Word Tree

Choppy seas recently. I'm not going into the details, but choppy seas. And so I'm making a Word Tree. A Word Tree is a very basic idea. You cut out small leaves from brightly coloured paper, you write down positive words about yourself (or get others to name your positive traits if you cannot think of any), and you tie those leaves to a branch you put in a vase on your coffee table/window sill.

I know the younger version of me would have called that idea all sorts of names, but these days I am a bit gentler, less derisive and less prone to name-calling. Although don't ask me to Feel the Fear or say icky positive affirmations into the mirror. I have standards.

A few assorted links:

• I absolutely love these photos from a quilt exhibition. How inspirational.
• I have discovered the entire In Our Time radio archive which has actually made the choppy seas much less choppy. Bonus joy: Lawrence Rainey appeared in the IOT podcast on TS Eliot. I shrieked with ill-contained glee. Fangirl. Related: The Scottish Network of Modernist Studies meets just down the road. Maybe one day..
• When craft & print culture collide: hand-sewn Penguin book jackets.
• The curtain at the Oslo Opera House is really quite special.
• I'll be in Edinburgh for work this week and I'll be heading here for post-work snacks. I cannot wait.

On the Kitchen Table & Beyond

How much, do I love Sirri 1ply? It's uneven, slightly overspun and reeks to high heaven of sheep. It's absolutely fantastic. Oh, I LOVE it. I pulled out my hibernating Aestlight shawl last night. I started it over the Christmas holidays last year and it was promptly put into hibernation on Boxing Day. I now remember why: I find all the garterstitch deadly dull. I now have to decide whether to pull out all that garterstitch or find some inner backbone to get those last twenty rows done before I pick up stit... aghr, I think I'll just call it a day.

The Kidsilk Haze in Jelly was just sitting randomly on our kitchen table. I really like those two colours and textures together. Hmmm..

Also on the kitchen table: my needle book made by Chookiebirdie, aka Lorna Reid. This little book has kept me company for a few years now.

I have visited Lorna's studio many times (she is just a few doors down from my very good friend, Ms Old Maiden Aunt) and eventually decided that I would love her to make me a small needle book. I did not give Lorna many guidelines - just that I loved moss green. Lorna promptly delivered this lovely needle book: moss green and aqua and orange and an owl. Everything is so beautifully finished.

I spot something in the background too. I wonder what that could be? I'll hopefully get you a proper shot of that "mystery object" later this week if the notoriously fickle April weather complies. For now, let's just say I cast off last night and I'm ever so slightly oh my word.

A few links for you:

• The Art of Fashion. Exactly what it says on the tin. I could happily read an entire book on this topic.
• Most Underappreciated Films of the Last Decade: a nice run-down which provides inspiration for our DVD nights.
• Hugh Grant(!) - yes, that Hugh Grant(!!) - steps right into the fray with an excellent article about British politics, British media, Rupert Murdoch, whistle-blowing, and phone-tapping. A must-read if you have the slightest inkling what I'm on about. Hugh, I loved you in Maurice (especially with your moustache-of-repression) and forgive you for everything you've done since.
• This little girl knows her Star Wars (YouTube link) I especially like her bow and the Storm-Trooper's fist-pump. Made me grin like an idiot.
• And speaking of videos and me grinning like an idiot, let me recommend When Harry Met Sally 2. Does the very thought strike fear into your heart? You should be first in line to watch this.
• The Dumbing Down Of Quilting. Also, take time to read the comments. The arrogance displayed by some of the people (including the blogger) is astounding. My jaw hit the floor, so it did*

(* does anyone know if the "so it did" emphatic subclause in a declarative sentence is particularly Glaswegian?)

Shimmy On

What a lovely, productive weekend. The UK enjoyed two days of glorious sunshine, blue skies and summer-like temperatures. Ahhh... Of course, being as clueless as ever, I was wearing boots and black tights underneath my dress whilst everyone else was showing off their nicest summer outfits. In the evening I wore my Millbrook cardigan for the first time since last summer. I still love it so very, very much. Note to self: I need to solve my summer clothes situation, I need to knit more summery cardigans and I need more Rennie yarn - particularly as the company has sadly gone into administration. (This is not the time for a good rant about how UK knitters need to support the UK wool industry instead of importing US yarns in the name of supporting small, local producers. But, mark my words, there will be a rant at some point.)

Ah, but first a small aside about a beautiful Sunday.

