Cloud Bolero



So, I found the new Yarn Forward magazine website (and have subscribed) and the free pattern was Ysolda's Cloud Bolero, which she had done in Rowan Polar (some of which I had) and the magazine had done in Hipknits Aran cashmere. I wasn't feeling any of the polar colours I have, so I burrowed and found all this gorgeous (and very expensive) yarn C bought me for Christmas 2004 to make a coat - I still will, part way through, and Voddy has helped with a muslin pattern). The yarn was bought in Di Gilpin's shop in St Andrews, and is handspun on the islands (?Skye).

BUT some of the yarn was much more suited to this pattern. I had a big skein of a ply each of silk and baby alpaca in raspberryand a smaller skein of 2 plies of baby alpaca in a blackberry (and the colours in these details are pretty close to the true colours, whereas the ones of the whole garment are a bit too red/pink).

The pattern was very straightforward. I made the extra small, because I have small shoulders and upper arms, and also because I think I must knit loosely! I did do a gauge swatch, and got bang on gauge, but I didn't wash and block it (not sure how much yarn I had...) and I haven't yet blocked the garment (don't want to take it off).



I think you get a good idea of the bolero in these pics. Hope you like them!

Fruity Cashmere hearts:

I have been thinking more about the cashmere stole, too, and considering how to do the pattern. I think I shall chart it (using Knit visualiser? I'd have to buy it first!) and see how I can fiddle with it to maybe get a wavy edge and to point up the hearts more.

Cashmere


Hereis the pic of the cashmere I have bought form colourmartuk on ebay. It's a150g cone, approx 1,150 yards "4ply weight" single soft twist yarn. I believe it will come oiled and tight like it looks on the cone(oiled for industrial knitting), but should bloom and soften at first washing, as in the skein above. Can't wait for it to arrive!

The suggestion is to use 3.75-4.5mm needles with it for lace. i'll try to force myself to swatch at least with 4mm and 4.5mm to see which I like better, though if only one is easily available (read: out of other knitting) I'll probably just chuck myself into it willy-nilly. It doesn't have to fit, so obsessive guage totally unnecessary!

As for the niece - think I'll go more open mesh with sparkles for her! (Quick and easy).

Swatching for wedding stole


So, my cousin is getting married in January (she last did this when she was 18, all round disaster, hopefully better now in her 30s! I haven't met the guy, but her Ps like him as do mine, so the signs are all good!) She seems to have got summer frocks for herself and her 3 'flowergirls' (when did it stop being bridesmaids?) My niece is to be one of them, in a sleeveless nylon (it looks on the email) cream frock; I think she'll be cold so have offered to make a shawl for her, and also one for the cousin.

Should have been writing an essay on mortality yesterday, and did do some reading, but then a bit of swatching. Oh, and buying cashmere on-line for it... hope the colour will be ok, cousin's dress apparently pink, unable to send me a sample, though. Anyway, I had a shuftie through some of the lace in Barbara Walker's pattern books, thought hearts would be approopriate. I haven't pictured my first swatch of just the main pattern done as written, in stocking stitch; I don't want there to be a right/wrong side to this stole, so I've changed it to garter sticth. might have to do the same to the edging - which, by the way, I think I'll just add to the ends - and either try to rewrite the body pattern with a wavey edge, another nice but straight edge, or add a simple narrow knitted on edging. I think this one is too big for all the way round.

What do you think? This last picture is the photochopped version of the edging on an end.

Crafting Cupcakes


So, the pile of fabric under my desk is still there despite my promises to re-fashion and my lovely wool tops have still not manifested themselves into felt bead jewellery. However, I like to think this is because I've had better things to do.

Not necessarily better, but a lot of fun is my new hobby. After years of wanting to be Gypsy Rose Lee I have finally got some guts, and a corset and am learning burlesque. Yup it's true - should all things go well and I don't end up falling over my stilletos as I attempt to artfully remove a glove in practice I may sometime in the not tooooo distant future take to the stage and become my burlesque alter ego 'Cupcake'. When I'm not practising to twirl my tassles I've been obsessing about 'Cupcakes' costumes and decided that the best way to get a head is get a hat - et voila, here is my little cupcake hat!

