slippedstitch

A small shawl, knitted for flatmate-Kirsty as a Christmas present.

Kirsty always complains about her shoulders being cold, and wraps big scarves around herself as she sits at her desk to work. I thought this would help keep her shoulders warm, but also be elegant enough to wear out with a dress too. I wondered about bringing out some of the golds in the yarn with a bit of embellishment to glam it up a bit, but decided it was better to keep it plain. Kirsty can always add a broach.



The pattern is Woodland Capelet by Susan Mills. It was a fun knit. Unchallenging, but as I blogged yesterday, I've been so busy the last year, I couldn't really cope with anything difficult. It's all simple garter stitch, but the changes of the shoulder shaping and zigzaggy edge to stop you from getting bored.


Full details on the ravelry project page.

I also made a pair of green socks for Kirsty's partner, Anthony. Simple toe-up in basketweave stitch (see that project's ravelry page). I made him almost the exact same pair last year, but brown. As Kirsty says: Anthony likes brown, green and things he has already.

Here I am on Brighton beach, with my newly knitted socks. Full knitterly details like yarn, etc on ravelry, this post'll explain why I knitted them.

The bobbles running up each side are organised to represent the word "yakawow" in braille. Back in mid-April, the Times published an interview with controversial scientist, Baroness Greenfield. She'd said all a whole host or objectionable and/ or funny things in this interview, and people were chipping in with their favourite bits. "Crowd reading", if you will. Someone quipped "She's right abt 1 thing: we don't want "load of breezy people who go around saying yaka-wow". Cos that would be MENTAL". Another replied with "Yaka-wow must used more! Dunno its meaning but ace phrase".

They were clearly onto something. I logged into twitter a few hours later, after a very serious evening discussing the role of science communication in the developing world, to discover a @yakawow account was now following me. (I still don't know who is behind this account, though I have my suspicions). There were also tshirts for sale, a youtube video, various photoshopped images and facebook page.

It turned out Greenfield didn't coin a new term. It was a transcription error of "yuck and wow", a phrase Greenfield has often used to describe the way people act online, running quickly from one sensation to another. Greenfield is (in)famous for her concerns that computer games and social networking sites are damaging our brains, leading to short attention spans and an inability to empathise (e.g. see this news piece). This makes more sense than "yakawow", but Greenfield's views on computers is not without its critics (short version: all very well as an idea, but it lacks evidence).


The yakawow meme kept running. It was Boing-ed. Quick to celebrate the new word they had invented, the The Times wrote about it (see also this cartoon, from print version). The New York Times vocab blog picked it up and apparently it's in the latest edition of Wired, though I haven't see a copy yet.

One of my old students challenged me to knit yakawow. It had to be socks. Greenfield famously referred to twitter as "reminiscent of a small child saying "Look at me, look at me mummy! Now I've put my sock on. Now I've got my other sock on". I also thought the word would provide an opportunity to play with knitting braille, something I'd been thinking about trying for ages.

I worked three panels of the word, loosely reflecting the streams of code in the poster for the Matrix (a play on Greenfield's suggestion that computer mediated communication is somehow not real). I knitted them one at a time, rather than two-at-once-on-a-huge-circular to mirror Greenfield's point about people on twitter saying they'd put on one sock and then another. They were also from the bottom up: read something into that if you want, I can't be bothered to extend the symbolism any further.


When I wear these socks, I will wiggle my toes inside them and celebrate my belief that interacting online is not without its tangible consequences. Social media sites, not least knit blogging and ravelry, provide real relationships with real people doing real things. Imaginative and clever people who get together to collaboratively discover, develop, teach, learn, critique and create. As the Times' piece on yakawow concludes:

Baroness Greenfield, take note. These people’s brains haven’t atrophied yet. They have taken your interview and created a whole new universe. I think, therefore I yaka-wow.

Still, it can be nice to have a break from it all. Which is why although this photo was taken on Brighton beach on Monday, I didn't blog about it until today. I've been away from the internet, reading a book and knitting a legwarmer. I also took those socks off and went for a bit of a paddle.

