Needing to get a lot of knitting done is always the perfect excuse for curling up on a sofa and watching a film too. I recently got hold of a 2nd hand box set of the TV programme Shameless. It is warm, funny, violent and has a lot of swearing and drugs in it but it is so real! I love it! I am still only half way through so can thoroughly recommend buying box sets 2nd hand.
It is set on a fictional housing estate, the Chatsworth estate in Derbyshire. About a single, mostly absent father (he's had 9 kids by series 6!) and his independently minded kids that keep themselves our of scrapes and out of the care system with lots of tears and laughs on the way.
If you have switched over when this programme starts, and have preconceived ideas of what it might be like do give it a 2nd chance. It only took me about 6 yrs to look at it properly and I am so glad I did! If you knit, then do expect to have to rewind if your eyes leave the screen even for a second as the edits are really fast and you musn't miss a moment.
We also have a 2nd hand box set of series 3 and 4 of Lost. As more and more episodes are viewed, I am not the slightest bit enlightened as to what is going on exactly but enjoy it nonetheless. This is another not so easy to knit whilst viewing programme though, as there are almost subliminal type shots that flash past so quickly, you can't be looking at your needles when it happens.
I watched The Devil Wears Prada last night out of curiosity, and felt it was a total waste of time, even knitting to it. I thought it might be some light hearted fun and a good film to knit to. However, the story seemed so childish I felt it should have been aired on a Saturday afternoon and I did not feel that it shed any light on the fashion industry at all. Embarassingly, for them, it was made in 2006 which is not so long ago we can make excuses for it!
Disappearing off the radar.....
It might look like I have disappeared, not having been on line for about 6 days, but I am still here. I have been suffering from a nasty thrombophlebitis, right over a previous thrombosis (not deep vein, superficial vein) and as usual, part of my arm died off and a huge abscess with cellulitis and raging fever took place. Usually, in the past, due to fear of losing a limb I was frightened into going into hospital to have it treated. However sometimes my inflammations mimic infection, and although just as severe do not respond to normal IV antibiotics and of course new ulcers form around IV sites...so I don't like hospitals. Each new inflammation causes permanent scarring and damage and leaves me with less function in the arms and hands.
I stayed at home. Took a mini course of antibiotics which did nothing, then just took antiinflammatories, paracetomol and aspirin...and it is under control. No need to panic too much about knitting deadlines as I have it all in hand and it isn't that so much that is the cause of worries. I just thought staying on the sofa, going for short walks for circulation and resting my stressed out mind was the best option for the situation. I am feeling so much better now and not so confused and sweaty with the fever. I nearly always run a bit of a temperature, and when infected or inflamed this becomes a very high temperature.
The stress is not so much due to work but other situations cropping up in my life. And not having had one of these big flare ups with the veins/arms for quite a while I am totally shocked to realise that actually, stress alone can have such a big impact on my immune system and can be the actual cause of the flare up. I always thought it was bad timing in the past, when I was ill and then other bad things happened in my personal life at the same time, thinking it was co-incidence, but this time...there was no flare up as such, then stressful things started happening (mainly caused by people rather than just bad luck) and bingo, a flare up started. Not very scientific I know, but you do get the feeling that you know the causes after so many years.
I do get a bit wobbly immune wise in the changing of seasons and sunlight and all that, but never has it been so clear to me before that a healthy stress free mind can protect me from having such bad relapses of my Behcets Disease.
Now, I just have to try and get that message across to people that cause unnecessary upset, especially those people who try to ask me not to cause them stress when they are ill! It seems I am always pussyfooting around other people and their problems but rarely get the same respect back. However, if my health demands it, then I will have to find a way of communicating that without making it look like my illness is an excuse for avoiding stressful issues.
Life is just too short, and I am getting better and better at avoiding those who cause stress but some of those just don't avoid me, and I have no choice but come under their influence.
Not a very knit-related post, but just a note to self really so I can look back in a year's time to see what affected me. I am now taking on a lot of physical knitting, so will see how that affects things. Normally I feel better for having achieved a physical task, just don't try and persuade me knitting itself is stressful, it isn't, only some of the people doing it are.
