A Book that is not a Historical Novel....or is it?

The Russian Concubine
by Kate Furnivall was partly a Christmas holiday read, then went on the back burner after my Christmas present reading.

This is a story of a daughter of Russians who escapes with her mother during the Bolshevik Revolution and flees to China.

It is set in the late 20s and the main character Lydia has to become very streetwise to survive. As a result, she becomes involved with a Chinese communist and Chinese gangs. It reads as quite an exciting thriller, as well as a love story and dare I say it? It is historical and educational as well. It reminds me of when I went through my Chinese novel phase and this period of history has been very well described in Wild Swans by Jung Chang, but this personal story of two young people from different cultures and the influence of International Communities on Chinese politics is quite fresh to me.

I would recommend this as a fast pace read, but personally I was a little disappointed in the way it ended. I like to be shocked, or surprised, and have an ending I would not have thought of myself but this was just a little too rushed and disjointed. I suppose it is realistic, but somehow everything was a little too convenient. I can imagine this making an exciting film, and I could imagine someone like Ang Lee doing a pretty good job of portraying both Chinese and International cultures.

Another Book

I read Suzannah Dunn's The Sixth Wife last summer and enjoyed the narrative style, and the internal dialogue of the characters. I am now reading The Queen of Subtleties, which I assumed referred to Ann Boleyn (who was far from subtle) but I was partly wrong. Subtleties was the term given to confectionery painstakingly carved into something that resembles objects that have subtle meaning to the King. King Henry VIII was keen on having a confectioner make carved sugar roses and other marchepane delights to give to his lovers, and in this period it was Anne Boleyn. However,the title could also be referred to Anne Boleyn, who is the lover but not mistress of Henry, and is Queen in all but name, wearing the garb of a Queen but still in the shadow of Queen Catherine who has not yet been put aside.

The narrators of this story are Anne Boleyn herself and the King's Head of the Confectionery kitchen Lucy Cornwallis who also has interesting conversations with the lute player and musician Mark Smeaton, who allegedly had an affair with Anne Boleyn and was suspected of having fathered Elizabeth I.

Forget your history books, or the dry and dusty language of the costume drama because this book sounds so fresh it is a living breathing entity. The language is modern, and the descriptions vivid. Anne bubbles over with vindictiveness when in her frustration she starts bitching and refers to Queen Catherine as Fat Cath.

What was running through the minds of common subjects with regard to the political upheaval of this time is very well represented here. The sheer volume of staff needed to give Henry VIII a comfortable life, wherever he was, is felt as you read through this account but each festivity and recreation of the King is darkly lined up with tragic events happening outside the court's circle: for example the imprisonment of Cardinal Wolsey and the beheading of the Chancellor Sir Thomas More.

I am enjoying this, I don't care how the story ends, we all know what happens, I am just going with the flow of the thoughts of two vastly contrasting women and reading this, I can almost feel like I am standing on some warm polished oak floorboards, with a smell of candy floss up my nose watching the action, eavesdropping on the characters thoughts.

Thanks to SpinGirl for coming across this: a knitted video!

I have created a chart and easy to follow instructions for the Pirate Gal Hat.
If you are happy with knit charts rather than instructions, you can email me for a free copy. I tried to add this download to Ravelry, but the link keeps expiring so until I have sorted out that or loaded up one on Erssie Knits, just mail erssiemajor@yahoo.co.uk and ask for a copy. You must tell me which pattern you are asking for though, as I have more than one knitting pattern available.

Books Books Books

I have not been well for a couple of weeks, and in my weak state, I have done some designing on paper, some gentle knitting but a lot of reading. I have a guilty pleasure that I must admit, following reading a Tudor historical novel by Philippa Gregory which someone gave me to read and I almost rejected, I have been hooked on reading about this historical period in time.
So here is my appraisal of the partly fictional but enormously fun novels I have read on this period.