Three FOs, all l dedicated to the memory of Tony Hart, who died this weekend. I loved his TV programmes when I was a kid. Art and design via Tony Hart was always so calmly playful, it was about making interesting and beautiful things from stuff around you; exploring the world through shape, colour and texture. It wasn't about impressing posh people, following instructions exactly or being able to achieve measurable results. It was intuitive. It was creative. It was exploratory. It was fun.

We're having household Christmas next week, and Christmas with my little brother in a couple of months*, so this is just the first instalment of gift-knits. The others are still secret. 


First up, a pair of walking socks for my mother. They are walking rather than anything thing else because they were part of a walkers' pile of presents. She had a 'during' set, comprising of a book of walks by the River, some gingerbread toffee, blister plasters and the socks. Then a 'post-walk' set, with some sockyarn for knitting herself (I gave her Knitting Vintage Socks for her birthday last month), a graphic novel and posh chocolates.


Pattern: Arch-Shaped Socks, done in complete rib, inspired by Zebra. I improvised my toe as I couldn't find instructions from other ribbed versions, but I've forgotten what I did, so please don't ask!
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Blue Lagoon from Socktopus.
Needles: 2.5 addi lace circ, a long one as I did them two at once.
Ravelled here.

Secondly, a jumper for my boyfriend. I told him its a 'first draft sweater', if it doesn't quite fit he shouldn't write off future jumpers, because I'll know to do bits tighter, looser, longer or shorter next time. That said, it works pretty well. The arms are a bit too long - comic handknitted jumper style - so I might steek them a couple of thumbholes. Personally, I think it could be longer on the body, but he likes it and has been wearing it two days in three, so has got on to a good start.

Yarn:  New Lanark Mills DK (the 10% silk/ 90% wool mix) in Blue John, with Cobalt contrast hems. This stuff is great. And so cheap. I really can't sing its praises enough.
Needles: 2.75 and 3.25mm addi lace circs. 
Ravelled here.

The yarn cake: product of the ball winder I finally decided to buy. Its amazing. Why didn't I get one before? Not only has there been ball winding, but there has been knitting. This is partly because I realised how close Christmas is, and partly because I took a few days off cycling to work*, thus opening up bus-journey time for the knit. The links below are to ravelry.




* The pause in cycling due to being HIT BY A CAR last week. Driver decided to illegally turn left and not look before he did it. Clever. I was very lucky, a few bruises, and the bike seems equally unscathed. I got straight back on the saddle, and have cycled into town several days since then, but I was a bit shaken up and stiff to manage every day.

Looks pretty, yes? Its Ziggy, from last summer's Knitty, done in two shades of Trekking Pro Natura. Ravelled here.

Lovely to look at, maybe. I was planning to give them to flatmate-Kirsty for Christmas, along with a box of her favourite chocolate-mints, seeing as the colours matched so well. But sadly they fail as socks. Put simply, they are too tight. And fail-socks are never a good present, so I told Kirsty she can have them now if she can get them to fit, and I do her a better present for Christmas. Those with bright screens can follow her struggling to get them on and off the other night.

Yes, I did keep the floats loose. I even knitted them in a much looser gauge than the pattern suggests. Yes, we've tried blocking. They are just too narrow. Plus, the bamboo in trekking means it isn't quite as elastic as a 100% wool sockyarn. Grrr. Once you get them on they are ok. In fact Kirsty says that the support of all that tight fair-isle is really nice (once you have them on, and are happy to keep them on, perhaps forever).

We thought we might steek the inside cuffs and add a couple of rows of stocking stitch - to give a two-way stretch. Do you think it'll work? Either that, or we need to find someone with super-narrow, super-long feet.

This was meant to be a messy tuesdays post. But of course, I'm behind, and its now wednesday. I've decided that is appropriate.

We moved house over a week ago now, but we're not entirely unpacked yet and the mess is starting to upset me. Every time I walk across a room, I trip over something that hasn't got a home yet. So, to save my sanity, this photo utilises the macro setting to blur it all out behind a kitchen utensil*. I have too much work to do this week** to worry about the rest of the unpacking.


