…Today we have: a bookie wookie Blog Tour-ie!…

If you, like many in the knitting world, have a fine appreciation of all things *positively, smashingly UK* (Downton mania, anyone?), you might have tried a British knit or two…

I’ve been stitching anglophile-ish for ages now and it was on a blustery Friday evening in March 2006 that I met one of the best: Jean Moss, a designer renowned for working for fashion houses such as Ralph Lauren, Laura Ashley, Benetton, and in the hand-knitting realm, Rowan, etc…

She shared her design timeline with us in a most lively slideshow at the Windy City Knitting Guild that lifted me and made me want to not only run home and cast on, but draw and explore and immerse myself deep into the weft.

And it’s in her new book, Sweet Shawlettes, that you can see that she is still in love with the sticks; still giving page to styles that are joyful and spontaneous, just like she…

Here you’ll find:

the Traditional:

the Whimsical:

And my favorite, Glorious Plaid:

Within the book are 25 patterns, presented in a most appealing page layout: clear, legible, with lovely graphics and photography throughout.

All in all, an enjoyable tickle of a collection that combines wit with sophistication in a lovely “wrap” of a book…

Cheers, Jean!

…to spread the cheer and get a copy of this fine book, leave a comment about what you like about small projects below by 8am CST on January 31, 2012, and we’ll draw random and announce post deadline…

And, btw, F. Habit/he of the Panopticon is next on the tour — tell him I said HELLO!!!

If there’s a draft in the house, there’s something you can do that others have done forever: wear your hat all the time.

It’s a 24/7 thing that I once thought a little crazy, even a little thuggy, but now that there’s no cure for the indoor wind (neighbor refinishing his floors! in January! open doors/windows everywhere!) one must do what one must do.

But I found I didn’t have the one I really wanted to wear right now (isn’t that always the bane of the fashionista)…

No prob.

We’ll make more!

And since I seem to be on a daaark yarn bender and have plenty of left-overs from other projects, it was no time at all before a lovely, slouchy navy beanie was ready to wear (Black Water Abbey Navy Worsted)…

Très beanie-love continues in a black ribbed version (Debbie Bliss Aran Cashmerino), and a sock-weight dull-navy version (Aruacania Ranco), with some kind of nod to the gurnsey patterning looming.

While I was framing this pic on my little desk, the lens revealed something I’d not seen before.

Behind the caps is a small collection of photographs that I brought back from a trip to Paris in 1995. They are 2.5″ by 2″ contact prints of someone else’s Parisian vaction that I framed up all together. You can see Notre Dame; the Seine; and some really lovely old neighborhood buildings. They were in a pile on a table in a small pocket-sized flea market we stumbled on while wandering in the Latin Quarter before I scooped them up.

And even though the pictures aren’t in very good shape (and really small) they had something that’s been twirling my brain for the last few weeks!

They are from the early Twentieth Century!

There are lovely ladies on vacation wearing early 20th Century clothing!

I give you Madame #1 with her incredible wheels:

Now, although she is probably wearing a felt hat, it tickled me to see that its shape was rather Beanie in nature. Love that!

Madame #2, out for a stroll with the enfants bien-aimés:

Another beanie-ish toque on la mère and some pretty larger hats on les enfants (although the entire outfit on the charming girl on the right has a Paddington Bear thing going on…)

So exciting to find these incredible shots while I’ve been enjoying all of the fashion on Downton Abbey — fueled the fire!…more to come…

It is with almost palpable relief that I embrace the cold temperatures we are finally having…

Curiously, without them, January just feels wrong.

So I welcome the chill and celebrate with a new chapeau!

 
This is my personal Elisbeth Cap that I’ve been knitting in the evenings.
 
Am still having a love affair with black yarn, even though it’s finicky
and hard to photograph.
 
Pourquoi? Because, imho, it rocks a cable like almost nothing else…
 

This is going very fast, although I had a panic attack last night, thinking I was going to run out of yarn before this got to its slouchy finish.

I ended up un-doing the ball of yarn, measuring it via a very loose *arm’s length to sternum* way (about 39″) and think I just might squeeze it out…

Vrrooooom….