In case you didn’t see Diane’s lovely pictures, here’s another glimpse of the pink skull fleece hoody on an Actual Person.
This one’s for Lisa who, being the same size as me, is doomed to having all of her clothes tried on and photographed before I send them out!
The scarf is this one.
The photo’s a bit grainy, but it’s pretty dark outside at 6:30 these days. Perfect time of year for a nice warm fleecy jacket.
Today’s important lesson is
ALWAYS LABEL YOUR PATTERNS.
Otherwise, when you come to repeat a pair of trousers for a friend after eighteen months, you may come to find a cryptic note pinned to the pattern, with no clues whatsoever as to what it means.
I can hazard a guess that this is the amount I had to take out of the centre back seam of the trousers when I fitted them, but I can’t be absolutely certain.
Equally unhelpfully, the pattern is a completely different size from the block, so I obviously didn’t transfer my alterations there either!
As you may have gathered, I’m still riding the learning curve of pattern drafting. Having never taken any classes, I’m learning in the time-honoured fashion of frowning at books
I’ve also been reading through the archives of a few helpful blogs – notably Not Enough Thursdays, Fashion Incubator and You Sew Girl.
I need to do a great deal of work on my pattern drafting skills, if I’m going to get any further with developing my own range of clothing. There’s only so much you can learn from books though, so I keep looking at the short courses at the London College of Fashion, in case I can somehow miraculously afford to attend.
The Intensive Pattern Cutting Workshop looks ideal, as it combines flat pattern drafting and draping on the stand. It only runs as a summer school though, which means I’ll have to wait until next year. Ah well… more time to save those pennies!
Yes, I know I wasn’t talking about socks. But the second stripy silk sock is being re-knit at a pleasantly fast rate, so I feel a bit more friendly towards them now.
And then, this morning, Issue 47 of Simply Knitting dropped through the letterbox. Not only does it contain a free calendar which features a sock pattern for every month, but there’s also a thirteenth sock pattern inside the magazine itself!
I’m sure this must be terribly dull for anyone who doesn’t have the slightest interest in socks, but I couldn’t be more pleased.
“Rugged Rambler” are cabled socks, knitted in DK yarn, on two needles. Excellent! I had sort of sworn that I would never have anything to do with cabled socks ever again, but in DK they should work up twice as quickly, and I think these will be lovely and snug inside a pair of warm winter boots.
But oh! Look at these spooky beauties!
The fairisle pattern’s almost the same as the one I used on my skull jumper:
Now I can’t possibly resist knitting socks to match!
I don’t think I’ll have them ready in time for Hallowe’en, but I’ll definitely be knitting a pair of these for myself this winter.
Yes, it’s October, and the new Bishopston swatches have just arrived!
The most exciting thing about this is that they’ve just introduced a new fabric weight – a Fair Trade cotton lawn! They’re the swatches on the left – the colours mostly match the regular cottons, but the fabric is a much lighter weight.
The new cotton lawns can’t be formally certified as organic – the farmers’ plots are so small that they are prone to contamination by chemicals blown across from neighbouring farms. Apparently it takes one weaver a whole working day to weave just 3 metres of cloth by hand! The finished pieces are 19-20 metres long, so that’s a whole week’s work.
I’ve just sent an email to find out whether the lawn comes in black and unbleached, like the regular cottons. Once I know, I can start to work out what my next order’s going to be!
No, not the nose-wiggling variety, nor the Ella Fitzgerald song… but the Alexander Henry fabric of the same name!
I’ve made dozens of these simple elasticated skirts now, and I never cease to be pleased with how prettily they turn out.
I’ve been asked to write up a tutorial for drafting the pattern in your own size, and putting together the skirt from it. I’m a bit pushed for time at the moment, but I’ll definitely sort that out as soon as I get a minute. These skirts are so easy to make, everybody should have one!
