New site!

Now blogging at my very own website

Cardigan 2.0

More BFL yarn for a cardigan for my partner. The first one turned out just a bit too small. This time I will swatch and measure and do all the stuff you’re supposed to do as a “proper” knitter.

Choosing buttons

I just finished my Liesl cardigan and now have to choose buttons for it.
Which would you choose?

White with silver flecks:

Caramel:

Mother of Pearl:

It isn’t easy spinning green

But at least it makes me smarter! I’ve been spinning green merino for a while now so my mum can start her cardigan when she goes camping next week. A while ago I discovered itunes u and now when I spin I listen to lectures about psychology. If you don’t want to use itunes you can find the material here.

Block 2

Today I made the second block of the Skill Builder Sampler.

Doesn’t look too bad from this angle right? If you look at it from the top however it shows some rather wonky seams.

Used some more strips from the Moda’s Pampered Pooch jelly roll. Maybe I’ll try to sew one of the blocks by hand someday, see if I can manage to get the seams a bit more lined up that way.

More patterns and yarn

When I got home Tuesday there was a big envelope sticking out of the mailbox, I was curious as I wasn’t expecting anything.

It’s Ysolda Teague’s new book Little Red in the City.

And today I got a package with the yarn to make two of the patterns.

I also got another great new pattern recently, Kate Davies’ Warriston, which includes a lovely magazine with lots of information about the history of smocks. I found it very interesting and a pleasure to read. Looking forward to the next edition!

A Log Cabin block and some butterflies

Yesterday I made the first block of the We Can Do It skill builder sampler. I “cheated” a little, I used jelly roll strips so I only had to cut the fabric the length I needed. The finished block is an inch too small because my seams are a bit too wide and some of the seams aren’t completely straight but I can live with that. The fabric is from Moda’s Pampered Pooch line.

I also finished some spinning recently. I used two colourways from last years Knit it Up, now known as McMullin Fiber Co, Spinning the Seasons (pink is Heat and blue/white December Frost), about 1.5 bobbin of IKEA’s white sewing thread and Tibetan silver butterfly beads.

The fibre is a 50/50 Superwash Merino and bamboo blend. 530 meters of fingering weight equals hours and hours of plying. The end result is quite lovely though.

Etsy: Strange Studios – Poppet Planet

Thanks to my lovely penpal Kata I recently stumbled across yet another great etsy shop. You can add people to your circle on Etsy and I made the “mistake” to add Kata. The reason this was a mistake is that she has excellent taste. So whenever I go to Etsy I’ll see more things in her favourites that I love. Go ahead, take a look at some of her favourites. See I told you she has good taste! Well anyway because I made the mistake of clicking on of her favourites, I found the lovely shop Strange Studio. I ordered a poppet based on Stephen Kings novel  Under the Dome, which is one of my favourite books. Today the postman delivered a package.

Love how it’s wrapped.

Creepy and cute all in one.

Look which book the Poppet is reading.

Baby dress

I finished a sewing project today, a baby dress, modelled here by my favourite model for all things small enough to fit her.

I used a pattern from Knippie (a Dutch magazine with  sewing patterns for children) but altered it quite a lot to make it easier. This whole sewing thing is turning out to be not quite as easy as it looks like.

The fabric is cute though, isn’t it? It’s from the On a Whim series by Amy Schimler for Robert Kaufman.

Video: Little Red Plane

Saw this on Kate’s blog and because it’s such a wonderful animation I’m sharing it too.