Birthday frock

I may have mentioned that I had some holiday before Easter, this was because it was my birthday last week. What better excuse to make a pretty new dress (well a girl needs something shiny and new when she's going out for a birthday dinner).

 

I had a lovely lawn weight cotton in my stash, and had recently obtained a new pattern from the front of "Sew" magazine, everything was falling perfectly into place. The pattern I used was New Look 6184, which I decided to make in view A (although belts aside I don't see much difference between that and B). And the cotton is a navy blue with red roses on, and you can't see it very well in the photos, but there are little gold leaves dotted about too. I like to think of it as casual glamour.

This was such an easy pattern to put together, not many pattern pieces, bias binding for armholes (which I continued to the hem too)

 (Check out those little gold leaves!)

It just looks so neat and professional... I love this method for the hem, just cut the skirt to 1/4" longer than you want it to be and flip it under rather than folding over the hem.

The worst thing that went wrong with the making of this dress was my buying the wrong length zip, it stops a good 3" from the neckline. I didn't have time to go and buy another, so I made a quick fix by adding a button to the neckline (I found a great bright red one in my button jar which matched the roses)

 

I think it looks cute. I was tempted to make another version of this dress with buttons all the way down the back, but that would be a bugger to fasten.

 

I really love the pleats around the neckline, giving just a bit of interest without being fussy.

And of course I do love a big full floaty skirt. This will be a favourite dress of mine through the summer.

 

Not so grim up north: Barter Books

I had a bit of holiday time just before Easter, so I decided to have a day trip out to my favourite bookshop. This is quite a title as I am a big fan of the book, and a big fan of the shop of book, but this is the most wonderful place... Ever!

Built in the old train station in Alnwick (the nearest station now is Alnmouth... Which is also beautiful), it was opened in the 90s as a second hand trade in shop. You can take your much read books and use them (barter them if you will) towards future purchases of more books. It is the biggest second hand bookshop in the north, and you can find anything from Jamie Oliver through Haynes Manuels, to OS maps, to first edition rarities.

I swear I have never managed to leave this place without at least three books!

 

Because it is the old Alnwick station it is such a beautiful quirky building, there are rows upon rows of bookshelves absolutely packed with all kinds of weird and wonderful things.

 

Big cosy sofas to snuggle into to decide which of the 15 books that you want, you are actually taking home. 

In one part (where the tills are) there is even a little model railway that trundles around above your head... Such a soothing noise

There are pieces of art and quotes all over the place, and if you don't come for the books then you must surely be in need of the tiffin!

 

That's what was on that plate, chocolate (malteser and toffee) tiffin cake slice (home made don't you know) with a big pot of tea in their Platform Buffet cafe. And yes... That is indeed an open coal fire smouldering away in there! They are all over the place!

It actually takes 1.5 hours to get here on the bus... I'd travel for much longer for an afternoon here. You can spend hours just browsing, I found myself an old knitting book on my last visit (hardback and only £4!) though I forgot to photo that! And because of the unpredictable rotation of stock, it's best to visit every couple of months... Just in case you miss something (or need more tiffin)

 

Yarn Bombing in the Metrocentre

We've all seen the pictures online of yarn bombing around the world. I absolutely love it! The creativity of the knitters is just wonderful.

Imagine my surprise when I'm wandering around the Metrocentre (big big shopping centre in Gateshead... Well worth a visit), and come across these guys...

 

I stopped dead and almost shouted "yarn bomb". This without a doubt made my day. The little purse is wonderful, and the cropped top and dress, wow! What creative knitters I thought as I reached the end of the mall, headed up the escalator and turned round to find...

 

This just keeps getting better. This guy is actually waving to the ladies above who are on the lower floor. But these peculiar statues are all over the Metrocentre, so it's not long before we find...

 

 

 

I mean... Check out the little dudes hat!!

Yarn bombers of the Metrocentre... I salute you

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!