Crafting and Copycats

Busy busy and trying not to be busy…

Bump’s due any day now so my version of nesting involves hiring a cleaner to blitz the house and busying myself with sewing, knitting and crochet projects instead.

This is my Victory Jumper, an attempt to use 9 balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply in one pattern… Desperately hoping I don’t run out of yarn as this is supposed to be stash-busting rather than stash-swapping.

 

This is my last-ditch effort to challenge my husband’s tolerance and mental wellbeing. Needless to say, he is not impressed but I LOVE it! Lovely pattern from the Royal Sisters blog here.

 

Pretty top for post-baby tummy hiding, with fabric from the gorgeous Flo-Jo Boutique in Bristol and run up quickly one day from a now-discontinued McCalls pattern 5388.

Finally, a speedy sew-up job to duplicate the below Boden skirt in a denim ticking fabric I’ve had in my stash for years. Duplicated the pleats onto a facing and put in a metal side zipper. I won’t know if I look like a pitchable-tent until post-baby as this doesn’t come close to closing around my midriff at the moment.

I’ve also be dying yarn and playing with cable patterns on a pretty hat in the hope of getting my stash down even more before little man arrives. As it’s actually his due-date today, I’m not holding out lots of hope,but at least it’s keeping my hands busy while my abdomen remains resolutely inert.

Hey ho! Back to the craft room…

2013 – IntSweMoDoDec in review…

Last year I vowed to join and complete the IntSweMoDo challenge… that is, to knit or crochet 12 adult jumpers/sweaters/cardigans in 12 months to a wearable state… aka; The International Sweater a Month DoDecathalon.

Happily, I can say that, despite a rather horrid 6 weeks of inactivity due to pregnancy-induced RSI, I completed the challenge and now have a lovely wooly wardrobe full of hand-stitched delights that I look forward to wearing once my bump has dissipated later this year!

I thought I would bring all my stitchy work together in one place to bask in my knitty brilliance!! So… here goes…

Sweater Number 1: Harris Gaia by Kristen TenDyke

 

3 skeins of Harris Tweed yarn gifted to me by a lovely friend = no cost

Sweater Number 2: The Jan Sweater by Susan Crawford

7 balls of Rowan Wool Cotton = £34.50

Sweater 3: Pineapple Cotton Jumper for Mum

6 balls of King Cole Bamboo Cotton = Mum purchased so no cost to me… but cost £34

Sweater 4: Kingfisher Buttercup

9 balls of Stylecraft Merino Wool = £3.50 x 9 = £31.50

Sweater 5: Holl

13 skeins of Jamieson & Sons Aran = £27.50

Sweater 6: FairIsle Yoke

5 skeins of Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper weight (@£2.75) and 4 skeins of Supreme Jumper Weight (@ £8.26) = £46.79

Sweater 7: Peggy Sue

One cone of charity shop wool yarn @ £2

Sweater 8: Tea with Jam & Bread

11 skeins of Jamieson’s Shetland Heather Aran = £48.40

Sweater 9: Owls

 

7 balls of Artesano British Wool = £29.50

Sweater 10: Simple Lace Shrug

3 balls of Filitaly Lab-Sirio = £15.00

Sweater 11: Safire

6 balls of Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller @ free from yarn swap

Sweater 12: Maui Shrug (with attendant bump in the bottom left of the shot!)

4 skeins of Rowan Alpaca Soft and one ball of Austermann Palia @ £3.99 + £4.99= £8.98

The Statistics:

Total Cost: £278.27, (but £244.27 to me) which averages out at £20 per sweater…

Yardage: 11,000 yards of yarn knitted or crocheted (6.25 miles or 10km of yarn)

Hours: Oh hundreds…

Pleasure: Immeasurable…

Smug-factor: High

Something tells me that were I to attempt this another time I may just have to get rather better at photographing my knitwear as well as making it. This seems to be a roundup of rather fuzzy phone pictures with little visible attempt at styling… Though I promise I TRIED!!

