Sewing and knitting. What else?!

I've been raiding my wardrobe and slashing everything into pieces again :) I'm stuck for summery tops so over the past few evenings I've been sitting unpicking some old skirts and then turning them into dresses.

This dress which I'm just hemming used to be a maxi skirt - I think it's a 70's fabric. As a long skirt it was a bit headache-inducing. But if you thought that was bad - take a look at these...

Yikes! Pass the Imigran! Look at those patterns! I wonder if they were curtains even before they were made into skirts...! Needless to say the effect when spread out over 3ft of lower body is, um, like being hit in the eyes by a big flowery THING. And no-one wants that. So they're going to be transformed into pinafore dresses. And if that fails, special dusters :)

Enough of all this sewing malarkey, anyone would think I couldn't hold two sticks and some yarn and call it knitting! Here are my wips:

An Odd Couple! The one on the left is for Mr Yaffle, who looks disapprovingly whenever I pick up the one on the right, which is for me. Mine is in Bowl of Petunias, and Paul's is in one which I'm thinking of putting in the shop. (both a bit brighter in real life - that's me not using my f-stops properly like) I often mess around with the dyes to see what happens. Sometimes, er, sludge happens...so I don't tend to knit with those skeins...but sometimes I get a happy accident, which is what the red and yellow is. I like the way they're spiralling - it fascinates me how it can spiral in my hands, but give it to another knitter and it will turn into stripes. I'm just waiting for the face of Richard Dawkins to appear in one of them and invite his followers round to worship it. (oh ok, so I saw that joke on Mitchell and Webb - but theirs was in a Melon, not a sock) Let me know if you get a skein which does that, ok??

Sewing, vintage style.

Over at the Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog they've had a 'Sewing Machine Month' so, right at the end of the month I thought I'd witter on endlessly about my sewing machine(s). If you don't want to see the results, look away now!

I have three sewing machines. Shocking really. I do feel a bit guilty. But they all (well two of them) do different jobs, and if you sew as much as I do, you need at least two so that when you've burnt one motor out or broken the drive belt, there's still a machine that works! I suppose you could call me a bit of an enthusiast, which is the new, more polite name for 'sad person in anorak'. It's quite hard to go out spotting sewing machines though, have you ever tried?!

This one is a treadle machine, from the late 1920s, which Paul bought me :) (click on the pictures to make them bigger). It wasn't expensive either - you can buy them for about £30 these days. I've had a go at sewing with it but I think treadling and me need to spend time together and get to know each other. Ahem. It's like trying to rock back and forth with your lower half, while keeping your arms still enough to feed fabric through the machine and not keep waving about like an utter fooool! So helpful when trying to sew flat-fell seams!! How did they do this in the olden days?? Do you think they had Treadlerobics classes? Hmm...I think I'll stick a motor on it, then I might get more use out of it - at the moment it folds into its neat little table shape and serves as an extra desk...(sorry Paul)...

These two Jones machines are my favourites, and they are the machines I use all the time. For everything! (go here for a history of Jones machines...it's fascinating, she said, in a geeky voice)The brown 1970s one (they loved their brown in the '70s, didn't they?) belonged to my late mum, and all my clothes as a kid were made on it! Oh boy, the Terylene, Crimplene and Bri-Nylon that machine has seen...! I love sewing with it, it is so mechanical, smooth-running and such a heavyweight old girl. The only problem is it gets hot really quickly and I think it really needs a new motor. So I have the other one for back-up (you know, like shoes?? or spare yarn??) I found the blue one (1960s I think) on eBay - it was £35! You can't buy a decent dress for that these days! I do like vintage machines though. They do free-style embroidery so well, and free-motion quilting - I don't need a modern computerised one (luddite!) or indeed a particular brand of Swiss machine they're always recommending (paying £500 for a second hand machine makes me feel queasy) But that's just what I'm used to. You have to be prepared to get the screwdriver out and adjust the tension if you want to use a mechanical/vintage machine but I think it's worth it for the stitch you get from it. I'd love to hear about your machines - do you use vintage or modern ones? There's lots on the Sew Mama Sew Blog about all that, it's interesting to see what people are using...Right. *rolls sleeves up* I'm off to find my oil can :)

Springwatch!

