Sunday best - presents for mum

It’s my mum’s birthday in the week, and celebration of this very exciting event this week’s Sunday best is all about presents for mum.

Sehaliah earrings
I don’t know about you, but my mum loves fairies and I think she’d really like these.

Sehaliah earrings.

Nature pocket mirror
This would make a lovely little gift; shame it’s from the US as I suspect shipping would make it something of a nightmare to get hold of.

Leaf-design nature pocket mirror.

Purple amethyst and green fluorite necklace
This is so pretty and delicate – ideal for summer. If we ever have one.

Purple amethyst and green fluorite necklace.

Crown, heart and flower statement necklace
There’s something a bit gothic, a bit steampunk, about this that I really love and I’m sure my mum would agree.

Crown, heart and flower statement necklace.

Cream antique bronze sari silk ribbon watch
This is another one that wouldn’t look out of place in the imaginary steampunk world in which I live, if only in my head.

Cream antique bronze sari silk ribbon watch.

Book review - Neverwhere

I’ve thought about doing (non-knitting) book reviews on this blog before and always decided against it. Most recently my book reviews have been going on Goodreads, that’s what it’s for after all. But the demands of three blog posts a week, plus socialising, a relationship, holding down a job, knitting and all the little things that make up a life, have meant that reviewing books has fallen by the wayside. So I’ve decided that it’s time to start putting reviews here.

First up is an old title: Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. I’d been wanting to read this for some time. I watched the TV show when it was first shown many years ago and later read that Gaiman wasn’t entirely happy with the way the series turned out; he published the book to redress the balance. Having loved the series I wanted to find out what his vision for the story had been.

The book is the story of Richard Mayhew, who after a random act of kindness, finds himself no longer a part of the life he knows, of London Above, and instead one of London Below – where all those who fall through the cracks end up. Here he finds adventure, murders to be solved, keys to be found, beasts to be slain and assassins to be avoided at all costs.

Richard isn't an entirely sympathetic character. He's weak, bullied by his overbearing girlfriend, a bit whiny. His journey in London Below is as much emotional as physical, and the changes his adventures forge in him are wide ranging and long lasting.

The storytelling is fantastic – and fantastical – with London Below well realised as a forgotten, hidden realm that Londoners will find both strange and familiar. I love books about London and ones about an alternative to the city we all know and love have an especial appeal. China Mieville's wonderful Un Lun Dun comes to mind.

The characters are well drawn and believeable, particularly Hunter and the Marquis de Carabas, although my personal favourites have to be Mr Croupe and Mr Vandemar. The sense of menace whenever they are on the page is almost palpable – no small feat in a book.

This really is an excellent book. And how does it compare to the TV show? Well it's been so long since I saw the series that I really can't remember. I think I shall be making a DVD purchase very shortly.

Knitting for friends and the thorny issue of payment

A work colleague of my bestie is pregnant, and bestie has asked me to knit her something. well knit the baby something. The colleague goes on maternity leave on 19 April, so ideally the knitting will be done by then. Obviously I haven’t even started it yet. I'm still working on my Knit Now submission, but the good news is that this is nearly done.

I’m doing a very simple cardie and one that I’ve made before, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get it done in time. It’s a Debbie Bliss pattern for her gorgeous Cashmerino yarn. Which is a deadringer for Rico’s Essentials Merino DK – a machine-washable, super-soft merino that’s about £1 cheaper per ball than the Cashmerino. Last time I made it in Rooster Baby and was a bit disappointed with the yarn – it was quite hard and had obviously broken and been knotted together in the spinning process. But I love the Rico yarn, so that’s what I’ve bought this time.

This is the one I knitted a few years ago for a friend's baby.
My own photo.

I’m doing this for free, which is probably insanity, but working out payment for hand knitting is a very thorny issue. It’s going to take hours to make this cardie. The minimum wage is £6.19 – is it just me or does that sound really low?. Even if it only took 10 hours to finish the cardie that’s still more than £60, just for my time and at a really low rate. Plus another £17 for yarn, we’re looking at the best part of £80. For a baby cardie that won’t even fit in six months’ time.

So instead bestie is buying me dinner. And call me crazy, but I’m happy with that and so is she. What does anyone else think? How do you work out payment for items knitted for friends?

Sunday best - Easter special

So next weekend is Easter. I’m not religious so for me this means an excuse to eat lots of chocolate (like I need one of those!) and a lovely long weekend. It’s also a reason to look at – and buy – cute Easter-themed crafty things.

Egg cosies must be incredibly easy to make, but also incredibly fiddly. So why not just buy them? These Easter Bunny ones are super cute.

