Feb 04

Mimosa Shawl

This pattern can be found on Ravelry:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mimosa-shawl—mimosa-huivi

I had been given a lovely Sheepjes Whirl for Christmas from my mother-in-law, and spent a while searching for something that I thought would have some resemblance to a sunflower when finished, given the colours in the Whirl. Also, we had sunflowers on Dad’s coffin, so we are drawn to them particularly.

I have said before, Whirls look fantastic, but I am not a big fan when using them. I don’t like centre pulling the yarn, and get lots of ‘yarn barf’ – i.e. knots. I also find the colour changing knots are a little too obvious sometimes. I will still buy more, as they are so squishy and lovely!!

My whirl seems darker than the one pictured from the web (I forgot to take a photo before I started!), and the brown seems to be going on forever. Here is the start.

There are just 2 pattern sections to this one, so easy to remember now. The ‘puff’ stitch section as started above, and a lacier bit in the middle, before repeating the puff stitch section to the end.

I am worried where the whirl will end, as it really needs to finish on the puff row (row 4) and I am worried I won’t make it another full section. I have nearly finished this!

04/02/22

Feb 04

King Cole Glitz Jumper

Officially started in December 2021, but not done much yet!!

This was a spontaneous buy when I had to go to Black Sheep Wools for more yarn for the Labyrinth blanket! I also bought some more King Cole Shine in Quicksilver when I was there as well as this King Cole Glitz in Jet. I spent ages looking through the pattern books to pick what to use it for, and am doing the long sleeve version of the pattern above.

I have made a couple of other jumpers / tops in the Shine, and am not sure what I will make with the Quicksilver version yet!

The Glitz feels really soft. I am only just partway through the back at the moment. It is black…. so not ideal for knitting with, especially in the evenings. I am starting to get used to the pattern, after completing 2 full sections of it now. I officially hate bobbles!! But I do like the moss stitch in the middle of the diamonds. I don’t think this will be finished for a while yet!

04/02/22

Feb 04

Socks

These have been on the go since before Christmas 2020!! Finally finished! I had bought a selection of sock wool, as I do like to wear them, but think I should leave it to Mum who is expert at knitting socks. Because of the pattern on these, that I couldn’t get into, it took me ages to pick them up again, which I did after the Labyrinth blanket was done! I was then determined to get them finished. I actually found that I didn’t mind the pattern reading it from the chart, rather than the words, once I knew what I was doing. I found a stitch counter is essential for the pattern, but where do you put it in DPNs? I used a counter app on my watch.

Finally done, and I really love them. They are meant to be for my daughter, but not sure if she will get them!!

Feb 04

Labyrinth Blanket – Lilla Bjorn Crochet

This was a long project!! Started June 2021, but only finished January 2022!! I really like it, but it hasn’t been a favourite make. It wasn’t something that was easy to remember, so constantly needed the pattern, but weirdly I got a bit bored with it.

I honestly did NOT like the half square triangles round the outside!

I did it in the suggested colours in Scheepjes Colour Crafter. Below are the 4 colour combinations for the Joana’s mandalas, and then all the colours together:

I started by doing one of each octagon:

Once I had made one of each, I did all the Joana’s mandalas first (the one on the right above), and then finished the Labyrinths (the one on the left). I did take it away on holiday and do some while away, and made quite a lot of progress. I added the octagon rounds at the end. I also ran out of the cream or grey yarn at one point and had to go back to Black Sheep Wool. I knew I would need to go back for some because they hadn’t had enough balls when I first bought them.

Then the middle squares and half square triangles:

All ready to put together:

I played about with positioning the colours on the floor, to try not to get similar colour blocks next to each other, and then started the mammoth task of crocheting together… I only noticed afterwards that I think I have my labyrinths and joanas the wrong way round. However, I have looked more closely at other peoples’ blankets on the Facebook group since, and some are more random..

After this stage the final corner triangles are crocheted. And all ends sewn in, before the border. I often photograph the ends when all sewn in, as it is a very satisfying moment when that is done!

The corners, plus border:

And finished article:

Feb 04

Christmas embroidery

I didn’t do much embroidery or sewing this Christmas (2021).

Feb 04

Bow Ties – never again!

You may have seen the evening dresses I have made for the RAFAC dining-in evenings. Well the staff at some of these wear co-ordinated bow ties to match their squadron colours. I thought how hard can this be…. and borrowed one from our OC that he wears to another squadron’s dinners. We decided on colours and I attempted to buy the right colour fabrics…

All I can say is:

a) cheap satin fabric frays – A LOT

b) it is quite hard to sew the curved parts consistently

c) turning them the right way out is VERY difficult, and the fabric frayed in this part of the process, leaving me with holes 🙁

I think this was one of the first holey attempts.

