Shetland Style

I don't know what it is like where you are, but the weather has turned quite cold in the past week or so and I've been feeling it.  I love cold weather and winter, but I do not like being cold.  It's a fine distinction.  Nothing I see in the shops (with the possible exception of Uniqlo) seems to be well suited to cold weather, and I'm even having a hard time sourcing heavier weight fabrics that don't cost the earth.  I also find that the cold weather legacy brands like LLBean, Land's End, and Eddie Bauer tend to look kind of mumsy on my figure.  

Maybe all the fashion designers live in Southern California.  

I pretty much had my cold weather layer thing down when I was wearing my Dottie Angel frocks--silk long underwear, cotton undershirt, cotton dress layer, then wool sweater and scarf outer layer, ditto for the legs: silk long underwear, heavy cotton tights, then wool knee or thigh highs over top with shearling boots.  (I'm keeping that dress in the winter rotation, by the way.)  I could add or subtract layers as the weather changed (the silk long underwear was the first to go, followed by the woolen socks). My frocks mostly no longer suit me, and I'm still struggling to figure out what does.  

Douglas Henshall as Jimmy Perez in Shetland

With style changes come layering challenges.  A long while back, I started watching a BBC detective series called Shetland, with the always excellent and understated Douglas Henshall.  I first saw him in Angels and Insects and have casually followed him since.  The series is set on the Shetland Islands in the far north of Scotland, and those people know how to do knitwear and cold weather gear! I remembered that I'd never finished the series this week and restarted it.  It's been fun to watch, and the scenery is gorgeous.  

Kate Davies Designs, Carbeth Cardigan

In my quest to find some visuals that seemed stylistically inspirational to me on Pinterest, I remembered Kate Davies' wonderful knitwear.  I've looked at her patterns many times, and put them in my favorites on Ravelry, but I've never pulled the trigger on a pattern until I saw the new Carbeth cardigan and instantly fell in love.  I've been looking for something just like that, and the pattern image really stuck with me.  I appreciate that she styles so much of her knitwear with skirts or dresses, since I don't wear pants.  A lot of modern knitwear is designed to look good with pants, and often looks frumpy with dresses or skirts unless you are shaped like a coat hanger, which I am not.

I love Kate's pattern art--the sweeping Scottish vistas and colors are fabulous, and I really like a lot of her designs.  I considered the Carbeth pullover last winter when Tasha made one, but was concerned that it would be too boxy for me.  Tasha made a few modifications that made hers more fitted (and encouraged me to have a go when I commented on instagram!) but I was still leery. 

After drooling over Kate's Ravelry page and subscribing to her blog, I've decided that what I really want to do is swan about in maxi length tartan circle skirts and chunky cropped sweaters.  In short, the Carbeth pullover and cardigans.  Ha! 

Mostly, I'm tired of being cold, and I want to feel good in my clothes while being warm.  I think the above photo perfectly captures what I'd like to wear right now.  At the current moment, I'm wearing so many layers to get warm that I feel like the Michelin man. At night, I'm wearing an ankle length, long sleeve flannel night gown, a wool sweater and fleece vest over top, cotton leggings underneath with heavy woollen socks, sleeping under a down comforter, fleece blanket and cotton quilt, and I'm still cold.  I know, there's something wrong with me.

I also like her cute maritime outfit (and was very tempted by the kit to make it):

But that sort of thing is more useful in transitional seasons, and I want to make good use of my somewhat limited knitting time right now.  I have a gift on needles that I need to keep working on before I can get to anything else!

While I was dreaming knitting projects, the Sixareen Cowl caught my eye.  I adore this whole outfit; it's very me:

Kate Davies Designs, Sixareen Cape

I did buy the cape pattern, and for a hot minute considered using a KnitPicks gift certificate to buy the wool for it, and then reconsidered.  The cape is fingering weight, stranded knitting with five colors, and I've never done anything stranded before.  And I rarely work in fingering weight because I knit so slowly.  It is not a great project for me right now given that my last fingering weight project took almost four years to complete.  So I found another worsted weight version in a solid color that I think will be more doable for me.  Plus I have stashed yarn I can use for it.

In the meantime, I still need some warmer things for winter (not a lot, just a couple of pieces) and in particular, a warm long skirt.  After the image inspiration above, I really wanted a maxi length tartan skirt in a wool or wool blend.  I did some hunting for fabric (no luck) and then looked on ebay and etsy for thrifted tartan skirts, but didn't find much that would fit me or suit my coloring or my budget for this.  I did, however, find a skirt on amazon, and am hoping it works.  I still have all that Jade Swish worsted yarn from frogging my Yellow Brick Road cardigan last year, and if I hold it double, I should be able to get gauge for the Carbeth.  So perhaps I'll get to swan around in tartan and chunky knits this winter after all! 

You'll find me over here swatching that Jade Swish while I finish watching Shetland.

