Camo hoody Tshirt dress hack

  

I feel I am going back towards a Fae theme with this green camo dress. That's not at all a bad thing for me. I need a little magik right now. Well who doesn't?

I don't really kwo why it feels so faerie but it does. There is no classic pointy hood or uneven hem its just a basic hoody dress but I do just feel fae when I wear this. That Fae feeling might be down to the waning year. And its camo so shades of green and khaki!

This dress feels right for Autumn - to me anyway. I think the fabric is a viscose ramie mix from what I remember but I bought it a year or so ago. Its very drapey and soft and almost silky but not too much that its fragile so it should last a while. Its a nice soft warm dress to wear until the real cold comes in. And I feel happy in it!

The dress body is the Peppermint dress which used to be free - I added a hood to my original version but the pattern comes without one. That version was also quite a bit longer. I shortened this version by loads to get a mini. Possibly a bit too much but I have not yet decided for sure. I used to wear very short skirts but it really does not feel right now I am older. It should of course make no difference and yes I still own a surprisingly large number of short skirts but I feel I cannot get away with them as short as I used to. This shortie length seems ok so far and will work really well with leggings later.

In fact I have a pile of short ( very short) denim and 90s combat styles I still own which I love and I am currently experimenting with adding a lower frill / strip of fabric to lengthen them. Some I can just let the hem down and have it as a raw edge ( demin skirts that is) and it will look good and be about 6cm longer. I still want them mini but maybe a few cm longer. Then I can keep them and still wear them and not ( hopefully) look like "mutton dressed as lamb" which is an expression I have not actually heard in a long time but was used by my grandmother to describe older women wearing teen clothing. I am not actually that bad as yet and gave away a few clothes this year I decided I was pushing it wearing ten years ago. Now really feels like a no-no. But they went to people who wanted them and will wear them and hopefully love them as much as I did. 

Sadly, despite I wish it was different, I really cannot get away with some of what I wore 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe I have suddenly started to feel my age? But some things; yes, I still can, so I am. And if adding a strip of fabric to the hem of my ancient studded denim mini means I get another few years of wear out of something I very much love, then that's worth the effort. The main problem with the denims is finding suitable fabric. New denim really would not look right. I have some in the stash but I just think I will be wasting my time so using that is a last resort. I must be able to come accross so used worn in denim in the right colours. A few years ago I added some sequined sparkly fabric to one and have spent the last week unpicking that. It really does not work for me. I need a second hand denim dress or skirt or very wide trousers in both blue and black denim so now I am looking out for some. It does not need to be the same exact shade and a different one will add to the worn look but I really do not want new denim either. Maybe a second hand long skirt I can hack to sort out my several minis I want to keep. I will keep you posted on my efforts here because it deserves its own post I think. Unfortunately, I recycled several pairs of jeans a few weeks ago, before this idea came to me. They would not be so good as a contiuous strip and the shading would probably not quite work,  but I am sure they would have workedsomehow even if cut the opposite way. Never mind. Life is so easy with hindsight. Not so easy in the real world.

Also I digress from this weeks topic. This camo dress:

Above: the mitts are turned back so doubled cuffs.

The sleeves are the Remy Raglan gathered sleeve add on from Sew House Severn. Being a raglan I decided to see if they would work with the raglan Peppermint pattern and yes they do. So that gives me a gathered wrist sleeve for a change. I actually was not keen on the Remy itself (only ever made one of them) but the sleeve is nice on the Peppermint dress. It also fits the raglan seam amazingly well so no adjustment needed to do this at all!

The hood is from Burda Style hoody 103, 01/2017 which I seem to add to just about everything when I want a hood. The hood does overlap at CF a bit more on this dress than on the original sweatshirt but it does work and is very warm in the cold winter going by my other dresses made using the Peppermint with this hood.

The mitts are a longer version of the Feyr Trade mitts from the Make Your Own Activewear book by Melissa Feyr. I just made the cuff part longer to add length to my gathered sleeve. I may next time make the sleeve itself longer but I do like this solution. I had already cut the sleeves when I realised the problem that the sleeves were slightly too short for my arms, and I think a normal cuff would not work for me either. I did not think I had particularly long arms but there you are. This solution works with this dress anyway. 

