Joys of collaborating

On one of our visits to the yarn shop Clara spotted a crocheted dress and asked if she could have it? The dress was too small, so I suggested she could choose some yarn she liked and I would make her one, AND we can think it up together. The deal was struck between us and Clara went off to pick her yarn. She came back with these two skeins...

On our return home we took paper and pencils and started drawing things up and bouncing ideas off each other. That is, after I had a sedative cup of green tea, after it turned out that Clara picked two most expensive skeins of yarn in the shop... London... Britain... possibly in the "whole wide world"! I thought to myself "Must not imprint on Clara that some things are too fine for her just because she is a child." It's common behaviour in adults and it makes me cringe. On the upside it just shows some good taste. (To Be Prudently Encouraged - as this could turn out to be a double edged sword, so to speak.) Passion for fibers can fog one's ability to use reason at times. Don't we all know this?

Clara insisted she would like to wear the dress on Christmas day and so she did. She proudly explained to our guests that she made it together with me. Credit to Dad/Nick here for picking the colour for the sleeves.

Actually, I really appreciated working on a project with a 5 year old. Clara's imagination and unconstrained creativity are a force to be reckoned with. And she did her bit in a most refreshingly playful way! I think we will definitely collaborate on projects in the future. It's great!

Today we had a little ad hoc photo shoot, so that you can see the results.

Blue Moon

One of the banks did not seem to give much credit (quite literally) to people's passion for hand-knitted socks. To the point of refusing to accept money from Rockin' Sock Club members, set up and run by Blue Moon Fibre Arts - an online yarn store!

It is truly astonishing, and does bring up some thoughts about the patriarchal mindset that seems to predominate in our world. A world which, although it claims to be modern, paradoxically, allows some archaic prejudices to prevail in a subtle yet powerful way.

Example:

As Harriet Lane points out in her recent article titled Crafty Work in a February issue of British Vogue

"Certainly, the artists featured here feel it's a good moment to reclaim neglected or overlooked skills and materials, particularly, perhaps, as the use of technology and computer programming seems to have compromised some contemporary art. And just because these artists are using old-fashioned methods, it would be foolish to make old-fashioned assumptions about their work."

A small interjection here: I would go even further in putting forward an argument against viewing crafts associated with women as old-fashioned. They truly are not. Let's take knitting for example. Someone please tell me what is old-fashioned about it? It is a body of theoretical and practical knowledge, which accompanied humans for thousands of years, adapted according to changing needs and fashions and is as pertinent to our lifestyles in the new millennium as it was in ancient Egypt. Perfectly adapted and very much in demand. Same goes for needlecraft, crochet, spinning &c.

Harriet Lane argues that

"Materials associated with women's work or dressmaking, with its heavy freight of political connotations (the drudgery of darning and of making-do at one end of the spectrum and transient, sybaritic frivolity at the other), have never had much currency in the art world."

This appears to stretch a touch beyond the art world, as the Blue Moon story explicitly shows.

Hence art galleries turn up their noses when approached by artists, who choose to use crafts as their medium. And we witness banks turning down people's money because of some fishy crafty associations.

"The change is underway", as Ms Lane put it, and if you need a proof of 'the changing barometer' just have a look at the uproar in the comments on Yarn Harlot's blog (link below).

To read up on the Blue Moon 'scandal' click here.

Spleen &c.

I feel low and starved of personal space and empty. As far as the circumstances go I cannot find a viable reason to feel so unhappy. To the contrary. And it is doing my head in. Everything I see around me says: "Lucky you! What a wonderful life you have!" A piece of jigsaw puzzle is missing and the picture doesn't make sense.

I read Stephanie's post today and what she said about personal space as a tool for unleashing energy resonated with me. I saw this picture of myself with 3 rocks hanging of my neck as I read it. The rocks were L,C & O. I realise that it sounds horrid but I do think that unless I am totally honest with myself I will not be able to deal with this in a satisfactory kind of way. (BTW, N & O are in France this weekend hence I cannot talk this through with the former AND my blog is my confidante of choice tonight).

