Tag: brocade

Butterfly Brocade Shoes

Rhona's Butterfly Brocade Shoes

Sorry about my little disappearance there – I’ve been so busy making things that I haven’t been making time to write about them. Please prepare yourself for a flurry of posts!

These are the sixth pair of prototype shoes, in black chinese brocade with multicoloured butterflies. They look a bit wrinkly because they’re a size bigger than my lasts – I promise they’re not wrinkly in real life. They’re finished off with a delicate organza ribbon because I thought it went well with the butterflies. These are definitely a pair of shoes fit for a faerie, so they’ve gone to a good home.

Butterfly Brocade Knickers

Butterfly brocade knickers

Knickers: Pair Three.
Once again from the pattern in Cloth Magazine.

This pair turned out not to be such a success. The fabric’s a polyester brocade, which doesn’t drape as well as other fabrics. I also used a different type of elastic, thinking that the ruffles would look pretty with the golden butterflies. Unfortunately the elastic isn’t very strong, so it doesn’t pull the fabric in as much as it needs to.

Basically this means that unless I change the elastic, these knickers are just going to fall down! So they’re now on a pile waiting to be unpicked, which is a bit of a shame. Still, this is the point of a learning curve, so I can’t mind too much.

Sublime Brocade

Today I had a Day Off. I didn’t sew anything for anyone, I stayed in bed and read a good book, and I sat on the sofa and began to knit a new cardigan.

Oh, and my credit card may have accidentally fallen down in the general direction of some new wool.

Sublime Brocade

My copy of Rowan magazine number 38 arrived in the post this morning. I’ve been putting off buying this for ages, because I balked at the idea of paying £10 for yet another knitting magazine. (Believe me, I have many.) What I didn’t realise is how completely amazing it is. More than sixty patterns, each one more beautiful than the last.

Obviously the magazine is a showcase for Rowan’s range of yarns, but of course you’re not morally obliged to use the yarn that’s specified for the pattern. Which is just as well, as this particular book is three years old, and the yarn used for this jumper has now been discontinued.

Thankfully, the lovely Mim shared a link to a website which was having a clearance sale, and I am now anticipating the arrival of fourteen balls of Sublime, in black and pink. It’s 100% merino, but it’s machine washable, which means that this jumper will actually stand some chance of being worn, rather than staying hidden in the wardrobe because I’m too afraid of ruining it in the wash.

I’ve never tackled an intarsia project quite this ambitious before – my only other attempt has been the pirate jumper, which I wear a lot. I’m a little bit intimidated by the enormous chart, but at least I don’t have to deal with any shaping until I get up to the armholes. That gives me 96 rows to work out what I’m doing. Hopefully that’ll be enough!