I’m out!

So…a visit to the doctor on Tuesday morning decided my participation in KCW. Another course of antibiotics with a side order of steroids. Both in bigger doses than before.  Eugh! I started taking them immediately and by Tuesday afternoon was feeling even more out of sorts than before. The lovely side effects of dizziness and insomnia meant that by yesterday morning I was fit for nothing but sitting on the sofa knitting and hand sewing.

It does mean that I’ve made progress on some mitts I’m knitting as a favour for a friend:

and the hexie quilt is coming along nicely, thank you very much.

But the sewing loft is closed for the time being.  I’m fine with that.

And whilst I knit and stitch and watch movies, I’m dreaming of our wedding anniversary weekend in November, because Alice-who-isn’t-a-cat and Ma and the Stitches-in-law are treating us to dinner.

But not any old dinner…nooooooooooo!  Dinner at the scene of the original crime!

Northcote Manor

I may have wept with joy when I opened the envelope.  It’s such a wonderful treat and a complete surprise.

We are very, very, VERY excited…as you can imagine. And, with a fair wind and a bucket load of drugs, I’ll be feeling fine by then.

In the meantime, I’m off to the sofa.  I have mitts to knit! But…I’l leave you with cute cats.  Just because I can.  And they’ll make you smile.  Which is a good thing, no?

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Yarndale

Well, this post is just a little bit ridiculously late, so I do apologise.

I’ve been rather poorly.  The chest infection I had at the beginning of the year has been back with a vengeance and it’s floored me.  10 days of antibiotics didn’t shift it…I’m currently on a dose of steroids.  Not thrilled by them but at least I can breathe a little easier than I could. Although the cough sounds like I’ve smoked 60 Woodbines a day since I was 3!

I was coughing on the day we went to Yarndale, but, like the trouper I am I put on my big girl panties and set off for a yarny adventure. 😉

The sun shone and whilst we’d heard tales of traffic chaos and huge crowds on the Saturday, for our Sunday visit we swung straight into a lovely parking space and walked into the venue to be greeted by the sweetest woolly faces.

Now at this point I’ll ask you to excuse the crappy smartphone pictures and focus on that wee adorable face.  I tried desperately to get my partners in crime travelling companions to agree to a shared ownership of an alpaca, in much the same way as you’d share a racehorse, but with built in lawn mowing and yarn.

They weren’t buying it.

And as the deeds for our house limit livestock to chickens and goats, neither did I.

Nor did we smuggle this beauty out in our handbags!

But enough of the cute and fluffies…I suspect what you’d like to know is “how good an event was Yarndale?”

I have to tell you it was amazing!  I haven’t been to Woolfest so I can’t compare, but I have been to the Twisted Thread extravaganzas at Harrogate and Alexandra Palace, and I’ve been to The Festival of Quilts.  Yarndale is by far my favourite event.

Yes it’s smaller, but we still managed to spend the whole day meandering in and out of stalls, stroking yarn, coveting spinning wheels and looms, and generally squeaking and swooning at all the loveliness.

I also feel it’s far better curated than the bigger shows.  Less tat!  More of the good stuff.  This is a Very Good Thing.

I cannot tell you how much yarn I nearly bought.  I had set myself a limit of some sock yarn for The Husband, some yarn for Aislinn v2.0 and nothing else.

Yeah…that really worked!  As it was I bought:

Drops Fabel Uni Colour 

Drops Baby Alpaca Silk in Red

Rowan Felted Tweed in Seasalter

And that was restrained.  There were a couple of patterns too.  And maybe some dpns.  But that was the yarn.

It was hard though. The crocheted Alpaca blankets were calling my name.

I could have bought my body weight in beautiful patterns.

And the yarns were, if you’ll excuse the pun, to die for! Titus from Baa Ram Ewe, anyone!