It saddens me that I am not experiencing much joy in looking after my children at present and instead everything to do with caring for them seems relentless and exhausting. I suspect that I haven't looked after myself properly and I didn't get my priorities right. Is there a way to wipe out this unnerving sense of being overloaded and not able to think clearly? I think I might be outgrowing the current set up and there is change ahead of us. It feels uncomfortable and is so tempting to indulge in misery.

Than again, it strikes me that happiness is a matter of mastering one's mind, as opposed to circumstances fitting the ideal. Sounds simple, and I am tempted to say "not easy". I won't though.

As far as the remedy goes I will try noticing and letting go - a trick I learnt at KP courses.

And to think that lack of a digital camera (which currently is in France also) can prompt such trains of thoughts! If it was here I would take a photo of C's hat and entertain myself by telling you a story behind it.

Actually, I'd rather be looking "the beast" straight in the eye, than avoiding it.

And when it comes to think about stories, there is something sort of funny I can tell you about.

One of the things Harlot has been going on about forever are audio books, and how wonderful they are if you have a propensity to knit too much. Well, I had a dilemma over this Xmas holiday: whether to read or to knit. I enjoy reading a lot and I (perhaps a touch unwisely) started reading "Sense and Sensibility". Before I knew it I got drawn into the book and thus unashamedly "wasted" precious knitting time. I read over cooking pots whilst stirring their contents, in the torch light late into the night, in the bath (I don't do anything by halves, even if it's feeling wretched). All the while feeling terribly uneasy about all my knitting projects grinding to a halt. I decided to get an audio book, and promptly purchased Emma - 13 CDs! Unabridged. Hours and hours of reading... I mean listening. And I'll be able to spend them all knitting! I am so pleased and disbelieving that it took me so long to get around to it. Then (thinking that it could turn out to be quite an expensive addiction and one that would unavoidably affect my yarn spending), I found Simply Audiobooks - a rental site, where you can download audio books for a small monthly charge and I thought it a good idea to subscribe to it (brilliant sustainable way of acquiring goods - virtually no transport, packaging &c.). Little did I know how incompatible they are with Macs! Yesterday evening I was very unsuccessfully trying to download a book. I could have been just as well banging my head against the wall (to think of it - maybe it would shake out the frustrating thoughts mentioned above?). I was getting nowhere. I spent about 2hrs at it, had to revert to PC, which was obviously playing up and I'm not even half way there, because as soon as I've downloaded the file I'll have to work out how to make it compatible with my iPod. No CD player in this house, I'm afraid - L & C fed it copper coins and it was never the same again, so it had to go (do you see what I mean about living with little kids?). I have waisted about 4hrs so far trying to remove obstacles on the way to happy listening and knitting.

Self-diagnosis 2: I seem to be prone to distraction from knitting at present, whether it be emotional turmoil or technical difficulties.

I want to finish this on some kind of neutral note.

Marc Jacobs' oversized sweater, as found here.

In an attempt to cheer myself up I browsed S/S 2007 knitting trends today.

Second attempts

This was fun (once I got off it about designers with heretic propensities - having remembered that I count myself in their midst)! I changed the colourway a bit and I do like subtle difference between the two greens I used here. 100% seamless and neat. And with the technicalities honed I am more than happy with these cute mitts.

L loves them too!

I used hand-painted wool from Serendipity in South America, an eBay store I discovered eons ago. Highly recommended for a bit of adventure in wool shopping. And they have plenty of wool just perfect for felting projects (how important this distinction is one can fully appreciate only having overheard a conversation between two "felters" at the wool shop recently).

LATER...

I started writing this post earlier this afternoon and the computer crashed on me before I published it. I decided that, my neglect of Stitchville being too great this festive month, I had to make an effort and publish a post today. I started the machine up and... it just restored everything for me! This means I can go off now and make myself a cup of coffee and then check out what's happening in Kendra's world instead of reconstructing what I have written before! Oh, joy! AND I shall have some time to cast on a small project for tonight's New Year's Eve Pyjamas Party we're going to!

Happy New Year.

Unwinding...

Flat mittens? I do not think so!

