More update chat

Hi Everyone 

I’m back with a little bit of exciting news, a new sewing project. I’m a big fan of the Sewing Bee and have been inspired by the Tea Dress Challenge from episode one of the current (newly started) series. As soon as I saw one of the dress patterns, I knew I had to make it. The pattern is Butterick B6130.

My only problem seems to be - which fabric to use ? I love the fabric used in the TV show and would like something similar. Needless to say, I’ve wasted many hours looking online for the perfect fabric. I haven’t found my dream fabric but there’s something quite close in my sights. 

                 

The fabric in my photo story is the possible ‘ones and is a cotton from Seasalt. I think, I’d prefer a more muted range of colours but in this abstract type print. I’ll keep looking, for now.

In the meantime, I do have lots and lots of fabric in my stash, obviously! One of the issues I have, is that the dress pattern asks for 3m plus of fabric and I don’t have much in that length. However, I’ve been looking at the pattern, in detail, and have an idea to incorporate the lovely bodice bit with a much reduced skirt part. I’ve just completed the Merchant&Mills Factory Dress and this garment has a lovely skirt section with pockets - I love the fit and look of the dress. So, I’m thinking,  I could create a new version of the Butterick B6130 using the Factory Dress inspired skirt element. I will have lots of fabric choices for this version. When I find the perfect fabric (or decide on the Seasalt fabric) I can make the Butterick dress as per the pattern. That’s my plan. My job later today is to delve into my stash and see what I can find.

Thanks for calling in today. I’ll be back next Monday with another Making Chat post. 

Keep safe.

Making Chat

Hi Everyone 

It’s been two weeks since my last post and I’ve decided to blog a couple of times each week rather than everyday, for the moment. 

We have been trying to enjoy a sort of holiday at home. Generally, the weather has been good. Lots of sunshine, virtually no rain but a little cold at times. We live in the NE of England, quite close to the coast and often suffer from an easterly wind - this probably explains the colder breeze. Our UK lockdown is still very firmly in place but considering all things, life in our little world is OK, at the moment. We have also celebrated an eighteen birthday - managed an extended family singalong of Happy Birthday via What’s App with my Dad playing the piano. Made lots of gifts and cards etc. The birthday boy also managed an all night party, online ! 

My Making life is proving to be a bit of a challenge. There seems lots more living stuff to do (cooking,washing etc) with our family at home all day. I’m still making stuff but am taking my time and being selective about how I choose my projects. Mostly, I’ve been knitting things. I started a pair of socks, the Heartichoke socks some time ago and am still battling on. This pattern is lovely but much more demanding than my usual sock pattern. It’s not a pattern for knitting (the first time) while watching TV ! I have ripped out a few sections, several times. I’m also knitting the Kate Davies, Land O’Cakes cardigan. Everything is going well on both projects but it’s all quite slow. I have, again, not paid enough attention to the latest section of the cardigan (the colourwork yolk) and currently, need to redo a few rows. All that said, I’m enjoying both projects and look forward to working on them everyday. I tend to knit each evening, so that part of my creative time is protected.

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been making birthday cards and other such things in paper as well as baking but my sewing has suffered, a little. Over the last two weeks, I’ve completed the Merchant&Mills Factory Dress, almost. Just a tiny bit of handing sewing on the sleeve cuff (5 mins. job) and I’m hoping I can wear my dress tomorrow. Quite excited about that. 

I’ve also started an appliqué machine embroidery project and come to a bit of a halt. I have the front and back of my bag almost done. I’m adding a side pocket, also done but that’s as far as its got ! Today, seems to be the day to put more time into it. We will see how things go ?

Our garden is also getting a bit of attention, I’m regarding the garden as part of my Making life. There is lots of ongoing maintenance required but I’m also looking at possible changes and improvements. The idea is to spend a little time each day on a bite size task with lots of looking and reviewing in between. 

So, not too much to report. I’ve not worked on any jewellery production over the past month and am wondering what to do about that ? I’ll keep thinking but at some point, work with start again. For the moment, I’m concentrating on my knitting and sewing. I do need to find another sewing project soon. I like the idea of a few tops to wear with jeans or shorts, depending on the weather. I’d also like to make another dress.

That’s about all for my catch up, I’ll leave you with a few images of the machine embroidery project. 