We started off with our usual trip to Auntie M's Cake Lounge, then ran into a rather rowdy Alasdair Gray at The Hillhead Bookclub (which has nothing to do with books, incidentally, but has tonnes of atmosphere), got massively tempted by Miss Katie Cupcake's wares at HB's Granny Would Be Proud craft fair (still the best curated craft fair in Glasgow), caught up with our good friends at The Life Craft whilst taking in a new Colorimetry trunk show, happened upon some real vintage bargains in Ruthven Lane (the shop owner, Stephen, was delighted: "I was told nobody would ever buy that but here you are an hour later.."), and finally ended up alongside the River Kelvin where we found some wild garlic that was put to good use in our dinner.. Ahhh.

But the lack of summer clothes is an issue. Today I'm going to cut several sewing projects. Huzzah!

I could not resist the 1950s-esque print of this cotton/poly. The colours are not very summery, but they are good, versatile ones. I'm making the Simplicity/Lisette Passport dress, although with some trepidation as I usually need to do an FBA (full bust adjustment) on tops and I haven't a clue how to do one on this pattern. We shall see.

I am also going to cut the Crepe dress in some African cotton I scored on eBay and while I'm at it, I might as well cut a skirt in Amy Butler's Daisy Chain Blush (top fabric - not my usual colours but it was a remnant) which'll be perfect for work.

Also in the works: oh gosh, it is my ill-fated Kim Hargreaves cardigan finally blocking! I finished knitting this cardigan back in January, realised that I should have done an FBA on it (somehow), and left it lying in a bag behind the sofa. I'm blocking the bejeebus out of it and I hope the alpaca will also stretch beyond belief. If it doesn't work, I'll just wear the cardigan unbuttoned. It'd look nice over the Passport dress, wouldn't it?

And my Kaffe Goes Bollywood wrap is almost done. It has been a great relaxing knit - and one of those where you thought "oh, just one more row".

I'm still not convinced I chose the right colours - it is not quite as eye-searingly bright as I had hoped - but it is one of those projects where you don't have to be a colour genius like Kaffe Fassett to figure out a colourway. The colours will magically work together no matter which ones you choose.

Now, let me get the ironing board out, find my scissors and start getting down to work..

Quarterly

Can you believe the first quarter of 2011 has been and gone? It is an oddly cheerful thought and I have had an excellent first three months of the year. Selected highlights:

• I knitted a purple cardigan
• ..and finished another cardigan which I really, really need to sew together.
• I celebrated my ten years of blogging
• I celebrated my mumble-mumble birthday.
• I bought a sewing machine
• I exhibited at the Tramway Art Gallery
• .. and helped the curators with fun bits and pieces behind the scenes.
• I took a jazz singing workshop
• I was in UK knitting magazine Let's Knit
• .. and also in UK newspaper The Guardian
• I did a quilt workshop at The Life Craft which resulted in my first quilt
• I saw Patrick Wolf in concert, huzzah!
• I also saw Submarine (youtube link) which was excellent..
• .. and Skeletons (youtube link) which was very odd.

Not bad. I just need to read more books because I only finished one (one! ONE!) book during the first three months of this year. That is abysmal. I blame Zadie Smith's On Beauty which I really, really did not like.

New project on the needles. This is my take on the Unwind wrap from Rowan Magazine 49.

The original has a very muted colour scheme - soft mauves, dusty blues and earthy neutrals - but I have long wanted to combine three bold colours of Kidsilk Haze so I took my inspiration from Bollywood instead. I'm using a very bold fuchsia as my dominant KSH colour together with coral red and deep orange with lime green as contrast and a neutral pink to tie things together. The pattern also uses five different colours of Rowan Summer Tweed and again I have opted for pink-red-orange-green hues.

The wrap isn't difficult to knit as it's all stocking stitch. I think the difficulty lies in which colours to choose. These colour schemes spring to mind: ocean blues, greens and greys; spring garden in pretty pinks, greens and yellows; earth and stone in browns, beiges, fawn and soft greys; girly in soft hues of pinks and whites..

.. my Fancy jumper is zipping along really well too. It is weird having two KSH projects on the go at the same time. I think I might try to counterbalance all the airy mohairiness with some sewing later this week. I have some self-imposed deadlines (as always) and I'd also like to wear some self-made things on a trip to Yorkshire I'll be making next month.

I wonder what my next quarterly review is going to look like?

Day Seven: Time

I would love to be able to claim that all my crafting time looks like this: sitting at a table sipping delicious tea out of a 1950s retro-futurist tea cup whilst a lovely tea pot matches my knitting. Sadly that was just today.

Like many other knitters and crocheters, I tend to make things whenever and wherever. I knit on public transport, when I'm waiting at the doctor's, during my lunch hour, and even very occasionally at work (I work within the knitting industry so many people assume that means I sit and knit all day. Ha!). Oh, and at knitting groups! I love my knitting buddies.

