Made by Hand: The Gillean Wrist Warmers

The fourth pattern from the Doggerland collection was released today: the Gillean wrist warmers. I am slightly perplexed how we have managed to hit the halfway mark already - but I am also proud of how the collection is coming together. I was so nervous that I wasn't going to be able to do justice to the ideas in my head but somehow it is all working out. The Gillean wrist warmers are all about my fascination with hands.

Since I began knitting again, I have been aware of my hands in ways I had not been before. There is an element of inhabiting the craft with your body and being conscious of how your body influences the craft. Sometimes I get into a creative flow: I no longer notice what my hands are doing and how they are moving. I am knitting and yet I am no longer knitting. My hands have taken over and they work the stitches, carry the yarn and hold the needles while I am doing something else. My body occupies another space to me. It is a peculiar feeling.

But then the flow is interrupted. A stitch is snagged on the needle, I need to change colour or the yarn has fallen underneath the chair. And that is when I start to contemplate my relationship with my hands.

My hands are fragile and sore today but they fascinate me by being so capable and strong. They are marvellously complex and marvellously versatile.  They ache sometimes, oh yes, and I can see an indenture on my finger where I carry the yarn, but my hands is what makes creation possible for me. I write, paint and knit. My hands turn my ideas into reality - these 54 bones enable me to articulate and transform my thoughts.

Our hands hold, break, give, take, make, mould, and change things.

Humans have been employing their hands since prehistory and we can read the past through the traces of their hands: a crushed hazelnut shell, a crafted tool, smears of paints on a cave wall. I look at my knitting and I know I am leaving behind my own traces, however ephemeral. These wrist warmers did not exist before my hands made them. They will shelter my hands; they are my crushed hazelnut shells and discarded flint flakes.

I have long considered taking on an art project regarding crafters' hands - how our hands interact with our craft, how our chosen craft have a physical effect upon our hands. Hand-spinners often see their drafting hand take on a different appearance to their non-drafting hand, I have an indenture on my finger from carrying yarns, and needle-workers can develop callused fingers immune to any needle-prick. I am sure there are many other examples. The question is really if I have enough time to take on such a project - and so I leave the idea here (though comments with examples of crafters' bodies changing due to chosen craft would be appreciated).

Halfway through Doggerland. Next pattern will be an actual journey into Doggerland itself - we have just been visiting its periphery so far.

A Yarn-Shop Jaunt to Edinburgh: Kathy's Knits, Ginger Twist Studio & Be Inspired Fibres.

In early 2009 I was in the process of setting up my own yarn shop in Glasgow. I had done the research, I had sourced my suppliers, I had the business USP worked out, and I had even found the premises. Unfortunately I had also found a shady landlord and I ended up having to pull the plug on the shop before it hadn't even opened. It was a hard time, but today I am thankful that it did not work out. I have taken a very different path in my knitting life and it is one I find incredibly fulfilling. But it is always interesting to visit yarn shops and see how the people who did make the leap have done so. I look at the yarns the shops stock, how the yarns are displayed, the type of signage they use – heck, I even look at the fonts they use and how the window displays are merchandised. I get paid to notice these things when I am working, so it makes sense that I notice all these things even if I am not officially on the job.

In mid-July I went on a merry jaunt to Edinburgh to have lunch with Susan Crawford (who is quickly becoming a dear friend). It was a sunny day and we decided to combine our lunch with a trip to a few local yarn shops. Edinburgh is lucky to host several quality yarn shops but we were only able to visit three on the day. All three turned out to be fantastic but they were also very different. As someone who had a very strong idea about the shop she was going to open, I just love how shops carve out their own niches and identities. A yarn shop isn't just a place that sells yarn.

Kathy's Knits was our first stop.

Cathy specialises in British yarns and is really passionate about stocking local products. We had a good look at the fabled St Kilda laceweight yarn and I ended up buying some 4-ply yarn for a specific fair-isle project. I also love how Cathy really cares about the local knitting community. I first met her when she was volunteering for us at the Kaffe Fassett event last year, she backed The Edinburgh Yarn Fest, and she is very vocal in supporting the other local yarn shops in Edinburgh.

Susan and I bumped into Emily of Tin Can Knits at Cathy's – it does feel like a hub for talent.

Cathy stocks predominantly British yarns like JC Rennie, Blacker yarns, and Jamieson & Smith as well as some great hand-dyed yarns from the likes of Eden Cottage Yarns and YarnPony. You can follow Cathy & Kathy's Knits on Twitter.

Ginger Twist Studio is one of the newest LYSs in town and a nice walking distance from Kathy's.

Its owner Jess is a bundle of energy and warmth - she's as tiny  as her shop which bears her cheerful, vintage-inspired trademark. I just felt instantly at ease in her company and her shop. She has a strong focus on what I'd call the typical Ravelry knitter: young students who love colour, affordable natural fibres, and offbeat design. It was such a fun visit and I wanted to sit down next to her and knit away whilst gossiping about yarns and patterns. And I think that is a strong indicator that Jess is making things happen.

