Oolong knits

Raspberry Field by Jana Markova. A asymmetrical triangle scarf pattern. Original, it is not. But, it is free and it saves you from buying one of many almost identical patterns that are so popular right now. I know what you are thinking, shouldn't we support designers and creative people by buying their work? We should indeed, and if I knew who first invented this design I would whole-heartedly recommend you to buy his pattern. But, the way I see it, there is no need to pay for the many copycats you will find, when you can get it for free. I know, I know, I am a miser.

A hearty, comforting soup, that is also healthy and nourishing enough to eat as a quick, light lunch. When it comes to soup, I always cook a big batch and either eat it as a starter at every meal (it will keep for about a week in the refrigerator) or freeze it in separate portions for eating later. I am not sure how many people my recipe serves, it depends if you eat it in big portions or small ones, but I do not really care either. Just be warned it makes a lot of soup. And because vegetables come in many sizes, I will write 2-3 potatoes, meaning, 2 if big, 3 if average, 4 or more if small. Like always in life, you must use common sense to decide. Ingredients: 1-2 spring greens, washed and chopped thinly; 2-3 potatoes, washed, peeled and chopped in big chunks; 250g of dried beans, soaked overnight; 2-3 onions, washed, peeled and chopped in big chunks; 1-2 carrots, washed, peeled and halved along their length; lots of garlic; olive oil; optional: herbs (ex.: sage, oregano, ...

Badlands Mitts by Kathryn Folkerth. Very simple design, very beautiful result. I believe that is linen stitch, but I am probably wrong...

Usually, beef brisket takes about 3 and a half hours to cook properly. This is the kind of food that makes having a pressure cooker such a treat. Follow this recipe and you should be done in only a little longer than one hour. And you will not believe the flavour! 1 portion of beef brisket; 4 potatoes, peeled and cut in large cubes; 2 onions, peeled and slice; 5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced; 1 bunch of coriander leaves, chopped; Salt, pepper and chilli powder; Olive oil; 1 cup of red wine. Add enough olive oil to the pressure cooker to cover the bottom. Heat it and brown the brisket. Add 1 cup of water and all the ingredients, except the potatoes. Close the lid and bring the pressure to high. Cook for 1 hour. During that time, regularly check the pressure remains on high. You may need to turn the heat up or down. Release the steam and add the potatoes. Close the lid and bring the pressure to high again. Cook for 10 min more. Reduce the pressure slowly. Done. Final note...

Ombre Tank by Espace Tricot uses a technique for getting a nice colour gradient that is quite standard, but I think not used nearly as much as it deserves. This pattern uses only 3 colours to obtain 5 and shows the power of this technique quite well. It is also free.

Another pressure cooker soup recipe. This one is quick, easy and delicious. Great if you have guests. For about 6 portions: 1 cauliflower, cut in chunks; 1 large potato, peeled and cut in chunks; 1 large onion, peeled and sliced; 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced; 3 cm of chorizo, sliced; Salt, pepper and nutmeg; Butter and olive oil; 1 cup of milk; 50g cheddar cheese, or more if you prefer, grated; In the pressure cooker, add enough butter and olive oil to cover the bottom. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 min, stirring often. Add two cups of water and all other ingredients, except the milk and the cheese. Cook on high for 10min. Remove from the heat and reduce the pressure slowly. Use a hand blender to thoroughly mash all the ingredients. Add the milk and the grated cheddar and mix well. If necessary, add more milk to thin the soup. Vegetarian? Ignore the chorizo. Vegan? Ignore the milk and cheese too. It is still delicious without them. Final note: follow ...

Not a very nice name and the dark colour makes it hard to show off the beauty of the cables in photograph. I chose this pattern today, because, apart from the obvious, I really like the buttons (and I know they are not technically called buttons, but I cannot remember their correct name). Oops! I almost forgot: this is 225-15 Lang Yarns Yak by Lang Yarns.

