Author Archives: julesmoon

isager winter

When it comes to knitting, I have to admit that I’m generally in favour of the quick and dirty. That doesn’t mean that I shy away from big projects but more that I prefer to put all my attention into one (or two) projects so that I can bring them into being while I’m still in love with the ideas that went into them. From the hours spent contemplating and obsessing over the most perfect yarn to the process of swatching and then the knitting of it, I like to be consumed by that one project and to make it as quickly as possible. The project I’m featuring today was not one of those. And it’s got me thinking.

This is the Winter Pullover from Danish designer Marianne Isager. (Apologies for the slightly fuzzy shots but I was on the remote shutter with this one!)

Isager Winter

I fell deeply in love with it when the very first delivery of Isager yarns and patterns hit the shelves at my beloved Sunspun and was especially excited to work with Isager’s Spinni yarn, a laceweight single spun in one of Denmark’s last spinning mills from sturdy Danish wool. I loved the way this design worked with so many of Spinni’s natural sheep shades, with little highlights of beautiful colour, the kind of wonderful, subtle shades you only find in Scandinavia. But it definitely took me a little while to commit to it. I knit colourwork in 4ply and am as happy to knit complex stuff as the next knitter but all those little squares!! in laceweight!! and all the ends!! Still, the squares are picked up as you go to avoid seaming… and I just couldn’t get it out of my head. So I decided to only pattern the front as I really didn’t want to do that many squares and, besides, I felt it might be a bit too much for me if patterned on both front and back- I normally wear pretty low-key knits!

Isager Winter

And I have to say that it was a really lovely knit! The yarn was heaven to work with (great toothy handle and colours that I could stare at all day), it was surprisingly quick (I could get a couple of squares done over my daily train commute) and each little double stripe of colour was like a little treat for getting another square done. After discussions with my workmates (in which there was much debate about the merits of planning!), I decided to freewheel it and not chart out the colours in advance. Advance at your peril! I did pay for it in ripping and re-knitting time but I think it would have taken a lot of the joy out of it if I hadn’t had the little treat at each square… And (I can’t believe I’m saying this!) I actually enjoyed knitting it so much that the re-knitting was quite lovely!

Once the front was done, however, it became the knit that I picked up in between other projects. Not that I didn’t enjoy working the back as I really love garter stitch and the yarn was lovely to knit with. But it wasn’t engrossing in the way that the front was, engrossing enough to keep me moving with it. And, in amongst the knitting, came the move over to Scotland and the establishing of so many new things here. So I just plugged away at it bit by bit in the way I don’t usually like to do. Not quick and dirty. But I think that is what makes it special to me now. Knits hold memories in their stitches and, because I knit reasonably fast and monogamously, those memories are usually of quite a specific period. This one holds much more in it. Memories of knitting with my Sunspun crew and my sweet Mochi, during the packing up of our home and our journey over, in both our temporary home and now our own first flat here… and on Saturday, I got to wear it for the first time while teaching up at Dundee. That felt like coming full circle. And I think that perhaps this is the reason that some people embrace the long-term project.

So I’m starting to feel the benefit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be signing up for the Beekeeper’s Quilt but I might just have a second project that I gently work away on, in the quiet moments between the passion of other more demanding projects. And that the working away will create just as strong a bond with it as to the other.

So how about you? Are you in for the long-haul projects, the short and sweet, the full passionate or a bit of all? And what do you get out of them?

Just a few comments on Winter! I was a bit nervous that the boxy, square lines might not be particularly flattering, that it might emphasise my (generous) bust too much. I’m not sure that it’s the most flattering garment around but the incredible drape that worsted-spun Spinni lends to it means that it moves in a way that other, fluffy or woollen-spun yarns wouldn’t do. And I especially love the neckline, which softens the lines nicely too.

Isager Winter

I made the smaller of the two sizes. I’m glad I did as I think the larger silhouette would swamp the body’s curves but I’m going to have to add a bit of length onto the sleeves as they ride up a bit.

It only weights about 300gm. So that’s a pretty affordable garment to knit and a super-lightweight one to wear.

And I played around with the colours as I wanted a softer palette with less contrast than the original. My shots don’t really do justice to the subtleness of the shades but I hope you get the picture.

Isager Winter

in the woods

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Another heavenly morning focusing in on the beauty in the nearby woods…

Sycamore: Acer pseudoplatanus

European Larch: Larix decidua

Young leaves: Rubus sp.

Wood Horsetail: Equisetum sylvaticum

Wood Anemone: Anemone nemorosa

Greater Stitchwort: Stellaria holostea

Lesser Celandine: Ranunculus ficaria

Marsh-marigold: Caltha palustris

Bluebell: Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Wood-sorrel: rumex acetosella

Bracken: Pteridium aquilinum

Moss

Moss sporangia

Sycamore : Acer pseudoplatanus

Bracken: Pteridium aquilinum

Turkey Tail: Trametes versicolor

Just like a tartan!

