Sock Horror

My Om Shanti socks became Omg Shanti socks after a brief dip in luckwarm water. They grew to enormous proportions - previously all these socks were just about the same length:


At least they both match:


A lady from Chameleon Yarns pm-ed me to say that putting them in the dryer might sort them out. I don't have a dryer but luckily I'm not heart broken about the loss of these socks. Also they might be better once dry. I'll update this post if that is the case.

I finished my froot loop socks and I'm very happy that the yarn looks appropriately edible:


Today I sorted through my yarn & now I'm in need of an antihistamine. No wonder I only do this once or twice a year! The photos below show a proportion of the non-sock part of my stash.

Quilting

Sometimes I look at other people's blogs and feel jealous of their fabulous crafting environment with quilting walls, huge tables and special built in wardrobes. Admittedly this tends to be people who craft for a living rather than a hobby, but still, it's difficult not to wish that we had room for an extension to our small South London maisonette. This week I took two days off and the weather was gorgeous so I moved my sewing machine from the kitchen table to the garden and was completely cured of my jealousy because, as far as I'm concerned, nothing could be nicer.




After my intensive spell of working it has been lovely to have a holiday. I decided to carry on working on my sunrise quilt and decided to add three borders to finish off the patchwork.



The next step is to layer the quilt with the patchwork on top, wadding in the middle and a backing fabric and then quilt the layers together. To attempt to make the quilting easier I bought an 'even walking foot'. This is a cumbersome looking sewing machine foot which feeds the fabric though from the top at the same rate that the feed dogs feed through the fabric at the bottom. I was petty flummoxed as to how to fit the foot to my Janome DC3050 until I found a fantastic post and a fabulous diagram from Hoppo Bumpo.

I took some photos of the process in case anyone else has the same difficulty as me:
1. Remove the foot holder


2. Prop the foot handle over the needle clamp


3. Screw in the foot


I quilted a test piece of patchwork and was very impressed with the new foot:


From the back:


So the next step will be to attempt the same thing with my much larger sunrise quilt.

G20

On April 1st i.e. tomorrow the G20 summit hits London (and I think 'hits' it going to be very appropriate adjective). I'm one of the thousands of people who work at an investment bank here in London but I promise that I have had nothing to do with
the current economic situation. I work in IT in the glamorous world of address book technology & not anywhere even close to finance. This is a good thing because maths was not my strongest subject and in fact I failed my maths A-level in a spectacular way, although with the current state of the world it probably would have made no difference if some of the banks had handed over all of their accounts to me and my poor arithmetic.

Anyhow we have been told that tomorrow we should dress in casual clothes so we don't stand out amidst all of the rioters. I'm sure that this must be some kind of April fools joke because the bankers I know would be incapable of looking like an anarchist and blending in at a riot unless chinos are now all the rage with the Socialist Workers. I'll be OK because in the whole of my life I have never managed to look smart.

I've not been posting recently or reading other peoples blogs because I've been working all hours including weekends and late nights. Now I should be able to cut back and re-enter my personal life which is an enormous relief.

70's style

I was born in 1969 so consequently spent my formative years in the 70's and I think that the colours of that time have seeped into my brain. I remember my parent's house where I grew up had a bright orange carpet and purple walls plus brown furniture. This seems to have made a lasting impact on my tastes as I was extremely excited by these fabrics (which I've started to make into yet another bag).



The blue is Carnaby Street by Robert Kaufman & the other is Poppy Dot Orange by Erin McMorris.

Of course other things in the 70's were lousy. I grew up in an industrial town in the North of England and it got pretty grim as the industries began to disappear and people began to lose their jobs. And in the 80's it got yet grimmer without even the benefit of funky fabrics.

On the knitting front, last week I blocked a Clapotis that I actually finished mid January. The Claoptis isn't the most interesting pattern to knit, but it's good for knitting groups and on the tube when you need something semi-mindless. I made it in Sea Silk & I'm very pleased with the drapyness and the weight of it.

Sock Factory

As I mentioned previously I want more handknitted socks and so I have become my own personal sock factory. I was lucky enough to buy this lovely Artsygal yarn from Justine (many thanks!!).


And I'm very pleased with the resulting socks (they look nicer in real life). I like the way that the very bright multicolored yarn is toned down to an almost-grey when knitted up.



I am very keen on feather and fan type patters so I based the stitch pattern on Rob Matyska's broadripple.

I tend not to follow a pattern because I knit on the tube a lot. Normally things work out OK but here I've ended up with two different heel shapings (although only an up-close fellow knitter would notice). I think the one on the LHS is the more 'finished' looking one because I've unwrapped my stitches. The RHS is the lazy alternative...

