Mac is a disaster but other things not!!!

Well I finally got round to refashioning the first mac!! It was an old lady's baggy shapeless nylon mac. I thought that if I made it into a shorter more fitted version it would like having a usable toile but I do try and ride my bike quite a lot so would be useful to wear on that.

It did start well, I used my overlocker for most of it, it was double breasted so that gave me a bit of fabric to play with. I kept the pockets and the button holes and the collar, but recut the main pieces around those constraints. I did take the collar off and put it back on the new fronts and back.

So far so good, the fit was ok and whilst it was never going to be high fashion it was still a nylon mac after all, it did look as though it might be useful. Then I got careless and didn't measure the new sleeves and they are miles too tight!! Pants!!! This has made the bust line pull as well, as you can see!

And it is very uncomfortable!! I have no material left that can make any difference to this so there is no way to rescue it!! But I shall probably use it to line make-up bags or washbags so it won't go to waste. I've also learnt to be more careful and I have another mac that I want to change so I will measure the sleeves more carefully on that one. I do have a different pattern that I might try for that one as it is a better quality fabric and I want to make it knee length if I can, anyway I'll have another go this weekend and see how that one turns out! Watch this space.

These are the other things that I have finished recently, my olympic cardi,

I'm pleased with this, it fits reasonably well and although it is only 4ply, an old Rowan 4-ply, Botany wool I think, because it's all wool its very warm but not itchy so is useful over short sleeve stuff. This suits me well as at my age, the old thermostat has a mind of its own!!

These are my skew socks. this is the back view and it does make a good use of the patterned yarn, you end up grafting stitches for the heel parallel to the floor and I must say they look pretty odd as you are making them up! However, they are a nice snug fit but mine are a bit tight to get over the heel!! I knitted them on 2.00mm needle as I didn't have a 2.25mm but I have had a trip to Iknit since making these and now have a 2.25mm Addi lace needle. I'm a great fan of knitting socks on a circular needle using the magic loop method. I have never attempted to knit both socks at the same time so I still get a touch of 2nd sock syndrome but I can overcome that fairly easily if I like the sock pattern I'm using!!.

Well I'm off to my newly formed knitting group now, there are just 5 of us but if any one out there is in the Stourbridge area and would like to join us for coffee, chat and knitting drop me an email. See ya later!!

Good weekend

I've had a great weekend. It started on Friday evening by going to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It was fab, I loved the costumes and Johnny Depp does it for me however you dress him up. (I wasn't keen on Willy Wonka). Saturday I cleared up the corner of my bedroom which has been gathering junk and dust for too long, in preparation for moving a table in there and making it a sewing corner. Then I can clear the dining room of all my sewing gear. However, I needed some muscles to help with the furniture removal, so I moved downstairs to the dining room and the sewing machine. I cut out some jamas for my son's girlfriend's birthday present.

Have any of you got overlockers? Well I invested in one a few years ago and when it works its fab but when the threading goes wrong it is a nightmare!! This always,always happens when I'm in a rush! And one thing that never works is trying to rush threading an overlocker!! So when this happened a few weeks ago, I just abandoned it and have been using the zigzag stitch on my regular machine. But the jamas have a jersey top so would be better overlocked and a friend had asked me to take up some trews and the overlocker makes the edge much nicer. So Saturday, I decided to sit calmly and thread the wretched thing and not plan to use it straightaway, well blow me down but it worked first time, did you hear that first time!! So the key to sorting overlockers is to do it when you don't want to use it!!

The rest of my weekend was spent finishing a little red cardi for Pixie who I met last week! I also completed the jamas and took up the trews!! So a very productive and satisfying weekend. I even sneaked in a bit of refashioning!!

I'll post pics of stuff tomorrow, but I'm off to cast on some socks now, Gentlemans socks by Designedly Kristi.

Birthday socks!!

