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May 30, 2005
Tweed stitch belt
A couple of you asked me to spill the beans on the belt I've been working on. So here it is:
Rowan Handknit Cotton, two balls, contrasting colours
3.75mm needles
Cast on 13 sts
Row 1: *K1, slip 1 holding yarn to front (RS) of work, rep from * to last st, K1
Row 2: P2, *slip 1 holding yarn to back (RS) of work, P1, rep from * to last st, K1
Rep these rows. At the same time, change colour every four rows. Keep going until belt is as long as you want, or you run out of yarn. Tie nonchalantly.
Thank you all for your comments. I apologise that I owe you emails, and haven't been visiting recently. Have been fighting The Black Dog somewhat, but rallying now.
Posted by Amelia at 11:43 PM | Comments (11)
May 27, 2005
Little stitches, big ideas
I told you yesterday there was more to show. First of all, inspired by Michelle, I decided I needed nothing more that a knitted belt. So with two skeins of Rowan handknit cotton, I set off. I even used the same stitch I think, only in my stitch bible it's called 'Tweed stitch' instead of 'Linen stitch'. Look at the fabric it makes though.
Isn't it lovely? The fabric, especially in a cotton on slightly smaller needles is really firm and flat, just perfect for a belt. And the other side looks like lovely moss/seed stitch.
For the last third of the length I think I may swap to two new colours, just for the hey of it. I think lilac and pale yellow. Then I'll make another one for some lucky person who I think needs a belt. I'm going to wear this tied around my new white linen kaftan, and with jeans, and any other time I can.
I bought some beautiful Debbie Bliss cotton/angora, in a delightful pale grey. Here's the swatch.
No, I'm not on Debbie's payroll (yet), but the machine-washability you see, swings it. Beautifully soft luxurious feeling yarns, which make garments I will actually wear, rather than ones which will spend 90% of their life languishing in the laundry basket.
It's taken me over a week to figure it out: but this is going to be a grown-up version of those gorgeous Debbie Bliss jackets she does for little girls. You know the ones, with the moss stitch border and little rosebuds on? Infantalised? Moi?
That is, until I change my mind again.
Posted by Amelia at 01:57 PM | Comments (15)
May 26, 2005
Seeing stars
Oh how very tired I am. All sorts of political manoeuvrings at work. My head hurts but it is a blessed relief to be home amongst the people and cats I love, flowers, and knitting.
Now if the makers of streptocarpus 'Shooting Star' ever ask me to endorse their product, I won't even take a fee. If you find one, buy one. They let you know when they're thirsty and put up with neglect, and as long as you deadhead them they flower from May to November. All they need is sun, and dirt. And in spring you can divide them to make more plants, or not, they won't mind.
What a blue.
So what else?
At last the pattern for Sally is finished and being checked. It was my first time writing out a pattern, and I think it turned out OK. I really only had one or two quite minor tantrums along the way. This has left me free to work on Napoleon. All the pieces are done, it's halfway through being seamed, a collar has been added, but understand this is a long process.
I have more to show, but my head still hurts. Before I go though:
The glamorous and discerning Ashley suggested I should knit a shrug, and she's knitting one too, so one could say we were shrugging-along, in a non-committal, 'meh,' type way. I had been intending to come up with my own desirable creation in leftover Cotton Tape, but when I saw how Stephanie did it, I knew the game was up. Bought the pattern. Bought Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Cast on last night. Now tell me:
With the copper edging? For an 'Indian Summer' look?
Oh my brain is fog.
Posted by Amelia at 08:15 PM | Comments (9)
May 24, 2005
Oh my darling
Clementine! Look at those complementary colours!
Clementine socks, started 22 Apr 05 finished 17 May 05
Pattern: Go With the Flow socks, Interweave Knits summer 05
I am extremely happy with these socks. The pattern was a pleasure, and the colour is just triumphant. There's a better picture of the stitch pattern here, for those interested.
