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August 29, 2005
Because you’re so good to me
Elfine’s socks, started 16 July 05, finished 4 Aug 05
Pattern: My own
Yarn: Shelridge Farm Soft Touch
You can download the pattern for Elfine’s leaf-lace socks (grown from the toe up, the season’s ‘must have’ hosiery for style-conscious wood-nymphs) here. View the work in progress (and the literary reference) here.
My pleasure. If you come across typos/errors, do let me know.
edit to add: If you prefer to knit lace from a chart, get in touch with Kathy at Kaffeinated Knits and she’ll send you one. Thanks Kathy!
Posted by Amelia at 04:45 PM | Comments (55)
August 27, 2005
Life is elsewhere
Ennui. A wonderful word – is there an appropriate synonym? You may have noticed there has been a lot of it around (witness, Em has been feeling it, as has Julia, Rachel (who got over hers with a good gossip), and Adele who was FED UP with her knitting). Wendy puts it down to the end of summer and I have to agree. It’s the last bank holiday weekend of the year, until Christmas, signifying that summer is beating it’s retreat and in a few short days we’ll be back at school. Never mind that I left education fifteen years ago, it still provokes a sense of gloom. And this feeling has left me without much to say, or show. I have been remiss in my reading of and writing to my friends. There’s a feeling that, as fast as I run, I’m not moving.
Dear Jodi has been talking about friendships and I feel rather bruised. It is the start of a three day weekend and I am without a single plan. Life, as I said, is elsewhere.
So why don’t I show you some knitting and see if that cheers me up?
This is Hipknits silk in Seaweed and Jolly. These colours are far more ‘me’ than the lavender Peace I started with. This yarn is sumptuous. The slight variegation in the solid purple seems to make it flicker and glow.
And this is a little cardigan I’m working on for me. A navy blue merino/cashmere 4-ply blend, which I’m knitting from the cone: the project is not portable, but how lovely to think of there being (practically) no ends to sew in when I’m finished! It’s very similar to Baby Cashmerino and knits up into a sturdy, springy, stretchy fabric… I think I will wear this one a lot.
Finally the second in my Sockapaltwoza socks (looking disappointingly similar to previous progress shots). The end of August caught me unawares, so these hopped back into my hands to be finished. I still have a couple of weeks before they are torn from me. I’m very tempted to make a pair for myself but the lace has been making my hands hurt, rather.
That, dears, is all I have for now. I had intended to show you what's waiting in the wings, but really, who wants to see some balls of yarn. I think instead I’ll go and watch Bringing Up Baby instead. May tomorrow (always) be brighter.
Posted by Amelia at 12:45 PM | Comments (18)
August 21, 2005
Claude pattern
For more pictures see my previous post. The type of buttonhole described in the pattern is elaborated on here - but of course you can use your preferred buttonhole method.
Sizes to fit bust 34, 36, 38, 40, 42 inches.
Skills: Stocking (stockinette) stitch, moss (seed) stitch, increases, decreases, cables, buttonholes.
Posted by Amelia at 06:04 PM | Comments (8)
Idiosyncrasies
First: As one who adores to rest her eye on a garden vista, I think it’s a very great shame how much I despise the actual act of gardening. It seems to comprise of 95 per cent weeding; I find the whole enterprise uncomfortable, infuriating and only occasionally rewarding. So my whole fraught relationship with ‘outside’ largely entails sporadic bursts of activity, largely confined to weeding and tidying up, while the garden continues its relentless decline into neglect.
Having been tagged by Anoushka, Ali and Mary, I can’t very well go any longer without answering. I tried in vain to think of five idiosyncracies, but honestly, couldn’t. This is all I’ve got:
1. I must sleep with my feet outside the bedclothes else I feel claustrophobic. Otherwise my feet feel claustrophobic. If it is extremely cold, I can wear socks, but never put the feet inside the bedclothes.
2. I gesture more when talking on the telephone than I do in person.
3. I have an annoying tendency to finish other people’s sentences for them. And to be a bit bossy.
Really, I can’t think of a single one more. How very well-balanced I must be.
If you haven’t done this and would like to, say Anna tagged you.
Posted by Amelia at 05:08 PM | Comments (3)
August 14, 2005
Kiri goes to the opera
This winsome creature is my Dear Mother. On the occasion of her 60th birthday she was given rather good seats to see Turandot, by Puccini, at the Royal Opera House no less, and the Limeleaf Kiri went too. Don’t they look lovely?