The Other Boleyn Girl Philippa Gregory
Should you read it? Yes
This is a very saucy tale of Ann Boleyn's sister Mary Boleyn. I read it thinking that every fact must be true, as the research seemed thorough but I later discovered that Mary Boleyn was the older sister, not the younger sister of Ann. In the novel she is represented as being King Henry VIIs first mistress after Blessie Blount, which is unfounded although there is some assumption that Mary did first catch his eye, followed by Ann, and that even their mother had been a mistress in the past. Anyway, putting aside some facts, reading it as a novel, it moved very fast was a little bit saucy but totally captured the feeling of decadence and danger, and I know that everyone knows that Ann Boleyn was beheaded, but if you are not entirely sure why, I won't ruin it for you!
This novel leads on to the next one I read which was...

The Boleyn Inheritance Philippa Gregory
Should you read it? Probably if you enjoyed the above, but in some ways it is darker
The publishers had very craftily left you wanting more of the above story, and had put a detailed account of the time after Jane Seymour had died, the first meeting of Henry VIII and his 4th wife Ann of Cleves, who thought she was being kissed by a smelly old tramp when in fact His Majesty had hoped to make her believe he was a tall handsome stranger who would make her heart flutter and love him at once as a stranger, then even more when she discovered he was King. She spat and insulted him, in her native German but her intention was clear. I read the book in a couple of days. The story was fluently carried along by the voices of three women who had a perspective on this fated marriage and His Majesty's affair with little Katherine Howard. The fact that some of these wives, were really children being only teenagers to his 48 yrs or so, is something you cannot appreciate if you have seen the recent BBC Drama The Tudors, where they have sauced it up by making King Henry a young man when he is with Ann Boleyn when in actual fact he was nearly 40 and she 13 or 14 when they met. Anyway, sympathy can be felt for the position of all of these women, and each of their perspectives is quite different.

The Queen's Fool Philippa Gregory
Should you read it? Not your first choice if you want to read some other Gregory books
I would like to point out at this point, that I didn't read all of these Phillippa Gregory novels in a row, there were plenty of books in between but it is easier for me to compare them like this. This particular book I read and enjoyed the story, but found the writing wanting. There is an annoying habit of characterisation that Gregory uses, where she builds up a picture of the person's physical habits, and we just keep having very limited descriptions of that one action. In this book it was along the lines of "She put her hand to her cheek, as if to wipe smuts from the fire...." because the character's mother was burned as a heretic and this was a device to illustrate the danger that the character felt. But honestly, I nearly abandoned the book because of those darned smuts! Anyway, this story was of the reign of Bloody Mary, Mary Tudor and told from the point of view of her court Fool, which could be a little bit limiting at times, as that fool seemed to be able to get everywhere to witness all the important pieces of history!

The Virgin's Lover Philippa Gregory
Should you read it? Probably not if you enjoyed the above
This I read after I had read a very good novel about Jane Grey by another author, also a Tudor descendent and fills in the small gap between Edward dying and Mary Tudor coming to reign. Anyway, by comparison, I found this novel vaguley annoying. Once again, there was the Queen working herself up into a state, seeming not to be able to cope without a man at her side to tell her what to do, and I got a bit fed up of her buffing her nails with her fingertips until her cuticles were raw and bleeding and biting her lips into strips. At this period of history, with uncertainty in the reign of Scotland and problems with the French, she got to do those things an awful lot until I was just writhing in my seat. Unlike the other novels where I felt the women were strong, I felt they were weak and flawed in this, and I felt that there was little story and plot surrounding Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester who is supposed to be Elizabeth I's great love and closest friend. It over sexualised it, and it seemed to trivialise it and limit it to just a year or two in her reign, when the author's notes state that his last letter to her before he died declared his love, and also she had that letter at her bedside when she died (although I heard that she was so stoical she died sitting up in a chair). Robert Dudley's wife was a very pathetic specimen and also had some repetitive character traits, in the novel I mean, I know little of her in real life.

Innocent Traitor Alison Weir
Should you read it? I thoroughly recommend this as a good historical background to the period from a woman's perspective
This was a very touching and detailed account of the Lady jane Grey, her upbringing, her parents ill treatment of her and her marriage to Guilford Dudley (Robert Dudley's brother) and her nine day reign.
It did bring a tear to my eye, and her execution gave me shivers, the thought that one woman could condemn her own cousin to the block, when she was just sixteen was chilling. I would recommend this as a good Tudor read, and it is not deliberately saucy in any way. There are glimpses in this novel of other Tudors such as Elizabeth and Mary, and their phsyical attributes and behaviour are similar but not entirely identical to the portrayal you see in Phillippa Gregory's novel.

