Movember

So, I’ve joined a Movember team as a (grits teeth) mo-sista. It’s not a work team, but does involve some people I work with.  I’m on board to offer support to the others’ fundraising by the selling of handcrafted moustaches and being sponsored for wearing said moustaches in the workplace.  You can find us here

http://mosista.co/marioncrick

I posted about the crocheted moustaches before – mods to the pattern to follow – but this evening I did a special commission for someone – a moustache brooch, in grey felt with a simple red stitched trim.

I made you the moon on a stick

We’re in need of a bit of a laugh at work at  the moment. My boss keeps saying that people are asking for the moon on a stick. Now, in fine Lee and Herring style, we can give it to them.  But not for long as I’ll be taking it back off them.

It’s a quick project – just a couple of circles of felt, embroidered with the face of the man in the moon. It also works as a handy pencil topper.

I’ve also been working on the crochet moustache pattern again and made a couple of mods. This time it’s a magnificent military moustache and there may be a plan for it next month.

Presents

Yesterday, we took a trip to the seaside to visit Jenny and meet the baby. It’s been far too long since the six of us were all together in one place and it was a great day. There was an excess of cake, a brief spell of sunshine as we walked along the side of the beach, lots of laughs, some contemplation of whether the presentation of lots of knitted gifts in childhood would cause a later fear of knitted things and, of course, a very cute baby.

And there were presents.  We handed over the blanket we’d collaborated over and sewn together one afternoon in May on the South Bank (and lined by Amanda after we finished)

Louise gave her the fab little dog that she’d made.  And I finally got to hand over the bootees which I have been hiding for the last few months.

Two bootees, one face

I wanted to do something a little different to the traditional animal bootees you see. I got the idea for the bootees from a pair of Japanese socks I bought a while ago in Covent Garden. Those had a single panda face over the two socks and always make me smile when I know I’m wearing them.

The other big event was that we  planned a secret surprise for Amanda’s big birthday – a big basket of craft related presents. I made a case for a pair of good sewing scissors -

Grey felt, red embroidery. I’ve always loved the combination of red and grey. I’ve always thought of myself mostly as a knitter, but it seems these days that I sew more often than anything.

Bastard moths: part 2

I recently found that the lightweight cardigan I had been knitting had a couple of moth holes in it.  Well, I found out where the little buggers had been living.

This coat, I should explain, is an old favourite. I have owned it for over 10 years, having rescued it from a bag of old clothes that my mum and dad’s neighbour wanted to get rid of.  When the original buttons came off, I replaced them. When the lining shredded, I carefully removed it – discovering in the process that the coat was from the Canda Couture label* – and replaced it with a hot pink heavy satin lining.

I love this coat.

And the bastard moths decided to eat  it.  In a really visible place.

I was getting myself ready to part with it, but this afternoon someone suggested that I could possibly do something to repair it.  And I got thinking. The coat does have a separate bodice and skirt. And the damage is entirely on the bodice – everything else has been left untouched.  Could I do something with the bodice to disguise the damage, without it looking a bit poundshop Desigual or (worst fate of all) a bit Per Una? I think it’s time for it to go off to the dry cleaners to kill off any remnants of the little flying bastards while I ponder the repair job.

*that would be C&A’s classy label in the 60s

Perry Girl part 2: It turns out oranges weren’t big enough.

We had our monthly far north London knitting group this afternoon and I made good progress on finishing the short row shaping on the Fred Perry inspired top I have been knitting on and off since June.  Now, the reason why I have made slow progress is that, in order to get a good fit, there has been some serious maths involved in knitting the front of the top.  This being because a standard knit (and the majority of shop-bought knits) have identical measurements across the front and back. And I’m just not built like that.  The front needs to be wider and I need an extra four inches in length at the front if a fitted top isn’t going to ride up.

So, this is where darts come in. The vertical ones are easy – these are just sets of increases and decreases. But I also needed horizontal ones to prevent armhole gape and allow the vertical ease in the top. This is where short row shaping comes in.

Vertical darts

horizontal darts

While out this afternoon, I couldn’t resist shoving my fist into the top to show how the short row shaping had worked out. Lorena suggested that I could use oranges or grapefruits for photography purposes. Turns out my corner shop did not have large enough oranges.

Hello sailor

So, a while ago I blogged this about my experiments with pleating.  Here’s the end results.

It’s actually been sitting in a pile of almost completed projects, waiting for buttons, for about 3 months. I finally went to put on the buttons on today but had to do a repair job first (more of which later).

