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Rosy, Posy, Pink & Poesy

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It’s Knitting & Crochet Blog Week again! You can read all of last year’s posts here.

I’ve written before about my love of pink, especially paired with dark green. And while I magnanimously love all colours and can spend hours inventing new colour names, if I had to choose one, I’m sorry Lilac, but let there be Pink.

Last year during Blog Week, you may have seen this yarn on my shelf. Now it’s winding/winging its way to being a fully-fledged shawl. All grown up!

I’m using my own Fill-in-the-Blanks Shawl Design formula (currently in testing!) with the Wheatear Stitch. I’m so so so excited about this ebook, I just can’t wait to release it!

“Pink, it was love at first sight” – Aerosmith

And then there’s this bottom-up, leafy number which I’m knitting in Artist’s Palette Glisten; 100% silk, except for the 100% pleasure that I’m quite certain is plied with it. It’s also been in my stash for far too long! If you’ve never understood “process knitters” (i.e. knitters who enjoy the process of knitting as much as, if not more than, the finished project), then perhaps you’ve never knit with a yarn which makes you want to watch every stitch take form. Silk takes dye particularly well, and no photos can do these colours justice. The yellow isn’t yellow, it’s gold…

“Pink is the color of romance and a friend tells me that the girl with the pink dress at the party is the one who is selected for each dance” – Alfred Carl Hottes

Was Hottes talking about roses? I don’t know, but recently I’ve developed a penchant for polymer clay and I made this pink rosy posy heart pendant from white Cernit and coloured it with a blush…

And I think blushing must be what Emily Dickinson writes of as a “shawl of Pink”:

Shame is the shawl of Pink
In which we wrap the Soul
To keep it from infesting Eyes —
The elemental Veil
Which helpless Nature drops
When pushed upon a scene
Repugnant to her probity —
Shame is the tint divine.

One last heart/shawl in progress, which isn’t strictly pink unless I get vaguely scientific and point out that white light is a combination of all colours (think Pink Floyd prism).

C’est tout! Lick a pink confection, listen to Piaf, and pick a pink stitch (a pinch?) or two. Á demain…

23rd April, 2012 // Inspiration, Knitwear Design, Literature // tags: 3KCBWDAY1, blog week, pink, poetry, shawls, spring.

The Lilac

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I do wish you could smell these. One small sprig is enough to pervade my entire room with its delicious scent….

I like to think that my creative genius has the form of a frothy, flowering lilac; preferably a well-rooted, towering specimen. Although I had little notion of it when I purchased this domain all those years ago, I’m fairly sure that this plant will remain an enduring symbol for me throughout my life, as it has done for painters & poets for centuries.

The Lilac is an ancient shrub
But ancienter than that
The Firmamental Lilac
Upon the Hill tonight —
The Sun subsiding on his Course
Bequeaths this final Plant
To Contemplation — not to Touch —
The Flower of Occident.
Of one Corolla is the West —
The Calyx is the Earth —
The Capsules burnished Seeds the Stars
The Scientist of Faith
His research has but just begun —
Above his synthesis
The Flora unimpeachable
To Time’s Analysis —
“Eye hath not seen” may possibly
Be current with the Blind
But let not Revelation
By theses be detained —

– Emily Dickinson

How about you? Do you have a mascot, floral or otherwise?

24th May, 2011 // Laylock, Literature, Photographs // tags: lilacs, poetry, spring.

If I Was Bored

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After the knitting needles & the yarn, the one staple of my knitting time is TEA. Turkish tea, English tea, herbal tea, horrible tea, over-stewed, under-brewed, too hot, too cold, in a cup, in a saucer, in a mug, in a glass. No milk, no sugar, thank you.

I never watch TV, but I do sometimes watch films or Youtube videos if I’m knitting something easy like, say… a Minty? Otherwise I almost always either put on an audiobook, or tune in to BBC Radio4. In Our Time is one of my favourites, and now that they have such a generous archive on the web, I often listen to old episodes I missed. Here’s one on tea, for example!

I do occasionally read while knitting, if the knitting is simple & the book is obliging. At the moment I’m reading Aurora Floyd by Mary E. Braddon.

I usually knit on my own, but of course, I’m never lonely. ;) I mentioned that I recently started a knitting group & that’s been great fun. Even if none of my friends are around, I do sometimes take my knitting to a café, just for a change of scene. That’s one great thing about city-living.

I’m certainly not very ceremonious about knitting. I wake up, put the kettle on, sit down, and start. Especially if I’m excited about a project, this poses no problem. Throughout the day, the knitting is interspersed with a million other activities so that I never get bored (being a Gemini, this is essential): checking Ravelry, answering correspondence (usually tardily, oh dear! :( ), paying attention to my parents, writing, tinkering with the site, going to Ancient Greek class, messing about in Inkscape, writing up, charting, laying out, and proofreading patterns, taking photos, etc. etc.

I also love listening to music, and probably spend at least 30mins every day doing nothing else. (And having two consecutive blog posts with lyrics for titles is nothing to me!) I admire people who can write an essay while listening to rap. If I’m writing up a pattern and listening to anything with words, I will start writing the words. My favourite music commands all my attention. If you want a boost of energy or motivation for the new week, I recommend you turn off the lights, put in your earphones & listen to this:

Thanks for reading, dear knitters! I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts for Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011. It’s been a great opportunity for me to reflect & to discover amazing new blogs. Thanks, Eskimimi, for organdising such a Great Online Event! Now I’m ready to start all over again!