Giveaway Winners

Hi Everyone!

Today I am pleased to announce the results of my blogiversary giveaway, with the help of a random number generator.

Drumroll please….

The winner of the floral print is….Marchelle!

And the winner of the cute animal print fabric is….Macska!

Congratulations to you both J Sorry that I can't find a blog link for either of you. If you could please drop me an email with your postal address, I will pop your winnings in the post! I cannot wait to see what you make with these fabrics.

Thanks everyone for taking part…have a great weekend!

K xx

Sunny Sunday Sewing Plans

Hello Everyone!

Here in the UK we are enjoying a glorious weekend of sunshine! I am sat in my sewing room, window open, summery tunes playing on the radio, feeling very cheerful and in the mood for some creativity. So what am I working on at the moment?

1) Sewaholic Minoru Jacket

My Minoru muslin

First mentioned here, a shamefully long time ago! It is all cut out, but has been sat in this state for a very long time. March has been full of a lot of smaller sewing projects for March birthdays (why is it that so many of my good friends are born in March?!) but once these are complete, the Minoru will be my number one priority. Well, except for....


2) New Look 6557 Version 2

Pattern and my previous New Look 6557

I have a hen weekend coming up, and for one of the nights out us hens are supposed to wear red, orange or pink. I was very surprised to find that I own nothing suitable in any of these colours, so on a whim I popped to Leicester market and picked up a lovely light red cotton and some black lining. I have in mind a Spanish-inspired red dress with a (possibly visible) black lining. I found some black lace in my stash, so I am planning to trip the sleeves with this, and maybe the hem too if I have enough. My previous version of the New Look 6557 fits great, so I am hoping this will be a relatively speedy make....!



3) Work Clothes!

I am very excited that I will be starting a new job after Easter! Where I work at the moment the dress code is very relaxed and we can wear pretty much anything - jeans are the norm. However from a few visits to my new workplace it seems that they tend to dress much smarter. Therefore I need some new clothes! Knowing I would be hard pressed to sew a completely new wardrobe by the time I start I have been on a Marks & Spencers binge, however I also want to sew some new work clothes as well. I am thinking pretty blouses along the Pendrell vein, and also maybe a Renfrew or two as well. If anyone else has any recommendations for patterns which work great as workwear I would love to hear them!

I also have a number of smaller projects on the go at the moment which I sadly can't share with you just yet as they are gifts for people who I know read my blog....but they will be coming up after the end of March :)

Don't forget there is still time to enter my giveaway for some lovely fabric...it closes at Midnight on Tuesday UK time.

K xx

Blogiversary Giveaway

This month marks one year since I first started blogging – my first “blogiversary” for those up with the lingo!  I can’t believe how quickly it has gone. It has been a great year, in which I have learnt a LOT, much of which has been as a result of tips and advice and sewalongs and tutorials and all other manner of joys which are so graciously and selflessly offered by the blogging community. I really do feel that it is a community, and I am really glad to be a part of it. I have blogged previously about how much I have achieved in this last year, and how grateful I am for the blogosphere, so I won’t bore you with all that again. Instead let’s get on to the good stuff – the giveaway(s)!

For your delight I offer up the following two lengths of fabric.

You may recognise this first fabric, as I used it to make my New Look 6557 dress. As a result of my compulsive over-buying of fabric, I have 1.1m of this left over to giveaway. It is 160 cm wide, so there is quite a lot to play with here. It's a great summery print, and would be great for a top or other small garment, or even a bag or two!

This second fabric I absolutely adore. I spotted it on my favourite fabric stall in Leicester Market and bought a substantial length for myself. I also couldn't resist buying a bit extra to give away to one lucky winner! This fabric is 1m x 1.4m so again, quite a nice length with multiple uses. I can think of lots of small projects this fun print would be fabulous for!

To be in with a chance to win either of these fabulous fabrics you need to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment below, stating which fabric you would like to win, and what you would make with it if you won. This giveaway is open internationally, and will close on Tuesday 27^th March at midnight UK time. Good luck everyone!

K xx

FO: St James Knitted Jumper

I am pleased that I am finally able to share with you my very first knitted garment! It is the St James sweater/jumper (depending on which side of the pond you live!), which was designed by Tonya Wagner of the shizknit. Unfortunately due to the poor lighting at the moment I only really have one picture to show you (out of many, many which were taken!). In fact, I have more usable photos of my cat, Sally, than I do of my St James...she was very interested in what was going on and found she had a brilliant viewpoint from the top of the shed...!

Anyways, back to the jumper. It was knitted on the round using circular needles. Don't be intimidated by this, as in my mind, circular needles are a revelation. They mean no seams, and to achieve stocking stitch you just have to knit each row...definitely great for beginners to knitting garments like me! The yarn used is Cascade 220 in a gorgeous grey...8400 if you're interested. I made a few changes to the pattern...mainly, I omitted the neck bow, and lengthened the sleeves and body a little. Full details of this make can be found on my Ravelry project page here.