Jess & Susan had a great discussion about their shared love for vintage designs - it was hugely inspiring.

Jess stocks New Lanark, various yarns from Cascade,  and King Cole among others and also hosts "yarn of the month" and "designer of the month" ensuring an ever fresh selection. Ginger Twist Studio is on Twitter, of course. You can also find Jess working stalls at various vintage craft fairs throughout Edinburgh.

Be Inspired Fibres was our last yarn shop visit of the day.

Situated in an upmarket area, Be Inspired has a definite 'boutique' feel to it with plenty of space and natural light. The shop takes a step back to let its customers browse and inspiration from its many different products. Mei has worked in the yarn business for many years in various roles and is very passionate about luxury yarns. Her shop is a beautiful, very calm space and Mei has a strong selection of very unusual yarns and designs. Like the other two shops, Be Inspired reflects its owner - Mei is very conscious of design, clean lines and wanting to offer her customer an exquisite experience.

We had a very long conversation about Scandinavia - Mei draws a lot of inspiration from Japanese and Scandinavian design - and we were shown glimpses of what Mei plans to stock in the future. I will be teaching a couple of workshops at Be Inspired in the autumn - all with a focus on clean lines, Scandinavian heritage and modern knitting design. Keep an eye on Mei's workshop schedule for more information.

Mei stocks Ito yarns, ChaioGoo needles, Malabrigo, Fyberspates, Lotus Yarns, Habu yarns and BomBella Kits as well as a cracking selection of international design magazines ( I am very excited about her future plans too - and you should be too). Be Inspired Fibres also have a twitter feed.

After having walked miles in stunning sunshine, Susan & I finished up with refreshments at Peter's Yard - a Swedish bakery. Cardamon buns, oh yes. What a lovely, lovely day - and what lovely company!  Three so very different shops: I love their shared passion and their individual visions.

I need to make my way to Edinburgh more often.

Wilting - Some Links While I Melt

As a heatwave has swept across the UK, activities in Casa Bookish have been kept to a bare minimum. Oh, there was that trip to Linlithgow Palace, a trip to Edinburgh, some art exhibitions,  designing/plotting, preparations for the launch of new Autumn/Winter yarn collections - but mainly I have languished in the shade with an ice cream for company. I've enjoyed some really fantastic and thought-provoking Twitter conversations about hand-knitting, fashion, and women's self-image. So, in short: I don't exactly lack blog post material. I just lack the energy and presence of mind to write the blog posts! What's a girl to do? Well, I have some choice links for you to peruse whilst I hope for cooler temps to hit my corner of the UK:

• Ventures & Adventures in Topography - a podcast about rambling through London using old walking guides. Yes, I continue to be fascinated by psychogeography - how we interact with landscapes and how landscapes interact with us.
• Speaking of which: Cafe Pantopia - trying to establish "a common meeting-place that traverses the vast distances of the North Atlantic Ocean." I am a North Atlantic Ocean girl and I love, love, love this idea.
• Fringe Association is my new favourite knitting blog. There. I said it. She makes me look at things differently. FA  is a refreshing, smart look at knitting, style, and design.
• I am currently teaching myself (very basic) French using DuoLingo. I'd quite like an outline of basic grammar alongside vocabulary lessons and commonly used phrases, but I genuinely feel like I'm learning Stuff.
• Fancy living somewhere which has serious literary credentials? Why, William Blake's cottage is for sale!
• And this serves a neat segueway into the Man Booker longlist. The jury is spear-headed by Robert MacFarlane whose The Old Ways is my current bedside table book. In Days of Yore I would have had Opinions but Opinions have been wilted by the heat and an insane amount of work knitting.
• I have finished a book recently, though. Yes, That Book by That Author. I enjoyed it - and it was very low on gore which I appreciated. I am a squeamish reader in some ways.

And how are you doing?

A Joy Forever

We are all of us, like the man in Plato's cave, seeing the shadows of ourselves on the walls of our prison house and, alas, all too often we mistake the shadow for substance. The knitter's craft has taught me to have a profound respect for the aesthetic heritage that is the birthright of all mankind. It has led me to seek the Good; the best tools and the finest material out of which to create the ideas that have dominated my days; to seek the True; the perfection in line and structure that is the most perfect expression in terms of design I can find for those things I have made with my hands; to forget Beauty; knowing that if a thing is good and true then beauty can well be left to look after herself. - James Norbury.

How the Land Lies: The Gillean Hat

How do we understand a landscape? From satnavs and street lights to bus routes and border controls, our twenty-first century landscape is controlled and marked in a myriad of ways. We are told how best to reach our destination (the destination being more important than the journey!), not to trespass, and to have our passport ready for inspection. Not only does Google Earth enables us to walk the streets of cities we will never visit from the comfort of our own homes, but computer-generated landscapes can end up feel more real than the landscape outside our windows.

(I still remember the shock coursing through my body when I first played Diablo II and discovered the village in Diablo had been burned down. It was a real, physical reaction to a simulated environment.)