              

I’ll be back on Wednesday with an update chat. Thanks for calling in today.

Keep safe.

Knitting Plan (part 2)

Hi Everyone 

Following my blog post from yesterday, I’ve made a few decisions about colours. Read back yesterday for more on the story. In short, I’ve chosen to knit a Kate Davies cardigan called Land O’Cakes as my new knitting project. I love the version Kate has made but something has told me to use more colours. A separate thought has been bobbing around in my head for a long time, the need to knit a pair of mittens from the Shetland Wool Week Annual for 2019 called Shetland Meets Bohus Mittens by Hilly van der Sluis. When I saw the Land O’Cakes cardigan, I immediately thought of the lovely mittens.

            

Initially, I thought I would choose five colours from the mittens pattern and create a similar design as per Kate’s pattern. I always wanted to make the bright green my dominant colour but struggled to narrow down the other colours, the original  mittens patterns uses eight colours. In the end, I’ve decided to include them all. For some reason, leaving out colours would spoil the overall effect. For me, it’s the combinations which make the whole thing special. So, my plan is to try and mimic the lines of the mittens for the yolk. I want to test a few combinations for the edges and will decide over the next few days. 

I’m very excited about this project. It’s giving me a lots of creative options but I’m also very keen to have a cardigan which will, hopefully, be wearable over the warmer months. We will see how things turn out.

Thanks for calling in today. Have a good weekend. It’s an Easter Holiday this weekend in the UK and we are going to try and have a sort of holiday at home ? Not sure how we can celebrate with the current situation but we will try. 

I’m also taking the next two weeks as a holiday, so will be back in two weeks time ie 27/4/20.

Keep safe.

Knitting Plan

Hi Everyone 

I have yet another knitting plan to announce today. This is a lovely cardigan from Kate Davies called Land O’Cakes.

              

I’ve swatched a few different options using Jamieson&Smith 2 ply jumper yarn and have come up with something that will work with the pattern. I love Kate Davies designs, I have a number of sweaters developed by Kate and they seem to fit and suit my body shape well. 

The selection of yarn colours (bottom left photo) are a mixture of new yarns (from my local yarn shop, Fine Fettle Fibres) and yarn from my stash. I’ve not decided exactly which colours I’ll use but I’m going for more colours than the ones used by Kate. I have decided the main colour will be the bright green shade FC11MIX. Before finally deciding on the colours, I will knit a few more swatches using various combinations. This will be a slow pace knit and I’d like to give the project time to develop, in the way I want to. I’ll share my progress over the next few weeks.

Thanks for calling in today.

Keep safe.

Sock Knitting Update

Hi Everyone 

I’ve started my Heartichoke Socks (by Josephine & The Seeds) using sock yarn from Ginger Twist - check out the original story about my yarn and pattern here. I started the socks on Sunday (5/4/20) and thought I had made good progress. The socks are knitted, toe up. After the initial toe shaping section, there is a pattern chart to follow and I’m five rows into the chart. 

               

You can see the beginnings of the pattern in my photo story above.

I am a regular sock knitter and usually knit an easy rib or stocking stitch sock and my normal knitting regime is to knit while watching some kind of media. The Heartichoke pattern is a bit more demanding ! I’ve managed to ‘mess up’ the pattern on this sock several times. There is a slightly complicated key to the chart supplied with the pattern and I gone wrong, several times. The key has a very clear set of instructions but they are on a different page and the symbols on the chart are quite tricky to distinguish from each other (especially while watching a film). 

My problem was ending up with 2 extra stitches after completing line 1 of the chart. I finally worked out, I had increased the stitches from the toe by 2 more stitches than required, I’d mixed up the initial increase number and the chart number. After the first pattern row on the chart, 2 stitches are increased in the pattern. As soon as the penny dropped - all was well. 

There’s something very satisfying about solving a problem (after the initial bewilderment) and I’m enjoying the challenge of a detailed pattern. I hope, I feel the same by the end of the week.

Thanks for calling in today.

Keep safe.

Knit News

Hi Everyone 

My knit news for today is a reworked sweater. I had originally completed my Lovage Sweater from Flora Kennedy last week but found the sleeve length to be much too long. The only solution was to rip out the complete yolk and shorten each sleeve. I’ve now completed my Lovage and it’s great. I love it.

