Paper Dolls anew

June 12, 2013 By Kate in design, Fair Isle, Kate Davies, Kate Davies Designs, knitters, knitting, yarn Tags: baa ram ewe, Bowmont Braf, design, dollheid, knitting, paper dolls, patterns, Titus 4 ply, yarn 29 Comments

When I first published this design a few years ago, I used a lovely British yarn that is sadly no longer available — Bowmont Braf 4ply. Many knitters prefer to make their sweaters in the same yarn as the pattern sample, and I often receive queries from folk enquiring about the yarn I used for my original Paper Dolls. I am always sad to tell them that it is no longer readily commercially available (almost as much for me as them — how I loved that Bowmont Braf . . . though I might have a secret stash of it somewhere . . .)*

So when, a few weeks ago, my friends at baa ram ewe got in touch to see if I’d be interested in using the new shades of Titus for a new Paper Dolls sample, I immediately said yes. Have you seen the palette? It is totally gorgeous.

This sample is knit using White Rose for the main colour, with Parkin, Chevin, and Eccup for the contrasts. I decided that I wanted to work with three contrasts because I just couldn’t decide between these tasty shades, and they all seem to work so well together . . . though you could easily just use two.

(ah, Bruce, always trying to get in the shot)

As well as changing the yarn recommendation, I’ve made a few alterations to the pattern. It is now nicely formatted as an eight-page booklet or ebook, which includes the (complementary) pattern for the Dollheid tam (so if you have previously purchased the Paper Dolls pattern on Ravelry, you’ll receive the Dollheid pattern as a free update). There are a few other improvements too, including clearer charts, a detailed sizing table, and a lovely hand-drawn schematic produced for me by Felix . . .

. . . who also helped out with photography.

I am very much enamoured of my beautiful new Paper Dolls, though sadly I shan’t get to wear it, as it will shortly be travelling to TNNA with baa ram ewe. If you see it there, please pet it for me.

The new Paper Dolls booklet is available now in a digital edition on Ravelry, or in print from my MagCloud store . . .

. . .and the print edition is also available to retailers for trade orders.

*I purchased a few kilos a couple of years ago from Lee. If you are interested in the unique hand of Bowmont fleece, the lovely people at Devon Fine Fibres breed Bowmont Sheep and make beautiful things from the ultrafine wool they produce.

A Walk with Felix

June 11, 2013 By Kate in Bruce, Bruce, Edinburgh Tags: Braid Hill, bruce, Edinburgh, Felicity Ford, walking 42 Comments

Hiya! It is I, Bruce. I am here to tell you about a Fun Walk I had yesterday at Braid Hill with Kate and my buddy, Felix. This walk (which is one of my favourites) begins by Golf Course. Golf Courses are very mysterious human spaces: men walk purposefully about them with large bags and sticks, and occasionally a ball flies by which I am not allowed to chase. Also, Golf Courses are composed of large flat, inviting lawns which clearly say “gambol upon me.” Oddly, though, whenever we encounter one, I am not allowed to gambol but am sternly told to walk to heel. Yesterday, though, I was so happy to be engaged upon the business of Walking with Felix that I got away, and gambolled happily about the Golf Course. Then I did something in the middle of the big green lawn which made Kate shout “Oh No! Bruce!” in that way she often does. So I thought I’d cheer her up by rolling in something a horse had left nearby . . . sadly this did not seem to do the trick.

Felix remained in good spirits, however, and, fully fired up with eau de cheval, we ascended Hill. At the top of Hill it was clearly time for a game, and, after rummaging in the bushes I presented Felix with Old Ball.

Come down from there, Felix, it is time to throw Old Ball.

Look at me prance with Old Ball, Felix.

Time to throw Old Ball again, Felix.

What do you mean, its the end of the game?

Please throw Old Ball again, Felix.

Sadly, there was no more Old Ball fun for me as Kate decided it was time to take some pictures of her new sweater.

Such is life.

See you soon, love Bruce xxx

pompoms in Balfron

June 9, 2013 By Kate in craft, knitting, the life of things Tags: Balfron, Balfron pompom blossom festival, fabfest, House hunting, pompoms 55 Comments

After some exciting developments on the relocation front, Tom and I went to view a house just outside Balfron yesterday. As we drove about the outskirts, I began to notice a few pompoms hanging from the trees and bushes outside people’s houses….then I spotted a whole jolly array of them along a hedge by the bowling green…

…in fact, the whole town was festooned with pompoms….

