Comment from Jessica
Time: May 31, 2007, 9:05 pm

I know I’m going to sound stalkerish because I’ve only been reading/commenting for a short while, but…Ysolda, you are my biggest knitting inspiration! You knit so fast, so beautifully, and you come up with the best patterns. There isn’t any pattern of yours that I dislike. I’m going to knit them all!!!

Comment from India
Time: May 31, 2007, 9:16 pm

That is one gorgeous garment - I hope you are going to share the pattern with us…it’s one that would definitely be worth spending my stash money on :0)
India

Comment from barbara
Time: May 31, 2007, 9:28 pm

woohoo! congratulations!!! i’m so happy for you :) my turn next year. i hope!

Comment from Sarianna
Time: May 31, 2007, 9:41 pm

On a rather unrelated note, I love that chili chocolate to a degree that is totally ridiculous.

Comment from Hugh
Time: May 31, 2007, 9:49 pm

Short stories! Could I push some Angela Carter? Ursula le Guin is awesome for short stories too. I particularly loved “The wind’s twelve quarters”.

Comment from Juno
Time: May 31, 2007, 10:01 pm

I’m have an extremely bi-polar conversation with myself re: little pink cardis with armhole cutouts vs. reality of being 38, etc, etc. It is really quite entertaining in here.

As for short stories, they don’t get much respect outside of the classroom do they? But they are an art. the necessity for elegance in thought and execution, the discipline they demand from the writer, the way good ones just take down all 12 pins (is it 12 pins? Long time since i bowled) with one throw. Very satisfying.

Comment from Juno
Time: May 31, 2007, 10:01 pm

And - doh - congratulations on the first!

Comment from Wanett
Time: May 31, 2007, 10:41 pm

I love this design, I click your blog on my bloglines page with anticipation everyday. I have been dreaming of something pleated and lace and here it is.

Comment from Sarah
Time: May 31, 2007, 10:58 pm

Congratulations so much on the First!

Comment from Erin
Time: May 31, 2007, 11:28 pm

Your cardi is soooo pretty! Short stories: look for Mark Helprin’s _Pacific_ (and also any of his novels, especially _Memoir from Antproof Case_: my favourite book of the last decade!).

Comment from Amy
Time: June 1, 2007, 12:28 am

I’m really, really, really loving posie! I was thinking about designing a cardigan recently and this is almost EXACTLY what I had in mind.

When I finished my honours English degree I remember feeling like I never wanted to see a book again yet I couldn’t wait to read the books I had been putting off forever.

Comment from Eva
Time: June 1, 2007, 1:12 am

I highly recommend Dorothy Parker’s short stories. Not all of them are equally entertaining, but “Here We Are” is one of my favorites. She’s marvelously witty and a sharp social observer.

The cardigan looks really lovely — it’s exactly what I had in mind when I saw your sketch.

And also, congratulations on your First!

Comment from Jezze
Time: June 1, 2007, 8:20 am

Congratulations! (and the cardigan is lovely… )

Comment from jen
Time: June 1, 2007, 8:43 am

For lovely short stories I recommend reading….
The Tent- Margaret Atwood
The World and Other Places- Jeanette Winterson
Collected Stories/Works- Flannery O’Connor

I am absolutely adoring the cardigan as well - tis lovely. Enjoy your new found reading freedom and congratulations on the degree!
Jen

Comment from Kate
Time: June 1, 2007, 9:35 am

Congratulations!

Comment from TheKnittingBee
Time: June 1, 2007, 11:05 am

Congratulations on the first! That’s fantastic :)

Comment from Ruth
Time: June 1, 2007, 11:08 am

Hooray! I just KNOW it was the knitting that got you that First - it made you calm, creative, centred and most of all relaxed! I remember knitting like a maniac throughout my Finals - and I got a First too (a long long time ago!) - hooray again!

Comment from Pigwotknits
Time: June 1, 2007, 11:23 am

Well done you! On the first and the knitting!

Comment from violetsrose
Time: June 1, 2007, 12:58 pm

I never for one moment doubted that you’d get a first - well done Hon!

