Creative mode - GO!

Ah! Today was a productive one for me! I went to sleep last night thinking about all the things I could make today. It feels great to have done some garment sewing for a change :) This is a bodice pattern traced from a Burda pattern book, I had never tried it before, but am happy with the result. I love piecing together bodices like this even though this one was bit of a mystery to put together. I didn't write down how to ensemble it. This is just a practice one however, so I will line it and wear it myself.

Think I will use this for costumes in the near future. I am getting ready for the costume extravaganza that is Midsummer's night dream. That's three months away, but there is a lot of designing, making and a lot of costumes to make before July. Getting really excited about it,, but can't share any of it on here till after the show is done.

In other news, I've been knitting away at my cabled swirl jumper. It's progressing slowly...

The first swirl is nearly done... love the lattice pattern, here is a close up view:

I highly recommend learning how to knit cables without a needle if you're going to attempt such a project!

I'm also working on a dress (out of cotton, and it's nearly winter, I'm mad yes) made from a 70's pattern my Grandma gave me. It's missing the pieces for the bodice back and front, so I have drafted my own versions, they should work okay :) The dress design has lovely bishop sleeves, which I am making out of translucent green cotton, the body of the dress is a green brown and white batik fabric. I'm hoping to make it loose enough to wear layers underneath it to make it wearable in cooler weather.


That's all for now, I'm going to spend the rest of the evening planning costumes and knitting by the fire. The weather is nasty outside but the creativity is going strong!

Finished this week:

1. Mohair jumper bands taken off and replaced by pink mohair cast off.
2. K9 printed hoodie
3. Green pieced bodice trial
4. Crests for history boys play
5. Ginger beer - it's finished fermenting, now we just have to bottle it and wait.

In progress:

1. Swirl jumper -5% done
2. Moss stitch cycling headband
3. Batik 70's dress
4. MSND costume inspiration
5. Various other neglected knitting projects...

K9

I'm really excited! I just finished printing this hoodie with a reference from my beloved Dr who :)
When I first saw K9, I loved him. He's such a great robot!

I wonder if anyone would know what episode this is from?
Anyway, I love it and plan to do more Who inspired imagery on clothes. Next plan is to do a dalek vs. cyberman tshirt or a tom baker style one... With the perfect quotes to go with them!

I think I will wear this hoodie to death now....

The last week has seen us get a lot of nasty wet weather, but it's also meant that I've been inside working away at things. Last Monday we went for a walk and found a whole heap of bottles for Home brewing, so that made us very happy. They are lovely big strong bottles and the labels come off easily indeed. We started a new batch of beer too, after more than a month after the last batch.
This time it is ginger beer!

 It smelt amazing bubbling away in our kitchen while the wind and rain lashed horribly outside. There's something very comforting about making a brew when the weather's bad. We re-used our yeast from the last batch and it activated nicely a went crazy yesterday morning. Now it's regularly blooping away which is good to see. Recipe was simple: 2 x light malt extract, 37gm of grated ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of non ferment-able sweetener, 25L water and re-used lager yeast. The sweetener will remain sweet in the brew after fermentation, giving the beer a sweet flavour, like ginger beer should have. This batch will have a higher percentage of alcohol which is good. Our last batch is very light.

So far we haven't made a bad batch, which is great! Wonder how long that will last? We're surprised that we haven't made a bad one yet. In fact, all the ones we have made so far we'd love to make again. We will eventually run out of stout, and that would be a shame, so we shall have to make some more.

Crafting wise....

I love woollen jumpers. This one is no exception except that when I got it, the neck was incredibly high and itchy. I prefer low necks and wearing a scarf to keep warm. I feel a bit strangled in a high neck. So I decided to take the neck off this lovely red thing. Luckily the jumper was slightly felted, when I cut the fabric the edge stayed perfectly well together. A few rows of coloured zig-zag for reinforcement, a recycled collar and cuffs added and a jeans money pocket for a chest pocket was all it needed to be a bit more decorative and fun.

 Being a felted jumper it is incredibly warm. Got to love toffs second hand clothing - $3 this one. I did have to search thoroughly through the jumper section though. It's incredible just how much clothing these days is horrible and synthetic! Long live 100% pure wool I say.

