Frost flowers & leaves – a monster shawl

Before I embarked on the epic knitting project that was the Knitivity, I’d just finished another project which was very different, but equally as epic in its own way. I’ve had the book A Gathering of Lace for years, knitting one of the smaller shawls back when I bought it.  I’ve always had my eye on one of the larger shawl patterns – frost flowers & leaves (Ravelry link) – and decided to buy some gorgeous merino laceweight at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March last year specifically to knit it.  The yarn came from John Arbon Textiles, a company I hadn’t come across before, and I can definitely recommend it.  It’s soft but strong enough to withstand a firm blocking – sometimes I find the softer laceweight yarns to feel slightly fragile, but not this one.

The main reason I’m waffling on without showing you any pictures is because this thing is a) enormous and b) impossible to photograph effectively.  I encountered a small problem when I came to block this – I don’t actually have a large enough expanse of floor in my flat.  I eventually waited until my parents were on holiday, and blocked it on their much larger living room floor.  Its size is one of the problems when it comes to photography, but there are also issues with being able to capture its drape and movement, and the repeating pattern is one of those that makes your eyes go fuzzy when it’s seen through a lens.

This is a square shawl, it wouldn’t all fit on the table.  You can see really clearly here the double leaf motif which separates the four sections – as well as the repeating pattern which fills the main body of the shawl.  It looks complex, but as with most lace knitting you end up being able to ‘read’ your work and knit without needing to refer to the chart every 5 minutes.

Here’s one of the corners, showing the edging as well.  The edging is my favourite sort, knitted side on, attaching one stitch of the main shawl every two rows – never-ending but strangely satisfying to gradually see something shawl-shaped emerge from a blob of green yarn.

This was the best shot I could get close up of the main body section without having that fuzzy thing happen – like newsreaders wearing stripes on tv…..  I love the way the open sections of the repeating pattern eventually take over, and are then echoed in the edging.

This is probably the most accurate photo colour-wise.  It’s a beautiful saturated olive-green colour, which seems to go with nearly everything.  I have been wearing this on an everyday basis – mainly as a very warm scarf wound round my neck –

It’s very light to wear despite its size, and has come in handy at work over the last few weeks where our heating has been underperforming…..you know it’s cold when I’m at my desk with not only a jumper on but a shawl as well.

None of these photos really captures the sheer size of this thing.  We attempted it in the two pictures below, but didn’t really succeed.  The second does give a sense of how fine and sheer it is as a single layer.

I’m really quite proud of this make.  It’s funny, that’s quite a difficult thing for me to say, I generally like to play down what I produce.  My work friends and colleagues are always lovely, whatever I make they’re always impressed, and I’ve learnt not to say ‘oh but the hem’s uneven’ (or whatever flaw I know is there but no-one else will notice).  People always say ‘I could never do anything like that’ or ‘I don’t know how you do it’ – but I do genuinely believe that anyone can learn to do these things, I’m not special in any way.  That is apart from this shawl – it is a pretty special thing……and I found that really difficult somehow.  It’s one thing someone saying ‘that’s amazing’ when I know it’s not, but when I do believe I’ve done something pretty cool I don’t quite know what to say.  I think it’s something I need to work on…..

 

More Ginger Jeans, of the skinny variety

I’ve been meaning to make another pair of skinny jeans for ages, I’ve had the silvery, lilac-y grey fabric for months.  Somehow there’s always been a shiny new project to distract me though, so I decided to include them in my cutting spree back when my sewing machine was in for her service.  They still sat in my ‘to-sew’ box (I can’t have piles, the cats are too interested) for several weeks but I finally got round to them and I’m really glad I did!

Excuse the crease in my top – it got crushed under the layers of coat and cardi on my way to work.

I’ve only made one version of view B of the Ginger jeans, my very first version.  They weren’t a massive success, mainly because of poor fabric choice along with making up what was probably too big a size.  This grey fabric wanted to be skinny jeans though, it’s super soft and very stretchy, and it seemed a good opportunity to go back to the high-waisted, skinny version of this pattern.

