Vintage sweater #3
Christmas knitting is already well underway. Of course, most of it I can't share with you until December 26th, and that doesn't make for very interesting blogging. I've finished the Snow Flurries Wrap for Shelley's wedding (hooray!), so I'm treating myself to one more vintage jumper before I resume my holiday knitting schedule (er..."schedule"). It's an adorable tennis jumper from the 1930s, and the pattern scan is available at Vintage Knitting.
That's a simple lace panel in the center, the rest just plain stockinette stripes. This pattern is crazy though--how can you write a pattern without mentioning the gauge?!--and it was supposedly written to fit a 32" bust (hah!) So I'm basically rewriting the whole thing, adding length (15" before binding off for the armholes instead of 12"), and shortening the sleeves so they'll match the longer stripe pattern on the body. The whole thing's going to be fitted where the original was blousey; I think it'll be more flattering, but the real reason is I'm afraid I'm going to run out of yarn. I bought a few skeins of each color on sale before I knew what I wanted to make. (More detailed notes on my Ravelry project page.)
That blue isn't a color I'd normally wear, but I'm trying to do colors other than green, purple, and black. Now I just have to find a tennis racket...
Make Do and Mend
How exciting is this: I've got an essay in this week's episode of Cast On, which is far and away my favorite podcast! The series theme is 'Make Do and Mend,' taking inspiration from WWII-era booklets on repurposing and economizing. I'm continually inspired by my grandparents' thrifty lifestyle (I've already told you about the candy tin o' buttons), so that's what my essay is about. I know a lot of you reading this aren't knitters, but Brenda's podcast is well worth a listen regardless.I have so many items of clothing ready to be mended or repurposed--the challenge is actually getting down to making the alterations. There's the vintage 100% wool cardi I mention in the essay, which I think will become a button-down vest from A Stitch in Time (a huge, beautifully illustrated book of modernized vintage patterns, which is on my Christmas wish list). There's another purple sweater I got for Kate when I worked at Anthropologie back in college, which is half-felted; I might as well felt it all the way and make a throw pillow out of it. I have a mohair jumper my mom got me at Kilkenny Design when I graduated with my M.A.; it's forest green, a good color for me, but the design itself is none too flattering (why did it take me so long to realize that?!), and someday I want to frog it (mohair...yikes!) and reuse the yarn so it can still remind me of graduation and my mother's generosity. And I have a sweater I got in Dublin in 2001 that has a hole in the elbow; I still love it, it's purple and in perfect condition otherwise, so I need to pick up some matching sock yarn to knit a pair of elbow patches. I have a feeling I'm going to have to visit more than a few yarn shops before I find a color that's close enough.And I have yet another project that's all about the buttons: my mother has a black cotton cardigan with beautiful sparkly ones that she never wears because the garment itself is faded. As it is, those buttons are going to waste. So for Christmas I'm knitting a classic cardigan that will showcase those lovely buttons (it was her idea), and that faded but still serviceable cotton cardi will get a plainer set of buttons (out of the tin) before it's donated to Goodwill. Two sweaters out of one!But add all these makeover sweaters to a huge pile of unfinished sewing and knitting projects, and it's really overwhelming. Right now I really only have one completed 'make do and mend' project to boast of, and it's five or six years old. My favorite jeans had huge holes in the seat, too big to patch, so I decided to make a yoga mat bag out of one of the legs. I cut out a circle for the bottom out of the other leg, used a sparkly purple shoelace for a drawstring, and a rainbow-striped belt for the strap. Now that I've got my mom going to yoga classes, I figure I can use some corduroy scraps to make her a mat bag too. I'll just have to add it to The List.Next entry: vintage sweater #3!
Another vintage jumper, hooray!
I am really pleased with how this turned out.
Celester on Ravelry kindly passed this WWII-era pattern along (her version is here). Of course I had to cast on many more stitches than called for, and lengthen the body quite a bit (12" before binding off for the armholes? hah!) I used the handy Knitting Daily Waist-Shaping Calculator to figure the decreases and increases. I knit the body in the round with faux seams in garter stitch, and my only regret there is that I worked the waist decreases into the seam stitch. Not a good idea, it looks a bit sloppy, but you'd probably only notice if I drew your attention to it. If I could knit it over again I'd also add back shaping, since there's a little bit of extra fabric back there. I was worried about that as I was knitting the body, but it looks fine. I also bound off at the neck half an inch sooner than the pattern says, using Elizabeth Zimmerman's stretchier sewn bind-off.