So this is part of my Autumn look for 2024 and yes it also feels like a very Fae dress which I am liking. Fae was my theme for last year ( well several times over the years!) but I would be happy for it to be a theme in 2025 too. I am thinking far ahead here of course. Even winter 2024 is quite a way off right now. It's not officially the start of Autumn for a couple of weeks. But you can feel the chill today and the last week or so.

I made the mitts a bit wider than previously because I found many of my older tops with mitts a bit tight round the hands. Thats a mistake. Or at least they needed less widening than I gave them! I will make the next pair slightly narrower but wider than the pattern pieces. That should sort it.

So really I suppose you could say this dress is a wearable muslin. Its an experiment and thats something I enjoy.

The super soft fabric also means I got tunnelling round the hem with the twin needle stitching but despite I sewed it twice I just could not get it better so I will live with a slightly dodgy hem. Pressing it will probably help 😀

I know I should really iron more but I hate it so much.

I am going to make another of these anyway. But possibly I will try a different raglan sleeve and see how interchangeable these are because if they all work, I suddenly have many, many more possible patterns from what is already owned or traced so I just have to try these out. I am thinking of the smaller puffed top sleeve from this top:

Its also a raglan sleeve but here its not the best fabric to see this design but its just a puffed sleeve at the top and then a long cuff and very easy to wear and I wonder if it will work on these kind of dresses?

I have yet to find out that pattern from the loft (where I store my traced patterns), but it's now high on my list of what to have a play with next. Thats after I finish the few projects I currently have on the go. I have changed my sewing regime recently due to the fact I often have a small child running round and its just not safe having things like scissors and pins lying around for days so instead of a large cut-out pile ready to sew up, I only have one or two ongoing items that can easily be stashed away. Its not ideal from a sewing perspective, but this is not an ideal world. Its real life. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. I have not recently had much time for visiting blogs but now the summer is virtually over I should get to catch up on a few visits around the blogosphere and I look forward to seeing what I have been missing out on the last 6 or so weeks.

Have a great week and thanks for popping over,

Bracken

Faery hoody cowl dress revisited

Its so far rained for the last two weeks and I have just not managed to get any better photos of this so this is what I have to work with. These are not the best photos but its chucking it down with really heavy rain outside so I will go with what I have here until I can get better. According to the weather forecast I just looked up we can expect around another 2 weeks of rain in the UK Midlands where I live at the moment. Wonderful British weather!

It really makes you think when my neighbours and familly say "do not move to Scotland because it rains all the time". Really? That much more than here? It was raining here the last twice I was in Scotland and not there.  They do have colder winters but I actually prefer snow to rain. Constant rain!

Anyway:

 

 I made a new version of a much loved but totally impractical hoody cowl dress.

It looks bigger than the last version - or at least I have lost a bit of weight and I made the same size - well despite that I will probably put the weight back on and its still comfey and this is for me to live in rather than just wear occassionally, because the other one annoys me so much. I do want to be able to wear this next January, when I am likely to have gone back to my normal weight - Christmas eating etc. I still do not have a clue how I came to lose weight either but it seems there is nothing wrong with me and doc says maybe I have just become more active. Maybe. I do not do an office job now so that could actually be it.

 

I really like the original which has a high low hem and flared sleeves:

 

but it just does not work for real life, and rather than wreck what is a nice going out dress, by attempting to alter it, I decided to just use up the rest of my watercolour velvet fabric and make a new and more practical version.

The original has lovely flared sleeves and is really very pretty but the sleeves are totally stupid when you want to do things like washing up dishes or hoovering or mopping the floor. Annoying!

This new version has practical fitted sleeves taken from a different dress pattern so yes its a pattern hack really.

 So this is it:

The hem on this new version is curved at front and back like a shirt style hemline rather than the high low of the original version:

Its a nice variation especially now its so cold.

The hood is lined with an expensive powermesh that I had in the stash and never used. I did consider sourcing something cheaper but as it turns out its brilliant and will be much less subject to "pulls" than the lace on the other version so I may use powermesh again on a similar design despite the cost.