In other knitting news, I finished a second Clapotis, this one for Mother Dear. I didn't use stitch markers - they break my rhythm and make knitting a chore rather than a pleasure - and instead worked the stitches to be dropped in purl on the right side and knit on the wrong, effectively making a little rib. Now I know I've read about this somewhere in the blogosphere but I can't remember or find where, so whoever invented the technique will please accept my apologies. She (Mother) chose black Jaeger Aqua (a mercerised DK cotton), and it is rather glamorous. Although black can be terribly harsh to wear close to the face. So for my records:
started 19 Apr 05 finished 23 May 05
Pattern: Knitty's Clapotis
No pictures because it's already around Mother's shoulders, but maybe I'll persuade her to take some.
Posted by Amelia at 07:16 PM | Comments (19)
May 22, 2005
The saga continues
Soon there will be pictures, and knit stitches to see. I spent some time yesterday finishing up writing the pattern for Sally. It's the first time I've written up a pattern: I think it went quite well, only, I'm unsure about the armholes and sleeve caps. Just a few days ago, nona was having her own sleeve cap saga, today I'm wondering if you can tell me any ways to check the one will fit the other?
I could draw the body and corresponding sleeve cap out on to-scale graph paper, and measure with my trusty (flexible) tape measure around the curve? It seems awfully unscientific. Please, if you have any insights, do share. I would hate for some poor soul, spiritedly working her way through Sally, to come a cropper with the sleeves. For the sake of humanity, please.
Posted by Amelia at 10:01 PM | Comments (4)
May 20, 2005
In case you didn't know
It's Flower Picture Week. We at Raitte Hall are extremely grateful to the dainty-handed Chelsea for giving us a reason to post prettiness, when there is really nothing to show for the knitting. Some socks are complete. Some seaming has been sewn. Some cables cabled, brass buttons, bought.
I should have started on Monday, but better late than never eh?
Let me show you the ladies:
Monday's child is fair of face...
showgirl tulip
Tuesday's child is full of grace...
Some kind of Iris, one of very few plants here when we moved in.
Wednesday's child is full of woe...
Mourning Widow whom I adore. She grows like fury in my garden, sun or shade.
Wishing you happy gardening, and green fingers (or thumbs, if you're in North America).
Posted by Amelia at 07:17 PM | Comments (4)
May 18, 2005
Good things
This, on Pauline's blog, is wonderful. I am developing a small obsession with knitted foodstuffs. Only last night I was fantasising about an entire knitted fruitbowl. Now I know for a fact that some of the ladies at my KiP groups would say 'now what is the point of that?', but would you say the same about a hand-carved fruitbowl? Or about a fruitbowl painted in oils?
If you ask me, some of the best things in life are pointless. Why I'm very often pointless myself.
Posted by Amelia at 08:32 AM | Comments (7)
May 16, 2005
A little light panic
I'm about to run out of projects! Of course there are endless socks to knit, but to me socks are 'filler' projects which I work on in between the big stuff. I dont feel quite ready to start the dress yet - it will be six months before I would conceivabley get a chance to wear such a garmemt; I've got a Clapotis on the go that is 3/4s done, and I've almost finished the main parts of the Sgt Pepper jacket and after that... what???
Posted by Amelia at 01:03 PM | Comments (8)
May 15, 2005
Now this my dears...
... is a knitted dress. Try to ignore the small white dog attacking the lady's head, get up close to your screen this is worth ruining your eyes for.
Jean Paul Gaultier couture, autumn/winter 1998/9
This is from Knitwear in Fashion, by Sandy Black, which leapt into my hands and plucked the credit card from my purse at the Knit2Together exhibition at the Crafts Council here in London, which ends this weekend. I had been meaning to go for ages, but at last, on Friday, I got there and I'm so glad I did. Of course I left the catalogue in Mother's car, so I can't tell you who's work I liked best, but I found it absolutely inspiring.
So isn't that dress amazing? The cables...
Something else that inspired me yesterday was Tracy's Poetry. The sweater is spectacular and her post is sage: 'I think the main thing I've learnt from knitting Poetry is never to think something is out of reach.'
And just in case you needed any more inspiration:
Socks, anyone?
