Pants Party!

I was trying and trying to come up with an innovative title for this post, but this one stood out the most for me, so I just want with the simple and obvious choice. Last weekend I went to a pants party!

Well ok, actually that wasn't exactly it, and and it was by no means limited to pants. It was a very old friend of mine's hen do, and she chose as her Saturday activity to do a Vintage Knicker Making Party, arranged by my lovely, also old friend, Carly (who's blog I've just discovered here). We collected in a room at the Tobacco Factory in Southville, Bristol; an absolutely fantastic location for any workshop of this sort. The room was large, bright and airy, with ample space for ladies and sewing machines.

The lady with the headscarf in a 50s housewife style was one of the teachers (not sure if that's quite the right word - sounds like we were at school). All three of the teachers were fab, friendly and helpful.

We basically were given a choice of loads of gorgeous fabrics from which to cut our knicker pattern. They were cottons, not your usual stretchy jersey kind of fabric. Then we drew around the template and cut out our pattern, sewed the gusset together, including a little jersey cotton for the gusset, chose our elastic to complement (or not!) our fabric, sewed it on and sewed the side seams, et voila - 21 pairs of knickers!

Me in action
I'm astonished they managed to get 21 people to make pants in such a short space of time, especially with such a vast range of experience. Some people hadn't done any sewing since school, and I didn't see one pair of knickers that wasn't at the least a very good effort. Everyone was really imaginative. I also couldn't believe we had to sew elastic, since although lots of people may have sewed before, sewing elastic onto a piece of fabric is not necessarily something they will have done. I only did it in the last couple of years.

Many embellishments were made

A small group of pants

A large group of pants

 

My pants

Well I'm pleased to report that my pants fit perfectly, thank you very much. What a totally fab idea and fun way to spend a morning. Also, it was the first time I've left Noah on his own for a whole night and day, which was both liberating but also clarifying, in terms of reminding me who I am now; a mummy to a lovely little boy, who has priority over anything I may wish to spend my time on. This was a very enjoyable treat but I'm certainly happy to wait a while to do the things I want to, when I want to, again (just don't be a little monster tomorrow ok Noah!).

x Sam

Thea Revisited

I've been wanting to re-post on Thea for a while. Mainly because the previous photos were taken whilst I was breastfeeding, and, shall I say, it fits a lot better now! I wasn't sure how much I liked it or was going to wear it, once I finally finished it, but since losing weight it fits a lot better and is even bobbling, I've been wearing it so much.

  

 

I also improved my Thea a little by sewing the buttons on again, in the right places this time (!) and also by stitching down the lower points of the collar, as the whole collar was looking really misshapen as it didn't ever stay in the right place.

Not a massively exciting post, but hopefully something more exciting to come soon. I've nearly finished the Apres Surf. When I'd blocked the parts, it looked absolutely humungous - I was thinking of renaming it the Apres Surf 'n Turf Hoodie, as it looked like the sized I'd be if I ate surf 'n turf all the time! But now it's dry and stitched together (nearly), it's a much better size, and I can't wait to try it on. Just the hood and neckband to knit now.

I've also put together my list of projects to knit on Ravelry so plenty to be getting on with. Nothing much else to report though, oh, apart from that we've decided what to do with the dining room - paint it the same colour as the kitchen, so it will be pink as well. Its going to be gorgeous and warm and inviting, instead of cold and muddy grey. So photos to come when its done.

I need some warmth in the dining room as it is, as the weather is fairly unpleasant at the moment, and the dining room has a large sliding door leading out to the garden, which means looking at lots of grey skies. I'm so looking forward to seing that first blossom on the apple tree, and the randomly placed tulips, planted by the previous owners, come up and surprise us, as they do every spring.

Hope you're having a lovely day, and thanks for stopping by :)

x Sam

Too much going on

I finished the dining room curtains the other week. I am reasonably pleased with them, but they are slightly too long on one side, which I think is due in part to my inaccurate measuring (I did rush these a little...) and the fact that the wall is unlikely to be straight. It's great to have curtains up in this room finally, and to have got rid of the ugly vertical blind, but I feel like whatever we do with this room I'm never entirely happy.

Well, this is my favourite photo of the curtains because it hides the too long bit on the left...

... although it is in clear view here!

I just wish the kitchen and dining room were always this tidy!