Yarndale is a knitters and crocheters paradise.  I made sure to buy a programme, which has a list of all exhibitors, for future reference. 😉

For sure there needs to be some improvements for next year.  The tea and coffee arrangements were nothing short of hopeless.  It took at least 15 minutes for Lara Croft to buy 3 cups of tea…and, as is always the case at these things, the lack of seating caused some people to lose all sense of how to behave in polite company.

But it was their first rodeo, and they did an amazing job.  I’m not in any hurry to go back to the big shows, but I’m already looking forward to next year’s Yarndale.

And, I’m hoping they’ll keep the bunting and it will become their trademark. Because its really beautiful, and kind of sums up this lovely, homespun but delightfully yarny event.

Who ate all my time?

I do recognise that talking about being very busy is such a First World problem, so I  think I’ll start off by saying that I’m most definitely not complaining about my lot…more ruminating on the fact that I feel like I’m meeting myself coming back at the moment.

Last week I :

:: went to 4 hospital appointments at 3 different hospitals

:: made a party dress for Button

:: made an apron which was included in a gift hamper at the school fair

:: made a batch of chocolate cupcakes for the school fair

:: spent Saturday running the cake stall at the school fair.  As we made over £2k on the day, it was well worth it!

:: went shopping for fabric…unsuccessfully

:: had a sick husband and dog

:: did all the other myriad stuff that you need to do each week.

:: spent a whole day catching up on ironing and chasing down the dust bunnies.

:: knitted some more of Aislinn:

The yarn isn’t this blue in real life…it’s navy, but the light isn’t great here today so this is the best I could muster!

:: cast on another pair of socks for The Husband:

:: finished putting the papers into roughly 250 hexies which will be the links between the flowers on the hexie quilt.

This week isn’t looking any less busy, mainly due to a self-imposed Sewing Bee-esque sewing challenge. I have an outing on Friday and “NEED” a new outfit for it. So I’ve abandonded all other sewing plans in favour of  a Pavlova top in some delicious new jersey I scored at Jonny Looloos today.

Navy and ivory jersey…in store now.

This fabric was waaaaaaaay more than I would normally pay (£17 a metre…ouch!) but I was talking with The Husband about this at the weekend and he encouraged me to purchase better quality fabric that I absolutely love.  And I absolutely love this.

I’m planning to pair it with a denim pencil skirt from the Spring/Summer Burda Plus magazine.  I won’t be putting the pockets in this version.

apologies for crappy phone photo

This skirt and top is just the ticket as they should be straightforward and, therefore, doable in the time I have available to me.  I’m just hoping I don’t end up eating my words!  I got off to a good start this evening as The Husband is away on business which meant I could keep myself busy at the sewing table tracing and cutting out the patterns.

Tomorrow I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get everything cut out and ready to sew, leaving me two days to actually construct the garments.

Wish me luck…I may need it! 😉

 

Aislinn – casting on at last

I haven’t been going to my Thursday night knitting group regularly for absolutely ages so this is something I’m really looking forward to rectifying now that The Husband is settled in his new job and is home at a civilised hour every night.  It’s lovely to have our evenings freed up as this something we’ve never been able to rely on.

With this in mind, and knowing that I’m planning to head off tonight and don’t have a knitting project on the needles, I thought it was time to tackle the modifications for Aislinn so I can finally cast her on.

image from amyherzogdesigns.com

This is the first of Amy’s patterns that I’ve tried and already I’m smitten.

Copyright Amy Herzog Designs

Look at that schematic.  So much information. Amy is really walking the walk with this pattern.  It gives you all the information you need to easily identify what’s going to work for you and what isn’t. Together with the worksheet provided by Amy in the Craftsy class it didn’t take me very long to work out that I only needed 5 modifications to the pattern:

1. Add bust dart shaping
2. Reduce waist shaping
3. Increase sleeve to full length
4. Reduce the size of the cuff
5. Start the waist shaping a little earlier than the pattern states.

None of these are super complicated, and I have the luxury of being able to run my modifications by the designer to ensure I’ve not completely missed the mark.  But, whilst I wait for that response, I am finally ready to cast on…

It will be a while before I complete this garment…I’m not the world’s fastest knitter after all.  But if the instructions are half as clear as the schematic, I’m confident this will be a pleasant project.  And who knows, I may just have a well fitting cardigan at the end of it!

