A Bluestocking Knits

  • One Woman’s Swizzle Stick ….

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    Img_3801_small

    I was casually reading the new issue of Country Living, as one does of a morning, and was looking over the photographs with this article on entertaining and thinking, "Ah, Project Spectrum pinks!" when I gasped aloud.

    Knitting needles as drink mixers.  Let’s look at that again, shall we?  Knitting needles to stir your drinks.  Not just any knitting needles, either, not the cheap Clover ones, but those tall ones are nice Brittany Birches.

    Curtain ring clips for placecard holders, I can see.  A linen scarf for a table runner, that could be pretty.  But I am not going to stir my Rosé Spritzer with a wooden knitting needle.  Admittedly, I come from the no-liquids-of-any-kind-on-the-wooden-furniture kind of family, but this takes the whole "repurposing" thing a little too far.

    Now, putting a few pairs of exceptionally beautiful wooden knitting needles in a pale pink glass for a centerpiece, that I might do!

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    Booking Through Thursday: A Favorite Author

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    Booking Through Thursday wants us to pick one of our favorite authors.

    1. What are some of your favorite books by this author? Wait, I'm still trying to choose just one author….  Right, I'll say D.E. Stevenson (although I am tempted just for a lark to say Antonia Fraser, who I admire not only for her fascinating histories, but because she can write mystery novels as well!).  I've talked about Stevenson before, but she's rather old-fashioned and so her books tend to get weeded off the public library shelves by those rather less-discerning librarians (ahem!), and I think she deserves to be more widely-known.
    2. Why do you like this author? Stevenson (1892-1973) has a deceptively effortless style, the kind that looks quite easy to do until one tries it oneself.  She has three main types of novels, mainly divided by tone — some serious (Smouldering Fire, if I remember correctly, deadly serious at times), some quite funny (the Miss Buncle books, for instance), and most somewhere in the middle.  Her plots tend towards romance, the standard girl-meets-boy, girl-gets-thwarted-through-shyness-or-circumstance, girl-gets-boy-after-all kind, and quite often you can see the outcome quite early on, which man the heroine is going to end up with, but the way that Stevenson gets us there is what makes it so enjoyable.  Many of her characters appear in multiple books, some as a series and some coming in as supporting players; she also frequently returns to the same location.  The "Mrs. Tim" series is I think the only recurring character whose story is told in the first person, here in diary form — the adventures of an army wife — so laugh-out-loud funny at times that my husband was intrigued enough to read them (more than one!).  (Mrs. Tim reminds me of E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady but not so cynical.)  I think that one of the things I like most about Stevenson is that she's just nice — she seems like a nice, sensible, intelligent, polite lady, and to be honest this is in rather short supply these days.  She is possibly most similar to Miss Read, although of course this is open to debate; the earlier Rosamund Pilcher novels seemed to me a modern heir to the rather more serious Stevensons. There are three Stevenson fan sites that I know of — one by Susan Monahan, which includes a pleasant little virtual tour of Stevenson's home and the prototype for many of her novels, Moffat in Dumfriesshire, Scotland; a brief appreciation by A. Bunting; and a rather extensive one by Dalyght with a light but discerning tone (including a pair of 1/12 miniature scenes from Stevenson's novels!).
    3. Have you read everything by this author? Why or why not? I own about a dozen of her novels, out of about forty that she wrote.  I think I've read almost all of them, but there are one or two on the list that I can't place.  For a long time — pre-Amazon — almost all of her novels were either out-of-print or available only in large type, and it was pretty hard to get books from the U.K. without actually going there, so I had to content myself with what I could find at the public library.  (I did read a lot of them in large print, which oddly gives them a completely different air in my memory.)

    Postscript (1 April 2006): I need to add that while one of the things that I love about D.E. Stevenson is that she is "old-fashioned" — even, I suspect a bit old-fashioned to her contemporaries in her writing heyday, the 1940s-1960s — she does have a regrettable tendency to reflect common opinions of that time about race.  Perhaps, as an American I am more sensitive to this than other Westerners of my generation.  I hasten to add that I have seen this in Stevenson's books less than half-a-dozen times, usually as casual remarks by certain characters, and not as a deeply-held philosophy of Stevenson herself.  I suspect from having read so much of her and therefore feeling that I now have something of an insight into her own character, that if this had been pointed out to her, she would have regretted it.  (It reminds me of the "Bad Tuesday" chapter of Mary Poppins, that has since been rewritten.)  I don't want to make a lot out of this, but it is there, and it needs to be said now.  There is far more about Stevenson to love than there is not.