 Mushrooms are growing! More slowly now that the weather is cooler. They are so fresh and delicious, and cute too as they grow from little blobs into caps that open up gradually. Hoping that more will grow soon, they seem a bit unhappy, perhaps where they are is too cold?

Progress on the Inkle weaving - I got into this the other day and couldn't stop. I'm happy with the result but realise now that I made a mistake in my calculations.. time to rescue it somehow.. Aren't the colours cheerful though? They make me smile :)

Designing a simple hat that is quick to make, to sell at the markets. Is this colour combination hideous or not? It looked good when I first put them together...

Swirl jumper! Knitting is a bit cramped up on it's needle, but you get the idea. Making slow progress on this one, but enjoying the cables more now that I have taught myself how to cable without a cable needle. It's really not that hard once you learn which way the stitches need to cross. I can get across a row much quicker now. Eager to see how the main cable will turn out after one whole repeat. 

Well as I typed this entry the sun has been setting, the peninsula is half bathed in golden light and the detail is lit up beautifully. I must say that I've enjoyed seeing blue sky again in the last few days. It's weird to think that even on the wettest, most miserable day, above the clouds it's still blue and bright. Went up the hill today for a view of the city and surrounding hills. It really is a good place to go to think or relax. A rabbit ran up the path towards me, stopped, blinked then went on under the fallen tree I was sitting on. 

That's pretty reflective of me isn't it?

Nest week my parents return to Dunedin town, so busking will start soon too! Let you know how that goes...

Projects on the go:

• Swirl jumper
• etc etc the usual knitting projects
• Inkle weaving
• hat designing for market day
• Ginger beer

Finished this week:

• Orange plaid skirt - added tie dye panels
• Red jumper altered
• various pants taken in
• mended oscar's slippers
• designed a crest for the history boys play

Autumn chill - brrrrr!

 

 Finally, I have taught myself how to use the ribber attachment on my knitting machine! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be either. My knitter came with all the instruction booklets you could ever need, so I followed them and managed to come up with this:

Actual, stretchy, lovely rib knitting! The set up was really simple, I'm very pleased with the results, except that the knitting has a habit of coming off the needles completely sometimes... which isn't good. Not sure how to stop that from happening, I don't want to knit a pair of socks only to have it come off in the middle of knitting it. Next I tried knitting in the round! Woohoo :D That worked well too, apart for the aforementioned knitting coming off the needles.

I'm really excited to give sock knitting the round a go now, no seaming whatsoever! I imagine it is really quick to do. Perfect project for chilly weather, which seems to have hit us already.

What other projects have I been working on?

My family knows me well I think! First Oscar gave me a knitting machine, and then for Xmas my mum got me an Inkle loom. I've done weaving on a rigid heddle loom and a 8 shaft loom before, but i love how simple the inkle is to warp up and work with. No fiddly threading of needles, just a simply made shaft using string heddles and a few knots. I also love how you can just pull the warp around and it moves as one piece around the pegs to make more room to weave!

This is my colourful stripey warp, the striped should make a pattern in the weaving. I messed up the warping at first, but even though I had already tied everything off I was still able to fix it without any hassle.

Close up of the warp and heddles, you simply press the upper threads down to change the shed and weave the other way. This weaving will become wrist cuffs, which I plan to sell at market next month. The weft? Silk fabric scraps cut into strips :)

Now this stuff, this stuff is weird. I bought it at toffs, it was in the yarn box and I thought it was fleece. It kind of is... it's like all the leftover bits from a woollen mill all mixed together. Very tweedy! Makes me wish I had my drum carder here, I would blend it with some other fibre and make a lovely colourful blend. As it is, I think I'll just spin bits of it into other fleece for highlights.

Theatre posters! The two plays I have put costumes together for this year. I hope by the end of the year to have all the posters up there :) I have photos of the plays, but can't share some of them here, they are for my own personal use. Also a D'oyleys folder from my Grandma, definitely and antique that one. Gearing up for Midsummer's night dream soon. It's going to be fantastic! A costume extravaganza! I'm also going to audition for a small part in the play too, I might have gotten a taste for acting....

