Sewing Bee

Over the past few weeks I have been enjoying the second series of The Great British Sewing Bee on BBC 2. I've been meaning to get back behind my sewing machine for a while and watching the programme only made that desire stronger. I even went out and bought the accompanying book to the series and, although books made to capitalise on television series success can generally be a bit cack I've found this one to be marvellous. It is full of projects that I want to make and the full size patterns are a total bonus. They are printed in 5 large sheets, so the patterns need to be traced off but they are easy to find and it's not too onerous a task.

So to ease myself back into sewing I decided to give this tunic a go. It looked fairly simple and flattering, perfect for me when I can only snatch a few minutes here and there to sew. The fabric I'm using is a really cheap crepe lining so I won't feel bad if it all goes horribly wrong and because I always have a vest top or nursing tank on under my top it's no big deal if it ends up a bit too sheer. Rather than a contrasting colour for the yoke I've actually gone for a black satin I had in my scraps pile for a contrasting texture.

This project has provided a couple of firsts for me, making piping and sewing it into a seam. I'm actually really pleased with how well it went and I'm probably going to have to stop myself adding piping to everything I sew now! I still need to add the neck facing and then do them hems at the bottom and on the arms before the moment of truth, when I get to find out if I have created something wearable. Regardless, this has been a really fun project and it feels good to get sewing again.

 

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Blog Week

Much to my delight this year's Knitting and Crochet Blog Week has been announced for 12-18 May. I love this yearly chance to refresh my blog with new ideas, both from my own take on the topics and from other bloggers that I discover during the week. As someone who is currently up in the night quite a lot finding new interesting blogs is very welcome to help me while away the time as I nurse Felicity. This year's topics can be found here, I will be getting started writing really soon because it will take me a while to cobble all the posts together and because I'm excited to get going.

 

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Wedding Fever

I've just started a very secret knitting project which I will have going on in the background for the next little while, but my main projects coming up are all going to be for a very special event, the wedding of my brother to one of my favourite people, his lovely fiancée Rachael. They are getting married on 14 June at Monkey World in Dorset, a monkey sanctuary of all places! Cassie will be a bridesmaid, along with the 2 year old daughter of one of Rachael's friends and her cousin's 6 year old. Once Rachael had chosen the bridesmaid dresses I offered to make little shrug cardigans for the girls. I made it clear I wouldn't be offended if she didn't want me to, but she was pleased and we've now chosen a pattern

The winner is Marian by Taiga Hilliard and I'll be ordering some off-white yarn to make them with in the next few days. The pattern is so cute and I'm really looking forward to making them. The pattern only goes up to 4T, so I'll be making the larger one out of slightly thicker yarn and using a larger needle and I hope that will turn out right. They are shrugs so it's not necessary for them to do up which gives me a little wiggle room.

I'm also planning to make mine and Felicity's outfits for the wedding as well. I don't know how realistic that will be, Felicity should be no problem but I'll probably end up in the shops panic buying a week before the event!

And finally, because I hate a photo less post and because today is Mother's Day here in the UK, here are my beautiful girls for you.

 

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FO: Me and You MKAL

So it's over, my first ever MKAL and the fact that I've already signed up for the next one tells you all you need to know. And despite worrying about falling behind I actually finished lee than a week after the final clue came out, so all in all I'm calling it a success.

It took a little wrangling to get it into shape, but it wasn't too bad. I love how it was constructed, it was fun seeing it come together so I didn't mind having to pay attention a bit whilst blocking.

Cassie has really enjoyed wrapping herself up in it, I think I spend so much time telling her to stop touching my knitting that she gets all excited when she's allowed to handle the finished object.

She's not having it though, it's mine!

Recap: The pattern is Me and You by Fiddleknits, yarn is Schoppelwoll Admiral Ombré and some sock yarn I got from somewhere dyed with green food colouring.

 

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Me and You MKAL Clue 4

To begin with, Cassie's birthday was brilliant, she had a super weekend and got lots of lovely gifts. Luckily most people honoured my request for no more toys and she got mostly clothes and books. Our house generally looks like an explosion in a toy factory, especially now we are getting out bigger things like the baby gym and bouncer chairs for Felicity, so I really couldn't deal with any more! I was also really pleased with the way Cassie's cake turned out.

I got the general idea from something I saw on Pinterest and then added the chocolate ducks because Cassie loves ducks, or duck ducks as she calls them. I made the cake inside purple and it was delicious.

So on to the mystery shawl. The final clue came out on Friday and as predicted I had no hope of finishing by then. I actually finished last night and managed to get started on clue 5 too so the photo shows the first few rows of that.

The final clue has just as many rows as the previous 2 but as the rows are so much shorter now it shouldn't take me anywhere near as long. I look forward to sharing my finished shawl in the next few days.

 

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Happy Birthday!

As hard as it is for me to believe, today is Cassie's 2nd birthday! The last two years have raced by but they have been just wonderful. I've always thought I'd be sad as she got older and further away from being a tiny baby, but it enjoy watching her grow and learn and change so much - plus I have a new tiny girl to scratch that itch! Cassie has turned out to be a determined, bright and funny little girl, enthusiastic and adventurous. And of course she's a wonderful model for my makes!

Today she is wearing her Clothkits dress that a finished a while ago and never posted a picture of. I'm not sure how much longer it will fit, but she looks so cute in it.

Taking selfies with Nana

Most of today will be mostly spent making Cassie's cake, her party is tomorrow so today is quite low key. My mum is here to help me out with the girls while I cook and my MIL will be round later too. Maybe I'll even get a chance to put in a few rows on my MKAL shawl. I have no chance of finishing this clue on time, but that doesn't matter because birthday girls come first :)

 

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Me & You MKAL: Clue 3

When clue 3 arrived last Friday it became quite clear that I wasn't going to be doing any other knitting throughout the week and I was even a little unsure that I'd finish before the next clue arrived. Clearly that wouldn't be the end of the world, but having kept up so far I was keen to keep knitting along with everyone else. However with much knitting and with the 4th clue fortuitously arriving several hours later that the previous three I managed to finish with literally minutes to spare.

I'm starting to have an idea of what this will look like and I really love it. Looking at some of the other projects so far I do prefer the versions which have a really light colour where I have used that grey as those little cables pop out much better, but I still like mine anyway. This weeks clue has roughly the same amount of rows again, but as each row is shorter than the last I'm hoping it won't take me quite as long.

 

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