The North Circular

I'm sure I'm late on this one, but I'm kind of excited about The North Circular. Do check it out!
 
Lily Cole is heading a group of models and knitters in a really interesting, if not a bit nostalgic, business collaboration.

The North Circular has rescued some Wensleydales, keep a tally on each garment's tag to let you know how many sheep they've saved, and briefly introduce you to Ernest, the shepherd for those Wensleydales in Yorkshire. The knitters are "...grannies, girls. …and a few strong men..." but I promise, the folks at The North Circular are really mostly focused on the "grannies".

Granted, the focus comes out of a respect for the craft and for the beautiful knit work that Lily's own grandmother has done, as well as including the consumer in essentially every moment of the process from sheep to garment, I still feel a tiny bit left out.

As I knitter, I simultaneously love the concept and hope people buy, as well as knowing I probably won't buy the items myself. I'm hoping people buy hand knits from me, so it seems ironic if I'm buying hand knits. I don't really need to get to know my knitter: I already know mine.

That said, look at the goodies!

Bobble Hat

Skip the 'For Kids' and 'Ready to Wear' sections and just check out the accessories. These are lovely knits for the non-knitter, and lovely pictures for the knitter. Check out the extra thumbnails and you can figure out the construction pretty easily. It's not ground-breaking design, but the concept is fantastic. If you aren't a knitter and you care about the earth, I'd say go for it!


By the by, The North Circular is participating in Prince Charles' Campaign for Wool: a program to support the woolen industry. There are some great companies supporting this initiative like Pringle of Scotland (always a winner), Happy Socks (love love love!), Elizabeth Lau (who designs some knitwear for anthropologie - not a supporter, but they're still fabulous), The Wool Room (lovely lovely woolies for your home - I'll be buying from them soon) just to name a very very very small few.

Check out the Campaign for Wool website - it's aesthetically pleasing and concise - and then check out the brand supporters and make your retail therapy a little bit greener.

Miu Miu Pre-Fall 2010

I love style.com. It's the first place I ever found where I could see full collections as they come out. It's an amazing place to see color and style trends straight from the source.

I've been looking back at the Miu Miu and Prada PF2010 Collections since they came out. They took knitting so seriously. Here's some items from Miu Miu that I particularly like:

style.com

The mittens, the thigh-high socks and vest are right up my alley for design inspiration. They're all a bit elaborate for my taste, but I love the spirit they're coming from. And if you were wondering what's hiding under the coat in that first picture (and didn't quite get enough from the vest), the lovely folks at Prada...

style.com

...made it into a dress. The extravagance is really nice. I wouldn't wear it, but I wouldn't hate if I saw it on someone else. Fun.

Pull and Bear

I was over at lookbook lurking, as I frequently feel inclined to do, when I saw this:

lookbook.nu

She calls it "Camel From Head to Toe...". As a lover of browns for winter, I am in love with this outfit. As a knitter, I want to be this woman's friend. Look! Just LOOK at that corset. Yeeeessss!!! I hopped over to her personal page to find out where on earth she purchased this wonderful piece of knitterly excellence.

It's from Pull & Bear, which I had never heard of before. Popped over to the site and found these:

pullbear.com

These are just two of the photos I saw there that I really loved. Note the knit rug on the floor in the second photo.

These are good. Really really good. There is all sorts of inspiration to be had here.

On Suicide and Homosexuality

I woke up not too long ago and, against what judgment I still believe myself to possess, hopped on Facebook. After playing around for a few minutes, I noticed I had been invited to participate in this "event". Jump on over. I'll wait. Read some of the comments and then you can return at your own leisure. Trust me, there's plenty there...

Back? Great. Let's talk.

I have noticed that people really like to remember things that make them upset. We're constantly having some "in memory" of wars, deaths, hatred, violence. What happens when you remember those things? You get angry, vengeful, fearful, hateful, and depressed. What happens when people feel those things? Wars, deaths, hatred, and violence. Or, if you don't feel or do any of those things, then you can feel nothing.

What you need to do is STOP giving so much power and attention to all the things that we DON'T WANT! Have an event in memory of a life, not a death. Be more vocal about resources for teens, gay or otherwise, so that they don't think their only option is to commit suicide. Spread the word that they are loved, no matter what some people think.

Reading those comments, you notice the lack of respect people have for each other and for themselves. Raise your hand if you're surprised that hatred comes from both sides. We will never get rid of all the things we don't want in the world, but so what? Choose your focus. Life is amazing. So much more good happens in this world than we give attention to and we wonder why all we notice is the bad. Statistics (that's real simple math I'm talking about) will tell you that it's a tiny percentage of bad going on out of all the good.

If you want to sit in the 0.0113% of people committing suicide, feel free. I'm gonna sit in my 99.9887% of people who don't commit suicide.

And to answer the question, sure, I'll wear purple. And I'll wear green, and brown and grey and any other color I feel like wearing on any day of the year while I remember how many people are living and help think of ways to keep people happily alive.


The only time you can be happy is any time you decide to be.

Knitting Needles on Planes: A Rant

As my imminent trip nears, I consider all of the things necessary before I depart. Packing, for one, would probably be a good idea at this point.

I intend to bring three bags: 1) the one checked bag that I am allowed, under 50lbs with everything I can manage in it; 2) one carry-on bag (my "purse") with my laptop, a novel (John Steinbeck's East of Eden) and some essential documents; 3) one carry-on with yarn and needles.

Now, that said, I decided to check one more time and make sure the international airlines don't have any restrictions against knitting needles. For a while now, they've been accepted on planes here. I'm flying Lufthansa and they have no issue with knitting needles and say specifically that they are acceptable items to carry on-board.

I was curious, though, to see what else I could find about knitting needles on planes. I came across a thread in which a person asked why knitting needles are accepted on planes, as they are sharp and thus deadly.

This person has clearly never touched a knitting needle before. You have to get pretty small before they get sharp. How sharp? Approximately as sharp as a dull pencil. Most knitting needles small enough to puncture the skin are double pointed (they are equally pointed on both ends), so if you're gonna stab someone with it, you have to push on the opposite sharp end with your hand or a finger. If you give it enough force to puncture someone else, you've given it enough force to puncture yourself and that just seems counter-intuitive.

As a matter of fact, being punctured by something just hurts for a second, it isn't deadly. People have been impaled by huge stuff and walked into the emergency room with it.

In short, people shut up about knitting needles on planes unless you're ready to give up your pens, pencils, styluses, long fingernails, most earrings and lots of other kinds of jewelry, chopsticks, and anything else that's long and slender and "sharp".

End rant.