What Do You Use?

hat do you use?

Madeleine at Knit Purls of Wisdom is hosting a blogfest!

I've shared photos of my two gorgeous yellow boxes before; that's where I corral most of my wool.

Everything else is less organized. There's a plastic bag for all my needles, crochet hooks, stitch markers (thanks Helen!), and so on. But current projects fall into any of five tote bags and my pattern books and photocopied or printed patterns are all over the place.

No one wants to see photos of the mess! I hope to finish the latest blanket soon, and I'll share photos of that. Instead, for now, let's look at Old Navy's Grandmabot:

An Inspiration

ose Larson was featured in the latest issue of Canadian Living.

"The Salvation Army's Christmas hampers from this past holiday season included more than 200 products from the industrious needle of one Grande Prairie senior.

Rose Larson contributed 100 toques, 50 pairs of socks, 45 pairs of mitts and 20 scarves to the Christmas drive held by the Salvation Army Food Bank. The 90-year-old has been knitting warm clothing for Grande Prairie's needy for the last three years, and works on knitting the items year round.

"That's my year's work, now I'm knitting for next year," said Larson. "It's something that I've done all my life. I've got arthritis so bad in my hand now, I can't do any other crafts, so I keep knitting."

She has been knitting since the age of twelve." - Toronto Sun

As for me... the blanket's coming along nicely. Hope to make a hat sometime soon, too. Helen gave me a virtual kick in the rear the other day...

Penguins!

ast month, Skeinz, a yarn store in Napier, New Zealand, put out a call for knitted jumpers for penguins affected by the most recent oil spill.

(image taken from Skeinz, and supplied to them by Charlie, who knit this jumper)

They even had a pattern for the penguin jumpers!

"Penguin Jumper in 8ply - must be 100% Wool Yarn - 1 pair 3.25mm, 1 pair of 3.75mm needles, 1 set of 3.25mm dpn’s or circular
Cast on 36 stitches using 3.25mm needles. K1, P1 to end of row. Repeat this row 7 times Change to 3.75mm needles and K2, P2 rib. Work 4 rows increasing at each end of every row (44 sts)
Continue until work measures 15cm
Decrease 1 st at each end of every row until 28 sts remain
Decrease 1 st. in middle of next row (27 sts)
Leave on needle
Make second side the same
Transfer the 54 sts from both pieces to 3 of the set of 4 3.25mm needles (18 sts on each) and work a round neck in K1 P1 rib for 10 rows
Cast off
Stitch up sides to decreasing to 27sts (opening for flipper). Add elastic to the top and bottom to prevent the penguins getting out of them. Top: 15cm of elastic; bottom 17cm (knots allowed). Flat elastic OK"

Actually, when laid out flat, they sort of look like hot water bottle covers...

This week, Skeinz posted a video of the first group of penguins heading home. So sweet.

And if you want a bit more background on cleaning penguins, and why the jumpers were so useful, Snopes has an article on this issue.

Around the World in 80 Stitches

e want! No, not cookies, but this:

It's chock full of historical references, apparently, including an article about the "terrible knitters e' Dent" in nineteenth century England, and the evolution of the sock heel from sixteenth century European stockings.

There's also, ahem, a pattern for Scottish kilt hose by Audrey Manwaring-Spencer.

Yes, yes, I know, I don't need another kilt hose pattern. I've got one already! And I'm halfway through the kilt hose. No new inches since last time. I've also got - counts on fingers - six babies to knit for, plus a sock request and a blanket request.

What's my excuse? My knitting buddy Helen is far away!

Knitting in Literature

veryone who's read Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities remembers Madame Defarge knitting.

But when I was trying to find knitting related quotes for the sidebar of this blog, besides the Madame, and Jamie and Claire - and later, Dorothy Parker - I was hard-pressed to find anything beyond throw away lines. Even about Miss Marple! She knits, of course, but steadily in the background, and there are only brief mentions here and there of her creating fluffy pieces for new born babies.

The latest reference I've seen is in Carole Anne Carr's Thin Time, a breathless adventure story, where the Three Sisters at the Well of Wyrd knit. With frog skins!

Now I've discovered a new-old author. In the last Knitting Daily newsletter, Kathleen Cubley wrote about the latest issue of Piecework, where Ileana Grams-Moog talks about knitting and reading, and mentioned Patricia Wentworth, "who was born in India in 1878 to English parents, began her writing career early and continued until her death in 1961. Though she won a prize for her first novel, which is set during the French Revolution, and wrote a number of other novels, she is best known for her mystery series featuring Miss Silver", a governess-turned-detective.

"Knitting is not that common in literature, and it usually serves as a sort of stage prop, like a style of dress, to indicate something about the character of the knitter: that she is old-fashioned, or industrious, or a harmless old lady. While Miss Silver is both old-fashioned and industrious, she is not a harmless old lady. She is aware that her knitting conveys an impression that helps her in her profession. She takes advantage of that, but her knitting is not a prop. She is a real knitter and takes her knitting wherever she goes. In a given book, we may watch her cast on a garment, finish it, assemble and trim it, and immediately cast on for the next one."

Apparently, there are 32 Miss Silver books, beginning with Grey Mask (1928) and ending with The Girl in the Cellar (1961). And Wentworth also wrote another 33 novels!

Oh dear! As if my To Be Read pile wasn't already spilling off the bookshelves...

Any other knitting authors out there? Do you refer to knitting or other needlework in your books? I've got brief mentions in my novel, Out of the Water, where Santiago is telling his daughter Rosa how he courted her mother, Magdalena:

"I ran all the way to Magdalena's, stopping only to straighten my clothes and hair. Her mother recalled my face from the night before. She permitted me to enter, to wait for her husband. They assumed I had come from my ship; I did not disabuse them of the notion. They sat, knitting, in the parlour, while I did my best to hide my bruised knuckles and charm them.

