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Friday
Mar 29th

A MESSAGE FROM
Crafting-a-Life Books


Newsy Bits


What (else) Would Madame Defarge Knit

previous free pattern
more coming next week


If this email was forwarded to you—and if you like getting free patterns—please consider entering your email at this linkthen look in your inbox (or spam filter) for the confirmation email. Click confirm and get you'll get the free baby sock pattern delivered to your inbox!
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Susanne Gilbert's Baby Sock pattern is based on Meg Warren's Isolde socks. from the First What Would Madame Defarge Knit? Earlier we sent the pattern out to mailing list subscribers but not everyone got a copy, so just to be safe, we're getting the pattern to you again here.
Baby Isolde Socks by Susanne Gilbert

Did you miss our first free pattern?
You can still pick up the Snow in Nantucket mittens!
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Foundling Mitts by Julia Temisevä
Anna Makarovna's Socks by Kate Atherley

Julia Temisevä • Luliriisi

Julia Temiseva

Julia Temisevä is not just an awesome designer with an awesome name (The Madame loves her some Suomi) but she also has the best dream-diary stories. The Madame, of course, approves of anything that exposes our inner secrets. Julia writes and offers patterns from her blog at Luliriisi and appears as Luliriisi on Ravelry. We caught up with Julia as she was recovering from yet another cooking experiment (this one almost burnt the taste buds off—the Madame approves of anything spicy).

Defarge: Julia, you seem to be attracted to small, cute patterns. What inspires you?
Julia: Oh there are so many things! Everyday events, things I've seen, read, heard. All of these also inspire my writing. I like creating connections and having hidden meanings woven into the experience (be it reading my stories or knitting my designs). As for inspiring knitting specifically: colours, shapes, lace, themes, speed! I definitely like the speediness of mitts and mittens and socks. Plus, I want to show off my handiwork, so mitts/mittens and shawlettes are perfect since they get shown off the most.

Defarge: The pattern you have in What (else) Would Madame Defarge Knit? goes beyond your other designs in complexity and romance—what inspired you?

Foundling Mitts (Twisted Version) by Julia Temiseva   Foundling Mitts (Colorwork Version) by Julia Temiseva 
 
Julia: I keep a copy of the Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales on the bedside table. I tend to pick a story randomly to read before going to sleep. My goal is to read them all eventually and then move onto the next anthology I have waiting for me. One night, I came across the story "The Foundling". I'd never heard of this story so I was intrigued. The night before I'd just finished a story about a girl who chops off her hand so I was bit apprehensive going in, but I was really pleasantly surprised. "The Foundling" is, as most Grimm stories are, a bit gruesome and not necessarily interested in delivering a happy-bouncy ending, but the bit that really got me was the basic message: as long as you have someone looking out for you, you'll be fine. The lines that inspired this particular pattern were very visual. As soon as I read it, I knew I'd have to use it in a knitting pattern. It let me play with colour and textured stitches and new-ish-to-me techniques. I think it all translated rather well into mitts (see, we're back to the speediness thing). I couldn't pick between the two versions that I came up with (textured stitches and colourwork), so I submitted both!

Defarge: While I identify more with the cook in the story (more on that in Julia's essay in the book) I'm happy to appreciate the Foundling hidden symbolically in the mitts. The Madame is a sucker, after all, for symbols. Thank you so much for speaking with us today!



Kate Atherley • wisehilda

Kate Atherley

Kate Atherley is an avid reader, writer, and knitter of socks. She blogs at wisehildaknits.com and offers her patterns on Ravelry and Patternfish. We caught up with Kate between technical editing deadlines, as she chased her mischievous rescue dog Dexter around the house.

Defarge: Kate, you seem to be attracted to knitting socks. What inspires you?
Kate: I'm a sock knitter. I love knitting socks. I love writing sock patterns. I love editing sock patterns. And I love wearing socks. I'm a life-long knitter, but it wasn't until I knitted my first sock that the craft truly clicked for me. I've been knitting socks for 16 years – long before the activity experienced its recent resurgence. When I started knitting socks, patterns and yarns were pretty hard to find – and even hardcore knitters thought I was crazy. The world has improved immeasurably since then, and it makes me extraordinarily happy to see others knitting socks, like it's the most normal thing in the world to do.

Defarge: What can you tell us about the pattern you have in What (else) Would Madame Defarge Knit?
Anna Makarovna's Socks by Kate AtherleyKate: My pattern is Anna Makarovna's socks, named after the mysterious governess character in Tolstoy's War and Peace. Ms. Makarovna is only mentioned in passing, in the epilogue. She is knitting stockings – socks. But not just any stockings; Ms. Makarovna is a show-off: she's knitting two socks at the same time. On the same needles. Now, you two-socks-on-Magic-Loopers might not think this anything special, but our Anna didn't have long flexible circulars. She was working them on DPNs. And there's only one way to do this on DPNs: one inside the other, using the double-knitting method. And when the socks are complete, she makes a show of pulling them apart – triumphantly! – to entertain the children. What's intriguing about this is that it's the only mention of sock knitting in the book, and it's mentioned very much in passing – which makes us think that this is something that was familiar to Tolstoy. Familiar enough to merit a mention to convey feelings of a happy family with a caring governess, and familiar enough that it didn't need further explanation. Any sock knitter will know that Tolstoy is wrong on this point: it merits an awful lot of further explanation! One of the many things Tolstoy fails to mention is that this is rather an insane way to knit socks. Yes, it's cool and entertaining for the children – but it's an awful long way to go for about 5 seconds of entertainment. I like to imagine that Ms. Anna really only did this when she was at her wit's end, stuck for a way to keep the children quiet. And that she was otherwise a pragmatist, knitting socks in the more usual manner. And so my socks were designed with those two sides of governess in mind: they're mostly practical, but with a bit of drama of a lace edging.

Defarge: The Madame, of course, approves deeply of anything dramatic (and which includes lace). Thank you so much for speaking with us today. Bon courage! Vive la France! Toujours à tricoter!

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