Innholdsfortegnelse for September - October 2016 i PieceWork

Back by popular demand—another literary issue! This time, however, there’s a little twist: the focus is on mystery novels. The description for the issue in our 2016 Editorial Calendar reads: Odd how needlework of all kinds turns up in so many mystery novels. And odd how many needleworkers are devoted to this type of delicious escape literature. Send us stories derived from your favorites and projects that harbor clues or evoke the atmosphere of a well-told tale. Our contributors came through in spades! (And you know I’m a happy camper because I got to add some books to my ever-growing wish list.) Although I have read every one of the Nancy Drew mysteries, I had no idea there wasn’t a Carolyn Keene. I also have read all of the Ngaio…

Just like the mittens Nicki’s Baba knits for him in Jan Brett’s The Mitten (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 1989), these winter wool mittens could very easily get lost in the snow. Be sure to knit several pairs for your young and adventurous fans of Jan Brett’s timeless and enchanting book. One pair is decorated with colorful embroidery based on the design featured on the back cover of The Mitten. When fashioned without the embroidery, the left- and right-hand mittens are interchangeable. MATERIALS • Kraemer Natural Skeins, 100% merino wool blend yarn, worsted weight, 185 yards (169.2 m)/100 gram (3.5 oz) skein, 1 skein of #Y3002 David; www.kraemeryarns.com • Brown Sheep Waverly Wool, 100% Persian wool yarn, 3-ply, 8 yards…

The first clue is “a small silken pouch of a warm rosy colour, intricately embroidered in gold threads and knotted with tassels.” Unbeknownst to its admirers, however, this elegant trifle has a backstory so shocking it will set in motion an inescapable whirlpool of tragic events. “Whom must I thank for this beautiful reticule?” exclaims the beautiful Adelaide at the ball celebrating her marriage to Captain Andrew MacCallister, staff officer to the Marquis of Wellington, when a footman presents her with a silver tray bearing the pouch. The newlywed’s gaiety evaporates, however, the moment she draws the pouch open and discovers a handful of peculiar brown beans—tamarind seeds from Ceylon. Adelaide instantly intuits their message as portending evil and sorrow. She does what any Regency heroine would do in such…

British author Ann Cleeves (1954– ) created Detective Inspector (DI) Vera Stanhope as a strong and independent woman, a character totally unexpected and new to the British mystery genre. According to The Scotsman, February 24, 2011, the author developed Vera “almost as an antidote to central women characters in crime novels who are fit and manage to get a bloke. Vera is dowdy and overweight but still has her own character and is very smart.” Actress Brenda Blethyn portrays DI Vera Stanhope brilliantly in the BBC series Vera. Northumberland landscapes and seascapes afford a stunning and harsh setting for Vera. She spent her childhood with a dodgy father, a taxidermist who kept his small daughter in tow while he stole eggs from the nests of endangered birds. Clueless about social…

In deciding on a companion project for the preceding article, I thought it appropriate to design a pair of socks knitted on double-pointed knitting needles, given that the crucial clue in Patricia Moyes’s mystery novel Night Ferry to Death involves an unfinished knitted sock and a missing double-pointed knitting needle. A Windmill Stitch pattern, found in the Japanese stitch dictionary 1000 Knitting Patterns Book (Tokyo: Nihon Vogue-Sha, 1992) and a Dutch heel seemed to be natural design elements for socks inspired by a mystery featuring a diamond theft in Amsterdam. The Dutch heel, also known as the Square heel, is considered one of the easiest heels to knit because of the consistency of the stitch shaping in the heel turn. The distinctive feature is a heel band that continues under…

EXHIBITIONS San Jose, California: Through October 2. Wedding Dress: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. (408) 971-0323; www.sjquiltmuseum.org. Denver, Colorado: September 11, 2016–May 28, 2017. Shock Wave: Japanese Fashion Design 1980s–90s, at the Denver Art Museum. (720) 865-5000; www.denverartmuseum.org. District of Columbia: Opening September 3. Your Next President . . . ! The Art of Campaigning From the Mark and Rosalind Shenkman Collection, at George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. (202) 994-5200; www.museum.gwu.edu. Decatur, Georgia: Through September 30. The Book as Art: Boundless, at the Decatur Branch of the DeKalb County Library. (404) 371-9583; info@decaturartsalliance.org; www.decaturartsalliance.org. Decorah, Iowa: September 3, 2016–April 23, 2017. Fifty Years of Folk Art, at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. (563) 382-9681; info@vesterheim.org; www.vesterheim.org. Baltimore, Maryland: Through November 27.…

