Vintage Pattern Pledge 2015

So I missed out on taking part in the Vintage Pattern Pledge last year, I only cottoned onto it after everyone had posted all their wonderful creations. I had tried to use a vintage pattern a few years ago... With terrible results. I bought this Simplicity 7263 as I wanted to make a winter coat, and view 1 seemed nice and simple with basic lines.

 The coat I produced from this pattern was just awful! I had a mini tantrum, stuffed the coat in the back of my wardrobe and parcelled up the pattern pieces in their envelope. Since then I've avoided vintage patterns, I thought "they're not marked out easily, the sizes are all squiffy, I just don't get the instructions" and stuck with modern reproductions, or vintage style things.

It was looking at all of the pattern pledge creations in the blogosphere last year that got me thinking... I wanna do that. This year is the year for me to try again! So I have taken the pledge to sew three vintage items this year, but this time I'm going to start out with something simple.

So the 60s were not kind to me (pattern wise), fast forward to the 70s and feast your eyes on this little beauty!

 There's so much I love about this skirt pattern, that it only cost 60p at the time is just brilliant (I feel just as happy when I get a second hand book that has 25p on the back... And no barcode). I thought this would be the way forward as it has the waist and hip measurements stated very clearly on the front (the blue doodle is my waist measurement, so some adjusting needed.

A huge bonus for my confidence is that it came uncut.... All shiny and new, well... faded and aged and new.

This pattern is also a good stash-buster for me, I have a black textured fabric that I bought from ebay pre-washed and ready! 

 It looks grey because of the camera trickery it took to catch the texture, this is an über close up.

Because the person who sold me the fabric may have been de-stashing herself, she couldn't remember what the fabric was, but it feels like crepe paper (the kind we used in art lessons in junior school). Because of the 3" difference between pattern and me, I thought the natural stretch in the fabric could only act as my friend.

I've started cutting out the skirt so it's currently my VPPWIP (vintage pattern pledge work in progress), after my last expedition into vintage patterns, this one I'm taking slowly. I did some adjustments to the pattern at the cutting, I'm 3" short round the waist so I decided the best place to mess about with this is round the back, I cut the back piece (on the fold) 1.5" from the edge so that the extra 3" would appear centre back bumwise.

 This also meant some adjusting the waistband. The pattern is awesome and has the centre back clearly marked out, so a little snip, 3" of tracing paper, and a smidge of sticky tape later and I can rest easy knowing all of the little place marker tab things will still line up when I put it together. 

I feel very excited about this pattern, it has been kind to me so far, fingers crossed it comes together as easily.

Lady Skater Dress

                           

 

After my recent success with using knit fabric I just couldn't resist buying the pattern for the Lady Skater Dress from Kitchy Koo. I've seen lots of versions of this, I'm really impressed by how versatile a pattern this is. 

                           

There are three sleeve options, two of these are finished with cute little cuffs, so this is a dress for all seasons. I love 3/4 sleeves though, so I knew that was happening straight away!

It comes as a PDF to print off and piece together, I seem to have a lot of these now. It's easy enough to stick together and is easy to make up, but I will confess that I didn't get along with the instructions. It seemed to want me to stitch the open sleeve pieces to the bodice (which is stitched together over the shoulders only), then stitch from cuff via armpits to hem... Well that's just weird! I decided to ignore this, put the body together then set in the sleeves, and everything turned out just fine!

               

I love the neckline binding too. This was a skill new to me when I made the Plantain t-shirt, I think it gives the dress a lovely and professional feel.

                          

 I had a couple of fitting issues with the rest of the dress, I needed to shorten the bodice and widen the bodice pieces just under the bust (I have narrow shoulders and prefer a bit more room accross my stomach. I think next time I won't lift the waist quite as high, it's comfy but not perfect. 

                             

 Overall this is a great pattern, it's easy to make and is super comfy to wear. I actually put it together before Christmas, but as I've worn it so much I just never had the chance to take photos! 

If at first you don't succeed, rip, rip, rip again!

 

After one jumper which was abandoned mid-make, and a second jumper which I haven't the heart to admit just didn't work, I have been thinking a lot about frogging. I love the term frogging, largely because non-knitters have a look of acute confusion when it's used as a verb (rip it, rip it). What I do not love, is subjecting my hard work to this act of destruction.

But should it be considered such a destructive act? Am I not giving frogging it's due, not looking at its benefits? Once I had frogged Phillipa I re-used the wool and started again, making something better and still beautiful. And here is the wonderful thing about knitting, being able to salvage and recycle.

In the past, when kids had jumpers knitted by their mothers, and families couldn't afford new clothes very easily, it was common to rip back a jumper, add a little more yarn, and make a slightly bigger jumper. I adore this idea, that there was no waste. New and beautiful things were created out of the very fibre of items that were already worn and loved.

Knitting is not a cheap hobby, especially if you want to use good quality and beautiful yarn, so recycling in this way means both saving money, and not having to simply throw away a yarn that you bought because you fell a little (or a lot) in love with it.

