Today a tube, tomorrow.... The world!

So one of my big aims for this year was to knit socks. "I can probably handle this" I think to myself. Trouble is, I've never used DPNs (double pointed needles) before. "How hard can that be?" I say to myself, let's give it a go.

It went something like this...

"What the hell?!"

"Where does that go?"

"Will you just stay still"

Pokes self in eye with one needle (thank goodness for specs)

It's like having Bambis legs for knitting needles!! So I figured that rather than jump into the socks (trying to do that with ribbing.. Nope) I should just spend a bit of time practicing going round and round.

 I started by not even making sure the stitches were same way up all round. You can see the twist top right... So that took a bit of time to correct.

Then there's the "how the hell am I meant to even hold these sodding things?!"

 I managed to find a 'pinning the next pin between finger and thumb while I work on the current pin and hoping the one on the right can take care of itself' kind of technique. It still needs practice, but it's not too bad.

And for my troubles...

 Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuube!!!

Ok so it's only a little one, but if you look closely you can even see that I started trying a K2 P2 rib for a little while. In all I felt very proud of my little tube, before then promptly ripping it out.

Next step.... Socks!! (Rather excited)

You must visit this website!

I got very excited this week as I have discovered the sewing version of Ravelry, and it is a wonderful thing.

I will confess that I love Ravelry, it tends to be one of the first (and often the only) place I go to browse knitting patterns, read reviews, and to generally snoop (admire) other people's projects. I've often thought that it's a shame that there isn't something similar for sewing... Well now there is!!

Ladies and gentlemen.... 

                 My Sewing Circle

It's free to join, just a quick sign up and you're off!!

 It follows the same sort of format as Ravelry, it is also international, and it allows you to share your own sewing projects and to snoop those of others.

 I promptly signed up and have already begun to add recent sewing projects. You can enter pattern, fabric used, yardage, and add any working notes to the page. Photos show up in thumbnails along the side but when you click on them you can see them in all their glory and scroll through the album.

 It has a pattern library where you can search for different patterns (I searched immediately for dresses.. Of course). There is no option to buy patterns online in the same way you can on Ravelry, but theses are very different kinds of patterns. They do give you all of the packet information you need to plan a project. And in the 'my sewing room' page you can open projects and gradually update them from start to finish.

 There's even a fabric directory (search here is specific to fashion print cottons, yes it is that specific), just to help with all of your project planning needs... Window shopping at its most indulgent.

 And my favourite part... Snooping the finished projects!! Again here you can search for a particular pattern you would like to see, of just dresses, or trousers, or tops... Oh the list just keeps going on! I am hooked already, my evenings will now be spent browsing, and my finished items will be appearing on here post haste (just in the same way my knits do on Ravelry).

It's a great website which I hope will continue to grow and grow... And maybe a sewing tips and techniques page could be organised at some stage? Or have I just missed it in all my excitement?

I will stress that I have received no prompting for this review and no reward... I just got really excited and wanted other people to be able to join in the fun!!

Sleep, sleep, little bird

I'm sure everyone experiences this at some point in their lives.... I'm talking about the realisation that you've turned into your mother! I really believe I'm becoming more like my mum every year (and you know, I'm ok with that). One thing I share with my mum is a mutual love of scarves... Summer, winter, wooly, floaty... We do love us some scarves. So when I was thinking of what to get mum for Mother's Day, I thought making her a scarf would be a pretty good idea (and somewhat of a challenge as I'd only left myself a week to finish it... Eep!).

 

I found a pattern on ravelry (free!) for a semi-lace shawl which I thought might be nice for a spring scarf. The pattern is called Nurmilintu, which is taken from an old Finnish lullaby "Nuku, nuku, Nurmilintu" which translates to "sleep, sleep, little bird". This made me fall in love with the pattern even more.

I used a yarn which is part wool with acrylic mix which I found on eBay. It's a self striping yarn with white, grey, purple and a little splash of blue. I bought it because of the lovely shades but I will admit I wasn't in love with the quality of the yarn. I also think this particular pattern would look much nicer in just one colour.

 

This is the first time I'd tried lace in a pattern, and I've had mixed results. Unfortunately the first stripe of lace is a little incoherent as I didn't really understand the pattern. I spent a bit of time writing it all out again (this has always helped me understand things better, I actually have a notepad for re-writing knitting instructions)... And created something that looks even more confusing...

 

But this just makes sense for me, go figure! It did mean that the pattern repeats were reduced from 9sts to 8sts. I did kinda just start making it up, rather than 'knit until 87 sts', I knit until the end of the purple before starting the lace. I like that the colour co-ordinates with the pattern.

The rest of the shawl progressed rather nicely, and it was a real pleasure to knit. When the blocking had been done it looked really effective (relief!)

Can we just take a moment to talk about the cast off. This really pretty feature was something I dreaded as the shawl went on, it looks so complicated!! But it's a really easy (and I'm talking easy peasy lemon squeezy) cast on 2 knit wise then cast off 5 and boom! Lacy little cast off!

 

In all I'm very pleased with this, but I would like to revisit this pattern in a single colour rather than using the self striping. And I might just make a lighter one for mum in a better quality yarn... If she's nice to me (xx).

What has it got in its pocketses?

Dear all, I would like to submit my first entry for the Vintage Pattern Pledge 2015.

 Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce 'Style 1286'.

This little beauty was completed from start to finish in just two days (day one cutting... Day two new skirt!). I had high hopes for this pattern because of how down right easy it looked! As far as old sewing techniques vs new sewing techniques go, this may as well have been a new pattern.

 I shortened the hem about 3" so that rather than mid-shin, the skirt stopped just on the knee. And as mentioned last time there was the extra couple of inches added to the waist. This is one comfy skirt! The crepe paper material has a great stretch which just adds to the comfy feel of it.

 I have decided I want more of these! So many more!! I want a chambray one for summer, a smart one for work, and a floral one for pretties!!

The pockets are awesome (I do love some pockets). They were really easy to put in and create really flattering lines across the hips. Unfortunately because I chose black as my first run they barely show up in the photos, the best I could manage was...

 Pretty pretty!

So to the next part of the challenge.... Not sure what that is yet... But you will be the first to know!

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.