That’s the plan anyway.  Wish  me luck!

The best laid plans…

Last week was half term so not a huge amount of sewing/knitting has been going on.  We’ve been having fun at the museum…

…and eating Italian…

If you can’t slurp spaghetti at this age, when can you.

I have however been working on:

• the red Ginger skirt, which I today discovered has what looks suspiciously like a scorch mark on the back.  I think I have enough fabric to cut another back, but, really, I could spit!
• a Beachy Boatneck Tee for a project I’m doing for our village library…more of that later in the week.
• a sock for the husband…a very late birthday gift!  I’m on the 2nd sock so these will soon be finished.
• a Red Riding Hood costume for The Boy’s nursery.  They asked so nicely I couldn’t say no!

However, this downtime has left my brain room to mull things over.  And the mullings were further fuelled by a response to my question on the Fit to Flatter forum from Amy.  A little bit late but she was so apologetic all is forgiven. 😀

I think that you should go with the fabric you like… but that’s definitely a big difference in gauge. You could try to see if any of the existing stitch counts give you the proper measurements at your new gauge (# CO sts divided by 5.5 should give you the correct number of inches for your body), but you might consider a different pattern. The Rowan Summer Tweed and the Cashmerino Aran are very different in terms of fabric characteristics, generally.

Hmmmmmm how exactly did Amy get in my head?  I’d been thinking about the fabric and wondering if it wouldn’t be better to park Bud for a while and use the Cashmerino for a different pattern.  I could always treat myself to some Summer Tweed for Bud at a later date, no?

Amy then went on to add:

What kinds of sweaters do you like to wear?

Argh!

I like to wear long loose cardigans because they “hide” the bits I want to hide…but we all know that it doesn’t work like that!

I kept going back to the two pictures…Washi and Giverny…and realising that whilst I might think that a long loose cardigan will hide a multitude of sins, what would really flatter me is a shorter, fitted cardigan with shaping that would give me the illusion of a waist.

I decided to put it to the ultimate test.

Ask The Husband.

I showed him a picture of Bud.  And a picture of Amy’s latest design, Aislinn.

Guess which one won…

image from amyherzogdesigns.com

As this is such a pretty cardigan I’m not fighting the decision.

A girl can change her mind, right? Right?

I’ve saved myself a boat load of complicated maths. In my book this is a Very Good Thing.  There will still be modifications to make, but not as many. And Amy designs her patterns with modifications in mind, so it should be so very much simpler to work out.

And I get a great navy cardigan that will work with all the new dresses I’m planning!

Result!

Knit to Flatter – episode 5

Last night after the kids had gone to bed, and I’d sent a very off colour husband to bed early too, I hunkered down and watched the last 3 lessons of Knit to Flatter – “Shaping and Modifications”, “Darts and Frankensweaters” and “Perfect Sweater Checklist”

I’ve been dragging my feet on tackling this bit, because its the part where I actually have to work out how I’m going to make the modifications I want to make to the pattern.

I’m also determined to use up stash yarn to knit this sweater, and to produce a fabric I like I end up with a gauge that is different to the given gauge in the pattern.

So far so scary.

However, having watched these last three lessons I’m feeling a bit more optimistic.

I’m feeling happier about how to calculate the waist shaping I’m planning on adding to give me the illusion of a waist.

I know that I’ll adding some extra width to the front of the cardigan as I carry my weight at the front, and I have a bust.

And I know that I’ll have to do some maths around the neckline as I want it to start a little higher up, and I’ll need to accommodate the extra stitches I’ll be adding to the front for the extra front width (does that make any sense? Strangely it does to me!).

The calculations for the yarn substitution are giving me a little more pain, as it’s not something covered in the course.  And this is where I’ve hit a glitch with the course.  I’ve been having problems getting a response to my query posted in the forum.  I’m not sure why, as it’s happened once before, but I’m pretty sure it’s down to a technical glitch.

