Leo the lion

Several months ago I asked my daughter which toy she would like me to knit for my soon-to-arrive grandchild.  She had a look through my copy of Knitted Wild Animals by Sarah Keen and picked out the lion - an apt choice since his starsign is Leo.  I went out and bought the wool and stashed it... 

He arrived, I was totally smitten and knitted him some clothes.  A few months passed.  New Year came and went and I decided I should really get on and knit this lion, so in mid-January I started.  It is all knitted flat and then seamed - I couldn't see any way of knitting it in the round other than by using dpns, which I hate, and I don't actually mind sewing up seams so I followed the pattern exactly as written actually just realised I didn't - see below re the tail.  All the body pieces knitted up quickly but the mane was a bit of a pita.  In hindsight I shouldn't have tried to figure out the stitch and start knitting it while watching TV, I kept going wrong, got fed up with it, and went off in a huff and ignored it for a fortnight.  Determined not to be defeated I went to look for alternative instructions on how to knit loop stitch.  I found a few variations in other peoples' projects on Ravelry and in my various knitting books.  I tried a few out and decided that in fact, all I needed to do was concentrate on what I was doing and not try and knit and watch TV at the same time, so went back to the original instructions and knitted the whole thing in one sitting.  I didn't time myself knitting the rest of it, but I reckon it took me as long to knit the mane as all the other pieces put together.

Then came the joy of sewing it all together (so many ends for such a small thing) and filling it with stuffing.  It surprised me how much stuffing I could squish into the body - I just kept  adding more... and more... and more....  Once it was all sewed together, which was really quite fiddly because it was small, stuffed, pieces (rather than adult- or even baby-sized flat pieces) I needed to make a tail.  I didn't really like the tail in the pattern so decided to make one from i-cord and attach a pom-pom.  Now I have an i-cord making machine which I bought a few years ago but have never used (I think it's called a knitting mill - it's a mechanical equivalent of a French knitting dolly).  It took me quite a while to get the hang of using it and a few false starts, but once I got it working properly it churned out a length of i-cord pretty damn quickly.  Zillions of times quicker than I could have knitted it.  I also made a pom-pom using a pom-pom maker, which is kind of a glorified plastic version of two circles of card, but definitely quicker than making one by hand with said cardboard circles.  A bit of embroidery with black wool for his mouth and eyes and finally, Leo the lion was finished.

And here he is.

Leo the lion

And a side view to show his tail (and his smile)

This was definitely a labour of love and I'm in no hurry to knit more stuffed animals - although maybe, with time, I might feel inclined to knit more as long as there are no manes involved.  The book he came from does have some very cute patterns in it...

I have startitis....

Normally I don't like to have more than two knitting projects on the go at any one time - one which is straightforward TV knitting which I can take to knitting group and not have to unpick everything I've just knitted when I get home because I wasn't paying enough attention to it - and one other which does need undivided attention from time to time.  At the moment I have five.  Well actually four because I finished one last night, but that it still twice as many as I'd like, so I need to knit in every spare moment (yeah right) to get these four projects finished.  I'd also like to make two long sleeves dresses (sewn, no chance of a long-sleeved knitted dress any time soon, or probably ever) before winter is out.

I recently started knitting my version of a Land Army jumper, but need something else to break up the monotony of endless 2 x 2 rib - although it is good TV knitting.  I should have enough yarn to make this with long sleeves - the Excelana doesn't have as long a yardage per ball as the yarn recommended in the pattern, and I'm also using smaller needles in order to get the row gauge.   Normally I'm not too fussed about row gauge, but in this case I was out by 9 rows/4" which is quite a lot and would affect the armhole shaping and sleeve cap - I daresay I could recalculate the numbers in the pattern, but instead of that now that I have knitted up one skein I calculated the number of stitches that made, worked out how many stitches the front and two sleeves would take and added it all up.  As long as the skein I've knitted wasn't overweight and the ones I have still to use are not underweight I'll be OK.

Pattern from A Stitch in Time Vol 1 by Susan Crawford & Jane Waller

Now that we're into February and the afternoons are lighter for longer my thoughts have turned to Spring knitting, although with the temperature still hovering around freezing  and the occasional snow shower I'd like to get this jumper finished this month.  That hasn't stopped me swatching for two yellow cardigans though...

Daisy lace (above) and Bunches of Cherries (below)

The first one is a pale primrose colour and I'm not using a pattern.  I'll use the stitch pattern on the left in the picture below ( and the top of the swatch above), and incorporate it into my standard 4-ply waist-length cardigan pattern which I seem to have used for most of the cardigans I've knitted in the last year or so.  I've done the waist ribbing for this so now just need to decide whether to put any lace pattern inserts on the back and if so, how many.

