Month: May 2014

All the News That’s Fit to Stitch: Good News/Bad News Edition

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The Good News: Debbie Bliss has just announced a beautiful knitting-themed home collection, including some British-themed knitting accessories and baby gifts. Want, want, want! The colors are bright and joyful, the styling is modern, and the photography is, as usual, top-notch. In many ways, I think of Debbie Bliss as the Martha Stewart of knitting. Her designs are simple but timeless and she’s marketing a lifestyle almost as much as a craft. And, I admit somewhat guiltily, I aspire to that lifestyle, one much removed from my ordinary, beige-carpeted, California apartment life. I’d buy the entire collection if I had that kind of disposable income. For now, I will have to be content with drooling over the images on my computer. I’ve collected a few images here just to give you a little appetizer. Please to enjoy.

 

English Mustard Double Rib Tea Towel
Rainbow Loopy Lapin
London Red Garter Stitch Mug
Pink Knitting Tote Bag
Harris Tweed Purple Knitting Needle Roll
Slate Grey Moss Stitch Tea Towel
Duck Egg Blue Stocking Stitch Mug
Knitting Aid Apron
London Brick Knitting Needle Holder

 

The Bad News: as many of you know from my “About” page (or might easily have guessed from the cross stitch design in the right-hand column), I am a big admirer of the Arts & Crafts design movement, and one of my favorite schools of design is the Glasgow School of Art. I am especially enamored of the architect/designer/founder of the school, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. You can learn more about the Charles Rennie Mackintosh society here. Yesterday, there was a big fire at the school which started in the basement and rose all the way to the fifth floor. The extent of the damage to the school’s interior, which is filled with design pieces by Mackintosh, his equally talented wife Margaret MacDonald, other contemporary Scottish Art Nouveau pioneers, and students and teachers from the past century, has yet to be fully determined, but if the news footage is anything to go by, it doesn’t look promising. In particular, it looks like the school’s library, which was meticulously designed by Mackintosh, has been destroyed (the previous link has “before” and “after” photos).

I am overwhelmed with sadness and the immensity of this loss. If you are able to contribute to the rebuilding fund, please do so. I will be contributing half the proceeds of my “Mackintosh Welcome” design to the fund for the foreseeable future.

If you want to work out your loss with knitting, try this Mackintosh Rose Jacket by Martin Storey, the Beloved Rose Beret by Shuttermonkey Designs, or this Glasgow Rose Stole by Lucy Hague. For cross-stitch designs inspired by Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art, Heartland House and Art-Stitch are the best American designers out there.

Hurrah! A Big Finish!

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Asia and Trey's Afghan 001
An afghan blanket for Asia and Trey’s wedding

This past weekend (nearly a week ago now),  I finally cast off on the “Winter Lace Afghan” I was knitting for my roommate’s niece, Asia, and her new husband, Trey. Well, he’s relatively new; they were married last September over Labor Day weekend in a beautiful wedding at a historical lodge in Oklahoma. I started the afghan in early August, thinking it would be a quick knit, since I had some time on my hands that month. I was sorely disillusioned when the knitting gods knocked me down for my hubris. However, I think, according to Emily Post or Martha Stewart or somebody, you have one year to give newlyweds their wedding gifts and still be considered “on time.” [Update: I have since learned that the “one year’s grace period” is a wish-fulfillment myth invented by procrastinators like me. Uh-oh.]

In spite of the unexpectedly long production time, the results are beautiful and I would certainly do this pattern again. However, I would time my knitting so I was only working on the afghan during the winter months. Los Angeles in summer (and this is one of the hottest Mays on record) is no place to be knitting a chunky, wool-blend afghan that weighs half-a-ton. Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick ‘n’ Quick is great, versatile bulky yarn, but it doesn’t exactly “breathe.” Phew!

But, as I said, the results were worth it, and I hope Asia and Trey enjoy their wedding gift for years to come. To the bride and groom!

The same afghan, folded, still beautiful
Another view of the afghan — again, pardon the lighting…

All the News That’s Fit to Stitch, Part V: Mother’s Day Edition (plus a giveaway!)

