Art: Empty Lot by Abraham Cruzvillagas

The latest installation to grace Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall provides interesting comment on the urban and natural environments

---

I really love the Turbine Hall installations at Tate Modern. I love how they’ve used that space, turned it into part of the art itself. It would have been so easy to simply convert it into more gallery rooms, but instead they’ve made that cavernous area into both a challenge and an opportunity for artists – how are you going to fill this, how are you going create art here?

The latest artwork is an interesting one. It’s called Empty Lot and is by Abraham Cruzvillegas. It features two sets of massive triangular seed trays. These are suspended above the floor of the Turbine Hall on scaffolding. All the materials are found or recycled.

Nothing has started growing in this series of trays yet. 

Each of the trays has been filled with soil from parks and gardens across London. The soil is being watered and lamps provide light and heat. And that’s it. The artist – and his audience – is simply waiting to see what will appear. It’s very likely that the soil will contain all kinds of seeds; mostly grass seeds, but there could be all kinds of wildflowers and maybe even some insect lavae. The question is whether any of these will develop.

When I visited one set of trays was just soil still, but the other side had a variety of what appeared to be grasses growing. My plan is to go back several times throughout the exhibition – it runs till 3 April 2016 – and see what’s changed. Will the plants that started growing survive? Will more grow? What sort? Will swarms of insects emerge from the dirt?

There are plenty of examples of species thriving in an urban environment, Red Foxes being one of the most ubiquitous, but Collared Dove and Carrion Crow are also survivors

To me this piece represents the interaction between the urban and natural environments: in these times of increasing urbanisation how will nature react and survive? There are plenty of examples of species thriving in an urban environment, Red Foxes being one of the most ubiquitous, but Collared Dove and Carrion Crow are also survivors. Sadly there are many more that are suffering. My knowledge doesn’t run to plant species, but it seems likely that these will be mirroring animals: the most adaptable species will increase while the more specialised will decline and eventually become extinct.

I also think the work says something about the tenacity of nature. The grasses are growing – and hopefully more will do so – despite being transplanted and a lack of natural sunlight. We tend to think that our imprint on this world will be permanent, but it won’t. Humans have had a devastating effect on the natural environment, but this won’t last. The world will long outlive us.

Above and below: grasses are beginning to develop

Falling leaves

One of my newest projects is this fun mystery crochet-a-long

---

I’ve still got a knitted dress and a crochet blanket to finish, so starting two new projects might not have been the best idea. But they both sounded like a lot of fun. Here I’ll talk about the first: a mystery crochet-a-long.

I only recently completed my first-ever ‘a-long’, a knitted shawl. I liked the finished piece and enjoyed the mystery element, so when the designer, Rohn Strong, mentioned a mystery crochet-a-long (MCAL) on his Instagram account I decided to sign up for it. All I knew about it at that stage was that it would be an afghan.

These were meant to be leaves; they look more like elf slippers, or maybe ears

The pattern calls for yarn in five different colours. It’s called Fall Garden, so I chose a selection of autumnal shade. The suggested yarn is Deborah Norville Everyday Soft, but I couldn’t find that in the UK. Instead I’ve used Stylecraft Special Aran, which seems to be very similar.

I’ve completed the first four clues and the fifth and final one arrived in my inbox late yesterday (27 October 2015). I had some issues with the first clue. I was supposed to be crocheting leaves but what I ended up with looked more like elf slippers. I did five of them before I thought to check on Ravelry. And yes, I had got it wrong. Thank the knitting gods for Ravelry and for people uploading their photos! A lesson on why it’s so important to read the instructions properly.

Leaves, as they're meant to look!

I undid the five elven slippers and made some leaves instead and from then on I’ve been going great guns. Clue 2 was a flower. Clue 3 was five more of the flowers in a different colour and clue 4 was the same. I like these easy clues! The final clue is how to assemble the afghan.

I’ve enjoyed this MCAL. I’ve learnt some new techniques and I think both the flower and leaf motifs look lovely. It’ll be interesting to see how it all hangs together.

My first flower. There are another 10, in two different colours.