I have always wanted to have a pressure cooker, but, living in a small apartment, I did not have enough storage space to keep the big monster (see note on size below). Now that I have moved to a nice biggish house, I took the plunge and bought one. And I could not be happier with it! I highly recommend anyone who likes good food to have one. There are three great advantages of cooking with one of these: Time : food takes about one third of the time to cook. Pressure cookers are particularly useful to cook food that needs a lot of time to cook. For example, beans, beef brisket, lamb and any other meat stew. I could had another advantage here: money . Cooking for one third of the time also uses less energy, saving you money. And, now that I think about it, there is a third advantage: if it saves energy, it is good for the environment. That's tree advantages in one. Health : you could in principle use your cooker to fry, just do not put the lid on, please! But that is not what you...

Copenhagen calling , a beautiful cowl by Isabell Kraemer. She is one of my favourite sweater designers (and I know I am not alone), but today I chose to show one of her accessory's patterns instead.

Hoku by Jana Huck. An amazing example of mosaic knitting.

Freshly arrived from the store and I have not yet decided where these will go. In a container or directly in the soil? Outdoors or indoors? Ferns are really easy to grow and require very little attention. They thrive in moist, well-drained, shady sites in humus-rich soil. To keep the soil in good shape, give it a boost by applying a good mulch, such as well-rotted manure. If the soil is very poor, feed with fish, blood and bone in spring. If necessary, water them, but apply water to the roots and avoid wetting the leaves. There are a huge variety of fern species and cultivars. They are all perennials and many are hardy. They can be deciduous , like the large ones growing in my garden, or evergreen , like the varieties I have just bought. These are Hart's tongue fern (Asplenium Scolopendrium), the pretty broad leaves, and Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium Trichomanes), the charming little ones packed with spores. According to RHS , Asplenia are hardy and tolerant of dry shade,...

Danzig by Justyna Lorkowska. Simply lovely and an easy knit.

Before moving to the UK, I lived in Germany for several years. It was there that I first knew of this wonderful plant. I love the delicate white flowers of ramsons and their leaves are also quite attractive. But it is their garlicky scent, that can be felt whenever one walks through the woods in Spring, that I love the most. It always brings back happy memories. The German eat Baerlauch leaves in sauces and dips. The flavour is similar to garlic or chives, but more delicate. However, my favourite way to use them is Baerlauch omelette. It is quite a simple recipe, just eggs and ramsons' leaves. Even though, the RHS assures me they grow in full sun, I have always seen ramsons grow under the dark shade of trees in the wild and that is exactly where I am planting the roots I have just bought (one can be seen in the photo, next Spring I will hopefully be able to add a photo of the grown plant). They like a moist and fertile soil. This is a wild plant, that requires no care besides...

Fern & Feather by Jennifer Steingass. A simple, classic design, but so beautiful!

Clematis are a family of very popular climbers. They are hardy perennials, that prefer sunny places, but can also thrive in semi-shade. They are popular because of their gorgeous flowers. I have a few plants in my garden, all pretty, but unfortunately in shade, which means they do not yield too many flowers. Clematis are relatively easy plants to keep, but they do require some loving care. Some varieties need to be pruned, others not so much, but they all require care in late winter or early spring with the application of fertilizer and mulch in order to give plenty of flowers. As most climbers, they also require training, although they can just be left to grow in the soil. More details about their care can be found here .

a_simmetrie by Cecilia Flori is a very original sweater design in simple lines. The pattern uses only one colour, but I could not resist the two colour choice made by Nicolor .

Begonias are easy to care for plants which yield many beautiful flowers throughout Summer. Absolutely lovely in your garden and great for hanging baskets. There are many different varieties with different colours and shapes. I personally have a few different ones in my garden. They are perennials, but unfortunately tender ones, so they do not normally survive winter outside in cold climates. The ones I have in my garden have not been planted by me, but they are located in particular protected places and have somehow succeeded surviving winter all on their one. However, since they start coming out of the soil relatively late, I would not count on begonias showing up like these have. Much better to play it safe and buy every year or lift them before first frost and later replant them outside after the danger of frost has passed. Here is a bit more if information on these lovely plants.

