Beautiful Yarn

Designed by Janine Le Cras
Sample shown in Peacock on Luxe

Look at this GORGEOUS shawl, and the YARN!!! Oh my goodness, the yarn is out of this world! The Unique Sheep produces this yarn, called Gradiance Colorways and they just called my name, continually, and louder each time, until I bought some. Yes, I did. And not only that – I joined the Moonfleet KAL which starts in May. It’s a Mystery Shawl kind of thing – directions are emailed to you every week or so. But when you signed up and paid, you had to put in which yarn you wanted to use. Well, that decision took a while – but I finally landed in Norway!

Dusk on the Fjord
50/50 Merino & Tussah Silk
Seems appropriate, since I am Norwegian

The gradiance dyeing technique is exclusive to the Unique Sheep. We have developed a way of dyeing yarn so that as a set of skeins is used, your project will gradually change from one hand painted color to the next. Some sets have a dramatic shift in color, and others have more subtle transition. The gradually transitioned sets will work well to show off more complicated stitch patterns and lacework because each skein is “almost” solid. When working with Gradiance sets it is important to alternate skeins when switching from one successive skein to the next so the color change is almost seamless.

This will be my new project come May 2010 – I’ll keep you posted with lots of pictures and updates.
I have always wanted to do this kind of thing, and I’m finally getting started! YIPPEE!

Boring Ivory swatches – Project Yarnway

Nice for a bathmat. I’m using size 17 needles, and my strips are about 1” wide. The thickness of the swatch is good, nice and soft, comfy for a bathmat. But it is BORING!

So…I’m getting out the Kool Aid! More later

Next Hand-Sewing Project

My next project is underway. This is Lekala 5804 I love these patterns. You input your basic measurements, and it spits out a pattern that fits YOU! I’ve made several Lekala patterns, they always fit very well.
The fabric is blue eyelet from Gorgeous Fabrics, one of my fav fabric places.
The top is mostly basted together, except for the two seams under the ribbon. I’m trying to see if I like the ribbon. So far I do.


This is a very pretty light blue eyelet, it doesn’t seem so true to life here. The ribbon is white, with a little embossed floral scroll.
The sleeves are simply an extension of the shoulder seam, a little cap sleeve. However, since my ‘wings’ are larger than they should be, in proportion to the rest of my body, they are tight. So, I’m considering opening that seam once it hits the edge of my shoulder and putting some kind of gored inset. Haven’t really thought it out completely yet. But, I’m not there yet either.

Yes, it’s completely hand sewn, needle and thread. The fabric is about 60″ wide, and has quite a bit of ‘unembroidered’ fabric along the *salvedges.  At first I was kind of bummed about that. It wasn’t 60″ of  ‘usable’  fabric! Oh but it is!!! This is the perfect place to use for the facings! Exactly the same color, but without the ‘bulk’ of the embroidery for the facing. Perfect! The neckline, is faced and there is no added bulk. I love it.
Tomorrow I drop off my sewing machine at the repair place for service. I also think there is something wrong with the foot pedal, maybe a short. It’s quite temperamental and only ‘’goes’ when it feels like it. Kind of like moi!
Is there anyone else out there who likes to hand sew garments? Or am I the only nut?
*ok, after sewing my whole life, suddenly I can’t figure out how to spell selvedges or salvedges… heck, what is it? sigh….

Progress on Roses

This is really a quick stitch – I’m amazed at how fast it’s going! I’ve finished the roses and the leaves. Now, I didn’t care for the way the leaves looked after stitching, so I couched the stems with 1 strand of floss, over 3 strands of floss. I had traced my design with my fine brown Pigma pen, and I colored the leaves with a green/brown pencil. I’m happy with the way it looks.


On another topic, I also found this Awesome blog, The Lace Knitter. Before jumping in and reading the posts, you must read the first post , then you can go look at whatever you like I love historical patterns, and home keeping books. Most of my book collection is ‘online’ but I will now have to start hunting for hard copies

Roses for Laura

I’ve started my newest stitchery project. You know I can’t work on just one!
This is Roses for Laura, designed by Michelle May of The Raspberry Rabbits. I am a Big Fan of hers, she designs what I would, if I could.
I’m stitching this on a piece from Lakehouse Fabrics. It’s white on white, but not the usual WOW – this one has a lovely sheen to it and the dots have a little sheen as well. I love it. I wish I could find more of it, because I only have scraps left.