Erssie's Press
This is Erssie's press page and this is a list of publications in which Erssie Knits has had featured designs. See the very bottom of this page for links to gallery sets of photos if you wish to see pics of the finished designs.
Erssie Major
Knitting and Crochet Designer and Author of Patterns
Biography
Erssie Major has been knitting and crocheting on and off since she was four years old, and has been designing since childhood too. Her first officially published pattern appeared around 2005 for a well known UK children's charity. Erssie had been medically retired and wanting to feel useful again (after an operation and illness that left her partially disabled) she found knitting and crochet was key to her recovery and thoroughly enjoyable so is an advocate of knitting as therapy. She moved on quickly to author patterns for on line magazines and websites and thereafter to print magazines and books. Simultaneously to working as a designer, she has also worked as a pattern checker, a project manager, a tutor and a knitter/maker for other well known designers.
Her own designs have been mainly, but not limited to, accessories in a simple and quirky style ranging from the whimsical to the downright alternative. However, she has also produced some classic and timeless traditional pieces too and has a flair for being able to sketch and design to any specific brief required by publishers and then being able to realise that design as planned and following up with clear, well crafted patterns.
Erssie writes a blog/website entitled Skeinspotting: A World of Erssie Knits which features her own patterns as well as tutorials, yarn reviews, book reviews and other articles of interest to knitters.Linked to the blog, there is also a new YouTube channel where she collects videos from all over the YouTube website as well as makes videos in order to make Playlists that provide valuable resources to support both her self published and magazine published patterns. Her website provides self published patterns and tutorials to download and she is well established on Ravelry where she takes part as an active member of the knitting community as part of many groups. She is also a member of the knitting group Angel Knits which meets in Islington and has also been involved with Castoff the Knitting Club for Boys and Girls where she helped to run workshops at the Fashion and Textile Museum of London where she met and collaborated with Rachael Matthews (course head tutor) on a crochet book.
Her website http://www.erssieknits.com provides all the links that you need to be able to visit the Erssie Knits Gallery of previous works and various other sources of her work. However this cannot be absolutely up to date as there is still a lot of work yet to be revealed due to confidentiality of her clients' work. You may also find her on Ravelry as Erssie/When Erssie is not knitting or crocheting, which is hardly ever, she enjoys reading and looking after her two rescued greyhounds. Occasionally her interests collide, and there can be some amusing pictures of hounds modelling knitwear. Currently she strikes a balance between self published, and other publishers' work with most work being for herself (she is pursuing a self published book planned for 2009/2010) and so has the luxury of being able to cherry pick her jobs for other publishers and pursue only work she finds is worthwhile. So, if you are reading this, then Erssie is keen to work for you too.
List of Published Work
(Does not include self published patterns or other designers works/shared works)
2005
Name of Design/Publication
Christmas Pudding Baby Hat/The Children's Society website
Baby Santa Hat/The Children's Society website
Christmas Tree Decorations/The Children's Society website
Erssie's Easy (Fair Isle) Beanie / The Children's Society website
Baby Bee Hat & Booties/MagKnits on-line knitting magazine
2006
Name of Design/Publication
G8 Mother & Daughter Hats / MagKnits on line knitting magazine
A Maiden's Glory Headdress/ The Anticraft on line craft magazine
Beltane Flame/The Anticraft on line craft magazine
Under One Skein: Baby Socks/MagKnits on-line knitting magazine
Silvanus (bag)/MagKnits on-line knitting magazine
Lily of The Valley Crochet Flowers/Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
Carnations in Crochet /Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
Starflower in Crochet/Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
Daisies in Crochet / Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
5 Petal Flower /Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
8 Petal Flower/Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
10 Loops Daisy/Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
12 Loops Daisy/Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
Red Poppy in Crochet/Hookorama by Rachael Matthews
Baby Santa Hat/Simply Knitting UK print magazine
Christmas Tree Decorations/Simply Knitting UK print magazine
Erssie's Easy (Fair Isle) Beanie/Simply Knitting UK print magazine
Striped Baby Beanies in Cotton Silk Aran Knitting Pattern
Sweet Socks for Sugar Free Feet Knitting Pattern
Tessellating Skulls needlecrafts chart
Valentine Stitching Hearts Charts
Other Work
Erssie has worked for Collins & Brown publishers in LondonUK as a pattern checker, a knitter and project manager of knitters for the Harmony Stitch Guides. She has also worked for various designers knitting up their projects or collaborating in design work and has occasionally run workshops in knitting and crochet techniques. She is currently working with Zabet Stewart from the Anticraft on a co-authored book containing craft inspiration celebrating arts for art's sake which is due to be published later in 2009.