Another 40th

Last Friday was Chris' 40th birthday so we decided to have a quiet weekend away in the New Forest. It felt like spring for the first time this year.
We did some hiking through the woodland:


We found the perfect pub:

And went down to the salt marshes:


I needed a bit of peace and down-time since I'm going to have to work flat out for the next two or three weeks. I can't wait for everything to calm down so I can get back to the sewing machine and needles and maybe even go to a knitting evening or two.

Volksfaden

I know it's a recession and no one can afford to buy stuff, but even without spending any money you can enjoy looking at this beautiful and original on-line fabric shop Volksfaden.

Another Bag

I decided to have a go at making a bag without using a pattern, so here's what I came up with:

The front (with a pocket)


This is the back


There is also an inside zipped pocket in the lining.

I'm quite pleased with it. It's big enough to hold a book and a sock project plus my tube pass.

I used odds and ends of fabric left over from my Amy Butler bag because I was worried about ruining some of my other fabric. This means I've unintentionally ended up with a matching set:



I didn't put a closure on the top; I had bought a zip but I decided that it wasn't long enough and nearly added some press studs but decided against it. In the end I decided that the bag will hang just under my elbow and so I it ought to be OK without one & I can add one later if necessary.

All about socks

Over the last month I have undergone a huge change in my attitude to handknitted socks.

I knitted my first sock a couple of years ago however I was very much a sock cynic thinking 'What is the point of handknitting a sock just to hide it away in your shoes where it will be worn out in no time at all?' So I knitted my first sock out of a desire to try out all the soch knitting techniques - dnps, turning heels, short rows etc. I used lovely Old Maiden Aunt yarn and had a enjoyable knit and I had a nice little pair of socks at the end of it.

However I still wasn't absolutely convinced about the value of handknitted socks.

I went on knitting socks because of the project portability and the lovely yarns plus of course the fabulous patterns. When I had to go away from home for business trips I'd always take some of my socks because they were such comforting things so slip on at night and remind you of home.

Last year I knitted quite a few pairs of socks including socks for friends AND I went on a Lucy Neatby sock knitters course. But I still wasn't a totally convinced sock knitter.

So what has changed? This cold weather has finally made me realise that handknitted socks aren't just ornamental socks to wear at home. They are very practical being warmer, more squishy and thicker than shop bought socks. The change is now I feel that I don't have enough handknitted socks and I need to knit more so I don't have to worry about running out. In other words I've gone from being a Process sock knitter to a Product sock knitter.



So it is slightly ironic that it has taken me since last April to finish my latest pair of socks. I picked them up again as part of my WIP drive and actually it's taken me about 3 weeks to finish them off. They were knitted on 2mm needles in beautiful yarn that Jon from Easy Knits gave me on a funny drunken afternoon (you can read about it on his blog 13/04/2008 entry). The yarn is a bamboo/merino mix & I loved the colours - pink, yellow and beige.

The pattern is Having Hope by Diane Mullholand which I more or less followed although I made a few adjustments for the quirks of my feet. Diane wrote this pattern in order to raise money for cancer research (which is a cause that is also close to my heart).

Amy Butler Sophia Bag

I've finally finished my second Amy Butler bag: Sophia.



I like the shape of the bag with it's 50's feel. However I think that the handles should be longer and the center of the bag (where the zip is fitted) should be narrower so it's easier to carry.



The fabric is from the Joel Dewberry Ginseng collection.



The only modification I made was to omit the cording at the bottom. This was because various people on the sewing pattern review forum gave this advise to avoid having to sew through zillions of layers.

I'm going to use it to hold all of my sewing machine things that don't have a home.



Next time I'm going to design my own bag. I have quite a good idea of what I want and the Amy Butler patterns have given me a good introduction to bag making.


As I'm sure I've mentioned before I love sewing and I love my sewing machine. I especially love the little packets of sewing machine needles. I imagine the design of these needle cases must have been the same for decades.



I'm still figuring out the system of grading of sewing machine needles whereby the numbers are something like (90/14) or (100/16). I understand that the higher the first number the thicker the needle so 100 is good for denim and 70 is good for satin. I think the second number is just another way of expressing the first number. It gets more complicated because the number doesn't relate to the type of end that the needle has, so you could have a 100 ball point needle that wouldn't work on leather. I suppose you just have read what it says on the packet. 'UNIVERSAL' is pretty self-explanatory.