And it really is practical because I have worn this dress several times already and it does not annoy me. I ideally would have got round to blogging about it before this but due to the weather and not getting any decent photos I have wiated until now. In the end it could carry on raining for months. I intend to get some better ones once it stops raining and will then update the blog. Photos are so much better out in nature I find but this dress has turned out to be a really good, sensible, yet glamourous, velvet fae inspired dress, and I will make more like it I suspect, despite I have a wardrobe full of similar designs because when you do love something ..............

I still have not got my (new) Brother overlocker back or any news on when I will, so had to make this on my old Janome. Still it works. Its seriously hassle to thread after the Brother but even then oh so easy to change the needles! I am now definitely thinking I prefer my Janome to the Brother. And still no news on when I get the thing back!

After all you change needles far more than rethreading the entire machine. Ah well I am stuck with it now for a few years I would expect because the Janome requires fixing so often really its worn out. I just need the thing back. They said 7-10 days but its over that already. Not very impressed with Brother I have to say.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I will be back next week with hopefully some better photos and something interesting to tell you about.

See you soon,

Bracken

Troll top

This is a top pattern that I made before.

I actually wore this before so this is my second wearing. Usually I try to get photos the first wearing just in case I wreck it. Well I did get some good photos over the felds on a walk ast week but then my phone died and I cannot retrieve anything. in fact its been a real pain becaise I had to add every app manually and copy what I can from my PC but I never do proper backups - that will teach me! Anyway I was offline most of 2 days and it was a serious shock to the system. Though of course I still had a PC so nt really out of touch with the world but it was much harder than I would have expected it to be to not have my phone.

Anyway its been all about phones the last few days and because the screen died and then the memory card also died I lost pretty much everything including the original photos of this top. Even plugged into a PC I couldn't get back those pictures.  Still the top has  survived me washing it and its still a good top so here it is after its been worn. I suppose in some ways its more of a real photo in fact because its no longer brand new and pristine. I normally only do "real" when its Me-Made May and last time I never bothered to take part.

Its a Burda Style magazine pattern and was on my new years resolutions list of makes. Well it has been on the new years planned makes for a few years so I suppose I am making up for that by making a second version so soon. 

I really like the first one I made. This troll fabric was actually bought a couple of years ago with the idea to make big knickers for winter. Well as usual I overplanned my possible makes and never had time for that one so its still there in my stash. 

I only had a metre of this fabric which is a stretch oekotex cotton-lycra. I managed with some careful cutting to leave a sizeable bit of the fabric over so will make a child sized top out of the rest I think. Maybe with contrast sleeves but still even then I am happy to be so careful to not only get this top from a metre but actually have some left over. Seriously thats an achievement I never expected to have. 

So here's the other photos:

 

 

I do love thsi fabric!

And have really got into the raglan puffed sleeves because this pattern really takes so little fabric. Its the only log sleeved adult top pattern I have ever tried you can get out of less than 1m of fabric. I will be making a few more of these and thats despite the fact puffed sleeves were util now not really "me". Or so I had thought anyway. I have made some puffed sleeved items before but its something I wear occassionally rather than I favour if you know what I mean. I think thats about to change. Minly due to the fabric quantities needed for this top. And it even has very long sleeves yet still comes out of a small piece of fabric. I thik it would be great in wintery stretch velvets too. And its even work worthy - in a different fabric.

Have a great week and if you are in the UK enjoy the last Bank Holiday we will have until Christmas. Its seems so far away!

Bracken

Pixie hat/scarf and matching Very easy upcycled Padded Gillet

 

I was going through my numerous patterns, many of which I have never used - I have had this pattern for years..  Its a Faery costume pattern and its even got wings if you wanted to make some. I do like costume patterns because they tend to be considerably cheaper than similar styles in more ordinary looks - you need to check out the line drawings - and often they are half the price of "normal" clothing patterns yet really have the identical designs just different fabrics.
 

So I collect costume patterns because it often tends to be cost effective next to their normal counterparts but the bonus you get with a costume is all the tiny accessories such as hats and bags that you find the same line drawn pattern in the conventional pattern collection does not have.  Though with this particular pattern I think perhaps thats actually not the case since I have yet to see a bolero like this one either.