Celeste mentioned in her pattern notes that she had a difficult time getting her arms through the sleeves, and when I cast on the 66 stitches called for I realized that was probably why. Cast on 76, increased to 86, and they fit perfectly.
Look at my puffed sleeves! Weeeeeeeeeeeee!
The pattern calls for four buttons to fasten up the neck, and I found just that number of plastic pearl-look buttons in my grandparents' old candy tin (they're probably from the '60s). I later noticed that one of them was broken, so I made do with three. Crocheted the button-loops. Oh, and this yarn is really lovely--I wish I had used it for my Little March Hare jumper, as the quality is better than the Cashcotton (i.e., no little white strands of angora flying up as you knit).
Pattern: here, courtesy of Celeste
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4-ply in Monet, 7 balls
Needles: #2s for the ribbing and #3s for the body
Raveled here.
If I were still in Galway I'd be wearing this every day. Ah well.
Knitting Vintage Socks
Knitting from modernized versions of Victorian sock patterns might not sound all that exciting, but a classic design can be really cool with the right yarn. There are a lot of people on Ravelry knitting socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks (several Ravelers seem to be knitting their way through it, pattern by pattern), and it's really neat to see a funky hand-dyed yarn paired with a pattern that otherwise might seem a little staid. I didn't use a hand-dyed yarn, but this shade of fuchsia is funky enough, don't you think?
Pattern: Gentleman's Socks in Lozenge Pattern (CO 60 stitches for a ladies' size 8 1/2)Yarn: Regia 4-Ply in kardinalNeedle: 1 1/2 (more like a #1...I stuck one of my Brittany wood double-points in a needle gauge, and it fit in the #1 hole)Raveled here.I bought several balls of Regia and Jawoll Superwash (both hard-wearing German sock yarns, for the uninitiated) at a craft store in Berlin, and when I showed Kelly my bag o' yarn booty, she drooled over the two balls of fuschia and asked if I could make her a pair. She was really excited to get them. They are funky-lawyerly, just like her.And here's my Mamacita's Mother's Day gift (also from the Berlin booty, photo taken just before she and my stepdad returned from Florida...the back lawn was a bit of a jungle):
Pattern: Gentleman's Shooting Stockings with Fluted Pattern (CO 66 stitches for a ladies' size 9 1/2)Yarn: Lang Jawoll Superwash, 1.5 skeins of petrolNeedle: 1 1/2 (same deal...this yarn stained my Brittany double-points, plus the fifth needle snapped in transit. Fortunately they've got a five-year guarantee!)Raveled here. One of my favorite sock FOs, partly because the color is just so rich. Must buy more online.
For the third project, I'm using yarn I picked up from This is Knit last spring. I tried casting on a couple of different sock patterns over the past year, but each time I decided I didn't enjoy the stitch pattern enough to see it through. This one is pretty boring (basically a rectangular checkerboard), but I know I'll get a lot of wear out of these, and that's enough to keep me knitting them.Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Sock (CO 66 stitches for a ladies' size 10, decreased to 64)Yarn: Araucania Ranco Solid (colorway 483), 1 skeinNeedle: #1 (new Hiya-Hiyas I picked up at Woolbearers)Raveled here.The lesson I've learned with these socks has to do with the yarn. I had heard (after I balled this skein) that you shouldn't wind yarn until you're ready to cast on; otherwise the yarn loses its elasticity. I now know that this is true. The knitted fabric still has some stretch to it, but probably not as much as if I'd waited to ball it up. Oops.I love the look of the purl ridge used in the Lozenge sock pattern above--I used it on my St. Paddy's Day socks, and on these socks with a 3x3 rib as well. Of course, I realized midway through that 66 stitches wouldn't jive with the P2, K2 / P2, K2 pattern (if the round starts with P2, it has to end with K2, and with 66 it ends in P2), so I decreased to 64 (usually you're supposed to increase after the ribbing so it stays snug, but I wasn't about to frog this yarn again).Anyway, Knitted Vintage Socks is an awesome book. Excepting a few lacy ones, most of the patterns are suitable for anyone; it's just a matter of casting on an appropriate number of stitches. Definitely one of the most useful books in my pattern library.