Comment from ann
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:12 pm

Well done on both!

I discovered your blog 3 days ago and read all the posts in one go (actually, 2 but who’s counting?) till way past bedtime… while I’m supposed to study for my exams!

I’ll never get a first or even a degree for that matter if you keep posting your stories, they’re very addictive!

Comment from Elizabeth
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:37 pm

Posie is looking so beautiful - I love the pleats. I can’t wait to see it finished!

As for short stories, I second the recommendations for Flannery O’Connor and Angela Carter. All of Margaret Atwood’s short collections are excellent (Bluebeard’s Egg, Dancing Girls). I love A. S. Byatt’s Matisse Stories and Elementals. And Raymond Carver is an absolute master of the short story - see his collection Where I’m Calling From.

Comment from Philippa
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:44 pm

Read, read, read! I had so many plans for what I’d read when I finished my English degree, and of course after quite a short while I was back to the same, reading things I had to and making lists of what I’d read for pleasure if only I had the time.

My favourite short stories are Virginia Woolf’s. (If Woof makes you want to throw your book across the room, skip this paragraph). Most are barely even stories, just character sketches or pictures in words, but if you like Woolf you’ll love them. I have a second-hand copy of ‘A Haunted House’, which is worth looking out for, although quite a few of them are also printed in ‘Carlyle’s House and Other Sketches’ which came out a few years ago. You can also find most of them here: http://gutenberg.net.au/pages/woolf.html; as far as I remember most if not all of ‘Monday or Tuesday’ was reprinted in ‘A Haunted House’. Then of course there’s ‘Flush’, and ‘A Room of One’s Own’ reads a bit like a collection of stories to me.

Chekhov’s short stories are worth a look if you like his work. There’s a collection called ‘Lady and Lapdog’ I also found second hand although I think it’s still in print.

Maybe you already know all this! I’ll keep looking at the comments to see what other people have suggested.

Congratulations on your degree!

Comment from Jenna
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:44 pm

My heart skipped a little beat and my breath caught when I saw that sleeve!

(I’m also in awe of the continuous lace pattern over the back while at the same time adding the pleat, but that was far more intellectual ;) )

Comment from Philippa
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:48 pm

For some reason my semicolon was added to the link above. If you remove it the link still works. xo

Comment from Cynthia
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:49 pm

Skim the footnotes first. You might not understand the interesting ones without context, but when you get there, you’ll remember that there WAS a good one, and you can skip all the rest. And I never read the introduction first; all too often they give away details that are better discovered through reading.

Love the cardigan.

Comment from Alice
Time: June 1, 2007, 2:57 pm

Congratulations on the FIrst, that’s great news. And the cardi is lovely too.

Comment from Fiona
Time: June 1, 2007, 3:18 pm

Congratulations on getting your first.. you’re clearly good at multi-tasking.

Short stories are great - they remind me of looking out of someone’s bedroom window - a kind of legitimate intimacy. I like Saki a lot and recently read Fitzgerald’s short stories which are really good. They simultaneously glamorise and deglamorise the ‘Jazz Age’ - it’s so clearly a rich man’s/rich girl’s (definitely not woman’s) club. Fitzgerald said the perflect flapper was lovely, rich and about 19. That quote might not be quite right but it ’s close enough. The seamier side of New York (and Paris etc) of the early decades of the 20th c. sounds more fun but Fitzgerald’s ace anyway.

Comment from eileen
Time: June 1, 2007, 3:21 pm

You should definitely go to Finland–I went there for my honeymoon and it’s totally beautiful. Downtown Helsinki is like a huge shopping center filled with design shops, and up north it’s all birch trees and rural cottages where you eat out on the deck watching the sun set.

Also, I’m starting to be strangely interested in pink for someone whose wardrobe is all charcoal grey and blue…

Comment from pinsandneedles
Time: June 1, 2007, 3:31 pm

I love that cardigan! Its turning out so nicely. And congratulations on being first! That’s quite an acheivement and a pleasant surprise.

Comment from chemgrrl
Time: June 1, 2007, 4:52 pm

I love the cardigan. Once again, you have designed a truly beautiful piece.

