Athens Museum

Some more images from the Athens museum:



Some knitting – not a lot – most of the textiles on display were embroidered or woven – and the knitting was difficult to photo in subdued lighting:




Some stunningly elaborate costumes:

Read Full Post »

Folegandros, Athens, home

I’m back home now and here are some photos of the second island we visited. In the first you can just about see the town and church on top of the cliff (safe from pirate attack).

Folegandros is drier and rockier than Serifos, and the wild flowers were mostly yellow:

There were some poppies:

Some interesting doors and painted pavements in the narrow streets of the main town:

And more flowers and churches:

On the last day in Athens, I visited another section of the Folk Art Museum – where photography is permitted – here are some photographs of old photographs of carding, spinning and knitting:





There are lots more images to sort through – details of costumes, and some knitted items – I’ll post them next week.

I’m still working on the Mughal variant (approx 60%) and will be putting out a call for some test knitters soonish.
In fact I’ll probably need a lot of test knitting soon as there are lots of things in development – once I’m a bit more organised, I hope to set up a test knitting thread on the Ravelry Knitlab forum.

Cold Mountain is on the cover of the new Jimmy Beans catalogue of hand dyed yarns.

More flowers and Mini:


Trying to photograph a bee in Foxgloves:

Read Full Post »

Serifos 3

Sunlight & shadows:

Work:

Creatures:

Water:

More flowers:

The port:

The windmills:

Moonlight:

Moonlight before the Storm:

Read Full Post »

Serifos 2

Thanks for the comments on recent posts!

Lots of photos to post – unfortunately they’re inaccessible for the moment in iPhoto after a dramatic electrical storm a couple of nights ago destroyed the laptop charger.

Work continues on the new Mughal variant – I’m on the fifth repeat at the moment, each of them is different as I try to perfect the transition between them. It will probably be called the Calligrapher’s Shawl – it looks a bit like quills.

I’m leaving Sifnos tomorrow for a couple of days on nearby Folegandros, then it’s back to Athens, and home on Tuesday. Bye until then!

Read Full Post »

Serifos

Read Full Post »

Athens

I’m in Greece, and had an unscheduled day in Athens due to the national strike on Wednesday.
It was a beautiful breezy sunny day. Here’s a hillside poppy and the Parthenon.

I took the opportunity to visit the new Acropolis Museum – fascinating sculpture and artefacts – and empty spaces in anticipation of the return of the Elgin marbles.
Unfortunately no photography was permitted – I bought a couple of postcards:

I also visited one of the many annexes of the Museum of Greek Folk Art with a display of painted eggs from around the world.
The most interesting were the Greek ones, covered in richly coloured miniature enamelled icons (no photos again!) – here’s the poster and a detail:

The ferries were back in action on Thursday, so I’m writing this from a mountaintop on the island of Serifos.

Read Full Post »

New Post

Here’s the semi-circle – after the stranding I tried a Pi-type increase which resulted in too many stitches, then I tried another unsuccessful increase – so it’s ripped back to the stranding for the moment.
A third attempt will be made soon – ish (click on the image for a bigger version).

Here’s the new border for Nine Lives, with twice as many points as the original, The pdf needs to be updated:

Here are some Madeline Tosh colourways that I put together for Mughal shawl (click on the image for a bigger version).
Mughal was originally intended for the Autumn issue of Knitcircus. I’ve started a project based on the digital repeat in the last post.

Here is a very interesting project partially inspired by Latvian Vest.

Read Full Post »

Mughal

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday’s post, and apologies for the flaw in my system -
I forgot that comments would go into a queue for moderation and not show up overnight…..

The Knitcircus Collection has been sent out to the first ten.

Here are some swatches of the pattern in different colours:
The orange is Lorna’s Laces, left over from swatching Cold Mountain, the Turquoise is Shades of Cashmere silk left over from Sound of Waves, and the grey is Baruffa Cashwool.

I can’t remember exactly why I scrapped the top right version. Here it is in digital repeat:

Next, an early swatch with Rowan Felted Tweed and Zauberball Sock:

The last swatch is in Rowan Pure Wool 4Ply – this was done to test the two new charts which eliminated the bunched up points at the cast on and bind off.

Read Full Post »

Knitcircus

I have a new pattern in the Knitcircus Summer pattern collection, which is coming out tomorrow. It’s a striped rectangle called Mughal shawl, vaguely based on textile patterns from miniature paintings.

If you’d like a copy of the Knitcircus pattern collection, please say so in the comments! – I will have 10 complimentary copies to share (first come, first served).

Below: disintegrating tulip in a birdbath, and May Day drama in the Mountains of Mourne.

Read Full Post »