Yeserday I tested the pattern for "target" mittens, which I found in Fall '06 issue of Interweave Knits, as L needs new mittens. You can imagine my surprise when on first reading of the pattern I realised that I will need to work them flat! I decided to suspend my judgement and put my prejudices aside for a while, and made a start. I followed the instructions to the letter and promptly produced one mitten.

I examined it closely and turned it inside out...

... and, I confess, I cannot bring myself to go through with this. Everything in me goes "Hold on a minute! This is not right. (Let's call the designer, who came up with this lovely idea and horrendous pattern "X", shall we?) What did X think when he/she was designing these mittens? Hasn't he/she heard about the wonder of DPN's? This is nuts! It's like making socks with seams! I do not think so!"

So in this mad world knitwear designers think up mittens with seams, publishers publish their blinking flat patterns and I am supposed to re-work them before I can actually make the mittens! Here goes my idea of low-key holiday knitting - with a BANG!

PS: I have since had another order for a pair of mittens, this time from C. On her return from a trip to the Natural History Museum yesterday she said "Mummy, I forgot to take my mitten out of the bus".

A Husband Who Understands

There are many theories out there about the secret of a happy marriage, some of which are more convincing than others. As far as I can tell from my own experience friendship and sense of humour definitely worked a treat in my relationship with N. We have recently "celebrated" (I use inverted commas here as it was the lowest possible key of celebrating. The fact that we remembered the anniversary was an event in itself! It's not that we don't care, but we have three small children, you see - and that is a serious challenge for one's memory. Where was I?)... our 6th anniversary, and N bought me a present. His choice shows how well he got to know me.

No, it wasn't a ring.

No, it wasn't a necklace.

Yes, it was a piece of knitwear.

Of course, anyone who meets me can figure out pretty much after about 5 minutes of acquaintance that I like knitwear - I am also very picky and extremely rarely see knits in the shops that I would wear (a bow to John Smedley, which is a rare exception, but they make such fine gauge knits that it doesn't really count as competition for a hand-knitter. BTW, did you see their seamless stuff - amazingly fine, and I am not talking "gauge" here). Still, he hit the spot with nano-accuracy. I was presented with the softest drapey wrap around cardi from Humanoid in a very beautiful hue of brown.

I will not let this man go. In fact I should appoint him as my personal style consultant. This is how good he is at spotting clothes AND shoes that I love wearing!

Ladies and gentlemen, let me present a distinctive contemporary garment.

Post-preview

Last time I wrote a post ELDS was looming big, and in just under one week's time it came, went, and left me shattered. It is absolutely unheard of, but - yes - I did have a nap yesterday when Oliver was asleep. The status quo on naps is that I am apparently uncapable of having them. I am too much of a busy body. What with all there is to do? With emotions running high, all apprehension and excitement I came out of it really low key and dazed.

Now, report.

It took me nearly all day on Thursday to put this together. The huge linen gown was the trickiest bit, and - frankly - I only had a very faint idea of where to start with suspending it. I ended up going with the flow, and it worked OK. When I finished, it floted in the air looking ghostly and insubstantial. I thought it might be the attention catcher, but have underestimated the amount of gasps it inspired :)

I think the best move was to take my favourite chair with me - imagine 4 days away from home, thrown amongst the crowds of curious and inquisitive visitors. One needs grounding, and what better grounding than a few moments of knitting here and there whilst perched on one's favourite chair?!

I met some lovely fellow exhibitors: Jelly, who makes beautiful foil pressed cards (look out for her cards in trendy places like Harvey Nics and After Noah). Then there was KJ, the Liquorice lady - who makes gorgeous broches and scarves and pillow cases. You can see their display reflected in the mirror, but I promise pictures soon. Nuria Gambau of Nuria London and here is her genius bag - a true piece of art, in my humble opinion. Michele of Michele Oberdieck. Michele makes amazing silk and wool wrap around coats. One of those is on my "to get" list. Juliette and Tom, who run Milagros, a store in Columbia Road filled with treasures from Mexico. This brings me onto one of my favourite pictures of the weekend...

Esme of Milagros at the preview night.

