Squam!

Welcome to Nirvana! (I never get tired of that joke.)This past week I was in New Hampshire for an incredibly fun and relaxing fiber arts/needlework retreat, Squam Art Workshop. Home again, I'm a little sad it's over (missing my new friends!) and crossing my fingers I can go back next year, but I'm also feeling really inspired by all the lovely things everyone was making.Mary Jane makes beautiful swatches. 'I could knit worms all day!'It was a delight to be able to sit and knit and chat with other people who are just as obsessed with their knitting as I am, but more importantly, I realized just how few creative risks I've been taking lately. I need to figure out how to snap out of my routine (writing-wise and creative-wise in general) and find new ways of looking at the world. Last week I like to think I made some headway.I took a class called Inventing Stitch Patterns with Cat Bordhi. By no means the prettiest stitch pattern in the world, but you've got to start somewhere!It was really magical to be able to fall asleep (on the first night, anyway; after that it got too cold to keep the windows open) to the sound of the lake-waves lapping on the shore, and the loons making their eerie night-calls. I dunked my feet in every day and tried to swim once, but I couldn't feel my skin and so decided a thirty-second dip was plenty long enough.Mary Jane's class, in which I finally got the handle of proper colorwork technique.Here's a (totally crappy, sorry) photo of Jonatha Brooke performing at the Playhouse on Wednesday night. I've been a huge fan of hers since I was in my early teens, so it was pretty amazing to be able to chat with her over dinner. She's a lovely person and an absolutely incredible songwriter. (Check her out on Youtube. And then on iTunes!)(I also got to meet Barbara Delinsky, who was very nice and interested in hearing more about my books! A bunch of us had a knitting circle-slash-chat-about-publishing on Saturday afternoon.)How gorgeous is this quilt? My awesomely talented roomie Lizzy House designed it. I picked up the pattern at the Squam Art Fair even though (realistically) it'll be years before I get around to making it. In the meantime, though, it's nice to dream about.Amy, Anne, and Lizzy at Lizzy's table. I also got to see Cal Patch, with whom I took a patternmaking workshop a year and a half or so ago (blogged about it here). Every day in the dining hall was basically a Cal Patch fashion show!Noel and Elizabeth, who organizes the whole workshop. She is awesome.And of course, even though I said I was NOT going to acquire any more yarn, ahem, I did.Merino-cashmere sock yarn hand-dyed by the marvelous Jill Draper.I didn't have to leave too early on Sunday, so I got to hang out on one of the docks with Amy and Noel for awhile. We had a great old chat about books (among other things).So what is it, 360 days until the next spring session? Haha!(Oh, and there are more photos on the Squam June 2011 Flickr group.)

New Lanark

I spent most of Saturday at New Lanark, a late 18th-century mill town (and World Heritage site) situated along the River Clyde in South Lanarkshire. There's a lovely hourlong wooded walk that takes in three waterfalls (harnessed for hydroelectric power in 1927), although the weather was pretty dismal, so my photos of the falls aren't really worth sharing.The exhibition was open by the time I got back from my walk:Above: the engine house; YARN!; the roof garden; a phrenology model in the restored 1820 period classroom.Robert Owen purchased the business from his father-in-law, David Dale,in 1799, and over the next few decades turned the weaving mill complex (which originally milled cotton picked by American slaves) into a celebrated experiment in utopian socialism. Owen thought even the humblest factory worker deserved a comprehensive education (at least until the age of ten, although continuing ed classes were offered at night), fresh air and exercise, a sick fund in case of illness, hygienic living spaces, and quality meat and produce available at reasonable prices at the village store. My inner cynic piped up as I went through the exhibition--no doubt such reforms resulted in a very obedient workforce; 'Institute for the Formation of Character,' ieeeee!, etc.--but it's true his ideas were well ahead of his time, and that what we take for granted now was pretty revolutionary back then. You learn on the cheesy 'Annie McLeod Experience' ride (narrated by the ghost of a 10-year-old millworker--!) that they worked six days a week, ten (or was it twelve?) hours a day, and only got two holidays a year--but back then that work schedule was generous.The history lesson was interesting and all, but this was what I really came for. Bwahahahahaha. Proceeds benefit ongoing conservation efforts.