No Batteries Required Children who learn to knit really do develop practical skills (see Mary Polityka Bush’s article “No Batteries Required and Other Reasons to Teach a Child to Knit” in the March/ April 2016 issue). Even the simplest projects give great satisfaction. My daughter learned from me and has gone on to be a talented knitting instructor. She also taught all her children to complete simple squares as part of their earliest homeschooling. Here is a favorite candid photo of Joshua and Emma in 2008 taking care of needle “work.” Donata Orsborn Via email Donata, thanks so much for sharing. Corrections May/June 2016 Revised charts for Linda’s September 1981 Haapsalu Scarf to Knit are available at www.needleworktraditions.com/charts-and-illustrations. Additionally, there is a correction in the written instructions on page 38,…

Kathy Augustine first wrote about Jan Brett and her standout children’s books for the September/October 2015 issue of PieceWork. The opening page of her article is shown here. The pattern for Kathy’s companion project, Treva’s Boots to Knit, Felt, and Embroider, a re-creation of the boots worn by the heroine of Jan Brett’s Trouble with Trolls (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 1992) is included. Visit www.interweavestore.com/piece work-september-october-2015.…

Obviously, the best approach to take when investigating any mystery is to be prepared with the proper tools. The same can be said for knitting. This carpetbag-style knitting bag, reminiscent of those popular in the 1930s, will easily hold all of your knitting paraphernalia, while you puzzle your way through each project that you undertake. MATERIALS • Plymouth Yarn Homestead Tweed, 90% wool/10% Donegal wool yarn, worsted weight, 191 yards (174.6 m)/100 gram (3.5 oz) skein, 2 skeins of #525 Pale Moss; www.plymouthyarn.com • Needles, circular 24 inches (60 cm) size 5 (3.75 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge • Stitch markers • Waste yarn • Ravel cord • Fabric, 100% cotton print of choice, 1 yard (0.9 m); Legacy Studio Fancy Leaf Green is shown here • Interfacing,…

Current books in Stephanie Barron’s Being a Jane Austen Mystery series are: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor (New York: Crimeline, 1996) Jane and the Man of the Cloth (New York: Crimeline, 1997) Jane and the Wandering Eye (New York: Bantam Books, 1998) Jane and the Genius of the Place (New York: Bantam Books, 1999) Jane and the Stillroom Maid (New York: Bantam Books, 2000) Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House (New York: Bantam Books, 2001) Jane and the Ghosts of Netley (New York: Bantam Books, 2003) Jane and His Lordship’s Legacy (New York: Bantam Books, 2005) Jane and the Barque of Frailty (New York: Bantam Books, 2006) Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron (New York: Bantam Books, 2010) Jane and the Canterbury Tale (New York: Bantam…

I love Pippi. I grew up watching the Swedish classic film version of Pippi Longstocking, released in the United States in the early 1970s. Although her last name is Longstocking, there is no clear description of the socks Pippi wears. In illustrations, television, and film portrayals, she often wears mismatched long socks with one garter not attached correctly, so at least one sock is falling down. It was clear to me that the socks should not match but still be delightful to wear together. I settled on a stripe pattern because stripes are always playful, and I wanted to use Swedish blue and yellow for one sock. When I was contemplating what colors to use for the other sock, I came upon an Internet photograph of the store sign from…

Exquisite. That really is the only appropriate word to describe the entries we received for PieceWork’s 2016 Miniatures Contest. Working on a very small scale can be challenging, but our entrants took the challenge and produced diminutive work that is extraordinary. Welcome to our announcement of the winners in this special section (pages 4 to 11). The four first-place and five second-place winning entries are shown on the following pages. First-place winners will receive $250 in products from our generous sponsors; second-place winners will receive $25 Interweave Store gift cards. The judges also selected four entries for honorable-mention awards; those winners will receive a one-year subscription to PieceWork. A slide show with close-up photographs of all thirteen winners (we included a vintage ruler in each photograph for scale), along with…