  • Chocolate

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    Chocolate

    I’m pretty easy-going when it comes to chocolate.  I do like the milk and not-too-dark varieties best, but other than that I think they’re all pretty good.  Like books or friends or wines, in different situations depending on one’s mood or whatnot, they each have their strengths.

    I discovered Green & Black’s this past summer, in the exotic otherness of ParkNShop, and while I haven’t yet tried many of G&B’s varieties (with orange and spices, Blackbird?!), their creamy vanilla white is high on my list of favorites.  Hershey’s is what I grew up on as to bar chocolate, so I cook with it and find that it makes an excellent cup of hot chocolate — comfort food, indeed!

    This chocolate moment comes via Show and Tell —

  • The Red and Pink Gallery, Continued

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    Pskroyer_interiorwithmariekroyer_small_2   

    Peder Severin Krøyer, "Interior with Marie Krøyer" (1889), Hirschsprung, Copenhagen.  I find the Skagen painters fascinating — such light, such color.  The outdoor scenes seem to be more well-known, generally, so here is an interior for a change.

    Anguissola_doubleportraitofaladyandherdo

    Sophonisba Anguissola, "Double Portrait of a Woman with her Dog" (undated), National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.

    Reynolds_misssusannagale_176364_ngv

    Sir Joshua Reynolds, "Miss Susanna Gale" (1763-64), National Gallery of Victoria.  "On loan" to the Red and Pink Gallery from my dear friend Helen.

    Nshake28

    Unknown, "Portrait of a Man, aged 24" (1588), John Rylands University Library, Manchester.  This painting, commonly known as "the Grafton Portrait" after a previous owner, is argued by some to be a portrait of Shakespeare.  I am prepared to accept that it is not (some say it is in fact of Christopher Marlowe), but I would like to think that it is.  (The argument that Shakespeare at 24 would not have been able to afford such a rich silk doublet doesn’t make sense, in my opinion, as he would certainly have had access to theatre clothing.)

    Carllarsson_ruth_1

    Carl Larsson, "Ruth" (1906).  Some critics think less of Larsson for his so-called sentimentality — it’s true that one can hardly look at this picture and not smile, but it’s a lovely work.  I like the way that the bookshelves make such strong horizontals and verticals against the softness of her dress, the way she is slightly off-center, and the utterly characteristic tossing of her own arm across the arm of the seat, childlike against the maturity of the books.

    Whistler_pinkandgray_small_1

    James McNeill Whistler, "Nocturne in Rose and Gray (Portrait of Lady Meux)," (1881-82) The Frick, Pittsburgh.  Such a bravura piece — so characteristic of Whistler!  The wonderful pink satins flowing, the dark haughty eyes — I could look at it for hours.

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    Swing Jacket Monday

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    Another week gone by, another Swing Jacket update!  I’ve been bit slow thanks ("thanks") to a hayfever attack over the weekend — but Theresa writes, "I just seamed up the sleeves and attached them to the body today and wove in most of the ends.  She’s doing a little bit more blocking so that I can see if I can get that pleat to hang right before I take any pictures.  The shaping is nice, although I think that "bracelet" length is an optimistic name for the sleeve length.  Mine came just below the elbows and I don’t have unusually long arms."

    I ran into a little difficulty when I compared the left front on the needles to the right front that I’d blocked earlier, and found that the length is remarkably different, so my next job is to count the rows and see if I can figure out what happened — it could be a blocking quirk, after all.  In the meantime, I cast on for the back, on straight needles as I couldn’t bear the idea of having to use two circulars to get my eccentric gauge, with all of those needle-ends flapping about.  It’s a bit, well, squished, but the widest part is at the beginning, so I’m trusting that it will sort itself out!

    Pbsj_startback

    Fern and Suse would like some suggestions on yarn substitutions.  I am using the wool specified in the pattern, Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK, at 22 sts and 30/32 rows per 10cm/4 in. (according to the ball band) and 11 wpi (according to Woodland Woolworks).  A good substitute is the yarn that Kat used, Jaeger’s Matchmaker Merino DK, 22 sts and 30 rows per 10cm/4 in. and 11 wpi (and about US$2 less).  This is a very good yarn that I’ve used to happy results — nice to knit with, easy to wash, and doesn’t show wear quickly.  There are a couple of other Jaeger and Rowan yarns described at English Yarns that look suitable, although I have never used any of these so can’t say for certain.

