welcome to the thunderdome and socks

its 2021, its been five/six months since my last blog post, we are currently in our second? major lockdown and here i am writing my blog. 

Who'd have thunk it?

So what have I been doing? and why haven't i been blogging?

WELL LIFE!

First of all there was the lovely thing called divorce , which I'm pretty sure is designed purely to suck the living soul out of a person and cause enough grief that most people think screw it and stay together no matter how miserable they are. 

Next up i had to figure out how to juggle being a working mum and having a small child, huge shout out to my mum and dad for providing childcare and very often hot food when i was too tired to make my own. 

Then i got a very lovely boyfriend, who although wonderful is a complete time suck. Suddenly i was faced with the choice of cuddle or sew and what can i say hes a really good hugger. 

Then I had some medical problems to contend with.

Then the pandemic came and suddenly i was having to cope with having said small child at home all day and trying desperately to remember all of the things i learnt about at school. 

Then i sold my house and moved in with my boyfriend, which is very similar to divorce in its soul sucking nature.

And now more pandemic.

So yeah that's basically been the last two years of my life in a nutshell.

Which hopefully explains my absence from blogging. 

The past two years has been a bit of a trial to be honest. I completely lost my sew jo, my motivation to create and my energy. But in return I found some wonderful friends an excellent boyfriend and i was reminded of just how awesome my family are. 

I've had a few projects on the go but nothing really filled me with joy the way it used to. I made blinds for my dads campervan, I made some stuff for work but everything else just seemed like a bit of a chore. Especially sewing. 

Until today. After a few days of having the inkling that i might like to sew I finally sat down and actually made something and now I'm feeling pretty darn chuffed with myself. 

Naturally its now to dark to take any nice pictures but i do have something else to talk about.

I MADE SOCKS!!! 

These were my first pair, during one of the spells between lockdowns me and my friend Aly met at hobbycraft for some retail therapy. She had just learnt how to knit and wanted to pick up some more wool and she was quick to spot a kit that apparently would make two identical socks. 

She decided despite being a beginner knitter that she wanted to make socks and somehow i got roped in.

I had to learn some new skills for this, including how to do a long tail cast on! and how to knit with DPNs. FYI i am terrible with double pointed needles and ended up swapping them out for a circular sock needle. 

SO MUCH EASIER!!!!!

I knitted them up reasonably quickly and found the instructions quite easy to follow, after they were finished and i had worn them around the house i realised quickly that socks were going to be my new addiction. 

So naturally i went online and ordered some more sock yarn and started another pair.

Oh yes we also got a new kitten , meet Buffy. She was my birthday present. john was insistant that we were having no more cats but his friends have a farm and this little ladies mum didn't seem to be coming back so we took her home and i ended up bottle feeding her. 

These socks are in the rum paradise colour way by the west yorkshire spinners. 

I was slightly nervous about running out of wool so i split the ball in half. 

However, i didn't think it through properly and as you can see the stripes now go in the opposite order on the second sock i knit. 

Its irritating but less noticeable than I thought it would be. I knit up the first sock quickly during a period of self isolation. Little man had a cough so we both ended up getting covid tests. Luckily we were both negative. Although it was a horrible experience, lil dude was not impressed with me ramming a stick up his nose and i was nearly sick in the car.  

Anyway the second sock took ages. And by ages I mean I had finished one section of self isolation and then had to start another one, this time my phone pinged asking me to stay at home. As it turns out my phone pinged because the people in the house next door had tested positive and it made my phone go off. 

Anyway I did finally finish the sock and now i own two pairs of hand knit socks!!!! 

So yeah I guess I haven't been completely unproductive!

Hopefully i wont leave it so long next time!

Stay home, 

Stay safe 

and look after yourselves

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Deramores Knitted Unicorn Kit - Review

I love unicorns. They might just be my favourite animal ever. First person to say they are not real gets a smack in the chops.

So when Deramores asked me if I'd like to review their Luna the unicorn knitting kit I jumped at the chance because what could possibly be better than knitting your very own unicorn?

Knitting wise it was really quick to knit up. I'm a fairly slow knitter and I don't have the best concentration span but I found the pattern easy to follow and that it made the shapes I needed it to make very quickly. 

The pattern only uses two stitches so I didn't even need to ring my Nan to help me out reading the pattern. 

I'd definitely say that an advanced beginner could manage to make one up with minimal help from the internet/youtube.

