Patterns and Projects

Good afternoon all!  I hope you're all warm and cosy inside if your weather is anything like the wet and cold conditions we've got in the South East of England at the moment. 

Added to the cold weather, our house is pretty cold at the moment as we're doing some work in the kitchen which has required disconnecting 2 of the radiators.   Consequently I'm snuggled up on the sofa with the fire on to keep warm. 

To cheer myself up, I thought I'd share with you some of my recent pattern purchases and progress on a couple of crochet and knitting projects.

First up, the patterns:


McCalls 6707; McCalls 6678; New Look 6000; Butterick 5610
Unlike some previous pattern purchases that I've made just because the pattern looks cute, I actually have a plan for each of these.

New Look 6000 will be the one I make first as I'm joining in Scruffy Badgers Polka Dot Frock Fest.  I hope to make a start on this one this week.  I've already got my polka dot fabric, it's this:


I'll be making View E.


I don't really feel like making a muslin, although I know I should!  I'm going to line the dress, so I'm tempted to make the lining first, and use that as my "muslin".  Is that really lazy?

Of course, there is another dress in there as well!  McCalls 6678, which is a Stitch and Save pattern (whatever that means).   I bought it purely for View A, which I'll be making up in some fabric my mum gave me recently.  I think you could probably call it vintage - I can remember her buying it at least 20 years ago.



The third pattern I bought was to help fulfill my Sewlution - McCalls 6707. 



I pledged to make a pair of trousers during 2013 - I think I said they needed to fit me properly as well! 

Ignore the panelling on the legs and waistband and imagine these in a single coloured fabric.  I'm thinking navy for my first pair, then at least if they don't fit absolutely perfectly I won't be drawing too much attention to myself.

Finally we have Butterick 5610, which will hopefully fill a bit of a void in my wardrobe as far as blouses/tops go. 



It's still not the perfect pattern, but it's pretty good.  I like view A best (plain blue), but could see myself making both that and view C (white and black patterned).   I'm not keen on the gathered hems of the other 2 versions, although I'm not discounting the colourblocking on view B.

I don't have any fabric or any ideas of colours for this yet, I'll see what takes my fancy.

Now onto a couple of projects I've got on the go. 

I recently posted about a wrap I'd just started to crochet, well I'm loving it and I seem to be wizzing along!  It's looking good:



I'm coming up to almost halfway on it.  I need 5 or 6 repeats of the daisy section - I can't remember which from memory, but once I've done 5 I'll then decide if it needs to go any wider.  Can't wait to be wrapping myself in this. 

And thankfully my knitting mojo seems to have returned as well, thanks in no small part to this gorgeous yarn.



It's a 70% Merino, 20% Silk, 10% Cashmere blend from Colourmart, called "Diamante" on their site, and the color is Jewel.  It's a laceweight yarn and I had them wind it onto the cone doubled, so its not quite so scarily thin.  I wish you could feel how soft this is, it's absolutely unbelieveable.  I just want to sit and stroke or squish it. 

I'm making a very simple sweater from it, Ella from Kim Hargreaves' Touching Elegance book. 


I think that's me all up to date now, I'm off to make a cuppa and do a bit more of my wrap.

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