Remake: Tiny Pocket Tank

My wee sister’s a bit of a globe trotter. As I may have mentioned before, I am not in the least bit jealous of this. Not at all. Not even one tiny little bit. The upside of this (not that there’s a downside, not even a green ugly head-rearing one) is that she brings back gorgeous fabricky offerings from far-off lands (mostly India.) I haven’t quite got her trained to select fabulous bolts of fabric, pack them up and send them straight to me in Switzerland (you she wouldn’t even have to carry them around with you her! ;) ) However, when she spent some months on the subcontinent a couple of years ago, she didn’t resist the call of the local markets, or the call of the clothes sellers who make up clothes in whatever size requested. She’s an inch or so taller than me, and proportionally very similar, so most of her clothes fit me quite well (although you certainly wouldn’t find me going through her wardrobe when she’s away. Not at all.*innocent face*)

And now for something completely different… (Aftur)

… a man with three… Oh, no, hang on. Something that I finished in the last week. Instead of the usual “here’s what I finished a few months ago…” malarkey, this jumper literally came off my needles last Tuesday, and went straight down onto the cork boards for blocking.

The Remains of 2014 – Agnes

This was meant to be a joint post about Christmas jumpers with the post about Guston, but unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of my sister wearing it, and my subsequent requests for pictures… well, blood and stones don’t come close, so here is the post sans modelled photo. The jumper is another Agnes, also in Drops Nepal wool, like the one I made for myself, this time in Old Pink, which I love. It’s not quite as boxy as mine, because I made some mods to the original pattern to make it a bit looser-fitting for me.

The Remains of 2014 – Bow Ties and Eye Masks

When you’re in the middle of knitting a jumper that was meant to be for a birthday in the summer, worrying about a jumper that was given as a present but turned out far too big and trying to plan Christmas presents, you want something fairly quick and simple to be going on with. I landed on a bow tie for The Boy and (with a helpful suggestion from a little bird) an eye mask for my father.

The Remains of 2014 – Travel Wrap

Here’s a wee travel wrap thingymajig that I made as a birthday present for my little sister who’s off travelling the world soon. Again. (Not jealous. Not jealous. Not jealous. Repeat until convinced.)
Anyway, she’s one of those irritating people whose birthday is ridiculously close to Christmas, so even when you’ve thought of a Christmas present for them, your work is only half done. I wanted to make her something that she’d actually find useful. There aren’t that many situations where you’ll find a thick woolly jumper (Christmas present, coming up here soon) useful in the subcontinent in summer.

My Saltspring Dress

When I decided to start sewing properly (ie from patterns) I did a lot of looking at Indie pattern sites and going through their patterns picking out and bookmarking patterns that I thought I would wear (very important!) and that fitted into the “beginner” category. Sewaholic has a number in this range, and I ordered one in PDF form to get on with, while I waited for the others that I ordered in printed form to arrive from Canada (I’m materialistic, me.) Saltspring was one of them (the other is the Alma blouse, which is intermediate level – I’m also ambitious and not a little impatient.)

Belcarra Blouse (My First Proper Sew)

So here she is, my first garment sewn for my very own self, by my very own self, from a pattern. The pattern is the Belcarra blouse from Sewaholic patterns, and was really easy to follow (even for me.) I was a bit nervous about cutting and sticking accurately, but in the end I steeled myself to buy the pdf pattern, because I’m just too impatient to wait for things to arrive. (I also bought a couple of paper patterns, but I needed something while I waited for them to arrive.)

Button-back Top

Remember this patterned fabric? It was on my list of things to do for the summer.

Pattern Snippets

In this post I introduced you to some pretty patterned fabric that I have clothing plans for. One of those plans is finished, this pretty china-patterned (and as someone pointed out, which describes it beautifully) Delfty cloth:

Some creative plans for warmer seasons

Here are a couple of plans for clothes for the warmer seasons. I’m determined to start making a larger proportion of my wardrobe, and buying much less. I’m the sort of person that considers time wasted if I don’t have anything physical to show for it. I have to have a knitting project on the go to take when travelling somewhere by train, or watching a film. Setting out my plans on paper is a good idea for someone like me, because it makes me feel as though I’ve done something useful towards my project once it’s in hard copy, it feels like a commitment rather than a random idea, and I’m much more likely to get started.