Cowl Progress

Sigh.

Cast On

So I have cast on my first knitted object. I’m not holding my breath; after one and a bit rows on top of the cast on stitches, it is a complete unholy mess and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it gets frogged (unravelled) before too long.

In other news, Ravelry’s nice, isn’t it? It has that perfect balance between function and ease of use. The nearest equivalent for sewing that I can think of (www.patternreview.com) has more or less the required functionability but it’s nowhere near as aesthetically nice or as intuitive to use. So I can see that I may be spending a lot more browsing time on the other, even if sewing remains my primary crafty hobby.

In My Next Job

…I would like to be sharing an office with people who aren’t racist, homophobic, and Thatcherite.

Just sayin’.

Knitting Candy

What was that I was saying about wanting to run before I can walk? I am already storing up a library of knitting patterns that I want to try (in my Ravelry queue – haha!).

There’s the aforementioned gloves:

A sweater, à la Tasia from Sewaholic‘s:

A cowl scarf – if Lladybird can make it as a beginner project, so can I… right?

And now this elegant vintage cardigan posted over at zilredloh.com:

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Back in reality, I have mastered the knit stitch. Purl is still eluding me, however.

Look, Mum!

Look, everybody! Look what I did! I knitted a square!

Basically my knitting mission is this: to get good enough to knit myself some gloves – specifically these gloves* – for next winter. And they will be long enough, and I will never have to feel fed up with having hands too long for women’s gloves in the shop again because I’ll be able to knit my own which will be far superior anyway. Or have cold wrists. So there.

The problem is, I always want to run before I can walk…

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*I actually joined Ravelry a while back. If you want to “befriend” me, my username is lucygoose88, although I will probably only accept requests from people who I know (either virtually or in real life. Basically, not complete randomers.)

Beginner

After a spurt of inspiring knitted garments in the blogosphere, frustration at the un-portability* of a hobby like dressmaking, and a dream in which I learned to knit and all became clear, I felt that events were pointing me in a single inevitable direction and I asked for the following book for my birthday:

So far I have managed to cast on, knit half a row, go wrong, unravel everything, and cast on again. I’m finding the huge number of different methods out there for the same thing (with subtley different results) a bit disconcerting, and my tension is frequently too tight to be able to get the needle into the next stitch.

But practice makes perfect, right? And it is a thoroughly lovely book.

*word?

Homemaking

One of the most exciting aspects of being a new grown-up with the security of a long-term partner is the opportunity that it affords one to play house. Don’t get me wrong – the finding somewhere to rent and the moving house parts were incredibly stressful, but since then we’ve had a blank canvas to play with at our leisure. Even better was when we’d moved past the bare essentials stage and had some wedding money to play with.

We’ve done pretty well out of charity shops, really. I had bought our dining table and four chairs from the YMCA in Durham when I was living in an unfurnished house during my final year at university- at the same time, J had bought a small two-tiered table which now acts as a boot stand. When J moved in with me and my parents we found him a wardrobe for £35; more recently, we’ve bought a pine ottoman for our bathroom, a tall bookcase for the upstairs front room and a small filing cabinet for £65 all in. It’s amazing what’s out there if you look – we got our sofa and armchair free from a friend of a friend who was trying to create space.

Then there have been the wedding gifts, or things bought with wedding money. Our bed. The proggy mat made for and given to us by members of Durham Quaker Meeting, which makes our downstairs living room feel so bright and homely. Four more dining chairs from IKEA so that we could seat my entire family when they came round. A bean bag chair. Pictures on the walls.

I won’t do an entire house inventory, I promise! But we’ve had a fun time working out where our tastes collide (and where they really differ!), and it feels so good to be creating a fresh life and home together.

We made the last big purchase from our gift money today on a sofa bed so that we can have comfy seating upstairs and a place for friends to sleep when they hopefully come and stay. It definitely falls into the ‘investment’ category – we didn’t just settle for the cheapest thing we could get our hands on.

But you know what? That feels good. It feels good because we’re building for our future together. It feels scary as hell, but definitely, definitely right.

The next step? Sewing curtains. Oh yes!

Body Confidence

Roobeedoo* left a comment on my last post congratulating me for my objectivity in observing my own body, and I just wanted to say a few words about that in a separate space.

I don’t love my body… quite. There are many reasons why I have cursed my genetic stock over the years, and several more why I curse my own laziness and apparent inability to do exercise. I’m not pointing them out – you can see them for yourselves if you look in the right (wrong) places, and while I did pluck up the courage to post the outline drawings on here, there is No Way José that I would post the original photos.