The Muppet Sweater
Back in November I made reference to my first-ever sweater attempt. In the beginning, unless you have a LYS (local yarn store) with good customer service and lots of nice yarn and supplies to choose from, chances are you will be looking for yarn at a "big box store" (Jo-Ann, Michael's, A.C. Moore). Most of the yarn at the big box stores is acrylic blend--decent choices for charity or baby items, but not so much if you're looking to make a really nice sweater, shawl, or whatever. The short of it is, I didn't know any better back then. I picked a novelty yarn that looked and felt oh so snuggly, and paired it with this pattern from Knitty. This was the hilarious disaster that ensued:
You've just read my defense, but still...what the hell was I thinking?!This 2/3-finished (and how did it even get that far?) Muppet Sweater has been living in a yellow plastic bag in my closet for the past three and a half years. I only took it out recently to frog it and ball the yarn up to donate to charity (speaking of which, if any of you knitters out there have yarn, needles, etc. that you're never going to use, consider mailing it to a school in Manhattan. Full details in the Craftlit show notes.) So I donated it, but of course I just had to take a picture of it first, so that I can look at it whenever I need a good laugh.
Contest winners! (and another vintage jumper)
Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a guess! The guesses were mixed, although I bet that if I'd given you a good look at my face, pretty much everyone would have known her straight away. My grandmother is the young lady on the top left.
Clockwise, from top left: Dorothy (my grandmother), Joan, Patricia, Marjorie, and Mary. Special thanks to Betty Ann for giving my Aunt Eileen a copy of this photo in the first place, and for taking the time to write such a nice comment. I never would have guessed my grandmother was only seventeen or eighteen when this picture was taken--she looks so sophisticated with her red lipstick and chic dress! Her expression is kind of intense, too.I had originally said that the first three to guess correctly would win a book, and then I thought I would make it five to keep the fun going a little longer. But it's been a week now, so I think I'll just leave it at three. Chris, Emily, and Geri--ding, ding, ding! Geri opted for Mary Modern in hardcover, and Chris and Emily are going to wait for Petty Magic. Thanks again to everyone who left a guess--it made me so happy to get so many comments and compliments! I think I'll do another little contest in the near future...a riddle, maybe?So I think I've caught the vintage knitting bug. Check out this classy jumper:
It's another British pattern from the early '40s that a kind Raveler, celester, passed along. I'm using RYC Cashsoft 4-ply in Monet, a muted lavender. I found the perfect plastic pearl-like buttons out of my grandparents' rusted candy-tin (my grandparents on my dad's side) to fasten up the neck. I also picked up a new pair of #2 Addi circulars at the Brooklyn General Store yesterday for the ribbing. (I love this store--huge selection of yarn, gorgeous quilting fabrics, and great customer service!)But first I'll be working on this hooded shawl from Twist Collective for my friend Shelley, who's getting married in Westport, County Mayo, on December 29th. This is the first time I've ever knit a wedding gift, let alone a piece that will be worn in the wedding, and I'm a teensy bit nervous...Next blog entry--a recipe!
Little March Hare jumper, and a contest!
It's finished! HOORAY!
Knit from Rowan RYC Cashcotton 4-Ply (chartreuse, 6.5 skeins) on #2s and #3s, lovely pale green iridescent buttons from Hickey's in Galway, and too many froggings and modifications to mention. Knitting from a vintage pattern is even more challenging than I expected--apparently the young ladies of sixty-odd years ago were built like paper dolls, because a person would have to be two-dimensional to fit her head through the tiny hole that's supposed to be a neckline. At any rate, it was well worth all the math and tinkering I did to make this jumper fit right. Squee!
(Links to previous Little March Hare post, Ravelry project page.)