My kind of church

The south chapel murals depict the first part of the parable of the ten virgins (i.e., the wise and foolish virgins).On Sunday, thanks to my new friend Kate ('blessed by Kates', as I like to say), I was able to visit the Mansfield Traquair Centre, a deconsecrated church full of the most wonderful murals I've seen outside of Italy. (This building is actually called 'Edinburgh's Sistine Chapel', although tourists don't generally hear about it; it seems like they have sufficient income through space rental that they don't need to push for tourism.) It's only open to the public one Sunday afternoon per month, so I was very fortunate to be able to go!The neo-Romanesque chancel arch, featuring the first set of murals (1895-1897). The worship of heaven as given in the Books of Ezekiel and Revelation.Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936) was the foremost artist of the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland. She spent eight years on these murals, doing hardly any preparatory drawings before sketching the figures right onto the walls. This is a particularly stunning achievement given the curved surfaces of the chapel ceiling.

I wasn't surprised to hear that she took a holiday to Italy before returning to start the south chapel murals, because the virgins all have Botticelli coifs!

Two of the four angels symbolizing the ministries of the Catholic Apostolic Church: the Prophet in blue and the Pastor in silver (the other two are the Evangelist in scarlet and the Apostle in gold).

Notice how bright and joyous it all is? The Catholic Apostolic Church, founded in 1835, basically cherry-picked their favorite bits from the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions, so at a Catholic Apostolic service you would find vividly colored vestments and incense, but but no crucifixes (why dwell on Christ's suffering when you can celebrate his resurrection?) or last judgment scenes with demons dragging damned souls down into hell (they believed everyone could be saved). Sounds like my kind of church apart from that whole imminent-second-coming business; too bad it doesn't exist anymore! (If I remember correctly, the New Apostolic church, founded after a schism in the 1860s, is still in existence.)

 

The great west wall was completed in 1901.

The north aisle features the conclusion of the parable of the ten virgins. The ornamentation on the walls and sloped ceiling are reminiscent of both William Morris and medieval illuminated manuscripts.

The happiest Judgment Day you will ever see.

So if you are coming to Edinburgh and are a huge art history nerd like I am, it's worth planning your visit around the opening days! I believe it's open daily during the theatre festival in August.

Fast asleep in mermaid pajamas

(A play on the title of this book, which I hear is very funny.)

If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing.

--from Peter Pan

(I know I said I didn't like it, but there were a few passages I did take pleasure in, and this was one of them.)

I also have a thing for mermaids. It's my favorite Flight of the Conchords song; the fanged mermaids in Petty Magic were inspired by two creepy wooden sculptures I found in a curio cabinet in Ecuador; and when I saw this fabric from Heather Ross, I had to have it.

(Unfortunately, it's now out of print. You can probably find it on Etsy or eBay, but of course the prices have gotten rather cheeky.) I decided on pajama bottoms (using McCall's 5248), because the idea of mermaid pajamas amuses me greatly. See?

(NERD ALERT:) I used french seams for the first time, which was very exciting. That's when you sew the seams on the right side (i.e., wrong sides facing), then turn it inside out and encase the first seam in the second seam. No fraying! What a revelation!

The thing about using a big print is that you're never (you meaning me, who to date has only basic sewing experience) going to be able to match up the pieces, so I didn't even try. (Actually, I figured I had two options: 1, try to match up the pieces and drive myself batty, or 2, just get on with it and enjoy my new anti-perfectionist PJ bottoms ASAP. The other thing I realized, belatedly, is that you can make pajama pants out of only two pieces, like so. Oh well, I'll just have to try it that way next time.)