But despite all that, I am increasingly content with what I’ve been given. There are three things to which I mainly attribute this, and as they all started happening around the same time, I find them hard to separate in significance:

• I sorted out my posture. I know that I don’t have a model-esque posture even now, but it’s much better than it used to be. Doing Pilates for a year, having a portable back-rest, and having orthotic supports put into my shoes were the main three kicks here, but there have been many visits to chiropractors and physiotherapists and even more stretching exercises prescribed. I feel that I understand how to take care of my body much better now that I know where the pain has been coming from, and that’s an incredibly empowering feeling (along with the sheer physical freedom and strength which comes with being positioned better).
• I got me a man. Most importantly I got me a man who loves my body and who tells me and shows me so regularly – and one who respects my body. Obviously this is great for sexual kicks as well but it’s more than that – it’s about the confidence of embracing who I am. I always assumed that it would be a problem going out with someone who was shorter than me. The fact that it isn’t remotely proves that I am with the right person for the right reasons**.
• I learned to sew, and to fit clothes to myself. Sure, it’s an ongoing process where there is always room for improvement. But if you have only ever seen yourself in baggy, ill-fitting, uncomfortable clothes and if you have only ever had hope of wearing something that will ‘just about do’ at best then it’s hard to feel great about yourself. Sewing has forced my to analyse my body in a way that I had no incentive to before, and actually, it’s not all that bad. With fitting and flattering clothes we’re away!

To expand on that last point, that is what I love about the online sewing community. It’s not about diets, or competitions to be thinner, or to have bigger breasts. It’s about making the most of what each one of us has got. And if that’s not a mantra for body confidence then I don’t know what is.

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*Roobeedoo is what happens when two of your internet worlds collide. If this is a typical result, then I am quite happy for it to happen more often.

**Even if he is only 5’10″. Pfft.

My Croquis

My Christmas presents this year were all about the quality rather than the quantity. My mother-in-law had asked what I wanted relatively early on – and thus it was with no surprise but a considerable amount of squeaking nonetheless that I opened my parcel on Christmas Day to find The Colette Sewing Handbook.

For anyone who doesn’t follow sewing blogs voraciously and hasn’t heard of the above volume – this is a beginners’ sewing book published by the owner/designer of the Colette Patterns range, and I’ve yet to see anyone rate it at less than five stars. It is beautifully illustrated, clearly laid out, and contains five exclusive patterns (a single one of which alone would retail for the price of the book).

However the thing that has really appealed to people like myself, who in all honestly know how to press a seam and what have you already, is all of the discussion about how to get the most from sewing, both in terms of the creative process and in terms of ending up with garments that you will wear and love.

If you ask any dressmaker they will tell you this: that everyone’s body is different, and that having clothes that fit are the best way to end up with clothes that flatter. So if this is going to work for you, you needs to be honest about your own body. Enter the Colette Sewing Handbook‘s guide to making a personalised croquis – a mini-sketch of yourself in underwear or tight-fitting clothing that you can analyse and play dress-up with!

I’m feeling brave right at the minute (although please note, internets, that any rude or abusive comments will be deleted), so here we go:

Delayed Gratification?

I’m afraid this post is going to be another Whinge About Being Tall and Why The Retail Industry Sucks.

One of the (many many) things which frustrates me about the shops is their lack of long length nightwear, and specifically long length pyjamas. Even shops such as the trusty M&S which offer short, regular and long sizes in most trousers and skirts fail to extend this to pyjama bottoms. It may surprise you to learn that neither my legs nor my crotch length shrink at night, and thus in order to stay warm and comfortable I have a bit of a problem.

Technically I could sew some. But I’ve never sewed trousers before (due to being scared of fitting issues), and, well, I have neither the time nor the mental capacity to whip up clothes in the space of time in which I actually need them, for the most part.

This lead me to extensive internet searching over the Christmas holiday, and deciding (somewhat in desparation, because the normal online shops were currently being decimated due to sales) to treat myself to a rather gorgeous albeit horrendously expensive pair of pyjamas from Long Tall Sally’s stock sell-off page on Amazon:

So I gulped and paid the money (£46.95 inc P&P), and got that lovely, warm, glowy feeling of looking forward to the arrival of a treat from the postman.

The following day I had an email to say that they were out of stock, and my money was being refunded.

I still have no new pyjamas – and my current grey bottoms are no longer fit to be worn in polite company, even in an acceptable-pyjama-wearing-context.

Yesterday, I ordered myself some shoes from the Hotter website. Nice shoes (literally)! Smart shoes! Shoes which will be supportive to my foot and back! Shoes which, with the addition of my orthotic supports, will actually fit! All of the cool colours were registering as out-of-stock in a size 9, surprise surprise, but I figured that black would be the most practical and versatile anyway, and there are only so many £65 pairs of shoes that you can afford to buy on a part-time administrator’s income. And I got that lovely, warm, glowy feeling of looking forward to the arrival of a treat from the postman.

This time, they’ll be back in stock in the week commencing 30th January.

BWARGH.