It's a hard choice to make, to reverse weeks worth of work. So I got curious about why people make the decision, why do knitters frog their work?

I spent a while on Ravelry, looking over the simply wonderful projects people have completed, but I spent more time reading about the frogged projects, and why people had chosen to do it. I found many reasons such as 'the fit was bad', 'the yarn doesn't work for this project', 'I just hate it', but the reason a few people gave which I really loved was that they loved the yarn and had a better project in which the yarn would be so much better. In this, the frogging is a loving act, giving something a new life in which it will be even more loved.

So I shouldn't feel sad when something must be frogged, I should feel excited about what it will now become.

Phillipa... My nemesis

Ok nemesis is a bit over-dramatic, but I've had a bit of a time with this little madam. It was my first attempt at making a jumper with my increasingly confident knitting skills, and it went belly up.

You might remember my last attempt with this wool resulted in excess armpit fabric, which felt very strange. I hadn't even got as far as the sleeves.

When I got back from visiting family before Christmas I decided that I wanted to give it another go, I hate not finishing things (though some things may be subjected to an extended pause).

I put into practice some stuff I'd been reading up on about measuring stitches and gauge from swatches... So I swatched! I'm now a swatching convert! Then came the maths.... So much maths... I don't like maths.

I decided to scrap the increases and make a box shaped body, then continue with the pattern for the armholes/neckline/pattern.... And.....

TA DA!!!!

IT WORKED! I now have a wearable jumper, that I made with my own two needles and several balls of wool. I'm really pleased that the first jumper I set out to make is still my first completed jumper too.

The diagonal stripes are really easy to get the hang of (even though the pattern makes it sound really complicated) and was easy enough to trundle through during my essential Christmas tv viewing. I didn't make the mistake of using too small needles so the finished jumper isn't too thick and heavy (but by gum is it warm!!). And I'm even really proud of my stitching up.

I did some steam blocking once all the pieces were knitted up (I did skip treating the ripped wool properly so it was still very wibbly), and it was only at this point I noticed a glaring pattern mistake...

The stripes on the left of the buttons should be facing the same way as those to the right of the buttons... And we're just going to ignore that wonky bottom button. I think this is a fault that could be overlooked (also translated as but I'd finished it, don't make me rip it back again).

In all, it's not perfect, it's still a bit big on me, it's wonky in places, but it's mine and I love it!

 Also I know these photos make the colour look different in every picture, camera and artificial lighting issues there. The closest is just above on the left (dark bluish purple).

The snuggest of snug scarves

It's not something I've done since I learned how to knit, is making a scarf, and that one wasn't even for me. This winter I decided I wanted a huge snugly scarf to keep me resembling a bug in a rug while out and about in the (granted not that cold) grim old North.

After scouring the tomes of Ravelry patterns to find a suitable freebie I stumbled accross a pattern for a ribbed scarf with a difference, a little extra oomph to make it a bit more special. (Link will be appearing here soon... Promise).

 

It's a really easy pattern to follow which is part rib, part moss stitch. I used a cheap and cheerful synthetic bulky yarn which I found in Wooly Minded in Newcastle in a yummy rich red colour (I think the colour was called "burgundy"). The result... Squishy city! I made it really (perhaps excessively) bulky but if you prefer a more slender scarf it's easy enough to reduce a couple of pattern repeats to make it lighter, and of course it can be made up in a lighter yarn (DK might produce nice results).

 And a close up of the stitches.

I wanted a quick fix knit that I could get finished and get some wear out of before Christmas. I cast this on December 6th and I finished it a week (and two balls of wool) later, now that's satisfying! I like to have long and more detailed projects on the go too.. But sometimes delayed gratification just doesn't work for a girl.

 I mean check out how squishy and snugly this bad boy is!!

When I'm wearing it I can either fold it down so it sits under my chin, or unfold it and have it covering my nose as well as my ears! Think wooly red ninja (he he).

 This is the folded down version. I love my scarf :)

Christmas holidays and planning

I've had a lovely time over the Christmas holidays, it has been filled with Christmas markets, mulled wine, food, family, and of course knitting, so much knitting...

 

I had decided to make mittens for my brother, sister, and their other halves as part of their Christmas parcels. I wanted them to each have a mono graphed mitten for the winter, such things, I keep learning, do not always go to plan. I have the hands of a twelve year old (as in they are the same size, I don't keep people's hands in jars or anything), which makes getting the right size for 'normal people' mittens a bit of a guessing game. Because I made full mittens for Chris and her partner (as in covered over fingers) this wasn't too much of a problem, but because I decided to make Phil fingerless hand warmer style mittens, which need to be a bit more tight fitting, things went a bit wrong. Poor Phil and Maeve ended up with mittens for giants.

 The fingerless Giants mittens...

And full mittens for Chris

So next time, before I try so much as a scarf for anyone else, I'm getting measurements!!