I wore these for the first time last night and, probably not coincidentally, had some lovely lovely dreams, none of which I can recall, although I'm pretty sure I composed the best novel I'll ever write, which was lost, of course, as soon as I woke up.(Nope, I'm not going to edit that.)And a couple more mermaidy goodies: Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon (pre-order!), and her interview (just posted today) with Alice Hoffman, which includes advice to aspiring mermaids.  HAH!  Love it.

A sulky monkey, and other knitted goodies

I haven't blogged about my knitting in ages, mostly because I've been knitting gifts.  (And I've knit probably twice as much stuff as I'm blogging here, but these are the best photos.)Eamonn's christening gift. (Pattern here, raveled here. I love this little vest, will be knitting more of these for sure.)Calorimetry, one of those patterns everybody and their uncle has knit, and now I know why. Really want to knit one for myself now. (Raveled here.)

Waffle socks using Cascade 220 Superwash (also for Kate). These knit up so fast, I may never make another pair with fingering-weight and itty bitty needles! (Pattern here, raveled here. That is the gorgeous UK edition of Philip Pullman's Four Tales in the background, a gift from Ailbhe. I ♥ Philip Pullman, as you know. Perfect holiday treat.)

A fuzzy-wuzzy cowl for Mamacita, using a strand of aran-weight mohair (that had been languishing in my stash for ages) and a strand of Cascade 220 on size 15 needles. I had to frog and reknit once but it was still a nice quick project, and I had no problem grafting with the mohair. (Pattern here, raveled here.)

This monkey (pattern download via Ravelry, raveled here) was a pain in the took to put together, but totally worth it, as you can see:

When Olivia comes over she likes to go 'yarning' with me. I knit with it while she unravels the rest of the ball.

I knit mostly smallish things this year, apart from Kate's cowl neck sweater (link to the designer's blog here, it's a free Ravelry download, and my project link here; I also made my grandfather's reindeer jumper and my short-sleeved sweater, both Rowan patterns):

(I played with his hair so it would flip like that. He's not just a good sport, he loves being fussed over.)

And speaking of the pleasure of seeing someone wearing a sweater I knit them...

Here is Ailbhe and Christian's little man (he's the bebe I made the zig-zag quilt for; cardigan Ravelry link here. I used Berroco Vintage, which has held up very well.) Talk about the unbearable cuteness of being! He and I got on very well while I was in Galway last month. My friends were joking about hiring me to be their nanny and I said, only like 10% kidding, SIGN ME UP!

Obsessed? Me?

My very own guardian owl. From Sealmaiden on Etsy.

At the V&A Museum of Childhood (blog entry here). 

They inched their way along the limb, Mrs. Frisby gripping the rough bark tightly, being careful not to stumble; and as they came closer, she could dimly perceive a shape like a squat vase sitting back in the hollow of the tree.  Near the top of the vase, wide apart, two round yellow eyes glowed in the dark."He can't see us," Jeremy whispered.  "It's still too light."Perhaps not, but he could hear, for now a deep round voice, a voice like an organ tone, echoed out of the hollow trunk:"Who is standing outside my house?"

—from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien.

Matt's grandmother's owl collection.

My owls jumper.

An earflap cap.

"I understand," said the owl, moving closer to the round entrance of his hollow.  "Mrs. Mouse, I cannot see you, for the glare of the daylight is too bright.  But if you will step inside my house, I will listen to what you have to say."

Mrs. Frisby hesitated.  She knew something of the dietary habits of owls...

Zig-zag baby quilt backing.

Spotted at the piano workshop.

In the back the walls narrowed to a corner, and there she saw that the owl had built himself a nest, as big as a water bucket, of twigs and leaves; from the top she could see protruding some wisps of the feathers with which he had lined it.