Nick, Louis, Clara and Oliver (as well as many friends - Lucyann, Elke, Nicky, Miriam, Hilary & Co, Jo, Susie and Eddie - XXX 2 U - it was lovely 2 C U!) visited and I was delighted to see them all. L, C & O had fantastic time in the creche, which was brimming with children having fun with creative activities. Clara had her face painted and was thus transformed into "Princess Number 12" - don't ask me to explain this one!

There was a lot of memorable stuff, amongst the highlights was meeting Kendra of I Dream of the Sea. (Did you see her Gerda Stole yet?) It was great to chat to her and Monkey and be able to put faces to their mysterious incognitos. (Kendra, it was great to meet you. Maybe will see you again at one of those I Knit pub knitting sessions?)

I will be back. Off now to do some work for the pitch for a craft book on gloves for A/W 2007. Make sure the bugs don't bite.

PS: The fingerless cashmere gloves were second most attention-catching piece. See? It was worth it!

Pre-preview

Fingerless evening gloves, cashmere & vintage glass buttons by L.Nichols, 2006.

I have targets, schedule, two lists of things to do and three kids driving me to distraction.

The big news is that the evening gloves are ready - drying in the study this very moment - waiting to be photographed tomorrow.

Finished BEFORE estimated completion time. Yes. And on this account I went to bed in the wee hours of new days about three times. I cannot remembetr being so silly in a long, long time!

I so loved making these gloves. The yarn is just amazing to work with. I listened to king Arthur stories through the easy bits and changed design slightly as I went along. They look rather sleek and small changes I made give them more aerodynamic and modern feel.

Bear with me Sarah - I will have the pics up on the site tomorrow :)

That's more like it!

Having a Muse for a boss doesn't make one's job easy. I can vouch for that.

Everything was running smoothly (actually, it still is) and I was very chuffed to be so on top of everything. My simple plan of doing something every day towards fully ticked off list turned out to be just the thing.

Last weekend Nick and I went on a bike ride that was designed to take us by a yarn shop, and that's where I spotted this: Jade Sapphire 4-ply hand-dyed Mongolian cashmere.

I bought two skeins and didn't think much of it (do I need to mention that it wasn't even on my list), except that it was without a doubt the softest yarn on Earth.

I woke up a couple of days later struck by the idea of fingerless evening gloves. I took another look at the yarn and I held it and let it 'speak to me'. And it surely did. It told me to find the finest possible set of double pointed needles in the house, which turned out to be 2mm and to start winding a ball.

By that point I was completely under its influence.

This is the terrible bit where I get to neglect my children by means of sitting them down on a sofa in the study (having first led them to think that watching 'Incredibles' is the very thing they most desire in the world. Oliver sound asleep) I run downstairs to pick up the needles and cast on the gauge test.

Pencils, sharpener, pad, calculator and measuring tape all come out of their various hiding places and sketching is in full swing. I plunge into my library of patterns. Forget all the fine foods in the fridge. Pasta for dinner again.

Two days later I cast on the first glove and get cracking. And you will never ever guess what happens?! One of the fine Oso Lanoso Monkey Sticks otherwise known as rosewood needles snaps under my gentle touch.

I promise, I handled them with utmost care and I now do realise that it was a very impractical idea to buy such fine needles in such delicate wood. It's about quarter past midnight. Can't speak to anyone as it's too late (unless they live in States but that's no use) to get the new set via fastest possible delivery method. Stomp off to bed myself. BTW, Luciana at Foreign Strand was most helpful, emphathised and promised a replacement set of my choice when I spoke to her next morning. Thank you Luciana - if you're reading this.

Loop comes to the rescue and furnishes a lovely set of 2mm bamboo needles. All on track again, as of yesterday.

Last night was very productive...

...and although I went to bed at precisely 1am I woke up fresh and full of energy this morning. I am really looking forward to the next session. I have a Master Plan, which should hopefully deliver two fingerless evening gloves for the ELDS exhibition. Support structure embodied as my husband is ever so life-saving!

This brings me back to the first paragraph. Living on the edge is what I seem to be about. Things get too cosy and I wake up with a vision and it will not let me go/I will not let it go (or both?). And my noticing is that I take these challenges on rather willingly. I am loving the experience and I do think that it helps me to surpass my own limitations.

