Catching up

I have been working away on my knitting and sewing, but just not finding the time to photograph what I've been doing (which is especially poor of me as a photographer). Oh, well...

It's been a freezing wet winter in Melbourne and so I had to divert some of my energies to making a warm jumper I could wear immediately. Enter Kim Hargreaves' Briar (sweater length) from Winter Blooms. I LOVE this jumper, hence the already worn look. Knitted in Adorn Yarns Silky Cashmerino 4ply in Aquamarine held double. I dropped my needles to 4mm and 4.5mm to get the gauge made no other changes. While it might have been sensible to add to the wide neckline, it is fabulous just the way it is!

Also finished is my second Ripple from Kim Hargreaves' Nectar. This is knitted in Adorn Yarns Cotton Cashmere DK in Malt. I've worn this quite a bit and washed it twice now and it's becoming softer and softer and warmer and warmer.

Buttons from Buttonmania of course!

I'm still plugging away at my purple Fay, but at least I've finished the front and the back now! Also just about finished is Kim Hargreaves' Embrace from Misty, which is an easy knit with some really interesting short row shaping on the hem. This time I'm using Adorn Yarns Silky Merino DK in Ash.

Finally!

Frankie (from Kim Hargreaves' Breeze) is finished. The yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr DK wool silk. It's warm, cosy in fact, and soft. Any it washed well in my machine on the gentle hand wash cycle. Perfect!

The buttons are vintage from Buttonmania again (thank you Kate!). The colour is Pewter, a slightly mauvey- warm silver.

Now, I can concentrate (and I mean concentrate) on Fay, also by Kim Hargreaves from Precious. Another Jaggerspun Zephyr project, this time in the lace weight held double.

I love...

two women I've never met! Wendy Mullin and Kim Hargreaves.

(and the borrowed Canon 17mm TSE lens, but that's another story...)

First Kim Hargreaves. Although it has taken me FOREVER to finish 'Lilac' (in coral) from Breeze, finally I have. And I love it. 

The yarn is Rowan 4ply cotton from Wool Baa, the buttons are from Buttonmania in the Hamilton Building. And despite ripping it back several times to get the tension right, I'm glad I didn't give up.

My Lilac teams beautifully with the second dress I have made from Wendy Mullin's Built by Wendy Dresses (not counting the three muslins - one for each basic dress style - I whipped up first). It's a variation of the 'Valentine Dress' in Etro cotton from Tessuti. I added inseam pockets.

The first dress I made was a variation of 'Overall Improvement' in an Armani cotton.

Neither dress is anywhere near perfect (although I do love them)as I'd already cut the material to make other things before I bought the book...but I've managed to muddle through and learnt a lot in the process. 

The button is from my grandmother's button jar.

I'm I huge Wendy fan, this is the third book I've bought and used. Although she doesn't give you lots of information on how to make her patterns fit you, she does show you how to turn her basic patterns into something that's just for you. Here I am in a Wendy shirt and my new summer jeans...

Again the material is from Tessuti for both the shirt and jeans. (The shoes are from Preston Zly.)

Nearly every seam is topstitched, either in contrast of matching thread which I find makes the seams on this stretch denim hold together better. I'm really happy with them all. Thanks Wendy and Kim!


Finally, I've been buying up more of my favourite yarn...Jaggerspun Zephyr...more Kim on the way!

Oh, no...

And here it is!

Julia has sent me through a still from her short film for which I knitted all those red jumpers last year. The girl unravels the jumpers to sew up a kelp coat.

Happy Birthday Roxanne!

I've always wanted to be a Jo Sharp fan, and I've knitted a number of her patterns and used a number of her yarns, but always been just a little bit disappointed. Not anymore. I just love the new design aesthetic in Jo Sharp Knit Issue 7, although I knew none of them would really suit me. For Roxanne, however, they are perfect and while looking for yarn to knit a fabulous tunic from Louisa Harding's Queen of Hearts – another fabulous book full of patterns which don't suit me but do suit her – Roxanne saw the store garment in Wool Baa and just loved it. I was thrilled to have a go at putting it together.

It looks hard, but it's not. There is really only a day or so (or a week of evenings if you don't have the Australian Open Finals to watch on TV) in the knitting and the pieces are woven together with the icords and not stitched. The hard part was getting the colour scheme right. So I knitted the back ribbing four times in different colour combinations and tried many different colours together in Wool Baa to get the palette right. It needs to be subtle, I think, softly toned and dark colours would not show up the different textures as well. That being said, I really don't think you need to buy 10 different balls of yarn, especially as you only use a few meters of some. In the end I settled on six yarns and used most of nearly all of them. The effect is fabulous and Roxanne just loved it. Happy Birthday!

Preserves

Cathy and Peter dropped by with these last weekend! They are the pears we used as table decorations for our wedding at Libertine last year beautifully preserved, literally! Aren't they beautiful!