Hartland Cliffs by Sonja Bargielowska is a triangle shawl. Despite its sophistication, it is a free pattern. This lovely shawl is a very good example of multi-directional knitting and it looks a lot more complicated to work than it is (it involves no picked stitches or seams). Photo by Waxeli .

Bloody Cranesbill, also known as Geranium Sanguineum, is a hardy perennial plant that requires very little care. It is perfect for beddings as it gives plenty of flowers through out the summer, it has pretty palmate leaves, and it only reaches a height of about 20cm. Here is a link with a little more information.

Disgrace is a very hard read. Its main character, a white middle-aged South African man, is a despicable man, but what will happen to him during the course of this short novel is a lot more than he or anyone else deserves. Without giving much of the plot away, I will only say that a lot will happen to him and his once comfortable life will change dramatically and irrevocably for the much worse in a short period of time. In this sense, this a coming of age story. Not the traditional coming of age that corresponds to the transition from childhood to adulthood, but that of a middle-aged man who has lived a protected and privileged life so far, but, as he starts to enter old age, discovers the world is a cruel place to most people (and animals). In my view, Disgrace's main subject is white man's privilege and the loss of some of it in the contemporary world and specifically in post-apartheid South Africa. Sexual harassment, racial conflict, sexual identity, animal rights and land...

Amazing cables and some texture create a truly eye-catching sweater. Bright Sweater by Junko Okamoto. Another sweater, another Japanese designer.

Another sweater?! Yeah, I don't know what's up with me. I must be in sweater mood. Besides, they're so beautiful. Curvo by Sachiko Burgin is all about lovely smooth curves. It is unusual lines are obtained by knitting sideways.

See that stitch? (Click on the image to zoom in). Want to know how it is done? It is reverse stockinette, knitted alternately with two needles of very different sizes. Genius! Miss Bracken by Annie Rowden.

I discovered this interesting article by Iris Schreier. It gives a simple, very short introduction to multi-directional knitting. A different example of multi-directional knitting is given in this video tutorial (which is long and detailed and shows how to knit a scarf using this technique). The problem with the above video is that the two tips of the scarf look different, which is not very nice. There is however a very easy fix. The Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf pattern by Karen Baumer does just that (and is a free Ravelry download). If you would like to add lace and texture to this scarf (an alternative to using self-striping yarn), check CurlyQueue's project notes .

Still a sweater, but, after the very simple designs of the last few weeks, a truly showy one. Forest Weave by Yumiko Alexander.

A very cool video tutorial by Xandy Peters . Three videos that show how-to (1) cast-on, (2) knit a row, and (3) bind-off the lattice stitch. That's all folks!

I started reading this book two days before I was to travel to Bath and by the time Anne, its main character, moves to this beautiful city, I was already comfortably seated in the train on my way there. What a serendipitous coincidence! Jane Austen is an author which I am more than happy to return to. Her use of the English language is always a delight, her wit legendary and laughing-out-loud. Her novels (in the genre known as novel of manners ) offer the reader an intimate peek into the private world of the English gentry in the British countryside of the early 19th Century. And this is another reason I find them fascinating. But I must confess that I now regret having chosen this book for the book club. Even though nobody else is reading these posts, I know that there are a lot of nobodies out there that are extremely passionate about Jane Austen. I am just scared of writing nothing at all they may find extremely offensive. Thus I am trembling with fear and more than willing to c...

A very clean square design, but I love the simple colour work. The Fukuro Pullover by Whitney Hayward.

Yes, that's right. Another post on socks. It's funny because even though I do like to knit socks, I am not at all a big sock knitter. My knitting is actually quite eclectic and I knit clothes, accessories and home decoration in similar numbers. But when it comes to writing in this blog, socks seem to be my main obsession. But let's stop talking about me and get down to business. Toe-up or cuff-down, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each method? Their main difference is in the cast-on and bind-off methods. For a toe-up sock you want to use a type of provisional cast-on (some people do not, but I really think this is the best). I recommend either the Turkish or Judy's Magic cast-on and personally use the latter. Cuff-down socks require an elastic cast-on and I very much recommend the German twisted (aka Old Norwegian) one. A toe-up sock requires a very elastic bind-off. My favourite by far is Jenny's Surprising bind-off . It is easy and fast to ...