Here she is with the equally winsome Harvey, 19. Harvey’s favourite thing (after food) is being allowed to wear a bow. He starts to purr as soon as you approach him with a ribbon.
And to round off this bevvy of beauties, roses Souvenir du Dr Jamain, and L D Braithwaite, in their own lime green leaf clothes.
(Yes, the patterns. Yes, I’m working on them.)
Posted by Amelia at 08:41 AM | Comments (27)
August 13, 2005
Buttonholes
edited to include better pics.
The pattern for Claude describes ‘Best Buttonholes’ from Maggie Righetti’s Sweater Design in Plain English (although of course you can use any buttonhole method you choose).
I have a long history of trouble with buttonholes, so I was interested to try this method. It doesn’t leave me with a perfect buttonhole (see below), but at least the ‘hole’ seems to retain its ‘holeness’. Maybe someone reading will share the wisdom for creating the really perfect buttonhole.
So for your buttonhole edification, here is a 13-step (!) pictorial tutorial for the ‘Best Buttonhole’. I’ve put a stitch marker on the right side so you can tell which is which. Pictures are below the text referring to them. I hope this helps.
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1. With the right side facing, I work the required number of stitches before starting the buttonhole: in this case, two.
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2. Slip one stitch knitwise, from left needle to right, with yarn at the back.
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3. Between the tips of my needles, bring the yarn to the front.
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4. Slip one more stitch. I now have 3 sts on my left needle and 4 on my right.
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5. Pass the 1st slipped stitch (2nd stitch from last on right needle) over the second slipped stitch (last stitch on right needle). In this picture I have just lifted the stitch over with my left needle and am about to drop it off the tip of my left needle. I’ll be left with 3 sts on each needle. You can continue slipping and casting off stitches in this way until the buttonhole is as wide as you need it.
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6. Slip the last stitch on right needle back to left needle.
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7. Turn work so the wrong side is facing.
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8. Cast on two sts (or however many you cast off in step 5, plus 1 more). In this picture I have just made my second cast on stitch. When I put it back on my left needle, I’ll have 4 sts on each needle.
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9. Turn work round again so that the right side is facing.
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10. With yarn at the back of work, slip one stitch knitwise from left needle.
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11. Pass the last cast on stitch over the slipped stitch (this casts off 1 stitch). In this picture I have just lifted the stitch over with my left needle and am about to drop it off the tip of my left needle. I’ll be left with 3 sts on my left needle and 4 on my right.
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12. Slip the last stitch on your right needle back to your left needle. I now have 4 sts on my left needle and three on my right.
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13. Work across stitches on left needle keeping stitch pattern correct.
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Continue in pattern until you’re ready to repeat steps 1-13 all over again!
Posted by Amelia at 01:19 PM | Comments (5)
August 12, 2005
Rich, dark, smooth...
... yarn.
This is the package which is at last ready to send to my allocated knitter. Along with many of the world’s pre-eminent knitbloggers, I have joined Jacqueline and Kris’s ‘Stitch Ya Neck Out’. Such a jaunty button:
The package comprises four balls of Kid Classic in ‘Bear’, for a Turtleneck Shrug. Scary fashion choice perhaps, but I think I can make it work. When I saw the yarn and looked at the pattern together, oh I felt so awful for my poor allocated knitter. All that brown, all that ribbing. I really did feel horrid. So as sweeteners, I’ve put in two balls of Kidsilk Haze in sparkly black, a bar of Green & Black’s, and a pansy pin. I hope it works.
PS: Thanks to Jenny, for the invaluable advice – comments are unmoderated once more!
Posted by Amelia at 04:48 PM | Comments (6)
August 09, 2005
West Banksy
You'll have seen Banksy's art on the West Bank Barrier?
Posted by Amelia at 01:20 PM | Comments (8)
August 08, 2005
Test knitters
Now tell me... should I worry about the fact that my pattern will not have been knit up in all possible sizes before I offer it for sale? It only occurred to me the other day when darling Jacqueline jokingly mentioned test knitting to me, that perhaps it is something I ought to take seriously. And then I saw Stephanie calling for test knitters, and it seemed like an issue I could no longer ignore.
Obviously, I have never worked with test knitters. My plan for Claude is to rigorously tech edit and proofread the pattern, and myself knit up any tricky areas. I started this last night, to see that the cables fall in the right position for the larger sizes. As an experienced knitter and an experienced proof-reader and editor* (albeit an inexperienced designer) I feel confident that this will result in a pattern that works for all the sizes I publish. And of course I can publish errata if any errors are brought to my attention.