Top tucked in so you can see where the waist hits.  I only made a couple of fitting changes to the pattern with these, one of which was to shorten the legs by 5cm at the lengthen / shorten line provided.  I still had to cut a couple of cms off when I hemmed them.  The only other change I’d make, having worn them a few times, would be to slim the legs down a bit more around the ankle.  I have ludicrously skinny ankles which always makes buying skinny jeans and boots interesting.  Anyway, as you can see in these pictures, these aren’t quite tight enough to my ankles to make them easy to tuck in to ankle boots.

I cut a straight size 10 and basted them first to check fit – in particular the waist.  In previous pairs I’ve had to take a wedge out of the back waist and these were no exception – I think it was about 8 cm in total.  I think it’s probably time to make this a permanent adjustment.  I’m really happy with the fit of these – the waist fits well, so there’s no need for a belt, I don’t like wearing belts – and as always I think they do wonders for my rear view…..

I used a darker grey for the topstitching and made a bit more of an effort than usual to take my time – that paid off, especially for the fly topstitching.  I’m not sure I’m going to become someone who’s methodical and accurate overnight, but I think for certain things it might be worth it!  I’ve only got a poorly lit phone photo….

Looks good though, no?

I’ve never been entirely convinced about the high-waist thing until now, but this pair of jeans is starting to convince me.  They’re great with those tops that are just that tiny bit short – like this silk Athena top – the ones where I’m forever hoicking my jeans up, or pulling my top down to feel comfortable.  I’ve never been one for tucking in tops either, but again it’s definitely an option with these.

I went with an un-interfaced waistband, and I think it was the right option.  The waistband does crease a bit with wear, but it’s very comfortable, I think much stiffer would be annoying after a while.

Another rear view, just because…..

You’ll notice there’s a new background to these photos – my lovely friend and colleague Nicola took them in one of the abandoned suites in our office building.  It’s an enormous, grey, concrete 60s monstrosity right in the middle of Edinburgh – it’s a listed building, as a prime example of Brutalist architecture, which prevented a campaign to have it demolished – which was empty for years.  It used to be the Jobcentre, but they’re now letting it as hundreds of individual units – we’re the only occupants on our floor so we snuck into one of the others for some daylight photos.  This unit has a fabulous view of Edinburgh Castle – we’re in the cheap seats unfortunately so we have a view of the Sainsburys Local and a busy junction.

For once I had a reason to look away from the camera when being photographed…..!

All in all a very successful make – if you’re thinking about making jeans this is a great pattern, flattering and comfy at the same time, with excellent instructions and a really helpful sewalong.

A Christmas party dress

One of the pieces of fabric I bought in Harrogate in November was some ridiculously sparkly stuff – my sister got some first, and I couldn’t resist getting some too.  It was cheap – £4 a metre I think – and I knew I wanted to make a dress for the work Christmas party.  Over the last few years I seem to have gradually got rid of anything remotely party-ish out of my wardrobe, and if you can’t wear sparkles at Christmas, when can you?!

Apparently photographing sparkly fabric is tricky!  It’s a metallic, warm, pale gold colour in real life.  The pattern is the Papercut Patterns Flutter dress, my second version of this pattern.  This time I cut a size S, with a larger FBA – 4 cm I think but I’d have to check the pattern piece.  The fabric has a little bit of stretch, so I thought the smaller starting size would work better around the shoulders – my previous version does have a slight tendency to suffer from shoulder slippage.  I think it was a good move, fit-wise – it does feel much more secure around the shoulders.

The only other change I made this time round was to scoop out the neck a bit, and I definitely prefer it on me.

You can see the fabric a bit better here.  I don’t really do sparkly usually, so I was slightly concerned that about being ALL GOLD…..until I had the bright idea to use the wrong side of the fabric as the right side for the neck binding.  It’s just a pale beige-y pink with a lovely crepe texture and it works really well.  Once I’d got the main body assembled I tacked on the sleeves with the right side of the fabric showing and it was just a bit too much – even for a Christmas frock!  So I used the wrong side for the sleeves as well and I think it looks great.  I think if I’d just done sleeves in the plain side it might have looked a bit weird, but the neck binding being the same definitely ties it together.

As we know I love the back of this dress pattern – I’m pretty proud of the matching at the V on this version, I knew it would need to be pretty accurate with the contrast binding and I managed it perfectly!