So here are the tune-king's birthday socks. He loves them, no tight cuffs or ankle squeezes, as we have had with past socks. Stretchy but no bagginess, basically a success from his point of view. I like knitting them the 4 row pattern was easy to remember and the measurements were on row count, so I stood a reasonable chance of getting 2 matching socks, I have a terrible tendency to stretch the 2nd, sock (or sleeve) to make it fit!! Definitely a pattern I will use again and recommend to beginner sock knitters. Its on ravelry and is called Harris Tweed socks by Ali Green.

I have had a pretty productive weekend knitting wise, I've finished my 1st Skew sock, another ravelry pattern. It looks very odd as you make it and has kept the tune-king and our lodger amused as they didn't believe it could be a sock!! And I've finally sewed buttons on the olympic cardi and its blocking as we speak, so photos of that later in the week.

Yesterday was Mothers Day here, sorry for any panic I caused in my last post for those of you not in the UK!! I had a lovely day, even though I didn't see my beauties. I got a huge bunch of flowers, and my lovely boy has tried to ring and I keep missing him, so my fault.

Then ITV 3 put on a programme specially for Mothers Day, which was fantastic, it started with Pollyanna, the Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden. I missed City of Angels but watched Housewife 49 with Victoria Wood, about a wartime housewife in Barrow who wrote diaries for the Mass Observation Project. I felt for her so much, she was obviously depressed but didn't get much help, her husband did love her in his way but he was particularly non communicative and a bit miserable to be honest!! It made me think a bit cos I've felt a bit like she did, lately, and I have to say my tune-king struggles to understand but he is there for me and I'm not sure what I'd do without him!!

I also met a new addition, Pixie Belle, who is nearly 3 months old and she is absolutely adorable, even though I seemed to make her cry!! Some babies are so pretty and like miniature people and she is one of those, I just wanted to sit and hug her and whisper sweet nothings to her!! Sadly I forgot to take my camera and so no pics but if you go to her parents blog, I'm sure there will be pics!!

I had a wonderful roast dinner cooked for me and the messy washing up done, so all in all it was a day of laziness and pampering.

I hope you other mums out there were treated well too, back soon!!

Exam is over

So at last I can return to my normal age and stop that whole regression to a 17 year old who doesn't want to do her revision!! I did finally learn some stuff and managed to keep writing for the time of the exam but whether I splurged all I could remember onto the paper or actually answered the questions, I can't be sure!! The exams I'm doing are for a Counselling Certificate and that first sentence makes me think there are a bunch of sessions just in that let alone me offering couselling to any unwitting body!!

So today is the tune-king's birthday and I had to wrap his socks with an IOU for 1 toe but I finished them first thing after he unwrapped them so not too late!! I'm now just doing the button band on the olympic cardi, then it needs to be blocked and I will be ready for new projects!!

Now blocking, I never used to do it all as I was so frightened of wrecking my knitting completely, but I have discovered that it really improves the look of many finished items, especially if they are 100% wool. However, I'm still a little scared of it, I'm ok with scarves and things cos if they go a bit floppy that just adds to the drapiness. I never block socks and don't really feel they need it. However, this four ply cardi definitely looks like it might need something, if only to make the very narrow button bands sit flat. I can't decide whether to wash properly or just dampen it or maybe just pin in place and lightly steam!

I'm printing a sock pattern, Skew, which are kind of twisted round the leg and I was inspired to them by Lixie on lixieknitsit, I think I will do it in a purple mix, it probably would look better in a more stripey yarn but I don't have enough of anything else!! The second pattern I want to do is Knotty, a pair of gloves. I first saw this pattern on janesprobablyknitting and I have a lovely yellow yarn that I think I will use. I'm not a big wearer of yellow but for some reason, I really fancy this yarn and as I have navy and brown coats it will look good with both!! Both patterns are available on Ravelry

I shall be going back to refashioning my macs and I need to make jamas for my son's girlfriend this weekend so I have plenty to do and will be posting pics very soon!!

