Emma came to visit for a few weeks and while she was here, she finished knitting a gorgeous shawl:
This is the Field Shawl, designed by Maxim Cyr. I think it looks smashing, and it is unbelievably cosy and warm. Emma is turning out to be quite a good knitter. Next up: probably a sweater, but which one?
You may remember that, on her last visit, Emma and I went to the Unravel festival in Farnham, where we both purchased yarn for a new shawl. I blogged about it here. We realised, just as Emma was about to leave for the airport to go back to Vancouver, that we have now both finished knitting the shawls with the yarn we purchased at Unravel, and ran outside to take some photos. It was starting to drizzle and Emma put on Doug’s gardening shoes (“Just don’t get my feet in the photos, Dad”.)
We were very busy when she was here. Both Doug and I were working, and we spent every free day running around London with Emma, mostly visiting museums (as one does). Emma’s friend Julianne joined us for an afternoon at the V&A. We saw a cool exhibit on disability and design, and then went to the Marie Antoinette exhibition. It was not the best lighting for photos, of course, but here are Emma and Julianne towards the end of the exhibit which featured Marie Antoinette-inspired fashion. We called these the “wedding cake dresses”:
We also spent an afternoon at the Saatchi gallery, ate at some excellent new (to us) restaurants, went to the last evening of the London Jazz Festival at Cadogan Hall, window shopped, wandered through multiple book shops which led inevitably to buying books, raced through Paddington Station numerous times, and got stuck in massive Black Friday crowds. (Who knew Black Friday was a thing here? Why is it a thing here?) The highlight was probably the Cecil Beaton exhibit at the National Gallery. It was amazing and beautifully curated. The inscriptions next to the photos were worth the price of admission alone.
It was a lovely visit with Emma, which as always feels too short although we packed in a lot of stuff.
Emma is now back in Vancouver and Leah will be arriving in a few days. The girls are sadly in complimentary distribution this holiday season. I’ll sign off with more photos of shawl silliness.
Emma throws the shawl up and it gets tangled in a tree above her head.Let’s try that again!
Last December was not a good month for me and for the first time in over a decade, I didn’t publish a mitten post. Well, it’s time to get back on the wagon. There are so many new mitten patterns being published now, and I hate to say it, but many of them look samey-samey to me. To help cut through the mitten haze, here are some that stood out from the crowd for me.
The Rosie sweater was a huge hit for Lene Holme Samsøe this year. While I think it is gorgeous, I am unlikely to knit it. The oversized, drop shoulder look isn’t so good on me. But these Rosie Mitts are charming! Here is a good way to knit the exceedingly pretty Rosie pattern in a smaller canvas. I can imagine these in so many different colour combos, some soft, some bold.
One of the things that Purl Soho do so well is to make classic patterns with well-thought out design. This is a fairly simple concept, beautifully articulated. I am not exactly sure why I find these so appealing; nevertheless, appeal they do. Perhaps it is the matching set of hat and cowl, which while being matchy-matchy, is definitely not samey-samey.
What can I say? These are fun! I am often critical of self-striping yarns, but I love how Claudia Fiocchetti has used them to great effect here. If you know anyone who cycles, this is a wonderful gift. If you cycle yourself, be indulgent and knit a pair for you!
I love these mittens, just like I love the sweater they are based on. I have really been enjoying Anne Ventzel patterns; I knitted both her Robinia sweater and Robinia mittens last year (blogged here and here). I like the crispness of the geometric pattern, particularly in this blue and white combo. Such a great photo, too. It not only makes you want to knit the mittens, but also to sit and have a coffee and chat with Anne.
Oh my, look at the fantastic interplay between the garter and mosaic stitches! See how the garter on the thumbs continues up the side of the mittens, making a boxy structure? I love these so much! I would love them even if they weren’t in this eye-popping colour combo. But of course, they are, which makes them irresistible.
Sometimes, all it takes is a beautiful cable pattern. Knitted in this lovely natural shade, the cables pop, and look very intricate and organic. Non-knitters will be agog and won’t believe that you knitted these yourself. Just don’t knit them in front of the telly.