"Her mother – your grandmother – would not retire and leave us alone, of course. I cast looks at Magdalena. I contrived to touch her fingers when she showed me what she was knitting."

"But –"

"Yes, her father came home. Too soon for my liking. And that's when he realised what I had done, and why."

A Knitting Book I Want

hanks to the wonderfully informative newsletters I get from Wool-Tyme Kingston, I just found out about this:

On July 27th Richard Rutt, the Anglican Bishop of Leicester died. ... Monsignor Rutt was [the] author of the definitive work A History of Hand Knitting, and the contributor of his extensive library of historical knitting books to the University of Southampton's vast Knitting Collection.

A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt

University of Southampton, eh? Never mind the fact that I returned from vacation yesterday; I'd better start planning my next vacation!

Knitting on Planes, and Jamie Fraser

ecently, in anticipation of vacation, I've read quite a few posts about bringing knitting needles as cabin baggage on airplanes. Everyone has different advice about whether to carry them, display them, hide them beneath the standard-issue blanket, use pencils with thick erasers instead...


Each airline's website states varying rules. And of course, I happen to work for the one section of the United Nations that actually sets the international standards for this.

But there's no getting around the fact that a transatlantic flight is long. And sometimes - gasp! - I just can't read on the plane. Knitting would be the perfect past time, especially as, last time I counted, I've got five babies and at least three adults to knit for. And I haven't knit a stitch in at least two weeks.

What to do?

Robin's advice.

About's take on the matter.

Suggestions from a blogger with a great name: Damn, Knit and Blast It.

Air Canada says I'm allowed plastic needles, as long as I'm not flying to the UK. Well, there's that loophole scuppered.

EasyJet won't allow knitting needles of any kind. The airline calls them "blunt instruments" and puts them on par with hockey sticks, sabres and swords.

Guess it's a good thing Jamie Fraser will never travel forward in time.

(Gratuitous non-red-haired semi-inaccurate (well, it's not Ioan Gruffudd or Diana Gabaldon's choice Allen Scott-Douglas, now, is it?) Jamie image from Crazy Horse Woman. There's a good one here as well.)

Scallop-edged Blanket

eturning to a long-lost project is not as easy as I thought it would be. Mianly because I seem to have lost all original copies of the pattern I was using.

I think it's this scallop-edge baby blanket. But if it's not... I'm halfway through a row and I'll have to tink any mistakes. Dangerous enterprise - wish me luck!

Here's what it ought to look like:

Lilian Jackson Braun

Cross-posted from my writing blog, The Girdle of Melian:

willeran, Merlin James. Kao K'o Kung (Koko). Yum Yum.

I was all set to do a post on my knitting blog about the latest Lilian Jackson Braun book I've finished - The Cat Who Saw Stars - since it features an older Scottish gentleman in full regalia piping at the head of a parade that includes Qwilleran's oldest friend knitting a sock with four needles on the Friends of Wool float; and this coming Saturday is World Wide Knit in Public Day. But.

Found out this afternoon that Ms. Braun passed away last Saturday, at the age of 97, two weeks shy of her 98th birthday (condolences may be sent to the family here).

What's that you say? Never read a Cat Who... book? Well, I hadn't either, until I started writing my middle grade a few years ago. Every time I told someone there was a talking cat in it, they asked me if I'd read the Cat Who... books. So I finally picked up a couple at a second-hand bookstore. Well, Koko and Yum Yum are nothing like my Kedi - obviously those people had never read the books. If they had, they'd have been recommending them to me on their merits alone.

The Cat Who... series is part mystery, part social commentary, part ode to cats, part tribute to small town Northern America. There's a little bit of everything, in fact, and Qwilleran himself, the main journalist-crime solver-author-man about town is just the sort of well-rounded character you'd hope to meet someday. He'd sure treat you to a nice dinner out, at least.

Ah, heck. I'm not doing the flavour of the books justice at all. Why don't you start at the beginning, with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. Margot Kinberg had a post on The Cat Who Could Read Backwards a few months ago, which described it all a bit better. Also, Clarissa Draper included Lilian Jackson Braun in her list of 5 Most Influential American Woman Mystery Writers.

Here's the lady herself:

Ah yes, the knitting. But first, Christopher Smart, the 18th Century poet. Qwilleran quotes a few fragments in The Cat Who Saw Stars, on the subject of cats in general, and of Smart's cat Jeoffry, from Jubilate Agno:

"For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.

For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.

For he is of the tribe of Tiger.

For the sound of a cat is in the most useful preposition κατ' ευχην.

For the pleasantry of a cat at pranks is in the language ten thousand times over.

For the purring of a Cat is his τρυζει."

If anyone knows what the Greek words are, please tell me!

As for knitting... I've gone back to work on a scallop-edged blanket, but I seem to have lost the pattern since I last worked on this project. That's okay; all my spare moments are taken up with editing. A Round of Words in 80 Days: The past few days I've been drafting like mad, finishing up scenes that were missing. For a fourth draft, I seem to have quite a lot of blanks remaining!

Andy Capp and World Wide Knit in Public Day

ndy Capp! Well, not him, but his wife Flo: knitting at the pub! (Hi Helen! *waves*)

World Wide Knit in Public Day is coming up 11 June! Where will you be knitting?

(Also, if you're lucky enough to live near Kingston, Wool-Tyme Kingston is having a major ongoing sale!)