The Sixth Wife Suzannah Dunn

I read this one some time ago, whilst I was on holiday last summer and I think it paints a wonderful picture of the lives of Thomas Seymour (Jane Seymour's brother) and his wife Katherine Parr, who was Henry VIIth's only lasting wife. She took it upon herself to educate her stepdaughters Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Tudor and also took in Lady Jane Grey uner her motherly wing. Her story is told here through the eyes of her best friend, who has a fictional affair with her husband, but there is also some scandal involving Elizabeth and since she was second in line to the throne, it lead to Thomas's overtures of love being classified as treason, and he lost his head.

I am now reading The Constant Princess Philippa Gregory, so I go back in time to learn about the early years of Katherine of Aragon, Henry the VIII's first wife, who was originally married to his brother Arthur who should have come to the throne but didn't, thus leading her to become married to Henry, but 20 odd yrs later it was alleged that this marriage was in actual fact not valid as the Bible forbids a man to marry his brother's wife.

My Anticraft Pics Up At Last

At last, here are some scanned copies of my designs for the Anticraft book, Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister. I am really happy with what they did, and kind of sad, because apart from my other half and the dogs, I realised that I don't really have any family to hand to say "Look what I did " any more.

A





Introducing Dave
Men's Ribbed Striped Beanie

I have been fussing and frogging and getting my other half to wear a hat for a day before snatching it from his head to re knit to avoid wasting the lovely yarn. I am happy with this now. It can stay like this, and I can confirm it is 'man proof', you know it won't rise into a little condom peak, or slide sideways, or all of the other horrors that men seem to create, they really do like to plonk their hat on like a dead cat.


I knitted quite a few, I think I might be giving these away but firstly I am going to try and sell them for £30 each, and donate the money to charity. If the hats don't shiftI can give these to some of my homeless chums

I have also been beavering away on a couple of new designs confidential at the moment.. Especially as my main big project has not gone ahead, I won't go into the reasons why, but it has freed me up to put a structure in place for an idea for a big project I have had floating around since about the year 2000 or before with over 40 designs (probably 2 books worth), and I am filling my design journal with real artwork (albeit niaive) in ink and coloured pencil, and then hoping to turn my own artwork into knitting charts.



Actually I have successfully turned artwork into knitting charts, but you know when you sit down to doodle for 10 mins it can turn into a whole day. I feel confident now that I can turn anything into a knitting or textiles chart, and that means I no longer have to be dependent on other artists. Perhaps I could even sell a collection of charts, as opposed to a specific pattern as many people have their own patterns but not the motifs they need to personalise their knitting.

Anyway, look out for some things in the Anticraft this year and a couple other on line magazines.

Obviously, I can't help submitting to the Anticraft, that house style is in my blood. I have kept to my New Year's resolution and had one day on the computer, and one day off sketching and knitting. My new phone, can access the web and although it is limited, it does mean I can pick up emails in the car on the way to the vets (every 2 weeks still) and I managed to surf images for ideas research. I am very much in need of a collaborator though.

I do have several big project ideas, and have been given the welcome to submit, but I feel that these ideas would be so much better with a sounding board. Someone who is good at photography would be a bonus, and someone who could help write copy and generally get involved. Obviously, I am not looking to employ anyone, this dream collaborator would be my equal and therefore share in any profit that comes our way and certainly for large projects would be the named writer too. I think I would prefer to have a collaborator I can see face to face regularly, I got a bit weary of not having much person to person contact on projects last year, it is not healthy at all.

Happy New Year

Oh dear, how lazy, no pics! I promise to show you my fave presents which were a wartime book of make do and mend, and a mug, which stated that I am indeed the Queen of ******* everything!

Also, I have carried out my grandfather's philosophy which was "A new broom sweeps clean...!" in my approach to 2008. Some of you know I was working on a big project, and with a heavy heart, I decided not to continue with that project. I will continue to contribute designs to mags and books on a pattern by pattern basis though. However, since then, quite a few more opportunities have come through that I would not normally have time to get involved in, and there has always been another totally top secret Erssie product on the back burner that perhaps deserves to be the first 'big' project to come out.