I started off taking some cotton and stiffening it with some iron on vilene and then pleating it and ironing it endlessly till it decided to hold itself in place. With a foam base and some wool tops as stuffing (they are coming to some use at least) I then popped another piece of foam on the top to make it look like a rather engorged cupcake. The 'icing' is some pink lining fabric I had lying about and the 'raspberry' is a slightly bodged stitching of lots of little pink beads. I wanted to pop a cherry on top but realised I didn't have the appropriate kind of beads. To finish it off I popped some lace around the bottom and seeing as it IS burlesque a few sequins. It fastens on my head with the help of a stiched in hair comb and some ribbon which I can tie round my head - more pics to follow

whipup

Lovely hipknits is also a bit of a bleeder; and a progress shot.



What more can I say? This is my Angelica on the first wash. Love it though.

And here is a progress shot of the cardigan i am making (from Opal sock yarn, the green is 80%wool and 20% nylon, and the multi is a wool/cotton/nylon mix). Baby is due in 2 weeks, so I am now trying to get on with it after faffing for a while! (And I now believe in the 2 weeks after seeing H this weekend - bump is huge!) Hope She and J like the colours - which I think are pretty gener neutral. And it is machine washable (and dryable if they have a drier). I've actually completed both fronts already.

And just for completeness - second charcoal Eleonora sock now past the heel (in fact it is further on than this too, but I am too idle to repeat the shot).

Angelica pics


So, you know I finished Angelica, as I'm pretty sure I showed a picture of my sorry self 'morning after' in the rain at Arumdo (fab burlesquey festival; here are some crappy detail shots - once more a bit knackered after a great party last night in Newcastle at my cousins. The one on the left shows the shape. i modified it by lengthening it - when I had completed the pattern itcame to about the top of my jeans - not a good look for my relatively apple-shaped self; so, I had a shufty through Barbara Walker's pattern books (bought a month or so ago enmasse from Schoolhouse press for about £70 but NO charge by customs - maybe because they wrote 'educational books' on the manifest - true, too!) and added a lace pattern that was easily bodged into the stitch count.

I knitted the sleeves in the round as I don't much like seaming, and repeated the lace pattern but narrower and shorter around the sleeves. Love it! It does grow rather,a nd ends up off the shoulder - even since I added 6 rows alternating reverse and straight stocking stich with a tightish cast-off all around the neck.

Lots of colour came out when I washed this after the festival!


Fashioning and Re-fashioning

So at last I delved into the pile of fabric under my table and decided to do something with it, partially due to the overwhelming need of pink bag (surely everyone NEEDS a pink bag) and partially because after a visit to the shops where I cursed the fact I've signed up to Wardrobe Re-fashion (http://wardroberefashion.blogspot.com/) I realised the only way to get over it was to get on with it and re-fashion something.


Here is the pink bag - perfect for carrying the essentials for a little festival Ginny, C and I are off to and handy because I can either wear it across my body OR tie it up (as in the photo) and pop it over my shoulder. No pics of it across the body i'm afraid - Might have to get Ginny to take some pics of me wearing it at the festival to prove that it actually does work.

And for my second little number here is the slightly random shirt/t-shirt combination I constructed. I thought it might make a nice pressie for C however having tried it on I may have to make one for myself too - essentially I hacked up a shirt (£3 from Primark ) and an old t-shirt having seen something similar that I loved in a fab but expensive shop and sewed it all together in a slightly bodged manner popping the collar over the tshirt and popping the sleeves and shirt tails under.


The slightly strange bulking on the arms is actually a "design feature" whereby you can niftily button the sleeves up onto themselves to make it short sleeved - looks rather odd on the dressmakers dummy but I'm hoping on C it will look a bit better.








Wondering

Somehow, listening to Brenda on the Craftsanity podcast a few days ago has left me feeling i want to make big changes in my life. I have a problem with procrastinating, which in part is my nature, but maybe (I now think) also because I'm not quite living the life I'd like to be. Lots of things are right - C for one, friends, house, where we live. BUT I'm not sure I want to be spending as much time at work as I do, and I know I want a different sort of day-to-day life.