In basic construction, it is totally seamless. I made the body in one piece to the armhole split, shaped the shoulders with short rows and did a three needle bind-off on the shoulders. From there, I picked up around the armholes and knit a short-row set-in sleeve cap, then knit the sleeves down from there.  The decorative pleating on the front I’m fairly happy with – some more detail here

The red buttons, with the pleating on the front and the rich blue (Azul Profundo Malabrigo laceweight for those who want details) have a slight nautical feel.

Anyway, as I decided to take a quick five minutes to finally put the buttons on this morning, I noticed that, in the time it had been sat in the nearly done pile, bastard moths had been at it and chewed a nice hole next to the armhole. So, time for a little repair job. I used instructions on filling a hole in a vintage knitting book that I have.  The hole was here

The repair has worked pretty well. Not totally invisible, but enough to hide the damage. In a way, the more annoying qualities of the malabrigo (it felts like a bugger as soon as you touch it) helped and the fabric does kind of hold its integrity around the hole that the little flying twunts made.

Another time I think I’d look at a different yarn choice – the malabrigo I suspect will not stand up to a lot of wear before felting further. We shall see. I will also have a bit of a look at making the pleated neckline into a proper collar on the cardigan.

Rainy afternoon quickie

A few weeks ago, as I looked out of the 341 bus window on the way to work, I saw something interesting – a new haberdashery? opening soon? So, I took a trip down to Ray-Stitch this morning (it’s now possible to do a little crafty magpie crawl along from there to Loop, taking in Cass Art along the way) and came away with the intended indigo thread purchase, but also with a nice little fat quarter of a Japanese camera print fabric.

This weekend being one of those rare ones which is completely free of any commitments to anyone else, and the lovely rain this afternoon making me feel less inclined to head out and do stuff, I’ve stayed in and done stuff instead.  I made this cover for my Kindle.

From drawing out the pattern to finishing it was less than a couple of hours work, done to a soundtrack of Belle and Sebastian Write About Love (minus that bloody Norah Jones collaboration), Pet Sounds, and Village Green Preservation Society. And a very bad singalong.

Now, I may actually get around to sewing what I intended to start this morning, which is that sixties dress pattern I’ve had knocking about for around two years in the Japanese Indigo owl print fabric that I’ve had almost as long.

Or if I find any fabric with a picture of, maybe, a phone on it, I may make a cover for my camera, to carry on the theme.

Perry Girl

As the sun has finally come out, my thoughts have turned to summery knitting.  My thoughts were lightweight, cool fabrics, something very simply shaped but with small interesting details (I realised a while ago that the vintage patterns I love knitting are just too damn fussy for me to actually wear).

I can’t pretend that classic mod/scooter wear has not had a bit of an influence on what I want (so far my summer wardrobe purchases have been some red capri pants, a black cotton pencil skirt and a op-art-ish striped blazer). And Fred Perry has been playing on my mind. Not the Winehouse stuff. Winehouse can bugger off. But the classic shirts – this summer with contrast trims

Mostly, though, the Richard Nicoll Laurel Wreath collection. I love the palettes of turquoisey blues, coral and tan. Love it. It’s softer than the pure bright blue and red I would normally wear, a summer version I guess.

I have been to visit the range in the shop a couple of times.   I still covet that skirt and a couple of the tops.

So, the summer sales have provided me with some Rowan fine milk cotton in a deep turquoise and deep coral.  I have a mental image of short sleeves, and contrast trim with welt, cuffs and collar in linen stitch and a contrasting colour. I have started the obsessive knitting which only comes with a brand new project.  Here’s what we have so far.

Introducing My Little War Pony

This is My Little War Pony. Some say he’s a squeezy stress toy in a felt tin hat and saddle. Some say he’s a prototype educational toy designed to educate pre-school children in the plight of horses in the first world war and to lead them into reading War Horse when they are old enough.  He’s definitely not a zebra, though.

I’ve said before that I have no desigre to give up my job and do crafty stuff for a living. Sometimes, though, I introduce craft to my work.  My Little War Pony started as a bit of a joke as a fake collection object to be used in an object movement game I organised.  Now he lives on my desk, ready to head off the war at a moment’s notice.

Stuff made by other people: CAKE

These are not my work – they were made by my sister for my niece’s birthday.  She has a small line in making fine cupcakes and decorative cakes for very lucky people in the Coventry area and for very lucky family members.

That’s dark chocolate cupcakes.

With vanilla buttercream (it was some sort of special buttercream that’s particularly light and not cloying)

Those little blue stars are hand stamped, you know.

And there’s chocolate mousse hiding inside each cupcake.  Oh yes.

Cake genius, my sister.