Primrose coloured yarn and a daisy pattern - just right for Spring

The second will use Susan Crawford's Excelana 4-ply in Powdered Egg - the same yarn as I'm using for the Land Army jumper.  This is going to be a version of Sam Stewart's green cardigan from the All Clear episode of Foyle's War - for any readers on Ravelry, there is a thread about it here.  I have wanted to make a version of this for ages, and I've pretty much decided to use the Bunches of Cherries stitch pattern (in the swatch above) from the Knitter's Stitch book in the photo below.  I may also use elements of the two vintage patterns in the photo below, but probably I'll just end up doing my own thing in terms of stitch numbers and row counts.  Although the pattern swatch above is in the Patons yarn, I did do a stocking stitch tension square in the Excelana so it shouldn't be too difficult to work out the numbers.

I know the original inspiration is pale green, but I have yellow yarn in my stash

And whilst I love elsajohannesson's version I'm not sure I'll have enough yarn to knit the sleeves in pattern - I'll see how the body goes and how much yarn it uses.  I might also be sick of knitting bobbles by the time I'm done with the body!  Also, top down stocking stitch sleeves will be quicker to knit and if I can see that I'm not going to have enough yarn for long sleeves I can stop when I run out.

So... now it's time to settle down for Call the Midwife and Mr Selfridge and two hours of uninterrupted knitting!

Knitting and Sewing (and a few other) thoughts for 2015

I've decided that 2015 is going to be a frugal year in terms of spending money on 'things'.  I'm not going to buy any clothes at all, nor anything else unless it is a replacement for something which I already have which has broken irreparably, or worn out, and which actually needs to be replaced.  I'm hoping to end the year with fewer things and more space in my house!

This decision also means that I will be knitting and sewing entirely from stash - and that includes patterns as well as yarn and fabric.  I have more than enough to keep me going for at least a year (unless by some miracle I suddenly start knitting at the speed of light, or only sew multiple repeats of the same pattern - which I probably will, but I also want to branch out a bit as well).  This year I also want to tackle my box of clothes which need mending or altering - possibly alternating one new make with one recycled or renewed garment.

Recycled photo - the mending / alterations box is the one at the bottom (the top one mostly has leftovers in)

On the knitting front I intend to keep on knitting cardigans for me and jumpers and cardigans for my grandson.  I've just reread this post and hope some of the plans I blogged about will come to fruition but the reality is that there will always be other yarn/pattern combos that jump to the top of my knitting queue.

For sewing, there will be more dresses, and I'd like to use more of my vintage patterns for these, both the poufy-skirted ones and those with a more fitted silhouette.  There will, I'm sure, still be more versions of Emery, Elisalex, Anna, Butterick 5748 and New Look 6824 though - and mash-ups between them - because having made a few of them now they are quick to sew, I really like them and they will be easy to make up when I need a quick dress.  I also want to make some separates and maybe tackle sewing with knit fabrics - although I don't have any in my stash.  There is a grey and black Phase 8 dress in the alterations box though which may be my knit sewing guinea pig and become a top.

Another thing I'd like to do this year is trace more of my patterns so that I can cut the fabric in one layer rather than folded.  I can be very picky about pattern placement and lining up polka dots, and it's much easier with a single layer of fabric.

I also want to tackle buttonholes and master my overlocker - I've bought a craftsy class which I hope will help with this.  Finally I would also like to learn more about fit - I should actually read the books I've bought on this subject!

And that's it really, no concrete plans other than to make what I want, when I want and to go where my mojo takes me. 

Unselfish sewing

No posts for weeks and then two come along at once!

This is a skirt which I made for my mother in November last year.

Abstract print wool skirt

The fabric is lovely, it's wool which she bought in Marche St Pierre in Paris a few years ago, so I had to be careful with it as there was no chance of getting any more!  Sewing with wool is definitely outside my comfort zone, I'm happy making cotton dresses, but this was not as easy to sew with and frayed easily.  However, I love the colours and fortunately there was no need to worry about pattern matching the print, other than making sure I cut all the pieces out the same way up.

I used Simplicity 3688 for the first time, I will be sewing a skirt for myself from this and also possibly the trousers at some point.  I didn't really follow the instructions because I used an invisible zip, and also, because time was short, I just put poppers on the waistband as a temporary measure until I have the time to work out how to use the buttonhole feature on my sewing machine.

I initially made a toile out of navy lawn (white lawn dyed in the machine with dylon) to check the fit, which fortunately was fine.  I unpicked the waistband from this and used the skirt pieces as a lining.

My mother really likes this, and I must get round to finishing it off properly with a button and buttonhole on the waistband.

Round up of my knitting and sewing year - 2014

A bit late to the party for this, but I've enjoyed reading other bloggers' round-ups, so here is mine!

Knitting

I've knitted three cardigans for myself and two for my grandson (all blogged).  I've also knitted him two jumpers and a hat.  And that is the sum total of my knitting output in 2014 - not really very much!  The second jumper is another incarnation of the striped Debbie Bliss pattern I blogged about here, just different colours and a larger size.

Another Debbie Bliss striped jumper

And the hat is from the same Debbie Bliss book - a straightforward 1 x 1 rib with a pompom on top.

Debbie Bliss baby hat

I've also knitted the body of a cardigan for me, but still need to knit the sleeves.

Another Toshsock cardigan for me

I spotted this pattern either on bygumbygolly's blog or instagram feed, can't remember which now, and decided that I really wanted to knit it - I bought it from Subversive Femme on etsy.