I want to do some of the creative stuff I spend so much time thinking about. And live more straightforwardly - because I have a car, which I drive to work every day (I am a GP) I tend to have already set off in it before I have even thought of cycling. I used to cycle everywhere around Bristol as a teenager/ when I worked as an auxiliary nurse. And it's much hillier there! One of my colleagues recently had a semi-breakdown, and opted out of partnership for 3 months. He was able to pay his mortgage by locuming at the out of hours service. the appeal of that is not having things hanging over me - when finished, I'd be finished.

But all this - to do what? I want to explore more knitting, and I've found a couple of places I could do the City and Guilds maybe 7922. This course involves exploring inspiration, research, materials and techniques, presentation, specifically looking at colour, line, texture, shape, form. the two places I am thinking of are Distanceknitting, Fiona Morris's organisation. She does both a correspondence course, and also a course where you go to Lewes (near Brighton) for monthly Saturdays. The other organisation is WS touchbase, where Lorraine McClean teaches by correspondence, but there is the opportunity to attend monthly craft days with them in Dorchester (near where an aunt lives). Loraine' McClean's work appeals to me more, (that's a link to the Loose Threads textiles group of which she is a part). fiona Morris is harder to get by ggogling,as there seem to be 2 knitters of note with the same name in the UK. The one that teaches is the one who has designs in Knitting magazine, and I don't much like that, or find her designs appeal much to me (though they are interesting).

But who knows which would be the better teacher? Or if I have time for this at all - if I finish the essay (on mortality) that I should be doing right now for my MA in Med Humanities, then I'll be starting the dissertation in November, and I guess that's probably enough.

More cogitations to come, but have remembered essay....!

Did she really?

Oh yes, Katydid.

I was really lucky on the Dye-o-rama swap - not only did I get lovely yarn from Squid-knits Devorah, but I also won a fab present from Wendy at Intertwinement!

I could choose something form her website, where she has insect (or bug, for you North-Americans) related yarn (think butterflies, ladybirds - our name for ladybugs). Also, she has Portrait of a girl/boy/man/woman yarns.

But I chose Katydid yarn. I loved the vibrant green, which reminded me of those shield beetles we see here, but also it reminded me of the Susan Coolidge books 'What Katy Did', and the follow-ups (What Katy Did at School, What Katy Did Next, Clover), books I loved as a child. And Wendy very kindly sent me a soundbite of katydids, which seem to be a kind of grasshopper. Neither of us could hear the sound 'katydid', but perhaps that's because we weren't in the south sitting rocking on a creaking porch with a mint julep glistening with condensation, a warm breeze and ..............

I look forward to it some day!

Some second hand scores





First, of course I did make another change to the bamboo red - I did 2 extra lace repeats to make it long enough.
Anyway, here is a 1940s/50s dress I bought in Bizarre, a little second hand clothes shop near where I live. I love it! And found these earrings I have go perfectly.




I also bought this rather beautiful light, unlined silk jacket in the same shop - it is like a faded silk rug in the colours and pattern. Not sure how I'll wear it - perhaps split the side seems up a bit and then do repeat rows of fine stitching along the bottom hem, as there is along the front hems, the wrists and the neck. What do you think, Voddy?

This next I've had for a while, but have cannibalised the buttons (large and white, and positioned just inside the large white border). it's very 60s, and reminds me of my grandmother, my Mutti, who I loved very much. She had all sorts of dresses of this ilk.

The last is a fabulous silk lined (in voile) coat - a little big, the shape doesn't suit - needs refashing. I shall ask Voddy's advice again. C was surprisingly smitten by this silk pattern! Bought on the same day as the first 2 above at a small vintag clothes fair nearby.

Some new FOs



So, here are a couple of completed knitting projects that I don't think I've blogged about yet -one a success, but the first decidedly NOT. A problem of heavy cotton yarn, and the flaws of guage swatches. I did swatch, however, in the knitting I found I had to keep going for smaller and smaller needles as I went up the garment - no I didn't frog, and no I didn't go small enough!