Toxic masculinity and how it damages us all

Masculinity and privilege are thorny topics, as writer Matt Haig found out recently. Here’s my response to his blog post

---

This was going to be an email to Matt Haig in response to his blog post about mental health and masculinity, but it got too unwieldy for an email so I thought I’d post it as a blog. Really it’s too long and unwieldy for a blog post, too, so read as much or as little as you like.

I pretty much agree with everything Matt has written. I’m rather disappointed that he’s been discouraged from writing a book on this subject by Twitterers who essentially think he’s wrong to care that men are killing themselves in increasing numbers.

Concepts of masculinity that repress emotion and encourage violence are equally bad for men and women. We need address this if we are to improve life for all genders.

Boys don’t cry
We start them young, telling schoolchildren that ‘boys don’t cry’. I believe this amounts to psychological abuse. Crying is an important – if not necessary – emotional outlet, and to deny that to a child must be hugely damaging. How else is that child going to express emotion? Well usually through the only route left to him: violence and anger.

We encourage boys to fight, telling them to stand up for themselves, to not be weak or cissies or, worst of all, girlie. Because this is what happens when you admit of two, polar genders. What one is – masculine = strong, admirable, desirable and so on – the other becomes the opposite, making the feminine weak and undesirable. Being a girl is bad; for a boy, being associated with girls and girliness is hugely insulting.

There are massive problem with this, for both boys and girls. Being strong brings benefits: adventurousness, confidence, self-belief, among others. Girls who show these characteristics are called tomboys, because girls aren’t meant to be like that, are they? They should be demure, quiet and retiring. Adventurous, outgoing girls are a bit abnormal, a bit boyish.

Our girls are growing up with no self-confidence (read The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman for more on this). In world already stacked against them (think unequal pay, women underrepresented in all walks of life, lack of power and so on and so on), we aren’t adequately preparing our girls to succeed.

And what about the boys? There are the ones that don’t fit the mould. The ones that don’t want to raise their fists to defend themselves, who cry when they’re hurt, whether physically or emotionally. These children are bullied, made fun of, laughed at, and not just by other kids but by adults too, who should know better. And then there are the ones who do resort to fighting.

In either case these children are not being given the tools they need to deal with the complex emotions that human life brings. Instead they’re being taught that emotions are not for them, not if they want to be real men. Feelings should be hidden away, repressed, their only emotional outlets are anger and violence.

Photo: Regret by Neil Moralee 

Boys who can only express feelings through anger and violence will grow up to be men who can only express feelings through anger and violence. This won’t always come out as actual violence. In fact mostly it won’t. One of the more confusing things we do to our boys is punish them – with violence, either physical or verbal – when they do ‘stand up for themselves’. So they learn to express their anger in other ways.

In the adult world this could be aggressiveness in the sports field or in business; it could be a need to control a man’s own life and those of people around him; it could be that he completely shuts down when faced with emotions he can’t deal with.

Silent isn’t strong
How can you talk about something that you’ve hidden so deep inside yourself that even you can’t recognise it anymore? You can’t. How do you admit you have an emotional problem when your entire life you’ve been told that men, real men, don’t have emotions? You don’t.

A friend of mine once described depression as anger directed inwards. There are many ways in which I don’t agree with this. I think of anger as being quite a galvanising emotion – it prompts you to get up and do something, even if that something is negative, whereas depression is all about the apathy.

But in other ways it seems totally right. Anger is an incredibly destructive emotion that causes all kinds of damage, and depression is so very damaging. It separates you from yourself and then turns that self into an object of hate. The final, though certainly not inevitable, outcome of that hate is suicide.

The most recent figures for suicides relate (from the Samaritans) to 2013. In that year, 78% of all suicides were men and the rate of suicide among men was at its highest since 2001. Suicide is the leading cause of death for men aged between 20 and 34 in England and Wales. The proportion of male to female deaths by suicide has increased steadily since 1981.

These figures don’t show the whole picture, of course. Men tend to choose more violent methods of suicide which are more likely to succeed. When you take into account attempted suicides, men and women are more evenly matched. But still, more than three quarters of suicides were men. That’s shocking. And one of the reasons given is that men are reluctant to seek help. Think about what this means: in modern society people are being driven to take their own lives rather than admit they have a problem. There is something deeply wrong with this.