Borges has a fair reputation of being erudite, cerebral, and difficult to read. But what struck me the most in this book was its sense of humour and the extraordinary imagination. Was it only my impression or is he often making fun of the same erudition he is accused of? I cannot be sure if this was intentional or not, but I often found myself laughing in some of the most cryptic, scholarly passages. You can easily write several volumes on this book, every story is a world unto itself, rich of many possible interpretations. So the first challenge in writing a suitably modest blog post about it is to choose what to write in the first place. The main subject of this collection of short stories is perception and more precisely the gap between what we can know or perceive with our senses and intelligence and reality itself. The stories deal often with illusion in the platonic sense. The illusion of time, as in Funes the Memorious , of historical narrative, as in Theme of the Traitor an...

Iberis by Rachel Søgaard is a beautiful free pattern. A sweater knit in fisherman's rib, seamlessly, from the bottom up.

The Italian cast-on method is an invisible cast-on, because it creates no edge (the chain you see in the long-tail cast-on, for example). It is a very elastic cast-on which makes it the perfect cast-on for two-colour Brioche knitting and also for double knitting (see the video below). I am currently working on a very simple two colour brioche cowl and, even though it meant learning a new technique, I had to use this cast-on because the result is simply far superior to what you get with another cast-on. The good news is that this is really easy to learn. Another great advantage of using the Italian cast-on is that there is a perfectly matching bind-off. This is a sewn bind-off and is really well worth learning, because it is the also used to bind-off standard ribbing . This bind-off has many different names in the literature and you may know it as the tubular or invisible bind-off (named that way because it is a perfect match to the tubular cast-on too). The above video show...

Grey Morlaix by Regina Moessmer is a very simply boxy sweater, knitted seamlessly from the top down. This pattern is free until the end of the year, so hurry up. The photo was taken from BaWil's project . This lady has good taste, her project gallery is amazing.

No matter how well intentioned articles like this one are, they make a disservice to the cause of women's equality. The truth of the matter is that, with very few exceptions, most human beings of importance are male and white. Also, there are a lot more exceptions to this rule involving race than gender. Think Obama vs. Clinton (not that Clinton, his other half). This is, of course, the reason why one of the biggest challenges of feminism is to establish beyond any possible fallacious argument that the main cause for this huge discrepancy is not women's "proved-by-the-facts" biologic inferiority, but men's proved-by-the-facts social privilege. This is only a first step to accept that this privilege is a gross injustice in society and we have a moral imperative to revert it by allowing women to realize their potential. Something that is beneficial not only to women but to the entire society. Once women are indeed given this opportunity, then Google engineers ca...

The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' is a novella (only 122 pages long, excluding the very good preface) and one of Conrad's best works. It is a story of the sea, like so much of Conrad's oeuvre, that begins with the 'Narcissus', a merchant sailing ship, leaving Bombay's port and ends at its arrival in London. I do not want to give any more of the plot away (I apologize for the little that my choice of illustration gives away), because, like much of Conrad's work, it is a story that keeps you wondering what will happen next (and even more how it will come to be). It is fair to say that the main character in this story is the crew of the 'Narcissus', since there is no single main character. The narrator of the story is at the same time an omniscient narrator and a member of this crew (who remains completely anonymous and we learn nothing of him, except the impressions and opinions expressed through the narration). This inconsistency does not devalue...

I have not chosen a sock pattern in a while. You may have started to think that my love of socks is diminishing. Not so! Alluvial Deposits (I love the unusual name) by Rich Ensor have a very nice pattern of twisted stitches.

Disclaimer: the title of this post may be misleading. Just saying... Kitchener stitch is a bind-off technique. It is often used to bind-off the toes of socks, the tips of mittens and the shoulders of sweaters, because it allows for two pieces of knitted fabric to be bound off seamlessly. In other words, Kitchener stitch is to bind-off what provisional cast-on is to cast-on. First things first, grafting and Kitchener stitch are not exactly the same thing. In knitting, grafting means joining two fabrics in such away that the join is invisible. You can graft two sides together (selvage-to-selvage grafting), graft a selvage to an end of the fabric (this will, of course, be visible), and graft two ends together. Kitchener stitch achieves the latter. Second things second, the historical background. Contrary to what most people think, Lord Kitchener did not invent this stitch. He probably did not even know how to knit. Neither did he claim its authorship or order someone else to invent...

