Basque Country

Last year, I was complaining that I wasn't taking full advantage of living in Europe to travel. Well, this year I guess I'm making up for it. We went to Lisbon for New Year's, and a couple of weeks ago, we took a long weekend and went to Bilbao and Donostia/San Sebastian for my birthday.


Guys, it was awesome. Two weeks later, The Limey and I keep are still remarking on what a great time we had and how perfect a break it was. We stayed in Bilbao and took a day trip to Donostia/San Sebastian. (Could also have done it the other way around, easily.) It's one of the places I've wanted to visit for ages, but I don't know why. (I once worked with a Basque guy, briefly; maybe that was it?)

I had a vague idea of seeing the Guggenheim, maybe learning a bit of the Basques, and, of course, doing what I most love to do: eat. And boy, did they deliver in this last category.



Pintxos, people, pintxos: a more elaborate, "foodier", pricier kind of tapas. If I could eat like that all the time, I would. All the bar counters, in pretty much all the bars, held plates and plates of little snack-sized finger foods. There were your standard tortillas and little crusty rolls with jamon iberico, but also beautifully cooked pieces of shrimp, mountains of teeny eels on beds of tuna, slices of grilled peppers or aubergine with or without lumps of soft cheese, translucent slices of bacalao with quail's egg, squid swimming in spicy olive oil. All served on or with bread (to make some of it easier to hold? or as a nod towards its tapas roots?), although for some pintxos, the bread seemed superfluous:I had a little bowl of two or three bites of squid ink risotto and one lovely mussel- the slice of baguette stuck into it seemed pretty pointless. Eventually, I stopped eating most of the bread 'cause I figured it was just cutting into my stomach capacity.


In Donostia/San Sebastian, they were a little more fancy about their pintxos than Bilbao and many bars offered a short pintxos calientes menu, so that certain dishes could be cooked to order. In this way, I had the most perfectly cooked scallop ever, some lovely octopus, and a piece of liver that was just...divine. It was seared on the outside and just warm on the inside and was so soft it was basically pate without the bother of having to be processed.

The great thing, for me, is that they serve drinks in smaller measures than over here, so I didn't feel like I was drunk by the time we got to the third or fourth bar.

I'd consider that I've found my gastronomic home, except for the sad lack of noodles. Honestly, The Limey and I just wandered around either eating, or waiting until we could eat. I guess in between we did manage a little bit of sightseeing.


If you get the chance to see this bit of Europe, go! The Limey and I would happily jump on a plane over there right now, but due to everyone and their relatives thinking this is the year to get married, all my holidays for the rest of the year are spoken for. On the plus side, at least some of those weddings will mean we get to travel and see places we haven't yet.

Tarted-up Camber

A while back, I had a round of meetings requiring lots of flying. And to a knitter such as me (i.e., easily distracted), being on an airplane = uninterrupted knitting time. Still, a very small voice warned that maybe a cardigan in cobweb-weight yarn knit at 8sts/in on 2.5mm needles might not have been the best choice. But that small voice was completely drowned out by the louder, more excited one yelling, And you know what'd be even better?! BEADS!



Tarted-up Camber
Yarn: Cashmere/viscose blend in Champagne from Colourmart, 150g cone, with plenty left over
Needles: 2.5mm Addi turbos
Pattern: Jessamyn Leib's Camber Cardigan

Notes: Well, where do I start? This was my first top-down knit and I knit it pretty much as written except for two major changes and a some minor ones.

The first major change: crazy decision to do this in thread-like yarn instead of the more sensible fingering weight it called for. But I really wanted to use this yarn. I worked backwards with my gauge to figure out what size I should knit that would make the cardi come out to my measurements. This worked fine- the only problem this created was that the neckline isn't wide enough to go around my neck. Not really a problem for me, as I don't ever intend to wear it buttoned all the way up.

I've only put in closures up to about boob height, because I never button cardis all the way up, anyway.

Second: Uhh...I added beads, because what's more fun than wrestling with a bunch of teeny beads on a bumpy flight? Nothing!


I had some bronze-ish beads I wanted to use. To make things easier on myself, they were too small for crochet hooks, and I didn't thread them on first because I had no idea when I started knitting where I'd want to put the beads or how many I'd need. So I did a weird maneuvre with the bead and a needle threader. Fiddly, but effective.