It will get sorted in evenings and at the weekend(s). Eventually. And then the house will be lovely. We've bought a great bed, which actually has bookshelves built inside the base (its called a 'library bed'). That's got to help the unpacking.

There has been some knitting amongst all of this. Its a cotton tee with a heart texture pattern. Not very much, as the moving, cleaning, phoning up utilities companies (don't get me started on BT...) and general screaming into the abyss of boxes hasn't really left much time for yarn. Plus, as predicted, the bicycle has been a serious competitor to knitting. I hope it'll be done in a couple of weeks though, then I'll write up the pattern.


* I'm not entirely sure what this utensil is. We use it for fishing pasta out of water. Sort of like a slotted spoon, but wire based - more slots than spoon.

** I start my new job today. This afternoon, I'm moving offices.

Above above is a photo of me reflected on the bell of my new bicycle.

Nothing has threatened my knitting output more. Not moths, not a cut on the bit of my right forefinger I use to guide the end of a needle, not the boredom of deadline-knitting the last few days before christmas. None of these come near. This is because I generally knit on the bus to work, and come the start of term in October, I plan to be cycling in at least a couple of days a week. That said, I am yet to master cycling down-hill without getting scared of the increased speed and simply wheeling it down the road.

And as it happens, I'm off to the world of the bicycle (also known as the Netherlands) for the next week. I've got five(ish) days in Amsterdam holiday-time, then five(ish) days in Rotterdam for a conference. Any yarn-y (or un yarn-y) recomends?

Because I've not blogged for a bit, and won't for at least another week and a half, I'll finish with a small photo-matrix of some other bits and bobs I've been up to.


Clockwise, from top left-hand corner: 1) Sewing in ends for a quilted computer case I made for a friend (full photo-tute when I'm back). 2) The 'let' sign outside the house we're going to be moving into in mid-September (front view and agent's details). 3) View of the Mersey from Liverpool (taken from just behind the Tate). 4) FO shot of the uptown socks I did for the IW sockalong (my ravelry notes here).

Even though it's been bright sunshine all week, the weather still feels like this:


(taken weekend before last, when it did actually snow). I seem to feel constantly chilled. And not in the metaphorical, relaxed, way either. It seems plain wrong when it's so sunny, but there is a cruel wind, and it's early enough in the year to still want a bit of cloud cover. I don't think sitting with college's over enthusiastic air-con's all day is exactly helping.

So, in amongst the shivers and sneezes, I've been comforting myself with this:


It'll be socks. It was going to be lovemeknots. Then it was going to be plain stripes. But now it appears to be slipped-stitch colourwork. A proper post will happen at some point when I've thawed enough to think of anything creative. Until then, brrrrr.

As a balance to the last two messy tuesdays posts, here is one based on a day of domesticity. Though I dare say you can spot some mess at the back of a few of the shots. The day started with a shower, a bit of a tidy of the kitchen and a check of jobs.ac.uk, followed by a lengthy deconstruction of pantomime cross-dressing over brunch at a local cafe with Marcus. He pottered off to the football, and I picked up some groceries on the way home. I only went in for bread flour, but there was a special offer on frozen raspberries.


So now we have 9 jars of jam. I do like raspberry jam. While doing the washing up, I found an Agatha Christie on the BBC7 iplayer. I not only know whodunit, but could virtually recite the script verbatim, but Miss Marple is one of my favourite guilty pleasures. This one even starts with a knitting; a dropped stitch and skein of blue wool to be exact. So, during the rest of the radio play there was a bit of knitting from me. Socks, using 'magic-magic loop' of two-on-one-needle, I'm making the pattern up as I go.


Then some baking. Kirsty and I, in a moment of whimsy earlier in the week resolved to make a cake in celebration of the return of Dr Who, challenging ourselves to include ingredients starting with the letters d, r, w, h and o. So, a carrot cake with dates, raisins, wholemeal flour, honey and the juice of an orange. We baked it in a loaf tin and covered it in blue icing, full results here. We made up a couple of mini-muffins with the leftover mix, TARDIS door-knobs?