Am I missing something fundamental?
* proof-readers and editors: yes I know, it is not recommended to check one's own work, but faced with few options, one has to make do.
Posted by Amelia at 01:40 PM | Comments (14)
A pair and a half
With all the knitting that goes on at Raitte Hall you'd think there'd be more to show for it than a pair and a half of socks. Ho hum. (Excuse the dreary photography - I will try to do better.)
Elfine's socks are finished. Pattern will be available here soon. Such a difficult yarn to show the leaf pattern in, but no matter. Perhaps for the pattern I will knit a little swatch in a solid colour so that you can see the motif. Or I could just direct you to Kiri, Birch, and all the other designs that use the traditional fern leaf pattern.
And here is half a pair of Sockpaltwoza socks. These will be going to America and it's going to be very hard to let them go.
Giotto socks, started 31 July 05
Pattern: My own
Yarn: Koigu KPPM 701
Even though they make my hands ache after a while, I can't stop working on them - it's the colours.
Finally, many thanks to everyone who offered advice after the Rita bag debacle. The vinegar bath and then colour catcher sheets did the trick so I am now preparing to lively up myself for attempt two. As you can see, my second and concurrent felting experiment yielded unexpected results. I bought this delicious Frog Tree Alpaca from Loop when I visited with Kerrie. It was/is a possible yarn for a Magknits submission, but this felting action is a little more than what I was looking for. The effect I am after is 'lightly felted'. Here, the fibres are so tightly bound that I could not prize the swatch flat for love nor toffee. I'm tempted to put eyes on it and call it a snot-monster.
Posted by Amelia at 08:40 AM | Comments (13)
Who do you blame?
In today's culture of blame it is surely important to find someone culpable, and why not the patriarchy? Why not indeed. Twisty Faster blames the patriarchy, with wit and style.
Posted by Amelia at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2005
Comment spam
Due to a barrage of comment spam, commenters will now have to be approved by me before they appear on the site. As far as I can tell I only have to do this once - so if I approve you, you'll then be able to post about viagra and casinos to your heart's content. Hopefully this can be a temporary measure until I find another solution. Sorry about that.
Posted by Amelia at 08:35 AM | Comments (15)
August 02, 2005
Pretty as a picture?
Ali asked me how I take good pictures (thank you Ali!), so I thought I’d use my answer as a post, in case it makes interesting reading.
First I must make clear that there is no way I could take these pictures with a self-timer. I have a dear husband, who is not a photographer but who plays along patiently with my fashion fantasies. These are the few rules we play by:
1) Take pictures in natural light. It’s obvious to state, but easy to forget. I find indoor shots on a fairly bright day are most flattering. Outdoors can work, but choose an overcast day. Bright sunshine causes too much contrast in your pictures, which can mean you lose detail, and also makes your model’s face scrinch up.
2) If like me your natural expression is a scowl, be aware that every fleeting emotion shows on your visage. Empty your mind and face of every last negative thought before you start – no matter how irritable you are feeling.
3) Plan the shot. Tidy away the pots of pens, piles of letters, phones, keys, clutter that will be in the background. If you are both stylist and model, check your garments regularly - it’s dull to get what would be a great picture if only your bra strap wasn’t peeking out.
4) Strike a pose. At the very least, jut out your hip. Far more flattering than standing square on.
5) Take many, many, many pictures. For every modelled shot that appears on this site, at least 15 others have been discarded. I learnt the importance of taking lots when listening to Desert Island Discs with Lord Litchfield. He reckons on getting no more than one decent shot per roll – and he is a professional and world famous photographer. The more you can bear to take, the more likely you are to end up with something usable.
6) Look at every picture carefully before you decide which ones to bin. With judicious cropping, the most unpromising can yield unexpected surprises.
7) Use Photoshop or an equivalent if you possibly can. No image appears in a glossy magazine that hasn’t been photoshopped to within an inch of its life, and I’m not too proud to admit to use of the airbrush tool. Adjust your contrast and brightness, and colour balance. For an very professional look, select the model, and apply a slight blur to everything else.
Thank heaven for digital cameras, and Photoshop. Mine don’t know what have hit them since the establishment of My Fashionable Life.
Posted by Amelia at 12:45 PM | Comments (8)