Watching: Outlaw King

Over the weekend, I watched Outlaw King with Chris Pine, and I have Thoughts.  I've been waiting for this film since August, after reading a preview article in a magazine.  Braveheart was a huge movie for me (I went through a brief phase in high school where I wore warbraids in my hair as an homage), and sparked a love for Scotland that only intensified once I discovered the Outlander series sometime in 1998.  I wrote a Rather Long Paper on Robert the Bruce in college, so I've got a stake in the field, so to speak.

I did like Outlaw King--rather a lot.  Chris Pine's performance is wonderful and understated, and his Scottish accent is quite good.  Florence Pugh as his wife was an interesting choice, and I enjoyed her performance as well.  The chemistry between the two of them was fun to watch.

The film picks up approximately where Braveheart leaves off, but I would have appreciated a better line of succession between the two films, given how closely they are related.  One cannot possibly make a film about Robert the Bruce that picks up the story in 1304 without at least a nod to Braveheart.  I did read that there was more of the history in the original version of the film that showed at the Toronto Film Festival, but that director David MacKenzie trimmed about 20 minutes from the beginning to streamline the story, so perhaps there was more of a connection in the original film than what I saw on Netflix.  There is a bit about William Wallace in the text at the beginning of the film (all the text on screen was incredibly tiny and not on screen for very long--I'm not sure what the post-production people were thinking) and there is a plot point at the beginning that revolves around Wallace's execution, but I would have liked a better through-line.

My main complaint about the film is Billy Howle's slightly unhinged depiction of Edward II, as well as the choice to cast Stephen Dillane, who was almost unrecognizable as Edward I.  Edward I, known as the Hammer of the Scots, was a big man by the standards of the time and quite forceful; his other nickname was Longshanks.  Dillane is not a particularly imposing figure nor is he a scenery-chewing actor.  Truth be told, I think both men were miscast for these roles.  I love Stephen Dillane, so it pains me to say this.  Patrick McGoohan was so brilliant as Edward I in Braveheart, I confess, Dillane just didn't live up to McGoohan's portrayal.  Edward I of history is a ruthless, ambitious king, a man who brutally subdued both Scotland and Wales, instituted law and order rule, and had a fierce enough temper that a man once died of fright in his presence.  I saw none of that in Dillane's performance.  The script sidesteps Edward II's well-documented weakness, and his general unsuitability as king, choosing to portray him as an immature hothead, rather than the weakling later killed by his own nobles in a particularly gruesome way.  My research suggested that the Braveheart portrayal is closer to the real man, as Edward II was obsessed with frivolous things and focused heavily on his relationship with Piers Gaveston, caring little for war.  There is also little evidence that he and Bruce were childhood friends, as Outlaw King wants to suggest.

I did wish the film had a grander sweep, and that the stakes were a bit higher or better articulated.  Perhaps I am too well-acquainted with the story, but I was not surprised by what happened to Bruce's wife or the fate of Red Comyn (indeed, I was waiting for both events to occur).

What the film does well is to show the Bruce as a man determined retake Scotland from the English, and to demonstrate his brilliance as a tactician.  One of the points in my Rather Long Paper was that Bruce was extremely adept at taking current military strategy and adapting it in new ways.  He took the schiltron, or rows of wooden spikes, used to great effect under Wallace's campaign, and made them into rectangular mobile units, which was truly devastating to the mounted English.  I also posited that one of Bruce's strengths was in choosing battlefield sites that best suited the legendary Highland charge, rather than allowing the English to mow them down on flat solid ground.   In the Outlaw King, the pivotal battle scene is the battle of Loudoun Hill, and the geography and stationary schiltron are both used to great effect to beat back the English.  It must be said, the battle scenes in the film are very bloody.  I had to avert my eyes.  They are on par with Braveheart's battle scenes, and there are still parts of Braveheart that I can't watch.

Bannockburn was the final battle for Scotland's independence in the 14th century--Bruce chose the high ground and the Scots were able to come screaming from on high to terrify and defeat the British camped in the valley below.  I was able to visit the field of Bannockburn in 2005, and was gratified to see my theory held, based on the geography of the place and what we know about the troop movements in the battle, which was the final confrontation between the British and Scots before the Declaration of Abroath, which effectively declared Scotland's independence.

The film makes some interesting cultural choices that I appreciated, showing people singing songs together while working or marching or in domestic scenes, and the chanting in the churches is of the period and not simple Gregorian.  It all brought to mind the wool waulking songs on season one of Outlander.  Speaking of Outlander, Duncan Lacroix (Murtagh) has a small part in this film, as does Stephen Cree (the elder Ian Murray).  To which I say: Wherever you go, always take a Murgtagh with you.  I also liked the synchronicity of James Cosmo, who played Hamish's father in Braveheart, and also played Bruce's father in Outlaw King.  (I did play a little game of "Find the Scottish Actors from Braveheart" in this film; there were a few, I think).

In the end, I think it is a film worth watching, and an interesting take on Robert the Bruce.  I'll be curious to see how Angus MacFayden's Braveheart sequel compares.