I was knitting the first sleeve at the family kaffeeklatsch one Saturday morning after Christmas, and my aunt and uncle were interested to see what I was working on. When I showed my uncle the pattern, he remarked that it looked like something my grandmother would have worn. Then somebody remarked on how most women's wardrobes back then were much smaller, but all the articles were of higher quality and would last longer than today's garments generally do. So with that in mind, I'm going to make a little contest. My aunt Eileen gave my mother a framed copy of this picture last Christmas:This is a rare photograph of my grandmother with her four sisters. They were separated among relatives--and later foster families--after their mother's death, so this studio portrait would have been a major occasion. Can you guess which of these lovely young ladies is my grandmother? Leave a comment with your guess (I don't mind if you take into account what other people have guessed). The first five people to guess correctly will win a signed copy of any one of my three books (your choice, of course): Moon Ireland, Mary Modern (hardcover or paperback--the paperback edition has an additional essay at the back), or the forthcoming Petty Magic. (If you choose Petty Magic, you'll have to wait at least six months for the galley, but I like to think it'll be worth the wait.)I was going to give you a good look at my face, but I think that would make it way too easy...
I'll have to think of another contest for the majority of people who read this blog (i.e., people who know which girl my grandmother is because a, they are related to me, or b, they're a good friend and have seen her portrait on my desk.)Now guess away!
In Despair, or in Cahoots?
They've been called "the drinking man's Coldplay," but Elbow are in a league beyond that much more famous British pop/rock band. (As Brian Boyd wrote when Elbow won the Mercury Prize last year for The Seldom Seen Kid: "A band such as Coldplay will happily confess to you that they put filler on their albums in the knowledge that there are enough big, anthemic songs around the filler that no one will really notice or care. Chris Martin has fessed up to 'borrowing' from Elbow's Grace Under Pressure song to help him with the writing of Fix You." Listen to those two songs one after the other, and Coldplay's debt becomes remarkably obvious.)So please, let me indoctrinate you into the greatness that is Elbow. Here's a link to a BBC video Brendan's sister Aileen posted to Facebook yesterday:Oh, kiss me like the final meal / Yeah, kiss me like we die tonightDoesn't it make you feel happy to be alive?Music can really inspire me when I write. It sets the mood in a scene, of course--I used plenty of Nina Simone lyrics in Mary Modern, and my Petty Magic heroine sings a wistful Berlin cabaret tune, Irgendwo auf der Welt ("Somewhere in the World"), during a pub session. The best lyrics inspire as well, perfectly evoking a scene with only a handful of words. Take these lyrics from Fugitive Motel:
Curtains stay closedBut everyone knowsYou hear through the walls in this placeCigarette holes for every lost soulTo give up the ghost in this place
It's all there--the despair, the isolation, the claustrophobic shabbiness of a highway lodge advertising cable TV and ceiling mirrors in every room.Or take this single line from Switching Off:
Early evening June, this room and a radio play
Can't you just see the fluttering curtains, the trees outside casting dancing shadows on the unmade bed? Can't you just feel the cool breeze wafting through the window and the tinny voices coming from the radio on the dresser? The character in the song re-lives these memories so vividly that it puts the listener there in that moment as well. Switching Off has another of my favorite lines:
You, the only sense the world has ever made
You can see why this music makes me want to be a better writer.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Wow, is it a gorgeous day in Galway! Spring is here at last. Everybody was out walking the prom this afternoon, wearing big goofy green hats and tri-color feather boas and eating ice cream. I sat on the strand at very low tide and wiggled my bare toes in the wet sand. Forgot how good that feels!Here's how else I celebrated Paddy's Day:
These are socks for a Ravelry contest--the Irish-themed project with the most 'love' clicks wins a huge stash of yarn (including a kilo of Kilcarra, which is one of my favorites). Tá áthas orm means "There is joy upon me" in Irish (so I guess these socks just say "joy upon me"). They're my reminder to count my blessings in these uncertain times.
I used sock yarn I picked up in Munich in December—Wolle Rödel, really inexpensive, a great value—and knit these socks using bits I remembered from other patterns. I cast on 60 stitches, did a purl ridge twice during the extra-long ribbing, and increased to 64 stitches for the colorwork at the ankle. Decreasing back to 60 stitches before the heel flap, I just knit a 'vanilla sock' until 8 or so rounds before the toe decreases should start. I had charted the words in an Excel spreadsheet, and that worked out well. I did a checkerboard pattern around the back to carry the yarn, trapping the second strand where necessary, and started the dark-green toe earlier on the right sock since the letters weren't as tall. It was quite an easy project, considering I was more or less designing them on the fly!