If your reaction to this is a sarcastic “Boohoo!” or “Didums!”, as some people’s was on Twitter, then that’s part of the problem. Ridiculing men who don’t fit into a fixed and dangerous concept of masculinity contributes towards male anger and violence, it strengthens those forms of masculinity that we should be breaking down. If someone is in pain, we should react with sympathy, regardless of gender.

Anger turned outwards
Arguably much more frightening is that anger that isn’t turned inwards. The anger that leads to violence towards women. Last year 150 women were murdered by men. This is significantly higher than the average of 104 women killed in this way per year. Male violence towards women increases in times of economic hardship (this government is creating a situation in which women die).

As a woman, this is both shocking and terrifying. What’s worse is that it doesn’t even begin to cover the amount of violence and abuse that women experience on a daily basis. One thing that I’ve experienced is a man standing in front of my gate so I couldn’t get into my flat until I gave him my telephone number. He then phoned the number to ensure it really was mine. Only then did he leave me alone. I have plenty of similar stories.

Boys who can only express feelings through anger and violence will grow up to be men who can only express feelings through anger and violence

There are women who have been threatened, spat at, even punched just for turning a man down. It’s incredibly common for a woman to be called a bitch or a slut because she didn’t react with rapturous joy after a man has yelled at her in the street. I count myself lucky because these things haven’t happened to me. Lucky because I’ve not experienced violence and abuse. That isn’t right.

There’s a growing movement on social media that says that we need to teach men not to rape instead of telling women not to get raped. This should be the ultimate no-brainer. I shouldn’t have to avoid going out at night, avoid certain areas of town, avoid wearing certain clothes, to ensure my own safety. I should be able to take it for granted that I’m not going to be attacked.

The vast majority of rapes and sexual assaults are not about sub-human monsters hiding in bushes and jumping out on unsuspecting women. No, most rapes are committed by ‘normal’ men – men we’re friends with, who we work with, who we sit next to on the bus, who pour our drinks in bars. Ordinary men who think they’re entitled to access to our bodies, who think that sex is a right rather than a privilege.

And why do they think that? Because that’s what society has taught them. And when they’re thwarted in their desires, they can’t go home and shed a few tears because they feel humiliated at being turned down (because let’s be honest, being turned down isn’t nice, it’s upsetting), they can’t turn to a friend and say “She said no and actually that hurt my feelings”. No, they have to ‘stand up for themselves’ and take what’s rightfully theirs.

Feminism is surely about equality. About lifting us all up so that we all have the opportunity to succeed. Mostly this will be about giving women more power, more opportunities, because, obviously, historically we have been denied this. It’s also about creating safe spaces for women by removing male aggression. The quickest way to do this is to remove men – give us women-only spaces, which is happening and is a good thing.

But even better is to have spaces where men and women can be together and be safe. Equality can’t be about dividing genders. It has to ultimately bring us all together. We don’t just want safe spaces, we want all of society to be safe. Doing this must involve giving men the emotional outlets they need so that they don’t have to resort to anger and violence.

All sewn up: the Rainbow Picnic Blanket

My latest finished object is a crochet blanket that I’m really rather proud of

---

It’s taken four months, but my Rainbow Picnic Blanket is finally done, and I love it.

When you’re not following a pattern, just making it all up as you go along, you don’t really know how the thing is going to turn out. I didn’t know if the squares I’d chosen would work with this particular yarn. I didn’t know if the colours would go together. I didn’t even know how big the blanket would turn out. Did the squares need a border or just the blanket as a whole?

The finished blanket. The colours work well and I like the scalloped border.

But half the fun of creating your own pieces is the experimentation. I liked the way the squares turned out, they both really showed off the varigated nature of the yarn. But I wasn’t sure what to do about the border. In the end I decided to join the square in strips. I was going to crochet a border around each strip, but some good advice via Facebook meant I didn’t. Instead I sewed the strips together and put a border around the whole thing.

I really don’t think I’d change anything about this design

My concern with simply joining the squares was that the colours might get lost next to each other, but I really didn’t need to worry. The colours work really well and definitely stand out. I always knew I wanted a white border around the whole of the blanket, finished off with scalloped edging using a fan stitch. So that’s what I did.

I really like the finished object. The colours are lovely, the yarn is soft but hardwearing (ideal for a picnic blanket), it’s just the right size and the border finishes it off perfectly. I really don’t think I’d change anything about this design.