In other news:

• We've started a veggie garden, thanks to our landlady who gave us permission to dig up some of her lawn. Her words; "It's there to be used, so go ahead, no problems". We double digged it, added blood and bone and dug in well rotted compost with plenty of worms too. I've planted rainbow silverbeet, kale squire, borage, red lettuce and pak choi. All lovely greens which we really miss since last year we had such a great garden to eat from. 

• I started the swirl jumper! link to Ravelry here: swirl jumper I plan to knit this without the high neck, perhaps with a simple rounded neck instead. Enjoying the complex cabling, but I really need to learn how to knit without a cable needle, the lattice cable section makes my left hand sore. Hope to get this one done before winter, I think I'll need it
• We tried the beer! The leaping goat pilsner is ready and tastes lovely, like feijoa and elderflower fizzy drink. The hops are so fragrant and refreshing. It's a very light beer however, one stubby does nothing to you. But it would be a great summer beer, refreshing and light.

Well that's it for this week! hope to have progress shots up of the jumper, machine knit socks and inkle weaving soon :) Right now I think I'll go and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts and go for a walk. Then it's back home for a crafting session, and perhaps I can get back to my neglected sewing machine. I really haven't sewn much lately... perhaps I have been distracted by other projects?

In progress:

• Swirl jumper - 5% done
• Sunflower tam - 70% done
• Summit scarf - 75% done
• Inkle wrist cuffs - 5% done
• Mending of various clothing and knits

Finished this week:

• Mended stripey cardigan, elbow had a hole. patched with a crochet circle.
• Veggie garden bed dug and sown
• Leaping goat pilsner

Vest complete! Also market day preparations

 I'm in the progress of making things for the upcoming uni market, this time I'm focussing on accesories rather than clothing, thinking that they might sell better.

 

One finished bag, which folds up really nice and small to fit into your handbag when you need it for extra carrying space.

Printing with a old fashioned cotton reel. This was just a test, the reel (terrible pun) project was a hoodie that needed decorating, it's front pocket is covered in these designs.

 

Just to give you an idea of my work area, this is the view from my sewing room window! Amazing isn't it? I quite often see ships coming into the harbour pulled by tugboat. That's the otago peninsula in the distance.

So this is my vest, finished! It's the warmest thing in the world, can turned out beautifully. I just love those cables.... I'm not going to be cold this winter am I?

Improvised back...

Kupla mittens, finally photographed. That pink is a hard colour to photograph.They remind me of flowers the pink circle being the flower head and the slip stitches below the stems. Also kind of reminiscent of giraffe spots. Whatever they look like they are very cheerful gloves to wear on grey days :)

Summit scarf in progress, what an intriguing pattern, it's addicting to knit. Soft cashmere makes this project a bit of a treat really.

Better get back to the market day stuff, it's a grey wet day so perfect for spending in my craft room. Although the view is a bit hard to see properly today!

Projects finished lately:

• Woollen mithril vest
• Oscar's beret
• Big jeans taken in to be skinny and from high waisted to hip height
• Sister George costumes
• Mum's birthday present
• Market bags

Projects on the go:

• Sunflower tam - 55% and confusing as hell, I don't know what's going on with the stitch count
• Summit scarf - 75% done
• Market bags
• Market cuffs
• Jumper - Planning on starting Lempster soon, but need a day when I'm not too busy to start it. The start is quite fiddly by the look of it.
• Mittens - haven't really looked at these for weeks :0

New projects

The last week has had me starting some bigger projects:

Leaping goat pilsner beer, a very basic brew with only light malt, Motueka hops and lager yeast. This beer had a really slow fermentation which means it'll have developed a good flavour, better than a quick fermentation would. It'll be a very light beer, probably at 2% or something.

This year I seem to only want to knit garments! After finishing knitting my vest I want to make a jumper but can't seem to decide on a pattern. I have two that I like but aren't happy with the way they're constructed. One is knit flat and then seamed, with a very interesting pattern. The other is knit flat to the armpits them knit in the round for the yoke. Both are beautiful but have their drawbacks. The yoked jumper is so very boring to knit - a lot of stockinette st and I cannot be bothered with so much seaming. I'd really like to knit a jumper completely in the round! Norah Gaughan's Lempster looks wonderful, I just need a print out of the pattern :)

Anyway this yarn was a fantastic purchase from my favourite second hand clothing store; Toffs. 18 balls of yarn for 18 bucks! Bargain! Plenty for a whole jumper. Very pleased with that value for money. It's really good quality yarn as well.