I’m coloring as I go, you can see! I’m using Valdani floss, Shell sells it on her website. Try saying that 3 time fast!
I’m coloring with my beloved Derwent pencils and smudging with a Q-Tip. I usually do all my smudging with a Q-Tip, whether I’m coloring on paper or fabric. I love the Derwent pencils – the lead is soft and the colors are brilliant and awesome!

Ric Rac

Remember when ric rac wasn’t cool? Back when I was a little girl, it was perfectly lovely to have some ric rac trim on my dresses. Everybody had ric rac! Then, it became SO out of fashion and was the poster child for Tacky.
Now – Ric Rac has found a new lease on life and crafters and sewers are buying it by the roll! Forget those little tiny packages at the sewing stores, we want YARDAGE! After doing a little research, I found some 25 yd rolls of ric rac for $1.38. yup. And they came this morning.
It’s small ric rac (5mm) and it’s nylon, rather than polyester, but I don’t care. I love it! And I have enough to play with! I didn’t want to order a LOT of it, until I saw the quality – and was it really 25 yds for 1.38? but it is! So, you want to know where I got it don’t you? Papermart!

Finished nightgown and BOM

I finished my nightgown – completely by hand! I enjoyed that so much, I plan to make another. Here are my ‘finished’ pictures, sorry for the blurry one!

And, I started the BOM from Willowberry Designs Under the Sea. I didn’t have any light blue fabric to stitch on, so I dyed some white muslin with about a teaspoon of blue koolaid in hot water and it came out the perfect shade of light blue. Now, you can’t tell that on the picture, but it is light blue I’ve got Block #1 Josephine, traced and the colored pencil on, now it’s time to stitch!

Hand Sewing

Ever since I got my book Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire Schaeffer, I’ve been fascinated with hand sewing clothes. The couture process, the little things that will set your finished garment apart from other clothes.
I have made one dress by hand, and it was really quite enjoyable. I think I put the zipper in by machine, but I learned a lot sewing that dress. Now that my machine needs to go to the shop for service and repair, and I’m totally in the mood to sew, I thought I’d get out my book again!
I ordered some cotton lawn from fabric.com and it came yesterday. I planned to make some nightgowns from it. I found a nightgown pattern I really liked KwikSew 2780 but… it was 13.99! And I wasn’t willing to pay that much. So, I looked through some patterns I already had and found one very similar, in Martha Pullen’s book, Lovely Lingerie was the Comfortable Gown. Since comfy is my middle name… this fit perfectly!
One pattern piece for the front and back… easy peasy! I sewed French seams on the sides, I’ve done the bias binding (self fabric) on the armholes and am now doing the gathering.
I started the gown last night, just before dinner and worked on it after dinner. I got the 2 French seams completely done and 1 armhole binding. It doesn’t take as long as you think it would. I also figure, clothes were made by hand for centuries and they seem to have functioned and been beautiful. I’ll keep you posted as I go along. It’s very soothing and satisfying to make these without help of a machine. And I love to get out my sewing box!

A freebie for you :)

emember when dresser scarves were in use? Remember when you’ve heard stories of when dresser scarves were in use? There is something very lovely in the hand embroidered pieces that adorned a well polished piece of wood furniture. It’s easy to make your own dresser scarf – here’s a corner to get you started. Just put this in each corner and stitch. If you want to make it a long scarf, you can fill in the sides with similar swirly lines and leaves. Part of the charm is your own individual touch.
Download a pdf page with the design HERE
Enjoy!

Yarn has a mind of it's own, that's for sure!

Turns out the green yarn did not want to be a Snow Queen shawl – it refused to cooperate! I probably had a dozen starts in the green, not a one of them would ‘do what I told it to do’. So, I went back to my original choice – KP Shadow – Basalt. Went from Chart A to D in 60 seconds! Ok, while that is not completely true I did go from Chart A to D without 1 problem. No frogging, no yelling, no stomping my feet….

I got my beads from The BeadWrangler, 8/0 seed beeds, lined in silver. I love them! We will receive Chart E today, which I hear will be much longer, but I’m ready!