I love short stories, too. Some of my favs: Nine stories, J.D. Salinger; East, West, Salman Rushdie; Collected Stories, Gabriel Garcia Marquez; anything by Saki (aka Hugh Munro); Tales of the Unexpected, Roald Dahl (silly, but fun); I also like random anthologies–the ones where they have a lot of stories by different writers. It’s a great way to find new authors you like.

Congrats on getting a 1st as well! It sounds like you’ve had a great year.

Comment from Alice
Time: June 1, 2007, 5:39 pm

Goodness! Well done on the first! I really have fallen in love with your cardi. I just wish I could knit so speedily and creatively! Alice x

Comment from Heather
Time: June 1, 2007, 6:31 pm

Sweet cardi! And here’s a few of my fave short story writers: Alice Munro, Richard Ford and William Trevor. Trevor’s novella The Tale of Lucy Gault made me weep uncontrollably - now why that would be a recommendation, I don’t know, but I sure love his writing. I see other people have recommended Salinger and Dorothy Parker, they are lot’s of fun too, good for summer!

Comment from purlpower
Time: June 1, 2007, 7:14 pm

Huge Congratulations to you Ysolda!

Alongside Salinger’s ‘For Esmie with love and squalor’ might I recommend Jackie Kay’s collection ‘Why don’t you stop talking?’
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Dont-You-Stop-Talking/dp/033037334X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/026-2268928-9974800?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180721623&sr=8-3

Comment from shimelle.~*
Time: June 1, 2007, 9:07 pm

congratulations on the first!!

i find mansfield’s stories some of the loveliest, indeed. and fitzgerald. and atwood. oh, i have i nothing to say that hasn’t already been said? in that case, i’ll also add that the posy knitting is so, so beautiful!

Comment from Sarah
Time: June 1, 2007, 10:11 pm

Many congratulations on getting a first, and glad you get to read what you feel like now. Truman Capote’s short stories are the only ones that have ever got me really excited.

Posie looks goregous too; you have a really lovely style.

Comment from Sarah
Time: June 1, 2007, 10:12 pm

Many congratulations on getting a first, and glad you get to read what you feel like now. Truman Capote’s short stories are the only ones that have ever got me really excited.

Posie deserves congratulations too; you have a really lovely style.

Comment from Linda
Time: June 1, 2007, 10:28 pm

I don’t read a whole lot of short stories, but there are two collections that have stood out to me:
On the Golden Porch by Tatyana Tolstaya
Come To Me by Amy Bloom

Posie looks lovely!

Comment from Danielle
Time: June 1, 2007, 11:26 pm

That chevron lace pattern looks familiar….

btw, strange to say the northeast US has had thunderstorms last night and today as well.

Comment from kate
Time: June 2, 2007, 2:50 am

Hello Ysolda. I also enjoy your blog, particularly the creativity and spark you bring to your work. Regarding authors, I highly recommend the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, with a dash of Eudora Welta and Carson McCullers- great female writers of the American South. And if you haven’t read Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, and you think you might enjoy hardboiled, American Pulp fiction, you should seek the novel out. It is a fun read. I recently reread Master and Margarita and couldn’t put it down. I hadn’t been that engrossed in a novel in quite some time and it was a wonderful feeling.

Comment from Lesa
Time: June 2, 2007, 3:09 am

Lesa’s rule about notes in books — read them during the second reading.

Lesa’s fave short stories

“Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” Oates (actually, just read anythig by Oates)

“I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olson

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gillman

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker

Anything (everything) by Poe

“A Jury of Her Peers”
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/literature/story/fulltext.html

“The Story of an Hour” Chopin
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/chopin.html

Wow, I didn’t even take that many American Lit classes in school. I always perfered British Novels to most American Lit. I do, however, have several things in American Lit that I think are fanfreakingtastic. Short stories by American women are some of those things.

Then, there are always my own short stories. None published widely, yet! ;)

Comment from cari
Time: June 2, 2007, 12:53 pm

Congratulations on your first!
I recommend Alice Munro’s Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage; also, Mary McCarthy’s The Company She Keeps (and if you like it, try her novel The Group).