Vivienne Westwood, 'On Liberty' collection, autumn/winter 1994/95
Posted by Amelia at 05:06 PM | Comments (11)
May 14, 2005
Carry on Napoleon
I'm plugging away at Napoleon. Inspired by the 'Shocking' Cardigan in Interweave Knits winter 04, this jacket is knit in nine main pieces instead of the usual five. Of course this is going to mean more seaming, but the up side is that the pieces are so small they knit up in no time, which is good, psychologically. Only 3.5 more pieces til I get to the good stuff.
Posted by Amelia at 03:40 PM | Comments (8)
May 11, 2005
What's that you say Anna? A knitted dress??
I may be excommunicated by Vogue subscriptions for this but I am planning a knitted dress. This may be rash, but if a dress can work in a knit fabric like jersey, I dont see why it can't work as a hand-knit. It's just a question of getting the design right, playing to the knitting's strengths and being aware of it's weaknesses. You will have to humour me for the duration of this loosely-formed post: but please, if you have any opinions or information about knitted dresses you feel I should know, do interrupt.
1. I will try to avoid dreaded bum-bagging by using a style that does not hug the bum.
2. A dress is a lot of fabric. I need to use a yarn that is thick enough to knit up (reasonably) quickly, yet not so HOT as to render the dress unwearable in these days of modern, centrally-heated homes and workplaces.
3. Is there such a thing as a universally flattering dress shape? Or at least, a dress-shape that will flatter most figures? I think something like the classic Diane von Furstenburg wrap dress (many of which can be seen here: dvflondon.com), only without the wrap. And the collar. And the belt.
4. I'm thinking about colour now and perhaps this should NOT be a classic 'little black dress', heavenly as that would be. The Sgt Pepper jacket is black, and I'm also working on a Clapotis for Mother Dear, in black, and between the two of them I'm sure my already poor eyesight is worsening.
Posted by Amelia at 08:45 AM | Comments (13)
Good Morning Good Morning
I know it won't be to everyone's taste, but I think this little Sgt Pepper jacket is going to be cute. I started and ripped the back about three times because I hadn't done the maths correctly, so I changed tack and started with the sleeves. It's been a while since I knit something with full-length sleeves and now I remember why. But they're both done now, relatively blank canvases on which I can play with various kinds of frogging/cording/embellishment. Nicky Epstein's books live on the coffee table for now. I'm hoping to be sufficiently restrained with the embellishing that I'll end up with a summer-weight jacket that I can get lots of use from teaming with a plain old boring old t-shirt and jeans/jean skirt outfit. If I had had the foresight, I would have named Sally 'Josephine', and this could be her 'Napoleon'.
I'm using Debbie Bliss Cathay, which is lovely and soft, in black, white, red and blue. Although next to those stark primaries, the rather subtle duck-egg blue does tend to just look grey.
Posted by Amelia at 08:29 AM | Comments (3)
May 10, 2005
An empty bed
I felt so sorry for poor Junior. When Mr Raitte and I use our computers simultaneously, there is nowhere for him to snooze where he can be close to us. Everywhere in the room is hard surfaces. And we've got these peculiar orthopedic chairs, which make even laps unavailable. So poor Jnr has no option but to cling desperately to Mr Raitte or myself, and well, sometimes you're trying to WORK, or BLOG, matters of extreme importance, and it's not easy to do so with a small black cat clinging to your front and trying to lick your face.
So I thought I'd quickly knit up a Wendy's Kitty Pi bed for him out of leftover Rowanspun Chunky I had from knitting this great sweater. Of course he is Only A Cat (as I frequently remind him) but this would solve problems for the entire household. After three goes through the washing machine and blocking on a rather stylish 60s white storage unit, it was ready.
You will notice, it is vacant. Jnr has been pointedly ignoring it. I set it on the couch next to me, where he often sits. Jnr made do with sleeping on two square inches of spare space, rather than let one fibre of that kitty bed touch him. When I try to place him on it, he acts like I'm trying to lower him into cold water. Just see if I knit him anything ever again.