I’m hoping that with the contrast sleeves, this is a dress I can wear to many occasions – I think if I’d gone with the ALL GOLD look (trust me, it shouted) it would definitely have been a Christmas-only dress and that seems a shame.

Short and sweet today, next up blog-wise I have an enormous monster of a lace shawl to tell you about.  I just need to work out how to take pictures of it – there isn’t a floor space in my flat to lay it out, I had to block it on my parents’ living room floor while they were on holiday.  I always find it tricky photographing lace as well, you need the right background and good light I think – and the latter is in pretty short supply in Edinburgh at the moment.  It feels like we’ve not seen proper daylight for months, really hoping that the forecast cold snap includes some lovely crisp, sunny, winter days.

Some new year musings, and some sewing plans

I’m always slightly ambivalent about a new year.  It feels tempting to believe that everything can change, just because our own particular calendar moves on a notch, but I’m always aware that actually life carries on much as before – with all the uncertainties and insecurities that existed 4 days ago in the old year.  That said, it is human nature to want to mark milestones, and a new calendar year seems as good as any other.

I don’t tend to make a big thing about resolutions, but a couple of years ago I made one which has not only been kept right up to now, but which has actually made a big difference in my life.  It was quite simple, and – importantly I think – was not about giving anything up, or punishing myself for doing ‘bad’ things, but was a positive change.  I resolved to do something creative every day.  Now some days, ‘something creative’ is one row of my knitting, or even just mentally matching a pattern to some stash fabric, but it all counts.  I don’t beat myself up about how long I spend, that would defeat the object slightly.   I think the main thing that makes the difference is that I can switch off from the day at work, and remember that being an accountant isn’t all there is to my life.  I do enjoy my job, but my secret dream is to give it up and make a living out of something creative.  It’s not a very realistic dream at the moment, not unless we win the lottery or inherit a fortune from a long lost millionaire relative, but things are changing on the financial front around here and it’s definitely something I always have in mind.  Anyway, I would hate to get to the point where being an accountant defines me and taking even only 10 minutes everyday to remind myself of who I really am has made a big difference.

I was ruminating on the success of this one resolution, and wondering whether it was time for a new mental challenge, when I read Heather-Lou’s blog post here, about boosting sewing confidence.  I’m actually not too bad at tackling sewing challenges but I do suffer a bit of a confidence crisis when it comes to involving myself in the sewing community.  I am a serial blog-and instagram-lurker – the truth is that I always feel a bit like I’m interrupting someone’s private conversation when I comment.  Logically I do know I’m being ridiculous, but somehow I always imagine the author / poster saying to themselves ‘who’s this comment from?  What gives her the right to comment on my post?’.  Anyway, in an attempt to emulate the success of the last resolution I made I am going to make an effort to comment on, not just ‘like’, at least one blog post and one instagram post every day.  Wish me luck!

In terms of sewing I do have some plans for this year.  I had a bit of a tracing and cutting session over the holidays, and in the immediate future I’ll be making these patterns:

Sophia coat

Burdastyle top

Burdastyle skirt

Burdastyle top and skirt together

Sophia Coat
Burdastyle skirt

Burdastyle top

I also have cut out and ready to sew some pale lilac-grey Ginger Jeans – the high waist, skinny version.  Other plans include some Hot Patterns Boyfriend Jeans – once I’ve checked the fit I have some fabulous Japanese selvedge denim for these.

I also want to try and sew as much as I can from stash – this shouldn’t be too hard, given the size of my stash.  I need to sew up as much as possible so that I have room for more purchases when the Knitting & Stitching show comes to Edinburgh for the first time in the spring – I’m very excited!  In particular I want to replace my many jersey tops which have holes in the elbows – I have a few patterns in mind and 5 or 6 suitable bits of fabric.  My other main ambition for this year is to master the art of bra-making.  I have a kit and a pattern, and it’s next on the list after the projects above.

Hopefully having written down all these aims and plans for this year it’ll make it easier to resist those impulse fabric and pattern purchases.  I’m sure there will be some queue-jumpers though, and that’s ok.  Everyone needs a bit of spontaneity in their lives!