Frustrations with this room focus mainly on the wall colour - is it right or isn't it? It's a rich colour, "Silt" by Little Greene, but I don't know that its right for a dining room. It's right next to the strong pink in the kitchen too, so although it goes, I think it may be better if it were toned down a little, maybe to French Grey. The curtain colour doesn't clash with the wall, which we were a little afraid of, but something just doesn't gel. I'm not convinced about the rug either. It went very well with the vertical blind, funnily enough, since it was cream, but not with this curtain fabric. I love the spotty tablecloth because it ties in with the kitchen walls, but something needs to pull it all together. Oh, the photo wall is in an obvious state of unfinishedness, with gaping holes and too many frames I'm not happy with.

So all in all, rather a lot of amendments to make to this room!

I've realized lately just how many projects I have on the go, or have in my head, waiting to be written down so I can get round to them one day. I downloaded a really good app yesterday, and took great delight in creating lists of current and ongoing projects, and of ideas which have yet to be realized. I also made a lovely list of the things we need to do on the house, to which I've just realized I shall need to add after re-reading what I've written above!

Is it possible to have too many interests though? I mean, my main creative pursuits at present are knitting, spinning, designing and making sewing patterns, a bit of sketching... there are definitely more. My issue at the moment is I have so many clothing designs in my head (and other items such as soft furnishings and bags), but I don't have time to bring them to fruition. I also have a slight fear of designing knitwear, I realized earlier when considering it. I can't put my finger on the exact reason, though I think it may have a lot to do with the maths necessary to calculate a pattern, but I'm pretty sure if I just went ahead and designed and knitted a pattern that it would come out fine and perfectly wearable. You see, I'm one of those annoying creative people who feel like, if they're following a pattern whgich has been written by somebody else, they're not really being creative. However, I definitely want people to buy my patterns and make them, so is that fair? I suppose different people have different needs when it comes to feeling creative. I also think it stems very much from my Fine Art training - I would never have copied somebody else's painting and handed it in as my own piece of work, therefore why would I do it with any other creative skill? I'm thinking out loud a lot here, so you'll have to forgive my ramblings.

And I only wanted to make the point that I have an awful lot of projects on the go, so does that mean that I'm happy being a jack of all trades and a master of none? I want to be a master of them all, but that's not likely to happen! I have four Kim Hargreaves books, from which I've knitted from two of them, two hats and two cardigans. I was flicking through them last night to see if there were any more projects from them I fancied doing. I'm thinking at this time of year that Wonderwool Wales is just round the corner and am aware I need to plan what to spend money on there, rather than wandering round aimlessly and coming away with nothing useful. I don't know whether to buy yarn for one of Kim's designs (or for any other in my Ravelry favourites), or to take the plunge and buy yarn to make one of my own designs, which I'd probably need to plan in full before Wonderwool. That's what I really want to do, which I suppose answers my question, and I just need to swallow my apprehension and get on with it, accepting the fact that it will be a drawn out process.

Its funny what you can find inside yourself if you will engage in the conversation - you so often come to your own conclusion.

I'd love to know if other people have these thoughts and questions in their heads too. If your reading and you have any insights, I would absolutely love to hear them.

Love, Sam x

Just a few words and a couple of photos

This will be a post of few words, as I have a boy on my lap who wants to do everything his mummy is doing! But I just wanted to to show some photos of my hat, which I finished the other day. I saw some on ravelry which looked like they hadn't been blocked, so I found a salad bowl the perfect size to block it over, and it's come out nice and slouchy.

Here it is...

I'm really pleased with how it's come out, but my one complaint is that the pattern didn't say to add an extra knit stitch at each end for stitching up, so I'd got quite far before I thought, hang on a minute, the pattern's working right to the edges so I'm going to need an extra row to sew it up nicely. Anyway, I couldn't be bothered to rip it out, and it was meant to be a quick knit, so I left it and it sewed up fine, and I guess I learnt a lesson. I suppose lots of people say I should have added an extra stitch as a matter of course, if its a pattern to be sewed up at the end, or I could have just knitted it in the round, but, unlike many knitters, I actually like seaming - I find it a really satisfying way of bringing a project to an end.

I just realized that I haven't written about my finished plied skein of yarn, so here are a few photos of it.

I'm really pleased with the consistency considering it's my first attempt at plying. I've just started spinning some new fibre to ply for, hopefully, some kind of project, but I'm not giving any details, as I have so many projects in my head that so few come to fruition. I have, however, very nearly finished my dining room curtains - just the heading tape to sew on, so photos of those to come soon.