When she got near this nest, she stopped and faced the owl, who had turned from the light of the doorway and was peering at her with his great yellow eyes. Jeremy was nowhere to be seen. She could only hope he was still waiting on the limb outside.

"Now," said the owl, "you may state your problem."

'Why Is An Owl Smart?'

Sheets from Garnet Hill (sadly, discontinued).

Edit: How could I have forgotten this? It's a juvenile snowy owl on the Northwest Passage (expedition link here). Photo by Dr. Michael Brogan.

Merry Christmas! (and a recipe for pumpkin cake)

Another vintage postcard from Nuremberg.

I had a hankering for something sweet and pumpkiny but not pie, so I just jazzed up the Irish Cardamom Cake recipe [Edit, 2013: veganized recipe coming soon!] and the resulting cake came out perfectly. Moist, flavorful, easy.Preheat oven to 350º.

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. each of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Mix wet ingredients, fold in dry ingredients, pour into greased 9" loaf pans, bake for 45 minutes. Yields two.Happy Holidays, everyone! (Note: I have become a vegan since I wrote this post. A veganized recipe is forthcoming!)

Nine days to go

I picked up a couple of these vintage postcards from the Nuremberg Christmas market two years ago. From the reverse:Aus der Sammlung des Spielzeugmuseums im Alten Rathausturm München.(From the Toy Museum collection in the Old Town Hall, Munich.)

Strumbox jam!

I finally got around to uploading that other launch party video I mentioned—here Paul and Nick, my dear friends from Harmony Homestead, are treating us to some live music. Paul is playing a strumbox made by our friend Jim (from a cigar box--awesome, right?), and...er...I can't remember which instrument Nick is playing. I can't get a good look at it to jog my memory. Anyway, the jam session made the night all the more special for me, and I hope you enjoy this little snippet.(The other party video is here—I'm reading from a random page.)

Cocktails & Calico

(Not in that order, of course.)

A pile of pretty quilting cottons, a toasted coconut martini, and a dude in the background thinking 'what the heck is she doing?'

I am making a quilt for my dear friend Kelly B. to celebrate a milestone event, so over Labor Day weekend we went shopping for fabrics and had dinner and cocktails afterward.

We looked at a bunch of designs, and the zig-zag was her favorite--which pleased me, because after making a zig-zag quilt for Ailbhe and Christian's baby I really wanted to make a larger one. This zig-zag quilt is really inspiring, and I'm going to do the colorful strips on the backing too. Kelly's also won't have those horizontal white panels between zig-zags like the baby quilt does. She picked out bright greens, fuschias, teals and purples, which is going to be a really stunning combination I think.This is going to sound totally geeky, but I love doing simple math in creative projects--it's really satisfying somehow. Like so: each finished square is 4" (4 7/8" with seam allowance); so for a quilt measuring 88" x 104", there'll be twenty-two columns and twenty-six rows. Twenty-six rows means thirteen zig-zags, so there'll be three zig-zags of three colors and four of the fourth. I need to cut 66 fuschia, 66 green, 66 teal, 88 purple, and 286 white squares...etc., etc.

Eighty-one down, 231 to go...

I may post progress photos over the next several months, but only tiny teaser photos so she'll still be somewhat surprised when the thing is finished!

Owls!

You know when you really like something, and then it turns out everybody else on the planet likes it too, and so its overwhelming popularity makes you like it less? That's how I felt about Kate Davies' Owls.

(My friend Emily's version, knit in Mirasol Sulka. I took this photo when she visited me in New Jersey last October.)So I was gonna knit it, and then I wasn't.  And then I was again, as soon as I saw this yarn at the Merck Forest stall at the Dorset farmers' market back in June:It called to me, and said, 'I am to be an Owls jumper.' So I bought seven hanks and that was that.  (Seven was two too many, but I didn't want to run out.)  I adore this yarn--it's sturdy and smooshy and gloriously wooly, and a terrific value at $8.75 for 250 yards (even if there's a knot here and there; it's handspun). It's not the most flattering color on me, but I do like the gray Owls best.