I've been working on a couple of projects over Christmas. I managed to finish my red scarf, and am so happy with how big and snug it is!

I'm also about 1/3 into a jumper from 'North' by Kim Hargreaves (such a beautiful book, I want one of everything in it!!), I transported this to the south (via short flight) using a holding bit of thread and buying new needles down there. It did add to my relaxation during my stay with my parents being able to curl up on the sofa and continue with my jumper. 

As we crawl ever closer to the end of the year, and the beginning of another I've been thinking about what I've achieved this year, and what I want to achieve in 2015.

As far as sewing is concerned I had a major eureka moment when I finally started sewing with knitted fabrics! I'm really pleased with my results so far, and I have dresses and t shirts and sweatshirts and all sorts planned for this.

Over the next year I'm determined to get the hang of tailoring, I have a jacket pattern and the fabric for it, but I don't feel confident enough to do it justice. My plan... Do it slowly, and carefully, and keep your fingers crossed.

Alongside this terrifying piece of tailoring I also want to try out a shirt pattern I've been hanging onto for ages, yes people, next year is all about the tailoring!

 Definately a. for the shirt (e. is just terrifying), but I've still not decided between a. and b. for the jacket.

As far as knitting is concerned, I feel like I've spent this year learning big lessons from my mistakes. The biggest lesson being I still have so much to learn.

This year is all about polishing up my skills and when I start a project I do it properly!

I also want to go back and fix my mistakes (Philippa I'm looking at you!). But I mostly want to create beautiful jumpers and cardigans that I can be proud to wear (I might just work my way through 'North')

 My big project for 2015, however, is something I've wanted to try all year but have been too nervous of trying.... Socks!

They're becoming my fear technique as far as knitting goes, there's the circular vs double point debate, but more perplexing.... Turning the heel!! But I'm determined to conquer the sock!!

 

And on that thought, I shall leave you (I need to go start planning all of this) happy new year!

Not so grim up north: Beamish Museum

I had a little outing at the weekend as my other half had bought us tickets to visit Beamish Museum (he had gone a few years ago with his friends and I had been very jealous). Beamish is a wonderful place all year, but is extra special when it feels all Christmassy, so I thought it might be nice to introduce this little gem to those who have never heard of it.

Be prepared for pictures... So many pictures.

Beamish Museum is an open air museum based in the 1900s. It can be found between Consett and Chester-le-Street, not more than a fifteen minute drive from Newcastle. The idea is that there are clusters of old buildings in the countryside (moved there brick by brick from their original locations, yes people, Beamish mean business) where they have recreated the era down to the last detail (clothes, shops, houses, workplaces, schools, and a coal pit). You are free to wander round and have a nosey in any open door at the bits and pieces on display. In some of the houses and other buildings are people who are dressed up and will talk about their site (house, shop, bank) and answer any questions you have.

The main town area is great, it has a line of shops, stables, bandstand, bank, Freemasons hall, dentist (which is freaky... Trust me!). My favourite place here is the sweet shop where you can buy sweets the staff have made using the techniques of the 1900s (big tip.... The cinder toffee is amazing!)

Decorations up next to the bank.

I love the draper. I don't think things have really changed much in fabric shops...

There are lovely window displays everywhere...

Near the town centre is a train station where if you are lucky you can get a ride on a working steam train.

And everywhere you look, there is something interesting...

And a bit strange...

I can't help but wonder how many people used the 'facilities' before that sign went up!

There are trams and old busses to get you to different parts of the museum, some older than others, and all the conductors can give you information on the trams, how they were used, and where each tram came from.

In another part of the museum there is the pit village, this has a row of houses with gardens and coal sheds, I think some of the out houses were the netty (what my grandad used to call 'paddy faddles'). There's also a school (I went on a trip when I was a kid where we all dressed up as Victorians and had a Victorian schoolday), I don't think kids still get caned there, I wouldn't like to push my luck!

Inside the houses there are all sorts of old fashioned bits and pieces, it really gives you an idea of how life was lived.

They decorated the houses with paper chains for Christmas, I really want to copy this in my own home. There is usually an open fire, and if you're lucky the smell of baking, and you can find some things that we still use today...

Golden syrup, it's nice to see, has never changed!

There is also a church and a coal pit, with carts and the processing centre, building, bit. If you want to you can go down one of the old mine shafts with a guide, but I didn't fancy that!

No thanks!!

At Christmas there is a brass band in the town and a Christmas market, in the village there is an ice skating rink, and near the Manor House (we didn't have time to go yesterday so I've got no photos... Sorry) you can visit Santa near the train shed. They even put fake snow out to make it extra special!

In all this is a wonderful day out, you need a good four hours to make the best of it, but every time I go I find a new little hidden gem. And the best thing is.... The pass lets you in as many times as you want in a year.... Mmmmm..... More cinder toffee!

Sweet shop seen in background here, it's always busy in there!!