Now for something completely different, Scrap Bag by Frankie Brown. I do not recommend knitted (or crocheted) bags, because, from my experience, the fabric is too stretchy and the bag is deformed with even the smallest weight you put in it. This bag avoids that problem because it is lined. A bit of work, but pleasant if you like sewing as much as knitting. The lining includes a plastic canvas in addition to the weaved fabric, so that the bag stands up and stays open on its own. Nice! I would suggest in addition to line the handles if you want to carry the bag with you and do not want the handles to become longer and longer and also uglier and uglier in the process.

I really hate those constant warnings of "strong language" or "mild sex". They are everywhere, TV, film theatres, etc. I think they treat viewers (or readers) as if they are stupid and weak minded. Who the hell has problems with "strong language"? It is just that: LANGUAGE. The big, scary thing. And as for sex scenes, goodness, just grow up! It is just sex. Bees do it too. And now there is this thing called trigger warnings that risks ruining our reading experience too. All of this shit reeks of self-righteousness and self-importance. (Yes, I am angry. I am very polite when I am not very angry). Why am I so angry? Because this is just one example of a set of social phenomena that is threatening free thought and expression as well as the sanity of still-sane mortals. Paradoxically, it is at universities, the greatest bastions of free and critical thought, that these phenomena are growing stronger. And the fact that these are US universities (and mediocre ...

I find myself frequently returning to Purl Soho's designs , partly because they are mostly free, partly because we seem to share a preference for simple and beautiful. I really appreciate the unpretentiousness (yep, that is a word and I got the spelling right at first attempt, unbelievable!) of their designs. Cap Sleeve Lattice Top is a sleeveless top with an extremely simple design (it is pretty much a rectangle with a slit in the middle) enhanced by a some lace details (I love the eyelets that finish off the rib edge). I took the photo from fancytiger . I hope she does not mind.

I am knitting a sleeveless sweater that I have designed. My design follows an unusual constructions. First the top of the sweater is knitted. By top of the sweater I mean the region where the armholes go, which must be knitted flat. This region is knitted starting in the bottom of the back with a provisional cast-on and then going up over the shoulders and finishing with the bottom of the top of the front (I got that right!), just where the armholes end. Here the stitches on the needle are joined in the round with the stitches of the cast-on and the body of the sweater is knitted top-down and in the round. Believe me, it sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. My main reason to choose this design is precisely because I wanted to make this project as simple as possible. My inspiration for this design was Purl Soho’s Cable Back Shell . A nice, free pattern. Check it out! But I have changed a few important things. First and foremost, I am not sure how far my yarn is going, so...

I have already reviewed My Brilliant Friend, the first book of this series. But after reading the other three I have realized these books are actually one single novel divided in 4 volumes for convenience. So instead of reviewing them one by one, I have joined my review in one single extra post. That said, much of what I have written in my previous post definitely applies to the entire novel. And I could leave it at that, but I do have a few more things to say. To begin with, a warning to the future reader, this is really a single book. For example, it can be argued that the first volume does not even end where a chapter should end, considering that the second book will continue to describe the continuation of the scene that ends it. None of the volumes ends in a way that feels like an ending has been reached, even if they do not end with a standard cliffhanger, they still end too abruptly. So, if you are planning on reading it, be prepared to read a very looooong book. Is it worth...

Spring Kerchief by Sachiko Uemura is not a kerchief, but a plain triangle shawl. I love it, despite (or is it because of?) the extreme simplicity of its design. The choice of yarn and colours is key here.