The minor changes were things like hemmed edges rather than rolling, bracelet-length sleeves rather than elbow length, and hook-and-eye closure rather than i-cord buttonholes.


I sewed the hooks and eyes to pieces of beautiful velvet ribbon (bought at Loop) and then very carefully sewed the ribbon to the inside of the fronts- I was really afraid the sewing would pull the fine yarn and you'd be able to see it. Happily, this didn't happen, but the fear of it kept me from finishing it. I'd actually finished the knitting months ago, but only now managed to put in the closures.

The pattern is easy to follow. (Too easy! Jesh made it so you can calculate your numbers for your size and gauge, which made working backwards with my particular gauge to get the numbers required a bit more work.) The design itself is beautifully simple. I've always loved those great vintage heavily sequinned and beaded cardigans but knew I can't really carry them off in my life. I satisfied my need for bling with the beads and the lace yoke provides more interest without going into over-the-top mode.

The result is gorgeous; I love it. However, never again a full garment at this gauge!

Scrumptious Selene

Look at this! Two posts in one week!

During the Christmas holidays, I spent a lot of time sitting around at the in-laws' watching TV. Which, of course, meant knitting time. Which was great, because I was behind on knitting a sample for Darn It & Stitch and really just needed one big block of time to finish the thing.

Here's Selene, this time knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious dk in a solid colour:


The original sample was knit in Fyberspates Superwash Merino dk, in a variegated colour, which looked great when worn. However, the variegated-ness photographed badly, and also, my photography skills, being what they were (i.e., nonexistent), did not help matters. I'd actually been meaning to knit another sample because I really think this is a great, versatile pattern that wasn't getting the attention it deserved. So when Jo at Darn It & Stitch started stocking Fyberspates and asked for a display sample, I was happy to finally get the push I needed to do it.


This sample, in a solid colour, looks great. You all know I am a big fan of Scrumptious anyway, but here it really shows off the lace- it's perfect.

I knit the sample in the smallest size and used almost exactly 4 skeins of the dk, and didn't even have to frog the swatch! However, I would definitely advise buying 5 skeins, just in case.

The lace and wide v-neck of the pattern makes the garment pretty stretchy. I'm wearing the pullover with 3 inches / 7.5cm of negative ease and the dress form has 6 inches / 15cm of negative ease! However, I really wouldn't recommend going that extreme- especially as Selene is designed to go over another layer. Pick the size closest to your bust measurement, and round down if you're in between sizes. If you plan to wear anything bulkier than a button-up "proper" shirt under it, then you might round up if in between sizes.


The V is meant to hit just below the bust, and shows up higher on the dress form because of the negative ease.

Selene will be printed up and available to buy at Darn It & Stitch as soon as I figure out which picture to put on it. What do you think? Modelled pic on me, or the dress form pic?

Well into 2011...but happy new year!

The Limey and I went to Lisbon with friends for the new year's celebrations. A friend is Portuguese and was nice enough to show us around a bit. I loved the trip, mostly because I got to eat so much seafood I'm surprised I haven't grown scales. When I wasn't stuffing myself with seafood, I was gorging on cakes and coffee. These people are serious about their cakes, although I am midly disturbed by how much egg and sugar they can stuff into a pastry the size of a golfball.

The NYE fireworks were great!


Lisbon put on a great show. Fireworks were set off from the Tagus as well as from the lovely buildings surrounding the square, so we had 360-degrees of fireworks.

We'd been before, with the same friends, and I rediscovered one of the things I loved about the city then- those tiled pavements!





Aren't they just asking to be knit up with some stranded colourwork?

(All photos by The Limey.)

Snow day

I got up early (early for me for a weekend, anyway) for a driving lesson, but when I looked outside, it looked like this:



So The Limey and I went out for a quick walk instead to play in the snow, me in my Knotty gloves.


I actually finished knitting these ages ago, when the colour of the yarn (herbstfarben) was much more appropriate to the season. But the weaving in of ends and tightening of picked-up stitches defeated me and I continued to wear my old, thin, pilly M&S gloves until I mercifully lost one.