After that little excursion into geekery (unusual for either of us), we completed the day in relative elegance with some pre-dinner cocktails. Because one should always keep a bottle of cava and some cassies on hand. Take that Nigella.

Tomorrow, I work. Marking exams.

I'm sitting at the giant wooden kitchen table I inherited from my father, feet up on a chair opposite, staring blankly at my computer. Behind me, a load of dripping handwashing is slowly causing a puddle - after seeing Bekki's amazing forecast at a conference yesterday, I was inspired to re-block my increasingly misshapen one. Flatmate-Kirsty is sitting on the floor with her back against the radiator, wrapped in a giant blanket and reading the Guardian magazine. Her hair is alarmingly straightened, after a cut on Thursday. We are both failing to get up and go out for cocktails and general glamorousness, and I'm half re-writing a lesson plan for Monday. We are contemplating making curried parsnip soup for dinner.

Me: I want to blog those red socks but I can't think of anything to say about them.
Kirsty: I think you should say 'Socks. Done. Red! Grrrrrrrrrrrrahhh.'

So, here you go: Socks, pomatomus to be precise.


They are done, and red, though I tend to subscribe to the view all pomatomus should really be blue/ green I somehow felt the yarn called for the pattern. It's Araucania Ranco Solid in case you were wondering.


They are first pair of socks I've managed the two-socks-at-once trick. Hence the "Grrrrrrrrrrrrahhh" noise. Hear me roar.


*sotto voce* though I did cheat for a few rounds at the heel and them worked one at a time, the flap was just getting in the way (admittedly, I was drinking, doing a pub quiz and teaching Kirsty figure-8 caston at the same time, there is a limit to my multi-tasking). I liked this two-at-once business, I'm going to do it again.

Ravelled here. Now I'm off to bake an apple and plum crumble and then an early night. Working tomorrow.

This is a post in praise of the knit blog. Its inspired by the 'You Make My Day' award which has been doing the rounds, and Veronique and Emma both presented me with tags for. But I'll start with an FO post - its been waiting to be blogged for a while, and is (kind of) on topic.


I only made one of these. As part of a 'single sock swap', Kate (of Zeitgeist) did half the work. Plus she chose the pattern and complementing yarn, which is, after-all, a big part of any decent FO. I'd made this sock for Heather (ADD Knitter), and sent it to her with enough yarn and the pattern to make its pair; Kate did similar for me. Isn't that the best idea for a swap, possibly ever?

Needles: 2mm & 2.5mm knit-picks circs.
Pattern: Gothic Spire, by Cookie A.
Yarn: Louet Gems Fingering Weight
Shoes: Doc Martin's Mary-Janes, purchased in the winter sales.
Ravelled: here.

I loved knitting this. Not just because of Cookie’s pattern, or the soft and gleaming yarn, but also the Kate's notes on how to accurately replicate her first sock. I always feel knitting from a pattern (as opposed to designing your own) is an insight into another knitter’s approach. I often learn techniques from following patterns. This time, I had the added bonus of an insight into how the pattern was read by another knitter.


So, the 'You Make My Day' awards. Rules: Give the award to 10 people whose blogs make you feel happy about blogland, then let them know so they can pass it on. It was so hard! I limited myself to knitter-bloggers, but still my first draft was about thirty. But here are the final ten, and why, in alphabetical order.

1) A Mingled Yarn. Elizabeth churns out sweaters at the most amazing speed. She thinks about them too; chooses good patterns and pairs them with appropriate mods to produce perfect FOs. She is also a big inspriation on me to sew and I enjoy her more literary posts. A well thought out, well organised and often inspiring blog.

2) Dogged. Funny, observant and thoughtful posts. Gorgeous photographs, with an amazing warmth to them. I really like the ways she reflects not only on knitting, but knit bloggers and their trends. Plus I enjoy drooling over her quilting skills.