It’s wonderful to be so close to such beauty and to have the chance to learn more about plants that I’ve heard of or even used clinically and yet never seen, as well as to meet some entirely new ones. I’m on the hunt for some good field guides to help me as there is so much to learn- I recently confused squill with bluebells! I’m pretty rusty and surely more mistakes ahead of me but I’m just so grateful to be using my horticultural brain again!

getting out

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It’s been 10 weeks since we arrived here and I can’t believe it! As always, it seems like forever and yet hardly any time since we left home… We are slowly making a life for ourselves here and I’ve had some lovely moments with lovely people and finding things that feel important to get involved in (more on those soon)! The last weeks have mostly been spent finding things that we need (the most simple things like broadband, Rooibos, enough blankets to keep us warm and tofu!) and want (good bread, a nice teapot and secondhand books on local history, flora and British cooking!) and our flat is starting to feel quite cosy! For me personally, my main focus has been finding sources for things that I need to make stock for my shop and lots of things are getting scratched off on that list too.

One thing I’m still working on getting enough of is space… Or, more particularly, green space. Glasgow has a really open feel about it, in the sense that streets are wide and the city not too built up, but, moving from a city of over four million people to one with less that a quarter of that, I expected to have a greater sense of space. But, of course, I was forgetting how much much more densely populated Europe is and Glasgow, while definitely easier to get around than Melbourne and blessed with some fantastic parks and gardens, is the most densely populated city in Scotland. But, for me, it’s not really the streetscape but our living spaces that I’m struggling with. Don’t get me wrong- we have a beautiful flat with plenty of light and space. It’s more that living on the fourth floor is a big change and I really miss the signs of life that I was so used to… looking out the windows and seeing the trees move in the wind, having cats around to smooch with (I can’t tell you how much I miss that!) and being able to take a bowl of food out onto the back deck and eat under the sky.

So we’re finding new ways to bring that into the day. House plants are now on the list of things we need. So is a bird feeder to put on the window sill. We’ve cut through the silicon seals on some of our windows so that we can feel the breeze moving through the house… The Glasgow parks are an absolute gift and seem to be appreciated and used by many and we’re lucky enough to be a ten-minute walk from the Glasgow botanic gardens- as you can imagine, I end up there at some point most days! And it turns out that it’s only 20 minutes on our local train to the beginning of the West Highland Way, a 150km walk that starts in Milngavie and takes walkers through some beautiful land all the way to Fort William. So easy and quick to get out of town! That’s certainly a benefit of a smaller city. We headed out this morning and did the first 8km of the walk and then turned around- it was just enough walking to feel like we’d got moving and was an absolute delight for our nervous systems too! The sound of birds, wind and trees, the glow of green leaves, the movement of sun and clouds above us and the dark, cool shadows under the trees…

Big sky

Fishing

Reeds

Branches

Birches

Larch

Larch bundles

The gorse was in bloom everywhere so I was able to harvest some beautiful flowers (along with birch bark) to use for dyeing. Scotto and I were blown away by how like Reef Oil their perfume is! Incongruous! (I’ve been so missing my dye pots but that’s set to change! Dye classes are also in the planning so do keep an eye out if you’re interested in learning.)

Gorse

Fuzzy gorse (or furze as it’s known here)

And, with the help of my macro lens, we explored the colours and textures of some wonderful and tiny fungi…

Trametes versicolor

Lovely colours on these Trametes versicolor

Trametes sp… suavolens?

Birch bracket fungus

And there were plenty of other flowers about.

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)

Can anyone tell me what this beauty is? It's got to be in the Rosaceae family but I've got no idea, beyond that!

Rubus spectabilis or Salmonberry, an escapee from North America with fruit similar to raspberries.

Anemone nemorosa

I even saw the beginnings of the bluebell season- one, as-yet-unopened specimen! But I’ll hold out on posting until they’re in their full glory- I can’t wait to experience that…

It’s been such a lovely reminder of how easy it is to get into the green places and we plan to make this a regular walk. I’d love to hear about any other spots around Glasgow that are easy to get to or worth a trip… do please let me know if you know somewhere or are heading out yourself- I’m always up for new walking buddies!

casting on and off

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I’ve been looking forward to teaching my first knitting classes in Scotland since our very first week here, when I went over to Edinburgh to meet Jess of Ginger Twist Studio (and lovely Clare who facilitated the meeting and who, interestingly, is moving to Australia later this year!) and she asked me to teach some classes at this sweetest of yarn shops. And I’m so happy that the day is finally getting close!

