Hopping Mad

So, with an adult jumper project on the go, a baby blanket to make, a smock for my granddaughter to finish off, plus several fair isle items on various needles it seemed a perfect time to get obsessed with a new project!

I'm always looking for ways to use up the scraps of yarn that gather after projects are finished and these little bunnies provided the perfect opportunity to use up bits and bobs.

I found the patterns from this website, they are a little challenging to begin with, but as I'm now on bunny no. 3 - I think I'm getting the hang of it!

Esme the Easter Bunny

Bunny No2 already for her dress

Now, back to those other projects.......

Grab a cuppa and visit to the Shetland Museum & Archives

There I was on a snowy Saturday afternoon, working on my Gudrun Johnson Craftsy Class: The Shetland Hap Shawl and watching a live broadcast of a study day on knitting at the Shetland Museum!

You gotta love the internet!!

Its now available on their website and I can catch up on the morning talks that I missed:  http://www.shetlandmuseumandarchives.org.uk/collections/museum/textiles

Put the kettle on and join me for a fascinating tour of the Shetland traditions in knitting!

Going like the clappers - and other hot tips.

Whenever the washing pile and the ironing pile create a perfect storm - I think of my grannies.  Nan O'Toole was a tiny little thing with snow white hair and sparkly blue eyes who, when her husband had left her and their 9 children for another woman, took in other people's laundry to put food on the table.


No washing machine, just a boiler and a mangle.

My other granny was widowed young and left to care for four children.  She died when I was a baby but I've heard the stories of how hard she worked to lead her family out of difficult times.

Now, each time I process the laundry I connect with the old girls and say a quiet hello to the grannies and give thanks and appreciation for their grit - and am grateful for modern appliances!

Tailor's Clapper

Organza Pressing Cloth

I think they'd been highly amused at my new toys!  Can you guess what they are?

On the left is a square of organza cloth - perfect when you want to actually see what you are pressing but need to protect the fabric from the iron.

On the right is a Tailor's Clapper - an amazing device that my grandmothers' were no doubt very familiar with.  I'm not super confident with my sewing yet, but one thing I want to be able to achieve is a handmade rather than homemade look and, I'm reliably informed by my friend who's mother worked for a couturier, the secret is in the pressing!

The clapper gives a lovely finish as the wood absorbs the moisture from the steam and flattens the seams beautifully.

So, my dear grannies, your years of hard labour doing laundry has not been wasted on me!  I am a woman who appreciates the value of good laundry skills!

To see the clapper in action, here's a really helpful video from Didyoumakethat? There's lots of great info and inspiring posts on her blog, too.

The final piece: where I satisfyingly tick something off my to-do list!

So here's a story about an impulse purchases that took a loooong time to finalise. 

About two years ago, fresh into my creative journey, I bought some lovely silk jewel coloured yarn and started making granny squares with no particular idea of an outcome.

Son no2 liked the feel of the squares - soft and silky - so I decided I'd make him a cushion.  I felt that an old jumper would be perfect for the back cover and daughter No2 pulled out one that had sat in a rather large pile in her wardrobe for a couple of years that had perfect colours to match   Sorted.

I finished the squares quite quickly and then promptly forgot about them.  

My to-do list keeps growing and I am getting almost uncontrollable yarn-purchasing urges so I decided that I needed to at least purge my stash and see what needed finishing before adding more exciting projects (and yarn) to the list!  

I found the squares and spent a few evenings crocheting them together, tidying up the ends and blocking it out to get it straight-ish.

All together now

I was ruminating on what had taken me so long to finish this project and realised it is the same old thing - fear of getting it wrong.  As I was going through the process of cutting up the jumper and sewing it all together I could hear myself worrying about the finish, about making a mistake, about how it would look. 

My goal with Fashionably Slow is to establish a hand-crafted life, making as much clothing, food, cleaning products, gifts and stuff as I can from scratch.  Keeping the process as simple and as gentle to the environment as possible. 

I've realised that means being kind to myself too - otherwise it will just become Fashionably Slow Torture!

Cuddly Jumper Side

Silky Square Side

Mood Shot!

What's needling me?

This blog is called Fashionably Slow for a reason....it takes time for me to get to it!!

Even though I haven't posted for a while - I haven't been lazy.  (And my blog silence has nothing to do with the fact that I may have forgotten my password for a few weeks and finally found it written down in my trusty 'password log book'.  On my desk.  In front of my nose.)

Family Heirloom in progress

Anyway.  Passion craft of the moment is definitely knitting and in true knit addict fashion, I currently have several projects on the go at once.  

Even though I love making the year-long- family heirloom-Fair Isle blanket, I have already fallen behind.  The pattern for Month 5 just arrived in the post and I am barely through Month 2. 

This project requires quite a big amount of 'head space' for me.  No talking, no radio, no tv...just quiet focus which I haven't had recently, but I feel a big wave of Fair Isle coming on..... I'll show you the cunning plan I have devised to help me better manage this project at a later date.

Getting to know the process

Knit by Numbers

In the meantime I've been working on a simple hat pattern from a brilliant blog The Craft Sessions.  This blog is a lovely place to hang out and the hat pattern Felicia posted is a great way to use up old yarn, plus I'm learning to understand the basics of construction, gauge and tension with her pattern.  