3) HelloYarn. In one word, inspiring. Gorgeous shots of knitting and yarn, produced with a great sense of colour, immense skill, an obvious delight in a knitting challenge and a beautifully subversive style. Fair-isle insects, you can't get much cooler than that. Adrian is also one of the most knowledgeable knitters blogging, and one of the many that inspire me to challenge myself to try new techniques.

4) Knitting Philistine. Megan's another one with incredible, fiberlicious, camera-skills. She has a great eye for choosing patterns and yarn, and writes with a lovely breezy style. She's also one of the (many) grad-school knit-bloggers I read. I especially enjoy the enthusiasm she puts into her knitting, photography and blog. It's enthusiasm with a good dose of sardonic humour, but that's my favourite flavour. A real celebration of knitting, without getting 'too twee with the squee'.

5) Needled. Kate composes relatively long posts, but beautifully crafted ones, on a range of design and material culture issues. Funny, extraordinarily skilled, and most of all intelligent. Always worth the read.

6) Practical Polly. Perhaps its crazy to include the blog of someone you share a flat with. Kirsty often says she doesn't bother reading my blog because she assumes I'd tell her anything noteworthy. I read Practical Polly though *screws up face and blows raspberry at rude friend*. I enjoy seeing what aspects of her life she'll choose to blog about. Also, Kirsty has a large part of her knitting life based in Oxford, so it happens outside of our shared space. And through this I have an odd, virtual connection with her knit group, the Bluestockings. I read a load of their blogs too, so I'm going to cheat and add them along with Kirsty.

7) Quelle Erqsome. I read this in a completely different way from (for example) Needled, as Emma's blogging style is more about providing frequent, intense hits of her irreverent humour, great photos, forthright views and superb links. Plus, I like that she's a Londoner academic, even if I fail to go to any local knitting groups and so haven't met her in person. A speedy, punchy blog, but not a frivolous one; it can stay with you for a while afterwards.

8) Specs. Funny, thoughtful, self-deprecating and honest posts, lovely knitting and nice photos. What more could you wish for in a knit-blogger? I first started reading Sarah's blog when she commented here while knitting one of my patterns. It's one of the nicest ways I've 'met' knit-bloggers, and my blogroll is full of such links.

9) Tres Chic, Veronique. Great FOs, clear technical skills, pretty photos and an obvious enjoyment of knitter's maths. Plus, she's another knitter who inspires me to sew. I 'met' Veronique through a run of secret pal, and been a fan of her blog ever since. When I was briefly in New York this winter I even managed to meet her in person. I had assumed she'd have a French accent - not the case at all - I bet there are loads of other bits and pieces I've accidentally 'coloured in' about the lives of the bloggers I read. As with Kirsty and the bluestockings, I'm going to cheat again and include the rest of the Spiders with her, as I'm an avid reader of nearly all their blogs too. It was really nice to meet Gleek (and the Peanut!) in NYC too.

10) Ysolda. I don't know how she finds the time for so much knitting, designing and other domestic gubbins, but its all oodles of fun to read about. She writes well and the photos always look so very good. Plus I like that she's in Edinburgh, it reminds me of my Scottish roots. A classy blog from a clever and creative young woman.

Another vintage FO that has so-far been hidden from the internet (squirrelled away as a secret Christmas present). Space invader socks, made for my little brother. Completed late this summer during flights to and from Tokyo.

I had an idea for these socks ages ago. But great minds think alike and Aija produced her great pattern last Spring. I thought I might as well use her specifications as they were much nicer than the vague idea I had half-formed. However, my (bamboo, 2mm) needle snapped a few cm into the charts. As I was on an aeroplane somewhere over Russia at the time, I was limited to the only other needle in my hand luggage, which happened to be a size up. So, I re-gauged and in doing so had to enlarge and simplify the pattern a bit.