The blanket has got the all-important Betty seal of approval.

Update: Roseroot shawl knit-a-long

Standfirst and line style:

A couple of problems I’ve encountered while doing my first-ever MKAL

---

The Roseroot shawl was my first-ever mystery knit-a-long, or MKAL; you can read about how things started out here. At that point I was on clue 3 and things were going well. Clue 4 had just been released and I was about to start.

While I still love this yarn, I really don't think it's the right weight for the shawl.

It was at this point that things started going wrong. Not because of the pattern or the organisation of the MKAL, I hasten to add. No, it was because of me. I got to row 2 of clue 4. This is the first lace row of the clue as all the odd-numbered rows are wrong side. The pattern is to repeat the lace chart until the last 9 stitches. However, I knitted across but had 10 stitches left.

I was sorely tempted to simply add in a k2tog – keep in mind here that there are 327 stitches to work through at this point – but I wasn’t sure if this would throw the lace pattern out. So I undid the whole row and counted all the stitches to make sure there really were 327. There were. I repeated the row. Same problem. I did it again. Same problem.

The problem with being a perfectionist is that when you’ve decided you don’t like something, well, that’s it

Now lace rows are complicated and it’s very easy to miss out a k2tog or an ssk. But it is unusual for me to make the same mistake several times over, so I really couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong. I even put in stitch markers and knitted very, very slowly.

After trying one more time I logged on to Ravelry to ask the designer if there was any advice he could give me. He mentioned slipping in a cheeky k2tog, too, but advised against doing that, so I’m pleased I didn’t go for that option. He gave such a generous and full response I was actually quite moved. I followed his advice and tried again. This time it worked.

But another, much bigger, issue had now surfaced. I no longer liked the yarn. Well, I still liked the yarn, just not for this project. It was more to the laceweight end of things than 4-ply and the shawl just seemed too small. It would grow with blocking and in many ways the size isn’t hugely important, but the problem with being something of a perfectionist is that when you’ve decided you don’t like something, well, that’s it. So I undid the whole thing.

This merino definitely works better to my mind.

This was just prior to heading off for 10 days in Sardinia, where I would have very little to do other than eat good food, drink good wine, read and knit, so at least I was going to have lots of time to make up what I’d lost. And I have, in fact I’m even further on – I’m now up to clue five and will hopefully be posting pics of the finished thing soon.

Close-up shot of clues 4 and 5.

Trip report: Birding and walking in the Highlands

A Highland break 'da solo' turned out to be huge amounts of fun

---

I’d never been on holiday on my own before. Mostly because I couldn’t afford to, but also because holidays have always seemed like social things, to be enjoyed with another person, or lots of people. However, there was no way I was going to get The Chap on a birding and walking break and my mum, who would usually come with me, was in Wales with her sister.

My birding targets aren’t very ambitious when I do these breaks. This time around I wanted to see Capercaillie and Dipper. The latter can be seen up in the Highlands anywhere there’s suitable water, while the former involved an early morning visit to Loch Garten RSPB.

I decided to stay in Grantown-on-Spey as it seemed very well placed for exploring the wider countryside, as well as having plenty of walks, cafes, pubs and a couple of good hotels. This proved a good choice and I’ll definitely be coming back. My first choice of hotel, the Grant Arms, was fully booked, so a bit of research turned up the Craiglynne Hotel. Another good choice: the hotel was really well located, the staff so friendly and helpful and the food great.

The River Spey. 

Once I’d checked in and unpacked my case, I headed out for a walk to the River Spey and then into the town and back to the hotel. It was a nice start to my break and after an evening in the hotel bar and then restaurant, it was time for bed for an early start the next day.

Aside: good eating
I’ve been to Scotland three times now and each time the food has been superlative. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many good restaurants in such a small area as in Edinburgh, while both my trips to the Highlands have offered up some bloody good food. The only disappointing meal I had this time around was that first night in the hotel. It wasn’t bad, just a bit tired seeming, like it had been out too long under those powerful lights they have in restaurants.

Particularly good were the pearl barley risotto and chocolate pudding in the hotel and the pies at the famous ‘pie pub’, the Craig Bar. The bar is worth a visit even if you’re not eating. Massive selection of whiskies and really friendly staff.