These are Leah’s favourites. She sent me a link with some barely disguised hinting. It is such a pretty pattern, and extremely cheerful. It makes me think summery thoughts even in the midst of winter. I have a feeling these will end up on my needles sooner rather than later.
These are so dainty and elegant. It’s a very beautiful stitch pattern and Melanie Berg lets it do all the work. No need for any extra flourishes here. Just a soft yarn and a great stitch. The hemmed cuffs are a nice touch.
In all of the time that I have been writing these mitten posts, I have never featured a baby mitten. But look at these! Aren’t they adorable? I love them! I could eat them up! They are so, so sweet. I dare you to look at them and not smile!
I hope you’ve found something you like. If you have another favourite, drop me a line in the comments. And, in case you are interested in the previous mitten posts, you can find them at the below links:
Emma is home for a visit and it reminds me that the last time she was here, we took some photos for a Wearability Wednesday post. It was in February and really cold out, so of course I made her pose in the garden in a summer tank. But since she got a hand-knitted garment out of it, I felt it was not overly cruel.
Wearability Wednesday is an occasional series of posts (published on Wednesdays) in which I take another look at a previously knitted item, and examine it from a wearability perspective. Do I wear it? If not, why not? If yes, how do I style it? Has it held up? This time I am going way back to 2012, when I knitted Laresca:
I blogged about this tank here. The pattern was designed by Corrina Ferguson and was knitted with Rowan Panama, a cotton, linen and viscose yarn. I wore this for a while, but very soon grew out of it. However, when Emma was last home, we discovered that it fits her very well:
Kudos to Emma for modelling this in February, and pretending not to be freezing. This was one of the fastest photo shoots ever.
Emma wore this top many times over the last summer and, each time, she thought “I need to get a photo of this for the blog”. It never happened. Even when I was visiting Emma, with my camera at hand, we forgot to take any Vancouver summer photos of Emma wearing this. However, just the fact that we forgot to photograph it multiple times, demonstrates that it is, indeed, wearable. It does, in fact, get worn. Just not by me.
Maybe I knew it would end up in Emma’s wardrobe because it is not my normal colour palette, but is one which she often wears. Sometimes she wears it with jeans, sometimes she dresses it up a bit. Given that she lives in Vancouver, she often wears it like this:
It’s hard to believe I knitted this 13 years ago. I think it still looks contemporary and pretty. I’m glad it has been given a new life.
This beautiful colour-blocked shawl is knitted in stockinette stitch in Ito Sensai, a beautiful laceweight silk mohair yarn. I bought it as a kit from Loop London some time ago, and was charmed by the soft green colourway; outside of my usual bright pops of colour. Depending on the background, these shades can be muted or can shine:
I cast it on on my way to Tucson in July 2024 to visit my mom and stepdad. Since then, it has become my travel shawl – the project I take along on my travels, weighing nothing and fitting easily in a small bag. This scarf went with me to Tucson, Vancouver, Johannesburg (twice), Geneva (twice), Copenhagen, Aarhus, Edinburgh, and Berlin. Here it is in Tucson in the summer desert heat:
Here it is in February in the Johannesburg summer sun:
And here I am knitting it in the midst of a Copenhagen winter, all bundled up and drinking wine while my friend, Erun, cooks dinner:
It is a perfect travel project, fitting into a tiny bag, just slightly larger than my Kindle (and weighing the same).
And now it is done, and I get to wear it. Yay! Isn’t knitting cool?
It creates a lovely, soft, sheer fabric:
I have been enjoying wearing it the last few weeks in the beautiful, autumn weather we are experiencing here in the English countryside.
I suppose I will need to find another travel project now. Any ideas?
Literally, in this case. You may remember I knitted a brown Sabai top earlier in the summer (blogged here), and now I have knitted a pink Sabai top:
Pink is the new brown. And it looks completely amazing with red. (What can I say? Bright colours are my jam.) In fact, I am pretty sure that I can pair it with almost everything in my wardrobe. It looks especially good with my A Walk in the Park Shawl (blogged here).
