FO: Happy Monkeys

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A from Knitty.
Yarn: 2 skeins Plymouth Happy Feet in color #4.
Needles: size 1 (2.25mm) bamboo DPNs.
Time to knit: a week.
Knit while watching: Juno, The Savages, Brothers and Sisters Season 1, Miss Austen Regrets, Doctor Who, Season 3, 2008 Houston Art Car Parade.

What can I say about this pattern that hasn’t already been said? After all, I’ve knit two other pairs and loved the experience, and the third time proved no exception. The pattern is somehow super fast yet not boring, and it looks wonderful in variegated or semi-solid colors. The lace pattern is easy to memorize, which makes for great TV- (and parade-) watching. The Plymouth Happy Feet yarn was lovely to work with, and it’s nice and affordable. Overall, a great experience.

Somehow I’m back wanting to knit socks all the time now, even though the last pair I knit was nearly six months ago and I wasn’t feeling like knitting socks for a while. I am now working on the beautiful Twisted Flower sock pattern, also by sock genius Cookie A, and am finding it challenging but quite addictive. I’ll give you a sneak peek at that in a forthcoming post. I just bought the gorgeous Rivendell pattern and will be knitting those soon in Knit Picks Gloss in the “Dolphin” colorway - they should be a LOTR geek’s dream. Summer + socks = an unlikely combination, but hey, I always get a lot of wear out of them in the winter. Via the summer of socks!

 

Summer Reading

Thanks very much to everyone who commented on Rosalind. I really appreciate your kindness and encouragement. It was so nice of some of you to suggest that I submit my work to Interweave Knits; I’m not sure I see that happening, since I can’t even get my act together to meet a deadline for Knitty these days. But it’s nice to hear nonetheless.

I posted my grades this morning and I am DONE teaching until August! I will be working this summer, at my own pace, on three projects: writing a journal article, compiling a bibliography for my second book project, and prepping for my fall classes. But in between, I will be knitting, sewing, and, of course, reading. Here are some of the possibilities:

From top to bottom: Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country (which I’m currently reading); Diane Ackerman, The Zookeeper’s Wife (on loan from a friend, so this one will be next); Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul; Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries; Paule Marshall, The Chosen Place, the Timeless People; Ali Smith, The Accidental; Octavia Butler, Fledgling; Michael Gruber, The Book of Air and Shadows; Vikram Seth, An Equal Music; Boris Akunin, Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog; Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union; and Brian K. Vaughn, Y, The Last Man #1: Unmanned.

I doubt I’ll get through all of these - and inevitably there will be titles added to my ever-growing list - but I usually read a lot in the summer, so I’m hoping to get to most of them.  That means book reviews coming your way soon.

So what will you be reading this summer?

 

New Pattern: Rosalind

Rosalind is now done, and the pattern is available here. I’m very, very pleased with this project; it’s pretty much exactly how I pictured it when coming up with the design. And it’s named after my all-time favorite Shakespearean character: the heroine of As You Like It. Go to the pattern page for more photos.

Next time: new projects!

 

Book Reviews: Clarke and Wharton

• Susanna Clarke, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories.
  This wonderful collection of odd fairy tales is Clarke’s follow-up to her novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (reviewed here). Although familiarity with the novel is not necessary to enjoy the stories, I recommend reading the novel first to acquaint yourself with Clarke’s magical world, particularly as many of the characters (such as John Uskglass, the Duke of Wellington, Mr. Simonelli, and the titular ladies) appear in the novel either as characters or as footnotes. The tales are all beautifully written and many (such as the title story and “Mr. Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower”) are very eerie. Clarke writes with tongue firmly in cheek, however, particularly in framing the collection with an introduction from a professor of “sidhe” (fairy) studies and in her occasional gentle self-mockery.
• Edith Wharton, Summer.
  This is an audiobook review, as I listened to this novel on LibriVox (link above). This novel makes an interesting companion to Wharton’s Ethan Frome, as both are set in rural New England and concern primarily lower-middle class characters (very different from the urban gentry Wharton focuses on in most of her novels). Summer, unlike Frome, has a female protagonist, Charity Royall, a young woman trapped in the tiny, stifling town of North Dormer, who longs to escape and make a life for herself away from her rather predatory guardian. She meets a young architect from New York and believes she has found her escape and the promise of love. Wharton continues to astonish me with her complex characterizations, evocative use of landscape, and frankness about sexuality. This is a great book, and is capably read by Robin Cotter. I got addicted to the story and blew through it in under a week - highly recommended.

 

FO: Ellis

(please try to ignore my sulky expression in these photos)

Pattern: Ellis, designed by Norah Gaughan, from Norah Gaughan Volume 2.
Yarn: 4 skeins Blue Sky Dyed Cotton in “shrimp.”
Needles: size 8 Denise.
Knit while watching: Northanger Abbey, Grey’s Anatomy Season 3.
Notes:

• This was kind of an impulse knit. I bought the Norah Gaughan booklet while on a brief trip to Austin and decided to match up one of the cover patterns with a yarn from my stash, and voila. Since my bust measurement falls in between two of the sizes (34″ and 38″) I tried to play with the sizing and gauge to achieve something closer to my size. I was only partially successful - as you can see from the photos, it’s a little small. I knit at a larger gauge - the pattern calls for 19 sts/4″ and mine was 16 sts/4″. Accordingly, I chose to knit the smallest size (30″) and it came out pretty close to 36″, albeit still a little too small for me, but fairly wearable nonetheless.
• As the pattern notes, you need to pay attention to row gauge with this project, particularly when knitting the peplum, so that it fits along the curved front pieces and the back piece. My row gauge, like my stitch gauge, was larger than the pattern’s, but it worked out okay. The only part where I forgot to think about gauge was with the collar, which is wider than it probably should be in the back, but looks fine in the front:
• I’ve used the Blue Sky cotton a few times before (see Ophelia and Krista). It’s great to knit with and produces a nice firm fabric (which is why I thought it would make a good substitute for the Berroco Suede called for by the pattern). I love this color, too.
• Because my crochet skills are pretty much non-existent, I only did one row of single crochet around the front edges and the armholes (I can’t do reverse single crochet for the life of me). I also subbed clasps for buttons and button loops, since they worked so well for Lush and Lacy.
• If you’re thinking about knitting this pattern, make sure to check out the errata. It’s fun to knit, and goes pretty quickly.

Now I’m back to knitting the back piece of Rosalind, and it’s going verrrrry slowwwwwly. I’m determined to finish it, though, and be done with this project soon - definitely sometime in May.

Have a good weekend, everyone!