But, the internet is a marvellous place and I found a handy dandy formula over at Loom Knitting Help that looks sensible to me, so I’m going to give it a go. Unless, of course, you’ve any suggestions, or a super reliable technique for recalculating the pattern for a different gauge.  In which case I’m all ears…please share.

Ignoring this minor niggle, I have to say that, for me, Knit to Flatter has been a success:

• Amy helps you identify what constitutes a flattering knit in a gentle and non-judgemental way.
• This course is clearly aimed at knitters like myself who’ve never contemplated making alterations to a pattern before.
• It walks you through the basics in a clear and simple to understand way.
• It gives you the tools to identify what changes you’d like to make and the tools and formulae to make this happen.
• It boosts your confidence in your ability to actually make these alterations – they are achievable.

The only downside to this course is that I’ve had some problems with the forum part.  On one occasion a question I posed remained unanswered.  I emailed Amy directly and she came right back with a response and was very apologetic, even though the problem was technical rather than lack of commitment to the programme on her part.

On this second occasion I posted a question that then disappeared.  I reposted and then the original question reappeared and I suspect this has again caused a problem with Amy not receiving it, which would explain the lack of response.

I haven’t been put off by these minor glitches.  I still think that the Craftsy platform is brilliant and I know that if I really wanted to push for a response I could email Amy direct and she’d respond, and graciously.

To conclude:

• I think the Craftsy platform gives you access to courses you wouldn’t otherwise have access to, at a reasonable price.
• I love that you can go over the material again and again at your leisure.  I know as I start the calculations for this cardigan there are a couple of chapters that I’ll be revisiting, just to make sure I have it right.
• And I love that I now have the confidence to embark on a project of modifications that I wouldn’t have contemplated before working through this course.  In fact, I’m now keen to sit and work it out and have a revised pattern ready for cast on.

I now know that making modifications to my knits is the way forward for me and, thanks to Amy and Craftsy, I’m not scared at that prospect.

PS…The Husband is fine today, thank you.

PPS…I have received no incentive from Craftsy to review this course.  I just thought you’d like to know my experience before spending your hard earned pennies.  

I blame Dolly Clackett!

Oh that Roisin!  She makes the most adorable dresses.  Most recently this little beauty.

Picture kindly allowed by Dolly Clackett, with thanks.

Isn’t it glorious!

Blue and white and Eiffel Towers and flowers.  Just perfect.

As soon as I saw this dress I was off on the hunt on the interwebs, and within 15 minutes I’d tracked down the fabric and bought myself 2.5 metres. Shameless plagiarism, I know, but I couldn’t resist.

If you’d like to get your mitts on some, I ordered mine from The Fabric Frieze on eBay.  It’s the first time I’ve ordered from this seller so she’s an unknown quantity, but her response to emails today was super speedy, which I always think is a good sign.

It will kick start me into working through the Sew the Perfect Fit course on Craftsy. So it seems that the sewing gods have made the decision for me.

I will fit Version D of this dress at toile stage, as per the course…that’s the straight skirted version with sleeves.  It will mean that I have all the elements fitted for future reference.

However, with the Eiffel fabric, I plan on making a hybrid of the sleeveless bodice from Version D and the full skirt from Version F.

Of course, this will also kick-start me into action and into finally finishing the Knit to Flatter course.

I’ve been procrastinating over the last few lessons of this course.  I’m at the tricky maths stage which includes a yarn substitution that is sending me into a bit of a tailspin.  I just need to bite the bullet and do the work.

I think the starting is the hardest part!

Wish me luck.

Got the blues – Made by Ma!

Oh, could my post titles be any cornier?

Ma has been busy with the needles again, so here are the last couple of knits for the kids for a while.  They are all set up for the summer…it being England, and all!  Not renowned for it’s glorious sunshine and soaring temperatures! You’ll see what I mean with these pictures…it was grey and rainy yesterday…and it shows!