However, I wanted to use 4-ply wool (from my stash of Madeline Tosh sock yarn) so I haven't actually followed the pattern at all, I've just used the lace pattern instructions - which I charted because I find it much easier to follow charts than written instructions when it comes to knitting lace.

I don't really enjoy knitting sleeves, but they do provide an ideal opportunity for TV knitting, so I plan to sit down with a boxed set or two and just. get. them. done.  And since they will be top down once the sleeve caps are done the knitting will get quicker because I'll be decreasing steadily down to the wrists.

Sewing

I completed 21 dresses, all of which I've blogged about except this one.

Christmas trees Emery

My sister and I had a day visiting various London fabric shops back in November (at least I think it was November - it was whenever the new Islington Sew Over It had their opening weekend) and I spotted this fabric at Fabrics Galore in Clapham.   It isn't on the Christmas section of their website so I don't know whether they still have it.  I've bought from them before at shows - they've always had a great selection of fabric and really friendly and helpful staff and I was very pleased to find that the shop was just as good - a treasure trove in fact, and I bought three more dress lengths and a couple for my sister too as an early Christmas present.

The dress is an Emery by Christine Haynes - a great pattern to show off a print because of its clean and simple lines.  Nothing to say on the construction front - it's a straight size 6 with no modifications made, although I traced the front bodice and front skirt pattern pieces so that I could cut them on a single layer of fabric rather than on the fold and be picky about pattern placement.

I also made a skirt for my mother which I haven't blogged yet - details will follow.  :-)

I finally sewed a couple of dresses from my vintage pattern stash which goes from one extreme - unprinted, just cut tissue with holes, to the other - printing with seam allowances and all sorts of other instructions on the tissue, far more detail than current patterns have in fact.  The two I have sewn from fall into this latter category, but I aim to use some of the others in my 2015 sewing.

Overall, I'm very pleased with what I've made this year - I've really enjoyed both the knitting and the sewing.  I've also joined instagram and pinterest.  It's been great to follow other knitters and sew-ers on instagram and meeting up with some in real life has also been good fun and is something I'd like to continue with in 2015.  I have yet to do anything with pinterest though, I suspect it may be an enormous rabbit hole...

In the land of grey (leaves) and pink (birds)

Two dresses here, one (the grey one) I actually made in November last year, but have only worn once because of an accident with the pinking shears.  It's a combination of two New Look patterns - 6824 skirt & 6723 bodice and why I decided on that particular combination I really can't remember now.

Grey leaves dress

As I was trimming the back seam I managed to snip the dress - arrrgghhhh!  I decided to fix it with some fusible interfacing - since I hadn't actually cut any of the fabric out of the dress I thought this would be a good way to glue it back together.  Actually, I thought it was a brilliant idea and felt quite smug that I'd thought of it.  And it worked.  No-one would know there had been an accident except me.

Unfortunately... once it had been washed in the machine the interfacing came partially unstuck and took some fabric with it and there was a definite hole in the dress so I put it to one side knowing that it would need a more substantial repair.  And it has stayed put aside for months.  I was really quite pissed off about it because I love this fabric, I bought it ages ago in Ikea and of course they don't sell it now.  I only bought one metre which is why the centre of the bodice is plain grey - there wasn't enough to make the whole dress out of it.  I have got a few offcuts left over and I think I'll have to make a feature patch to sew on top of the offending hole - I haven't thought of any other way of making an invisible repair.  If it had been a gatherered skirt I'd have unpicked it at the waist and just cut the back pieces narrower, but it isn't.  I've ignored it all summer but since it's now definitely grey dress weather I think I need to get creative - maybe I'll cut out one of the leaves and applique it on - the hole is at the top of the back vent so I'm hoping this will look OK.


The second dress is from some fabric that I bought at Ditto in Brighton in the summer.  I nearly bought it in a blue, but then spotted the pink and decided that I preferred that.  This dress is an Elisalex bodice with an Emery skirt although without the pockets because I didn't have enough fabric.  I love it, it's so summery - which means it's now been put away for the winter, but will make me smile when I unpack it next spring.

Pink birds dress

Scandinavian birds dress

I've had this fabric for a few years now (it has 2008 on the selvedge) and just couldn't decide what to make with it - since it's 60" wide and I bought three metres of it there were lots of possibilities!  In the end it came down to - you really like it, just make it into a dress woman, look through your pattern stash for a pattern which needs 3 metres of 60" wide fabric.  And the one I settled on was McCalls 5764, from 1961.

McCalls 5764

I did make a few modifications though.  I took the centre seams out of the bodice pieces so as not to break up the print, moved the zip to the side and cut the front neckline straight, without the V cut-out.  I also cut the skirt pieces on the fold, and cut them 5.75" shorter.  I used white lawn for the facings so as not to have print showing through from the wrong side and top-stitched the neckline.  I'm really pleased with how this dress has turned out and I really like the pattern, I'll definitely make more with this one.  Not sure I'd describe it as an "instant" dress though!

Ikea green birds dress