Merino Paola Turtleneck Tee

It started with a top. This top, to be precise:

An image of a woman with a blank white background. She has short blonde hair, and is wearing a rose pink merino turtleneck tee and black work-style pants.
Oh Country Road, you can do no wrong.

Suddenly I had visions of a wardrobe filled with long sleeve merino tops – warm, moisture-wicking and odour-repelling.* A few online orders later, and I had enough merino jersey meterage to begin my wardrobe plan (more on the other garments later). Continue reading “Merino Paola Turtleneck Tee”

My first colourwork – Saudade

I’ve finished my first Fair Isle project, Saudade! In my last post, I mentioned I’d been struggling to achieve consistent tension as a beginner to stranded colourwork. You guys assured me I was on the right track with my technique of spreading and holding in place the stitches on the right needle before knitting on the left with a new colour, and that any imperfections would come out in the wash.

An image of a woman's upper torso and head in front of a blue weatherboard background. She wears a handknit Fair Isle hat in yellows and greys, with a textured handknit grey scarf.
Worn with my Rockcliffe Scarf.

Continue reading “My first colourwork – Saudade”

Two Winter Tops – Frankie and Hemlock

Would you believe I’ve finally been blogging long enough to start posting repeat garments? These are a couple of winter tops I whipped up to sew through a bit of stash fabric.

An image of a woman standing in front of a fence with trees. She wears a long sleeve knit tee in black and white with cat head print, black slim pants, black boots and a hat and sunglasses. Her hand is on her hip and she is smiling.

Continue reading “Two Winter Tops – Frankie and Hemlock”

Finalist in the IPM Indie Royalty comp

The finalists have been named for The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern Month “Indie Royalty” competition, and I’m one of them! Ok, they liked every entry so we’ve all become finalists. The winners are still decided by votes, so please jump over to The Monthly Stitch and cast your vote. I am lucky to be among some very rad sewists who sewed a whole outfit (or more!).

A photograph of a woman standing in a garden arch. She wears a long check cardigan, black floral dress, burgundy velvet leggings and a yellow hand knit hat. She is smiling.
My outfit consisted of the Named Helmi Dress, Named Esme Cardi, So Sew Easy leggings and Solas Hat. Full post here.

And thank you for your votes for my “Eyes Have It” Dress in the “New To Me” competition – I won a £100 fabric hamper to Minerva Crafts!

Solas Hat

I gave you a sneak peek of my Solas hat in my Indie Pattern Month post – now here is the full review. Solas is an unusual design and one that didn’t catch my eye when it was first published for Ysolda Teague’s Knitworthy 3. But as I was in need of beanies this winter and wanted to experiment with different styles, I figured I’d get my money’s worth from my Knitworthy purchase and give it a go.

A photograph of a woman's upper torso and head. She wears a check cardigan, floral dress, pink glasses and yellow handknitted cabled hat. She is looking at the camera and smiling.
Worn with my Named Helmi Tunic Dress and Named Esme Maxi Cardigan. New specs from Clearly Contacts.

Continue reading “Solas Hat”

The “What Have I Got Myself Into” Outfit – Indie Pattern Month 2017, Indie Royalty

A photograph of a woman standing in a garden arch. She wears a long check cardigan, black floral dress, burgundy velvet leggings and a yellow hand knit hat. She is smiling.

The title says it all really! After participating in and thoroughly enjoying The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern Month’s “New to Me” and “Hack It” challenges, I figured I could make use of the “Indie Royalty” theme, in which you create an entire outfit from indie patterns, to knock a few garments out of my queue and sew up some stash. Of course, it wasn’t until I was part way through sewing for the challenge when I realised that the fabrics I thought I had stashed deep in my wardrobe were pretty much non-existent.

Thanks to a few quick trips to Spotlight, I completed the challenge, and had a lot of fun doing so! The patterns I used were: Named Esme Maxi Cardigan, Named Helmi Tunic Dress (are you noticing a theme?), So Sew Easy Custom-Fit Leggings, and because I’m a smarmy overachiever, I even knitted my hat (Ysolda’s Solas in The Fibre Co. Arranmore – I’ll review that another time). Continue reading “The “What Have I Got Myself Into” Outfit – Indie Pattern Month 2017, Indie Royalty”