These are Erssie Knits designs which have been published in books, magazines and websites as knitting patterns. Many of the patterns in on line magazines are free to download for readers.
I read every day for at least an hour or two. I have been keeping this up recently but have been very bad at noting the books on my blog.
Anyway, recently, I got hooked on Stephanie Meyer's series of teenage vampire books known as The Twilight Saga. They are supposed to be for 'young' people, but they are such an easy read and so much fun, I couldn't help reading the whole series...and I am on the last book, Breaking Dawn book 4, at the moment.
Overall I enjoyed the read. There were some things that annoyed me, the relationship between Bella the Heroine and the two boys who love her, one a werewolf and one a vampire could get a bit sickly at points. Then I would hit a section that was so sensual, so unusual it would cancel out the yucky bits. Some of the middle books really did feel like middle books though. Unlike Harry Potter where every book is a story of its own and can stand in its own right, the sequel books in this series did heavily rely on people being fans of the earlier books. One of the middle books felt so disjointed and disembodied on its own, I almost felt like this might have been a series of 3 books originally, but greed by the publishers to push a 4th book meant the whole story across the series got stretched out a bit and then filled in.
Never mind though, I still could not put them down. And I am an advocate of children's or teenagers' books. Quite often, they are written in plain language but with unashamed passion and emotion. And because kiddies books need to grab the attention of young people more than they would for adults, the subject matter and plots are often a lot more exciting and action packed.
However, I did also see transparently that a publisher releasing books for young people had taken on a moral obligation not to have anything too lewd etc....so I feel that is the reason Bella and Edward do no more than kissing....unless they decide to get hitched...so the author had really kept it a bit 'Christian' although it was in keeping with the characters.
Having lived with someone for well over 20 yrs without being married, I do get sick of people thinking our relationship is not that serious etc and not respecting our commitments that we have taken on without getting married. My partner is every bit as important as a husband, and should be considered to be related to me, but sadly he isn't and often it is unspoken judgements by people. We are not Christian, so do not wish to get married in a Christian tradition...if we ever got handfasted, I bet we would have to still do a civil ceremony to make it legal....and the cost of doing it properly without any support from family has really made us use that money for more important things.
Back to the Twilight Saga, they turned the first book of this series into a movie. Not sure how I feel about that film, some parts were good but others were really cringy and high school-ish.
This also ties in with knitting. Some time ago, I came across a knitter who had knitted the gorgeous socks below with a floating ribbon on the cuff, which she had to duplicate stitch otherwise it would need to be done in intarsia. I admired it, and then was told it was based on the cover of Eclipse, the 3rd book in the Meyer series. It didn't really register at the time. But here are the socks, designed by Julie Miller
There are 14 separate groups for Twilight fans on Ravelry, and a whole group of knitters who have designed Twilight inspired projects. I still think the above is the best for its instantly recognisable imagery.
I also like the Bella's La Push Hat above. In one scene in the film, Bella and school friends go to the Native American reservation area to a beach called La Push. It was such a rainy windy cold day, they filmed it in a small camper van and Bella wore a crochet hat that looked just like a flower pot...
and loads of people have attempted to copy it. Some with success like the one above by Jenn Mainwaring, and others not quite matching the original. There are knitted versions too, but the one above is my favourite.