Thankfully human beings still want to feel we are part of our actual, real surroundings.

We want to inhabit our landscape emotionally as well as physically. We take shortcuts ('desire lines') when the official path seems too circuitous; we respond to stark urban environments by planting trees and flowers; and we turn spaces into places by telling tales about them: "This is where I played as a child" and "Turn left at the tree that was hit by lightning."

And the Gillean Hat is partly a response to this story-telling impulse, this desire to belong.

The Gillean hat is named after Caisteal nan Gillean - a Mesolithic archaeology site on the Scottish island of Oronsay. I am fascinated by how we choose to name sites and how many layers of stories we can find in place names. Caisteal nan Gillean literally means 'the fort of the boys' and since we will never know the actual Mesolithic name of the site, the boys will linger.

But there are other ways of marking your place in the world when words are no longer remembered and myths about a place have ceased to be told. Caisteal nan Gillean has plenty of evidence that it was a place tied to memories, stories, experiences and meaning. People inhabited the island on many occasions and left behind traces of their lives.

I am using a stylised shell/limpet motif in this hat. Oronsay is famous for its shell middens - solid evidence of human activity in a landscape - and I wanted to throw a handful of these shells across a hat. The hat uses beautiful organic Faroese yarns that reflect an isolated island environment: a grassy green flickers at the edge whilst the two greys capture the idea of shells strewn across weathered stones. A link to a past landscape in a own present-day world.

If you want to read more about how we relate to landscapes - both internal and external ones - I recommend Robert Macfarlane's beautiful The Old Ways: a Journey on Foot.

That Sweet Spot: On Knitting Needles

I think we all have our own sweet spot in knitting whether we realise it or not. When you first start out knitting, you will probably try all types of knitting: chunky yarns on big needles, double-pointed needles and a self-striping 4ply for your first sock, scarf knitting using textured yarn on straight needles and so forth. Some people will continue to bounce back and forth, but most knitters will find their preferred type of knitting eventually. My sweet spot? I rarely use anything below 3mm (US 2) and above 5mm (US 8). I prefer circular needles above anything else - 80 cm (32") being my preferred cable length. I do not get along with interchangeable needles - an expensive lesson to learn - but want my circs to be fixed. As someone who designs and knits a lot of lace, I need a smooth join between needle and cable as well as a pointy tip. I'm less fussy about the material of the needle - wood, bamboo and good quality metal all work well for me.

(As for brands, there is a certain sense of one-upmanship in knitting (a bit like Top Trumps for crafty grown-ups) and I'm always a bit reluctant to play along with this. Apologies if the next bit reads like me slamming down a card or two.)

Until recently my go-to needles have been Addi Bamboo circs. They are not always ideal as the bamboo can be a bit soft and easily scratched, but I like how they feel in my hands. They are lightweight, yarns pass smoothly across the needles rather than slip across, and the cable has a pleasing solidity to it whilst still being flexible.

Addi Bamboos are not as easy to get as KnitPros and I have a fair amount of wooden KPs as a result. The needles themselves are smooth and the tips are nice and pointy. I am less keen on the cable which does not feel as high quality as the needle part. This was recently confirmed by a KP cable snapping at the join. If I were a DPN user or a straight needles gal, I'd probably like KPs more.

Addi Turbos form another big part of my tool box. The needles tend to be on the blunt side and the cables can have kinks (the latter is easily rectified by strategic steaming) but they are good workhorse needles. My 3.75mm (US 5) Addi Turbos remain my Beloved for no apparent reason other than 'they fit my hands so well'.

And then at Woolfest I decided to try out Chiaogoo needles after hearing friends talk about them like they were the second coming. I switched needles on a project so I could test them almost immediately and I've been in love ever since. They really, really hit that sweet spot for me.

The tip are pointy and have a nice, long angle to them which means I can quickly move from stitch to stitch (especially noticeable when working decreases into the back of the loop). The needles themselves are smooth but with the tiniest hint of grip which means slippery yarns stay put and my rhythm remains the same regardless of type of yarn. The join is equally smooth and allows for easy movement of stitches from cable to needle (always key).

But I am deeply impressed by the cable.

The cable feels substantial, but not weighty. No memory means no potential kinks and no curcling around when I magic-loop. I have also tried walking around whilst knitting an almost-finished top-down jumper(!) and the cable + join do not feel unduly stressed. The cable may feel slightly bulky for some knitters - especially if you are used to KPs - but I really like it. I have also road-tested the cable with flimsy lace knitting and it still outperformed.

To absolutely nobody's surprise, I have since added Chiaogoos in most of my preferred sizes to the toolbox. It was a bit of an indulgence but having proper tools make such a difference to me. I have finished two pieces of sample knitting since the needles arrived and a third is almost done. They have really enhanced my knitting joy.

What tools are essential to you? What sort of needles fit your hands and your style of knitting? What do you look for in a good set of needles? We are all different and I'm curious to hear about other people's sweet spots.