Pattern: Owls by Kate DaviesYarn: Merck Forest 100% wool GreenspunNeedles: #9s (#8s for the ribbing)Raveled: here, with notes.

The pattern calls for chunky weight, but the good thing about five million people knitting it is the wealth of pattern notes you can learn from, and lots of people have knit this in worsted weight. (StinaK's notes were especially helpful.)  After the short rows on the back of the neck I had to add two more sets of short rows to the shoulders.  (I think those short rows on the back were eliminated in the latest version of the pattern because a lot of knitters didn't think it was necessary, but I was knitting from an earlier version and just decided to go with it.) Anyway, it was nice to pause in my knitting and think, 'isn't it marvelous that I have no qualms about winging it? And it's working! Hooray!'

(Of course, I had to take it off the needles and try it on every so often.)

You see why everyone is knitting this jumper?1.  There are owls.2.  It is the most flattering thing EVER.Did you know a group of owls is called a parliament?

And the buttons are from my grandparents' candy tin.  (I really have to get back to the whole make-do-and-mend thing.)

Something Jolly

I'm having an awesome time in Peru! Really excited to check out the textiles at the Cuzco markets, and in the meantime I've got this to show you:

I really needed something colorful to knit on after my grandfather died. Starting a scarf out of Donegal tweed at the end of May didn't make much sense, but just looking at it cheered me up. And now that I'm moving to Vermont I'm glad to have it, because everyone keeps telling me how cold it gets up there in the winter.I used leftovers from other projects, so it matches my Gretel beret. Kilcarra Tweed is so awesome--it may be a bit scratchy, but the colors are delicious and the yarn softens with washing anyway.Pattern: V-Striped Scarf by Lise-Lotte Lystrup, from Vintage Knitwear for Modern Knitters.Yarn: Kilcarra Aran Tweed in pea green (1), teal (1.25 balls), and purple (1.5 balls), and Donegal Studio Tweed (same as Kilcarra) in fuschia (1).Needles: #7s.Raveled: here.And here are basic pompom instructions.

Back in Babyville

I haven't mentioned my knitting in ages, mostly because I've been making gifts:I knit this for Sally, my Mary Modern editor, who had a baby girl in April. It's the infamous Pea Pod Baby Set by Kate Gilbert, which is no longer available online (so many people on Ravelry are frustrated that they can't knit it). If you are reading this and don't have a copy, you know that I couldn't possibly email it to you if you dropped me a line to ask. Oh, no. (Raveled here.)The Little Coffee Bean Cardigan by Elizabeth Smith is my new favorite pattern--I knit these for Lindsay's baby (due in July) and my nephew (sized up for a 2T). Let me tell you, I'll never knit a baby cardi in pieces ever again, and crazy stripes are a great way to use up odd balls. As you can see, the sleeves on the second Little Coffee Bean are much longer--I knit the first version to the pattern, but then I decided I wasn't too keen on the half-length sleeves; although I guess I'd have to see it on the baby to know for sure if it would look odd or not. (Raveled here and here.)This hat (super-easy pattern here) isn't for any baby in particular--I just wanted to knit something fast that would cheer me up the week my grandfather died. (Raveled here.)

Sundress #2

(Sundress #1.)

So, I promised myself I wouldn't buy more fabric until I'd used some of what I've got.

