listened to me with patience and offered brilliant advice when needed.

• Don't be hard on yourself. Be kind.

That one is pretty self-explanatory! Doggerland has been a project so close to my heart and I think I let it get too personal at times.

• Know when to stop.

And this brings me to what is going to happen next.

Doggerland will be going on pre-order Monday, May 27 at 12noon GMT until June 10 when the first pattern will land.  Following on from June 10, patterns will land in your inbox every few weeks. You can buy the patterns individually too, of course, but the collection is the cheaper option (particularly if you opt for pre-ordering it).  At the moment you can expect 8 patterns - all accessories - but I may add one or two (or three) to that count.

So, there you have it. I hope you'll find it's been worth the wait. Thank you to everyone over the past year who has been sending me supportive messages, asking me about the patterns and generally been good eggs.

I am going to go take a big breath of fresh air now.

Kirkja in May

Yesterday was such a lovely day. It was finally warm enough to walk around without a jacket, the rain stopped, and the bluebells were out in full force. Dave told me to put on some lipstick and head out for an impromptu photo shoot. I recently had the rights to my Kirkja shawl returned to me, so I grabbed it off the shelf. I love its rich, warm yellow hue and it looked so beautiful in the hazy sunshine.

You may know that my paternal grandmother was Faroese. I have had some great conversations with Fiona from The Island Wool Company about the wealth of inspiration I gain from North Atlantic knitting traditions. Kirkja is an example of my magpie tendency: rather than sticking to traditional shapes and patterns, I wanted the shawl to reflect the Faroese love of geometric patterning and simple shapes. So, it's an updated, funkier version of a traditional Faroese shawl: no garter stitch, no shoulder shaping but some neat straight angles.

You can now buy Kirkja straight from Ravelry (right here) - it was designed for one hank of luxury handdyed sock yarn (my shawl is knitted in Old Maiden Aunt Superwash Merino 4ply in "Buttermint") and 4mm needles, so it's the ideal stash diving project! Kristen has knitted a beautiful Kirkja in a neutral-green hue, so if you're not one for bright colours, check out her ace version.

(In related news, stay tuned for actual & real, proper Doggerland news by the end of this week.)

Casa Bookish has seen quite a few friends pass through Glasgow over the last few weeks which has meant I've had to spread my workload really carefully and keep social media interactions to a minimum. Unfortunately it also meant that I didn't have time to write my customary Eurovision blog entry this year - but I have received a deluge of lovely messages after Denmark's win (my personal favourite finished fourth, though). Thank you!

Now back to working on more lovely things. It is always so nice when I am getting close to the point where I can start to write about them!