Have a wonderful weekend, whoever's reading.

xxx Sam

Winter evenings

We've been blessed with an incredibly mild winter here in Britain; we haven't even had frost here in South Wales. We had a delivery of four tons of logs a few months ago, which I think I mentioned a while back, and we've barely used any of them. As January runs into February, I'm hoping that the mildness will remain, and give way to the new life of spring without any rude interjections of unseasonal weather, such as snow in April, as has been known here in recent years. So with that intro, you may be wondering why this post is entitled "Winter evenings". Well we have got the woodburner going some evenings, and over Christmas we decorated the shelves in the middle living room with fairy lights, which we've been reluctant to take down yet, as they aren't Christmassy particularly, but they do bring more cosiness to the room on these dark evenings.

Let me explain about our living rooms. We have a summer living room and a winter living room. This may sound very grand, but let me assure you that it isn't particularly. The front, or summer, living room is at the front of the house and has a large bay window. It is open to the hallway and is quite cool in winter, but it as also South facing therefore gets the sun all afternoon. It is painted in Little Greene's Normandy Grey, which is possibly the most relaxing colour known to man, and is perfect for sitting in in the summer months. The middle living room is entirely in contrast. It is heavily influenced by Marno's South African roots and is painted in Farrow and Ball's Babouche, a beautiful, deep and warm yellow, and furnished with dark wood pieces and a dark sofa, as well as housing the log burner. This room also has the original tiled floor, which enhances it's warmth, though the previous owners didn't take advantage of it - the room was magnolia before we got our hands on it! Its is an incredibly cosy room. Well, what seems to happen every year, quite spontaneously, is that we will have spent the winter being cosy in the middle room, then, all of a sudden, when the evenings are drawing out and warmth is returning to the air, one of us will comment that we've not been in the front living room for ages, and we will find ourselves almost immediately migrating to that room, not to sit in the middle living room for months on end. Then, when the evenings are drawing in and the chill returns, the same thing will happen but the other way round. I think its a great thing actually, as it helps us make good use of the space in the house and not to neglect one room permantly in favour of another. It also means we benefit from the advantages of each room in the seasons they are most pleasurable.

So, I took some photos of the middle room the other night, as I said in my previous post, and I have to show them before they become a little unseasonal. Just have a little break from whatever you're doing, and  feel the warmth and cosiness. I hope you can get a little pleasure from it too.

Mmmmm, lovely :)

We still have a couple of things we want to do in here. We are planning another shelf above the sofa, quite high up, and we want a couple of wall mounted oil lamps to go on the chimney breast, with something in between them. We were joking the other night about me painting an old fashioned portrait of Marno; very dark colours with significant objects strategically placed within the painting. Joking aside, I'd love to do something like that. It would certainly be original, in a slightly paradoxical way.

I've just (literally) finished my Moon hat and its currently blocking, so photos of that to come, and I'm also in the middle of making curtains for the dining room. There are the usual unfinished projects on the go as well, so plenty to be getting on with.

xxx Sam

Hearts and buttons

I wish I had more time to blog. I'm finding myself to be quite productive lately, although I do seem to be starting projects rather than getting them finished. I started Kim Hargreaves lovely hat, Moon, over Christmas, and thought I'd easily have it finished by now, as its a quick knit even for me. But before Christmas I'd bought curtain fabric for our dining room to replace the horrible vertical blinds that the previous owners left here, which we've just left up as we've had nothing to replace them with (and I must admit, as much as I dislike vertical blinds, they do actually keep rather a lot of heat in). Anyway, I decided they were more urgent than the hat, so I've been getting them cut down to size and all the hems ironed down, ready for hand stitching, which will take a little while as they are large curtains. I could have knitted later on in the evenings, but we've been totally absorbed in Downton Abbey (we had much hilarity on Christmas day when Marno and I discovered we'd both bought each other both series on DVD!), and as I can't knit lace whilst watching TV, the hat has been put on the backburner. That is rather unfortunate, as it happens, because I left my last hat (at the bottom of the post) at a friends house yesterday, and the weather is pretty atrocious here at the moment. Ok, I do have other hats but that was my go to. I've also realized, going back to that post, that the one photo I took of that hat is pretty dreadful!