And of course, 3 of my designs have come out in Anticraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister. Belladonna Sleeves , Pop Art Skulls Pillow and Goth Glam Yule Hat, I can put some pics up later. Also, if you search inside the above book on Amazon.com, there is an excerpt showing my goth Glam Yule Hat, the idea of which was born several years ago and I still don't have one to wear at Christmas!

Otherwise, buy the book. It is hilarious and just a very pretty antidote to glossy bland coffee table books. It covers all crafts, and although I cannot sew well, if I could I would be using the wheel of the year skirt design by Sara Hood.


I am collecting designs for a very specific project, but slowly and at my own pace. I am also going to knit exactly what I want to for a while as opposed to what I must. I promised myself, I would spend less time on line, as it is leading to nausea and hand pain and although I love Ravelry, I will have to try and repress the urge to surf there in specialist subjects.

I still have my charity patterns to do as well, and will be donating more works to rescued hounds and for homeless people.

In fact, my offer from 2005 still stands. If you go through your stash, and abandoned projects and find that you have swatches or even large pieces of knitting you are never going to frog and re-use, don't leave them lying around, send them in because I can sew together (yes, I will try to sew) and make blankets for the homeless acquantances or for bedding for rescued dogs either RSPCA, or one of the greyhound organisations I support.You are welcome to send in any newly knitted squares as well of any size.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We are off soon, and I won't be back to Erssie Knits until the New Year, although I will be taking my Christmas knitting with me (for a book). We are going to stay on Little Comfort Farm for a while, we get a cream tea on arrival and we stay in a toasty cottage with a wood burning stove with our two greyhounds. Emails may pile up whilst I am on holiday, I will deal with all that from the 2nd onwards. Pretty scary as I am getting about 60 emails a day about knitting at the moment.

Here is our cottage in North Devon. Of course, it won't look as green, as that it is going to be a bit crispy and most probably muddy and damp!


I would like to say thanks to those people who donated money towards the Snood for A Hound pattern, I have paid £20 to Lurcher Link and £50 plus some equipment is going to Essex Greyhound Rescue tomorrow in the post. I know Julie is going to make a wholesome Christmas stew with some meat from the butchers to give to the hounds she has in her rescue kennels.

I will continue to sell this pattern, or forward it to rescue hound owners free of charge throughout the Winter and I intend to have more pet rescue items to knit at a later date, I will tell you more about that when I can.

Here are some Pixie Hounds, the crochet pattern is here
from Aerie designs. I love them.

Dizzy Lily
A Snood for a Hound

Download via PayPal
£1.50 GBP

Pezdiva with her snood for Maggie is the first pic I have seen of my pattern for rescue hounds. More pics of knitting on her flickr album here. I won't tell you where Maggie is, it could be anywhere in the world, as I don't want to advertise the whereabouts of dogs for security reasons.

If you would like a free pattern for your own rescue dog, then email me telling about your hound.

If you don't have a rescue hound, tha pattern is for sale at $3/£1.50.

Download via PayPal
£1.50 GBP

Even if you have a rescue dog, donations are most welcome as Julie from Essex greyhound rescue says she is going to make sure that all the dogs in the rescue kennels and the ones fostered at her home will get a special Christmas dinner made from some fresh meat. The remainder of donations is needed for food, collars and leads and the most biggest expense the vets bills as some dogs arrive with broken limbs and all sorts of conditions that need treatment before they can be put up for rehoming.

Doesn't she look cute and snuggly and warm? I will be keeping pics of all the rescue hounds who get one of these, that is if their owners send me a pic. Then I am going to stick up a gallery of them on Flickr.

Dizzy gets a snood too!

He doesn't have a bald neck, there is no excuse for wearing a snood, unless the weather gets very icy and stormy on our trip at Christmas. This is the large version of the snood and it fits very comfortably around the chest, but it still isn't the biggest size, I have now extended this to fit 4 sizes in case someone has a lurcher cross and a monster sized hound.

Look at Dizzy in this pic, this is his slightly manic face when he first goes into the garden, trying to sniff out the cat that attacked him 6 months ago. he is terrified of them now.

