Bad blogger, no cookie

Oh boy, could someone let me know where the last few months have gone? Because I have no idea...

But, you know, I do have some knitting to share!

First up: Lyra by Herbert Niebling

After spending most of the last three years languishing in a bag in a half-knit state, it is finally finished. Completely beautiful and completely impractical but there is nothing wrong with that! Plus, one day I will have a lovely big leather armchair (oh yes, I will) to drape it over.

I love how textural Niebling's lace is, which is something you don't see all that often in modern lace. In Lyra you have the double yarn over mesh background, the standard yo, stocking stitch areas and twisted/crossed stitch areas to give four different densities of fabric and allow for 'shading', as though one were painting with stitches. Definitely something to be logged away as future design inspiration.

Another recent (as in, two days ago) FO: the imaginatively titled #30 Vintage Lace Blouse from Vogue Knitting Early Winter 2011

This is what victory rolls look like post-stock room tidying...

The yarn is Tosh Merino Light in the colourway 'Coquette' which is the most fabulous pink and perfectly matches this fashion print from 1840 I found in a Cambridge bookshop a couple of years ago and have been swooning over since. 

Hot pink and pale blue - gorgeous!

I decided to wear it with a flower in my hair because, well, you can never have too much pink!

Of course, finishing something always means starting something else! More on that next time (and it won't be another four months, I promise!)

J

Introducing the Harlow Cowl!

I have a new pattern out! Ladies and gentlemen (maybe?), please allow me to introduce the Harlow Cowl!

I wanted to make a beautiful laceweight cowl, but I also wanted it to be versatile and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. It can be worn like a shawl (but it won't fall off!) or doubled up around the neck or (my favourite) over the head. Perfect for keep delicate pin curl arrangements in place on windy tube platforms.

Shockingly, these pictures were taken at around 7:30 on a Sunday morning. It is a credit to my husband's photography skills that I don't look like a red-lipped zombie.

More info on the Harlow Cowl is available on the Ravelry pattern page so please do head over and have a look!

J

Reasons To Be Cheerful

Roses! I love having flowers in the flat so am always on the lookout for the reduced bouquets 

Apologies for the silence recently; I managed to come down with yet another cold so have mostly been sneezing and sniffling and generally disgusting. Seem to be getting over it now but this (along with noticing a bit of weight gain) has led to the decision to make some healthy life changes: back to the gym on a regular basis (weightlifting, rawr!), more fruit and veg, no more biscuits at work etc. I'm feeling really positive about it and feeling a lot better after only a few days, so I thought I might do a quick little post listing some of the other things that are keeping me cheerful at the moment!

Rooibos Earl Grey from Waitrose

A new kind of tea always perks me up. Although my tea collection is now occupying half a cupboard so I should probably slow down there.

Buttons! I bought these on a whim at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year but totally forgot I had them until recently. I can't wait to find the perfect project for these, will need to be something special!

Spirit, the new book by Kim Hargreaves

The postman delivered this today! There are quite a few things I want to knit, although after going stash diving I don't have quite as much cotton as I thought I did, so there may be some yarn shopping in my future. I'll do a proper blog post on this later.

Butterick B5895

A and I are heading off to Download this summer for some rocking out (yup, I like vintage AND metal) and I've decided this will be my festival outfit. Assuming that I a) manage to work up the courage to attempt sewing trousers and b) have a flat enough stomach after all this gym going to whip it out (tastefully of course) in public! We'll see. Either way, a girl can dream!

What about you? Tell me what's rocking your world at the moment, I'm always open to more reasons to be cheerful :)

J

Old Friends

My mum and I are often quite different in our approach to knitting. When she loves a pattern she will quite happily make multiple versions in different colours; I've lost count of the number of times she's made Tender, which looks amazing on her, and she always has a Maia Shawl on the go in her handbag. I've often told her that I would go mad knitting the same thing over and over again. With a 25-page Ravelry queue, making multiples of a project feels like a waste of valuable knitting hours, even if I really loved it the first time.

When I was searching on Ravelry for a new project last night, however, I realised that this wasn't entirely true. There are now a huge number of triangular shawl patterns on Ravelry - I've contributed to their number myself - and many of them are beautiful. Quite a few of them are in my queue. But as many as there are and as beautiful as they are, I've yet to find any that look as lovely to me as three of the earliest patterns I tried when I was a new lace knitter.