I finished this one the day after returning from Vancouver (just under a month ago) and have already worn it many times, proving it’s versatility.
I made this one to be ever-so-slightly looser than the brown one. I added a few more rows before increasing at the sides, thus lowering the armholes a bit. (Note that many people found the armholes too low and did the opposite; check your row gauge before starting the increases.) I also added one extra set of increases, giving me an extra 4 stitches once joined in the round. And I made it 2″/5cm longer.
The pattern, by Susanne Müller, is super easy to follow and results in a nice top for the summer, which also looks great as a base layer under a jacket. This may be why there are thousands of Sabai tops in knitter’s wardrobes (over 5000 today on Ravelry alone). It has really nice features, which feel both elegant and casual.
I used Knitting for Olive Pure Silk held double, the same yarn that I used for the brown one. I love this yarn. It comes in fantastic brights, and also great neutrals. The only real trick is knitting it double. I wound two balls together before knitting to try to avoid knots. I still managed to tie it all into an inexplicable knot; as you can see, I had many hands to help me with the untangling.
Now I just have to keep Doug from “borrowing” my shawl. I suppose I will have to knit something for him.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians out there!
Our trip to Vancouver culminated in a wedding! Emma and Justin were married:
It was a beautiful day and the wedding was fun and intimate. Emma looked fabulous in red. Our cousins, Rikia and Cam, hosted the wedding and garden party reception in their home; thus saving Emma and Justin, in Rikia’s words, “from the wedding industrial complex”. It was lovely.
My mother, Marylou, flew up from Arizona. It was so nice to have her there! She looked very stylish.
Leah baked five dozen little wedding cakes in the shape of rings. They were flourless chocolate cakes with an apricot and Triple Sec filling, covered in a chocolate caramel ganache and dusted in gold. I ate 6 of them (not all on the same day). They were to die for! She also provided the necessary drama on the day, when a workman fell through the ceiling of her home on the morning of the wedding. We are very grateful to her for taking one for the team, thus ensuring the rest of the wedding day went perfectly. Leah looked absolutely amazing, especially given that she had a hole in the ceiling and had to move into a hotel.
Emma declared “no speeches”. Astonishingly, everyone behaved. Instead, we just had fun and it was smiles all around.
Even the ceremony itself was full of laughter:
It was a beautiful day. Here is a radiant Emma with her dad:
In addition to the wedding, this holiday also included a new baby, a visit from my mom, multiple birthdays, a road trip and our anniversary. It was really nice to spend time with my mom in Vancouver:
We also celebrated our wedding anniversary while we were there. On the day, Doug and I re-created a photo taken on our wedding day. The photo was taken in the back garden of Doug’s childhood home on the Seymour River in North Vancouver. The home was sold the year after we were married, and the current owner was happy to let us into her garden and take photos. She remembers Doug’s dad, Jim, with great fondness and we had a good time reminiscing about the house and garden and river. Thank you, Shamshad, for letting us recreate this lovely memory 34 years later!
It was taken in the same spot, although the bench is different. As you can see, the bench is narrower and our bodies are wider than 34 years ago, so it is a much tighter fit. While we were there, we took many photos, including this one:
We were happy to carve out some time to spend with old friends while we were out there:
And I even managed to get in a little bit of knitting. You know you have good friends when they drape you in fairy lights so you can see your knitting when the sun goes down:
I managed to finish the project I was working on in this photo, and am very nearly done with another, but you will have to wait for my next post to see it. I will end with a great photo of Emma. After the wedding, she and Justin went back to the restaurant where they had their first date, and Justin shot this photo. Emma is wearing her wedding ring, and a denim shirt over her wedding dress. Lovely!