On the more boring side of life, I have an ironing pile worthy of the guiness book of records so I'm going to attempt to knock that down over the Easter hols. I think it will need a few dvds to help that medecine to be swallowed, but hey its Mothers Day on Sunday so you can but hope!!

A walk in the Park

So this past week I have been putting off revising!! I seem to have regressed to being that girl who didn't want to look at her books before her Alevels!! Trouble is now I know I can't wing it, and my memory is not what it was so it needs more exercise!!

So this is what I made on Friday to avoid the books, it is a birthday present for a friend and I handed it over Saturday and she was delighted. I used a pattern from 1 metre book (see previous posts) , which has good ideas but this time the measurements did not seem to work so although my bag looks like the one in the book, I have used my own measurements.

I managed to get down to the revision, yesterday morning and worked most of the day and again today. However, it was the most glorious day, blue skies and warmish for March, so the tune-king and I strolled around the park with our two dogs and most of the local population.

He is looking a bit grumpy, partly cos of the sun but mostly because he has a rotten cold and would like to tramp the hills in such beautiful weather but he wasn't really up to a long walk!!

So we made do with half-hour round the park, then I returned to the delights of Piaget, Erikson and other stars of the human development world!!

Just two more days to go then the exam on wednesday and then 4 weeks off college, I have great plans for sewing, knitting and sorting my college work out so that I'm not rushing to revise in May!! I do have some secret knitting to finish for Thursday, the tune-king's birthday, so that will need to be fitted around the study!!

The knitting olympics cardi is not being forgotten I have finished 2nd sleeve and done the neckband so just button band and finding right buttons to go!! I also have some nice poplin that would go with it and I want to make a dress as we have been invited to a silver wedding party in early april and I have an idea what to make for that, but again it may have to stay secret for a while!!

Chez's Jumper and selling our work

I finished this jumper a while ago, but I wanted to tell you about it cos I received real dosh for doing it!! I feel slightly mean taking the money as Chez is not brimming with cash himself but he was insistent. He is a fantastic photographer himself so understands the value of one craft!

I need to start making a bit of cash and to that end have made some bags and purses (knitted and sewn) which I intend to sell on Etsy, when I've set my page up. Therein lies the rub, what stops me is the price I should charge, whilst I agree with one friend that we must value our skills and charge realistically, on the other hand I also know I am making fairly small items people may not want to pay much for!! Do any of you other bloggers out there sell your stuff? How do you work out your prices? I try to use recycled materials as much as possible, that I collect from friends so I don't have a big cost for materials, so whatever I make is profit. If anyone reads this and has any ideas, I'd love to hear from you.

I'm back

So I had a good weekend away and the assessment was not as scarey as I feared it would be. We will see when I get my mark whether that is false security!! I managed to keep talking to my role playing counsellee and I did find out some stuff about her life that I think was helpful. My questions were openish and we did talk about her feelings rather than just gather facts. time now to leave that behind and start revising for the exam.

I did use all my breaks and time off, not to mention train journeys for knitting so I almost finished my knitting olympic project, I got the body, 1st sleeve and 4 inches up the second sleeve done. So no gold medal for me but far enough on to keep going and finish the cardi. I liked knitting the body in one piece and I chose to do the sleeves on a circular needle too so that will minimise the sewing up. I've been working more on 2nd sleeve today so hopefully the cardi will be wearable by the weekend.

I'm getting a little nervous about the exam so the mac (rain not computer) refurb may have to wait!! However I have arranged to borrow some books as I'm too late in getting relevant ones from the library so that should help me next weekend. After 10th March I have 4 weeks off so I think I'd better save big sewing projects for then. However I have a friend's birthday this weekend and My husband's next week so I will need to do some stuff for both of them!!

I must mention my fantastic friend Tom, who is a chiropractor and is able to sort my back and shoulders, but he is also a computer whizz and my laptop is back and functioning well thanks to him and his amazing skills, so he is my top dog at the moment!!