Posted by Amelia at 08:34 AM | Comments (9)
May 09, 2005
Going on
Hello to my new readers... thank you for dropping by! Sorry for the lack of postage recently, but I do find that one progress shot can look very much like another. I could show you progress on the Go With The Flow socks, but well, sock 2 looks very much like sock 1. I will say though that this pattern reinforces the truism that it is extremely difficult to stop in mid-Flow... with only four rounds to a pattern repeat, one tends to just Flow and Flow.
I've also been slaving away over a hot calculator to write out the pattern for Sally, so if you were one of the charitable souls who asked me to publish it, please know that I am working on it. I'm just not so fast with anything that involves counting.
Jeanie asked to see close ups of the bias edge I used for Della. I hope these show enough detail - I haven't worked out how to do that thing all other bloggers seem to do where you click on a picture and it opens up bigger. So just lean in really close to your screen and pretend, OK?
Posted by Amelia at 08:22 AM | Comments (7)
May 04, 2005
Me! Tagged!
How very exciting this has never happened to me before.
Here are the questions that Jacqueline put to me:
1: What is the total number of books in your house?
A couple of hundred, maybe. I get rid of lots, because I only give space to books I really love. If I love it and want to lend it to people, or reread it, I keep it. Anything I can't finish, or I just think 'meh', is given away or goes to the charity shop. Non-fiction/reference books are a slightly different case. I don't collect books. I have a friend who almost shrieks at the thought of giving away books, but I dont see an intrinsic value in them. They are objects, and as a general trend I try to shed objects - because they do seem to accumulate almost unbidden.
2: What was the last book you bought?
The last book I bought was Small Island by Andrea Levy. It's about two couples, an English couple and a Jamaican couple, and their experiences in World War II and in London immediately post-war. It's good, a lovely easy read; a gripping story well told, and very tender I think, in it's renderings of people's attitudes.
3: What was the last book you read before reading this?
The last book I finished? Or the last book I looked at? The last book I finished was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I was expecting more: with a title like that, can you blame me? I mean it was good and everything, fantastic technique, but (for me) put-downable, and didn't leave me entirely satisfied.
The last book I read some of is Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. This is real comfort reading, about big country houses and independently wealthy, clueless girls. I'm a bit obsessed with the 1930s and 40s at the moment.
4: Write down 5 (or 6) books that you often read or that mean a lot to you and why?
Hm ok. In order that they occur to me:
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. I love this gentle comedy and it reminds me of my schoolfriend Tara. We read this at around the same time when we were about 15, and would giggle about it endlessly. I reread it whenever I have the flu or am feeling sorry for myself. I recently had to buy a new copy because the original one had finally fallen to pieces.
Perfume by Patrick Suskind. The first time I met my husband, I bought him a copy of this.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Hey I'm a chick. I can't help it. It's just so good.
Life a Users Manual by Georges Perec. A man is painting a dissection of a Paris apartment block, and the book tells the story of the lives of it's inhabitants. It stays with me.
That's four. I could do more but that will do for now.
5: Who are you going to pass this onto and why?
I'd like to know what Ashley, Nona and Vicki read.
Posted by Amelia at 08:17 AM | Comments (4)
May 02, 2005
Shopping list item #12837498
This is so very me. I also notice Colinette do a kit for a big old chunky cardigan in black/white variegated thick/thin yarn. The colourway is called 'Zebra'. Mmmm I like zebras.
Posted by Amelia at 12:57 AM | Comments (7)
May 01, 2005
In case you were wondering
A few things about me:
1. This year I will be 33. I'm still young, but I'm older than I was.
2. This year, I will be married to Mr Raitte for 8 years. We met on the internets. He's from Canada.
3. I spent all of my adult life with severe mental illness, apart from the last year. Being well is like feeling the sun on my face after the longest, coldest winter.
4. I never play piano any more. I never make time.
5. My great great great (etc) grandfather, Sir Roland Hill invented the postage stamp - the 'penny post'. It's true!
6. I know a little bit about a lot of things.
7. I hope to have children, before it's too late.
Posted by Amelia at 08:42 AM | Comments (8)