I went to Foyles bookshop on Tottenham Court Road the other day at lunch time. I love Foyles as it feels like a bookshop should feel and has a lot more soul than a many of the other bookshops that have opened in London recently. Obviously I had to go and visit the crafts section where I stumbled across two books that seriously left me wondering.
This is the first one.
Sexy Little Knits by Ashley Paige. Check out the cover. Not really my kind of knitting to be honest.
But this. Oh my.
The ways in which this is wrong are, in my view, too many to enumerate. (And yes, I agree, to each his/her own).
Then I came across this book.
Knitting Lingerie Style by Joan McGowan-Michael. Now I love Joan McGowan-Michael's designs on her website White Lies Designs - I think that her fitted cardigans are stunning have been toying with making this or this.
But lingerie? That doesn't strike me much as something I'd particularly like to wear. Oh and let's be clear, I think little camisoles and the like are lovely. This, from the book, is very wearable.
As are these:
But the set from the cover? I don't think so and as for the knitted bra/thong set....
Would I actually wear either of these? I think not.
And yes, I think the photos are gorgeous and I am actually thinking of buying the book because of the camisole and a couple of other bits. But please can this be the last of books on knitted underwear. Pretty though some of it can be (assuming you have long long legs and a perfect body), knitted underwear is just wrong. Period.
(And I clearly need to have this conversation with Interweave Knits too. A knitted thong... What were they thinking?)
Last week my friend Sharon passed away. She was the same age as me and was far too young to die.
Some of you may remember her as I posted pictures of her wedding in Ireland on my blog at the time.
Sharon, my friend Jacqui and I used to work together. Both of them decided to learn to knit and so they both came, at different times, to Liberty to learn. Yvonne was the one who taught Sharon. Sharon was left handed, Yvonne is right handed and so teaching her was no mean feat.
She took to knitting quickly. I don't think that I have ever met anyone who started stashing so much within so little time. Jacqui and I used to tease her saying that she really should finish a project before buying the yarn for the next five projects.
A while later when Sharon came to Liberty, I noticed that her stitches were twisted. It looked quite pretty but it wasn't stocking stitch as it should be. Being me, I blurted out 'Oh you've twisted your stitches!'. I can't tell you how much I wish I hadn't. Sharon was really upset, she'd been so proud of her knitting and was now convinced that it was all wrong.
As far as I can remember, she put her knitting to one side and I don't think that she knitted much from then on.
Then when Sharon first got ill, she decided that she wanted to learn to knit 'properly'. So I took a copy of my "Stitch and Bitch", a pair of bamboo needles and some Cashmerino Aran and sat in the hospital teaching her to knit without twisting her stitches. It was quite slow and hard going as she was already very ill but she got there in the end and knitted a row without help.
She didn't knit after that day, her illness was too far advanced and she couldn't hold the needles or concentrate for long enough.
I wanted to remember Sharon and her knitting here.
Just might be my favourite yarn in the world. I know I've said it before but this combination of colour, softness and the end result. Wow. It's just lovely.
Full points go to Mandella for guessing that the p5 were nupps. Which were part of this.
It's the Swallowtail shawl from Interweave Knits. Here's a slightly better shot.
And here it is all ready to be sent out to it's recipient.
Who has received it and apparently thinks it's beautiful. Now where should I go to buy myself some more Handmaiden sea silk to make one for me?