Still, the bigger space invaders show up neatly, and the looser tension means the socks are slightly stretchier. As with the pirate argyles I made my brother last year, these are a pair of socks that are quite silly, but can look respectable under a suit. Let your trousers sit naturally and the embarrassing big-sister knitted motifs entirely disappear: lift them up a few cm and your childish alter-ego is revealed (though you might spot a green monster poking through the left foot on this photo).


The yarn is matchmaker 4ply for the black and knitpicks essential for the green (grass colourway), for those who wonder about such things. And I ended up using a 2.5mmm 80cm addi circular, toe up method.

I know it's early, but yesterday was Christmas-with-friends, before we all end up having our Christmas-with-families.

As it turned out, our pile was entirely fabric and yarny goodness. Plus, we manged to solve that ever-so-tricky question: what does one knit for a knitter? Turns out the simple answer is you make stuff they won't knit themselves. Just because you have the skills doesn't mean you'll have the time or inclination.

For example, flatmate-Kirsty won't knit socks. She could. In fact I suspect she'd really enjoy it. I also know she likes wearing hand-knit socks because she's still not given me back the wonderland pair I lent her after the photoshoot back in September. Every time sock-knitting is mentioned she shakes her head in incredulity and mutters something about jumpers. So, I made her these:


I said she could keep the wonderlands too. It being the season of giving and all (and it didn't look like I was going to get them back). I'd also been saving some Japanese cotton for her, covered in cartoons of little animals in various forms of peril (burning, drowning - they're cute but also somewhat disturbing). In fact, we both did pretty well for fabrics walking the macabre/ beautiful line - Kirsty's cousin brought us back some amazing Day of the Dead prints from LA.

And Kirsty's gift to me? This gorgeous alpaca hot-water-bottle-cover. I've been meaning to make one or myself since I did one for my mother last year. But just haven't got around to it (kept getting distracted by socks...)

7:45am on a Sunday morning is maybe a bit early for blogging, but Marcus had to leave at 7am for a football game. I couldn't get back to sleep, so thought I might as well catch up.

A while ago I knitted a single sock for the ADD knitter. In exchange, I've received a single sock of my own - this beautiful Gothic Spire from Zeitgeistyarns. When swaps work out, they really are wonderful things.

The colour, the feel of the yarn and the pattern are all amazing - I can't wait to get started. Her generous package also included the needles - knitpicks circs, which its great to have a try of as they are only just starting to be available in the UK. I've cheated though, and am first using one of them to finish off my current WIP, a pair of mittens.


I was working this on the plane, so was using bamboo dpns for that 'these are really just sticks gov' look when going through security. I find dpns can be neater for colourwork, but generally a lot less comfortable. Now I'm off the plane and with a spanking new 2.5mm circ it was much easier going. They are nearly finished, I only really have the thumbs to do.

It's my own design - would people be interested in the pattern?

EDIT: yarn for mittens is cashmerino baby (pale peach) and opal uni (brown). The cashmerino is thicker than the opal, but that actually helps it 'pop'.

Thanks for all your comments on the last post. I've been tracing through comments on other blogs too, and a few threads on ravelry. All interesting stuff. I was contemplating a follow-up post musing on the politics of fantasy, but I really should be channeling such energies into my thesis. Instead, I'll go with an unexcused celebration of one of my personal indulgences, and show off an FO.

It'll be winging its way to a friend as fast as Royal Mail will carry it, along with pattern and yarn for the second sock and some other bobbly-themed goodies (e.g. some beaded icord).

Pattern: My own, based very loosely on Martin Storey's Rambling Rose ("inspired" I think is the term). The vine motif starts at the toe, and grows as you knit, winding itself up the side of your ankle. I'm thinking of developing it further; making it a bit more complex. If I do it again, I'll use a crisper, lighter yarn so its easier to photograph (in real life it looks lovely, but dark colours, fuzz and blogging are not a good mix).

Yarn: Wensleydale Longwool 4ply. I wanted a very English yarn, as my pal's in the US. It's very warm and soft, and apparently it wears pretty well. The fuzz gives it a really yummy, mossy look - a very sniffable yarn.