Dizzy Lily: A Snood for a Hound

I have designed this shaped snood for Lily who has a bald neck. To make it more interesting and to warrant writing it up formally as a knitting pattern I have shaped it with ribbeed sections decreasing to a central cable section and then increasing again to give gentle flares that fit over the chest at one end and the head and ears at the other.

As with most of my work, it is knitted in the round and to make it a quick knit that uses up odd balls of my stash, I have made it in a worsted/Aran yarn, shown her in Rooster Almerino Aran.

Now Dizzy is snoodless and jealous, so I am part of the way through knitting up a large verison in a warm orange shade of Jaeger Shetland Aran (which also contains a small amount of aplaca). The pattern is in 3 sizes ranging from a small female greyhound (or a large whippet) up to a large male greyhound.

I am giving the pattern free as a pdf to those who have rescued a greyhound (some sort of proof will be needed) or are using it for fundraising for greyhound charities. For those who wish to buy the pattern, I am charging $3 for each pdf, 100% of which I will donate to either The Essex Greyhound Rescue service or Lurcher Link. Email me if you would like to knit one of these for your own hound.

It's Cold outside

Poor Little Lily. She has got a bald neck and her hair is thinning.

Seasonal Hormonal Alopecia.
Why am I mentioning this on a knitting blog?

Because it is absolutely my duty to provide her with warm and soft knitwear, she needs a classic snood.

Hound Snood Knitting Pattern,

So, anyone interested in a pattern, just register your interest here or email me, leave a message on the Grey Knitters group on Ravelry and I will write up a pattern for a flared/shaped snood for your hound. Free to those who have rescued ex racers, but $3 to those who have not or who wish to donate to the Essex Greyhound Rescue charity.

The Red Poppy Appeal

Regarding charity, I have collected an odd amount for the Red Poppy appeal as I had an order from Japan that inolved postage, so I am covering that myself and donating the postal costs to The Red Poppy Appeal as well.

My Charity Knitting Work

I was a little disappointed I could not get more people interested, but I hope this will be different next year as I will start earlier. It is so difficult to do stuff for charity, and broadcast it without it appearing like self promoting Spam, and I apologise to anyone who feels offended by requests like these. If you see a notice of one of my charity things, and you have seen it before, I would be very grateful if you could just overlook it and leave it for other people to find. with so many specialist groups around, it is difficult to reach everyone.

Christmas Holidays

This year I will be selling the Santa Hat pattern, Christmas Pudding Hat pattern and Christmas mini-stocking, tinsel and baubles patterns to raise money for childrens charities. 100% of proceeds will go to charity from me.

Remembrance Day is Coming Soon

Red Poppy Crochet Pattern

So far I have collected £32.67, to go directly to The Red Poppy Appeal

Here is my design for a Crochet Poppy
This is no longer available as a single pattern
It is to be found in the book Hookorama by Rachael Matthews

Gorgeous Knitting!

I am inlcuding these pieces of work, just because they are so beautiful in every way. They are designed by Marnie Maclean who has a wonderful talent of making the yarn work for her in complete curvaceousness and drape, no lumps in sight.

How beautiful! that is all I need to say. I have chosen to post these two pics of Marnie enjoying the modelling, you can see more serious pics of these projects on her blog/website (where her patterns including this one are for sale)

Samhain Salutations!

I can't believe another year has gone so quickly, and that it has been a long time since I could put up some ghostly designs of my own. I hope by next year, I will have a little more to show publicly in the way of single patterns.

I wasn't well on actual Samhain eve, it was indeed 'some pig' (see scarf above and below) and it passed by with just a flicker of acknowledgement. I will have to make up for it next year by designing something specifically for it, last year I designed the Silvanus bag for the Anticraft. Talking of which, do take a trip over there to see their latest
Samhain issue; Sticky.

I am an arachnaphobe. so it truly gave me shudders. There are three lovely projects which are my favourite, a knitted cardigan Cocooned, and some crochet webby gauntlets To Weave a Tangled Web as well as a lace scarf Charlotte A. Cavatica

Here are some mini pics of those projects, but do go over to the magazine for the full set. The Anticraft book is out soon, how exciting, especially as it means I will be in current print again. They kindly chose three of my projects to be included, and can I just declare, they paid their designers before the book was even finished, that is how nice they have been. Unlike some other publishers and authors who still haven't paid me to date! (you know who you are, I send you threefold reflections)

Yuletide is just around the corner

Or as some of you prefer to call the holiday season; Christmas. I know some people have been downloading my Christmas patterns from here for charity and fundrasing use, that is all well and good. I had tried to make that easy for you charity knitters by allowing you to do that on one click. Sadly, some people have been using those patterns for personal projects, and not donating the honesty fee requested ($3 per hat and $5 per Christmas Tree decorations).