Knotty Gloves
Yarn: Wollmeise Twin "We're different" in herbstfarben, just over half the skein for the pair, I think.
Needles: 2.0mm bamboo dpns
Pattern: Knotty Gloves, by Julia Mueller

Notes: I did these in a tighter gauge than the pattern called for, therefore killing two birds with one stone: I have small hands and I wanted a warm, hard-wearing fabric. This yarn is nearly perfect for gloves. Tightly-spun and many-plied, it should stand up to wear very well- and gloves, of course, take a lot of abuse.

I don't know why it took so long to knit myself a pair of gloves: store-bought gloves are always ill-fitting, with the fingers almost always longer than mine, so there's often a few millimetres of fabric extending beyond my fingers, making movement even more awkward than a gloved hand normally is.

The Knotty gloves are great- just knit 'til the fingers fit! (Having said that, I did get impatient with one and had to frog and re-knit the fingers to be longer.)

I mostly followed the directions, except for a few points:

1. I made the cuff shorter- personal preference.
2. I used short rows to shape the palm before starting the fingers, because my index finger doesn't start on my hand at the same distance from the thumb that my pinky does, if that makes sense. In the picture below, I've drawn black lines to show the wedge made with short rows.

3. I decreased gradually to taper the fingers, rather than wait 'til the very end.

I've been wearing these gloves for a couple of weeks, in the crazy weather we've been having, and they have kept my hands nicely toasty. Amazing. I'm paranoid that I'm going to lose one, though. ('Cause you always loose a glove, don't you?) However, there is more than enough yarn left over to knit another one, if needed.

The Limey was working in London last week, and it seems ages since I'd last been, so I took Friday off and went straight down after work on Thursday.

As is usual, the visit was filled with food and yarn: had Vietnamese food on Thursday night and Lebanese food on Friday. (We brought back some of the Lebanese desserts...I'm going to be so sad when we finish the little pastries filled with dates, walnuts and figs. I find a lot of middle Eastern desserts to be too sickly sweet, but these are just lovely.)

I also took the opportunity to visit Loop's new premises in Islington. I resisted the urge to buy yarn, and was really mostly interested in books. I was hoping they'd have one of Margaret Stove's lace books, but no.

I did buy the Winter issue of Interweave Knits and ye gods, I am absolutely enamoured of the Thandie Funnel Neck pullover by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark.

(Photo from Interweave.)

I love everything about it: the colours, the buttoned-up raglan, the funnel/cowl neck, the brioche stitch, the shape, its amazing wearability...

I really want to knit this, but there are so many hurdles before this can be mine, all mine. 1) I have so much other stuff I have to knit; 2) I've never done brioche stitch before; 3) I have no suitable yarns, so would actually have to buy more yarn.

But the main hurdle is that the notes about stretchiness of brioche stitch, the different yarn weights, the gauge measured "slightly stretched" all come together into a possible nightmare of fit issues. I will cry if I don't get this sweater. And I will cry and throw things if I knit the sweater and still don't get it.

What to do? What to do?

Look what landed on my doorstep

A long time in coming, this is Debbie Stoller's latest book in her Stitch 'N Bitch series. This one is packed full of instructions and information about how to further your knitting skills. She talks about cables and lace, about how to design different sleeves, about how to knit something that fits. Basically, as the subtitle says, to go beyond the basics. Way beyond the basics.

And one of those 41 original patterns?
Yep, a lace version of my Pintuck Tee.

I got into knitting around the time the first Stitch 'N Bitch book was published and I taught myself a lot from it, with the help of my first SnB group in Seattle. In addition, I consider that a large part of what makes me me today is that I read Sassy and Bust instead of Tiger Beat and Cosmo during my formative years, so you can imagine the schoolgirl squeeing that ensued when I got an e-mail from Debbie saying she liked my Pintuck Tee and asking if I would contribute something based on it.

Nip/Tuck is knit in Rowan Bamboo Soft, like the original (such a great yarn) but in more dramatic black. I'm really excited about being included in this book and the rest of the patterns are great. My eye was especially caught by a pullover knit in the twisted lace made famous by the Pomatomus socks. I've always thought it would be a great pattern for a top and had thought about designing something, but now it's done for me!

Now, I'm off to read the book more thoroughly.

Knitting weather

The combination of the onset of autumn weather and my acceptance of the fact that we will never unpack all the boxes, or even most of them, has given my knitting a bit of a kick.