I'm sure nostalgia plays a large part in this. The Swallowtail Shawl was one of the first shawls I ever knit, my introduction to the world of lace knitting that I have loved ever since. I knit my first one in a few days in December '08 then a second one in January '09. No pictures here as the photos I took were absolutely awful, but anyone curious can have a look at my Ravelry page! A couple of years later I knit another, larger version which is now one of my favourite shawls:

Later came the Aeolian Shawl, which I still think is one of the most beautiful shawl patterns on Ravelry and introduced me to beaded lace. I've made this twice, the first time in a very fine silver silk yarn, the second in a warm alpaca blend.

Photo by Adam Stanley

Finally, there is the lovely Haruni which I made in a gorgeous bright blue silk (these three shawl pattern also seem to have cemented my silk addiction!)

Photo by Adam Stanley

In my opinion, these three patterns have such beautiful proportions and flow so perfectly from lace pattern to lace pattern that they deserve to be made multiple times; every time I wear them they remind me of the feeling of pride I had after knitting my first lace and the wonder I felt in being able to create something that lovely with my hands.

I think the time may have come for another Haruni...

What about you? Do you have any 'old friend' patterns that you make over and over again? Is there a lace triangular shawl that you think should join these three? Let me know! 

J

In Praise of Pockets

Pockets!

One of the best thing about making your own clothes is being able to add those things that are inexplicably missing from ready made designs. Like hoods on coats that are actually deep enough to shade your face or pockets on skirts! Designs for women just don't have enough pockets...

This is another self drafted garment - a half-circle skirt. There was a little maths involved but also a fairly large amount of winging it and I think it's turned out ok. It has gathered patch pockets! These were my first and they are completely lined so they should be fairly sturdy. 

What I can't decide is whether I want to keep the pockets plain or add a stripe of ribbon of some kind - maybe a shiny black? What do you think?

In case you needed a demonstration on how to use a pocket...

I already have plans to make a second one, maybe with buttons down the front this time. A girl just can't have too many practical pocketed skirts after all.

I would, of course, need to obtain the bright red petticoat as well. 

The generously hooded coat might have to wait a while though!

What about you? What are your favourite additions and alterations to handmade clothing that you just can't find in the shops?

J

P.S. If anyone has any tips on getting good sewing machine tension, I'd love to hear them. Mine's all over the place and it's driving me crazy!

P.P.S. I recently started using Bloglovin to keep track of the blogs I read. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Port Elizabeth and Lessons Learned

So, here it is! My version of Port Elizabeth, which is a free pattern by Sarah Magill, available to download from Burda.

This is a great pattern for beginners (i.e. me!) - very simple and quite wearable. I made it a couple of inches longer as it's a bit on the short side and I'll be wearing it tucked into high waisted trousers and skirts. I also didn't like how the sleeves stuck out so I gave them a little hand-stitched tuck to pull them in.

I am completely in love with this fabric, it's utterly fabulous.

After Port Elizabeth I had maybe a tiny bit over a metre left. I think I must have been a little high on sewing fumes as I then decided it would be fun to draft my own dress pattern.

Because, you know, that's easy, right?

Yes, I'm completely insane, but actually it wasn't too disastrous in the end.  And this dress certainly taught me some things. Oh yes.

Lessons learned:

• If you are making a dress with a side zip, it will need to pulled over your head. And your chest. And then your hips. This is not compatible with a sexy wiggle skirt. Sorry. Try again.
• You can try and insert scraps of fabric into the skirt seams to make it wider at the bottom. It will work. Sort of. In a bunchy sort of way.
• Hey! Zips aren't that hard! 
• I'm sure zip insertions were far more difficult during GCSE Textiles...
• Darts are cool.
• I hate the zig zag stitch. I hate raw edges on the inside. Everything else I ever make will have french seams.
• Well, ok, maybe mock french seams.
• Maybe deciding to draft my first dress using fabric that I only had a metre of wasn't one of my better ideas...
• Hey! It's a dress! I'm awesome!

• The next one will be better.

J

P.S. I know, the neckline isn't finished. I need to get some more bias binding but I just couldn't wait to share!