Quilty weddings…

Scrappy blocked pinwheel as the wedding present for a gorgeous couple who got hitched this weekend… one of my oldest friends and the lucky man who got her hook line and sinker…

I think the pieced back may be my favourite bit but it’s all just so pretty and I’m more than a little gutted to be without it in my house… Will have to get stitching to make one for our sofa…

The hen party took place in a cottage in Shropshire and included beautiful food, pretty flowers and wine-fuelled stitchery…

The stitching was far better received than I thought it may be, with many of the hens working into the sunset on their squares, with two further additions received in the post later that week…

The hens each embroidered one or more calico squares which I then stitched into a quilt, interspersing the squares with Kaffe Fasset cotton prints.

Workshop pictures courtesy of a lovely friend.

If you fancy holding your own embroidery/quilt-making party with Homespun Living, bespoke workshops and a follow-up fee for the quilt construction start at £50 per head for 90 minutes and a minimum of 5 friends, including materials. See the website for more details and to enquire further…

Toast Spread the Style once more…

Utterly splendid Toast has unleashed its Spring 2013 collection and once again, the understated style, the elegant shapes and the timeless class that just exudes from every piece has blown me away again…

Sadly my pennies do not stretch to purchases, so it’ll be half-baked attempts at re-creation on my sewing machine that I’ll be offering you over the coming months…

These ones certainly piqued my interest and have led me diving into my stash and pattern drawers to discover more…

Silk/Linen Gena Coat :: Viscose Martha Top :: Silk Twill Ellen Dress

Cotton Lace Genevieve Top :: Straight Leg Jean :: Cyd Skirt

I’ve been having lots of fun exploring the Colette Sewing book and also trying out the Juniper trouser pattern (which I’ll be making in denim too to emulate the above pair of trou’s shortly)… So far have a gorgeous pair of corduroy slacks and a Pastille dress to share, as well as a Meringue skirt to start on too… Watch this space as normal blogging resumes after a slight holiday hiatus…

Craft Cafe: Ruth Singer

I am SO EXCITED to offer my next (rampantly overdue) Craft Cafe interviewee today. Ruth Singer grabbed my attention when I first saw her, years ago, at a Christmas craft fair at Shoreditch Town Hall. Since then, I have been able to use my limited connections to programme her workshops at the Barbican and (let’s be honest) STALK her fabulous self around craftland. I was even able to give my poor husband a ‘present’ (ahem) of my wedding dress fabric in three panels, commissioned from Ruth and photographed here. Following on from her competition-winning entry in Leicester for a pop-up craft workshop space, Ruth Singer Studio is now up and running on a longterm basis, offering all-level tuition and creative fabulouness for lucky Leicesterians out there. So, without further ado, and do try not to drool or grab any pretty gorgeous objet’s…

What inspires you?

My main inspiration always has been and probably always will be historic textiles. There isn't much I find more exciting than museums - fashion, textile, decorative arts, social history… I love them all, but my first true love is costume. More recently, my inspiration comes from other sources but is always combined with textiles and history; I work with memory, stories, personal lives and material culture when working on my more personal or conceptual pieces.

What would be your dream commission?

Probably a commission from a museum to make a piece related to their historical collections. I love private commissions too, but to have pieces in museum collections would make me really happy.

 Whose work do you admire and why?

Mostly I am huge fans of friends of mine because I know how hard they work and what their work really is about. My friend Amy Twigger Holroyd is a huge inspiration, as is Jennifer Collier - and pretty much anything she displays in her brilliant gallery Unit Twelve in Staffordshire. I also really love jewellers Clare Hillerby & Nora Fok. I adore Rob Ryan and am in the middle of stitching his collaborative needlework design by Emily Peacock. It is huge & will probably take years!

You work with many different materials including varied fabrics, ribbons, leathers... What's your favourite?

Vintage fabric is always my favourite - I love pre-war fabrics best of all, particularly prints but I don't use them in my work so much. For making, I like cotton - usually organic such as Cloud9 or Liberty Lawn. I use recycled wool felt a lot, that is probably high up on my favourites.  Silk is wonderful stuff and amazing to use, but the slipperiness is a pain! I do love antique silk ribbons a lot too.