Last week I knit a sample of my Tamesis Cowl for Darn It & Stitch, using Fyberspates Scrumptious aran in a wonderfully in-your-face bright magenta. Sadly, I did not take pictures before I handed it to Jo, but hey, you can stop by and see it in person if you're in the area! Also, Jo is starting to stock paper versions of some of my patterns, starting with Tamesis, so definitely check it out.

I also finally finished the knitting of a cardigan from some cashmere/viscose blend thread I bought from Colourmart. I say thread because when it is this thin I refuse to call it yarn. I'm loving this cardigan, but never again will I do a whole sweater on 2mm needles. It's not finished finished because I have no clue what to do about the closure.


I've finished off the front edges in attached i-cord, as directed in the pattern, but didn't want to do the button loops with them. I was going to attach hook-and-eye closures to some pretty ribbon and sew the ribbon onto the sides, but the fabric is so fine that I'm pretty sure any sewing will show on the right side.


The delicacy of the fabric is also why I don't want to sew buttons or anything directly onto the cardi, so I'm kind of stuck. Anybody have any ideas? Please? I definitely want some way of closing the cardigan.

This weekend, I also finally started knitting some gloves. I've been thinking about knitting gloves for myself for ages; store-bought ones are always slightly too big, so I always have a few millimetres of glove extending past the end of my fingers, which is annoying. Also, when we moved, I found one of my Endpaper mitts behind a makeshift wardrobe- and it was all moth-eaten. I nearly cried.

But: every cloud, silver lining, and all that.


This is the first of a pair of Knotty gloves. I think I remember Liz knitting these last winter, and they looked awesome. I'm knitting mine in...Wollmeise! I know, craziness, but dammit, I wanted something hard-wearing, and this sock yarn is almost like cotton, it's so tightly spun and strong. I'm knitting this at quite a clip- this picture is after one and a half days of knitting. Granted, yesterday I did nothing but sit on the sofa and knit, only sparing time every once in a while to push the cat out of the way.

Some work...

...unrelated to moving house has been done.

Meet Daphne. (Here modeled by Liz and Ellen- aren't they cute? Photographed by The Limey.)


Basically a curved piece of garter-based lace, Daphne is my answer to shawls that just don't sit right and aren't long enough to be worn securely. Plus, I realized that, the way I wear my shawls, all that gorgeous, difficult-to-knit, wondrous-to-look-at lace got all scrunched up and just wasn't shown to their advantage.

Thus, Daphne - meant to be worn like a scarf, with the Victorian cockleshell lace fully on display.


The scarf/shawl is crescent shaped using short rows and is knit from end to end.

I've gone to some pains to make this scarf very adjustible and versatile.

• I've written it in a modular way, so you can do more or fewer of some sections, making Daphne skinnier or wider, straighter or more curved, longer or shorter.
  

• The modular technique also means you can knit this in almost any weight of yarn. Using lace weight? Simply do more repeats of certain sections. Using Aran weight? Making it longer but not wider by doing more repeats of the centre section.
  

• I've also thrown in one last option: you can omit the faggoting lace between the plain garter section and the cockleshell border.

In these pictures, Liz wears a purple Daphne knit in Fyberspates' Scrumptious 4-ply, without the faggoting lace. Ellen wears a green Daphne knit in The Thylacine's Zeehan, and includes the faggoting lace.

Jenny from Bluestockings also test-knit the pattern in The Thylacine's Heemskirk, a sock yarn.



Pattern now available on Ravelry or better yet, buy from my website.

*Peers above mountain of boxes*

Wow...so the world is continuing to turn and everything? We got the keys to the house five weeks ago...spent three weeks cleaning, re-plastering, sanding, ripping up carpets, painting...moved and have still not unpacked all the boxes, or even most of the boxes.

I haven't been to any knitting at The Royal Oak all these weeks; we haven't done any actual shopping or eaten real food (lots of take-out, ramen and cereal!); haven't done any laundry. In fact, haven't done anything except rush home from work and go to Wickes and Homebase.

I think I can almost see the end, though. If we just pile the boxes in the spare rooms, then the living spaces will seem like we have space!

Uh-oh...

The Limey and I have hit upon a wondrous, beautiful thing that I think may eventually get us into boatloads of trouble. See, we have discovered that you can get other people to do stuff you don't want to do by paying them!