And then, naturally, I bought more fabric.I'm still planning to make the basic dress out of Cal Patch's book, but I've got to draft the pieces first, and I wanted a second sundress now. I first found this fabric (the line is Santorini by Lila Tueller) while I was in London, but it was mad-crazy expensive (something like £11.50 per meter, which is roughly $15 per yard, when the fabric retails here for $8.95), and I wound up getting it on sale from My Needle & Thread (another Etsy shop). With the bold outlines around each leaf and flower, the fabric reminds me of a stained glass window.(Park photos by John the Bad.)Sundress #2 took longer than #1 even though I skipped the pockets again. I realized midway through that my machine really needed a tune-up, so I packed it up and took it to the local Sew 'n Vac; I was holed up at Rachel's (she is a lifesaver, let me tell you) working on the new magnum opus; and then with my grandpa's funeral and family time and all.(Kind of a goofy photo of me, but a better shot of the dress. Also, from looking at this one I think I need to adjust the right strap. My right, that is.)This dress has already been very much splashed on and stained with SPF 70 sunscreen.The only change between #1 and #2 is the length of the bodice--this time I did a few more rounds (38 instead of 35).Now I'm ready to try something more challenging! I'm going to make a dress to wear at my launch party in October--fingers crossed it works out...(She stuck a crochet hook in a ball of yarn and called it a yarnipop.)[Edit 6/21: Kate asked for a close-up of the bodice. I was concerned that the larger print would look odd under the shirring, but I think it looks totally fine.]

Welcome to Babyville, part 3

Think of all the people we'll love who haven't been born yet: Kate said that, and I appropriated it. Now one of them has—on March 9th, Ailbhe and Christian had a healthy baby boy! (He's big, too: 8 pounds, 3 ounces.) When I packed this up I addressed it to the baby, which tickled me to no end:I have to make another one of these dinosaurs for my nephew. So cute, and a lot easier than I thought it would be--I'm much more confident with a crochet hook after finishing this. Ailbhe was particularly excited about it one because Christian had a plush dinosaur as a child and really wanted to find something similar. (Pattern here, raveled here.)

Happy Easter!

Here's a postcard I found at the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg (seasonally appropriate, I know. The Christmas ones are even cuter). On the back:221 Osterkarte, um 1900@Verlag L. Däbritz, MünchenAlleinvertrieb ART H. HilscherPrinted in Germany.

Sundress!

(Thank you for all those enthusiastic comments about Petty Magic—I wish I could give every one of you a galley!) On a sultry day in Brooklyn last summer, I envied every girl out and about in a pretty sundress. Feminine vanity aside, they were keeping a lot cooler than I was in jeans. I wanted sundresses, one for every day of the week.

The pattern is Heather Ross's Mendocino sundress, which she has generously posted on her website. I usually try to buy from a designer/shop offering free patterns, and I did pick up some awesome Mendocino fabric via Fabricworm, but I decided to use it for a different dress out of Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified. (More on that later.)

I know this is going to sound really nerdy, but I've been in love with this calico since I was a teenager. I'd bought a few yards of it at a mom-and-pop fabric shop back in high school for a dress I got quite a bit of wear out of but am much too embarrassed to show you, and every time I looked at that old dress in my scrap pile I wished I had more to sew something up using a proper pattern. I finally made it back to that shop before Christmas, and what do you know--they still had the fabric, and it was still four bucks a yard!

I remember Kelly saying (back in the day) that it was the sort of thing one's grandmother would wear--"in a good way." This fabric is very vintage-y (heck, it probably is vintage)--that's why I love it so much. A few notes, if you want to make this dress:

• It was $6.47 at FedEx Office to get the pattern printed on a 24 x 44" sheet of paper. A little bit more than I thought it would be, but taping a lot of smaller pages together would have been rather tedious. (Apparently FedEx ate Kinko's. Whatever it's called nowadays, the email-to-print service is pretty nifty.)
• The schematic indicates that you should position the pockets 14 to 18" below the top of the dress; I decided on 18" because I'm tall, but when I finished sewing the seams and tried it on (insofar as it could be 'tried on' at that stage) my hands hardly reached the pockets. I decided they weren't worth adjusting, seeing as I probably wouldn't use the pockets anyway, so I just ripped the pocket seams and stitched up the sides. But if I make this dress again I'll go with a pocket placement of 14".
• You need elastic thread for the shirring. A nice lady at Jo-Ann pointed me to Dritz brand in the notions section (with all the other types of elastic), which is a lot less expensive per yard than the smaller spools you find on the rack with all the other types of sewing thread. (It's $1.59 for 30 yards of Dritz versus 11 yards of Gutermann. Or you could buy a ginormous spool of it here, but I can't imagine ever needing or using $40 worth of elastic thread unless you're also making jewelry.)
• Found some handy tips at Projects & Preoccupations. For one, the back hem needs to be taken up a bit more than the front because of the extra fabric at the bust--that probably wouldn't have occurred to me on my own! So I pinned up the hem and tried it on before sewing.