You can see the flaws most clearly on the right, but even the left picture doesn't disguise them very successfully.

This is the bamboo Lotus Blossom Tank from the cover of IK Summer 2006 (oh, the poor specimen above is the Brioche bodice in Colinette wigwam from the same issue - wigwam is a long tube of tee-shirt fabric). I used 3 balls of SWTC bamboo in Fiery red it's a bit deeper than this looks in real life. I loved knitting it, very easy to keep on track, and the only adjustments i made were after thesewing up - I filled in the corners of the front with short rows when I was knitting around the neck to a) stop the front sagging and curling out, and b) make it wearable in terms of bras! It's cool and comfortable - I wore it at the Woolfest, and had lost fo compliments.

You can see how hot it has been here - our lawn is totally dry and brown, doesn't happen most summers as we have quite a bit of shade (and usually lots of rain!)

Thanks for photography go to a very tired C, grabbed immediately she got off her bike after a night shift on the Paediatric ICU - love you!

Wardrobe refashion

I Pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle pre-loved items for myself for the term of my contract. I Pledge that I shall create and craft items of clothing for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. (For two months at this time)
(The cool Wardrobe Refashion blog can be found at http://wardroberefashion.blogspot.com/ )


So, I've committed myself to this - and Voddy has too. In fact, I started this week, and will post some pics of what I have already bought second-hand to play with - or just wear. I've got lots of things waiting in the wings, or already started to be made, too, vis:
1 pair of socks (Mim's Eleonora ones, on the foot of no 1, but currently too hot)
1 circular coccoon jacket - the cover of the Autumn IK, Annie Modesitt
1 'Joe' from House of Hemp
1 Eyelet Chemise from summer IK, but in more Hemp (spring green and a bit of watermelon pink) - and I shall do it longer, as my waist/belly are NOT my best bits, andwithout eyelets.

I'll do another post in a minute to show you the things I have bought and that are waiting in the wings for adaptation.

Cocktails from Voddy

Apologies for lack of blogging however I'm glad to see Ginny has been on the case - I do love those socks G.

I have to say I've been doing very little craft due to a rather annoying neck problem hence the lack of blogging but I am now fighting (ish) fit again and back to the world of making and do-ing. First project is to get on with making felt beads and dyeing them with the lovely kool aid and then hopefully creating some exciting jewellery, just awaiting a large delivery of the sugary drink stuff from a friend in the U.S and then it's all systems go. I promise to blog with photos even if the results are shocking.

While not crafting I have been keeping up the cocktail end of the bargain instead - mostly at my new hairdressers where they will not only do your barnet but give you a champers cocktail in burlesque dressing room-esque surroundings. I fear I may end up having lovely hair but a not so lovely bank balance so have instead decided to turn my home into a burlesque dressing room and learn how to make the perfect bellini - I should have fun trying if nothing else.

Cool Poi, nephew, and in-progress shots


A picture of C performing with fire poi in her parents garden at their party

(celebrating their 60ths and 35th wedding anniversary, like the weekend in Cornwall). Very popular show, everyone was dead impressed. If you've never been near a live fire-poi exhibition, you won't know that one of the most impressive things is the amazing NOISE it all makes - a rushing wind noise.

A little pic of my nephew, Ben, with his cute curly topknot. He's just started crawling very efficiently!

And lastly, wanted to get in a pic of the progress on my bamboo (SWTC) Lotus Blossom Tank (from IK summer 06). I've done an extra couple of lace pattern repeats to make it a more flattering length, I hope. I'm a bit further on now (took this on the train on Sunday on my way back from babysitting for ben and Alice, his big sister who doesn't stay still long enough to get a pic!) I've finished the front and about a 1/4 of the back. I want to wear it to Woolfest on Saturday - we'll see if it's done and blocked in time!

And here's a detail (no detail - perhaps in a separate post???) showing the yarn in all it's plant-fibrey glory! Neither picture show the colour quite right.. But I've tried it on now, and I think it'll fit and not be too girly for this mildly girly dyke.

Mim's link

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me — it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word to describe you.

I described Mim as inventive (cos of the socks I'm knitting, and the Icarus shawl in IK). What will she say of me????