Here's to the Future: Changes, Chances & Occasional Sheep

I have recently made some much-needed changes to my working life. For the past year I have been juggling an awful lot of balls and pulling some very long hours. I couldn't carry on doing that and so I had to make some tough decisions - though I tried putting off my decision for as long as I could. My hand was finally forced earlier this month when I received a very kind permanent job offer for something I had been doing on a freelance basis for a very long time. The job offer came as a bit of a surprise, but it was also a wake-up call in terms of what I wanted to do. And so the decision was made and this week I will be waving a fond farewell to my years of working for Rowan Yarns. I have been putting out proverbial fires for them for 4.5 years and I will be saying goodbye to a lot of creative, inspiring people. I have learned a lot through my work as a consultant - both creatively and on the business side of things. I will miss a lot of people (you know who you are), but I thought it was time to hand over the reins to someone else.

For the time being I will be focusing on my own work - the designing, the writing, the editing, and the teaching. I am excited about the future (plans are afoot well into 2015!) but the excitement is tempered by fear too. Did I make the right decision? What will the future bring? It's scary and exhilarating.

I have sought equilibrium by trying out some not-so-new crafts. I tried my hand at cross-stitching and embroidery back when I was a teenager, but I was never very good at it. The Anchor Thread Mill Museum has been offering classes on a range of stitching topics in connection with Paisley hosting the Great Tapestry of Scotland - and I went along to two of these classes.

The first class was on cross-stitching and I found the rhythm quite soothing. I have tried finding some interesting cross-stitch kits online, but either they are too ambitious or insanely ambitious. The second class was on crewel work and we used the same linen and wool they had used on the Great Tapestry (Peter Greig Linen and Appleton's Crewel Wool, in case you are wondering). I was defeated by French knots but I enjoyed the freedom of expression you get with crewel work.

I am not a natural stitcher, but I have bought myself a hoop and I am slowly working on the Paisley sampler we were given as part of the class. It is nice to be making stuff and not needing to consider it as part of work. Although, knowing me, I'll probably incorporate free-hand embroidery at some point.

(Once I've made peace with French knots.)

Speaking of the Great Tapestry of Scotland, I am currently posting a small detail from panels on Twitter - one tiny detail per day. Most of these details are knitterly impressions but occasionally it will just be something that caught my eye. The first detail I posted was this amazing Shetland sheep just lurking in the corner of one of the early panels. Here's to the future.

The Proserpine Shawl and the Arts & Crafts Movement

Yesterday I had a long conversation with my friend Natalie about life, work, and the whole big thing. I mentioned a long-term project that is slowly coming together, and Natalie laughed: Art history, storytelling and knitting. That is so very you, Karie. It is nice when others can see what I try to do. Still, I suppose it is rather obvious when you look at my latest collaboration with Knit Now magazine. This is a bit of a first for Knit Now. I collaborated with a host of talented designers on a mini-collection inspired by a 19th century design movement, Arts and Crafts. I was also asked to write an article about the Arts and Crafts Movement. It was one of those pitches where I was on board from the very first sentence. You can read more about the design movement in my article for Knit Now - I wanted to explain why so many designers continue to be inspired by it, how core ideas spread throughout the design world and - crucially - why it continues to influence knitters throughout the world (whether you know it or not).

The Proserpine Shawl is my contribution to the mini-collection. It is a semi-circular shawl knitted in a stunning custom dye merino/silk 4ply yarn from Triskelion Yarn in Wales. Caerthan was inspired by 19th century tiles at the V&A  and came up with this stunning teal especially for my shawl.

It was very important to me that the yarn should be something special as I was designing the shawl with the Arts & Crafts idea of truth to material in my head. Truth to material simply means that you take the material that is best suited to your project and you showcase it honestly. The long stretches of stocking stitch are designed with a stunning yarn in mind. I am a big fan of basic stitches (like stocking stitch and garter stitch) precisely because they let your materials take centre stage.

