Woolly Chit Chat

 Feeling inspired to catch up with a few wooly makes today. Especially as me, my daughters and my mum went to Wonderwool Wales last month. I had it in my head that I should use up any wool from last years purchases in order to enjoy buying some more.

This was one of my usual mash up knits where I used the Bardini vest pattern as a base and made it work for the materials I had. I sized up as this is 3ply yarn and the pattern is for 4ply yarn.

I had a go at fading. I wasn't so successful on the first fade from green to the flecked blue but then I learnt, as I went along, how much yarn to leave from the old ball to fade in. You switch in the new colourway every other row until the last one runs out. The back and rib is made with a 4ply cream yarn from Drops which works well because you can see the fade on the side seam.

My last bit of stash knitting before our visit to Wonderwool was to knit all of my sock yarn scraps that would not be useful in an actual pair of socks into a cowl for skiing. We were lucky with the weather this year when we went skiing; it was sunny and there was not any driving snow. I had in mind when I knit this that it would hug my neck and be supper warm. 

I really don't like cowls that fold in on themselves into a useless ring around your neck. Harsh words I know. Without a pattern, I cast on the sock yarn on 3mm needles. Starting with the finest wool and then kept changing up a needle increment with wool thickness as I continued. It meant that with a stretchy cast off, it was wider at one end than the other and sits really well. The 3xrib was perfect and easy to do while watching a bit of TV. Functionality wise it is a 10 out of 10.

OK, back to the shopping. Yarn wise I had quite a haul. I always go to a guy at Wonderwool who looks like a market trader and if I am honest is a bit miserable. He has huge cardboard boxes with hanks of yarn with barely any details. Signs might simply say '4ply £5 hank' I am guessing it is deadstock but I like the jeopardy of buying something both unknown in quantity and composition. So many of the traders at the show sell expensive hand dyed artisan yarn that I would say it is hard to buy anything 'normal' so I think he has a good USP. 

I went for really harmonious choices. Everything is 4ply. I had ideas of what I wanted to buy wool for and then also I had in mind what I could use the left overs for. The pink, ran double, works well for any of the knits in my Ready Set raglan book so there is plenty of scope there. I then thought about a fair isle knit with the left over pink and chose some ivory and green to mix in with the left overs. The ball on the top is genius - it is a sock yarn split into two yarn runs so you can have matching ombre socks!!

Megan spotted this cotton in a sale basket, 5 balls for £10, and alerted me to it so I snapped it up and started a summer crochet top when I got home. This is my current sit-outside-to crochet project.

My girls always like the show day out...mostly because I promise them a crepe and there are always some lovely Angora rabbits, crazy looking goats or sheep with amazing fleeces to ogle.

I must admit to struggling with blogging at the moment. With a job that involves social media content it is hard to muster the motivation to write again here but I like to keep in touch with family and friends. I love reading blogs but can't always write my own. That said, I will definitely continue with my three word gardening posts, my ing posts and of course any ta dah! moments. 

Always happy to see you here. Love Jo xxxx

May...ing

What happens when you realise that for most of May, my favourite month of the year, you have simply been inside sewing! This month my May...ing post is a totally selfish round up of what I have been sewing. The Sewing Bee has started on the BBC so I thought it was rather apt. 

This is the Megan Neilsen Sudley Dress and Top. A simple pattern that can grow with you as you progress in sewing skill. You can make it with a collar or without. You can have the tie at the front or the back. It is very easy to fit because it is roomy. I added some ricrac detail to the collar for a tutorial but I have fallen in love with this easy to sew, versatile blouse and dress. The blue one is made with viscose challis and the dress is a bargain linen mix.

On a more complicated level, I made a box pleat blouse from a pattern company called DP Studio. They are French and all of the styles are indeed very French. I like to sew more complicated things but I don't want to spend ages making something challenging which I can only wear to a special occasion so this blouse was a win win for me because it was engaging but I can wear it all the time with my jeans.

Talking of jeans, I have made another pair of Dawn Jeans again by Megan Nielsen. I like the full pattern range and sizing generally. This pair has green topstitching. Why do we always have mustard top stitching? 

This is another complex top with a gorgeous honeycomb pin tuck detail. I made a tutorial for this which I think would really help someone to get on board with McCalls8325.

My last make to show you is the Ogden cami. I have done a full bust adjustment on this pattern for a much better fit. 

Now that the weather has eventually warmed up I can take my foot off the sewing gas, get some of those summer garments on and enjoy the outdoors.