I really bought the pattern for the bolero jacket but so far I have never got round to making that. Its probably a good one for spring.  I am not sure how well it will work for every day wear but I must make that. It could be nice for going out somewhere so I will be keeping it in mind for the next few months.

But after the success of my pixie hat which I made for a friend's baby I got inspired to make this hat/scarf which is sewn not knitted but its very simple to make from scraps I had from last years hoody and sweater cape tops.

Anyway its the hats that struck my interest. I rarely get round to making accessories but decided I should try making at least one hat this winter. There are two different hats on this pattern. Thinking about it, I actually made the other hat for my Christmas elf/pixie hat. That was just a it of fun though. I am wearing this one and the attached scarf works really well. For some reason despite the local radio station tells me its now Spring, but the temperature here has plumetted the last few days.

Accessories are a really good way to get rid of smaller bits of fabric and also to make your other clothes more stylish and thats as well as keeping me warm now its getting much colder.

And after all this year has, besides being inspired by Faerie fashion, been very much about using what I have rather than buying even more fabric and I have to say despite I still have enough fabric to go another year (at least) without any purchases I have still been successful in this. 

I never used to understand sewists when they went on about reducing their fabric stash - well now I honestly do get it. If you are not careful it gets well and truly out of control. Its also quite satisfying to realise you are spending nothing because the money was in most cases spent several years ago, and using up what you have. Having a  stash as big as mine meant I was  almost part of the fast fashion industry or more than I want to be. Buying more every week or month is not viable.

Sewing for me is a way to make my fashion cheaper, more original and to waste less because I tend to keep even smaller left over bits and find uses for them. Just increasing the fabric stash week after week is really not helping with any of these aims. I also found I was buying and dreaming rather than actually sewing things up. Now I am actively sewing again though as ever my head is full of more ideas than I will ever get round to making!

Back to this hat - if you happen to own this pattern and like me never get round to using it then go for this one. The built in scarf not only gives it that little extra fashion-wise but its also so easy and fast to sew this up, as well as being practical, and I have to say I found this a very satisfying make. I made the largest size but will go down a size next time because its just a bit too loose but otherwise this is a great hat/ scarf.

I am even now trying to decide what other accessories I can make. Before this I have always knitted things like hats but sewing is much faster and I could do with ringing the wardrobe changes with some other hats. I need to search through my patterns and see what else I have because hats are not something I really buy patterns for, they just kind of come with other things. Well accessories in general in fact.

So then the Jacket/ Gillet/ Cut Off - well the neame seems to change every 10 years or so. Not sure quite what these cut-off coats are meant to be called so I will go with the medaeval Gillet.

Sewing wise this is a complete cheat garment. This is upcycled so takes minimum effort and skill to make.

Having said that its exactly what I wanted to make, so its saved me in money, and in time and effort. So nothing wrong with that.

I decided a few weeks ago I need a cut-off or gillet for over my jumpers when dog walking so I can keep the wind out. Its all I need to be warm most of the time so I originally wanted to buy some quilted fabric and make this. 

Then my partner had a clearout of his wardrobe for a charity shop that was collecting and amongst what he was throwing was this rather horrible jacket. It seemed more like the lining out of those 2 or 3 in one jackets than a stand alone garment.

Sadly, I never thought to take a photo of this original jacket before I cut the sleeves off it, but probably you can see what it was like from this anyway. 

 I did not want to unpick the sleeve seams which normally I would have done because of the stuffing that makes this padded. I want to keep all that padding firmly in place. The sleeve seam is therefore still intact around the outside of the arm-hole.

We think he got given this jacket one Christmas years ago. Its never been worn so is actually brand new just old and has been taking up room for several years.

I decided that although its a much larger size than I usually wear it will go brilliantly over my larger winter jumpers. These are the ones I tend to wear for dog walking. That is when its cold but not rainy. Jackets tend to feel more constricting so I do like this kind of cut off.

And bonus: inside this jacket there is a very large pocket big enough for an extending dog lead!

So all I need to do to make this work is to bind the raw edges on the arm-holes. 

Voila!