Birthday Outing

Yesterday was my birthday so A and I headed up to London for a bit of culture at the British Museum and a bit of, well, stuffing our faces at afternoon tea. I actually got dolled up for the first time in a while and was probably the most coordinated I have ever been in my life:

Even my handbag matches! An extremely rare occurrence - I am a knitter and a reader and I have a long commute. My handbag choices are usually based on how many projects/books/lipsticks I can squeeze into it.

Afternoon tea was the business. Oh yes. 

We had it at The Montague Hotel and it was fabulous. Also a lovely surprise to find that they had very thoughtfully decorated the tearoom to match my outfit:

A and I have eyes bigger than our stomachs, and after having extra sandwiches and extra scones (!) we could only manage to share a couple of the little pastries before calling it a day and heading (or really more like rolling) home.

Before collapsing on the sofa in a sugar and tea induced coma, however, I did manage to get a photo of my new dress!

Possibly a bit high on sugar at this point...

Given that I have just finished another sewing project today I think it's safe to say that I have well and truly caught the sewing bug. But that will have to wait for another post! And I promise there will be some knitting posts coming in the future as well.

J

Success!

Here it is! An honest to goodness hand sewn dress and I am insanely happy with it. Ok, so there was some slightly dodgy sewing of the bias binding (which is just magic, by the way) but it fits and it's beautiful!

I'm just hoping the weather is as beautiful tomorrow as it is today so I can wear it on my birthday trip to London. A and I are heading to the British Museum for some culture and then refuelling with a full on afternoon tea - I think this dress would be most appropriate, no?

Pattern is Butterick 4790 and I am dying to make another one, this time maybe in a sold colour - light blue with red bias? Red with white bias? Grey with purple bias? Endless possibilities!
Unfortunately it looks as though the pattern pieces got lost in the move to our new flat though, so I imagine I'll be buying myself a new copy! (note to self - this is why we don't leave dresses half finished for a year)

Modelled shots to come soon, but I just couldn't wait to share so my dress form had to do. I'm thinking she needs a name by the way. I'm leaning towards Mabel - any thoughts?

J

Sewing Madness

I've been going sewing mad lately. Of course - as seems to be common with me - it's mostly been theoretical sewing up until today. Frantic reading of sewing blogs late at night, impulse purchasing of patterns, that sort of thing.

But I think it really is beyond time to move out of the theoretical and into the practical, don't you? First step, finish this:

Yeah, see that 'dress'? That has been at that stage for a year, because I was daunted by hemming the circle skirt. The pattern says to hang the dress for 24 hours before hemming to allow the drape to set, so 8,760 hours should definitely have done the trick! I seem to have a mental block with sewing that makes everything feel like it is going to be much harder than it actually turns out to be, as I am pleased to say that not only have I now hemmed the skirt, but also began binding the edges with bias ribbon (including some not-so-very-terrible stitching the ditch). And you know what? It was fine! Easy, even! I actually think I might even finish it by the end of the week.

Which is lucky, because boy, oh boy, do I have some sewing plans. First up will be Port Elizabeth which seems simple enough and looks like it would be a great summer top to tuck into high waisted trousers. Free, and only takes a yard of fabric!

After that, I'll be attempting this beautiful dress. I've already downloaded the pattern and am dreaming about how gorgeous it would look in a rich sapphire or emerald. Or red, of course, like this. And a short sleeved floral version? Oh, I think so.

I figure it should be doable, particularly with the excellent series of blog posts on the subject by Casey to give me a hand along the way. We'll see - I can't wait!

One last very exciting thing - I'm doing a giveaway over on the fabulous iMake blog! Five copies of my Zelda pattern are available to win so hop on over and leave a comment!

J

Zelda Shawl

Well, it's been a long and busy year since I last posted (and more on that in later posts), but what better way to kick things off again than to introduce a new pattern?

Zelda Shawl

Flapper girl?

Inspired by the Art Deco movement and flapper dresses, Zelda has a simple beaded body flowing into a  a heavily beaded lace edging. It's available in two sizes, either of which can be done with a standard 100g skein of laceweight. More details can be found on the Ravelry page.

English Rose?

I'm so proud that it's finally up and out there (although I am now resigned to getting nothing done over the next couple of days as I Rav-stalk myself obsessively - anyone else do that?) I am so grateful to my wonderful knitting friends who have given me so much support, especially to my test knitter Kate's Twirl who wrote a fabulous blog post about Zelda, with lots of helpful tips and tricks, and my eagle-eyed tech editor Rachel.