Christmas (window) shopping

I'm not a big fan of the consumer orgy that Christmas has become in the US (see this article on the pepper spraying shopper on Black Friday). It is not quite that bad in the UK, but even so I was grateful when I stopped by the Oxford Street John Lewis a couple of weekends ago, that I was only there for a couple of balls of yarn and didn't have to fight the Christmas shopping crowds already amassing in the middle of November.

Of course, ever since I started knitting I have increasingly been sucked into Christmas knitting, which engenders its own kind of panic and mania. But this year I was smart and started my Christmas knitting back in January. And more importantly, I limit my Christmas gift knitting to the immediate family we spend Christmas with - we alternate between the US and UK each year - and I only give one knitted gift per person, supplementing with fun little stocking stuffers. This way I don't spend a fortunate on unnecessary items no one wants or needs, and I can avoid the frantic Christmas shopping crush.

Christmas isn't about shopping and presents after all - it's actually about the decorations and lights (and food of course. Ok, and family too). I really enjoy Christmas decorations - though here too the US goes massively, and the UK goes slightly overboard. I prefer Christmas in France, where the decorating tends to be more low key and tasteful.

Except when it comes to the Paris Grandes Magasins window displays, as we discovered this past week. Of course Christmas window displays are a tradition for department stores in a lot of countries, but I don't know if anywhere else does it with such flair, and well, disregard for Christmas shibboleths. Galleries Lafayette's 'Christmas' theme was Rock 'n Mode*. No Christmas trees (apart from an enormous one inside that was covered with neon stars and guitars), no santa, no snowmen, no reindeer, none of that usual Christmas junk. Instead, the windows were filled with little dancing rockstar puppets. It was brilliant.

Rockin' Christmas tree

Off to the gig

Gettting ready at the hairdressers

Costume time - check out the rockin' knitter!

The band is rockin'!

The windows at Printemps were all designed by Chanel, alternating traditional product placement window displays with puppets dancing in different cityscapes.The best was naturally the one set in Paris, but I was pleased to see that Beverly Hills was not neglected.

Karl Lagerfeld naturally dominates the Paris display

Bringing some much needed romance back to air travel

We'll try to get to London before Christmas and to New York before New Years to enjoy more big city Christmas lights. But somehow I don't think they will manage to top Paris.

* For more information about the Rockin' Mode displays you can visit the designer's blog: the Kouklitas. Also check out this youtube video, which prominantly features the rockin' knitter starting at 2.30.

Crazy for Cowls

I've moved on from an early flurry of fingerless mitt knitting, now I'm into cowls. I'm generally a late adopter - I only started wearing cowls last spring, and like most things I finally adopt (ipod, kindle), I wonder why I waited so long. They are fabulous!

Last spring I knit a small cowl, loosely based on the Infinitude Scarf, out of fuschia Debbie Bliss Fez. I love the yarn, but not the cowl - I was impatient to finish it quickly, and made it much too small. I could just about get it around my neck twice, barely.

So I've frogged it and plan to start the Welted Cowl pattern from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2010.

© John Brinegar

Same concept, more coverage. I should learn one of these days that it doesn't pay to cut corners.

UPDATE:

Completed welted cowl in Fez over Christmas. LOVE it!

I especially like cowls that you can wrap several times around your neck, but there are some very nice small quick cowl patterns out there. Earlier I tried Madelinetosh's Honey Cowl with the Fez, but I felt the yarn was too soft and fluffy, and didn't show off the stitch pattern well. I think this would work better with a single plied yarn (like Madelinetosh tosh merino dk, coincidentally).

© madelinetosh

An even quicker knit I just discovered last week (and promptly knit over the weekend) is Purl Soho's Bandana Cowl. This is a brilliant little pattern that incorporates the best qualities of a cowl and a shawlette - stays in place AND covers the chest area.

I knit mine in the new Debbie Bliss Paloma, which is a super chunky yarn, so I had to modify the pattern slightly. By the time I finished the short rows in the lower triangle portion the cowl was already getting too long, so I only knit 2 rows between the decrease rows, instead of the 3 rows the pattern called for.

The Eggplant Bandito

I love the finished project, and the yarn. I had planned to do it with Rowan Drift in the nomad colourway, which has a purple-black heathered appearance (what this has to do with nomads is anyone's guess). But I realised that would probably create too dense a fabric, so I went with the Paloma instead. Paloma is a luxurious 60% baby alpaca / 40% merino wool blend, plaited in a chain to give bulk without extra weight. It is amazing. I would love to knit a more substantial garment out of it, because it would knit up so light and snuggly. But it is really far too expensive for my budget - I'll have to stick to Rowan Cocoon, which I can just about afford.

There is one last cowl I've been working on for almost a year - the Mohair Bias Loop by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. I'm doing it in a lovely rusty melange Annie Blatt wool/mohair. But I'm knitting it at a glacial pace because it is straight stockinette in mohair, for God's sake!

A thing of ethereal beauty and excrutiating boredom
© Churchmouse Yarns & Teas

Maybe I'll be able to finish it in the New Year, after the Christmas knitting panic is over.

UPDATE:

Finished the Mohair Bias Loop in the end - a nice enough
piece, but I can't say it is worth over a year's knitting.

Exotic Gardens

There is no better place to escape British weather than an exotic garden. I can still remember a visit to Kew Gardens when I was around 16 years old - we had been living in Malaysia and the dreary, cold, wet English summer we encountered was a great shock. It was such a relief to slip into the waterlily house to soak up some steamy tropical warmth.

On my recent visit to Glasgow the weather was particularly abysmal, so a friend and I escaped to the botanical garden. Kibble Palace, the larger greenhouse, was restored not so long ago and it is a lovely place to wander on a wet day. They specialise in Australasian tree ferns, but I was particularly taken by other plants with wonderful colours and textures. I can never remember plant names, so I'll just make up my own.

I call this one the bottlebrush plant

This one should be called the stegosauras plant

My favorite part of a botanic garden is usually the cactus & succulent house, but this time I would vote for the carniverous plant room. The colours and shapes of the pitchers plants were stunning (I'd love to knit something in this colour combination).

And I discovered that pitcher plants produce flowers!

The following weekend we visited my husband's family in Suffolk, and his mother arranged for us to go visit Henstead exotic garden near the coast. This garden was built from scratch by an amateur gardener, and is only open for private visits and on specially arranged open days. The plants, landscaping and buildings were particularly impressive considering the owner had done everything by himself (with a bit of help from friends) with no outside funding. The area near the Suffolk coast enjoys a temperate microclimate, so many of the exotics plants are able to survive winters outdoors; the more delicate plants have to be stored in a polytunnel during colder weather. Here are some of my favourite shots:

Ophiopogon planiscapus 'nigrescens', or Black lilyturf

lily pond with Leycesteria formosa, or Himalayan honeysuckle

Impressive array of colours and textures - this garden peaks in late Autumn

I'm going to have to brush up on my plant terminology so I can keep track of the plants I see in gardens for future reference - who knows, some day I might actually be able to grow a decorative garden of my own.

I'll leave you with one more photo - a structure in the garden which is a pretty unusual sight in contemporary Britain:

An outhouse - and I actually got to use it!