The first class of the day on April 19th, Knitting Tips and Tricks, sold out really quickly because, well, it’s obvious what the class is all about. It’s always an easy class to sell. I want my classes to be practical and for participants to leave knowing that they can go straight out and apply what we’ve covered, to feel like they’ve got something new in their kit that they can’t imagine being without. But the afternoon’s class, Cast-ons and Cast-offs… I’m always a little toey about running this class, not because of what it covers but because it’s not an easy class to sell- the content isn’t as immediately engaging as, say, colourwork or seamless knitting… but I actually think it’s way more life-changing and practical than most of my other classes! That’s because the edges of our knitting are so much more important than we may realise. They’re the bits that one usually sees first, the beginning and ending. If they don’t fit with the fabric in-between, because they pull in or are sloppy, the piece just doesn’t look right. It doesn’t have integrity… whereas a beautiful edge is magic.

A beautiful tubular cast-on on the Frankie Hat

Many people learn to cast on and off from their mum, auntie or grandpa and never learn another method; their way suits them just fine. And I love and respect that. But, at the same time, I think that the many methods we now have available to us all work particularly well in certain situations. So why limit ourselves to one method? For example, if you’re casting off a beautiful lace shawl and you stick to the trusty chain cast-off, you’ll probably find that the edge of your shawl won’t be able to stretch as far as you’d like to really open out the lace. There is a method for every situation and every method has its strengths- it’s just a matter of knowing how to work them and how to match method to project…

So, in this class, we’ll cover my default cast-on, the wonderful long-tail (or Continental) cast-on and a few variations on it (as well as how to calculate how much yarn you’ll need so you don’t run out!), my favourite version of the tubular cast-on (as seen above on the Frankie Hat), a provisional cast-on that allows you to come back and undo your edge and work in the opposite direction and other methods for getting your knitting started.

And we’ll look at a series of cast-offs that produce different finishes- lightweight, sturdy, stretchy and firm- including the sewn and i-cord cast-offs, the three-needle cast-off that allows you to cast off and seam two pieces together at the same time and working a knitted-on edging that avoids casting off entirely.

And, finally, we’ll look at pairing cast-on and cast-off so that the edges of a knitted fabric look similar- this is so crucial in something like a scarf but is very rarely considered!

Echo Flower with a sturdy Russian cast-off

Hansel with knitted-on edging

Bailey Cardigan with i-cord

There are two places left in this class on April 19th so, if you feel like you’d benefit from a little up-skilling in this area, do jump in and book. I’m always intrigued to see who books in for this class- for some reason, it’s always an interesting group!

faces and places: helen gray designs

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Over the past seven weeks since we left Australia, we’ve been lucky enough to see some beautiful places and meet some very beautiful people… We’ve been welcomed into homes, fed, driven around, engaged in conversations, hugged and supported in a whole number of other ways. I know how blessed we are in that and, in the hope of giving something back to the community that we find ourselves part of, I’d like to introduce some of those faces and places here. Some you may already know but, more often than not, they will be new to you. I hope you enjoy and treasure them as I do…

You may well have seen Brenda’s work but, chances are, you won’t have met her. This textile designer is so understated that she doesn’t use her own name for her work; instead, she operates as Helen Gray Designs, a name she likes for its plain but dignified feel. Based in the beautiful Scottish borders in the south of the country, Brenda lives in what feels just like a dolls house, not so much because of its size but for its soft pastel walls, timbers and sweet furnishings. And it suits her perfectly. This is a woman who spends her time quietly exploring colour, knitting and reknitting her colourwork swatches until she is perfectly happy to incorporate the colour palette into a pair of her beautiful colourwork fingerless mitts or one of her long, enveloping scarves. Her work is what she presents to the world.

Swatches

A professional in another life, Brenda now revels in the life she’s built for herself in her house by the river. Like many creative people, this gentle soul identifies as an introvert and says that she needs the quiet activity of her solitary work. She uses soft, often neutral or earthy bases on which to lay rich, saturated patterned colourwork. Unexpected highlights pop but the overall feel is of a soft palette. She knows how to balance restraint and exuberance.

Fingerless mitts

Earthy

Rich and surprising

Sombre

Playful

Sweet combination of colour and texture

Thistle scarf

We sat and had tea and talked knitting for hours. Brenda doesn’t spend time with many other knitters but, I tell you, this woman knows yarn. She’s explored every British colourwork yarn out there and could tell me the stats on each and every one of them (a boon for a newly-arrived knitter!) and has seen colour ranges, yarns and entire brands come and go over the years. Together we mourned the demise of our favourite Rowan Scottish Tweed 4ply and celebrated the glorious shade cards of Jamieson and Smith and Jamiesons of Shetland…

Lots and lots of yarn

More yarn!

Brenda mentioned that she never formally trained in art and design but she is a true colourist. Combined with her skills in both hand-and-machine knitting, she is a very gifted textile designer. You can buy her beautiful work on Etsy and be inspired by it on Ravelry.

Thank you, Brenda, for the gifts of tea, endless yarn love and knitting machines to get me started on my own colourwork journey here in Scotland. Such incredibly precious gifts that I won’t forget!