Knitting + books - what more do you want?

Time to write about an excellent novel: Anna Hope's debut, Wake.

This is a beautifully written, moving novel about the lives and legacy of soldiers in World War One. London is preparing for the public, ceremonial funeral of The Unknown Soldier and Hope creates a convincing portrait of the city and its dance halls, government offices and homes after the destruction of the war. There is little sense of celebration: people are mourning the lost, or the un-returned, and the men who have come home from the war are scarred by their experiences. The novel has three protagonists: Ada, a mother whose son is missing; Hettie, a nightclub dancer; Evelyn, who distributes benefits to returning soldiers in a government office. Hope tells each of these stories and weaves between them episodes from soldiers' lives in France. I found the three stories interesting and lifelike - Hope's technique of writing the whole novel in the present tense means that each character's thought processes are minutely recorded so that their inner lives are superbly created. It is a slow-moving novel but I appreciated this: Hope writes in careful, thoughtful detail and there are moments of drama which are also well-managed. All in all, this is a very satisfying read: it's unsentimental (though moving), well-observed and unusual - even though so much writing has been inspired by World War One, this novel has, undoubtedly, something new to say.

And a completed piece of knitting in time for Handmade Monday!! I'm really pleased with this. I've written before about this pattern (from Knits To Give by Debbie Bliss - though it should more properly be called Knits To Keep) and the wool, which is just lovely. The cover is a good, snug fit and it was an easy pattern - it looks misleadingly like garter stitch, but it's a little more complicated than that. I need a reason to make another one - I guess there's always 'giving' ... !

 

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She cooks, she knits...

I seem to have been knitting this baby jumper for some time - and the baby has already been born, so last week I thought I'd really better get a move on. It's a lovely pattern which I've blogged about before, from Joelle Hoverson's book, More Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It's knitted in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran on a circular needle, so (if you just crack on with it) it knits up quickly and there are very few seams to join up! The only reservation I have with the pattern is that there are no buttonholes, so I've added one. Now I can finally go and see the new arrival!

This has been a rather productive weekend, all things considered! It's not often I have even one thing to blog about on #HandmadeMonday! I've been meaning to make these mug-hunger samples for a lovely local cafe for ages, as something I might sell with them. So now I have these to show them later today:

And, finally - I made these gorgeous cookies from a recipe in the Guardian magazine a couple of weeks ago. You can find the recipe here: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/01/nut-recipes-almonds-pecans-hazelnuts. The cookies are luscious, really chocolately, and the pecan praline tastes lovely in them. Having said that, the praline took just *ages* to make - probably because I was very nervous about burning the sugar, so I didn't turn it up high enough to melt it. Because you have to make the praline first, these biscuits take slightly longer than other cookies, but we are just loving them.

 

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In Which I Read a Book, and Finally Finish The Interminable Jumper!

Great cause for celebration! The cardigan I've been knitting for absolutely ages is done!

I'm really pleased with it. I'll put more details about how I adjusted the pattern on the pattern notes in Ravelry, but it's Sirdar 9730 and I think it's turned out really well. It does look, from that photo, rather as if I have excessively long arms, but these are at least an inch shorter than the pattern said! I'm also very glad that I made it an inch longer in the body than they said, as it's only just long enough. It's exactly what I wanted: a 1950s style cardigan which I could wear with jeans. It's made from rather luxurious Sublime yarn, which I bought on sale in Norfolk, so the whole thing cost about £30 - though I do have two balls left over. Hurrah! Most definitely going to be wearing it to Stitch & Bitch today!

Some rather nice treats to ease me into this week: I've finished The marvellous Merivel by Rose Tremain, and, as if by magic, Charlotte Mendelson's Almost English has arrived today! I ordered it from The Book People after reading this guide to ethical booksellers: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/miscellaneous/booksellers.aspx.

Merivel was just fantastic. Tremain's writing is simply never awkward or verbose, despite the novel being in the first person and full of the eponymous Merivel's musings on love, sex, animals and royalty! It is superbly observant and the seventeenth century settings and characters simply spring to life. This is a unique novel - a delight.

 

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#Handmade Monday - easy knitted wrist warmers make it to New York!

These aren't actually for me! I was just having a cheeky wear of them here before I sent them to @copperspiral in New York. She's already got them - so now I can publish this picture of them! They were super easy to make and I was rather sad to let them go. The pattern is from Bronwyn Lowenthal's Love To Knit book. They're made of Louisa Harding 'Thistle' yarn bought from @CafeKnit - and I made both gloves rather surprisingly out of one ball. The yarn is really lovely and soft and they were quick to knit on four 6mm needles. They were, er, even quicker than the pattern suggested because I made them a lot shorter in the arm. The ones modelled in the book came nearly to the model's elbow and were all bunched up - but I did about 23 rows then did the thumbs. For the thumbs, I used the 'live stitches' method rather than the method described in the pattern. It may well have worked fine, but I couldn't figure out how - so I stuck to a method I know works!

These are a really good gift for a friend - though I do have enough wool to make myself some now...