Easter Bunny egg cosies

And these Pom Pom cosies from Georgiana May are lovely

Pom Pom egg cosies

Brooches aren’t really my thing, but I do like the Easter Bunny on this one.

Easter Bunny brooch

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Easter without chocolate eggs. I couldn’t decide which I like best out of these two Hotel Chocolat eggs, so have both.

You Crack Me Up extra thick egg

Cow Beastie egg. The cow print on this is great.

 (All images are taken from relevant sources. Click the links to see the originals.)

Some sketches

First things first: I can't draw. When I start a design I have a picture in my head showing exactly what it is I want to achieve. And then I try sketching it, and at best I end up with a not-very-close approximation. It's the best I can do, but it gives me something tangible to work with, which is surely the point. So with this in mind, I present some of my sketches that I hope to turn into actual garments and designs at some point.

Lace pattern
This is a pattern I worked out based on the embossing pattern on a sheet of kitchen roll. Yes really. I want to turn it into a lacy shawl.

Knitted dress
I’ve been hankering after knitting a dress for ages. But I’ve shied away so far because it’ll take ages and I’d do the whole thing in stocking stitch so it won’t be especially interesting to knit.

Knitted skirt
Apparently flared below-the-knee skirts are going to be in this autumn. This one would have yarn overs to create the flare. I can’t decide whether a ribbed section at the top would be best or straight stocking stitch.

Samurai-style tunic
This would be a flared-sleeve top with a deep V neck and then a ribbed band knitted in the round attached to it. Done in white or cream. Or possibly black.

Rib-waisted tunic
The clue’s in the name – it’s a tunic, with ribbing at the waist.

My first magazine commission

This last couple of weeks I’ve been knitting furiously for a magazine commission. I submitted a design idea to Knit Now magazine at the end of February and was lucky enough to get the go ahead on it.

I’m not going to reveal the design here – you’ll have to buy the magazine for that! (It’s the spring/summer issue.) But as you might guess I’m pretty excited about it. The yarn chosen by the magazine’s editor is rather different from that which I suggested. I went for a laceweight from Manos del Uruguay, but I’ve ended up with Louisa Harding Amitola. This double-knitting-weight yarn is gorgeous, although it’s not very tightly wrapped so is rather splitty.

As you might have guessed, the piece is an accessory rather than a garment so gauge and yarn weight aren't that important.

I had a minor panic – not actually that minor – that I wasn't going to have enough yarn. This is despite the two balls I've got having a slightly higher yardage than the one of Manos that I used to make the first sample and it being a DK rather than a laceweight meaning it will come out bigger anyway. But logic aside I was still worried. But I've nearly finished the first ball and I think it should be fine.

My other concern was that I wouldn't be able to finish the sample by the deadline. I was convinced I only had a couple of weeks. But then I checked and it turns out that the deadline is 10 April. The upside to this, of course, is that, with just over a week of my fastest knitting, I'm more than halfway finished.

So on balance, it’s going well and I’m rather pleased with myself. This is the first time one of my designs has been accepted anywhere and I hope is the first of many.

I'm not going to share a picture of the sample,
but here's the yarn. Louisa Harding Amitola in Pirouette 102.

Sunday best - dressing up

I realised today that I missed a trick with last week’s Sunday best - I should have gone for green-themed one in honour to St Patrick’s Day today. Never mind, next week will be a bunny, chick and chocolate-filled affair to celebrate Easter. But back to this week, which is all about dressing up.

1 Gothic Little Red Riding Hood dress
I absolutely adore this costume! I have no idea when or where I’d wear it, and it’s from the US anyway, so probably not available over here, but I want one. Maybe I could wear it to do the vacuuming?

2 Mad Hatter top hat
Love love love this steampunk-style Victorian top hat, but it’s way out of my price range.

3 Strawberry print tea dress
I really admire anyone who goes in for the full vintage look. I just don’t have that kind of dedication. This 50s-style dress is so pretty, but without the hair, the shoes and so on, it just wouldn’t work.

4 Zombie Girl Cameo bracelet
This would be the perfect accessory for Gothic Little Red Riding Hood, or a way of dressing up a little bit for those of us too scared to go the whole hog!

5 Silk red and black masquerade ball mask 
I’ve wanted one of these ever since I first saw Labyrinth many years ago. I also want to be the kind of person who goes to masquerade balls.

I'm Pinning all these, so click to check them out. Feel free to follow me while you're there.

(All images taken from relevant pages; click the links to see the originals.)

Thrifty finds

I do love a bargain, and recently I’ve managed to pick up a few I’m quite proud of. I was ultra-excited last week when we had our first warm(ish) days of the year. Not just because it was the first time in months that going outside didn’t reduce me to tears – although that did play a big part – but also because it was the first time it was warm enough to wear my new coat. It’s a gorgeous fake fur and corduroy 70s-style extravaganza that I adore and can’t wait to wear more of. I picked it up in a local Cancer Research shop for under a tenner. I’ll be getting some outsized sunglasses and flowers for my hair to complete the look, obviously.

Still waiting for that warm day to wear this again.
Hopefully this weekend?

I also found a lovely knitted lace top/dress, originally from Oasis, but again discovered in a charity shop. It’s gold with a sparkly gold thread running through it and should look great over jeans with a T-shirt underneath or worn as a dress with a slip underneath.

It's a friend's birthday party soon.
The ideal time to break this one out, I think!

My final thrifty find is for the kitchen. I’ve been struggling with a very old and mostly blunt knife set for a while now – I had to give up buying squashes because I couldn’t actually cut them. So when a multi-coloured set complete with perspex block from Jean Patrique came up for sale I didn’t hesitate. It’s currently advertised on the company’s site for just over £200, but I got it for under £20. I’m not entirely sure how they can offer such huge savings, maybe it’s a loss leader for enticing customers to the website and then getting them to buy other items at full cost.

Arty shot of my new pretty knives!

Design update

My latest design is a crossover top based on a favourite sweater that's just about falling apart. I'm doing well so far. Both fronts are done and I've done a goodly chunk of the back.

The back so far.

I've never made anything like this before. The biggest challenge so far has been working out how to do the slope to make the crossover. I had to make the slope, well, slopey, while at the same time making sure the piece was the right length, that the armholes were in the right place and the right size, that the shoulders were the right size. This took a lot of maths and several attempts at creating the slope. This was done using decreases, so another thing I had to take into acount was the direction of the decreases.

With the cross being right out front on the finished piece, there was no way to hide the decreases, so instead I had to make a feature of them. This meant making sure they leaned the right way – right on the right front, left on the left, so knit two together (k2tog) and slip slip knit (ssk) respectively. I really like the effect this has created.

This is the first time I've seen the two fronts
together, as it were. I like it.

The back is the easy bit. It's essentially the same as backs for all the other jumpers I've made, just with different maths. So my next challenge is the sleeves. I've done sleeves before, of course, but these are cap sleeves and I'm not really sure how to make them. I need to knit a kind of semi-circle and sew it into the armhole. But I'm not entirely sure how to knit a semi-circle.

I also need to add a border all around the crossover and round the collar. I'm not sure if this should be done all one go- that is, join the shoulders then starting at the bottom of one slope pick up stitches all the way round &ndash or to do each piece separately and then join. The former would look better, but that's going to be an awful lot of stitches to deal with. Will my circular needle even be long enough? The second option will be easier, but it just won't look as good. This is something to ponder.

A close-up of those decreases.

The other problem is that the thing just doesn't look like it's big enough. I measured the original top and made a swatch and worked out all the maths, so it should be just fine. Maybe blocking will sort it all out. But I'm actually taking a bit of a break from this project now. I've two things to complete to deadline &ndash one a baby cardie for a friend to give a pregnant work colleague and one a commission for a magazine. More on both of these later.

Sunday best - a round-up of things I love

1 Free granny square pattern
There are people out there who hate granny squares. Can you believe that? I love them. There are some really inventive ones out there that would make great cushion covers or blankets. This one, I think, is really pretty.

2 Paradise Lost necklace
This looks like a whole ton of work went into all the beading. It was worth it - the finished product is gorgeous.

3 Apple and Wisdom charm bracelet
Simple and elegant. Love this.

4 Catherine Carr crochet glass
I’m not entirely sure how this works - crochet turned into glass - but I like it!

5 Shabby chic mirror
I’d love to have this piece of pretty in my craft room.

Five fave blogs

Now that I’m organising my time better, I’ve found I’ve more time for reading blogs. I tend to read a mix of ‘official’ ones from magazines authors and the like and personal ones by individuals just like me. Well, probably not just like me. Anyway, here I’m going to list just five of my favourite personal ones.

1 A Thrifty Mrs
This is the blog that got me organised. I think I found it via Twitter – I followed someone who followed Mrs Thrifty, and a well-timed retweet got me following Mrs T and from there I found the blog. The posts are well written and interesting, and I’ve had great fun adapting her advice to my life.

2 Jenny and the Magic Feather
This was another Twitter discovery (isn’t Twitter great?). Jenny’s blog is very personal and very eclectic, from a round-up of her favourite things in the month to baking to crafts, and more. She also designs uber-pretty blogs which make me want to learn things like CSS.

3 Plot Driven
In the interests of full disclosure, the author of this blog is a friend of mine, so when I say she’s erudite, witty, interesting and awfully pretty I might be biased. Seriously, though, this is a very readable blog about books. Ashlea’s love of books in general, and Jane Austen in particular, is evident in every post. I hate book snobbery and you’ll find none here at all – every book is taken on its own merit.

4 Knithacker
This is a photo-based blog of awesome knits. All knitters should follow it.

5 Bald Monkey Seen a Bird
This is a blog I found through my day job. It’s easiest the funniest birding blog you will ever read. The birding top trumps post is pure genius. You don’t have to be a birder to read it, in fact it’s probably best if you’re not.

So there it is – a round-up of five blogs I love. What blogs do you read and recommend?

Why knitting groups are so important

World Wide Knit in Public Day is a great way of getting
knitters together. Photo from commons.wikimedia.org.

Every knitter should have a knitting group. They’re an essential part of knitting life, offering support, friendship and even a link back to knitters of old.

In fact, knitting groups have played quite a big role in my life in the last few years. About three and a half years ago I broke up with my then boyfriend and moved out of the flat we’d been living in. I moved into a a new place in Harringay. I didn’t know anyone in the area and I was living alone. There were times when I got incredibly lonely. Until I had the great idea of finding a knitting group. Using Ravelry I managed to track down a group in Stroud Green, a short tube ride away.

We met once a week on a Thursday night in a pub, first at The Noble and later The Stapleton. The group started off rather sedately, as you might imagine a knitting group to be. We knitted, we chatted, we drank a couple of glasses of wine. It escalated, and we were soon ending up a local late-night bar and struggling into work the next day with serious hangovers. We also started seeing each other at weekends. The ‘core’ members of that group are now some of my closest friends and they helped me get through some incredibly tough times.

These days I spend as much time in Walthamstow as I do Harringay so I wanted to find another group. Back to Ravelry I went. There was a Walthmstow Knitters group, but no meet up. A couple of forum posts later and a meet was organised. The group has met twice now, the people are all lovely and we’ve got lots more interest from Ravelry. The next meeting is at The Bell on 18 March, for anyone who’s around.

I honestly believe that these groups are an important part of knitting. They provide friendship, but more than that, they mean that we’re not knitting in isolation. We can offer each other support and advice, talk about our projects, get ideas for the next project, share tips on the best yarn stores, both brick and online, learn how to be better knitters and so on and so on.

I like to think that by meeting up in this way we’re carrying on a tradition of fisher wives knitting together while their husbands were out on their boats. Fishing back then was an incredibly risky business, and these early knitting groups provided a support network for worried wives. They’re also how many traditional knitting styles, such as guernsey, came about, with family patterns passed down from mother to daughter.

Toronto ladies gather to knit for World War I soldiers in 1914.
Photo from commons.wikimedia.org.

Sunday best

This is going to be my new weekly Sunday posting - a round-up of pretty/cool/funny/interesting things I find on the interwebz. At certain times of the year it’ll be themed (did someone say ‘Easter’?), but this week it’s just a random selection.

Animal prints are everywhere at the moment and I love this squirrel. This Kindle Fire cover is by the very talented and lovely Annie Sparkles. Check her Folksy shop for more covers, as well as waterbottle covers and draft excluders.

Super Squirrel Kindle cover. Photo by Annie Sparkles.

I really want to make this - the combination of chickpea and chocolate absolutely fascinates me. I've had beetroot and chocolate before and it was lovely. This cake looks like it would be really rich, dark and chocolatey - just like a chocolate cake should. I've used the word chocolate quite a few times in this paragraph. I should probably use it again, just to be sure. Chocolate.

Chocolate chickpea cake. Photo from The Cake Hunter.

I absolutely adore steampunk, so this pocket mirror really appeals to me.

Clocks and Gears Pocket Mirror. Photo from Sunnie's Gift Shop.

These wristies are unbelieveably cute and would be a great, quick project to use up some leftover yarn.

Take a Picot crochet mitt. Photo from Crochet Spot.

If you ever need reminding what a wonderful world we live in - and you happen to be on Facebook - then you should 'like' this page, Amazing Things in the World. There were loads of photos I could have chosen from, but I went for this one.

Asperatus clouds over New Zealand. Photo from Amazing Things in the World.