Saturday 21 July 2018

Knitting... Japanese style


A little while ago the lovely Rachel from New South Books got in touch with me to ask if I'd be interested in reviewing a couple of books for her - OMG can you hear me trying to be all cool and calm and oh yes I suppose so and if I must?  Yes, it was nothing like that.  I love craft books.  You can never have too many, in case you have the odd day where you've got nothing to do, all the yarn and fabric in the world, and the right zips, needles, thread to make your masterpiece.  

incidentally, did you know that the original intent of the word 'Masterpiece' was to describe the piece of 'whatever' made by an apprentice to signify that he'd (because they were usually male) finished his training and was ready to go out into the world & actually be let loose on your Cuban Mahogany, your Brazilian Rosewood, your Australian Jarrah to make the most magnificent pieces of furniture?

18thc Apprentice Walnut Chess Table


Anyway, I'm sure that learning knitters do the same thing, if some of those magnificent Japanese shawls are anything to go by:

218s-08 Graceful Linen Shawl - free Japanese charted crochet pattern by Pierrot (Gosyo Co., Ltd)



So, when the this book arrived, I was interested to find that all the patterns were charted.  




It's a lovely solid book, with clear pictures, beautifully laid out with a Symbol Glossary at the beginning, and a 'How to knit these stitches' for some of the more complex stitches at the back.







.  


I have previously found charts difficult to follow because I'm usually sitting on the sofa, in front of the TV, trying to multi-task, and the symbols jump around a bit.  I made this a few years ago from a chart, and vowed never to do it again because I had to frog it a lot of times to get it right, and the act of unpicking, counting & translating the symbols into words then the pattern itself nearly undid me!

This book has, as advertised, 260 knitting patterns, some of which I've seen similar cleaned-up versions of, in various other books, and some I've never seen before:





The book is divided into sections of 'Lacy', 'Lacy With Leaves', 'Lacy With Smocking', 'Bead Embroidery', 'Overall Patterns', 'Crossing Stitch Patterns', 'Panel patterns', where the hard work has been done for you & a beautiful end result is almost guaranteed, then 'Pattern Arrangements', where elements are swapped around to increase the variations.  

There are patterns for yokes (beautiful for kid's cardigans!), and then a huge selection of edging patterns.  There are also some full garment patterns.  

At the back of the book is a really useful section which shows you how to knit some of the more complex stitches, such as Butterfly stitch (5 stitches slipped and lifted over 9 rows, ooh tricky). 

And here's my worked piece - it's hard to see because of the three colours, but I'm going to finish the scarf with this pattern, so I'll post a bit more as it gets closer to the end.


So! If you're looking for a book which will challenge you a bit, but provide you with a great result, this could be the place to start.  Go forth, knit!


Sunday 15 July 2018

Where have I been?

So, Gentle Readers, more than a year has passed since I posted my hack of Mr Golightly's jacket; much has happened.  We had a wonderful holiday in Europe, with quality time in Brighton, London, Siena, Florence and Rome.  I had the immense pleasure of meeting some instagram friends in the flesh, including the fabulous Betti, who is @bettisstitches on Instagram, and who writes here... the very lovely Cathy Ewbank, who is @cathyewbank on Instagram, and the wonderful @mrs_moog, who makes the most fabulous project bags and who blogs here- meeting these three fabulous like-minded women was one of the highlights of our holiday (the history of lingerie exhibition was a highlight of another kind...)



We had a few days in country England - visiting some friends in Gloucestershire, some nostalgic highlights for me, including a visit to the divine Gloucester Cathedral, which some of the younger people out there might recognise from Harry Potter...



before spending a few days in beautiful Brighton with our good friend Gill...  I love Brighton.  If I'm ever untimely widowed, I'm moving there... just watch me...



And then we went to the Continent, which is the old way of saying "Europe" - flew into Amsterdam where it was 5C with snow on the ground, Florence and then Siena by train, which was a lovely way to go, Italian trains being fabulous... Siena is magical.  This was our second visit, the first was in 2006 when Mr Golightly was having his epilepsy medication fiddled with, and he remembered practically nothing of the trip... this time was really fabulous, we just walked and walked and walked and walked...

oh and I took a few photos...




And then from there we went to Rome, where we were very lazy, apart from a trip to the Vatican Museum specifically to see the Brabante Staircase, which also let us see some wonderful Etruscan artifacts... and a mazillion tourists.  Even in February, it was ridiculously crowded, and I couldn't face the tour of St Peters which was the final part of our tour - we got outside and bolted... well, at least as fast as one person recovering from a total knee replacement could bolt... did I mention that?  Wanna see pics?  



Just kidding.  I wouldn't inflict that on you.  But here's the staircase:



And here's the hardware store that is our near neighbour, funnily enough a nearly identical photo appear on Instagram, from the account of '@anamericaninrome' who lives in Rome & takes fabulous photos... (hers is waaaaaaaaaaaaay better!)



And then we found Viterbo - about 80k from Rome by train, with an intact medieval heart - and almost empty.  


And the usual array of ritzy Italian shops up in the top part of the city - quite schizophrenic really, the Italian gold reserves are held here, so there's the usual multinational stores like Coach and Tiffany but also a nice selection of local shops:


including this one where I spent an easy E80 on buttons:



And we saw a nice souvenir of home in the Corso Di Fiore...



Ah... joy.