Overall, I am fairly pleased with how this turned out, especially since this was my first attempt at knitting a garment. However, I was a little unsure about the sizing, and if I make this again I may make a size smaller around the neck as it is quite loose (not sure if this is obvious from the picture!). Thank you to everyone who responded to my cry for help regarding blocking...I must admit that I have not yet done anything to the finished garment, I was so eager to wear it! However I now plan to wash it for the first time, and so will use this opportunity to block it as well.

Now my jumper is finished I now have no excuses not to get on with my Minoru jacket...watch this space!

K xx

A Rather Crafty Weekend

Last weekend I went back 'home' to Saffron Walden...the town where I grew up and my parents live. I still tend to still refer to it as home out of habit, even though it is almost 9 years since I've lived there properly! I spent a fantastic few days visiting my parents, catching up with friends and playing with my little Godson J. One of the main reason for this trip was to attend a knitting colourwork workshop at CraftDays, a new shop of crafty awesomeness which has recently opened its doors in my hometown. The workshop was run by Erika Knight, she of knitting book and yarn fame. If you are not familiar with her I highly recommend that you pop over to her website...all of the yarns in her range are 100% British in origin, which is a venture that I feel definitely deserves our support!

Erika was brilliantly friendly and welcoming from the start, and not at all intimidating, considering she is someone so well known and famous amongst knitting circles! Her genuine enthusiasm for the joys of my hometown was also very lovely to hear. Erika took us through the process of design and the way in which she selects colours for her yarn range, which is based on neutrals and muted colours with the addition of a limited palette of 'fashion highlights'. It was really interesting to gain an insight of this process, which is something I must admit I have not thought much about before. Sometimes it is tempting to just grab as much colour as possible, so it was a new experience to take a step back and consider working with a smaller palette of colours which complement each other. Erika is hoping to add a wider range of colours and yarn textures in the future, which is something I will definitely be looking out for!

We looked at a number of different ways of working with colour, including stripes, Fair Isle and colour blocking (also known as intarsia). Erika showed us how to strand the yarns and minimise the number of ends which we are left with to make our work tidier. Here is my work from the front and the back….

After this introduction to working with colour I definitely feel more confident using it – I can’t wait to incorporate new these techniques into future projects. I am also beginning to see more clearly how to add colour and motifs to existing patterns, which is an exciting prospect.

The same weekend I also managed to fit in a trip to a Quilting and Patchwork Fair which was held at Chilford Hall in Linton. To say I went on a bit of a fabric splurge is an understatement. There was no restraint practised at all. In my defence, there were so many fabrics on display, it was hard to resist. I ended up coming away with a rather large stash of new acquisitions of small lengths, all either fat quarters or half metres. This was despite my New Years promise to buy for purpose only. Opps. But every dieter is allowed a little slip up right?! Or even a rather considerable slip-up in my case! Look they are so pretty...

I do already have quite a few projects in mind for my new purchases, so expect to see a few smaller makes coming up over the next few months! Aside from my lack of control, the Quilting Fair was a great experience with many gorgeous quilts on display – the time and effort that must have gone into some of them is just incredible. It was wonderful to see it so busy as well....the British love for crafting is clearly booming!

K xx

Knitters please help! To block or not to block?

Knitters, I need advice please! I am knitting a sweater (the St James) in the round. It is well shaped as it is, and fits nicely. My question is...do I need to block it? And if so, how would I do this...could I lay it flat? And how do I know what size it should be?

I have never fully understood blocking and when to use it....so these may be stupid questions but I am completely clueless. All advice gratefully appreciated!

K xx

Beginners Crochet Classes

Wow! What a busy 3 weeks that has been! I couldn't believe it when I noticed how long it has been since I last posted. I have been crafting away behind the scenes, but life in general has meant that I have nothing finished to show for it just yet. However, I do have a few bits to share with you.

Last week, Marie and I began a beginners crochet course at Knit One, our local knitting shop (the very same place I previously attended an intermediate knitting class). I have been excited to learn crochet for some time after seeing many beautiful crocheted items made by friends and others on Ravelry.

After the first class this is what I had to show for myself:

Crochet was much more fiddly than I expected! Note the sloping edges in the second picture - this is due to the fact that I kept missing the edge stitches...opps!

However, after the second lesson yesterday, I had made slightly more progress. I'm quite proud of this little sampler which uses three different stitches. (Note for American readers, apparently the stitches have different names in the UK and US...confusing).

I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I can't wait to start investigating patterns and seeing what I can make with my new found skill...although I think I will be sticking to very very easy patterns for the near future! I am looking forward to making more progress as the course continues. If anyone has any recommendations for easy crochet patterns, I would love to hear them.

Right off to work on my St James....so nearly finished!!

K xx