You’ll probably recognise this pattern from last year. It’s Little Montoya from Kate Jackson Knits. Button had rapidly outgrown her cream version and it’s too pretty a pattern not to revisit.

The Boy also has a sweater in the same yarn, Hayfield Bonus Aran.

I suspect this pattern is from the Jolly Beachcomber book.  I suspect Ma will comment if it’s not.

I had the Devil’s own job getting these photos yesterday…they were both full of beans.

And I’m not pointing fingers, but Daddy was stood behind me at the time…. 😉

Little Boy Red – Made by Ma

First up can I say a big thank you for all the lovely comments on the last post about The Boy’s surgery.  I cannot tell you how much they all mean to us and we’re hugely grateful for all the good wishes.

Thursday night he was more than a little miserable and he didn’t sleep much.  I got a lot of cuddles!

On Friday morning he was really freaked out by the fact that he could see two mummies, so we just stayed in our jammies and had a very lazy day.  At 8 o’clock he couldn’t even walk down the stairs.  By 3.30pm when we picked Button up from school, he was jumping off benches and balancing on kerbs!

I’m astonished at his resilience.

Today…he’s his normal ebullient self and is off visiting Grandma!

In his new red sweater knitted by her.

Pattern:  Jolly Beachcomber Knits, pattern number  2337.

Yarn: Hayfield bonus Aran

Bless him…he looks like he’s gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson!  It’s hard to see from the photo but he has bruising on his forehead and cheek from the retractors, and the makings of a cracking shiner!

At the moment the eye looks a little “over corrected” too, but I’m assured that as the swelling goes down this will settle into place.  And he tells me that it’s a “little bit hurty but its ok because it will get better soon”.  I love that boy!

I simply cannot get enough of red garments for these kids…it’s a great colour on both of them! And the Jolly Beachcombers pattern book is fabulous.  We go back to it again and again.

I am reliably informed that this is a “very nice sweater indeed”.

High praise from Mr Pickypants!

Knit to Flatter – episode 4

As I curled up on the sofa last night with a new book from the library (which I promise to review at a later date because so far I’m finding it pretty darned useful), I realised this was also a fine opportunity to work through the next lesson in the Craftsy Knit to Flatter course.

So that’s exactly what I did.

Episode 7 – Size, Fit, Ease, is all about comparing your measurements to the pattern schematic to work out which pattern size you are going to use as the base size for the sweater you’re planning to knit.  So, armed with my recently completed Measurements Worksheet, and my pattern for Bud, I sat down and worked through the pattern to evaluate which size I would knit and which areas I would like to amend the fit on.  Another first for me, for sure.

The first thing to note is that the schematic for Bud doens’t really give you a lot of information.  I have to say prior to this course I paid little attention to the schematic…but I know better now.

You’ll also notice I’ve been scribbling on the schematic at the neckline.  I like Bud as is, but for my perfect cardigan the neckline would sit a little higher.  So I played around with it and I’m thinking of trying to raise the neckline a little bit.  I would not have even thought of attempting this alteration before this course.  I’m definitately making progress.

After an hour of watching the video and comparing the charts, I had a list of things that I’m considering amending on the garment I knit.

Because this is quite a loose fitting garment there are less issues, however I will be adding shaping at the back to stop it being baggy, a little waist shaping at the front for the same reason, and I’ll attempt to raise that neckline a little too.

The most important thing to note is that normally I would have looked at the finished measurements for this cardigan and have thought that it would “fit” me because the overall finished measurements on the schematic would work, but in reality, whilst they do, I do need to tweak the pattern to make it look fabulous on me.

The next 3 lessons are, I believe, all addressing the HOW of making these alterations.  I’d really like to get lesson 8, Shaping and Modification, done over the weekend because I’m itching to cast on now.  But I’m keeping a tight hold on my enthusiasm, because I’m sure there’s lots more good stuff to come. However, if I do get through the lesson, I’ll let you know how I get on.