I am back from holidays and that partially explains why I am a day late with my post. I still have a lot (and I mean a lot) more plants in my garden to write about, but I would like to take a break and write about something else too. The question is what? While on holidays I thought about a million (OK, maybe only a handful, but I like to exaggerate) things that I would like to say here, but now that I am sleepily sitting in my chair typing away I am too lazy to write about any. Lame post, great holidays and a nice enough photo. Next week there will (hopefully) be a better post. Oh, by the way, I have finished reading the 4 Neapolitan novels by Ferrante, so a new post for my book club is also in the makings.

Forest Mystery by "Amanita" Agata Mackiewicz is a truly beautiful design in one of my favourite colours (even if I have no clothes in it).

I have several Rhododendron bushes in my garden. Their flowers started to come out in mid-May, with one exception. This is the one in the vase, a young bush, and it blossomed earlier, late April. I think it is an Azalea. Rhododendron like acidic soil and plenty of water, but dislike tap-water (hard tap-water reduces acidity in soil). Good thing that it rains so much where I live. They like a good amount of acidic mulch such as chipped conifer bark, that should be renewed each spring when the soil is still moist. They do not need to be pruned, except for the removal of unhealthy, dead, diseased and damaged shoots, unless some shaping is required. If necessary, prune immediately after flowering. Do this by lightly cutting back shoots. Here you can read more about it.

Pure Scandinavian design. Hulborter by Marianne Isager is not a free pattern. It is not even an easily obtainable pattern unless you can speak Danish. But it is a quite simple design, so you can try to replicate it by adding rows of eyelets to your favourite sweater pattern (I do apologize the designer for making this suggestion, but it is true).

In my garden, bees are not just passing by, or flying by to be more precise. No, no, they aren't. They are here to stay and they are living in this bird box. Lovely, orange-bellied, pretty bees. I am so proud of my garden. I think they are tree bumblebees . They have arrived in the UK in 2001 and they have already reached my garden! They have learned the one rule of survival: live along with humans or perish. While shier bees prefer living in the wild, these clever ones are living in bird boxes! Welcome to the 21st century.

What an amazing creative name for a pattern! This men's cable jumper by King Cole Ltd is a free pattern and in my humble (just kidding) opinion those cables are amazing (and tweed yarn gimme gimme gimme I want this sweater).

I have a beautiful Lilac (Syringa) in my garden with short cone shaped bunches of mauve flowers. It is quite tall, over 3m. It started blossoming in early Spring. Its leaves are cordate shaped and paired opposite. The flowers are single and blossom in short cones that grown in bunches, from 3 to as much as 10 cones growing from the same branch. It is deciduous (I have found a photo from early March and the leaves were just starting to come out). Its flowers look very much like that of the Buddleja, which caused me some confusion at first, but it is definitely not a strange Buddleja, as I thought. The leaves and trunks identify it well. Here is an article about pruning it (deciduous lilac should, if necessary, be pruned immediately after flowering).

Another free cowl this week. Metamorph by Jeny Staiman is a math wonder. With the clever use of 8 buttons that allow you to add twist to your heart's content, you can use it as a simple cowl, a Moebius, and more. A practical advantage to this clever design is that the more twist you add, the tighter the cowl gets. So you can use it as a normal cowl if the weather is warm or add twist and make it tight and warm for when its cold. Check out the video, for explanation of the idea. There is really very little to the pattern: make a tube and add 8 equispaced buttons and respective buttonholes at the ends. That is all. This simplicity means you can use almost any stitch pattern in the cowl for extra interest. Photo taken from this project .

Blue-bottles (on the right) pretty purple flowers blossom in May. If one deadheads them, they flower for longer. Like other perennials, they benefit from division every few years, in their case Spring (before they flower) or Autumn is a good time. Here is a more detailed explanation (follow the link division under propagation).

Knitty has recently published a cowl pattern by the wonderful Martina Behm . Wolkig (Cloudy in English) looks a lot more complicated than it is. It is a simple sequence knitting pattern (p6, p3tog, k39, kfb, kfb knitted in the round) with an unexpected complex result.

Myosotis, better known as forget-me-nots, are very common in my garden, where they are growing quite randomly. I suspect these would be considered weeds if it were not for how cute their flowers are. Here is a bit more information about this lovely flower, which is a good option for planting under other taller ones, such as roses.