Sunday was Capercaille Day. I left early to get to Loch Garten RSPB. When I arrived there were already a number of people in the hide, but no Capers had been spotted. One had been around the previous day so we all had our fingers metaphorically crossed. The female Osprey was on the nest so most of us passed the time by watching her.

Several hours went by and no Capers were seen. Then Caper-watch ended. This was the last one of the season and it was somewhat disappointing not to get my target. I headed back to the hotel for breakfast and a short nap. Then it was time for another, this time much longer, walk. And guess what? Fewer than five minutes into it, I stumbled across my other target: Dipper. An adult and a juvenile were bobbing up and down on stones in a fast-running streamlet. I watched for while, observing the youngster begging for food, which was steadfastly ignored. This was an excellent start to the walk, making up for my failure to see Capers.

The Dipper site. You can't actually see the Dippers in
this photo, but they are there.

The rest of the day was taken up with reading, colouring and checking emails and social media; along with drinking coffee and then later on a cheeky glass of wine, of course. Well I did say my birding trips were rather relaxed affairs.

The next day was designated a walking day. I found a really lovely 5km circular route with views over the town, appropriately enough called the Viewpoints Walk.

Aside 2: ain’t technology grand?
I got to Grantown using Google Maps on my phone. I got to Loch Garten and back the same way. I found the Viewpoints Walk by simply googling ‘walks around Grantown-on-Spey’. I found an excellent website called walkhighlands that had a whole range of walks in – you guessed it – the Highlands. I downloaded the Google Earth app to my phone, downloaded the walk and used this to direct me. A little blue dot showed where I was on the walk so I couldn’t possibly get lost. This is quite important when you’re walking in the Highlands on your own.

This was a very enjoyable, not-too-challenging walk for this lowland-dwelling walker. And the views were indeed spectacular.

The afternoon brought lunch (a cheese scone and bowl of ice cream – all that walking meant totally guilt-free eating!). Then back to the hotel for rest and relaxation.

The next day was my last full day in Grantown, a prospect that was rather sad. I was enjoying myself so much I really didn’t want to leave. I was planning on birding, but the day brought rain and I decided I didn’t fancy the drive to Loch Morlich. So instead I found another walk close to the town. This time an 8km trek through forest. Again it was beautiful. Photos were taken, warblers and tits were spotted and I fully enjoyed myself despite the rain.

I’m not so bothered about not seeing Capercaille; it just means I’ll have to go back next year

Far too quickly it was time to go home. On my final morning, I breakfasted, packed, checked out and left for the airport. I had an excellent solo holiday and would definitely do it again. And you know what? I’m not so bothered about not seeing Capercaille. It just means I’ll have to go back next year …

The first view from the Viewpoints Walk.

Review: King Rat by China Mieville

VERDICT: A beautifully written modern-day urban fairytale

I put off reading this for years because the blurb mentions drum n bass and jungle – two types of music I’m really not interested in. However, Mieville is one of my favourite authors and I plan to read everything he’s published, and that includes this book. And boy was I pleased I did.

I’d describe this as a modern-day urban fairytale. It follows Saul, a young Londoner whose life is turned upside down when he comes home to find his father murdered. All the evidence seems to point to him as the murderer, so when a mysterious stranger, the titular King Rat, comes to bust him out of jail Saul has little choice but to go with him.

What follows is a music-fuelled adventure through a fantastical London underground, complete with characters from myth, such as Anansi the spider. As Saul spends more time with King Rat he learns more about his own true character, and becomes embroiled in a centuries-long and deadly battle between King Rat and the Ratcatcher.

The book is beautifully written. It reads as if written by someone totally in love with language, and I was surprised to find out it was Mieville’s first book – it seems like a much more accomplished novel. Although he was writing essays and articles long before he published his novels.

I wonder if maybe at some point Gaiman and Mieville sat down and riffed on alternative Londons

There are definite shades of Mieville’s own Un Lun Dun and The Kraken, as well as Gaiman’s Neverwhere. This book, however, predates the first two by more than a decade and was published just two years after the Neverwhere TV show aired, so couldn’t have been influenced by any of these titles. I wonder if maybe at some point Gaiman and Mieville sat down and riffed on alternative Londons.