(Long-arming it. I wanted to get a detail of the shirring, but every close-up I took was basically 'and here are my boobs!') This dress was quick to make, too--took less than a week. The pattern says you can sew the whole thing in an afternoon, and if I make another one I'm sure it'll go a lot faster. I'm excited to be getting more proficient at sewing, but I have GOT to become tidier and more careful--I have a bad habit of dropping pins in the carpet. Yesterday I went for a run, and on my walk back to the car I felt something sharp in my sock. Yup. A pin. I'm lucky it didn't stab me in the foot. And last week I woke up and found safety pins under my pillow...at least they were closed!

(Thanks to my mother for the first photo.)

Victory Jumper—squee!

(Victory jumper, part 1.)Is this not the most fabulous thing I have ever knit?!Pattern: Your Victory Jumper by Home Notes (published June 2, 1945)Yarn: Regia 4-Ply (kardinal, #1078, just over two skeins) and Lang Jawoll Superwash (all of three skeins of petrol, #0088, and a skein of green, #0116)Needles: #2.5s for the body, #1.5s for the ribbingRaveled: here (with full notes on mods made).I was hoping this would turn out kick-ass so I could wear it in my new author photo (which has yet to be taken). I was also hoping there'd be sunshine this weekend, but alas.I have only one wish-I'd-done-differently this time, and that's the sleeve length. I wish I'd knit them a couple inches longer so the ribbing doesn't scrunch at the elbows. But that's pretty nit-picky I guess.(Thanks to Li'l Pete for the photos.)

Victory Jumper

I'm not a monogamous knitter, for the most part, but I'm making an exception for this because it is keeping me cheerful:I have been wanting to make the Victory Jumper in a not quite so patriotic color scheme. (Here's the link to the original pattern page on the Victoria & Albert Museum website; the pattern was published just after V-E Day.) A teeny bit of irony: I'm knitting it in German sock yarn.(Actually, Lang is a Swiss company, so the blue and the green are neutral.)Isn't it a lovely color combination? I'd originally picked up the Jawoll and Regia at a couple yarn/craft stores in Berlin, and when I showed Kelly my loot she pointed out how well the three colors would look together.(Should have windexed the mirror first...)Colors aside, I think it's a good idea to use wool/nylon sock yarn--this way the underarms won't felt like they did on the jumper I made out of Yorkshire Tweed. (Something I have learned: it is not wise to use 100% wool for a jumper you plan to wear against the skin.)Oh yes, there will be three-quarter sleeves. Wrote up the other mods I'm making on my Ravelry project page.

Gretel #2

I haven't knit a hat to keep until now. Fuschia--fuchsia?--oh heck, magenta--may not be the most flattering color on me, but it makes me very happy whenever I look at it. This yarn has delicious little flecks of lavender and purple and green. I love Donegal tweed: vibrant colors, very sturdy, softens with washing, excellent value.Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda (regular size; the Gretel I knit for my grandmother was fitted)Yarn: Studio Donegal Aran Tweed (a.k.a. Kilcarra), 2 balls fuschia, from This is Knit.Needles: #6s for ribbing (should have used #5s) and #7s.Raveled here.I was afraid the ribbing would be too stiff on #5s, but it's too loose on #6s--I think I'll thread in some elastic to make sure the hat stays put.