I have lots of left over fabric in my stash but due to my rehash of the sweater cape this fur was near the top so easy to find. It also looks much better than some offcuts I tried so thats what I used. Of course I am also clearing stashed fabric here which is a bonus. So I decided to use the offcuts off faux fur used for updating my sweater cape to cover up the armholes where I had cut off the sleeves. Simple strips of faux fur worked perfectly for covering the cut off sections and covering up the raw edges. There is no shaping to the furit is just a wide strip of fabric sew first onto the front edge togive a nice neat edge to the outside and then folded under and sewn down inside to get rid of raw edges. Ziz zag stitch used for both. Also since there is no shaping to the strips of fur they actually stand out slightly to give a kind of short sleeve  which I like. Gives a slight bitmore style  think.

All in all I am pleased with this gillet / cut off jacket and its exactly what I wanted to make. Being upcycled has advantages other than the effort and time to make it in that it is great saving something from going to landfill - although maybe it would have gone to charity and been a fund raiser? 

But in this country its a sad fact that our charity / thrift shops send huge amounts of clothing to landfill due to the fact they simply cannot cope with the amount of stuff people send them. So I feel no real guilt depriving them of this one garment especially since we sent 4 large bags anyway ad have even more stuff to sort out and probably will get rid of some more. Its amazing how much you collect if you do not get round to having clearouts for a while.

And it did not cost me anything in cash, and not that much in time really. The main time costs were in working out if and how to make this wearable and if I would still want it afterwards. I did spend about a week considering this. The actual sewing was probably about 30 minutes. 

So this is a cheat when it comes to sewing but I do feel some satisfaction for reusing something that was otherwise just being thrown away. And importantly it serves my purpose perfectly - I am also not so sure any patterns I own would actually give me this same fit which I get from a mans coat and its what I was envisaging when I thought about making this. 

I tend to be a bit boring really and mostly use "women's" patterns for me and "men's" patterns for my partner. That in itself is something I should probably address from now on. It widens my choices by quite a lot!

Its hard isn't it to get rid of this gender conditioning, that we nearly all have, even when you are well aware of it being an issue?

I did consider re-covering the collar or adding strips of fur down the front edge but in the end I think the amount of matching fabric bits I still have of this fur fabric will make some kind of coordinating item to wear with this so thats my next aim. Besides I actually quite like the simplicity of just the armholes having faux fur on this gillet.  Its all too easy to go OTT with this kind of upgrade and the hate the results. I have done that before several times. 

Now I am going out with my dogs to wear my new gillet over a warm jumper and stay warm.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Have a great week,

Bracken 

Loungewear flares

 

Ok so really this is not at all an original thing to make, but I have already worn these three times and washed them once so really so far they are a very good idea because besides they fit my Fae clothing theme being a lovely watercolour type of print of smudgey florals, they're also a style I enjoy wearing, and they are comfortable which matters at this time of year when you need warm comforting food and clothing to combat the often vile wet weather outside. I actually waited quite a few days to get these trousers photgraphed due to the cold rainy world outside!

These trousers fit the comfort bill fine, and work well as loungewear, which I can still wear out and about and the fabric is nice enough I felt OK to go to a coffee shop at the weekend with a mate and not feel out of place.

On top of that the fabric has now been in the stash more than a year so needs using up. I have also just cut a dress out of the same fabric which pretty much uses it all except for a few small pieces which I need to be a bit inventive with I think if I am to find a way to use them. More on that when I get an idea!

Like the multi coloured flares I made a few months back these are made using a free yoga pants pattern that I have been grateful for the chance to use for a long time now. Its the best stretch flares pattern I  have come accross and being free is a wonderful bonus.

This is the link to the pattern: https://siloandsage.com/2015/03/06/free-yoga-pants-pattern/

Also like the last few versions of these I have widened them a bit to make the flares wider. Well the pattern was released years ago now in a world with straight leg trousers so with changing times this updates it and its just so simple to add a few cm to the side seams. 

Hopefully I will find time to sew up some of the baby clothes I have been cutting out. Once I do I will post about them.

Enjoy your weekend and here's hoping its a sunny one regardless of where on planet Earth you live;

Take care

Bracken

Silver glitter leggings

 
I made two pairs of basic leggings for the Christmas and New year party season.