This is one of Mieville’s most accessible books and would work as a great introduction to his work. I read it in just five days. It’s full of action but also quintessentially Mieville’s New Weird.

My first knit-a-long: the great shawl mystery

The Roseroot shawl by Rohn Strong is a shawl pattern that arrives as separate clues; I’m really enjoying this sweet little mystery

---

A knit-a-long is when several knitters all follow the same pattern, usually over a set period of time, and then compare the results. It can very local – a knitting group, maybe – or truly international, via Ravelry, for example. All participants can use the same yarn or choose their own, so the finished pieces might look completely different.

Until now I’ve never taken part in a knit-a-long. I’m not really sure why. But when I saw that a designer of lovely shawls that I follow on Twitter (@strongandstone) was running a knit-a-long I decided I would give it a go.

In the beginning: I've just started the first clue here.

This particular KAL has an extra layer in that it’s a mystery. An MKAL. This means that we don’t get to see what the finished object looks like in advance. We know it’s a lace shawl or shawlette, depending on how much of the pattern you decide to follow, but that’s it. It also means we don’t get the full pattern, instead it comes in separate stages, or clues, every Friday.

There’s something quite exciting and rewarding about watching a piece grow when you have no idea what it’s supposed to look like

I’m a bit behind as I’m still on clue three and clue five has already been released. That’s OK, though – I knit pretty quickly so I can catch up if I really want to. The stitch pattern for clue three is somewhat complicated and it’s really fun watching it knit up.

Clue four is where we decide whether to go for the shawl or shawlette. Those choosing the latter simply miss out this clue, taking a week off the knitting, and go straight to clue five. I’ve already decided I want to do the full shawl.

I’m really enjoying the MKAL. The pattern so far is lovely. I didn’t go for the suggested yarn; in fact I don’t think it’s available in this country (Rohn Strong is US based). But I did get one that’s very similar and is very gorgeous. It’s knitting up really well.

The shawl grows: clue 2 is well underway.

There’s something quite exciting and rewarding about watching a piece grow when you have no idea what it’s supposed to look like. Obviously it helps that the pattern is absolutely beautiful. I get the final clue today and hopefully will have the shawl finished by the end of the month. I will of course do a show and tell.

I’m sure this won’t be the last MKAL I take part in.

About halfway through clue 3. You can really see the different stitch patterns now.

The whole piece so far.

Review: Nymphomation by Jeff Noon

VERDICT: This alt-Manchester-set thriller and urban fantasy is exceptionally well written

This is an exceptionally hard book to review. Not because it's bad – it isn't, it's excellent – but because it's almost impossible to define what it's about.

Gambling? Definitely. It nicely sums up our seeming obsession with the National Lottery and Euromillions, the faith of the poor and the desperate that a game of chance will turn their lives around.

But it's about much more than that. Love, friendship, mystery, murder, maths and the idea that information creates more information – it reproduces, hence nymphomation.

It’s 1999 and Manchester is in the grip of a new gambling game based on dominoes – match your domino with the randomly chosen one to win. One side means a smaller win, getting both means winning big. Every Friday night the populace of Manchester hold onto their ‘bones’ and hope to match the winning numbers. A double six garners the best prize, while a double blank (the ‘joker bone’) is the booby prize – no one knows what it is, but everyone knows it’s bad.

A double six garners the best prize, while a double blank (the ‘joker bone’) is the booby prize

But of course there’s much more to it than that, and a small group of Mancunians are brought together to look at what really might be going on. What does the joker bone really represent? Who is the mysterious Mr Millions? What does all this have to do with groundbreaking yet dangerous maths research from the 70s? And what it the true nature of luck?

It’s hard to go into further detail without giving the game – pun intended – away. Suffice to say this is an exceptionally well written thriller crossed with urban fantasy. It’s part of Noon’s Vurt series, but doesn’t require the others to have been read.

On the needles: Rainbow blanket

My latest project is a crocheted blanket in a rainbow of colours

---

I wasn’t meant to be starting another project (I still have a dress to knit and a blanket to crochet), but someone on a Facebook group I'm a member of advertised for sale a pack of acrylic in rainbow colours and my brain just went ‘That would make a great blanket!’ So I bought it.