My Grandma gave me some of her old sewing pattern, this dress is from the 60's. The play I'm putting costumes together for at the moment is set in the sixties and I just happened to find a dress just like these for one of the characters. What a co-incidence that it was actually from the sixties... maybe my sense of time appropriate clothing isn't as bad as I thought!

Woollen mithril
Here's a picture of the vest I've made for myself, hand spun and hand knitted by me. It's all cast off now, just needs to be sewn up and I can wear it! It's very warm and cosy, nice and long which is good in a vest I reckon, you don't want cold hips. Pictures to come of the finished vest being worn by me! First garment I can truly be happy with! Pattern is this Have to say I loved knitting this, the cables were complicated enough to be interesting and the way they twist around is intriguing. Yarn was a bit thick for the needles I used.. so I could only knit a bit before stopping.

 

Decided that we need another quilt for our bed. The one we have is lovely but looking a bit worn out. It'd be good to have another one to use, a different look. This quilt looks like fun, Lonestar quilt and I have a lot of woollen scraps left over from my Dr who coat. Started cutting out diamonds today, but think I might need some more fabric to be able to finish it, I don't have enough. the June fabric sale is so far away though!

 

Needs a bit more variety I think... I'm thinking rows of colours as the star spreads outwards would be good, just like the finished one above...

We went for a drive the other day and found these lovely Boer meat goats in a field by the road. As Oscar and I will squeal at any chance to pat and feed a goat we rushed at the chance to say hello to these two. The little one had such a cute bleat. The older one enjoyed having it's back scratched. I haven't even put up pictures of the pigs that live down the road! And the donkeys....

Well that's pretty much it for this week, should have some more things to share in a week or so. if I post every week that'd be good. Feels like a long time since I got into any sewing projects, so that will be my goal this next week, really get absorbed in something and get creative again :)

Finished this week:

• Tea towels for the kitchen.
• Killing of sister George costumes

In progress:

• Woollen star quilt
• Leaping goat pilsner
• Woollen mithril vest
• Lempster? Or other jumpers?

Back again!

After a long break I'm back again, now we have a proper internet connection! I've been up to a lot of different things :)

 Travelling the north island! This is Mount Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom!) on the left and Mount Ruapehu on the right. What a wonderful sight.. the Volcanoes were the most impressive thing we saw on our trip, Mt Taranaki being even more so.

 Dyeing more blanks again, this time with different wools and colours. My favourite is the tweedy one, both for colour and texture. These will be turned into machine knit socks and hand knit gloves. I'm really excited to be able to make socks in the round on my knitter soon. At the moment I'm just knitting them flat and seaming them together.

Wonderful summer flowers, I don't even know what they're called. There's plenty of them around at the moment. These ones are beautifully rounded and intricate, with curved petals. They look more like those carved watermelons you see in Thailand.

 Dr who coat! There was a nerdy expo on a few weeks ago and I couldn't resist dressing up as Colin baker, the sixth doctor as the actor who played him was actually there! I thought I was entering a cosplay contest with it, but just turned out to be a parade. Anyway, it was fun to make, and now I have an extra funky coat. Colourful enough to cheer up a grey winter's day :)

A new tea cosy! Made from scraps of my own design. In the background is the mushroom kit we got for xmas, we started growing them ages ago, and still waiting on actual mushrooms to sprout out. Here's hoping....

And most excitingly, homebrew!

Our first batch of beer, Irish stout is bottled and maturing right now. Look at how dark it is! Home brewing is becoming a really enjoyable hobby for us and our friends do well out of us with free beer :D We've now got another batch brewing, a lighter, hoppier beer with Motueka hops in it. By May we should be able to start drinking it!

Well that's all for today, but I'm looking forward to writing more regularly from now on. It'll be good to document my projects and share them with you, that is, my readers (if there still are any!)

Current projects:

• Handspun, hand knitted cabled vest; Woollen Mithril
• Cashmere summit scarf
• Machine knit socks
• Sunflower tam
• Costumes for "The killing of sister george"

Finished lately:

• Mum's birthday present
• Dr who coat
• Kupla mittens
• Irish stout
• Journey's end costumes