    Jo Sharp Classic might be nice (22 sts per 10cm/4 in. and 12 wpi)….

    Rowan’s Calmer, a cotton/microfiber blend, has a very similar gauge (21 sts and 30 rows per 10cm/4 in. and 10 wpi), and has a nice drape that would make an elegant jacket (though possibly rather heavy).  I’m using Calmer for that Ostrich Plume throw, and it does have a lovely feel to it, much like the Extrafine Merino, very "swingy".  Linen Drape might also work — anyone have any experience of it?

    Ola used Rowanspun DK, which she is generally pleased with (except that its tweediness obscured the cabling) — this wool is discontinued so color choices might be limited, but on the other hand prices would be good.  (Rowan recommends Yorkshire Tweed DK as a substitute for the Rowanspun DK.)  Theresa is using Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, to good effect; Anne has chosen this too, I think.

    Does anyone — knitalonger or not — have other recommendations?  Please feel free to chime in!

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    Booking Through Thursday: New Authors

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    Booking Through Thursday‘s questions for this week were suggested by Christine.

    1. How do you decide to read a book by an author you haven’t read before? Reviews, either from the newspaper, Amazon (especially those reprinted from Booklist (ooh, it’s online now!) or other library journals, or word-of-mouth from friends and bloggers. 
    2. What sort of recommendations count most highly in making that decision? I do pay attention to the reviews from readers posted at Amazon, but I confess that I give more weight to the reviews from Booklist, which rarely lets me down.  I’m always a little wary of buying picture books sight-unseen, so it’s good to have a recommendation from them.  I much prefer to see a book first, though, whether it is a children’s or adult book.

  • Window

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    Window_2

    Sarah Louise, via Blackbird, wishes to see windows for "Show and Tell" this week — here is one of mine.  Our little house is in dire need of a coat of paint, and things look rather shabby, I’m afraid, so I won’t show the outsides just yet.  This is part of the window in our living room, a fairly typical bungalow arrangement of two tall double-hung windows flanking a rather large picture window.  Apparently this is the original 1929 varnish, and I’m quite impressed that nobody has ever painted it over.  When Laura was a baby, there was a new apartment building going up directly across the street, and she used to sit there in front of the open window, for hours it seemed, and watch the comings and goings of the construction crews.  It seems to have been a favorite spot for babies over the years, as hers were not the first teeth marks on that ledge!

  • Thoughts on the Ribbed Shrug

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    I finally finished Pam Allen’s Ribbed Shrug from the Summer 2005 Interweave Knits (and also here).  It’s an easy knit — I think I did the bind-off about a month ago — but I let myself get repeatedly distracted, and I admit that I put off sewing it up, too.

    I used the yarn called for in the pattern, Patons Katrina, in black (which I had to special-order from Jo-Ann’s).  I would never have chosen this yarn for myself, but it seems quite well-suited to the pattern.  It has a curious rubberiness to it, and it thwacked most satisfyingly when the knitted piece fell into my lap.  I spent a happy minute dropping it over and over until I realized that the sound reminded me of an empty hot water bottle.

    Shrug_ruffle

    It does hide a multitude of sins, though, and apparently most vagaries of tension are simply swept away in its elasticity.  The K1, P1 rib makes a dense, firm fabric here but the rayon gives it a lot of stretch, and it drapes very prettily.  I hadn’t realized from the photo in the magazine that the yarn has quite a bit of shimmer to it, as well.  I never did get the gauge specified in the pattern, even down three needle sizes, but the stretchiness of the rib and the yarn itself seem to pull it in enough.  It looks quite elegant on Laura’s ballet teacher, who is much slimmer than I am!

    Shrug_1

    I added an extra two rows in the ruffle, as I thought the six of the pattern seemed a bit stingy.  The yarn is very splitty, and ravelled mercilessly at the joins — I ended up tying the woven-in ends with a bit of sewing thread in hopes of keeping them relatively secure!

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    Swing Jacket Monday

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    Apologies for missing last week’s knitalong update — too much chaos in the house to even think about knitting, let alone write about it!  But we’re getting back to normal, and after an exciting weekend in which Laura seemed to pack the whole five or so days of viral gastroenteritis into less than 36 hours, both girls have been pronounced healthy at last, and sent off to school with shining morning faces.