So these were made to be worn during the Christmas and New Year period - and they were.

The first pair I mentioned back at the start of New Year. I realy made these for New Year's day. The second pair were made at the same time but I just never got round to blogging them till today. I suppose that means I had a good time this year as well, due to not having time for much blogging.

They are both pairs though, very nice and glittery to take me through January, so I think they still count as part of my current wardrobe despite the party had to finish and we all had to start working again. This pair are the more handleable for every day life. Lots of people seem to go glittery in January so I am not alone and I want to make the most of both of these while I feel I can still get away with wearing them. For weekends I am still enjoying wearing these so rather than store them until next winter I have decided stuff it I will carry on wearing these now. Soon I think the silver textured pair  will probably have to go away until next year.  I just might manage to wear the glitter leggings though for a while yet. I will have to wait and see how my confidence manages to hold out wih regards to this glittery pair:

I must admit to a few misgivings when this fabric arrived- even to war over the holiday season. Well they are very shiny shiny but now in January they have brightened up my life somewhat amidst the rain and cold weather, so I am happy to have made these.  The first pair have a fabric that is textured and quite warm, The fabric is sold as 4-way stretch but has more stretch widthways than lengthways. It works well for leggings though:

The second pair are a thinner fabric that is a true 4-way stretch so could really be used for dancewear or swimwear. These are thinner so not so warm but defiitely they are the easier pair to incorporate into my normal life. I don't expect these to last as long but like them the best. The fabric is more delicate and has a few "pulls" already. They work really well with my pink teddy top though. 

And of course they also work with my Faerie theme. 

I have decided I like my clothing so much more after focusing on the Faerie looks I aimed for in 2022 so that will have to continue for 2023 as well. I am gradually working through my entire clothing collection and eliminating anything I do not really like to charity. 

So far its a surprisingly large number of items I do not want and still more to go through. I tend to store summer clothing in winter so I have not even begun going through that as yet. Its feeling like a job well done so far though.

 

Anyway, despite the rather "Abba" feeling these have turned out surprisingly wearable - so long as the rest of my outfit is a bit subdued. They really can work for every day life - even if not my working life - despite the glitter. Although I have toned down  what I wear with these for every day life.

 

I hope you are having a great start to 2023. I actually feel that so far I am getting things sorted out, at least wardrobe wise, so all the sorting out and disposal to charity is worth my time and effort even though it eats into my crafting time. Thanks for popping by my blog and see you again soom.

Take care, 

Bracken

Velvet leggings

Hello,

I have been sewing again which is a good thing because I got so into knitting I had virtually stopped. I feel it does not really matter what I make so long as a sew regularly because you can really spot the difference in my sewing level if I do not make anything for a few weeks. My accuracy just goes right down and I make such stupid mistakes. I mean even hemming a tea towel manages to keep my skill level up. In fact thats a good example because we could do with some new ones before Christmas gets here. I should try and plan to make a few tea towels over the next few weeks.

These velvet leggings were just made from scraps left from my Faery hoody dress that I made last year. I love this fabric so much. Its floral but sort of smudgy and watercolourish. 

They are made with my TNT leggings pattern - McCall's 6173 - thats another one I have used so many times its now all reinforced with sellotape and I should probably get round to tracing that one onto thicker paper. Each leg is just one piece with no side seam so just about as easy to make as you can find. Though, like my floral flares, I did add a lightweight waisband. I find them more comfortable with a waistband. That pattern is meant to just fold over and have elastic. Maybe its my body shape though and I need that extra bit of length for comfort.

Usually I would have tried to offset the pattern a bit so its not quite the same on each leg but this was not an option due to them being made from left over fabric from a different project.

 

They felt cozy and warm with my big icelandic jumper. I like this jumper best of all I have made and must really make a second one in different colours. It was much much easier to knit than I expected! 

I am thinking to still keep its subtle colours but maybe more greens or yellows with grey for the next version? I have yet to decide on that one. Its currently just  avague idea.

I usualy tend to knit bright jumpers so this is a real departure from normality for me and a completely different style option but I do like this one. I think its the paw prints. They are just that little bit different to your usual snow flakes, diamonds etc etc you find on icelandic patterns.