              

I still need to sew up a small section where the sleeve and body meet at the underarm section as well as sew in some loose threads. The sweater is a comfortable fit but still quite close fitting due to the rib pattern. I especially like the picot edge of the neckline, the slightly flared sleeves and the cropped body. Generally, the sweater design is lovely.

I usually have an early morning walk and am going to try and complete the last little jobs on my sweater so I can wear it, tomorrow. The weather is warming up in our bit of the world but early mornings can be quite cool, so my sweater will be just right.

Thanks for calling in today.

Keep safe.

Crochet Work

Hi Everyone 

This week, my thoughts are all about yarn. Last week, almost all my Making efforts were focused on sewing. I’m still doing a little bit of sewing but I’ll be mostly sharing my yarn/fibre stories.

My first project is a new dishcloth. Not that exciting for many people but I do love my handmade dish cloths. I don’t like washing up but using my handmade cloths gives me a little feeling of satisfaction (sometimes).

           

My cloth square is made of a blue and a natural cotton yarn, held together and crocheted. I used a double crochet stitch, mostly and finished around the edge with a couple of rows of single crochets stitches - to form a border. I used a size 6 hook.

My dishcloth is a very simple Make and took around an hour to complete. I only have this one spare cloth in my store so will make a couple more over the next few days.
Thanks for calling in today.

Keep safe.

Even more sewing !

Hi Everyone 

I have yet another sewing project to share today. It’s another birthday gift from last week. I’m planning to use my Factory Dress Pattern (again) with some lovely Merchant&Mills gift fabric. The fabric is a light cotton in a couple of green colours with yellow and red marks, I love it. I think, it will be perfect for the Factory Dress.

                

I’m currently testing out the Factory Dress with another fabric (check out this project here). My sewing progress is slow ! I’ve started to put the fabric pieces together but am slightly under the weather and it’s a bit of a struggle. I’ll not push things but I’ll do a little more today. I’m hoping I can learn from the first attempt and iron out any issues for making the second dress using my fabric in todays photo story. I’ll take some development photos as I go, I’ll share all the little steps and any tips when I get going.

Thanks for calling in today.

Have a good weekend. Keep safe.

More Sewing Talk

Hi Everyone 

I’ve yet another sewing plan to share, today. I think, the photo story for this post sums things up :

                

I’m planning to make another dress from my  Big Clothes and Small Clothes Pattern Book. This time it’s a simple trapeze shape garment with three quarter sleeves. My fabric is a beautiful cotton/viscose called Seaweed Foraging Dark Cadet from Sea Salt. I’m really looking forward to making this one. I’m hoping the Make will be a lightweight, flowing dress - perfect for Summer and also as a layering garment.

I’ve yet to experience making anything from the pattern book. If you called in earlier this week, you will know the pattern book was a recent birthday gift and is written in Japanese, so may present some interesting challenges. I’m not especially worried about the process, for some reason, I feel convinced all will be well ! What could possibly, go wrong ?

To get things moving, I need to wash my fabric today and will aim to develop my pattern over the next few days. I’ll make sure I report back on the process and discuss the pros and cons - good and bad.

Thanks for calling in today.

Keep safe.

Birthday Gift (2)

Hi Everyone 

I’m sharing another of my lovely birthday gifts today. This time it’s a book from Laine : 52 Weeks of Socks. It’s a gorgeous book with some interesting socks designs, presented in the usual sophisticated style of Laine. I also have some lovely yarn in my photo story, a recent Mothers Day gifts. I’m going to use this yarn for the first project from my book. What a perfect combination.

      

I love knitting socks, it’s something I do all the time. I always have a pair of socks on the go alongside any other knitting project. I like to try different construction styles and am keen to try out ‘lace’ type design’s. I have lots of hand knitted socks and also do sock knitting for members of my immediate family, sock knitting is important in our house. I especially like to find new heel techniques. This book is full of interesting heels.

So, I’m absolutely delighted with my new book. I could have chosen any project in the book for my first sock but I’ve gone for a pattern called Heartichoke by Josephine & The Seeds. I thought, this design, would work well with my Ginger’s Hand Dyed Sheepish Sock yarn in the Mellon Balls on Fire. These socks will be for me. I’ll probably start the socks later today.

Thanks for calling in today.

Keep safe.