I haven’t been writing here much lately, as life has been very busy (in mostly good ways). I promise to report more soon, but for now, I bring you a finished project:
I knitted this sweet little baby cardigan for my niece’s baby, who was born a few weeks ago. It is the gramps pattern, by tincan knits, which I have knitted once before for another wee babe. It’s such a classy sweater for a little one, complete with shawl collar and pockets. I used Big Bad Wool Weepaca, a worsted weight yarn in 50% alpaca and 50% wool, which is super soft and washable, so good for a baby knit. The main colour is Olive Ewe, which gets a lovely pop from the rich purple shade, Prince. The buttons were serendipitously in my button box, purchased some time ago for a vest for Doug and never used. I knitted this in the 6-12 month size and used 2 skeins of the green and one of the purple. I am super happy with it.
As you might have guessed from the title of this post, said baby lives in the Pacific Northwest, in Vancouver to be exact, and we are also here, to celebrate many things, including his birth, multiple birthdays, an anniversary, and a wedding. Last week, Doug and I and both girls took a road trip to the Okanagan, reviving many memories of road trips over the last 3 decades (yikes! where do the years go?).
Emma and her partner, Justin, have enjoyed quite a few wine-tasting holidays there, and Emma was happy to take us on a wine tour of their favourite vineyards.
It is a beautiful drive from Vancouver to Kelowna, with mountains and lakes and sunshine and great views. We visited 5 wineries and bought some lovely wine, we visited with family, and we went swimming in the lake. On Doug’s birthday, he even tried paddle boarding for the first time, thus disproving the old adage; it turns out that you can teach an old Doug new tricks!
With the baby sweater out of the way, I have picked up my second Sabai top, which is almost done. I hope to finish it soon, even in the midst of the whirlwind.
Deciding to knit a Sabai top, designed by Susanne Müller, was the easy part. Deciding to use Knitting for Olive Pure Silk (held double) was easy too. Even knitting it was easy. Choosing the colour was hard. First, though, the finished project:
I looked through my knitting projects from the past 15 years or so, and the only other thing I knitted in brown was a cowl for Doug. This colour is not in my normal colour wheelhouse. I started with a text sending Emma links to the pattern and the yarn. We texted back and forth for a while and couldn’t decide. This was followed up by numerous discussions with Emma, and again no decision. A few days later, I checked the yarn shop and they had re-stocked and had more colours in stock. Thus started a new round of texts of which the below is a small sample:
I still couldn’t decide. Then, one day out in the garden, with the sun shining down so that my screen was barely visible, I handed the phone to Doug, said “Pick a colour now!” He picked Dark Cognac, I hit the order button and that was that. Until I opened up the package and discovered that Dark Cognac was not the lovely deep bronze shade I was expecting but a pretty mid-range brown. I consoled myself with the idea that it would look good with my checked suit. And it does:
I still don’t love the shade on me, but I am starting to appreciate it. I can use it to tone down my wild African print palazzo trousers (top photo), create a classic look with a suit jacket, or even pair it with more brown-y tones to look casually beige (which is apparently chic, if sort of boring).
I knitted this is the 4th size (Large) with two strands of Knitting for Olive Pure Silk held together and US6/4mm needles. I followed the pattern exactly. It is a very easy, well-written pattern. I found that in order to knit with two strands of the silk, I had to first wind two balls together on my ball winder; otherwise, the yarn quickly evolved into a knotted mess. If you look at the comments on some of the thousands (literally) of projects on Ravelry, you will find that many knitters found that there was too much space under the arm and therefore started the underarm increases early (it is knitted in one piece top down). I had the opposite problem as my row gauge was tight, so I added rows before starting the increases. I think it fits fairly well.
It took me three weeks start to finish to make this. It would have been two weeks except that when I packed to go to Potsdam, I tucked the last ball of yarn away somewhere in my house, and then couldn’t find it when I got back home. It took me a week to find it!
I knitted almost the entire top while watching the French Open. Hmm. Wimbledon starts tomorrow. Maybe I should make another one? But which colour? Never fear: I took Emma’s advice and pre-ordered the yarn in Pink Daisies.