Now, we'd always had a faint notion that such a thing was possible, but I think it's getting to be less faint and more concrete for us. For instance, the last couple of times we moved, The Limey's work has paid relocation expenses. So we had people come with trucks and do all the lifting and shifting of boxes and furniture and everything. It was great; I thought to myself, Hey, I could really get used to this. It turns out I did get used to it. This move? With no one paying but ourselves? Yeah, totally paying other people to do it, rather than go the "bribe friends with beer" method.

Also, the carpet in the downstairs area of the new house is hideous, and we want to replace it with nice wood floors, but for various reasons can't do it right now. But it needs to be cleaned. It's hideous as well as dirty. So The Limey went to Homebase to ask about renting a Rug Doctor so we could clean the carpet before we move in. Turns out, before they'll rent you one, they need two days' notice. And your passport. WTF? But then The Limey somehow "found" this dude who will -get this- come to our house with his own machine and then just do it for us! All we have to do is cross his palm with silver! It's like magic!

Tonight, sitting at our old place, surrounded by boxes, a dirty kitchen (we haven't been spending very much time here- oh, who am I kidding? The kitchen's always dirty), cobwebs, etc., we start moaning about having to clean this place to get our deposit back. Then we thought, Hey, couldn't we just...pay some to do it? At this point, I put my foot down. No, I said, we cannot. We have to do this ourselves. Dammit, I have principles. (Also, a limited bank balance.)

Ask me later when the boxes and furniture are cleared and I just want the time to set up the new house, though.

Can. Not. Decide.

I don't know what I want. The Limey doesn't know what he wants. We have a dozen tester colour pots. Our walls are starting to look like very promising Rothko paintings. I am seriously ready to just throw a dart at one of these colour charts and to hell with it.

Am I a grown-up now?

I'm not sure how it happened, or how we did it, but...The Limey and I bought a house!

It's a mile from the city centre, and is absolutey hideous inside and out (it was the cheapest house on the block for a reason!). But all it needs is a lick of paint and some care.

I can see we'll be spending a lot of this bank holiday weekend at Wickes.

Darn It & Stitch

Stopped by Darn It & Stitch to chat with Jo yesterday and saw some of my samples on display! That's the Horseshoes Cardi and Draped Lace Shell there- they use the same horseshoes lace pattern and might make a good twin-set, now I've seen them displayed together. Hmmm...may try that since I want new photography for the cardi.


Doesn't the shop itself look great? It's crammed with colourful, pretty, useful objects, but doesn't cross the line into cluttered.

Anyway, it's always nice to see your work get attention. Jo mentioned that many people really like the Pintuck T-Shirt- it's my most popular design and something I like to wear a lot, so I'm glad at least it's being appreciated since I've given it up for display.

The upstairs is apparently open now, but had a workshop on when I stopped by, so haven't seen it yet. Look forward to it!

Must. Step. Away. From. Internet.

Instead, must:

1. Reformat patterns for printing.
2. Swatch and plan design proposals.
3. Work on Persephone sleeves.
4. Photograph test knit.
5. Plan knitting for VeryGoodFriend's baby.
6. At very least, for the love of fluffy kittens, finish a plain stockinette sleeve.

Meanwhile, calm myself with cute overload by looking at picture of colleague's baby with the Elijah I knit for him. (Lucky thing also got some booties from me a while ago.)


(I love this picture because his hands are held like Mr Burns and his eyes are kinda shifty, so the overall impression is that he's formulating some evil plan.)

Knit Nation

I spent an hour or so at the Knit Nation marketplace yesterday. (I went because a friend in London was having a barbecue that day, so, you know, since I was gonna be in town anyway...)

It was a small marketplace, but jampacked with lovely stuff. I have no pictures of it because I stupidly forgot the camera. I made a couple of rounds, and talked to Jeni of Fyberspates about printing up patterns.

I also chatted with Robynn of Purlescence, where you can now buy some of my patterns. Robynn sells the loveliest of yarns, with stuff from the ultra-luxurious end and some good value cotton and bamboo in cheerful colours hand-dyed at a South African women's collective.

I also bought some stuff. A huge hank of laceweight from Wollmeise (couldn't pass up the opportunity), which I think I'm going to try to eek a sweater out of:


And, most importantly, bamboo dpns in the correct sizes for the two projects desperately in need of them:


...And then I left and stopped by IKnit for my magazine fix! (My excuse here is that I had to go through Waterloo to get to my friend's barbecue, anyway.)

