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!
I was looking through some old photos today and came across this:
Yes, this is me in Paris, in 1987. Note that I am wearing a hand-knitted top and skirt. This top was a favorite and I wore it frequently. Like most of my old knits, I have no idea what happened to it. (See here for a post about long-lost sweaters; it is so sad to lose track of hand-knitted items). I used a pattern for the top, which I believe was a Pingouin pattern, although I can’t find it in my knitting book collection. The yarn was a cotton in bright yellow with slubs of white. No notes of any kind remain (my post-Ravelry knitting is much better documented).
I knit the skirt without a pattern. It is just two rectangles, seamed at the side, with elastic at the waist. It is knit in cotton. I wore this outfit all over France that summer.
PS – If you’ve never heard of the Wayback Machine (or WABAC Machine), that’s just sad. You can read about it here. Mr. Peabody says so.
Exhibit 1: I am in Sommières, a fantastic spot in the south of France. Doug and I are attending a workshop on language and mind. It is the best type of workshop, with a small group of very smart people doing some serious science, and also cooking and eating together, and enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful town, while staying in a lovely villa.
Exhibit 2: I have done something terrible to my thumb. I do not know what it is or how I did it. But it means that I can’t knit. (Or do anything which entails using two hands.) I brought a knitting project with me – my Falkenberg jacket. I occasionally try to knit a few stitches and give up and stare at it longingly.
Result: Sommières, and the knitting ain’t easy.
(With apologies to Mr. Gershwin; I could not resist the pun. For those few souls who have not heard the song, the line is “Summertime, and the living is easy.” I read somewhere that Summertime is the most covered song in history. Which version is your favorite?)
Today, I had the pleasure of attending a class on 3D knitting with Olga Buraya-Kefelian. It was a real treat for me – a day of creative indulgence in London. It was a small class – the best kind – at Loop, a lovely yarn shop in Islington. I have long been an admirer of Olga’s designs – they are very architectural and striking, and show a real love of high fashion and of knitting technique.
Below is a photo of Olga, holding the Boko-Boko cowl. It is knit with a strand of wool held together with a strand of silk-wrapped steel. It gets its 3D structure from the way it is knitted, with the fabric manipulated by knits and purls and lace techniques, but the steel gives it just a touch of “oomph” which lends some integrity to the stitch pattern.
It is hard to describe the fabric, which is both incredibly stretchy, bouncy and resilient, and also formed into these fantastic dimensional shapes. Olga said it reminded her of mountains and craters. Of course, one must try it on:
The Moko Moko cowl uses a different “juxtaposition of positive and negative spaces” – to use Olga’s words. She had two examples with her, knit in different weights. My favorite was this bright red example in fingering weight wool. You can see both sides of the fabric here, and both are fascinating.
One cannot have a knitting class without doing some knitting, so I spent some time working on a swatch using the stitch pattern from the Moko Moko cowl. Here it is while I am on the first row of curls:
And here it is while I was on the second set of curls, headed back in the opposite direction:
Olga has other patterns in which she has managed to knit fabric which naturally pleats. She says it is based on her love of Issey Miyake’s work (which is both glorious and out of the price range of us mere mortals). Below is a cowl (Miura cowl) worked just in knits and purls which makes a very elegant pleated fabric. The architecture of the fabric is such that I was able to arrange it as a sculpture on the table for this photo for artistic effect, but rest assured it looks just as fabulous around one’s neck.
Here is a swatch of another 3D stitch pattern from the many that Olga showed us:
There were some new stitch patterns, as well, that Olga has been experimenting with and which I promised not to show you as the patterns are not yet released. One of them was so amazing it nearly caused palpitations among the group, who will clearly wait with bated breath to see what Olga does with it.
When I went into the class, I knew that I was going to make a Boko Boko cowl, but now I want to make all of the cowls. I want to make everything! I can’t tell you how much fun the Moko Moko sample was to knit, and how intuitive and easy it is once you’ve started. (You will not be surprised to learn that I bought yarn after the class. I will wait for another post to show you my treasures.)
I enjoyed the class so much. There were eight students. Here is a photo of us (this was the only place we could fit and the lighting was not the best for a photo):
Left to right: Erin, Maggie, Xen, May, Kelly, Briony, Fiona, and Linda.
Thank you, ladies! I had such a good time knitting with you! (I always meet the best people at Loop.) Two of the women in the class were wearing hand-knitted garments designed by Olga. I was lucky to cajole them into a photo for you.
On the left is Fiona, wearing a fantastic flowy Sakasama, knit in silk. This garment can be worn in two ways (its hard to describe but the other way is upside down so that the collar becomes the hem). You can’t really tell from the photo just how fantastic the drape of this garment is, or the shine of the silk, but the fact that Fiona has knit four of them (yes, four!) should give you some idea. On the right is May, wearing her Apex in a brilliant red. I believe May said that this was only the second sweater she had ever knit! This is pretty astonishing. I forgot to ask May the details of the yarn she used, but she has just started blogging and you can find her Apex post here.
I wrote on the blog once of a bad experience with a knitting class, in which a designer who I had admired greatly really disappointed me. This was certainly not the case with Olga. She is charming and sweet, passionate about her craft, unassuming, a good teacher, and inspiring. She patiently answered many questions, and talked to us about her creative process and about her many designing influences and experiences. She said to us: “I want to challenge you and make you so brave!” I left the class feeling challenged and inspired. (And a little bit brave as well.)