Ravelry link (with more photos) here.
Granny Weatherwax knickers
My new novel is about witches (and spies), and while I was writing it I read either WWII/occult research or fun witchy fiction. Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad are my two favorite Discworld novels so far—Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are terrific fun.When I saw the Witches' Britches pattern in Knit2Together, I wanted to knit a black-and-red-striped version I could see Granny Weatherwax wearing. (The Flickr link above is Kat Coyle's striped version, which is my favorite on Ravelry.) The perfect lounge pants!Here's my swatch:
Knit Picks Swish DK in bordeaux and coal, US 6 needles, 6 stitches/8 rows per inch.I'm definitely going to go with the thinner stripes. I didn't get gauge, nowhere near it, so I'll have to tinker with the numbers. I'll most likely end up using size 5 needles, so I need to knit a second swatch.- - -
'Baths is unhygienic,' Granny declared. 'You know I've never agreed with baths. Sittin' around in your own dirt like that.''What do you do, then?' said Magrat.'I just washes,' said Granny. 'All the bits. You know. As and when they becomes available.'--Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
Plum Truffle weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I've only done the simplest of cables and lace, not so much because I was afraid to try them but because I don't normally gravitate towards sweaters with heavy cabling or intricate lace patterns. It's not really my style. But when I came across Megan Rogers' brilliant Truffle Cardigan Tutorial on Ravelry [ed.—as of September 2013, Megan's site was password protected, so I'm not sure that the tutorial is still available], I decided it would be a good project for learning how to do traveling and short-row cables. I was really drawn to the neo-Victorian silhouette, and on a more practical note, in the middle of winter I've often found myself wishing I were wearing a second scarf to better insulate my neck and chest. Turtlenecks are usually pretty unflattering, but a cabled turtleneck cardi is perfect!It's not a pattern, so you make your own calculations and adjustments as you go along; it sounds scary, but I definitely feel like I've become a better knitter because of it. This tutorial was published over a year ago now, and it was high up on my Ravelry queue for almost as long (giving it frequent glances of longing in between churning out Christmas gifts...)The yarn is discontinued Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, which I picked up for less than half price on eBay two years ago. I was planning to make this, but fell out of love with it at some point. (I'm already thinking about making a Truffle #2, because I think it would look terrific in a lighter-color yarn.) This dark rich plum tweed (with fuschia, rust, bright purple, and emerald-green flecks) is nice too, though the wool is unevenly spun, which is irritating when the yarn gets as thin as a strand of sewing thread. I've found a knot in almost every ball, too. The cheek of Rowan, charging $16 a ball! I bet quality control issues were part of why the yarn was discontinued.
I was anticipating a fair amount of frogging and re-knitting when it came to the yoke, which requires short rows to get the cabled panel to hug your collarbone area, but I whizzed through it in four days or so. The horseshoes tend to vary in size, but I decided not to drive myself crazy counting rows and half-rows or else I'd never finish the darn thing.
I'm using a cable pattern from Vogue Stitchionary for the yoke (Horseshoe #1, page 27) and this cable from Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Designs for the front. I really enjoyed knitting the test swatch for the cable--this is going to sound really dorky, but watching the traveling cables emerge feels kind of magical.My grandparents recently gave me the pick of their button collection (every time a shirt got too worn out even to donate to Goodwill, they snipped off the buttons and dropped them in a rusty old candy tin). From all the buttons I picked up from them, I found plenty of clear plastic 1 1/8" buttons for the inside buttonband (meaning that the buttons don't all have to match, so long as they're the same size). Like I said, I've been trying to work with materials already on hand whenever possible. It feels so good to be thrifty, and of course I've benefited from my grandparents' thriftiness as well. (Though come to think of it, didn't I learn how to be thrifty from them in the first place?)By the time I finish this it will probably be too late in the winter to get much wear out of it, but it will make me happy just knowing it'll be ready to wear at the first October cold snap. And anyway, in Ireland you can wear a sweater any time of year--2008 was a pretty cold summer.Ravelry project link here.