Comment from Kathleen
Time: June 3, 2007, 12:09 am

Well done, you must be delighted at getting a first class.

Comment from lupinbunny
Time: June 3, 2007, 2:44 am

If you need a test knitter for that cardie… bear in mind this is the first time I’ve ever volunteered to test knit. I’m usually reluctant to be locked into knitting something in a timeframe. But that’s how much I like it.

For short stories, try David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten. It might fall technically between short stories and novels - it’s the kind where each short story is linked by a common thread (but no common characters), and as a whole is just… mind-blowing. My favourite description of him is ‘genre-bending’. He’s my most favouritest author in the world (and I had lunch with him once).

Comment from Leah
Time: June 4, 2007, 3:32 am

Hello! I’ve been reading your blog for a little bit, and had to comment about the short stories. Lately I’ve been re-reading Amy Hemple’s Reasons to Live and Carol Emshwiller’s I Live With You. I’m in the middle of Burning Chrome by William Gibson, which is fascinating and so beautifully written. I’ll have to check out Katherine Masnfield, and I had no idea Miranda July had a book being published, but I’m excited to read that.

Thank you for starting the thread–I’ve now got at least 10 more books to add to my list. And the knitting is lovely and inspirational as always.

Comment from India
Time: June 4, 2007, 9:52 am

Good grief - you get a first, and I comment on your cardi!! I just took the time to read this post instead of skimming like I had the other day - well done! That must’ve been a shed load of work. Enjoy the summer, you definitely deserve it.
India

Comment from janine
Time: June 4, 2007, 11:25 am

Wow! A first! Congratulations :-) I love the design work on the new top.

Comment from sarai.
Time: June 4, 2007, 4:50 pm

Congratulations on the first! Really, heartfelt congratulations.

Short stories are a delightful literary form. My favourite author is Alistair MacLeod. His short stories have been collected in a book called Island, though they were first published separately as two: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, and As Birds Bring Forth the Sun. If you haven’t read them and cannot find them, please email me and I’ll see if I can hunt up a copy to send to you.

Another good author is Lisa Moore. She’s got a couple of books of short stories out, but Open is the only title coming to mind.

I can’t help but recommend Michael Crummey’s “32 Little Stories”, a collection of prose poems in his poetry book Hard Light. They maybe shouldn’t count like short stories but they kind of are, and being mostly perhaps half a page long, they make the most of every little word. They are tremendously evocative.

Comment from Calypso
Time: June 4, 2007, 11:46 pm

Congratulations on your degree. A first! That’s just amazing.

I read all (or most, maybe) of Katharine Mansfield’s short stories in 1988, when I was 18, just after I had taken my A levels. My mum’s Cosmopolitan had printed “Her First Ball” and had an article about KM, and I went along to my local second-hand bookshop the next day where I was lucky enough to find original 1930s copies of The Garden Party, Bliss, Prelude and Something Childish. All of them have inscriptions in the front in curly, fountain-penned handwriting, that makes me wonder who “A.M” was, and what his or her relationship was to “K.L.” They are among my most treasured books, and if you can find copies then I highly recommend buying them.

Comment from clementine
Time: June 5, 2007, 6:49 am

Congratulations!! Are you going to continue with your studies or get a “real job” now?

I really like Neil Gaiman’s short stories? everyone else has mentioned Margaret Atwood and Roald Dahl so I won’t! Have you read any Julian Barnes? A History of The World in 10 1/2 Chapters is a novel made up of interconnected short stories, and is one of my favourite books.

Comment from Woolly Wormhead
Time: June 5, 2007, 8:52 am

Congratulations! It’s a wonderful feeling finishing your degree, isn’t it? I didn’t do as well as you but still had that elated feeling.

Comment from Susan Rhodes
Time: June 5, 2007, 7:49 pm

Dear Ysolde

Congratulations on your first! I work in English HE and know how significant your achievement is - and you create such beautiful garments as well. Very impressive. I love the pink confection.

Susan