coatigan

The new issue of Yarn Forward dropped onto my doormat this morning and inside was my Coatigan pattern. I like it as the stripes and little bow remind me of Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat for some reason and that makes me happy!

Hope you like it too.

catch up

An insanely busy few months has meant that recently I have been rather neglecting the blog I am afraid, so sorry! I have been trying to cater for all you lovely folk who want to learn how to knit and crochet, and so have been running round London teaching with my friend and co-crochet obsessive ChainCreative. Alone we are just two mad yarn freaks but together we are the dynamic duo Make Do Mend, so do let us know if there is anything you wish to learn!

All this means that I have forgotten to tell you about the interviews with li'l ol' me in a few craft mags around and about and a few patterns in Yarn Forward which have come out recently. So there you are, I was in Yarn Forward a couple of times and in a Baby Knits Craft special of Lets Get Crafting and with an exciting new collaboration with Yarn Forward coming in the next few issues, you may be fed up of me soon! More of that very soon.

Therefore, I shall keep it short and just let you know that I am off running round London Teaching improvers knitting classes this weekend, firstly at High Tea of Highgate on Saturday morning, then at City Lit college on Sunday, which is a three week course. Let's hope the weather stays nice as I love walking round Covent Garden on my lunchbreak - spending my wages as fast as I can earn them!

Oh, and I shall be in Bethnal Green on Monday teaching some crocheters to make granny square motifs, not just square onesbut also granny circle, triangles and rectangles! Pop by if you fancy making yourself one of these Paul Smith inspired cowls, which is one of my latest projects. Crochet seems to be overtaking the knitting recently, I am also working on a crocheted cushion, a bag and a hairpin lace top - everyone is going mad for crochet! If you don't yet know how to do it, now is the time to give it a try!

french knitting

The Easter hols are done and dusted and that means the next thing I am looking forward to is a trip to the South of France to teach some lucky folk how to adapt patterns and even design their own. Here are some pictures of the last class I did there.

If you are free from the 13th-17th May and fancy some sun, sea and some fabulous knitting along with great food and company, come along! Check out the fabulous Les Soeurs Anglaises site for this and other great classes. I fancy the Tango myself....

happy easter knitting!

Just before I rush off to relax my knitting fingers over the Easter weekend, I wanted to let you know of the Easter workshops I am running for children next week at Sally Bourne in Crouch End, North London.

You have a choice from Wednesday 7th or Friday 9th in the morning from 10.00 - 11.30am. We will be aiming to make little wonky toys, a little like my mad alien friend above, with buttons, felt and the basic knitting stitches. So if your kids are driving you mad this holiday already, send them to learn a craft with us!

Have a happy Easter and don't eat too much chocolate!

artreach quilting bee

In the past few weeks, I have mentioned that I have been working with Northwood Artreach, running crafty workshops for the community. The outcome needed to be a group art piece which could be displayed, so with the present popularity of quilts, not least due to the fantastic V&A exhibition, I decided to make a quilt-like wall hanging, with inspiration from Tracey Emin's beautiful textiles artwork. Finally, we have finished our own version of an art quilt, with each individual contributing a beautifully crafted square based on our initial inspiration of Winter Colours.

I had a fantastic time with these lovely folk and am glad I could help bring out their creative side. Some of them may never have done any textiles work before, while others had not touched a knitting or sewing needle in years, but were inspired to begin making for themselves again after the class.

I am very impressed with the diversity of colour, texture and technique used and the individuality of each contribution and the final piece has come together really well. The picture (above) shows the initial arranging phase of the final quilt. I will post a final picture hanging in situ asap. It will be displayed in a community theatre very shortly, which is fabulous for the quilters!

alice's knitted dress and cardi set

I am a very lucky girl; not only have I got to spend a lot of time recently with a fabulous bunch of folk at Northwood Community Artreach, but one of them has gifted me the most beautiful children's clothes. Alice wore this knitted set wen she was a child, as you can see in the adorable picture below. It is the softest yellow wool with chocolate brown Fair Isle edgings and would look as fabulous on a child today as it does on Alice as a little girl.


The set was hand knitted for Alice by her grandmother, Cecilie (what a beautiful name) who was of scandinavian origins - hence the neat tension and simple yet striking colourwork detailing. Cecile is pictured below, right, next to a photo of Alice with her mother, Inger, a very smart and stylish lady if ever I saw one! These ladies knew how to dress, and how to dress their little ones.


I am determined to use this dress to make a replica in modern yarns so that others can dress their little girls in this style, as I think it is a warm, practical and beautiful way to clothe children and I wish there were more patterns and clothing available like this today.
Any ideas on the colourway I should knit it would be greatly appreciated. I love the yellow and brown, but want to make something a little more contemporary. Perhaps a pale blue with blood organge red contrast? Or olive green with pale pink? Oh, I could go on and on...

Thank you so much Alice for sharing these with me, I shall treasure them.

More pictures soon of what the talented folk of Northwood have been working on, and hopefully of my version of the Alice dress.

fabric corsage tutorial

This pattern is very simple and yet very effective. You do not need to have any previous sewing experience as all the sewing happens at the back of the corsage and so is hidden away. It also takes no time at all to make -  it is unfussy, easy and quick.

Materials
A variety of fabric circles as wide in diameter as you want the corsage to be. The one I am working on here is 6cm in diameter. You will need at least 10 circles, but you can add as many as you need to make the corsage as full as you like.
Scissors or plinking shears, dependant on the edge you want to achieve
Sewing needle and thread
Safety pin or kilt pin, or hair slide, dependant on whether you want a brooch or hairclip

Step one
Cut out the circles, using a template to ensure each is the same size



Step two

Fold each circle in half and sew it to secure

Step three
Attach each folded semi circle together along the fold using simple tacking stitches and keep adding circles until the corsage is as full as you desire

Step four
Attach a safety pin, kilt pin, brooch back or hairclip to the back of corsage. 

Et voila!