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.

A healthy addiction?

Its not often you walk into a Chinese restaurant and get transfixed by a knitted tank top!

Its official.  I am addicted to Fair Isle and Colour Strand knitting.

I spotted a young man in said restaurant wearing this and had to ask him if he would mind if I took a photo!  

He was very obliging and told me his grandmother had made it for him and that he would pass on my admiring comments.  What a good sport.

His girlfriend was also wearing another GrannyKnit tank top but I was laughing so much I only managed to photograph the table!?

I have three Fair Isle projects on the go right now.  I'm on pair no 3 of the mitts I've mentioned. The problem is that with each pair my technique improves and the previous pair end up the dog-walking glove basket!

I'm hoping my standard gets good enough so that some will end up in the Christmas-present basket!

My first ever attempt at Fair Isle was earlier this year making this hat with a great teacher, Fiona Morris, at a class in my local yarn store.  I'm so proud of that hat, even though now I've had more practice, I can see all my mistakes and am a little embarrassed about the shape.  Still, it works and I made it.

Heirloom Blanket 2016

Now I am motoring on and have joined designer, Marie Wallin's, Fair Isle Club.  Each month she sends out a pattern and, armed with the right colour combination of yarns (lovely Felted Tweed from Rowan), we are to knit a 'sample'.  Eventually all the samples will be joined together, edged with ribbing and, as Mr M commented, an heirloom blanket will exist.

January's project

Talking of Mr M.  He's been so intrigued by my immersion in Fair Isle and interested in the creative process (especially as I've been borrowing his computer to watch videos and download tutorials as my ancient machine won't play along), that I asked him if he would like me to knit him a jumper?

And, reader, he said yes!

I know I know, I'm supposed to be making one for me first.....but I had signed up for this class and thought he might like a version of it.

I like the colours but want to knit it as a waistcoat and also make it longer...and if it doesn't fit him, well I could wear it!

I've just ordered the yarn and will start this project in January.

Looks like I'm losing the battle against the reducing the wool stash!

Practical Solutions - Bias Binding

Want to create nearly 100 inches of bias binding from just a 10 inch square of fabric?  Read on my friend (and sorry for the crappy photos!)

Jessie Chorley's altered books

I hate wasting fabric and am always looking for wise ways of using offcuts.

Of course, quilting was the traditional way of making the best use of small pieces of fabric and I have also been inspired by the likes of Jessie Chorley, Janet Clare and Mrs Bertimus who do amazing things using applique, mixed media and found objects.

And whilst these creative persuits are all on my list of things to explore further, I'm a sucker for a bit of practical creativity.

So, when I discovered a way of using a small bit of fabric to create bias binding....well, I was off!

2 x 10" squares

Sew straight edge, rights sides tog

I had some lovely bits of Liberty Tana Lawn hanging around so cut 2 x 10" squares.

Then cut them in half diagonally and with right sides facing sewed the bottom edge to create two parallelograms.

Draw 1" lines - 

I drew 1" lines on wrong side of fabric, lengthwise, and made them line up so that they were actually creating a spiral.


Sewed a 1/4" seam with right sides together to make a kind of uneven tube.

Then I cut along the line, remembering to cut the fabric as a continuous ribbon.

I ended up with about 2 metres of bias binding.  I just ironed mine in half as my little binding gadget in the photo was for a much wider cut of fabric...

(Perhaps Santa might put a 1/2" bias binding maker in my stocking this Christmas?)

Stitch and mitts

@mjmucklestone

In anticipation of the cardigan I going to knit, I need to build up my skills. To relieve the perfectionist pressure I am putting on myself I've taken the advice of brilliant knitting guru Karen Templer and put myself in training for the Big Knit by making hats and fingerless mitts.

Karen says that once you've learnt the fingerless mitt with a thumb gusset you're pretty much halfway to a cardigan, and she sings the praises of this pattern: the Muckle Mitt from Mary Jane Mucklestone (check out her website for gorgeous Fair Isle patterns).

See the cute thumb gusset?

Using up odds and ends

I'm on my second pair already and Karen is right, they're great fun to make; plus they're a great way to use up left-over bits of yarn, thereby helping me clear my 'stash' and the possibilities for patterns and colour combinations seem endless!

Also, alongside making cosy mitts as gifts, I finally get to be a person who can wield four needles and two yarns of wool at the same time!   I used to think that this was some kind of Dark Art of Knitting - and now I've mastered it, its a deeply satisfying, highly creative and fun way to knit.

Socks may move up the knitting leader board yet!

Sew Ho Ho

When our children were born Stella, a friend of my mother-in-law's, would make them a Christmas stocking.  At this point I should post a cosy fireside picture but that would require me going up into the attic, opening up the Christmas decs bag and, quite frankly, its too early in December.

Plus I might be a bit scared there's a mouse up there.

Anyway, needless to say, now I am a Granny with a mild obsession with making stuff, I feel that our Little Love should have her own stocking, too.  

Ho ho ho

I'm not saying I can compete with Stella's amazing efforts but I felt inspired to give it a go after I found some lovely Christmas fabric during a browse around the Eternal Maker and an online tutorial here.

I'd love to be able to show some elegant, Instagram-lifestyle, Pinterest-ready version of how things turned out.  

But, as I may have alluded to before, there often seems to be a mis-match between what I imagine in my head and what I end up making.

No no no!

I mean, I KNOW how to do applique, for crying out loud.   

I've also watched tutorials, downloaded (and even read) a great little instruction e-book and practiced many plenty of times.  

However....  this was baaad.

I need to remember that the whole reason for the blog being named Fashionably Slow is to celebrate the creative process and to honour the time it takes to make things from scratch.   The problem is I get so excited about starting something new that I rush in and mess up.

Things I have learnt from my mistakes: the secret to Applique is to make sure you stabilise the front fabric with some iron-on vilene, and the back with stitch and tear paper.   Practice on scrap fabric first.  AND SLOW DOWN. 

Plenty of room for pressies.

I always underestimate how long its going to take to make something.  I always think that I can just 'run something up' on my sewing machine.  

This was just one of the things on my list to make today and it took me hours!  

I reckon the next one will be easier, though!