Its a quick hat to knit and I'm using the glorious Knit by Numbers, which feels so lovely on the needles.  This was the second hat I've made (my 'dog walking' hat supply is growing- as are my donations to an inspiring charity KnitAid) and now I'm ready to construct one for Son No1.  He wants his with a slightly longer rib and a longer body of hat for a slouchy shape and, I'm delighted to say, I now know how to do that.

Getting the plan together

One of my goals this year is to knit my own jumper.

I am so lucky to have a fabulous local yarn shop nearby with a great visiting teacher.  Fiona Morris is an experienced, very patient teacher and extremely generous with her time, knowledge and skills.

Whilst knitting baby garments has developed my skills and techniques I wanted to understand how to create a good fit - and to learn more about gauge and tension.  So I am doing a 'Knit Your Own Jumper' course with Fiona and learning the skills needed to create adult jumpers that actually fit.

Using a basic pattern we have custom built our jumper designs and over the next two months will create our own garment.  I am using a tweedy double knit called Harrap Tweed from Sirdar.  I don't love it but I didn't want to knit my first jumper with a yarn I really loved incase the jumper didn't work out the way I see it in my head.

This yarn is good, its workable and warm and, if the jumper works out, will be good for dog walks!!  Ah, country life!  And look at the lovely vintage buttons I found in a charity shop.  Perfect for the neck fastening.  I found large and small sizes, I think the larger ones will actually be perfect for the sleeveless fair isle cardigan I've got planned for Mr M.

 And, just in case I get bored of all the above, there is the pressing matter of the baby blanket I am knitting for a little one due early July. Fiona very kindly gave me a pattern off the top of her head when I told her the size blanket I wanted to make and the yarn I wanted to use.  Its driving me mad because I stupidly chose small needles (3.25mm).  I should have gone for 4mm as this Debbie Bliss cashmerino can take it and the blanket would have grown faster!  Anyway, the baby is still in situ and there's still time.

I just hope I'm not still saying that end-June!

The Creative Urge

Happy New Year!!!!

I was going to show you some of the projects I've been working on but there's a bit of a domestic going on between my new computer and my old phone.  They won't talk to one another...hoping one of the kids will come home soon and sort it out!

I woke early this morning, made myself a cup of tea, found a lovely notebook in my stationery stash and settled back into bed to begin my journal for 2016 only to discover something truly depressing.

Not only did the notebook already contain entries for early 2014 AND 2015 but I'd also written pretty much the same thing in those entries as I was about to write today.

On the plus side I used to find keeping a journal helped me make sense of my emotions and experiences but now my creative endeavours help me to process them.

Being creative helps me feel centred, clear-headed and more resilient.

I wish to God I'd known this earlier!!!

copyright Brene Brown

For the last few years I've been choosing a word rather than resolutions.

2014 was Creativity and that was amazing.  I did a fabulous online art-journaling course with Brene Brown that totally opened up my Creative Chakra and allowed me to see myself as a creative person.

*Sadly, that course is no longer available but she is doing a Living Brave Semester if you're interested in exploring what she has to offer.   I've signed up for it and am really looking forward to Living Brave.

I love a project!

*Seems I was wrong!  You can still get it from here.  Have fun.

My word for 2015 was Commitment and it was a great way to keep me on track.  Whether it was a creative project or a personal issue, every time I felt like giving up I would ask myself 'what would commitment look like?'  Amazing answers and solutions often presented themselves in very simple, baby steps.

So, 2016 my word is Courage (the c-word things is just a co-incidence).  Not big lion-wrestling courage but small, quiet, daily courage that continues the journey that the previous years' words help me navigate - a creative path of growth and development.

Choose Courage over Comfort.  Brene Brown

It takes courage to cut fabric and begin a project when the fear of getting it wrong is so great.

It takes courage to show what I'm working on when I judge my abilities.

It takes courage to learn something new when I feel inadequate.

Hello and welcome to 2016 and to Courage.

Make yourself at home but don't get too comfortable, 

we've got work to do! 

A touch of Startitis

Heirloom Blanket Section 1

Even though I TOLD myself I'd only knit a couple of rows of my Heirloom Blanket before Christmas.

Even though I SHARED here the project I have planned for the NEW YEAR.

Even though I meant to focus on the 3 hats and 2 pairs of mitts I still have to make for Christmas, I came down with a dose of Startitis.

For me the first symptoms are a rumbling in the tummy.  A kind of excited bubbly feeling that I call 'the Christmas feeling' (which can take hold at any time of year).

Then fingers start to itch and a strange restless energy takes over.  I find myself desperately wanting to get organized; photocopying patterns, gathering yarn, sorting out files, needles and setting up a 'project bag' (more on those another time).

Once the virus takes hold I can do nothing but surrender to the creative process - casting on stitches and happily playing with the new yarn, feeling how it works on the needles, enjoying the movement of the fabric being created and absorbing the colours in the yarn.

Don't touch - highly infectious waistcoat yarn!

This time, however, I think I've managed to get on top of it before it wreaked havoc.  I did a little sorting of yarn for Mr M's waistcoat before I rallied.

I've still got the tail-end of a section of heirloom blanket but once this bit is done I should be well and truly back on track with hats and mitts.

This little dose was very yarn related...but I am also susceptible to the fabric and needlework startitis strain too.

I'm mindful that there's always a lot of Startitis around at this time of year and aim to keep myself strong by maintaining a healthy focus on the work in hand.

A couple of post-Christmas days quietly working on new projects should have me feeling much better.