I knew I wanted crochet rather than knitting, and I knew I wanted granny squares: something plain to show off the varigated nature of the yarn combined with something more lacy for interest. I found two suitable – and free! – patterns on Ravelry and started crocheting.

I knew I wanted granny squares – something plain to show off the varigated nature of the yarn combined with something more lacy for interest

I didn’t know how many squares I’d be able to make with a single ball of yarn, so it was really just a case of getting on with it and hoping I’d have enough squares to make a decent-sized blanket. I wanted one colour per row, and I figured I’d need two of the lacy squares and a minimum of four solid so that I could swap the positions of the former around in each row.

It turns out that I can get two lacy squares and five solid ones from each ball. Each square is 18x18cm and there are eight balls of yarn. That gives a blanket of 126x144cm, which is a pretty good size. I’ve done six of the eight balls so far, giving me 42 squares, of which 18 have been pinned out and blocked. I hate blocking, but the squares do look so much better afterwards, so I can’t help but think it’s worth the extra bit of effort.

Nine squares blocking.

What remains is the decision on how to border and join the squares. I see three options. One, no border – just join. The second option is to join the colours in a strip and then put a white border around each of these before joining them. Third would be a border around each square and then joining the squares. With each option I would finish by crocheting a white border around the whole blanket.

The first option would best preserve the rainbow effect and involve the least work, but the colours might not stand out enough and the effect of the lacy squares could be lost. I think the third one would look good, but the rainbow would be lost – it’s also the most amount of work.

Trying to picture the three options in my head, I think maybe the second could be a good compromise between one and three. A thin white border between each strip should make the different colours stand out and show of the lace squares, while preserving those rainbow shades that really were the whole point of the blanket in the first place. I would then add a slightly thicker, possibly even scalloped, white border around the whole thing. Decision made!

I might not enjoy the blocking, but the squares do look better, especially the lacy ones.

All sewn up: The Jane Deep V sweater

My latest finished project is a sweater that I designed to replace a worn-out but favourite item of clothing

---

I recently put the final stitches in my Jane Deep V sweater. This is a sweater design based on Jane Norman piece I bought secondhand. The original was starting to fall apart and really needed replacing, so I took some measurements, bought some gorgeous alpaca yarn and started knitting.

I’ve changed a couple of things. The Jane Norman sweater has this thing at the front that I can only describe as an insert. I don’t really know what it’s there for – I guess it’s so that you can wear the sweater without something underneath, but why design a top with a deep V neck and then chicken out and put in that insert? It’s surely much better to keep the V and then use a different range of tops underneath to vary the look?

The Jane Deep V Sweater. It's very pink, and I'm not sure about the shoulder shaping, but overall, I'm
pleased with how it's turned out.

I also wanted more contrast between the collar, cuffs and hem and the main body of the piece, so I went for a pale pink for the latter and much brighter shade for the former.

It’s taken ages to finish this piece. It really has. Knitting the sweater was simple enough; it’s just a 2x2 rib for the edges and stocking stitch for the main body. But working out the maths to get that V right was complicated. Then I made a few mistakes as I went along and had to undo it several times. I forgot how to shape the sleeves at the shoulder, too, and had to redo those three times. I’m still not entirely happy with how they’ve come out. They look a bit puffy to me, but they’re close enough.

Can anything really be too pink?

I’m not sure about the colour either. I never thought I’d say this, but maybe it’s too pink? Can anything really be too pink? I’m not sure. The size and shaping are pretty spot on, though. It fits really well and I love the way I can change the look just by changing what I layer underneath. A plain black polo neck with jeans and I’ve got a work outfit; a lower-cut lace-fringed strappy top and I’m set for going out.

I’d quite like to make this again in different colours. I think white with black trimming would work well and allow for some really bright colours to be worn underneath.

Overall I’m happy with the result. I think it looks better than the Jane Norman sweater it’s based on. What do you think?

My take (left) on the Jane Norman sweater (right). I think I prefer my version, although I might be biased.

Review: Survivor by K R Griffiths

This novel take on the serial killer plot didn’t quite hit the spot

---

THIS is an interesting take on the serial killer story – told from the point of view of the killer. This gives us the opportunity to see how a person comes to be a serial killer.