Still, you do get lace sections in the shawl. Proserpine was named after a painting by 19th century painter, poet and all-round bohemian, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I read a lot of his poetry when I was an impressionable teen and it remains absolutely lovely. Quite apart from wanting to capture the drape of Proserpine's gown and sighing over DGR's the dragon-fly / Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky, I also took inspiration from the Roman myths of Proserpine. She was the Roman equivalent of the Greek Persephone: a goddess abducted to the underworld but restored to the world where her arrival heralds spring. So if you look closely you can see some leaves sprinkled into the shawl.

I am really quite in love with the entire project. It combines so many of my core beliefs about design - many of which I have inherited from the Arts and Crafts Movement.

I have been asked the following by a lot of people: if  you are outside the UK you can buy a digital copy here, though most UK shops should also stock the magazine.

All photos are © Practical Publishing.

(PS. the shawl edge looks a bit wonky. I was trying to block the shawl not long after I injured my knee in a serious accident. That was interesting)

Dispatches from KnittingLand

I have disappeared under a pile of deadlines. When you work on publications, you tend to work between 5 months to a full year ahead of actual releases - so obviously I am busy editing, grading and designing a lot of things that will appear in the autumn and winter. It is a bit strange when the bluebells are in full bloom, but you do get used to it. But things are happening right now that you can enjoy.

It is Yarn Shop Day this Saturday in the UK. The British magazine Let's Knit has launch a campaign for people to show their local yarn shops some love. I love visiting LYSs - each has its own distinct personality - and the very best LYSs become an indispensable part of a knitter's life. We have some great ones in the UK but I think we should have even more. Go forth & shower your local with love.

This has a deadline of today, but I do love the enthusiasm of LoveKnitting's Britain's Next Top Knitwear Designer competition. Again, it is about supporting what's local, what's is happening on the UK knitting scene and I love how they are offering a fashion slant to an industry which is far too often equated with dowdiness and homeliness. Nothing is wrong with wearing a comfy jumper (I am right now, in fact) but what about making it a stylish comfy jumper? Indeed. As I said, the deadline is today so if you have a fab design sitting around, why not pop it in the post?

Finally, The University of Glasgow has announced plans for a Knitter-in-Residence in October. You may remember I have been involved in the "Knitting in the Round" workshops that Glasgow University has held - including that very wonderful Open Day at Glasgow's Lighthouse design Centre - and the residency is part of that whole project. It is a great opportunity to be working alongside Prof Lynn Abrams and Dr Marina Moskowitz (among others) and I know further events are in the works.

I will pop up later in the week to write about an article I have in the latest issue of Knit Now - not the first time I have been published, but certainly one of the nicest - as well as a brand-new shawl pattern. For now, I'll slink back into my pattern-writing dungeon. Have a lovely day x

Revisited & Loved: Florence & Fyberspates Cumulus

There are a few things I cannot resist: lemon meringue pie, puppies, red lipstick, and fine alpaca yarns. If you put either of those in front of me, I am helpless. So, when I was asked if I wanted to have a look at Cumulus, a new alpaca/silk lace yarn from Fyberspates, I jumped at the chance. And Cumulus is indeed the yarn equivalent of a lemon meringue pie; it's impossible to just have a tiny bit. Then I was asked if I would mind of a few knitters had the chance to play with Cumulus using my Florence pattern - and I got terribly nostalgic. I'll tell you why in just a second but first look at this photo I was sent yesterday.

Isn't that just pretty? One of my favourite colour is red but it's so gosh darn it difficult to photograph that I don't use red yarn as often as I'd like. Thank you, Jan, for taking such a great photo!

Florence was one of the first patterns I ever wrote down.  I remember being asked for a sweet, pretty scarf pattern by a yarn shop and I came up with Florence. The yarn shop handed out more than 1,500 patterns over the next three months and I was floored.  Florence turned out to be one of those patterns that take on a life of its own: it has been downloaded more than 7,000 times on Ravelry and I know several yarn shops have used it for teaching classes. It's one of my few freebies on Ravelry and I took the opportunity to revise/update the pattern now that people were using it to try out Cumulus. The revised version has a couple of changes. I've cleaned it up (I like to think I'm a better pattern writer these days than when I first designed it) and - much more importantly - I have added beading instructions.