The longer I knit...

...the pickier I get.

I'm trying various sleeves on Persephone.

This is my top town seamless set-in version, which is the first time I've tried this method. I love it (I just love picking up stitches). But it may not work here for various other reasons. But the main thing is, I tried to do this with magic loop. HATE it. Tried it, as you see here, with two circulars. HATE it. If possible, it's even fiddler than the single loop. Don't get me wrong- it's certainly effective- you get a small circumference tube, but it makes the knitting no longer enjoyable for me. I can think of few things more soothing and happy-making for me than rounds and rounds of plain stockinette, but using magic loop or two circulars takes all the joy out of it. The fiddliness frustrates me and, as a result maybe?, my tension is awful. Completely all over the place. Ick. I have no dpns of appropriate size, so it's sitting there until I can buy some next weekend at Knit Nation.

Even when I do have dpns in the right size...

...apparently they are not of the correct material. These alumin(i)um dpns are squeaky and unpleasant to hold. Plus, they are heavy compared to this fairy-hair thin yarn, so they pull at the knitting and again, my tension is all over the place. And, they are too long for this particular project and the heaviness pulls them down and the points stick in everywhere. This project, also, is sitting around in a drawer until I can get proper wooden or bamboo dpns this weekend.

It seems like I should be getting better work out of my tools as I knit more, but it seems I am just turning more intolerant over any teeny drawbacks or imperfections.

Do my eyes deceive me?

Something that's never made sense to me is absence of any shop in Oxford dedicated to yarn, fabrics and fibre crafts. Broad Canvas is good for some other crafty supplies, and Port Meadow has that small yarny bit at the back, but that's it. You have to go all the way down to Abingdon to get fabrics or a good selection of yarn. For such a well-off town, crammed with students and tourists throughout the year, it made no sense.

Well, apparently it made no sense to someone else as well, because ta-da!

A good old haberdashery-type shop! Lots of great fabrics with a vintagey-feel and a gorgeous assortment of buttons. (Also, I swear I've passed that exact storefront before and remarked to The Limey that it would make a great yarn shop.)

Jo, the lovely woman who runs Darn It & Stitch, has just a bit of yarn in at the moment, but she's getting more and more. Right now, it's all dk-ish weight yarns in lovely summery fibres: cottons, corn and the like. I stopped in a couple of weeks ago and we chatted and it turns out she's been asked for patterns by lots of people. As it happens, a lot of my free patterns are summer designs knit in dk-ish weight yarns, so I've lent her some of my samples. If you're in or around Oxford, stop by!

I've also been thinking about getting my patterns printed so that they could be sold at LYSs and shops such as Darn It & Stitch, in addition to on-line. So far, it seems like to get them printed and still be able to make any profit off them, I'd need to do print runs of thousands! So I'm still researching this- anyone with any ideas, I'm dying to hear them.

Where did it go wrong?

When I moved to Dublin nearly six years ago, the big motivating factor was that I could then easily visit other parts of Europe. I'd go on weekend trips to romantic, no longer far-flung destinations. My holiday weekends would be spent drinking in France, eating in Spain, hiking in Slovenia, sunning in Croatia, boating in Sweden...

As it turns out, I've been out of the country three times this year, all of them to the US! The Limey travels so much for work that on weekends, all we want to do is hang around the house and do ordinary things, like buy groceries.

What happened? How did my plans go pear-shaped?

We're actually having a summer this year!

It's getting on for 30C this weekend, with no rain in sight. We've been eating outside whenever possible, and since it's light until ten o'clock, this is easy. The past few weekends, The Limey has put the barbecue grill through its paces. Today, it had been warm enough that we couldn't bear to really cook, so dinner was three different salads. Next weekend, though, July 4th barbecue!

Meanwhile, this coming week, I'm in the US for work. Three days, three meetings, three states. In other words, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in airports and on planes. This is bad enough, but the real tragedy is: I have no good plane knitting! I'm looking through my stash and my projects, but nothing appeals. It can't be too complicated; I don't have time to swatch and plan for a new design before I leave; I don't have any other knitting on the go right now. I have one more day to figure it out, though.