I have just finished knitting a lovely little baby cardigan, a gift for a colleague who is pregnant with her first child. The baby is due next month, which means that I am shockingly finished in plenty of time. I intended to take some un-modelled photos of the cardi to show you before gifting it; however, despite it being terribly cute, the sweater sans baby was missing some vital “je ne sais quoi”. What to do? Kathy Bear to the rescue!
The sweater is knit with The Uncommon Thread BFL Light DK in the shade “Into Dust”. The pattern is Mignon, by Loop London. It only comes in one size (3-6 months) and I knit it exactly as written, except that I went up a needle size, using a US6.
The details of this sweater are adorable. It is knit in one piece with very little finishing needed. I love this shade, which is a sweet lavender with enough depth of colour to keep it from being too sweet. It is both very girly and sophisticated.
I also adore the button, which seems made for this yarn. The button, pattern, and yarn were purchased from Loop in London. I used the same buttons, but in blue, for a cardigan I knit for Leah last summer.
Kathy Bear was hand-made for my daughter Leah when she was born. She was made by Jill Davis, a lovely friend and gifted seamstress. Jill and Doug went to high school together and she has two lovely daughters of her own. She clearly knows how to make a bear with personality.
Kathy has two dresses which she has worn for over twenty years. She thinks a fancy cardigan is long over-due. She is also clearly unimpressed with this baby nonsense. “Knit another one for the baby!”, she says.
Yesterday I found myself with a half a day in Singapore. I had arrived by car from Malaysia around 1pm, and had a plane to catch late in the evening. I also had my rather hefty purse and a carry-on bag on wheels. It is August and humid. I tried to think of the best way to spend the afternoon, without lugging my bags around all day in the heat, and without arriving at the airport in the evening feeling like I’d been through the wringer. I was jet lagged, so I needed to build a bit of downtime into the day. I also wanted to have fun, soak up some local culture and hopefully eat some good food. The answer: The National Gallery of Singapore.
I spent some time in the gallery last year and knew it had a bit of everything I wanted from the day. I had my taxi drop me off right at the front. I went up to the desk and asked if they could check my baggage for me for the day; they were very obliging. I then set about ticking one thing off my agenda: some delicious local cuisine.
Everyone knows that the local food in Malaysia and Singapore is fantastic. Alas, I have coeliac’s disease and must follow a 100% gluten-free diet. After 30 years of this, I don’t usually find it difficult, except when I travel. In Johor Bahru, where I had travelled on business, I found it especially tricky. First, none of the wait staff seemed to know what I was talking about when I tried to instigate the gluten conversation. Second, even more troubling, there seems to be a commandment in the local service industry, to say yes to anything the customer asks. It goes something like this: If the customer must be pleased, and the customer doesn’t want gluten, then tell them that the food is gluten-free. And because I found it difficult to engage in conversation directly with the chefs, I ended up ordering plain rice and grilled fish everywhere.
There are a range of restaurants at the National Gallery, including one called the National Kitchen by Violet Oon. It is small with fabulous interiors, and they were extremely accomodating. My waiter went and talked to the chef, who told me which dishes could be made specially gluten-free for me. The manager came to talk to me to make sure I was happy. I ordered the Udang Goreng Chili – described as “Angka prawns tossed in a spicy chilli padi garlic rempah”. I am not sure what the normal dish looks like, but here is my gluten-free version:
These prawns had so much chili and garlic, you would not believe. They were utterly fantastic! All of my food cravings were satisfied. Add in a lovely glass of wine and the lovely decor, and I had a great lunch!
They even had a fantastic gluten-free dessert: kueh beng kah, a steamed tapioca cake, served warm with gula melaka syrup and coconut cream. Heaven!
