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Is anyone still there? The past few weeks have been extremely busy, and the end is still far beyond the field of my focus, but you’ll be glad to hear that, as the verse reads, I am as yet unbowed. Still, the feeling is definitely that I need some help, especially having been quite badly let down. And if I have learned anything about knitters over these last few years it is that you are kind, generous, and want to help.

So this is a call for test knitters. Before you jump off your seat to volunteer, please read the below: You are amazing! Thank you so much for every single offer of help! I can see I will have far more willing friends than pieces that need knitting, so let me give some thought to the best way of allocating knits to knitters. And if I may, I’ll hold onto the details of everyone who’s offered, because even if I’m not able to utilise your skills this time around I’m bound to want to in future.

I will pay you (no princely sum, but the equivalent for the size of project to what I would pay my usual knitters here in the UK), acknowledge your contribution, and give you (at my expense) a copy of the book when it is published. You will not be able to choose the colour or size of the project you knit, you will not be able to keep the project you knit. We will discuss what size of commitment you would be able to take on.

In return I will expect you to:
* Meet a mutually agreed deadline including allowing sufficient time for carriage
* Be party to a non-disclosure agreement
* Keep me informed of your progress
* Feed back on the pattern, including asking me if anything is unclear or starts to ‘look wrong’, rather than ploughing on regardless
* Be confident in your knitting skills.

There may be more, but that will do for now. If you leave me a comment below saying ‘I’m interested’, I’ll get in touch to find out more. Or feel free to email me, if you have the address (I’m sure most of you do, all these years and I still haven’t got around to putting a mailto link on the site).

Also, if you’re still reading and still feeling helpful, I don’t suppose you know of a good source for reasonably attractive and also reasonably cheap fabric tote bags, of the type suitable for keeping knitting projects in? Someone with more time and love for her sewing machine than I would whip up a half dozen of her own. At the moment I lack even time to knit a pair of booties for my dear burgeoning baby, my little loaf, so I must throw money at the problem instead, and rely on that other someone’s industriousness. I tried ‘etsy’ but the search results were too huge and unwieldy: a personal recommendation would be far preferable, if you have one.

My dears, thank you for your patience and for being here with open hearts when I can be.

Category : Blog

First of all, thanks so much for all the lovely comments on the last post. I definitely won’t be modelling any more non-maternity designs for the next few months, but you all made me feel very happy about the photo shoot for Marla. The pattern for that one should be up tomorrow or the next day.

Now to the substance of this post:

I don’t know about you, but the deadline for this round of Sockapalooza crept up on me. I knew the deadline was August but hadn’t quite appreciated that it was the second of August. Which is effectively the end of July.
Luckily, both socks had been finished for a while and just needed the ends sewn in, a quick block, and a card to accompany them.

Truly, if my sock pal finds anything not to love about these socks I will despair. Cookie’s Twisted Flower pattern is so beautiful, and my own Regia silk socks are bearing up quite well to wear and laundering. They’re more lovely on but I found the contortions required to take a snap were beyond me, so I hope my sock pal will show a picture of them being modelled.

I can’t wait to receive the pair from my own sockpal, who has been quite a tease with false email addresses and clues to the yarn she’s using – my appetite is definitely whet. And for the third time, immense thanks to Alison for managing this behemoth.
So that’s one item struck through on the ‘to do’ list. Next? Finish six projects plus intros for next book deadline in two weeks. If you’re looking for me, that’s where I’ll be.

Category : Blog

That’s just what happens when you start working on a piece before you know you’re expecting.

I am sucking in my tummy as far as I possibly can, but nevertheless have expanded quite a bit, in all sorts of places. So if you’re thinking of making this please note that, if you make the correct size to fit your actual body, the sweater will be an inch or two longer in the body, and slightly less strained all over.

At least my expansion doesn’t affect the neck. I love how the neckline turned out.

Category : Original designs

Sorry for the absence – we’ve been at the beach for a week, enjoying mixed weather but a very restful time. I have photos of the finished Marc/Koigu hybrid to show soon, followed by a pattern – it turned out quite well, but this was definitely the last time I’ll be able to model my own designs for a while.

If you’ve been waiting and waiting for the Bridie pattern, you’ll be pleased to know it’s available here.

Category : Original designs

I don’t think I’m alone in this: I love to look at variegated yarn in the skein, but balk at making much other with it than socks, or perhaps the occasional scarf. I refer of course specifically to the multi-colour variegation that we see in Koigu KPPPM, for example, rather than the subtle variations in a hand-dyed semi-solid shade.

Now I know that variegated yarn has many many devotees, and while I would not hesitate to lay down some dictats about what does and does not fall under the definition of ‘style’, this is not one of them. Just that for me personally, the variegated garment, unless it is very monochrome, the stitch pattern exactly right, and the yarn particularly appropriate, has often, to my eye, a touch of the tie-dye about it. A valid stylistic choice in and of itself, but not one I myself often make.

(Although as an aside, one of my favourite items of clothing ever owned was a soft cotton t-shirt, orange, with a large yellow sun tie-dyed onto the front. My uncle Ben made two, matching, one each for me and my cousin Chloe. We wore them with crowns made of tin-foil and our underpants, one hot summer at Granny’s house. We held hands, scampered around the garden, ate apples. It was 1975 and we were three.)

Browsing in Liberty’s, first floor ladies’ fashion, this past spring (a recommended way to kill an hour in the West End, department of your choosing), my eye was caught by a neat summer jumper by Marc Jacobs. Narrow, textured stripes to body and sleeves – I believe his were in shades of red, green, khaki, sand, brown – were sharpened beautifully by natural cotton rib.