I was reading a thread on Ravelry recently in which people were commenting on patterns. I can’t remember the exact context, but one comment stuck in my head. Someone said “I won’t even look at a pattern if it’s seamed.” Why it stuck in my head now, when I have heard similar sentiments before, I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that I have also heard people say “I won’t knit a garment unless it’s seamed.”
You see, there are two primary ways to knit a sweater. You can knit it in pieces (usually 4 for a pullover and five for a cardigan) and then seam them together. Or you can knit in one piece (either bottom-up or top-down, but that is a different type of argument). In the latter case, you must come to some solution for the sleeves, either picking up stitches and knitting down, or knitting the sleeves up to the armholes and then joining to the body; in any case, the primary goal of this construction is to seam as little as possible. There are many arguments in favour of either approach. (Which are not the topic of this post.) I have always thought that there were sweaters for which it makes a kind of intrinsic sense to knit in the round; and others for which seaming is the sensible option.
I have increasingly noticed, however, that knitters often take sides, as if this is a battle line. Some designers will only create patterns for seamed sweaters and some are known for always designing in the round; most designers, I imagine, have to negotiate this potential landmine as best they can. If knitters take sides, then designers can lose half of their potential customers right from the get-go. I am not going to take sides. In fact, the point of this blog post is that I don’t take sides. You see, after pondering this for a while (and having nothing to do as I am stuck in my hotel room in Johannesburg, am too tired to leave my room, and have just finished reading my book) I decided to look at my projects page on Ravelry and add them up. (Yes, boredom will get you to do all sorts of useless things.)
What I found was this: 42 sweaters, of which 21 are knit in the round, and 21 are knit in pieces and seamed. This, I think, is the very definition of knitting neutrality. I am the Switzerland of sweater construction!
And this makes me think: are most knitters like me? Do you knit the patterns that appeal to you regardless of whether they are seamed or not? Or do you filter patterns out before you will even consider them? (Or alternatively, re-engineer any patterns that violate your preferred technique?)
Inquiring minds want to know. (Bored minds do, too.)
In my last post, I showed you some progress photos of my Callum – a linen tee with drop shoulders. It was clear from the photos that it is too big. Really too big. Not only is it too big, but the arm scythes are cut too low, meaning it can only be worn over a tank. I repeat one of the photos here which shows the bad fit around the back of the arms:
After publishing the post, I had the very good idea to transfer all of the live stitches to a spare piece of yarn and wash the unfinished project. Then I put it in the dryer (something that still makes my heart stutter, even though I know I can do it with linen). I carefully steamed down the edges of the sleeves. Many of you left encouraging comments on the post, suggesting that a good wash and a steam would make a big difference; you are right, they did make a difference, but mostly in the look of the linen and the neatness of the edges. It had no discernible effect on the fit.
Others mentioned that you don’t want a fitted linen garment for the hot days of summer. And, guess what? We were having a heat wave in England last week. I sat, sweating in the heat, and I thought “Ease is good.” I put the stitches back on the needle, picked the project back up and knit an entire other skein of the yarn – over 4 inches of body, adding two more sets of decreases.
Why did I keep knitting when I knew something was wrong? I don’t know – maybe I am delusional? Or maybe one of the things in my knitter’s toolkit is denial? Because the truth is that no matter what I do to the body of the tee, it is unlikely to change the fit across the back and the sleeves, and that is where the problem is. How easy to think that if I could just finish it, the drape would magically fix itself. Denial apparently also helps disguise the fact that I am knitting the 44 3/4″ size, in order to give me 3″ of ease, but it is actually measuring 50″ around (two sizes up from what I was aiming for), for almost 9″ of ease. I did swatch; I swear it! I don’t know why my swatch lied.
Not only that, but I am in denial about two of the issues that I worried about long before casting on – knitting this tee in the round, and the tendency of the yarn to bias (which manage to compound each other.) Knowing that these were both issues, I blindly cast on anyway, because…well, denial. And the yarn was pretty. And it looks nice in the pattern picture.
Maybe I should have waited to get some of this advice from readers:
“It is way, way too big–and knowing linen it will not shrink that much. Either re-do the entire back or, as you said, throw it in the WIP basket for another time and go on to the jacket.” (from my Mom)
“Me, I’d make sure I have copious notes and photos, frog the whole damned thing and put it in a bag at the back of the closet for another year.” (from Susan)
“The arm scythes are low and it looks like a baggy knit. I think it should go into the time-out basket, for an eventual frogging. I’d re-knit one size down.” (from Ann)
“The lace pattern of the linen top is really beautiful. I agree with you about the back sleeves, though. I knit a cardigan once with sleeves that ended up looking a bit like wings and I found I never wore it.” (from Leah)
This last point, from Leah, really struck home: am I ever going to wear it if I am unhappy with the fit? And furthermore, her comment really targeted the defining issue – there is something about the sleeve, especially from the back, that is a problem to me. I can fix this, but only if I frog and start over. (The pattern and yarn are both very pretty; so starting over and making it right would be a good thing in the long run.) That would mean figuring out what went wrong with my gauge (as other readers very kindly pointed out).
What next? Doug is away and I won’t see him for a few weeks. Once we are both in the same place again, he can help me take some new modeled photos of it, with the extra length perhaps giving an indication of how the tee will drape. I suspect that the only practical solution will be to frog. I also suspect that if I do that, it will be next summer before I try to re-use the yarn. Why not just frog now instead of waiting for the inevitable? Because I still have a good dose of DENIAL, and I am going to keep it!
In the meantime, there is always the Falkenburg:
Thank you so much to all of the readers who left comments for me. You mean a lot to me and I am grateful that you take the time to leave advice, suggestions and good wishes.