To build on a great start to my afternoon, my trip coincided with a major exhibit at the gallery of Yayoi Kusama’s work. Doug and the girls and I were lucky to catch Kusama’s exhibit at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2006. It was a real treat to spend the afternoon at this exhibit in Singapore. The exhibit is huge, spanning four galleries, and takes about 2 hours to get through. I love this, one of her many Venus de Milo pieces (Statue of Venus obliterated by Infinity Nets, No. 2, 1998):
Here is a photo I took in the installation “The spirits of the pumpkins descended into the heavens” (2017). (You can see my face as I hold the camera in the box in the centre and reflected throughout):
The sheer scale of some of the installations are impressive. This room has 50 enormous canvases of her black and white drawings stacked up on every wall:
The originals were done in magic marker and each contains repetitions of faces, eyes, and other small motifs. Here is a closeup of the intersection of two of the canvases:
In the tulip room, part of which you can see here:
I happened to catch a photograph of a young woman with the ‘dots’ from the exhibit reflected on her sunglasses. I love this photo!
The exhibit is only open through the 3rd of September and the admission lines are long (the entrances are timed and are very well managed). If you are anywhere near Singapore, I highly recommend it.
After the exhibit, I went up to the roof gallery where I sat and looked out on the fantastic view of Singapore, while enjoying a drink and my knitting. Here is a photo of said knitting against the backdrop of the view.
To make the end of the day even more fantastic, as I sat enjoying the view (and a very nice drink) a wild and wicked storm suddenly blew across the city. I watched it advance across the skies and then they opened and the heavens poured down. I went inside to the Supreme Court terrace, and was able to watch the rain pelting on the roof. Fantastic! Here you can see the darkening skies on the right, while the sun still shines on the left:
If you ever find yourself with half a day in Singapore, I say: forget having a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar, don’t challenge your vertigo at the Marina Bay Sands, and instead take yourself to the National Gallery!
I have just arrived in Malaysia where I will be doing some teaching. I am very jet-lagged and wide awake in my hotel at 3am. This makes it a perfect time to write a post! I have started knitting again, but cautiously. My hands and wrists are still bothering me. It started out with my right thumb and wrist and quickly morphed into a more generalized problem with both hands. I am pretty sure it is a repetitive stress thing. I stopped knitting altogether for about two weeks, during which I used ice and compression and general idleness (oh no!) to try to fix the issue. It is still not resolved, but much better.
I reported in this post that I was going to knit a baby sweater for a friend. I am almost finished with it. (Baby sweaters are so fast!) Here is a progress photo:
This photo was taken a week ago, and I am further along. I only have to add the sleeves and do some minimal finishing. It is an adorable little knit, using the pattern Mignon, from Loop Knitting.
I have also been continuing to progress with Sofi, my Hanne Falkenberg designed jacket.
The body is knit in one piece, which means very long rows and very slow progress, especially for a slow knitter like me (even more so with hand problems). But it is so gorgeous and so much fun to knit that I am enjoying every minute of it. We shall see whether I change my mind when I get to the sleeves, however; they are knit in seed stitch. Sleeves in seed stitch: double trouble.
I didn’t want to bring either of these projects to Malaysia. I did not check a bag so have only a minimal amount of stuff with me. However, it is a 13 hour flight each way, so at the last minute I searched through my knitting supplies and discovered this little bag, which I had packed at some point with all of the supplies to make a pair of mitts:
Who would have known that I could be so organised?
I have been in a bit of a knitting funk lately. I have also been suffering from pattern overkill; the never-ending stream of new patterns has had the unintended effect of de-energising me. My creative streak has been taking a nap.
Over the past few weeks, however, something has happened. New designs are being released for the fall, and many of them have made me sit up and take notice. Without any further ado, here are some of the designs which have captured my attention.
This pattern has just been released today and I think it is fantastic. It hits so many buttons for me. The mix of geometric patterns, the natural shades, the slouchy shape, the mix of traditional and modern – these are all saying “knit me!”. If I were my 20-something self, I would knit this in a New York minute. But hey, I have two 20-something daughters, so this may yet hit my needles.
The Fall 2017 issue of Interweave Knits has some great sweaters in it. My favorite is this beautiful design by Sloane Rosenthal. She is a new designer to me, but this pattern puts her right on my designer radar. This is a casual pullover but has enough crisp tailoring to make it really stand out. (The back view is spectacular too.) This one is going right into my queue.