I also love the colours of the threads. When I bought my sewing machine I was lucky enough to get loads and loads of free threads which was almost as good as getting the sewing machine itself!



One more thing. Look at the weird vegetable I got in my vegetable box:


It's called scorzonera and apparently tastes like artichokes and asparagus. I can't wait to give it a try tonight.

Google Library

I've just belatedly discovered Google Library and I'm quite impressed. You can search using the google search engine inside previews of loads of craft books. The previews are much longer than amazon type previews letting you really make up your mind about the book.

For example I've had my eye on the following two books because they both have great amazon reviews but they are not stocked in any bookshops near me. The long previews are very useful to make a decision on whether or not to buy:

Fine Machine Sewing - Carol Ahles
Couture Sewing Techniques By Claire B. Shaeffer

Not all books have long previews and the knitting book selection didn't seem so good. I think at the moment the listed books are slightly older. The most recently published book I saw was:

Knit Couture By Henry Conway

I already own this book but if you were interested in buying it the preview does give a lot of information. In this case some of the photos are blanked out due to copyright reasons.

It'll be interesting to see where this technology goes but now I have to go to work!

Snow

It's very exciting! This is the most snow I have ever seen in London & I've lived here for more than 10 years. None of the buses are running and the tube lines are in chaos so I'm having a day at home (unless it suddenly clears up).


It was something new for the cat:



but curiousity always wins!

I'd rather have a cup of tea

A quote from a recent Economist article:
TO SOME there is nothing so urgent that it cannot be postponed in favour of a cup of tea. Such procrastination is a mystery to psychologists, who wonder why people would sabotage themselves in this way.
I simply do not understand what could possibly be more important than a cup of tea.

However speaking of procrastination I have began a finishing drive on my neglected WIPs. In the case of this beaded South Seas stole I had only about a weeks worth of knitting before it was completed. I had completely stalled with this one due to the tediousness of the edging.



Here are the panels:




I love geometric designs and I was very excited about the bottom right panel. If I was going to knit this lovely design again I think I'd make the shawl panels symmetrical and skip the bottom left panel altogether.

I used 'Posh Yarn' that I bought in Wales last year. I can see why people go so crazy for it, in fact I didn't knit this shawl in public in case I was mugged by a fundamentalist posh yarn knitter.

Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter

I bought my sewing machine early last year and found it rather intimidating. My only previous experience was when someone gave me a beautiful old singer machine when I was 21 and broke. I lived in a funny little ground floor flat in Glasgow which was so damp that slugs shared the flat leaving slimy trails allover the carpets and any clothes left on the floor. After a couple of months some local druggies broke in and stole just about everything in the flat including half full bottles of shampoo and of course my sewing machine. I had no insurance but also I didn't have many possessions so I wasn't too upset but my poor flatmate had his entire record collection stolen which he found devastating. Anyhow that brought my sewing to a immediate stop.

So fast forward to 2008 when my beautiful new Janome machine arrived. I'd completely forgotten about spool thread so I spent some time pouring over the manual before I could even thread it. I bought the machine with the idea of making adjustments to clothes and that kind of thing but once I started looking around on the internet and in bookshops I realised that I was more interested in the home decor side of sewing especially because you can get such gorgeous fabrics at the moment.

The first book I bought was Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter. Some of the projects are VERY simple, for example one of the projects is for kitchen towels and I think that even I would never actually need instructions on how to hem a piece of fabric! Also there is a pattern for picnic placemats which are pretty much the same as the kitchen towel! I would classify those patterns as being suitable for brain dead zombies however the remainder of the patterns are more at a beginner standard. She uses absolutely wonderful fabrics and the photography is beautiful in a Scandinavian style. I made some oven gloves using a pattern from the book & Kaffe Fasset fabric.



The gloves are lined with fabric but as far as I could make out from the instructions all of the raw ends of the fabric were visible on the inside. When I made the second glove I didn't follow the instructions and hid the raw edges. I think as a beginner when you try a project you want to learn some finishing techniques so I was a bit disappointed with the instructions. Other than that the gloves are lovely and look very nice from the outside. When I used them for the first time I was nervous I would end up with 3rd degree burns but they do work.

I do like this book because it looks so good and is useful for finding inspiration. It has some other cool patterns such as a reversible apron and tote bags plus a cool hat with a quilted rim. You never know, I might even make some kitchen towels from it!

40!

Oh no! I never thought it would happen to me but I'm now 40 years old. I had a lovely trip away with my friends to celebrate and I managed not to spend the whole time hiding under the bed.

We went to Keswick in the Lake District:



It was cold but v.pretty:



I'm in the middle being 40: