Saturday 28 December 2013

Book review: Shades of Milk and Honey

This Austen/magic mash-up didn’t prove spellbinding for me




The problem with following authors on Twitter is that when you don’t like their books you feel bad. I do, anyway, especially when said author seems to be so nice.

I really didn’t get on with Mary Robinette Kowal’s Shades of Milk and Honey. Jane Austen-esque, it was essentially Sense and Sensibility with magic, or glamour as it’s called in the book. I didn’t warm to the main character, Jane, at all. Mostly I just thought she needed to get over herself and grow a backbone. Her younger sister Melody was just plain annoying.

While the passages on glamour were often beautiful, the story itself was completely predictable. In some ways it was both too similar to Jane Austen and yet not similar enough. It was so alike that I couldn’t help but compare it, unfavourably, to the original. Had it simply followed the story of Sense and Sensibility, more like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (the story of P&P with added zombie fun), I might have been able to let the story wash over me and just enjoyed the addition of magic.

Modern-day menace
I found some of the language jarring. Depression instead of melancholia, for example. The former was in use in the 19th century, but the latter was far more common, especially among laypeople. And using gift as a verb is just plain wrong (as in a synonym for given, rather than talented).

I understand that Kowal did a lot of research to ensure the historical accuracy of the series so it’s likely that she had good reason for using the language she did; unfortunately I don’t know what those reasons might be so I can only judge as I find.
Melody was just plain annoying
It was also really very obvious what was going to happen – who would turn out to be the rotter, who the good guy behind the taciturn exterior. And it was about as subtle as a punch to the face. I got it from the very first page that Jane was plain and Melody beautiful. It didn’t need to be repeated every couple of paragraphs.

It’s a shame, because I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn’t warm to it. I won’t be reading any of the others in the series.

Saturday 21 December 2013

Is there a right way to design?

Charts and sketches or straight to the knitting – which method is better? Or does it all come down to your preferred way of working?




I’d really love to know how other designers go about designing. Do you meticulously measure, chart, make sketches and so on so that when you come to the actual making you know exactly what you’re doing and how it’ll all turn out? Or do you jump straight in with the knitting? I do the latter, it’s the way my brain works – I’m not great with paperwork and making charts just doesn’t appeal. I want to knit. I want to see the real thing taking shape.

I make a sketch of what I’m designing and I always do a swatch, usually in stocking stitch, but sometimes in the relevant stitch pattern. I use this and either my own measurements or general ones to work out how many stitches I need for each piece, and then I start knitting. That’s the extent of my planning.
When I came to sewing on the sleeves it quickly became apparent they were the wrong size
But this leads to problems. I should have finished the making up on my Comme Ca top ages ago, but when I came to sewing on the sleeves it quickly became apparent they were the wrong size. Too long and too narrow, so they didn’t fit the armholes properly and would have been too tight on the tops of my arms.

Spot the difference? The sleeve on the left was the first one;
it's too long and too narrow. The one on the right, however,
fit perfectly. Photo by Idoru Knits.

Now, if I was the charting type I’m sure this wouldn’t have happened. I’d have known exactly how many stitches and rows I needed to make the sleeves the exact size. Instead I estimated the extra number of stitches needed to make the sleeves wide enough and started experimenting with rows and decreases to see how to make them the right length. It took a couple of goes, but I’ve got it now, and I like the way it looks. I’ve still got to sew on the second sleeve and then weave in the final few ends, and then it’s done, and I can finally wear my new top.

All change?
But does this mean I should change my way of doing things? I’m sure the top – and many other items I’ve designed – would have been finished a lot more quickly if I was more methodical in my approach. A proper drawing on graph paper would mean I could work out numbers of rows for each piece, heading off problems like the one encountered here.

I worry that this would take the enjoyment out of it all, though. I knit because I like it. I design because it’s creative. Making it more methodical is surely going to make it more like, well, work. And I don’t want that.

Those sleeves pinned in place ready for sewing.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

Monday 16 December 2013

Review: My Mad Fat Teenage Diary

This teenage diary wasn’t what I expected, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing



I bought this having watched the excellent TV show on Channel 4, but then I had a look at the comments on Goodreads and was a bit apprehensive. The main criticism was that the book was nothing like the series, and it’s true: the book is different.

Much of what made the series so good is missing: Rae’s social worker; her friends back at the hospital; her burgeoning relationship with Fin. She’s also younger in the series and it’s set in the early 90s rather than 1989. In the diary she’s on a scholarship to a private school, creating all kinds of wealth issues, which aren’t in the series. Several other elements are present and correct: the bitchy best friend; the weight issues; the sex-mad teenager-iness; the visit to a rave.

Rae’s mental illness was much more visible in the series. In the diary it’s hardly mentioned at all. In fact she explains that she doesn’t want to talk about it because she doesn’t really know how to deal with it.
I challenge anyone who’s ever been a teenage girl to not identify with Rae on some level
But once you accept these differences, the diary is actually a very good read. In the series Rae was always the ‘good guy’, but in the diary she can be selfish, thoughtless, mean, even cruel at times. Often she doesn’t realise. But it makes her more real. In fact for all her mental health problems, Rae is a normal teenage girl, with body issues, love life issues, arguments with her friends and her mum. She’s just trying to find her identity in this world, and I challenge anyone who’s ever been a teenage girl to not identify with her on some level.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Finishing things

It's time to bite the bullet and finish off some projects that have been hanging around for a while




Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to finish some things off. This has meant some blocking, some sewing and little bit of learning.

Blocks off
First up was the blocking. These squares are for a crochet blanket design. I’ve made 10 of the circles-in-squares motifs and thought it best to block a few and start getting the blanket put together. I soon ran into a problem: I’ve got more pink inners than I’ve got red. So I’ve blocked what I’ve got and started joining. But it’s back to the crocheting for that one really.

Blocking the motifs, with help from Poppy.
Photo by Idoru Knits.
Sewn up
The knitting was completed on my Comme Ca crossover top quite a while ago, but I’ve been putting off the sewing up. I wanted to start wearing it, though, so out came the pins and the darning needles.

The complication with this top is that there are three bits: a back and two fronts to create the crossover. It didn’t actually occur to me that having three pieces of fabric would require more sewing until I got to this stage.
It didn’t occur to me that having three pieces of fabric would require more sewing
I’ve never joined three pieces of knitting before, and according to the internet no-one else has either. This obviously isn’t true, but a Google search didn’t turn up any information on seaming three pieces of material, although there was plenty on sewing together two.

Trying to join all three layers in one go seemed a bit complicated, so I decided to join two in the usual way and then sew the top layer on afterwards. This appears to have worked, creating a neat seam that’s not appreciably different from normal.

The seam looks to be shaping up well
and is as neat as my usual sewing.
Not sure if that's a good thing!
Photo by Idoru Knits.