Now that I have listed these patterns officially on Ravelry, I have asked that anyone who wishes to use these for charity or fundraising to contact me, describe the use, and I will allow people who are knitting for a good cause to have the patterns for free. On the other hand, if you wish to buy these patterns, I will donote 100% of the proceeds to a children's charity, once a year (end of December or beginning of January)

So here are the patterns I am selling for charity:

Christmas Pudding Baby Hat $3

Christmas Santa Hat $3

Christmas Tree Decorations:
3 versions of Mini Stockings, Gold and Silver Baubles, Tinsel $5

Erssie's Easy Beanie (Fairisle beanies) $3

If you wish to buy any of these, email erssiemajor@yahoo.co.uk with the pattern title, the cost and your PayPal username/email address and I can invoice you straight away and forward the pdfs via email as soon as funds clear.

Making Lace

I always had a problem getting the point of lace knitting. Well, it looks pretty and it is delicate but there just seems to be so many other ways of making lace that made so much more sense than actually knitting it. To produce even the most simplest of 'holes' in the fabric of knitting, seems such a complicated issue compared with just picking up a crochet hook, and the 'holes' just being there as part of the stitch.

Every time I have taken a complicated lace stitch pattern from a library I always felt after a few rows that even a chimp could follow the instructions stitch by stitch and get a result, but that didn't mean they understood it. So, whether it is the lack of lace making that made me weak in this area of design, or whether it was just such a complicated thing hardly anyone could get, I just couldn't decide. I had tried explaining how I felt about this to other knitters, and they might assure me that it was easy etc, but however much I knitted lace, things didn't really fall into place.

I have always been happy about picking a lace 'block' or panel, and tweaking it into a design, but I think what really bugged me was this. In order to 'design' a sweater or garment with colour work, designers are not supposed to pick out patterns from books and slot them in, I have always had great pressure on me to invent my own colour charts, and anything more complicated than stripes, would have to be totally original. Then when I moved over to the equivalent of lace design, I have rarely found anyone who could go beyond the understanding of an existing piece, and totally make up their own stitch patterns from scratch.

So I jumped at the chance to go to an Amy Singer introduction to lace workshop, thinking perhaps there was something missing from skills set. So on Sunday, I went, and didn't find any magic answers to designing in lace, but definitely felt more confident in being able to read my lace, and loved Amy's approach of adapting lace stitches to be easy and memorable...and I thought, yes, that is what I need to accept, is that sometimes the most simple and easy patterns are the most popular and the most beautiful, and if I decide to design something using a lace motif or stitch, then I don't need to feel in any way inadequate if it isn't complicated and isn't so complicated that no-one can attempt it.

I often feel a fraud as a 'designer', after all, I have not formally studied this craft and anything I know is just years of fiddling about. In fact, when I got back into knitting again after a long break it was with the understanding that I cannot push myself into anything taxing as the brain power is not there (drugs and illness), the dexterity isn't there either (drugs and illness). So what on earth am I doing now, beating myself up over skills I don't seem to be as strong in compared with others?

All this thought of lace knitting recently. rather than making me go into more complicated knitting or designing, is actually leading me back to simple and pure is best. You know how you can just pick up something like a garter stitch scarf, in a beautiful shade and yarn, and it just seems so right? It doesn't matter if garter stitch is a beginner stitch and a scarf has no shaping, the thing is just right to wear. This principle I am going to apply to me and lace and anything else I do...simple is best, and rather than go up a blind alley of specialisation, I am going to remain an inexperienced dabbler. Literally Jack of all Trades and Master of None...that suits me!

I just don't want too many people to get hung up on that word 'designer', so I might drop that and just say 'crafter' instead, and provided my craft works are original, then I can publish them (or perhaps not..it doesn't really matter).