The thing I love most about this project is that it is very much like climbing by its nature (for benefit of those of you who haven't known me 10 years ago, I used to climb). Mistakes are fatal. The yarn and the needles so fine, pattern so intricate - it requires constant focus and attention.

Goodbye easy peasy.

On instant gratification pieces

Time is a precious commodity what with all the preparations for the show and raising 3 kids. This is a good and a bad thing. Good because I have a perfectly sound excuse not to do a number of things that - frankly - I cannot get excited about (i.e. clean the fridge). It is also very bad, as my knitting time is at a real low and that really distresses me. Don't misunderstand me. I DO KNIT, but the nature of current projects is not as ambitious as I would wish them to be.

Hence I have a huge pile of various yarns, as I cannot keep up with my voratious appetite for fibre. I store my yarns (I am not sure if I should disclose such intimate details of my existence) ...let's say I store them in a secret place in my house. In fact, I have been storing some of them for years. For some time now I have been promising myself to re-visit the depths of the aforementioned hiding place to refresh my memory and to make a list of yarns for future reference.

Yesterday I bit the bullet and went throught all the storage boxes brimming up with exquisite yarns. Oh, some of those gorgeous yarns at the bottom of the bottom-most boxes I didn't even remember I had! As I rumaged through the boxes I recalled what projects I had in mind when buying them and allowed myself a few moments of pure fantasy thinking about the most beautiful sweaters and cardis I have no time to knit at the mo. Pure torture. Especially when it came to putting all the 'sorted' boxes away.

These days I channel my creative energy into knitted pendants. Just like the ones pictured below.

Again, I wish to be very clear: I am not saying that they are unworthy projects. I am merely pointing out that in comparison with a Kaffe Fassett's cardi that I am planning to make at some point in the future (you know, to hone the colourwork skills I posses) they come up fairly faint. Oh yeah, did I mention that I would OBVIOUSLY turn the Kaffe Fassett cardi seamless just to add more excitement to the game.

PS: Actually, I have to say some of the distractions that take my attention away from knitting are just fabulous. This weekend was just perfect (I did squeeze a few rows of knitting into it and a trip to my favourite local yarn shop). The most memorable thing was a bike ride with Nick and a lovely stop for a coffee and a snack at one of those cute cafs overlooking the green. Needless to say, we talked mostly of knitting related ideas. He loves me a lot, I think - to have so much patience for his obsessed wife!

Dreams come true

Back in the days when I had a 'regular job' I secretly cherished this vision of a workplace, which was better suited to my personality - that of a home-loving creature with a great need to be super-flexible at times and with fondness for crafts.

Alas, I have landed myself in this dream place by means of my unwavering intention.

And I like it a lot.

And there is a sense of perfect timing.

And I am bringing to it all the skills and the insight that are 'regular job"s legacy.

This is what it looks like:

And I do have my little helpers:

And the best thing of all is that I get to drink a lot of gorgeous coffee prepared with ritual-like attention, rather than a cuppa made in a hurry. It aligns with my belief that there must be beauty and quality in everything I do or make.

Forgotten treasures

In the spirit of conscienciousness I was going through the piles of my creations, with an intention of selecting the finest pieces for the show. That's when I stumbled upon this...




The very cosy sweater that Clara detested when she first got it!

Sculpting the fibre

I have been consumed totally by the preparations for the East London Design Show and thus neglecting Stitchville, house chores and my nails. Actually, a vibrant social life resurected by joint effort of myself and Nick proved to be a distraction also. A rather delightful one. With a smile I glanced this morning at our recycling box overflowing with empty wine bottles. It's so good to have friends around!

The trouble with being a designer/maker is such that it is unavoidable having to spend some of the time doing boring admin and other business-like things, which all have a major fault and it is that you can't use needles and yarn to do them.

Yesterday, when I looked at this week's work and realised how much of the boring stuff I got done I thought I deserved a treat time and made a start on a scarf (which is fun part of preparations for ELDS). I so love knitting! I'm afraid I will have to go now and make most of this quiet time to indulge in some more of it...

Oh, BTW, my profile is up on the ELDS site now, if you're curious to find out more. If you would like an invite just e-mail me at malgosia@blueyonder.co.uk with your postal details and I'll send you one.