So I've had a fairly productive weekend. I finished my Louisa Harding jacket, which is very chunky and so has only taken just over a week. I'm reasonably happy and will definitely wear it ....
I realised that although I have knitted a few garments throughout my life - I didn't actually finish many of them and I find the making up a bit nerve wracking! I have now discovered matress stitch and things have improved a lot so I did OK with the making-up here, although I really do find that hard and this was very thick wook with an uneven slub cotton running through it which I had to remove to use for sewing up. The pattern had a very complicated knitted band but I went for a crochet picot edge again using a chain of 3 and extending this to 5 for the button loops. My knitting confidence has raised a little and I am going to try some fair isle handwarmers and if that goes OK, who knows, maybe a fair isle jumper.
Gemma and I tried to make macarons... and I do say tried. We didn't get the right texture, not runny enough, and although we were making 14 chocolate ones, after a bit too long in the oven only 3 were edible! They all tasted OK and we are not downhearted but will try again soon. It's interesting to have a bit of a technical challenge.
I bought a magazine I have never bought before, Sew Home, mainly because it had some free fabric charm squares and some makes from Helen Phillips whose work I really like. You may remember when I made my quilt I struggled a bit with making all the edges meet accurately, so I decided to have a go a the little pin cushion in the mag with the free fabrics. As I was making the 2 pieced sides I thought it wasn't really needed to have two pieced sides, so decided to make 2 and then to have a runner up prize in my giveaway. It was still quite difficult for me ... don't know why .... but I tried hard and hope they aren't too bad! (Quite tiny though). I do think I would find this level of technique in large quilting items quite challenging! The magazine said it should take 45 minutes to make ..... I think it took nearly that to sew up the opening and the buttons on!
Winners
So I have drawn the winner of my giveaway which is ..... Trudy and for a runner-up Gillian. So send me your addresses (try through my profile and if this doesn't work leave a comment and I reply with my email- as I'm not sure how it works). Hope the items are OK! I will have more in future.
I seem to be getting into the habit of a photo of Rosie in most blogs .... so here it is, bathtime ....