So the Marc Jacobs inspiration, some Koigu and some Rowan 4-ply cotton led to this. The colours are not particularly true – it’s terribly gloomy this weekend. I’ll withhold judgement for as long as it takes me to work out an envelope neckline treatment, and report back.

I know, you’re on tenterhooks.

Category : Original designs

‘Just’ writing a book clearly wasn’t enough of a challenge. So I decided to have a baby at the same time, specifically planned so that the deadlines for both be within eight weeks of each other. My editor, who thankfully seems to be a delightful person, was entirely unflustered by the news. She tells me this is not uncommon – apparently the urge to create, when it strikes, can be very strong.
The heir to Raitte Hall is due to make an appearance around the 12th of December. He or she is confirmed as having ten fingers, ten toes, two brain hemispheres, and, according to my mother on seeing the scan picture, my forehead. A better start, you’ll agree, is difficult to imagine.

Category : Blog

These are two of my favourite people. The one on the right, with the long face, made his final journey today, to the Great Paddock in the Sky. He was my darling sister’s horse, a companion for the last 14 years, and I hope his loss will not leave her too bereft, for too long.
He was a Good Boy (Isy disagrees on this point), but not too good. In fact, he was sometimes bad. He had a big personality, the world’s most uncomfortable trot, and a beautiful, deep copper summer coat. He never scared me, which is more than can be said of many horses.
Thanks for taking care of me when we rode together – sorry it wasn’t more often. We’ll miss your brown face looking over the stable door. We’ll miss you arguing with your neighbours. We’ll miss your grumps, and your gnashing teeth when we do up your girth. You always tried very hard to be good, and you sometimes failed, but we appreciated the effort.
Goodbye, Elliot.

Category : Blog

How we laughed, Ann and I, as we sat in the hotel lounge last New Year’s Eve, quaffing champagne. How we laughed, when I confessed that I was working on a book, and how I’d never manage to keep up the website. How we laughed, when I thought aloud that I would distract my beloved readers with socks. With other people’s socks.
Well. I couldn’t pick a prettier one than sock genius Cookie A’s twisted flower sock. It’s for the sockapalooza (4). I took part in rounds one and two, missed round three, and now round four is a behemoth of a sock swap. My swapee specifically mentioned deep colours, and specifically mentioned yarn that would be good to launder and to wear, so I’m hoping this Regia Silk in merlot fits the bill. At this rate, I may even have time to knit the partner sock before August.

There’s something called a Pligg, which I feel simply too Feak and Weeble to understand. Much like Ravelry, which everyone is raving about and which I am sure is the best fun – I simply do not have the mental faculty at the moment to devote to understanding yet another web tool. If indeed that is even what they are. You see how little I understand.
The truth, dear onions, is that with the deadline for the first batch of designs imminent, I am once again discovering the weighty truth that a swatch, a yarn choice, a sketch, does not (thank you Ruth) amount to a finished project. So I am forced to pull myself into focus and knuckle down and finish some things (some things that have been lying around waiting for a seam, a neck treatment, a decision, for months). And this is not good site fodder. I will do what I can, but I fear that may be very poor.
So I open the floor to the audeince. Please, as I have been so bad at keeping up with my reading, share what has given you most joy to work on these few months, what triumphs. And if there’s anything you wish I would cover in my sporadic musings, I would be so grateful for any snippet of inspiration or direction you could give me. After all, after feeding and watering this site for so very long, it would seem terribly cruel to let it die of neglect now.

Category : Blog

And yet, and yet, and yet. We have so little to show.

Baby socks for my yoga teacher. Swatch for a ginormous cabled cardigan, now knitted and only awaiting blocking and buttons. Swatch in blue heather Cascade 220 for a fitted, asymmetric, princess-seamed equestrian jacket – knitted but awaiting seaming. Swatch in glorious Fable Alpaca, with a zig-zag slipstitch pattern, design fully conceived and awaiting download from my brain and into written instructions. Swatch in Debbie Bliss Pure Silk – a leaf pattern in stranded colourwork, but not reading as clearly as I would like. Maybe green out of white would be easier to see than white out of green, or maybe it’s more trouble that it is worth and would be better in a nice houndstooth or herringbone instead.
You see, as previously intimated, I have this weekend signed and returned in triplicate a contract committing to producing one entire book by February next. Which feels terrifying and ridiculous at the same time. The thing won’t be in print until Spring 09, so I take some comfort in knowing that no actual knitter will ever read said book – by then we will all have knitted through our stashes and be finding creative outlet through macrame, or Fimo.
In consequence, Fashionable Life bulletins are likely to be somewhat thin on the ground for the next six months, although I hope to keep you sweet with the occasional project which I can share, and self-publish too. Dear reader, I know you are forgiving. If you demanded daily, even weekly updates, you would long ago have cancelled your subscription to these irregular pages.
And now, as any good procrastinator should, I’m going to avoid knitting by sowing seeds for this year’s vegetable garden. It is a glorious spring day. The irony is not lost on me that, in previous years, I have procrastinated on sowing seeds by knitting instead.

Category : Blog

I have come to accept that my beautiful Dundonnell stole is lost. I know I had it on the train back from Scotland; I had it when I went for a sight test on 28 Feb. Perhaps I left it on the bus. My greatest hope is that whoever found it cherishes as much as I did, and realises how lucky they are to have it.
This is the risk, I suppose, with precious, memory-laden handknits that are so readily removable. At least it was loved, and used, very much while it lived with me. I hope it’s happy in its new home.

Category : Blog