We've had our own Springwatch in the garden this week. There were blackbirds nesting in the hedge, and I'd been checking on them periodically from a safe distance to make sure everything was ok. When I checked this weekend, look what I found:

An empty nest! Yikes! I was crossing my fingers in hope that nothing bad had happened. And then I heard a little "cheep cheep" from the bottom of the garden so went to investigate...

A dumpy little fledgling, no tail, all beak and fluff...so cute! I've heard it in the garden since then, so I think he's doing ok so far and hasn't fallen prey to the local cats :) Oooh I'm all Kate Humble with enthusiasm! Shriek! a baby blackbird! Will it survive?! Oh the drama!!

In non-Springwatch news...I'm busy dyeing a small batch of yarn for another update. You should see my hands this time...I'd also better get on with sewing some more bags since I've cut out all the pieces and they're waiting patiently by the sewing machine. Bah, not as fun as crawling around in the undergrowth looking for fledglings though!

Finished!

Should've chosen a smaller coat-hanger perhaps. This one provides 1980's pointy-shoulder-reinforcements as you may have noticed...it's quite a stretchy cardi, so it does fit after all. Which comes as a relief, as I spent hours on it. You know, the kind of hours where you're enjoying knitting and it's going well, but at the back of your mind there's a tiny niggling little knitting voice going 'it won't fit you...it's tooooo small! bwahahah" and rubbing its hands gleefully. If a voice can rub its hands. (Well, if knitting having a voice, then it really can rub its hands...in fact it can make itself a sandwich and get a beer for me too while it's out there) Yep, that knitting voice. The one you ignore and Carry On Knitting (starring: Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Barbara Windsor, Sid James and Hattie Jacques) despite overwhelming evidence mounting in front of you...

Well, knitting, this is a poke in the eye for you! it fits! And I'm pleased with it. Maybe I'll wear it to Knit in Public Day. So I can be knitting in public while wearing 'knitteds' in public also!

Oranges and Liesls

I finished the Purple Liesl! I have just to weave in some ends and add buttons. Trouble is, it's come out a bit small.

Hahahah! Oh, OK, you got me - slight exaggeration on the 3 inches front...but trust me. This is small. Well, it's done now. It just needs some hefty blocking (= steam iron, swearing, glass of wine) and it will fit. it WILL.

Meanwhile, new stash arrived (*guilty face*) to make another one. Still life with oranges:

Any excuse to get the 60's pottery out!

Anyone doing a Knit in Public day on Saturday? I'll be at the one near to us in Bath, hope to see you there!

I just wasn't meant to fly!!

I'm back in one piece from Ireland! Although I nearly didn't get there, on account of a small surname problem. Not as tiny an infringement as the Yarn Harlot's but an infringement nevertheless. A classic: my maiden name is on my passport, and my ticket was in my married name! And yep, I left my marriage certificate at home...Now to me, I'm both people. But to Ryanair I am not both people. I am actually a Security Risk (or some floozy Gibbins woman masquerading as Mr Hamnett's wife, who knows what they thought?!). Now then folks, do you think I was more of a risk than a) taking your cucumber sarnies wrapped in foil, with a banana, on the plane; b) taking your knitting on the plane; c) taking a thermos of tea onto the plane; d) taking an inhaler onto the plane; e) taking a bottle of pop onto the plane? But risk I was, so we had to change my name on the ticket, and be grateful that they only wanted 3,000,000,000,000,00zillion flanian pobble beads, (and that's a low estimate) for that little service. Gah.

Anyway we got there, and this is what we saw. Pull up a chair. Got nibbles? Drinkies? We'll start the projector then and show you my amazing crop of slides wot I took on my holidays. Skip to the end for the knitting content if you're allergic to holiday snaps :)

We were in Clare, and obviously there are plenty of pubs (which look like people's houses!)

 

And even a pub that doubles up as an undertakers, which is handy (and more for the comfort of the living than the deceased. Although my Dad might have liked that I think);

We didn't drink in that one, but we did have the obligatory Guinness in a Tavern:

We needed lots of Guinness for strength against the prevailing wind and rain. Look at these clouds...