    So here are some Project Spectrum pinks from my garden to refresh myself,

    Pinkcamellia_1 Souvenirdelamalmaison_1

    Duchessdebrabant_1 Jasmine_1 

    an anonymous camellia, blooms of "Souvenir de la Malmaison" and "Duchesse de Brabant" roses, and a bit of the pink jasmine (J. polyanthum) near the breakfast room window.

    Ola writes, "I have finished my jacket after about 6 weeks (there was a lot of teaching work too in this time). I’m really pleased with the final result. I used Rowanspun DK, in a lovely light green colour (Catkin), but unfortunately the tweedy way masks some of the cables on the front. (I used six skeins. After doing the calculations for subsitution, I ordered 7. But I only needed 6 for the knitting and sew up.)  The only alteration I made was to fix the pleat into place with some small stiches in several places along its length" — and she is so impressed with the experience that she want to make Kate Gilbert’s Union Square Market pullover next!  Ola is blogless, so perhaps we can persuade her to send a photo?

    Shelagh is still waiting for her yarn to arrive — "it’s been a month…sigh."

    Theresa writes, "I’m getting close to a picture.  I just attached the fronts to the back and am getting ready to pick up stitches for the collar."  She gives lots more construction details on her blog — thank you!

    Like Theresa, I find myself taking extra care with the knitting and blocking of this jacket.  I finished the right front last week, and blocked it to quite precise measurements.  It seems somehow to deserve more than a slapdash straightening-out —

    Pbsj_rs

    I cast on for the left front last night, and got to the end of the first half-triangle, humming softly to myself after the girls went to sleep.  Happy mommy!

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    Thoughts on the Difficult Sweater (Not Really, It’s a Hot Water Bottle Cover)

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    We’ve been a bit preoccupied around here lately, due to the generosity of schoolchildren in the area sharing the stomach flu among their classmates!  Julia’s had the worst of it, poor lamb, and is still not well after most of the week, but at least she actually wants to eat, today.  (By the way, grape-flavored Pedialyte stains.)  I sat with Julia after lunch today and watched "Sesame Street" while I darned in the ends of my March "Knitter’s Almanac" project, which in more ambitious hands would have been a Difficult Sweater (Not Really), also known as a Chainmail or Trellis sweater, but for me is a tidy little hot water bottle cover.

    Marchez

    (The wools were all unlabeled, except for the light gray, which was a fairly ancient Chat Botté — some of the others may have been Anny Blatt, but I can’t say for certain.  The piece is approximately 7.5 in./19 cm by 11 in./28 cm, and about 28 sts per 4 in./10 cm, blocked to fit.)

    Here is a close-up of the Trellis stitch —

    Trellis_stitch

    Like apparently many other knitters (some of whom commented here at the beginning of the month), I did not find this pattern particularly appealing at first.  I will say now, though, that color choice can make the world of difference.  I don’t love it yet, but I don’t hate it, at least!

    You can also see here the difference between plain stockinette with color changes and purl-when-you-can (or purl on the first row of a new color).  The plain parts, "inside" the trellises, are quite straightforward, and the parts "outside" are livelier, more subtly so when the colors are similar in tone, and more obviously when there is more of a contrast, such as here where the gray makes a distinct fleck against the blue or the lavendar.

    I did realize after the second pattern repeat that I should have had fewer color changes at the "busy" part of it, where the twists and the smaller oval are — so many purls there make it harder to see the shifts of the trellis.  I would recommend color bands of at least three rows at that point, instead of the two that I used, to make the twists stand out.

    As for shaping, I made my life a lot easier by simply knitting a tube as the Trellis pattern dictated, and did not attempt to shape it to my hot water bottle.  (To be honest, I didn’t swatch — this was my swatch — so I had no idea of how big it was going to be.  I did start it over after the first inch, when it was obviously going to be too small to go around, but other than that it was just a good guess.)  I’d thought that when sewing up I would leave a little slit at the bottom, because the bottle has a tab there for hanging, but since I knitted four repeats of the Trellis (for looks), the piece was quite long enough to cover the whole thing.  I added plain white shanked buttons and crochet chain loops at the shoulders, and there you have it!

    Button_detail

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