Edwardian Crochet
Here are those scans of the crochet books my uncle gave me. I'd love to see this yoke on a sun dress:
Isn't it lovely? I really have to learn how to crochet properly. And sew, for that matter.
Christmas gifts, belatedly
I come from a crafty family. My aunt Kathy used to paint the most fantastic ceramic Christmas ornaments--I'm talking four-foot-tall classical Santas, and Christmas trees with real working lights--and my aunt Debbie has a whole room dedicated to all her various crafts (scrapbooking, sewing, soap- and card- and candle-making, etc.)As a kid I dabbled in counted cross-stitch under their guidance, and I made a quilt and a few other things in high school. You know how it is when you've got plans for all the cool things you want to make--more quilts, and sun-dresses, and throw pillows, and rag dolls. You start to develop quite a big stash of fabrics. And then life gets in the way, of course, so you never really do find the time to make (or finish) that quilt with the matching throw-pillows, or the dress, or the rag doll, and all that fabric sits in big boxes in your closet.With each new holiday season I become increasingly set on handmade over store-bought, using materials already on hand whenever possible. In June 2007, while Kate and Elliot and I were on Hvar Island in Croatia, we picked up sachets for souvenirs that were made from lavender grown on the island. So when I saw a big bin of dried lavender at the Mediterranean stand at the Saturday market, I decided I would make my own sachets out of all that unused calico sitting in my closet.Easy sewing (4" squares, with half the fourth side left open for stuffing), quick assembly, looks so nice with a ribbon and a matching soap or vial of essential oil. So that's what I did.
I also knit quite a few Christmas gifts this past year, but I still haven't gotten decent photographs of most of them!
Mealey's Christmas Blouse
I like to tell people that the beginning of the year is Selfish Knitting Season. Here's my version of Elaine's Blouse (from Interweave Knits Winter 2008), which I fell totally in love with as soon as I saw the magazine preview.
(I'm wearing a flesh-colored tank top underneath. Really, I am.)When the Stash and Burn girls did their magazine review, Nicole said she didn't think the design and the yarn worked well together at all, but I think the rustic yarn keeps it from being too girly. The finished object isn't perfect--the ribbing doesn't line up on the back (I mustn't have picked up the stitches for the buttonband or buttonhole band evenly enough), and if I could knit it over I'd make the peplum two or so inches longer. But I love the color (my sister keeps telling me to buy/make clothes that aren't black, purple, or green), it felt good to get a deal on the yarn (ggh Silky Tweed, purchased in Munich--it's a lot pricier in the States), and it's surprisingly toasty! I'll go back and reknit the buttonband and collar (so the ribbing lines up right) sometime when it's too warm to wear it.Thanks to Brendan for taking such nice pictures! We lucked out with the weather today.I want to do more 'selfish knitting' this year, but I also want to knit at least one item for charity per month. That's part of the reason I started knitting in the first place! I was working at Jo-Ann between getting my M.A. and going back to Ireland for Moon Handbooks, and I rang up this really nice lady who was buying bright red yarn to knit a receiving blanket for Project Linus. She inspired me to learn to knit--for the third time--but once I'd finally gotten the hang of it I just started making stuff for myself and my family. In three years of knitting, I've only made one object for charity, and I'm ashamed of that. I think I'll try to make a few things for both Dulaan and the Knitters for Obama service project, which will benefit the Mattaponi Native American tribe in Virginia.
Knitting Patterns from 1939
Neat, huh? I found this pattern book (dated 1939) at Vintage Knits, which offers an incredibly wide range of knitting, crochet, and other needlework patterns as well as great customer service and really reasonable prices. I bought this one based on the cover alone, and I definitely think I'll eventually make a couple things out of it. Many of the patterns are dresses or suits, but among the suits there are several tops that would make adorable short-sleeved cardigans or blouses on their own. Here's a scan of one of the more eye-catching outfits in the collection:
I think the cardi is really cute, but I don't know about the trim--it's a bit...furry.And alas--hat pattern not included.
the Little March Hare jumper
Have I mentioned lately how obsessed I am with Ravelry? A couple months ago I came across this lovely sweater...