Aaaanyway... I made a few things just before Christmas which I'm going to write about today. Way back when I started my blog, my MIL sent me loads of patchwork squares, which she'd cut herself to make a quilt for herself. Unfortunately the quilt didn't work out and she decided to pass on the fabric. I knew she loved these fabrics, so I always had the intention to make her something out of them. Several years later, I finally became inspired to make her a patchwork apron. I'd wanted to make something which would incorporate the yarn her mother had spun which was on the bobbin of my wheel when she gave it to me. There isn't a lot of it, so I'd just wanted to knit a pretty lace border to attach to a larger item, which was when I designed the apron. When I came to knit the yarn however, it knit up very stuffly and was not at all delicate - it actually bent it was so stiff! So I decided to carry on with the apron anyway, and give it to MIL as a Christmas present, and come back to the yarn at a later date.

 The knitted lace was going to run along the join between the patchwork

squares and bottom pink panel.

 

 

I decided to attach the neck strap and waist ties with buttons rather than just sewing them on, to make thimgs more interesting. This one should be rotated 90 degrees to the left but blogger keeps uploading it the wrong way!!!

Modelled by me with the camera on timer.

I'm so happy to say MIL loves her apron, and I'm so pleased. She deserves a special gift. 

Still on the subject of Chrstmas, but of decorations this time, I was at a friend's house a couple of weeks before Christmas and she had up the most gorgeous decorations, mostly purchased from the lovely shop, Nest Vintage Living, in Cardiff. She had some stuffed fabric hearts, amongst other things, which set my mind working on what fabrics I had in my stash with which I could make my own. I had a little raid the same evening, and whipped up these sweet little hearts of my own, which I was very happy with.

You'll see where I put them in my next post, which is going to be a little feature on our "winter living room" which isn't as grand as it sounds, but is so cosy in the cold months.

Well, I wish whoever is reading a happy and blessed new year. 

xxx Sam

The Selfish Crafter

I can't deny it. I love making things for myself, or for my home. I know why it is; it's because I'm slow. I'm a slow knitter. Consistent but slow. I'm less slow at sewing, actually a reasonable pace, and I suppose if I was going to make something for someone, it would be better for them if it was sewn rather than knitted, if they ever hoped to get it. But the thing with this speed problem is that more and more things I want to knit, or design and sew, build up, and by the time I've finished (finally) the thing I'm working on, I have to choose out of that multitude of things. I do often run knitting and sewing projects alongside, but I never knit more than one item at a time. I think I need to change that actually.

So it may come as a surprise after reading the above, that I have actually made some things for other people! The other week I finished a beautiful pair of curtains I'd been making for some dear friends to go in their beautiful, Laura Ashley adorned, living room. The fabric was duck egg blue dupion silk. They were my second ever pair of curtains, and I must say, I am incredibly pleased with them. Unfortunately I'm less pleased with the photos I took of them so bear with me.

 

Ignore the cheeky chappies in the foreground.

I did take a couple with the curtains closed but becaue it was daytime, they didn't come out too well. I didn't interline the curtains as we didn't want them to look too grand. I love the more raw look of silk; so although they do look quite posh, they don't look over the top. They finished the room off really well, so I was really glad to have been able to use I skill that I have to help someone else.

This post started off being about how I never make things for anyone else. Well here's another thing I made for the same friend.

A lovely knitted heart from a sweet book called Vintage Hearts and Flowers by Kate Haxell.

This was actually the first "thing" I knitted. Not that one though, but this one...

... nestled in amongst our collection of ceramics, prints and cards on the living room mantelpiece.

The tall buildings on the far left we bought in Halkidiki in Greece many years ago. Marno loves ceramics and collects small pots with beautiful glazes. My mum writes the calligraphy Bible verses which we have a few of around the house.

I got these lovely prints from the makers gallery in Painswick. They're actually cards which I framed, but they look perfect (the hare print in the first and second photos of the mantelpiece is also one of them).

So, after that digression, my conclusion is that I need to speed up, with knitting at least. But I'm sure the reason for my lack of speed is my poor technique. My knitting is very neat but could be so much faster. The thing is, I don't want to spend time on knitting practise when I could be knitting an actual thing. Maybe if I knit something thats masses of stocking stitch I can practise as I go, but would that mess up my gauge? I'm just vocalising my thoughts here, so if anybody has any helpful advice, please let me know.

xxx Sam