My favourite place to knit is my bed (which is also my favourite place to read). I prop myself up with pillows and blankets, get my iPod out and just relax into a current knitting project. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts rather than music. My brain is wired to it learning as much as possible so unless I am knitting something horrifically difficult, I do not listen to music.

Lately I have been listening to:

• In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg. A BBC Radio 4 radio programme with heavy emphasis on the history of ideas, the arts, and humanities. I really enjoyed the programme about metaphors (I used to excel at hardcore literary theory and this programme really took me back to my smart days) and I'd also recommend the programmes on Aristotle's Poetics and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (I cannot find a viable link to this one, but it is available on iTunes. It is fun in that particular way anything about Lord Byron is fun).
• Philosophy Bites - tasty morsels of philosophy presented by enthusiastic podcasters/academics. Martha Nussbaum on the Value of the Humanities is sadly far too topical in these university cut-back days, but I also recommend the podcasts on Neuroscience, Socratic Method, and Humanism. I have several their podcasts lined up - including one on Jacques Derrida and Foregiveness which I'm really looking forward to.
• Stash and Burn. My favourite knitting podcast although I actually prefer their early episodes to their more recent ones.
• Georgette Heyer's "Friday's Child". More P.G. Wodehouse than Barbara Cartland, this was a delightful lightweight soundtrack to many of my recent projects. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud on public transport.
• E.M. Forster's "A Room With A View" was also good, although it certainly didn't live up to my memories of reading it when I was 17 (nothing is ever as good as it is when you are 17).

Today I finished my Catcher in the Rye shawlette (pictured next to that marvellous tea-cup above). Looking back, it was an underwhelming knitting experience but I think I burned out on making shawls during last year's 10 Shawls in 2010 knit-along. I have already cast on my next project: I now have six rows of 270+ stitches in Kidsilk Haze to rip back because I did not swatch (gulp!).

Wish me luck.

You can find more blogs participating in the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week by googling 2KCBWDAY7. If you have come here as part of the Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, thank you for visiting. I'll still be here once this week is over and I'm usually blogging about arts, books, films, language besides all the craft stuff. Do stick around.

Lessons Learned

I have learned several lessons today. 1) I was right to buy more fabric for my first quilt. Remember I felt uneasy about the matchy-ness of my fabrics? I decided to mix up my orange fabrics with some aqua. I rather like the result.

2) I get really, really stressed out about measuring and cutting my pieces. At one point my hands were so shaking so much that I was ordered out of the classroom to get some fresh air. Well, you'd be stressed too if your first go with a rotary cutter resulted in you making a big and very uncalled-for cut into your expensive binding material.

3) I find the sewing part very relaxing and intuitive compared to the cutting. Nothing can go wrong now. Except if you sew wrong bits together but that is what a seam-ripper is for.

4) Seeing how your fabrics look together makes up for a lot of stress.

5) No matter how careful I am when measuring & cutting my pieces, I will need to dip into my scraps for extra squares because I struggle with imperial measurements.

6) And when I get home, I will take a ubiquitous photo of my semi-finished craft project in The Usual Spot.

I have homework for next week: I need to finish sewing all my squares and ironing them because next time we'll be putting the quilt together! I'm slightly terrified of the binding and very apprehensive about the actual quilting, but I'll be fine. My teacher, Bronwen, was a calming, encouraging influence throughout the class and even managed to make me feel accomplished despite my numerous shortcomings.

Also: I loved seeing how the other quilts were shaping up and how much of a difference fabric choice makes.

In knitting, a jumper looks more-or-less the same whether you do it in green, blue or orange. Katherine had chosen to use all bold patterns in teals, blues, and greens. Dr J had gone for one specific print and had picked co-ordinating fabrics based upon that print. Another woman were making the quilt with her god-daughter in mind: pretty, pale pastel colours and tiny prints. We were all using the same layout but the feel of the patchwork blocks were so very, very different. So cool.

Meanwhile I have started a new knitting project - a really easy, mindless little thing that's also a great stash-buster (as long as you don't go out to buy two balls of yarn to match stash yarn like I did..). More on that anon.

Finally, a few random links: + Old love never really dies ..  but the dog is a bonus. Also, Scots don't really look like this. Trust me. + I'm interested in neurology for a number of reasons and this little article answers something that has been nagging me since childhood: why do I see certain shapes if I rub my eyes? + The blog name really bugs me, but the post touches upon things that played a small, but very significant part in me leaving Denmark. + Sound advice for any blogger (not just food blogging).