(You know what? I  think Florence looks just perfect in Cumulus. Rawr. )

A lot of people have used beads on Florence and I have had many emails over the years asking if I could add beading instructions to the pattern. I have made sure the beading is still optional, but I do love how beads add weight to the scarf. It's really great to see that both Jan and Amanda chose to add beads. For my beading instructions, I wanted to emphasise the vertical lines in a pattern that has a lot of things going on horizontally - and also to keep the beading relatively simple and clean.

A big thank you to Team Fyberspates who brought the Florence love (you guys rock) and especially to Jeni who just knows colour.

(Fun fact: Jeni hosted the first ever luxury yarn trunk show I ever visited; I have never spent as much money on a simple skein of yarn as I did at that trunk show. Hey, it was green cashmere/alpaca/silk. It's still in my stash six years on. I told you I was weak in the presence of fine alpaca yarn)

A Love Story in Stitches: the Orkney Cardigan.

Apparently spring has sprung but here in Glasgow, winter refuses to let go. It has been overcast, drizzly and circa 8C all this week which is why it's taken almost a week for us to photograph the Orkney cardigan (or, as I like to call it, my opus magnum). First, a brief follow-up on my previous blog post wherein I discussed the whole "can I call this Fair Isle if I am not from Shetland" conundrum after a startling encounter with a lady whilst I was finishing up Orkney. Not only has Louise Scollay written an interesting take on the discussion (and she lives in Shetland, you know), but I also had the chance to discuss it with Carol Christensen and Roslyn Chapman at a recent event. Roslyn is writing a PhD on the idea of Shetland Lace Knitting and is tackling many of the same issues concerning "origin" and "tradition". Both Carol and Roslyn agreed that the notion of Traditional Fair Isle appear to be a commercial construct rather than a historical tradition - we also talked briefly about the many things currently squirrelled away at the Shetland Museum which do not really fit the traditional idea of Shetland knitting and so rarely see the light of day..

.. so in short, this is a Fair Isle cardigan I am sporting.

Pattern: Orkney from Rowan Magazine 52 by Marie Wallin.

Size: L (see notes)

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed DK. Many colours (see notes)

Needles: 3.25mm and 3.75 mm (again, see notes)

Verdict: Oh hell yes.

Notes: It is interesting to see the difference between this cardigan and the Bute cardigan from the same magazine. They are knitted in the same yarn but are designed by two different people. Orkney runs small where Bute runs big - thankfully I had read people's pattern notes on Ravelry before setting out on this adventure, but it also taught me to read "the fine print" and check tension vs schematics before beginning. Assumptions are a knitter's worst friends. So, I went up two needle sizes and a size up from my usual one. Orkney still came out neat (the arms are particularly tight) but I do not mind that so much. I won't have room to wear much underneath my cardigan but I don't think I need much anyway; the cardigan is so beautiful and warm.

Having knitted Bute flat, I decided to steek the heck out of this one. I cast on an additional seven stitches for front and arm scythes. It worked well, though I had to secure the stitches with a sewing machine rather than rely solely on a crochet steek (I have thoughts on crochet steeking that I need to write about). I added a buttonband and used 1950s bakelite (plastic?) buttons. I had bought some real beauties from Textile Garden but decided I did not need the buttons to compete with the cardigan. Sometimes less is more. I also added length to both the body and the sleeves. The sleeves always needed additional length (I have monkey arms) but I am so short-waisted that I was surprised by how many extra rows I had to incorporate to reach the body length I wanted (I had measured my favourite cardigan before setting out, so knew how many inches I needed). I was right on gauge, so that was a surprise.

Oh, and I completely changed the colours.