You do a lot of teaching and workshop leading. Do you find that to be a creative process too, or a commercial necessity or a bit of both?

I love teaching! I suppose I wouldn't do so much if I could sell endless quantities of my work, but realistically, all full-time makers have another income of one sort or another. I do miss teaching if I don't do it, I am a sociable person and love sharing. I get a great kick out of inspiring people - whether they be adults with a love of textile, or kids who just love doing anything hands-on. I wouldn't want to give it up.

What's on your workbench right now?

I'm working on a new fabric manipulation book so there are samples all over the place. I am also working on a huge quilt for myself and there's a dress I started last November which needs finishing!

What do you listen to in the studio?

Radio 4. Constantly.

Are you a 'Pretty Organised' or 'Creatively Chaotic' artist?

Chaotic artist but organised studio manager, events organiser and administrator.

 What are your plans/hopes/dreams for 2012? What's next after Ruth Singer Studio?

My permanent studio space opens at the end of 2012 so that will be the start of new exciting ventures - I am planning to expand the workshop programme to cater for kids, mums, professional designer-makers and much more. Also my new book comes out in May 2013 so I am planning a solo exhibition to tie in with it. Plenty to keep me busy!

 

Thanks so much, Ruth. Keep up to date with Ruth’s work here and make sure to read her books, Sew It Up and Sew Eco.

Strawberry Pots forever

 

A lovely crop beckons from our little pot of strawberries out in the garden. Thanks to Granny to providing the summer entertainment which is providing many and various opportunities to confirm colour names. Tilly is adamant that the ENTIRE plant is red and ready at all times and needs significant convincing that there may in fact be green elements to it occasionally.

Crafting with unofficial materials Part Two

Part One here

My surfing and meandering through the long and expansive halls of the internet has unearthed this lovely range of little wonders: all available online and through the joys of Ravelry, with the exception of two books which are particularly floating my boat this week:

Uncommon Crochet and

Knitting Green: Conversations and Plant-friendly Projects

Suffice to say, they are now on my wishlist and have inspired all manner of pretty things on my needles (the imaginary ones in my head, of course. I’ve already got about 8 WIPs going already)…

And so, without further ado… the patterns… Will be sharing my progress on one or other of these in the near future… Let the string hooky commence…

Helen Limbrick’s Twine basket

Alice Merlino’s Starling Bag

Erika Knight’s Knitted Baskets

Kim Hamlin’s On the Go Bike Basket Purse from the lovely looking Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet Friendly Projects

Flower Burst bag pattern by Yasmin Gamal

Abigail Bailey’s Summery Jute Bag

Crafting with Unofficial Materials

No matter where you look, there is inspiration to be found. There are bits and bobs all around your house that are just waiting to be purloined and repurposed, as I have found to my delight on the wonderful ‘From Trash to Treasures’ group on Ravelry.

I’ve had a thought for a while of making placemats out of parcel string for my parents’ house. Their dining table is in a conservatory and placemats always fade in an instant when exposed to such constant and strong sunshine. The ‘outside-in’ elemnt of string placemats has also piqued my interest…

However, a basic search of patterns yielded nothing at all. I think this is most likely because the ‘yarn’ doesn’t exist as an official individual catalogued yarn and therefore it’s difficult to pin down…I then remembered that I can search by projects and so hunted for ‘twine’ in projects.

Wowsers what a source of inspiration and wonder…

Bufordsmom’s Crochet bags

Catfluff’s Deluxe String Bag with gorgeous trim applique

Yarnyday’s beaded placemat

Wubbahed’s Jute-a-long Handbag

PumeZA Doily Rug

Ikasatka's pot&glass-holder

RaeA’s Messenger Bag with extraordinary handles – you can read more about her work here

KellyLane6’s Round Cushion with string, rather than twine

Mocakava’s Miragamo bag with leather handles specifically commissioned from a local craftsman for such a fabulously professional finish.

A post on patterns and other official routes to achieve this gorgeous look to follow… :-)