It was a such a beautiful, sunny day, and the jolly pompoms made the whole place seem quite magical. The house we saw was pretty magical too, it has to be said. Both of us were in no doubt at all that we could make our home there. The drawn-out complexities of the Scottish property system mean that we won’t know if this is a possibility or not for a wee while, but please do cross your fingers for us.

I found out later that the pompoms were part of FABFEST, 2013. Pompom contributions to the festival are actively encouraged, so I shall be getting my pompom makers out and whipping up a few to send tonight. And if you’d like to make a pompom or two to decorate Balfron, you’ll find more details and a postal address here.

right now

June 4, 2013 By Kate in Edinburgh, personal Tags: Barr lab, Edinburgh, renovations, Tom Barr 27 Comments

1. The weather is amazing.

2. After several months’ hard work, Tom has just been awarded two new grants.
WOOOHOO FOR THE BARR LAB!

3. We have central heating, and actual running water. THE NOVELTY!

I particularly like this bathroom radiator. What a shame its not for me! Work on the kitchen and electrics starts next week, which is likely to prove just as disruptive. I’m envisioning a salad-based diet for the next fortnight – as long as I can still boil the kettle for a pot or two of tea all should be well. . . will keep you posted.

vicarious

June 2, 2013 By Kate in cycling, Harris, Scotland Tags: Barra, Berneray, Callanais, cycling, Harris, Hebrides, Lewis, Mool, north Uist, Outer Hebrides, South Uist, Vatersay 54 Comments

Lucky Tom has spent the past week cycling around the Outer Hebrides with our friend, Mool. I have so enjoyed the photos that he’s been sending me each evening that I thought I’d share a selection with you here. All of these photographs were taken with his phone.

evening walk

May 30, 2013 By Kate in Bruce, Edinburgh, landscape 42 Comments

And he asks me
with both eyes:
why is it daytime? Why does night always fall?
why does spring bring
nothing
in its basket
for wandering dogs
but useless flowers,
flowers and more flowers?
This is how the dog
asks questions
and I do not reply.

Pablo Neruda, Ode to the Dog

Images of knitting #3

May 23, 2013 By Kate in costume, ephemera, History, Images of knitting, textiles Tags: ephemera, images of knitting, knitting, national costume, national stereotypes, postcards, Welsh women 22 Comments

Here are a couple more postcards from my collection in which knitting is represented in association with regional / national stereotypes.

This is an American card dating from the very early 1900s. It is number 11 in the popular “St Patrick’s series,” whose tone is, of course, incredibly sentimental and nostalgic. One could hardly imagine a representation of Irish femininity more stereotypical — the knitter stands barefoot outside her “wee humble cottage” in a shamrock-encircled John Ford fantasy of rural domesticity. The knitting is a sort of accoutrement of her simplicity, and her bare feet are a familiar feature of other postcards in this series.

This card was produced in the early 1900s by venerable British photographers Judges (who are still in the postcard printing business after a more than a century). By this point, the figure of the “Welsh Lady” in stovepipe hat and shawl had become a recognisable tourist novelty. Here, the ball of yarn and needles have been taken out of the dressing-up box to form decorative additions to her “costume.” I am interested in the subtle shifts of representation of Welsh women’s hats — as, in many Eighteenth-Century accounts I’ve read, the wearing of men’s hats is described as masculinising Welsh women in various ways. In this context, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby’s signature hats seem to be a deliberate form of costume, but by the time of Augusta Hall’s famous Cambrian sketches, the hats have become picturesque – and acceptably feminine – curiosties.

Augusta Hall, “Welsh Girl in the Costume of Pembrokeshire” in Cambrian Costume, Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of Wales (1834)

I am perhaps particularly interested in picture-postcard representations of the women of rural Wales because, where tea-drinking, hand-knitting, and “masculine” roles are concerned, there are so many similarities with familiar stereotypes of Shetland women.

As always, your thoughts and comments on these knitterly images are most welcome!

Renovation update! things seem to be going very well with the plumbing and plastering, though I am now in the odd and somewhat difficult position of having no water. I will now be offline for a few days as the work continues. Next time I post I hope to have a bathroom!

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