In other news: teaching crochet @cafeknit on Saturday was really good fun. I had really lovely students and everyone got to make at least part of a granny square, and tried chains, double crochet and trebles! It was interesting teaching crochet to knitters - it reminded me how different the skills are in some ways. I think a good time was had by all!

 

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#HandmadeMonday - My Hat, At Large.

Finally, the Louisa Harding Himalayan Hiking Hat is done! This took three skeins of Debbie Bliss Blue-Faced Leicester Aran (from Les Tricoteuses in North Norfolk) rather than the two skeins the pattern asked for. Frustratingly, the third skein was needed for only two or three rows of knitting - but the pompom took rather a lot of wool. It has been pointed out to me that the pompom may be, er, a little outsized . . .  but I *love* this hat. The pattern is a good mix of cables, rib and bobbles. It's easy to do and the yarn is lovely - really warm, with a lovely texture which isn't too silky or floppy.

I was so pleased to see snow, so that we could go off and photograph it out and about! If you want to make one of these, see Louisa Harding's page about her fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Care, a really worthy cause. This hat is 'Parju', and the pattern for this, plus 5 others, can be found here: http://www.louisaharding.co.uk/macmillan/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, what to knit next? This brilliant charity-shop purchase by my GF has given me an idea:

 

 

 

 

I feel a tea cosy coming on . . .  How can it be that I have never knitted one of these? Scary thought: could it be that I am turning into someone who knits from those "Knitted Bazaar" books?! Help!

 

Happy Knitting: what have you made for #HandmadeMonday?

#HandmadeMonday - Yes, I Can Actually Complete Knitting Projects

 

Oh, my goodness - I'm glad this bauble is done! It was *way* harder than I expected: it's on 4 DPNs for a start - which somehow seems a lot of fuss for a little bauble - and it is basically all casting on and off . . .  and has a *chart*! Fouf. Still, it looks cute now, though I wasn't feeling quite so fond of it last night, as I struggled to knit around the polystyrene ball (yes, the top segment is knitted once the polystyrene ball is in) while trying to keep track of Hunted...  The ball was harder to find than I expected, too - but they had loads in Something Special  in Feathers Yard, Holt (where they also sell some nice James Brett yarn and great dress-making fabrics). I was going to buy about 12 balls and make a garland - I'm so glad common sense kicked in and I thought I'd just try the one...

 

 

A bigger achievement, now: my GF's jumper is done - woo hooo!  This has been on the go for a while. I wish I could say it's been a pleasure. Actually the yarn itself has been: I didn't use the Sirdar Chunky that the pattern was written for, but some gorgeous Sublime Merino Chunky which is pure wool. It feels just luscious. However, the making of the jumper was a drama! Firstly, my GF is a size 14, but I had to undo part of the back and reknit it as a 16. Then I nearly ran out of wool, even though I'd bought TWO extra balls, and the requirements were the same for the 16 as the 14 . . . I think this is a feature of Sirdar patterns as I also ran out of wool when I made my own top similar to this one: I used the proper wool, too, for that one and the lovely @SmilesALot very kindly sent me a rescue ball from her stash to complete it.

*Anyway*, also, on the jumper above: I knitted what I thought was the front, all the cables etc, only to find that it was only the back! I obviously hadn't looked carefully enough at the pattern, but I could already see that the wool situation was going to be tight ... so I had to unpick the top and shape the neck to turn the cabled back into the front, and then knit a plain stocking stitch back to save wool. It seems to have worked, although I didn't plan for the fact that cables pull the knitted fabric in rather, so the SS back is a little wider than the front - but actually, although I worried about it while stitching it up, you can't tell.  I was asked, plaintively, a fair few times by my GF whether she would be able to wear it at Christmas and now - hurrah - she can. So, overall, I'm quite pleased - but I am also relieved it's worked out so well! Christmas can go ahead, after all!

 

 

 

#HandmadeMonday - at last, I've finished knitting something!

 

Now, I have turned into my Grandma. No bad thing, really: but, I did feel rather *old* as  I realised I was working out how to make a teddy bear's jumper on a Saturday afternoon ... clearly, I need to get out more.  Still, my nephew wanted "a little black bear" for his birthday. We managed to find the bear above during a day's shopping in Norwich, but he was a wearing a torn red hoodie and, well, that just wouldn't do! I can't claim this pattern for my own: it's adapted in minor ways from Tracy Chapman's book, Toys to Knit.

 

 

The jumper she designed was a little smaller, so I just used some bits of DK I had in my knitting bag (plus a teeny bit extra from Jarrolds haberdashery - can't resist!) and followed the tension on the wool band. It all worked out well; I didn't do separate sleeves but just slip-stitched the neck seams together a little, then picked up stitches for little cuff sleeves. This book had some beautiful patterns - most of all, a great knitted doll which I rather sadly want for myself. Still, I was pleased with the jumper and so was my nephew - it was his birthday this weekend. Now, back to the rather more time-consuming work of an adult-sized jumper!