There is a group dedicated to designs which are planned to be put into a knitting book related to this series, much in the same way as the Harry Potter knitting book Charmed Knits. The designer Marilee Norris of the above tote, has a number of bags and totes all with charted artwork and quotes from the series.There is a sequel film to Twilight, based on the New Moon book coming out in November this year.If you want to see more about each character in this vampire soap opera, and want to see more about the interesting actors that took part in both movies then see the Twilight blog.
Teens have gone mad for the Edward Cullen character, who is the main hero of the first book. Also, the actor that plays him, Rob Pattinson seems to have a big following not just as an actor (he is British by the way) but also as a musician. His song Let me Sign
was featured with Bella's Death scene....and I have to say he has an interesting and tortured voice. I hope he has good friends around him, because he gives the public impression of a tortured soul who is so deep, he might not live that long!! He is probably totally different when he is out of the public eye, one gets the feeling he acts using good old fashioned method acting techniques so gets absorbed with the vampire, living forever and looking for the love of his life role.
Vogue/Designer Knitting
Got the Spring issue yesterday, and I wasn't as wowed as I normally am. However, it is filled with summery knits and mostly organic un-dyed cotton. Lovely to knit and wear, but not always exciting as photography...even textured knits can look a bit washed out.Also, in the UK I feel that the summer is when you really get to wear your proper knitwear, it can be chilly here and we haven't exactly had hot summers. So, a cardi or a sweater is perfect when winter coats are too hot. So what I am saying, is that summer is probably even more of a good reason to be knitting a warm and colourful piece of knitting. And what about picnic rugs? Knitted beach bags etc?
By the way, I got a mention in this issue....as Erssie Major designer of the POW scarf that went into Handknit Heroes. They gave a review of the comic book I designed a scarf for and I was surprised to read that the pattern was going to be re-issued in the next issue of HKH...that didn't sound quite right.;I had recently been asked for permission to re-use in a collection bumper book....perhaps they meant that.
I am spending quite a lot of time on my secret book project and looking at the photo galleries f test knits I have put up, I am itching to get those published, The delay between making something and getting it out there can be frustrating and my mind i already on the follow up books.
My other half has a friend who is a designer and layout artist who is keen to help out and I should take him up on that offer because it is not often that a man, and an arty one at that, actually considers knitting patterns worth working on. Even if they have to admit that the my knitting and subject matters are quite cool (and not grannified) they still hesitate to get involved.
A bit like certain people I know who glaze over and don't regard my knitting as a proper job. I get a lot of that, people wanting to meet up with me during the day because I 'don't work' and when I say actually, I do, and I have to devote more hours to it than a normal 9-5 office worker it is usually disregarded or a friend will say, I know you're busy but I am sure you can stop knitting for a couple of hours....next thing I know they have arrived and a whole day is gone (or two if they stay overnight). Nothing infuriates me more than a person saying they have to work but on their day off, assume I can take the day off too...like I can ignore my publishing deadlines etc.
I Iike to knit and crochet.
I also love greyhounds and donate 100% of money donated for my knitting patterns to Galgos Del Sol. You can purchase my patterns, including Dizzy Lily: A Snood For a Hound from Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/designers/erssie
We also have a 2nd hand box set of series 3 and 4 of Lost. As more and more episodes are viewed, I am not the slightest bit enlightened as to what is going on exactly but enjoy it nonetheless. This is another not so easy to knit whilst viewing programme though, as there are almost subliminal type shots that flash past so quickly, you can't be looking at your needles when it happens.
I watched The Devil Wears Prada last night out of curiosity, and felt it was a total waste of time, even knitting to it. I thought it might be some light hearted fun and a good film to knit to. However, the story seemed so childish I felt it should have been aired on a Saturday afternoon and I did not feel that it shed any light on the fashion industry at all. Embarassingly, for them, it was made in 2006 which is not so long ago we can make excuses for it!
![Dizzy Lily <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/erssie-knits/4689"></a>](<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/erssie-knits/4689"><img border="0" src="http://www.ravelry.com/images/shopping/buy-now.gif"/></a> £2.00)