We first meet Clive Barrett at work. Barrett is the perfect employee for his City bosses: quiet, successful, unassuming, he keeps to himself and doesn’t cause trouble. If anything the only problem is that he doesn’t join in enough, and in fact in these opening passages he is making his excuses and leaving his colleagues to their Friday night drinks. Barrett has other plans for his evening.

Barrett wants to be the most notorious serial killer the UK has ever seen. But there’s set to be a spanner in the works; one of his previous kills didn’t stay dead, and she wants revenge. Thus begins a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Barrett is a fledgling killer; he makes mistakes – the biggest of these leaving his new adversary alive. He tries to learn from these slip-ups. He has big plans. This is a completely different approach to the serial killer plot as I know it. The Dexter series of books is the only other story I know of that takes the serial killer as the main character. I haven’t read these but as far as I’m aware Dexter is already established as a very competent and deadly killer.

There is an awful lot of violence against women in the book. But it’s well handled. It can be easy for such stories to descend into misogynistic torture porn but Griffiths manages to avoid this.

So why only two stars? I don’t think we get enough into Barrett’s head – we don’t really understand why he’s a serial killer (unlike with, say, Dexter). Also the man is clearly a psychopath and it’s hard to have any kind of emotional connection to a character who himself is lacking emotions, even if it's just to dislike him. This is also my issue with Dexter and why I haven’t read it.

My main problem, though, is the ending. I found it deeply unsatisfying and unconvincing. I feel that Griffiths has sacrificed a realistic ending for the sake of a twist. And unfortunately I didn’t think the twist was that good. I won’t say what it is – you’ll just have to decide if you want to read the book!

For sake of clarity, I’m not comparing this book to the Dexter series, just using the latter as a reference.

I received this book as part of the GoodReads FirstReads scheme.

Update: the Jane Deep V sweater

Holiday knitting meant some serious time devoted to finishing off this long-standing project – as well as plenty of eating, drinking and reading

---

Well, the Christmas break is well and truly over. Nine days of not having to get up and go to work, of time to just knit or read, of presents, food and family – bliss. I used a lot of it to really get on with some knitting. I’ve been working hard on the Jane Deep V sweater, and I’m almost at the sewing up stage (my least favourite part, but never mind).

Front, back and one sleeve are all knitted up and I’ve already blocked the front and back. Sleeve one is currently on the blocking board. Sleeve two is almost finished, too. I cast on for it just before Christmas and had hoped to finish it before heading back to work. I didn’t quite manage that, but I was close.

The Jane Deep V sweater on the blocking board.

As you can see from the photo above, this sweater has a really deep V neck (hence the name). I’m going to finish the V off with about 5cm of rib in the bright pink. Usually when I do the neckline on a sweater I sew one shoulder together and then pick up stitches around the whole thing, knitting the collar in one go. But I’m not sure if that will work on this sweater.

The depth of the neckline means I’m going to have to pick up a huge number of stitches along the two downstrokes of the V, and I simply don’t know if even my 100cm circular needle is going to be able to cope with that many stitches. If I don’t do it in this way, though, how am I going to make the bottom of the collar work properly?

Design is all about experimentation!

Normally with a V neck, you knit the collar in a single piece, using decreases at the bottom of the V to pull it in and preserve the V shape. If I have to knit the two sides separately I’m not sure how I’ll be able to replicate this.

The only thing I can think of is to pick up stitches down one side and along the bottom of the V, knit the 5cm collar and cast off, then pick up the stitches along the other side, knit the 5cm and cast off again. This will give me two separate pieces of collar, with the first side having an ‘extra’ bit from the stitches along the bottom of the V. This would then be sewn into the edge of the light pink section, covering the edge of the second layer of collar. But I don’t know if this will look as good a ‘normal’ single-piece collar. This really isn’t easy to visualise, so I’ve sketched it out. Badly. The first sketch below illustrates my usual way of knitting the collar; the second my alternative.

The top image demonstrates a 'normal' V neck,
while the above image shows my alternative.

I can see this neckline turning out to be something of a challenge. Even if I do manage to fit all the stitches on the needle, it’s going to involve an awful lot of picking up of stitches and then of knitting all those stitches to complete the collar. And then I may well end up picking up several hundred stitches only to find that I can’t fit them all on the needle and have to undo all I’ve done and start again. Oh well – design is all about experimentation after all!