I posted my first vlog yesterday! I have a lot to improve on, but I like the idea of doing a vlog every so often, do you? Also, sorry about the sound quality. I think it’s my Macbook fan. I should probably close some apps before filming videos. Oops!

Luxury Yarn Shawl

Dovetail Shawl

Mitre-Square Shawl

• If you’re interested in test knitting any of these shawls, comment below to let me know which. They’re all “as much yarn as you have” shawls, and gauge isn’t important. I’d quite like to see how they look in a variety of yarn weights, actually. I want to get the Mitre-Square Shawl out soonest, the other two aren’t such a hurry, as I obviously have some more designing to do for the ebook. :)
• Also comment below or video response with your knitting speed (& whether you were knitting st st, ribbing, garter st, etc.)! I’m curious. :)
• If you’re doing NaNoWriMo too, add me as a writing buddy. My username is: maiden & I’m already behind!

Have you read?

1. Free Shawl Knitting Cheat Sheet
2. Beeton Counterpane Shawl

There’s been a profusion of butterflies here over the last few days, all fluttering madly and hardly ever landing during their fleeting lives. This little chap stopped for a drink just long enough that I could snap a few photos. Doesn’t he look like he flew a bit too close to a pot of blue pigment?

I love being by the Aegean. I love the landscape & the colours & the myths. I like to imagine the coastline without any of the buildings that now clutter it; it must have been even more achingly beautiful back then.

Some things never change though… I bought these skeins of lace-weight cotton at the market for 1.50TL (about 60p or 90¢) each. So cheap! But hand-winding lace-weight is disheartening work; the ball doesn’t get bigger and the skein doesn’t get smaller. The Turkish word for a skein is “çile”, which also means “suffering”. Coincidence? I only wish I looked half as cool and serene as the girls in this painting by Lord Leighton.

The cotton is for a pair of shawls I’ve been working on, inspired by summer & classical literature. I’d say more, but perhaps they should remain a MYSTERY? ;)

Have you read?

1. weekending
2. weekending
3. Crescent-Shaped Shawls

I was so so so cheered by all the lovely messages, newsletter replies, tweets, and of course blog comments I received yesterday. And a mention on the Electric Sheep Podcast was just the icing on the birthday cake. Thank you, thank you, thank you, lovely knitters! Replies are on their way.

I’m usually a pretty upbeat, positive person, and I adore doing this here, with you. I still find this a little hard to define, because as you know I do a lot of random, silly things, and knitwear design sometimes seems like a small part of it. I love ideas more than anything, and design more than most, and knitting as much as, well… you, and all together they make me very happy indeed. But every day I meet people who scoff at my work, who ask me snidely how much I make, and inevitably wonder when I will get a proper job (& my own place). Luckily for me, none of these people are in my family. I don’t get hurt by these comments (that would be ridiculous), but I certainly get cross. There was a time when they made me doubt myself, and I sat in a dark office and did work that made no one on earth happy, least of all me. But now I brush them aside and try to use my crossness to fuel me in my work. Still, if it wasn’t for the positive feedback I get from you, I don’t know how long I’d be able to sustain this.

So THANK YOU! & if you’re just heading out on your own path and working for yourself, please don’t listen to the naysayers. Listen to your own true, brave voice and no other. Trust your own confident, capable hands. Don’t let anyone come between you and the joy of steering your craft.

You might be interested to note that my cynics all share one common factor (apart from cynicism, that is): they’re inevitably non-knitters. Which leads me to believe that there is a higher preponderance of nice people among knitters than in the general public. I have some theories about this:

• Knitting is a calming occupation. Because knitters relieve stress through knitting, they’re less likely to lash out at others.
• Knitting is a creative act, and it’s my belief that creating something makes people feel more fulfilled, so that they don’t have the urge to belittle the work of other people to make themselves feel better.
• Knitting is contemplative, and anyone who takes the time to slow down and listen to their thoughts is better able to assess their relationships with others.
• Knitting teaches you patience.
• The devil makes work for idle hands. A knitter’s hands are always busy.

Of course we all have a long way to go, but I do believe that knitting can help us get there. Don’t you agree? :)

Have you read?

1. Knitters’ Valentines
2. Educating Non-Knitters on Garment Care
3. Warm Wool Heart – Postcards for Knitters

- playing with calligraphy pens.
- new summer dresses!

- rain & thunder every day. no picnics for us. :(
- lisianthuses.

- printing out my Creature Comforts Calendar page for JUNE!

Have you read?

1. Weekending

It’s nice to find a strand of hair on one of your handknits, or a golden curlicue between the pages of a book. A remembrance of the moment a (beloved?) human or pet came near. Or maybe it was just you, a few hours or years younger. Then there’s the superstition that knitting a strand of a person’s hair into your stitches will bind them to you. If you’ve ever done this by mistake, you’ll know how difficult it is to unbind that hair! I imagine these objects must be covered in the Dust of human consciousness (or “the ply of human life” as Woolf called it).

Not forgetting, of course, that the fibers we work were themselves once hairs on a creature. And those hairs are probably made up of strings and loops. And that each loop is a solid memory, and knitting is a bit like a time machine: it’s larger on the inside, and in a few minutes you can undo a whole day. It’s like loosening the fabric of space & time… It’s brilliant!