January 23, 2013 • 3 notes
Little Things: an awesome free hat pattern from Veera Välimäki. So cute and only used 35g of sock yarn - perfect for using up leftovers from socks! The perfect red buttons (interesting but not overpowering) were bought a few years back in the super-twee Tait & Style shop in Kirkwall, Orkney.

Little Things: an awesome free hat pattern from Veera Välimäki. So cute and only used 35g of sock yarn - perfect for using up leftovers from socks!

The perfect red buttons (interesting but not overpowering) were bought a few years back in the super-twee Tait & Style shop in Kirkwall, Orkney.

January 22, 2013
Who says it’s always grey around here?

Who says it’s always grey around here?

January 16, 2013 • 1 note
Finished Las Zapatistas! In honour of the Women’s Revolutionary Law: Women, regardless of their race, creed, colour or political affiliation, have a right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in any way that their desire and capacity determine. Women have the right to work and receive a just salary. Women have the right to decide the number of children they have and care for. Women have the right to participate in the matters of the community and to take charge if they are freely and democratically elected. Women and their children have the right to primary attention in their health and nutrition. Women have the right to education. Women have the right to choose their partner and are not obliged to enter into marriage. Women have the right to be free of violence from both relatives and strangers. Rape and attempted rape will be severely punished. Women will be able to occupy positions of leadership in the organization and hold military ranks in the revolutionary armed forces. Women will have all the rights and obligations which the revolutionary laws and regulations give. Source text

Finished Las Zapatistas! In honour of the Women’s Revolutionary Law:

  1. Women, regardless of their race, creed, colour or political affiliation, have a right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in any way that their desire and capacity determine.
  2. Women have the right to work and receive a just salary.
  3. Women have the right to decide the number of children they have and care for.
  4. Women have the right to participate in the matters of the community and to take charge if they are freely and democratically elected.
  5. Women and their children have the right to primary attention in their health and nutrition.
  6. Women have the right to education.
  7. Women have the right to choose their partner and are not obliged to enter into marriage.
  8. Women have the right to be free of violence from both relatives and strangers. Rape and attempted rape will be severely punished.
  9. Women will be able to occupy positions of leadership in the organization and hold military ranks in the revolutionary armed forces.
  10. Women will have all the rights and obligations which the revolutionary laws and regulations give.
January 5, 2013 • 3 notes

Pawlets - free knitting pattern!

I’ve heard a lot of chat on Ravelry about Colourmart - a UK-based supplier of yarn remnants from designer/custom orders at prestigious mills. They specialise in cashmere, but also have a wide selection of merino blends, shetland, and silks. I sent off for a sampler set and received it on Wednesday, along with a 26g miniskein of washed 2/7Nm cashmere.

Instead of just swatching with it, I decided to make my 26g go as far as possible and get a good wear-testing by making some mitts to wear over the next couple of (hopefully) cold winter months. I’ve had store-bought cashmere fingerless mitts in the past and they definitely weren’t suitable for a cyclist!

I call these Pawlets, because a Scots word for mittens is pawkies, but being as these don’t cover your fingers they’re somewhat diminutive pawkies…

For the benefit of others with miniskeins of CM cashmere they may want to use, or 22g (what I used) of any heavy fingering to light DK-weight yarn, here’s what I did:

Gauge: 24 sts x 33 rows = 10cm/4”

Pattern

Using 3.75mm needles, CO 40sts. Join to knit in the round.

Work k2, p2 ribbing for 3 rounds.

Work even for 4 rounds.

Now work back and forth across in rows for 20 rows to form the thumb opening (I slipped the first st pwise to form a neat selvedge that curls in on itself).

Join again to work in the round.

Work even for 24 rounds.

Work k2, p2 ribbing for 4 rounds.

BO using Russian BO or similarly loose BO.

Tiny accents

Thread a tapestry needle with a scrap of contrasting yarn and work 2 mattress stitches over the top of three stitches at either end of the thumb opening.

With the thumb opening along one side, find the opposite edge and locate the stitch 2 rows above the ribbing on the imaginary side-seam. Work a duplicate stitch over this stitch to form a tiny heart in your contrasting colour.

Blocking

There is really no need to block these if you’re going to wear them right away, but if you’re making these as a gift, or planning to store them for the summer, you might want to give them a wash and a block.

I recommend soaking them for 15 minutes in warm water (cold water if you’re concerned about colours bleeding) with a little wool soak or mild shampoo (2-in-1 works great!), then squeezing out the excess water. Lay them flat in their rough shape on a small towel, roll up the towel with the mitts inside and then beat it hard with the sides of your fists or jump on top of it a few times. 

Lay the mitts out in 2 neat rectangles of the same size (use a ruler if this helps to get your edges straight and even-lengthed) and wait for them to dry thoroughly before wrapping or storing.

Enjoy!

Email support@woolandbricks.com if you have any questions about this pattern. Feel free to share the pattern (but please don’t sell it), or sell any items made from it acknowledging Wool + Bricks as the designer.

January 2, 2013 • 293,279 notes • xxqueerxedgexx
This.

This.

(via fuckyeahfeminists)

January 2, 2013 • 2 notes
Ideas above my station…

Ideas above my station…

December 21, 2012

Unmade beds… Brunch… Long coffees… Lots of wool… Holidays are here!