This edition of Interweave Knits also has three great designs for men. It is hard to pick only one for this post. I love this design by Amy Christoffers; it is very spare, with lovely details. The shawl collar is elegant in a non-fussy way and stands out against the reverse stockinette of the upper body. Like many of the other sweaters in this post, it combines the modern with the rustic. Here is a link (Rav link) to all of the patterns in the Fall 2017 issue; in addition to the other men’s sweaters, the cowl by Kyle Kunnicke is a favorite.
The booklet Fell Garth 2 by The Fibre Company (Rav link) has some fabulous patterns. Again, it is hard to decide which to show here, but this pattern has a very unique shape which caught my eye. It feels fresh and young, with a great swing. Plus, I just love this green! Notice the light shining through the seed stitch on the hem; you can tell the fabric is beautifully light and airy.
Sometimes, simple is best. I love the great, classic lines of this pullover by Kim Hargreaves, from her new book, Grace. I’ve knit a few of Kim’s sweaters (I even knit one twice: see here and here). Her sweaters don’t waste away in the back of a drawer. This lovely garter stitch pullover would look great at the office or with jeans.
Deb Hoss designs lovely, classic sweaters. If she were an architect, you would say that her buildings had “good bones”. I haven’t knit any of hers yet, but she is definitely on my radar. This design has impeccable fit and drape. I think it would suit a lot of people (like me!) and would be eminently wearable.
Ysolda can always be counted on for her beautiful designs. As she states on the pattern page for Threipmuir: “This yoke is inspired by Icelandic Lopapeysas but the finer gauge provides a larger canvas for more intricate patterning.” Like the first sweater in the post, the mix of the traditional and the modern is really striking. I am more likely to wear a sweater made in fingering weight yarn, however, and I love these brilliant hues.
Andrea’s new book, AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary: 200 Modern Knitting Motifs, hasn’t even been released yet (here in the UK it has an August 25th release date), but this cowl pattern from the book really attracted my attention. Actually, everything about this book looks great; the stitch patterns seem both modern and fun. I have it on pre-order and am looking forward to some entertaining swatching when it comes out.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Pattern Radar post. These designs should be enough to pull anyone out of the knitting doldrums.
For the last two weeks I have been unable to knit, due to hand and thumb pain on my right hand. This has coincided with my two weeks of annual leave, making it doubly frustrating. It also means that I have no knitting progress to show you. However, I realise that I have not shared my new yarn purchases. When I attended Olga Buraya-Kefelian’s workshop at Loop some weeks ago (blogged here), I was able to spend some time yarn shopping as well.
First I bought a skein of The Uncommon Thread BFL Light DK in this pretty shade called “Into Dust”. You can also see the fantastic button I got that perfectly complements this shade.
I intend to knit a baby sweater with this (gasp!). Yes, I have another friend having a baby this year, a little girl this time, and I will once again knit a small gift. (I blogged here about a cute sweater I made for a baby boy last year; as I commented there, I usually knit for big people.) I plan to knit the lovely Mignon sweater, designed by Loop London, pictured here:
I also spent some time thinking about which of Olga’s patterns to knit first, and what yarn to buy for that purpose. I decided to knit the Boko-Boko cowl. Here is a photo of me wearing the smaller size:
And here is the pattern photo of the larger size:
I bought a fairly delicate lace weight yarn, so I am aiming at a slightly more ethereal, drapey Boko-Boko. I bought 200 grams (1200 metres) of the fantastic Isager Spinni in Red, and also bought 4 cones (1240 metres) of Habu silk stainless – a blend of silk and stainless steel – in colour 18, an almost identical red. I bought enough of the wool and the steel yarn so that I could double up either of them if needed. I will try swatching with one strand of Spinni held with a strand of the Habu – but if it is too thin to give the pattern some architectural oomph, then I will progress to 2 strands of the Spinni with 1 of Habu. I can also double up on the Habu if needed, but I think this is unlikely.
Of course, I may just fall in love with some other idea for this yarn, in which case I will be fickle. The red is so gorgeous; for me it is the perfect shade! Olga’s workshop really made me covet a number of her patterns, so you will definitely see some 3D knitted designs as the year progresses.
My hand is feeling a bit better, so hopefully I can start knitting again soon!
