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.

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 :)