...and knew I had to make it. Short-sleeved sweaters are perfect for Galway summers, since it doesn't often get warm enough for tank tops or t-shirts. Chris (littlemarchhare on Ravelry) is making this jumper in Rowan 4-Ply Cotton, and she very generously offered to email me a scan of the original pattern. The pamphlet isn't dated, but it looks to be from the '40s, wouldn't you say? The button placement and sloped neckline seem so modern. Here's my swatch (I'm using Rowan Cashcotton 4-ply in chartreuse):
The twist stitch felt pretty awkward at first, but now I'm whizzing along. (Mind you, it'll still be awhile before I finish this thing--I've got a few other projects to finish up before it gets my full attention.) And I spotted some awesome pale green iridescent shell buttons at Hickey's (at the Eyre Square Shopping Centre) awhile back. They'll be perfect.I want to scan one of my vintage patterns to email Chris to thank her--I just received the most incredible stash of crochet booklets from the late teens (!!!), which my uncle came across while moving his mom into assisted living. (Thanks, Uncle John!) So far the only thing I've crocheted is the Babette blanket, so my skills are still totally basic, but looking at all those intricate hankie and yoke edgings (to put on the collar of a nightshirt or dress or what have you) gets me eager to improve!
Adventures in Berlin: the Kunsthaus Tacheles
Guess what--I'm going back to Germany next week! Just for a week this time, to Bavaria, and I am really excited for the Christkindlmarkt in Nuremberg. I have five or six blog entries left for the first trip, so I'd better finish it up already. I'll schedule the last few to appear while I'm away. (I'm also trying to wrap up a draft of Petty Magic to send to my agent, so most of these last entries will be pretty much photos only.)Last week I posted a video clip of the unusual disco ball at the Kunsthaus Tacheles, definitely one of the coolest/weirdest spots in Berlin. Artists moved into this bombed-out department store after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it has bars, a café, and a nightclub as well as artists' studios.You walk through an archway (handmade jewelry for sale beside an old van covered in graffiti, and set into the wall above are majestic stone figures dating to the building's first act) and out into an open sandy space with car seats set around picnic tables as well as random sculptures, all from found materials, like so:
There is graffiti on almost every surface, especially on the stairwells that lead to the studios and galleries upstairs. Alas, none of my interior or nighttime photos are good enough to show you.
This courtyard space felt like a playground for those of us who will never consider ourselves grown-ups.
Something else I didn't get a picture of was a huge rocket-shaped metal thingie in the yard that had a metal ladder (like you'd see inside a submarine) leading up to a dark round opening near the top. I told some of the people on our pub crawl (I had been there earlier in the day, and so could speak with authority) that it was known as The Vomit Rocket, and that they should climb up the metal ladder and do what they must, but fortunately nobody had had that much to drink.But my favorite part of all was in a hallway upstairs: a full-sized "photo booth" fashioned out of cardboard, with space for both the artist and his subject to sit. Along with a very modest price list, a sign read (in English):
(And there might have been a couple more, I can't remember now.) I only wish the artist had been in attendance.
the Future Durty Old Man cardigan
Here's Brendan's anniversary present. It's Kim Hargreaves' Windswept cardigan from Rowan's A Yorkshire Fable, knit from (discontinued) Yorkshire Tweed Chunky as well as Scottish Tweed Chunky. I cast on in January but only knit a couple inches of ribbing, and came back to it over the summer. It only took about a month to finish, since the fair isle pattern wasn't too tedious and I was using #10.5 and 11 (i.e., very big) needles. There's a women's version, which calls for a buckle closure, but the men's version is meant to hang open. I added five buttons and I like it much better that way. It looks so nice and snuggly on him, like a rustic smoking jacket.
I haven't blogged much about my knitting, in part because I know (or assume?) most of the folks reading this are more interested in the travel and literary bits. And, truth be told, I'd have more to say about my (frequent) mishaps than the occasional successful FO ("finished object," for the uninitiated). I should show you my first sweater--mercifully, I never finished it. I would have looked like a Muppet.
Adventures in Berlin: Kunsthaus Tacheles, part 1
It's a ruin. It's a squat. It's a studio. It's a gallery. It's a playground. It's a café/bar. It's a club.It's a disco, baby.Proper entry soon.