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Mother's Day by Ewe & Eye and Friends
“Mother’s Day” by Ewe & Eye and Friends

Culled from the very best of the interwebs, I bring you:

  • Adventures in Knitting (thanks to martinimade for pointing out this little gem)
  • Yet another article on how knitting can benefit your health. This one recaps CNN’s “This is Your Brain” episode about the cognitive benefits of crafting in alleviating depression, stress, and anxiety. Here’s a recap of the recap on the Huffington Post UK. It’s like “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” but with links about knitting.
  • Apparently, the Washington Post has discovered knitting. Here’s an interesting article about a program to teach prisoners how to knit as part of their “resocialization” process. The photo gallery is worth a look; they sure look like they’re having a lot of fun.

On a personal note, it’s Mother’s Day here in the United States, the day we celebrate all the mothers in our lives and thank them for all that they’ve done for us. My own mother passed away from breast cancer in the spring of 1997. Not a day goes by that I’m not reminded of her and I think about all the time she was robbed of by dying at such a relatively young age. I especially feel her absence now that she has grandchildren and I know they would have brought her so much happiness, happiness she richly deserved.

To honor her here, I’ve posted the photo of the last Mother’s Day gift I ever gave my mother, a stitched design is called “Mother’s Day” by (the now sadly defunct) Ewe and Eye and Friends. Pardon the shadows, bad lighting and photography issues — my mother passed along many talents to me, but unfortunately photography was not one of them.

GIVEAWAY: Since this beautiful design is no longer in print, it’s very hard to find, but I am offering my used pattern in good condition (not the actual stitched version, obviously) to anyone who wants it. It would make a great gift for your mother too. Leave me a comment below to let me know you’re interested. Thanks for reading my blog, and please take some time out today to thank the mother(s) in your life!

April Smalls SAL Check-in: “Union Jack Freebie”

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This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England…

In celebration of actually completing this month’s (by which I mean April’s) 2014 Smalls SAL challenge, I’m letting my inner Anglophile out to play. To be truthful, my inner Anglophile isn’t exactly usually inside the house practicing her violin and doing her math homework. She’s usually out cavorting around for everyone to see — watching BBC America, reading nineteenth-century English novels, eating lemon curd, indulging in a mild fascination with Prince Harry, driving on the left side of the road (OK, maybe not that last one).

I charted and stitched “Union Jack Freebie” (last seen as a work-in-progress here) for my fledgling — very fledgling — cross stitch design company, Wordsmith Designs, and the charted design will be up on the web site soon. However, it’s already available on this blog here as a free pattern.

Union Jack Freebie by Wordsmith Designs
Though she be but little, she is fierce!

To give you some idea of the scale of this design, the entire frame is only 6″ X 4 1/2″/15 X 11.5 cm, and the design size itself is 2.52” X 1.4”/6.4 X 3.55 cm. I stitched this Union Jack on 25-count beige Jobelan, which is my current favorite fabric for doing one-over-one designs;  the stitch definition is fantastic and it’s not too tiny (and exasperating) to work with considering my middle-aged eyes. The threads I chose were Gentle Arts Sampler Threads in Midnight (blue), Schoolhouse Red (red) and Oatmeal (ecru/white), although the pattern comes with some alternative suggestions (DMC, Anchor, Crescent Colours and Weeks Dye Works).

I’ve tried to be as accurate to the real Union Jack flag as possible. The tricky parts were the diagonal red lines which do not quite line up in the original, although many reproductions “cheat” by having simple diagonal lines.

The frame is a standard 2″ X 3″/5 X 7.5 cm frame I found at (I believe) Target several years ago. The cracks at the joins don’t appear so alarming in real life as they appear in this photo. It’s funny how photographs magnify even minor flaws. I’ve noticed this phenomenon when photographing knits before; the slightest imperfection — a knot in the wrong place, a stitch that sticks out, a stray cat hair — shows up like it’s got a huge neon arrow pointed at it.

Photography issues aside, I hope you enjoy this quick and easy pattern. I’d love to see any pictures of completed projects.