A few weeks ago, Doug and I had a holiday. We spent a week avoiding the news, visiting with old friends, taking long walks, eating good food, enjoying art, knitting, and watching lots and lots of tennis. Meanwhile, Emma was off on a crazy, fabulous adventure. I intended to write a post when I got home about our trips. However, when we got back to the real world, we read the news, and I must say that things were pretty shitty. I thought “maybe now is not the time to write about good things; I will wait until next weekend.” The next weekend came and the world seemed to be in an even worse place and the post didn’t get written. Now a new weekend has arrived and I’m thinking that maybe avoiding writing about holidays with old friends, long walks, good food, art, tennis and world travelling is not the solution. Maybe we need to write about such things. And maybe we need to read about such things. So here goes…
We took our holiday in Potsdam. We both needed a break and were feeling fairly exhausted at the end of the term, and wanted to relax. We moved to Potsdam 30 years ago and lived there for more than a decade. It was among the nicest times in our lives and we have very good memories associated with the place. Our apartment was next to the Park Sansouci, with its beautiful palaces, gardens, statues and walkways. Doug and I spent a very hot day walking all over the park, revisiting favourite spots.
We stayed at our dear friend Inge’s apartment. She and her partner, Michael, made us feel at home. We have known Inge for 30 years so we can be completely relaxed together. She had the week off work and was equally stressed and needing a break. Inge and I both love watching tennis. We were there for the final week of the French Open. We watched lots and lots of tennis. Doug and Michael will say that we watched far too much tennis. They might even say that we spent an inordinate amount of time being couch potatoes. This is Inge and me watching tennis:
I knitted while watching:
(Full disclosure for knitters: I was knitting a Sabai tank in Knitting for Olive Pure Silk. Yes, it is brown. Yes, this is way outside of my normal palette. I have now finished the tank and it is currently blocking, so I will report soon.)
Here are Doug and Inge and I enjoying a glass of wine by the lake at Schloss Golm.
Ten minutes after those photos were taken, there was a very sudden, ferocious thunderstorm and we had to pick up our glasses and wine bottle and run across the lawn for the Schloss. We ate a dinner of white asparagus and schnitzel while watching the lightning from the covered veranda until the wind blew the rain right on top of us. We then retreated inside and finished the meal surrounded by photos of glamorous movie stars who had stayed there long ago. It was great fun.
We spent time re-visiting old haunts. We went to the University at Golm where Doug was a Professor for over a decade. We drove around the countryside and walked all over Potsdam and spent a few days walking around Berlin. A highlight was a day at the Beelitz Sanatorium, a tuberculosis hospital and sanatorium built in the late 1800s in Beelitz. It later became a Soviet military hospital and then was abandoned in 1994 and left to rot. We took a tour of the hospital there, which was interesting and haunting. The forest has overtaken the ruins, with trees growing out of the crumbling buildings. There is now an amazing walkway above the tree canopy. From it, you can see miles of forest and look down on the ruins. This post provides a nice description of the place in English.
We had a fantastic visit with our very dear friends Sandra, Erik, Timo and Mika. We have known Sandra for 30 years, and remember when she and Erik first met. Sandra once babysat for toddler Emma and baby Leah and managed to eventually overcome the traumatic experience and have two kids of her own. Doug and Erik had so many adventures together and were co-conspirators in renovation madness. Timo is Doug’s godchild. Here we are with Sandra, Timo, and Erik:
And here is Doug with Timo. I totally love this photo:
We unfortunately didn’t see Mika in person on this trip, but we got filled in on all his news. When our families get together, we laugh so much! It makes me happy to see these kids have grown up to be just as wildly smart, and kind, and talented, and funny, as they were as children.
We took the above photos at the Atelier Olafur Eliasson. Erik has worked with Eliasson for 20 years, and gave us a lovely tour of the workshops. We also saw Eliasson’s new exhibit, which is very small but just fantastic. I love this photo of Timo, Erik, and Sandra interacting with one of the pieces:
Sandra, by the way, is also a crafter and she has started her own amazing crafting business. Here is a link. She is a super entrepreneur!