December 19, 2012 • 999 notes • sunflowersandsearchinghearts
luxurycommunism as a blog was set up to provoke discussion into the possibilities of a communist world. A challenge to the lazy stereotypes of communism that fall on the failures of the socialist experiments of the USSR and PRC. Yet, I fail to see how this post does anything other than fetishise aspirational lifestyles.  My beef with luxurycommunism is that it doesn’t seek to redefine our conception of luxury; it merely promotes the current luxury-goods market. This post is an excellent example of how luxury continues to be defined within the rigid terms of what an existing capitalist system has packaged and sold to us. There is nothing luxurious about the spartan design of this image, apart from the ownership/privatisation of space. In this case, sufficient space that books can be stored flat on shelves, stacked 2-high, that would hold 12 books lined up cover-to-cover - the significance of space=luxury is particularly notable here, but can also be seen in the shelves devoted to large print illustrations, and the coffee table books. It is highlighted by the placement of shelves reaching to the double-height ceiling, in spite of empty shelves at floor-level. This is a poor example of luxury communism for this simple reason. Space is the very thing that we cannot afford to apportion and own in our communist utopia. The issue with space is not that ownership of space is bad, but that there just isn’t enough of it for us all to have as much as in this photo. We need to be redefining our conceptions of luxury to include smaller spaces so there is enough space for everyone, rather than subscribing to the conceptions of luxury that define space-ownership as something to be aspired to by those who can afford it, leaving those who can’t to jostle for room in the crowded favellas. (The possibility of skyscrapers housing the world’s population brings with it the question of who will live on which floor…) Until we can think of luxury as something other than commodities carrying the luxury tag, the attempt to provoke discussions towards a new vision of communist possibility will be weak; without a critique of how capitalism generates desire, our imaginings of future luxury will be hostage to the limits of capitalist imagination. It is insufficient to claim that there is enough for everyone: this is capitalist logic and does not match the hard mathematical fact that we live on a finite planet with finite resources, including space. As a strong opponent of population-control, I demand that we develop innovating ways to share space and resources. This will require us to transcend these conceptions of luxury that have been constructed over time to generate new markets for capitalism, including the commodification of both space and simplicity (see Toast), by asking ourselves: is there such thing as a good life, free of the definitions imposed on us by capitalism?

luxurycommunism as a blog was set up to provoke discussion into the possibilities of a communist world. A challenge to the lazy stereotypes of communism that fall on the failures of the socialist experiments of the USSR and PRC. Yet, I fail to see how this post does anything other than fetishise aspirational lifestyles. 

My beef with luxurycommunism is that it doesn’t seek to redefine our conception of luxury; it merely promotes the current luxury-goods market. This post is an excellent example of how luxury continues to be defined within the rigid terms of what an existing capitalist system has packaged and sold to us. There is nothing luxurious about the spartan design of this image, apart from the ownership/privatisation of space. In this case, sufficient space that books can be stored flat on shelves, stacked 2-high, that would hold 12 books lined up cover-to-cover - the significance of space=luxury is particularly notable here, but can also be seen in the shelves devoted to large print illustrations, and the coffee table books. It is highlighted by the placement of shelves reaching to the double-height ceiling, in spite of empty shelves at floor-level. This is a poor example of luxury communism for this simple reason.

Space is the very thing that we cannot afford to apportion and own in our communist utopia.

The issue with space is not that ownership of space is bad, but that there just isn’t enough of it for us all to have as much as in this photo. We need to be redefining our conceptions of luxury to include smaller spaces so there is enough space for everyone, rather than subscribing to the conceptions of luxury that define space-ownership as something to be aspired to by those who can afford it, leaving those who can’t to jostle for room in the crowded favellas. (The possibility of skyscrapers housing the world’s population brings with it the question of who will live on which floor…)

Until we can think of luxury as something other than commodities carrying the luxury tag, the attempt to provoke discussions towards a new vision of communist possibility will be weak; without a critique of how capitalism generates desire, our imaginings of future luxury will be hostage to the limits of capitalist imagination. It is insufficient to claim that there is enough for everyone: this is capitalist logic and does not match the hard mathematical fact that we live on a finite planet with finite resources, including space.

As a strong opponent of population-control, I demand that we develop innovating ways to share space and resources. This will require us to transcend these conceptions of luxury that have been constructed over time to generate new markets for capitalism, including the commodification of both space and simplicity (see Toast), by asking ourselves: is there such thing as a good life, free of the definitions imposed on us by capitalism?

(via by-strategy)

December 19, 2012 • 4 notes
I’m in Finland today. Well, almost: Finnsheep wool, Finnish indie-dyer, Finnish designer. I love British wool, but sometimes it’s nice to play with something from our exotic North-European Breed cousins… Today’s tea: Estonian black tea with a generous slicing of orange zest, several cloves, and 2cm of smashed liquorice root. Bring on the rain!

I’m in Finland today. Well, almost: Finnsheep wool, Finnish indie-dyer, Finnish designer. I love British wool, but sometimes it’s nice to play with something from our exotic North-European Breed cousins…

Today’s tea: Estonian black tea with a generous slicing of orange zest, several cloves, and 2cm of smashed liquorice root. Bring on the rain!

December 18, 2012 • 11 notes
Delicious winter tea! Ingredients: 1 cold, wintry day in North-West England 1 grimy old tea pot 1 tbsp loose-leaf Darjeeling 3 slivers of fresh ginger root 3 slivers of fresh orange zest 4 crushed green cardamons 2 cloves Plenty of hot water Instructions: Put all the dry ingredients in the tea pot; add hot water and steep until it’s strong and flavourful but still hot. Pour into lovely cups from Etsy and enjoy with cosy knitting and a good book.

Delicious winter tea!

Ingredients:

1 cold, wintry day in North-West England

1 grimy old tea pot

1 tbsp loose-leaf Darjeeling

3 slivers of fresh ginger root

3 slivers of fresh orange zest

4 crushed green cardamons

2 cloves

Plenty of hot water

Instructions:

Put all the dry ingredients in the tea pot; add hot water and steep until it’s strong and flavourful but still hot.

Pour into lovely cups from Etsy and enjoy with cosy knitting and a good book.