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xxxxx

Sunshine Would Make it Rosier!

I missed April...ing. Whoops! I have enjoyed reading other blogs this week but didn't quite seem to get round to putting my own words together.

Anyway, just to let you know we are eating well....

Loving work. A rare glimpse of my chaotic sewing space which is normally so tidy...

Finding the moments to walk the dog and fill my table vase. This is the last of my daffs, my blossoming orange broom which is the first time it has flowered in three years. I gathered some orange geums and then bluebells from my field. My flower grower friend Beth stepped in the following week with these incredible ranunculus and anenomes from her polytunnel. The colours were too strong for the brief of her wedding bouquet order so they ended up on my table. Lucky eh?

Loving the front bed of hot/warm colours and how this has come together from my original thought process.

The one thing the whole family has in common at the moment is watching our massive crab apple tree slowly unfurl. It changes day by day.

Finding joy in dancing with my Tribal dance friends even though it was pretty chilly at Upton Folk Festival.

Solving the little problems in life. Jeans I made which were too short once I stopped wearing my boots have had a little embroidaise anglais extension.

These are of course the good bits. Things are a bit here and there at the moment. Nothing too miserable just a teen doing GCSE's, another daughter having so many interrupted school weeks which really impacts on my work (snow days, teacher strikes, boiler breakdowns at school, an endless stream of bank holidays) and we currently have in-laws who need more help with day to day life. But hey, you're not here to listen to that, these are just life's ups and downs. If only the sun would bloody shine it would give everything a rosier glow.

Off to read some blogs my friends. Toodle hoo! Jo xxxx

Three Word Gardening - Slow To Start

 I am starting up my three word gardening posts again each month and this year I will start with Slow To Start. The weather has not been the greatest and living here on a high ridge has meant that it has been super windy. 

I will start with a little tour. This was the fruit cage after our snowfall, I just walked away from it with a very sad face but Bloke went out in the wind and put it all back together. Big Girl and I spent two hours weeding all of the strawberries. There is nothing worse than spotting a big red strawberry, then getting stung by a hidden nettle. I also moved a clump of raspberries from right in front of the entrance door. The fruit garden was planted up before I bought the cage so things were in a bit of a strange orientation once I realised where the door was going. Much better now.

First pick of the rhubarb will be this week too.

The front garden is raised and the soil in there is pretty weed free because it is new (3 years old) and I intend to keep it that way. The daffs have gone over now swiftly following are the orange hues of my tulips. The broom has flowered for the first time this year which compliments the border well.

I have lots of daffs but I like the later flowering ones like this white one Thalia which is beautifully fragranced which I place with the lighter foliage plants or pheasants eye which will be out soon.

I have all my veg seeds started off but it is still a bit too cold for them to really take off. Fingers crossed for the next few weeks.

My florist friend Beth grows her wedding flowers at our farm. It is such a bonus to look out on a piece of ground all neatly kept without me having to lift a finger.

The back garden is the one you see when I take a photo of the view. We have a 1.5m HaHa that makes the lawn seem infinite (but essentially stops the sheep getting on the patio!) This is a mix of shrubs and annual plants I grow from seed. This is more of a summer border in purple, blue and pink.

I will leave you with a few seasonal favourites: dwarf tulips in my belfast sinks and a new variety of grape hyacinth in my studio barrel.

What is your garden looking like? Slow to Start?

Joy

 

Hello there folks. I have been sewing for fun, not for work. My big girl is getting ready for her end of school prom. We didn't want to leave the dress shenanigans until the last minute hence a finished Prom dress in winter. Heidi chose a pattern where I gave the all clear but unfortunately I did not read the back of the packet properly and it turned out to be for stretch fabrics and we had already received a non-stretch satin. 

Oh dear!  Annnnyways... I made I work and we did a few adaptations. It already had an elasticated waist so we got away with the waist fit and simply cut two bodice pieces and lined the bodice to finish the armholes and neckline. The biggest hack was to add a slit to the back to enable her to get it over her head. Heidi made a lot of the main dress herself and I made the beaded overskirt. This is removable by a hook and eye with the bow covering the join so that she can wear the dress for different events. She absolutely loves it and of course so do I, especially the hem. Five hours of bead unpicking along the seams was not fun but I have almost forgotten that now!  We had a little photo session (in the snow!) because I was sponsored the fabric from Minerva where there is a full write up of the materials used. Here for you folks are simply some eye candy photos. Enjoy!

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xxx