I bought adjustable fasteners for them, but I also learnt that these get in the way of fastening the bow tie. So length is quite critical. This one sort of fitted me (I am just no good at tying a bow tie), but no-one else!!!

I did manage to make 4 of them I think. 3 of the staff managed to wear them on the night!!

Feb 04

Halloween

I am not normally a Halloween person.

But… one of our favourite indian restaurants was putting on a Halloween night so we thought we would go along for fun. Then realised it was fancy dress, and had to make an effort!

I wanted something different that you couldn’t buy in a shop! And as I had been crocheting pumpkins for the post box topper, decided I would go as a pumpkin. But how?! I have always like puffball skirts and thought I could do that to make a pumpkin shape.

I bought a selection of orange fabrics on line, along with a green jersey for a stalk, and some boning (for structure – but that didn’t really work out), plus some netting.

One of the fabrics was too dark really, so I used that for the lining. The lining was a short A-line skirt, circumference about 150cm at the bottom, about 50cm long. For the outer part of the skirt I needed as much fabric as possible, so it would ‘poof’ out enough! I had 2 contrasting orange fabrics, a plain polycotton, and a satin one with sequins, so I cut each one into 4 width-wise. One of the fabrics was <1m length, so that drove the length @ 70cm – sufficiently longer than the lining to add to the ‘poof’. The 4 pieces of each were then joined together, alternating them to give an effect of the lumpy bits of the pumpkin. The full width of this outer part was then ~3m – double the lining, so when gathered, puffs out.

I tried putting boning in to give structure, but it wasn’t working out right, so I just put doubled up netting between the lining and the outer to fill it out a bit. I then added orange netting over the outside for fun (not in the pictures below). Sounds quite simple, but a LOT of gathering of the outer fabric AND the netting!!

I also decided to make my own green stalk! I had had a pattern for a while that I hadn’t used yet, so gave it a go. Not my best sewing ever, as it ended up being a bit of a rush. Pattern was McCalls M7975, and it came out a bit on the large size. I added some crocheted pumpkins on a headband and some face paint in case anyone didn’t get what I was!!! Not sure what Paul was…. a cross between Fester and a vampire LOL. Anyway he won one of the fancy dress prizes and I didn’t so I probably won’t be bothering again!!!

It was a very fun evening at Lymm Spice Lounge though.

Feb 04

Post Box Topper – Autumn

I have been thinking about doing a post box topper for quite a while, before someone started doing them in Lymm, and very disappointingly had 2 stolen! I therefore decided to do mine outside of the village centre – not wanting to step on someone else’s toes, or have mine nicked too! The nearest suitable one to me is one of the ones in a brick column, with concrete on the top. I went out in the dark to measure it!! I was quite surprised how big it is!

I can’t remember how I decided what I wanted to do. First was a cow, because my post box is near the dairy farm (not sure what the farmer thinks of my cow!!), and then because it was autumn, I went for pumpkins, leaves, and a hibernating hedgehog!

The topper cover itself takes quite a while to do due to the size! The leaves were quite faffy, but I think effective, and I think the hedgehog is very cute. The cow ending up looking like it was eating a pumpkin, but mainly to balance it!

Close up of the cow – I was quite pleased with the udders!!!!

Leaves, pumpkins and hedgehog:

And ready to go out. I put a poppy on as approaching Remembrance day by the time I could put it out.

And in location:

Feb 04

Granddaughter’s Dresses

Is there anything better, as a sewer (now, as I type that, I see why people call themselves sewists), than being told by your granddaughter when you arrive, that there is a fabric shop in town and she wants a new dress?? Here she is with her Auntie (who isn’t quite as keen on me making her dresses), with her fabric choices.

I had previously made her a dress using Simplicity 1435, see post:

https://kariscraft.space/index.php/2019/06/17/kids-things/

And I think she was still trying to fit in it – more as a t-shirt than a dress now though.

She said she liked the frills, so I went for the same dress again, but also did one of the other views. View C and A (leggings) in the ballerina fabric, and View E for the ‘cat mermaids’, is that ‘mercats’?:

It took me until October to get round to making these, having bought the fabric in August. I got a nice little WhatsApp video sent of her wearing them 🙂

Feb 04

Day of the Dead self drafted dress

I based this pattern on the men’s shirts I have made. I wanted to add a large pleat in the back to add volume (similar to a purchased blouse I have), and longer at the back than the front, and with pockets! The chilli shirt I made for Robin fitted me, so I started from that.

I didn’t do anything very clever, and the pockets are too low down, but it is fun.

June 2021