Doug and I explored two new art spaces in Potsdam (new since we moved away). We spent a rainy afternoon in the Museum Barberini, which has a lovely collection of Impressionist art, the Hasso Plattner Collection, including 40 paintings by Monet. The art is beautifully arranged and lighted and the museum was spacious and not crowded. I compare it to a recent Impressionist exhibit we visited in London in which we felt like sardines in the stifling crowd. On our last afternoon, we visited Das Minsk, also in Potsdam, which has an interesting exhibit of art from the GDR. It is very well signposted and we learned a lot about art in the former East.
While we were in Potsdam, Emma was on an adventure of her own. She and her friend, Brooke, flew to Goa, India, for the wedding of their friend, Himani. The three of them were best friends at university. Himani’s wedding was absolutely beautiful; a traditional Indian wedding which lasted four days with multiple ceremonies and joyous celebration. Emma had an amazing time. Here are a few photos:
Here is the beautiful bride, Himani:
The crazy part of this adventure is that they literally circumnavigated the globe (Brooke actually flew even further). First, Brooke flew from Toronto to Vancouver to meet up with Emma. Then, Emma and Brooke flew to London where they had a 9-hour layover. They took a train from Heathrow into London and then walked all over the place. Brooke had never been to London, so Emma gave her a guided tour. They walked 20,000 steps, and saw Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Big Ben, Westminster, walked along the embankment, had a meal at Covent Garden, and coffee at Seven Dials.
They then returned to Heathrow and caught a plane to Mumbai. At this point, Emma had spent two nights on a plane and Brooke had spent three. There was yet another layover before a further flight to Goa. This was followed by one day to recover and play on the beach, followed by the wedding with four glorious, jam-packed days and nights of fun. They had to perform a dance for the ceremony and so they also squeezed in rehearsals to learn the Bollywood-inspired dance.
When the wedding was over, they took a flight back to Mumbai, and then caught a flight to Japan! There they had a 7-hour layover and again left the airport to go sightseeing.
From there, they took another night flight back to Vancouver, thus completing their mad dash around the world (after which Brooke got back on a plane for her flight home to Toronto). You can only do this when you are young.
And that is the story of a relaxing holiday filled with old friends, long walks, art, knitting and tennis, and a crazy mad-dash holiday around the globe filled with friendship, dancing, ceremony, colour, and very little sleep.
I’ll finish this post by noting that after watching nearly the entire French Open, Doug and I flew home on the Sunday evening, thereby missing the men’s final. When our plane landed I found a message from my mom saying “that was the best tennis I have ever seen”. Oh well. Wimbledon is coming up and I’ve just ordered more yarn.
I finished knitting my Hør no 19 tee and it is a smash hit.
I really like this one. It fits great, it drapes beautifully, and it looks smart. It is a really lovely design from Lone Kjeldsen.
I used Karin Oberg Kalinka yarn, a 100% linen, purchased from Ginger Twist Studio in Edinburgh. The yarn has an amazing sheen and is truly lovely. This blue was a bit outside my normal colour palette, but I think it paid off fantastically. It has great stitch definition.
I bought 4 skeins of yearn, but only used three. I knit the size Large, with a US3/3.25mm needle, and followed the instructions exactly.
It is a very straightforward project to knit, the textured pattern is easy to memorise, and it is pretty quick. I say that somewhat facetiously since I cast on the project on June 15, 2024, and just finished it two weeks ago. But the fact is that I put it aside last September when I was trying to finish a shawl for Emma on a deadline, and then I didn’t pick it up again until recently.
There are very nice details to this top, including the shaping at the shoulders, which are then joined off with a 3-needle bind-off which shows on the right side, and gives a great finishing touch.
I am wearing it here at Grey’s Court, a lovely National Trust property a few miles from my home which has frequently provided a backdrop to my projects on this blog. We were lucky to catch the wisteria just in time.
We were there with Leah’s housemate, and honorary 3rd daughter, Amy, who stayed with us at the beginning of a rail tour through Europe. Amy wanted to see a traditional English garden, and Grey’s Court was at it’s best for us on a beautiful spring day.
It’s nice to finish something and doubly nice when it turns out so well. I have a feeling I will be wearing this often.