The World of Jan Brett is a traveling exhibition that features Jan’s original artwork from many of her children’s books. Presented by the Oshkosh Public Museum in partnership with Jan Brett, The World of Jan Brett made a stop at the Fort Collins (Colorado) Museum of Art last summer. The current exhibition schedule follows. The exhibition is an absolute treat. October–December 2016 Waupaca Area Public Library, Waupaca, Wisconsin; www.waupacalibrary.org. February–June 2017 Oshkosh Public Museum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin; www.osh koshmuseum.org. September 2017–January 2018 Upcountry History Museum–Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina; www.upcountryhistory.org.…

This cloche was inspired by the crime-solving adventures of the many “lady detectives” who populate knitters’ favorite mystery novels. From the Misses Marple and Silver to Maisie Dobbs and Phryne Fisher, the knitter’s world is enriched by these characters. Whether unassuming or flamboyant, quietly determined or brashly self-confident, literary sisters in crime keep us entertained as our needles fly. When these sleuths are knitters themselves, so much the better. With its vintage fashion references and sophisticated embellishments, this cloche will keep the modern wearer both warm and stylish as she investigates nefarious deeds. The Maudie-Jane Cloche pattern is an epilogue to A Head for Trouble (see the preceding article) and a continuing celebration of the bond between knitters and their mysteries. MATERIALS • Mrs. Crosby Hat Box, 75% superwash merino…

I love cozy mysteries, and one of my favorite series is the Aunt Dimity series by Colorado author Nancy Atherton. At the beginning of the series, American Lori Shepherd inherits a cottage in a Cotswold village from her mother’s British friend, Dimity Westwood. After the birth of her own daughter, Bess, Lori might well have received a cap like this as a gift for her child and remembered a photograph of herself as a baby wearing a similar cap. She discovers that Dimity used to knit such caps for newborns, and now the granddaughter of a villager has recently found the pattern notes and decided to revive that tradition. You can knit this cap in a variety of fingering-weight yarns. MATERIALS • Schachenmayr Regia 4-Ply, 75% wool/25% nylon yarn, fingering…

“You are a formidable lady, are you not, Aunt Jane?” she asked wistfully. “When I was a child I used to think you were like a good faerie—always dropping out of the sky with your delightful stories and dolls-clothes you embroidered so neatly. . . .”—Fanny Knight to Jane Austen in Stephanie Barron’s Jane and the Canterbury Tale Jane Austen, who never married, had no children of her own. As a doting aunt, Jane is likely to have lavished attention on her numerous nieces and nephews, in particular her older brother Edward’s firstborn daughter, Fanny, who was her favorite niece. It is easy to imagine, as author Stephanie Barron does, Jane sewing and embroidering a diminutive dress for Fanny’s doll, perhaps one similar to the dress here. The dress’s simple…

Mystery novels typically feature leading and misleading threads, double dealings, doubling back, and much more that is not what it seems on the surface. As I read the four Ngaio Marsh novels discussed in the preceding article, double knitting immediately came to mind. Double knitting not only would represent many aspects of the detective novel in general but also could incorporate some details of the particular stories I read. Additionally, double knitting is a mystery to many knitters. It seems amazing that working with two strands of yarn can make a single-layer fabric, as in Fair Isle or two-end (twined) knitting, or, by alternating knit and purl stitches, form two layers at the same time. The layers are separate when there are large sections with one color on one side…

beg—begin(s); beginning BO—bind off CC—contrasting color ch—chain cir—circular cn—cable needle CO—cast on cont—continue(s); continuing dc—double crochet dc3tog—double crochet 3 stitches together dec(s) (’d)—decrease(s); decreased; decreasing dpn—double-pointed needle(s) fsc—foundation single crochet foll—follow(s); following hdc—half double crochet inc(s) (’d)—increase(s); increased; increasing k—knit k1b—knit 1 in back of stitch k1f&b—knit into the front and back of the same stitch—1 stitch increased k2b—knit 2 in back of next 2 stitches kwise—knitwise; as if to knit k2tog—knit 2 stitches together k3tog—knit 3 stitches together k5tog—knit 5 stitches together LLI—insert left needle into back of the stitch below stitch just knitted, knit this stitch lp(s)—loop(s) m(s)—marker(s) MC—main color M1—make one (increase) M1k—increase 1 by knitting into the front and then the back of the same stitch before slipping it off the left-hand needle M1p—increase 1 by…