They really make everything look so green in contrast! Lots of colourful inspiration for new dyeing, even if the skies did bring rain...
The rain held off for a little while, long enough for us to meet a stray dog and throw stones for him (no not at him!!! it wasn't some weird local custom!!) to play with:

It was lovely to borrow a dog for an hour or so, as we really missed ours!

Ireland is a bit more expensive than the UK, or it seems that way. A sure-fire indicator of inflation and the economy (Evan Davis eat your bike helmet) is a country's own version of a pound shop. This was Ennis's pound shop:

That's TWO Euros, if you can read it. If you put the exchange rate as really being one pound to two Euros...I think you just about have it!

As it was raining a lot, we spent a lot of time in our cottage, which was unfortunately one of the most cold cottages ever. And a lot like Craggy Island Parochial house, without the inhabitants (well, by day two I was beginning to resemble Father Jack on account of the nerve-steeling Guinness and general irritability). We eventually decided to move to a hotel instead, and spent the last day in glorious sunshine, as sod's law would have it!

We managed to explore the nice beach but it wasn't flip-flop weather (hey, it's always Doc Marten weather as far as I'm concerned!) and it was a bit blustery (angle of head indicates Trying to Keep Wig On hahahah) -

Aside from the name change, the freezing weather, the cold cottage, the hire car breaking down during our holiday and a snotty cold...well, it was quite lovely :D

When we got home I thought I'd treat myself to some new knitting. (shock: I never knitted during the holiday. It was too bloomin' freezing!) No new yarn; I'm currently experiencing the joy of Stash in the Attic. Some Debbie Bliss Cathay, which I have so much of it's already done me one purple cardigan. Since that cardigan had holes in it, there was yarn left over, see! (holes in cardigans = percentage more cardigan proportionate to size of hole. Perhaps there's a scientific research post connected to ironing this out?!) This time I'm making another Liesl (I could knit this in every colour...I love it!)

Apart from that, I'm planning some dyeing this weekend, and maybe a spot of bag making. Football being on tonight means I have ample sewing time in my little room...huddled from the weather we seem to have brought back from Ireland with us!

Woman, 35, in knitted pants horror

I'm knitting a shawl. A perfectly pretty shawl. It's Lehmus and you'll notice it looks beautiful on the designer's blog. But mine looks like this so far.

 

It looks like a pair of frilly knickers. Well, I mean, probably not the sort you would have in your underwear drawer of course. But a pair of BIG, LACY PANTS nevertheless. Got to love lace knitting, haven't you? For the pain, frustration and utter helplessness you feel in its holey little hands. Dear Lace, please stop torturing me and turn into something beautiful. Now. Before I lose the will to knit...

Hmm, okay. A bit more like that and I might consider picking up the needles again. Lace. It's not for the terminally lazy. I like a garment that I can knit, iron (yes, IRON) to the right proportions and then wear. Lovely lace. It likes a lot of hard work. Spraying and blocking, with special fancy-schmancy pins and a spray bottle (last seen in this house when the steam iron stopped steaming). Lace, O, demanding lace. Lace whose intricacies I only just learnt to keep track of by using stitch markers:

(thanks for the tip, Rosee, it's saved me a lot of headaches). O Lace! I curse thy holey knitted face of horror! ahem. Cup of tea, anyone?

The dog finds the whole thing very uninteresting.

He was more interested in what he'd spotted.

A teeny-tiny toad in the garden. A baby I suppose. A toadlet! Look how small he is. And I don't have gigantic hands, in case you were wondering.

Toads, lace knitting...and here are some pretty forget-me-nots and a dandelion for your viewing pleasure. I love my forget-me-nots as you know. I like how my patch of them looks like a fieldful...

Hey, who said "weeds" at the back?!!

In other news: YARN! I've dyed up a few skeins which will go into the shop this week, with more dyeing planned next week. I'm also busy making some bags - they're sold out at the moment, so I'd better stop gallivanting around in the forget-me-nots and get back to the Singer! I hope you are all having a lovely bank holiday weekend :-)