Of Green and Blue

Though the blogging has been quiet, I've still been making. And as you can see by the photos I'm clearly going through a green & blue phase. They are nice calming colours for my stressful busy life at the moment.

I finally finished the Knitted Jacket which I started back in January. It had a short hiatus for a month or two (when I got tired of it) but I finished it in June:

Hem detail. The three rows of K1P1 ribs weren't enough to keep the hem down, so I also added a couple of rows of single crochet worked in crab stitch (backwards). This did the trick.

The double thickness neckline made with two strands held together.

I really like how the collar turned out. I actually hated this jacket for a while (as often happens after you are closely involved with something for too long) but now I love it. I'm going to wear it with a slim fit long sleeved t-shirt underneath.

The finished jacket. I made the sleeves about half as wide as the pattern requested and didn't do the garter stitch band. I made up one sleeve first and it just looked too big and silly on me (like I was wearing someone else's jacket). So I had to rip it out and try it again a few times. I also just finished the sleeves the same way as the jacket with the K1P1 ribs. The sleeves are still a wide fit, even at half the width (plus I have very stick-like arms, so I didn't want to make my arms look even thinner by making big sleeves!)

Also finished: a scarf and matching hat. This is made of very lovely chunky wool which is from Jaeger (and is probably discontinued as I heard they were sold/brought over or something).

The hat pattern is from 'Cool Crocheted Hats' and I just did one less set of shell pattern to compensate for the chunky wool (and my small head!)

The scarf uses the same (well, similar) shell pattern, I just made this up as I went along. I think it turned out nice. Its kinda leafy.

The Mr. also needed a hat and scarf set. For him I made this out of a really soft cashmere/silk/merino blend. It feels amazing.

Both the hat and scarf are my own patterns. The puff stitch gives the hat a little texture and shape as the Mr. has a very square flat sort of head and it needed to be rounded out a bit.

The Mr's set. You can see from this photo that the hat looks really bunchy, but it actually sits flat on the head. Please appreciate this, as it took me about 4 goes to make this hat just perfect!

The Streamer Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

The Streamer Frock Grosgrain Giveaway This dress is really cute. I love the contrasting red trim.

Birds who visited

Scaly-Breasted Munia in flight

Scaly-Breasted Munia eating grass seeds. It has a beautifully patterned belly.

Scarlet-Backed Flower Pecker from the back. It has a red tail tip.

Scarlet-Backed Flower Pecker from the front. It has a red head and a grey-white belly. In this photo he is looking at me!

Scarlet again

Two Pink-Necked Green Pigeons. View of their yellow and green speckled backsides!

The boy is the one with the rosy pink neck while the girl is the more green one. Yes, they saw me to.

A picture of the girl.

A picture of the boy. After this point it is not decent to show pictures because the pigeons had a private loving moment in the tree!

A Collared or Sacred Kingfisher. The whole underside of the belly and beak are creamy white while the top is a deep dark blue. It has a really loud distinctive call.

Scarflets of Grey and Linen Things

I just brought Tricotage de Lin (see pictures here) which is a Knit & Crochet book published byAttention Japanese Products(!). Its really nice. The linen they use to make everything is really nice. The photos are really nice and the finished products look really nice. The company also has a really nice web catalogue of perfect people wearing perfect clothing living perfect lives (yes, really!)

I made a scarf (one of a set of three) from the book and it turned out really nice. I wear it as a necklace substitute.

Set of two scarves in Rowan Lenpur Linen (Linen/Viscose)

As a necklace

Original pattern image with my scarves (second one is not finished the same as the pattern as I ran out of linen!)

Shell textured shawl, a possible future make

Definitely going to make these coasters

And the real reason I brought the book - these socks! Aren't they fabulous?

I dreamt about this camisole top last night. I think its a sign.

The cover

Liberty

Little Thing Magazine inspired me this month. Its a Chinese magazine and you can download it from i-tunes for 0.99c! Worth it if I could read Chinese, but I can't! Its fashion is quirky and just a little bit silly. Big bows are a new love of mine.

Liberty of London in So-En Magazine (Feb 2010)

Feb 2010 was an issue focusing on Textiles and its full of inspiration. Japanese, European and lots of pages of interesting colours, textures and designs.

Emelia's Flowers

I also brought a Japanese Liberty Print's Magazine came with a little Liberty Print bag which is my new favourite weekend bag. Mostly I brought the magazine for the bag, but the magazine isn't bad either!

I never used to like patterned fabrics, I always preferred plain solid colours, but recently I've been in love with florals and geometric patterns. I've even been trying to print my own fabrics (more on that another time!). Though I've long been inspired by William Morris who considered the design of textiles worthy of a serious designer's attention and Marimekko and Ikea fabrics, I never thought to design or wear them myself!

shredding your t-shirt can be wonderful

I came across this tutorial when I was searching online and it looked easy enough to try. The basic idea is that you take a some stretchy knit cotton fabric and you strategically unpick it. I'm planning on making a shawl with mine (a simple loop of white). However, its taking a long time to unpick and I need to be in good light to do it as the threads are so small. Still, its looking good even if I wont be finished until 2015... The stripes look great though shredded, so its tempting to have grand ideas about shredding striped dresses and things...

little triangles

After I made some journals I had some scraps of fabric left-over so I decided to sew them together to try making a necklace. The result is quietly beautiful. Two shades of grey, light grey corduroy and dark grey wool flannel on a white knit cotton base. I love triangles, so many possibilities.