So now I have a new pair of velvet leggings as well as my floral velvet flares that a made a few weeks ago. Sorted for Autumn ( Fall) then and for my winter loungewear. I still have a lot of lounge type wear I made last December and January so these will enhance the older stuff and give me some variety because the original loungwear was all plain velvet and sweatshirting. These two pairs of trousers do feel a bit more glamourous and Christmasey so I will be wearing them lots over the next few months I think.

Since the last few weeks have meant loads of rain in my area that means I should manage to at least stay warm and cozy over the next few months. You can see the leaves are falling properly now. Winter is well and truly coming!

Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting my blog,

Bracken

In the round knitted cable mitts

Hello and welcome to my blog. 

It must be winter approaching and the impending cold, because for the last 6 months or maybe even a bit longer I have been totally unmotivated to do any knitting. Now all of a sudden I am knitting all the time. It all began with the pixie hat for a baby. Since completing that I have finished Mick's jumper  that had both been hanging around since last winter as well as knitted these mitts.

And in the UK its bonfire night tonight so I will probably pop out for some fireworks and maybe a bonfire party later which these will be perfect to wear to.

These are my first every attempt at knitting gloves in the round.

I downloaded this pattern many years ago - https://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html

Its from a 2006 Knitty online magazine. I read recently that Knitty is the longest running free online knitting magazine on the internet so if you have never been there its well worth a visit and is full of interesting designs. 

Back in 2006 I did not feel I was up to knitting these so I am very happy I have actually completed them - and in time to keep my hands warm for winter. Also happy I actually bothered to download this because I seem not to get Knitty anymore unless I visit the website. Maybe I blocked it by accident? Something I should check out because I used to love getting their letters into my inbox. 

Anyway something relevent here is I downloaded something that was at that time beyond my ability and just a dream, and yes its years later, but even then I am so glad I did that dreaming. So storing that paper from that download has after all been worth it - something to let my partner know when he moans about the clutter I collect!

And I am so happy how these have worked out. I doubt very much I would have found this pattern had I gone looking for it on the internet. Though I am intending to spend some time this winter trawling through the Knitty backfiles and see what else I fancy making.

The picot edging on the cast off got me a bit stressed but its actually really easy and I will use it again because it makes for a very stretchy, attractive finish. I did have to actually knit it before I understood what the pattern wanted me to do. Usually I read and understand but this is different and I found it confusing until I actually started to do what it said, and its well worth trying.

Of course you could always do a normal cast off which I nearly submitted to. In the end I decided to not cop out and just give it a go and I am so glad I tried this. 

I did not block these so they are as they were knitted and possibly might look more professional if I had bothered with the blocking, but I am very happy with the final results here. And they were considerably faster to knit than expected even considering I changed needle size and yarn type from what I started with so effectively knitted the majority of the first mitt twice.

Here I did have an issue, because the original pattern is for Debbie Bliss aran yarn which is a bit expensive and at the start I really was not convinced I would actually manage to knit these so did not want to spend loads on a posh yarn. I am a loose knitter though which could explain my problems. I knitted the first mitt in cheap aran on the recommended 4mm needles and they came out too big even for my partner.  Next to me his hands are BIG.  It could be the different yarn but I suspect not. They were in a nice khaki colour but I had to rip them back. Just huge on me. 

So I swapped to some DK that was in my stash and went down to a 3.5mm needle and otherwise just followed the pattern and they worked out the right size which is great. This new yarn was from a Pound Shop a few years ago so is in need of using since I bought it and so far its just in my yarn stash taking up space. Its also bargain basement yarn and I used less than 100g of it for these. 

And its glittery!

Another thing about these, when I downloaded this a 4mm needle seemed so small so even considering using a 3.5mm was just unthinkable. How times change!

Well thats it for this week. I need a new knitting project now, though I have actually also started some sewing at last this week so hopefully soon I will have something to show that is not just knitting. After all this originally started out as a sewing blog. Still we all progress and maybe thats my latest crafting direction?

I also have some blog hopping to catch up on since I have been really busy this week or so, so I intend to pop along and see what other people have been up to the last couple of weeks.

Have a lovely week

Bracken