The original was quite bright when you saw it in real life and I wanted more muted colours. I started out by recharting the entire pattern using Excel. It was fairly labour intensive but it gave me an understanding of the distribution of colours and patterns. I also realised that the same sequence of patterns are used on the sleeves but knitted in different colours. If you are planning on substituting colours for Orkney, I think this is an indispensable step for understanding how the colours work and why. Tiny decisions will have a huge impact.

Having reached an understanding of which colours were used more than others, I put my Felted Tweed stash on the spare bed (reality check time!) and started sorting colours. I decided that I wanted Ancient (a blueish khaki green) to be a feature on the body with Phantom (a soft brown - one of my favourite Felted tweed colours) and Avocado (er, avocado green) for the corrugated ribs. On the sleeves I substituted Rage (a magnificent red) for whenever I had used Ancient on the body. It worked well. I also used Celadon, Ginger, Rage, Duck Egg, Gilt, Cinnamon and Camel. I used less than ball of these colours (and Avocado) but used approx 1.5 balls of Ancient, Phantom and Rage.

Would I knit this again? Oh yes. I'll go up to size XL for the sleeves but I think this is a real cracker of a pattern. I like the fit a lot better than Bute, the colours work with my entire wardrobe, and I feel good when I am wearing it. I probably won't reknit this for a few years (so many knitting patterns, so little time) but I'd love to do a brown/blue/green version of this. I have also fallen deeply in love with Felted Tweed (if I hadn't already..).

Let me just repeat what I said at the top

Verdict: Oh hell yes.

A Visit from the Knitting Police, or, On the Origins of Things

Yesterday I was working on the second sleeve of my Orkney cardigan when the following exchange happened.

Passer-by: Hey, what are you doing? Me: Oh, I'm working on this fair-isle cardigan.. Passer-by: Oh no! That's not fair-isle. You are not from Shetland. You cannot be knitting fair-isle. I am from Shetland and I am telling you that you cannot work fair-isle. Me: .. uhmm, okay?

This led to an interesting discussion on Twitter about geographical locations, if any non-Shetlanders are allowed to say their stranded colourwork is fair-isle (and if it is fair isle, Fair Isle or Fair-Isle) and if we are able to talk about "traditional knitting" at all. Here are some selected highlights:

@kariebookish "Being from" is surely not a thing for trademark purposes? Cf Harris Tweed which *is* protected by law: http://t.co/6AfGtVoyuO

— Norbert Roomboter (@vonbladet) March 11, 2014

(Great point! Can a technique or motif be geographically trademarked?) Some snarky comments from amused knitters:

@kariebookish Does that also mean that non-Norwegians can't do Norwegian purl?

— Christina (@stinaest) March 11, 2014

@kariebookish Better throw out my shaw with nupps in it since I'm not Estonian.

— Vanessa (@MMAAC) March 11, 2014

@kariebookish so what should all of us non-shetlanders call the technique, given that we probably outnumber shetlanders #nomorefairisle

— Vickie Glynn (@VicksG) March 11, 2014

@kariebookish @VivienneU Or people who live there but weren't born there? What's the minimum number of generations?

— Kate Heppell (@KateHeppell) March 11, 2014

And, finally, less snarkily and more to the point:

@kariebookish fixing of traditions being largely a marketing device that contradicts the approach of the knitters who developed them — Ysolda Teague (@ysolda) March 12, 2014

I am interested in the socio-political aspects of so-called traditional knitting: there is definitely a discussion to be had about what constitutes a tradition - who decides something is a tradition - and if we can talk about origins at all. Motifs and techniques have criss-crossed geographical boundaries and what we may think of as "traditional knitting" may only date back to the early 20th century. My personal view is that all these things only tend to be "fixed" in time and place long after actual innovation has occurred - and that many of these "fixes" have little to do with the actual innovations and more to do with money/prestige.

It's a fascinating topic and I wish I had a fresh mind with which to tackle it (alas, I am writing this after working all day on another piece of writing). I'll keep knitting my Orkney, mind. Only half a sleeve to go and I refuse to leave it alone despite my personal geographical failings.