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.
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.
The Lyf So Short 