The wool included is the anti pilling Deramores studio DK. It says on the label that its acrylic but it does not feel like cheap and nasty acrylic wool in any shape or form. Its very soft and lovely to use and I'm really tempted to pick up some balls for some baby knitting. 

You get 3 balls of wool in the kit. Each weighing 100g and its more than enough for making the unicorn. [Plus it also comes in a pink colour way!!] In fact Ihave a theory that you could make a second unicorn if you reversed the colours! [Good and Evil unicorns anyone?]

There is a few options for buying the pattern and kit. You can opt for the pattern only for £1.99 , which just means a digital copy of the pattern is sent to you or you can just buy the wool and pattern for £10.99. Or you can get the whole kit pattern, wool and stuffing for £12.99. 

I know a lot of people are not a fan of the whole "digital pattern" thing and for sewing I completely agreed because its just too much of a faff. However for knitting I don't actually mind it. For one its kinder on the environment than a paper pattern and secondly I always tend to save it to my tablet which means I'm less likely to misplace it. Plus because its on your emails there is no chance of you loosing it and never being able to find it again. Or you can just print it off as soon as it arrives in your inbox!

I didn't have any trouble with the actual knitting of the pattern however I did have a bit of difficulty when it came to making it up. Mine seems to have ended up with a VERY long neck [Almost giraffe standards]. I've had a look on line and no one else seems to have had this problem so I think I'm just going to assume that I can't read a knitting pattern properly and leave it at that. 

And another small change I made was to use my usual method of attaching the hair instead of the one they suggested. To be completely honest I had got half way through the head before I read the instructions and realised my method was different to theirs! 

Also my method of attaching the hair makes it quite robust when the unicorn is being played with. This type of hair can withstand gentle brushing and plaiting which is very important to little girls [and big ones] when they are playing. 

For the eyes you can buy plastic eyes from their website but I chose to use some small black buttons that had a shank on the end. I think they worked out fairly nicely and they saved me having to wait for a delivery. 

All in all I really enjoyed knitting up the unicorn and I especially enjoyed how simple the pattern was and how great the end result was. I typically make knitted toys that look a bit demonic so it was a nice change to make something that actually looked quite cute!

As far as the kit goes I do think its good value as all of the wool and stuffing is included. However its not the sort of kit I would buy as a gift because it doesn't include "everything" you need you make it up [knitting needles etc]. The lack of knitting needles didn't really bother me though because it uses a fairly standard size and I have them coming out of my ears! [probably from all the knitting kits I've brought over the years]

Although I wouldn't buy the kit as a gift I would buy the kit again so I could make one up as a gift. In fact If I get a move on I might make one of these for my niece for her birthday. She likes unicorns nearly as much as I do.

So all in all I think this was a very successful make I can see a few more of these in my future.

much love

Frankie

xxx

disclaimer - Although deramores sent me this kit to review for free all the knitting and thoughts are my own. 

Knitted Baby Booties and Hat

I was supposed to be putting this post up earlier, but lo and behold I ended up taking Lil man to the out of hours clinic with Rikkis Dad because he fell over and bashed his nose at school and made it bleed and I was worried it might be broken. 

It was a long wait which was made slightly longer by the fire alarm going off, but its worth it for peace of mind and I can't fault any of the NHS staff or nurses because they were fantastic with him. He actually ended up having 3 nurses look at his nose because they wanted to make sure it was definitely okay. 

So naturally we got home late and I didn't have time to post until now! 

So this is a little baby set I knitted up a while ago because its useful to have one to hand. I used some nice soft baby yarn that I was given by someone, I have absolutely no clue who though so if it was you please feel free to shout up. 

I used an old knitting pattern that I borrowed from Rikkis Nan. It knitted up fairly quickly which is nice because I fit it between other projects.

The booties are a mixture of stocking stitch and garter stitch so they look quite textured. The instructions said to thread Ribbon through the holes to tie them but I made twists from wool instead. 

The hat was from the same pattern but I;m not as pleased with that as I think it looks a bit lumpy at the top. I wanted to knit a helmet type hat but I've made one of those before and babies don't tend to wear that type of style anymore. 

I've popped the set in the drawer ready for the next baby to be born. Luckily as their a light sort of turquoise I think they'll do for a girl or for a boy. 

Right I'm off to bed today ended up being a lot more stressful than I thought it would be!!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Crochet Hexagon Blanket

The weathers still a bit naff isn't it? I ironed all of my summer dresses last week and only had the chance to wear one. 

On the plus side there's been lots of good too, I picked up a load of vintage sewing patterns at the carboot this weekend and the washer and dryer have finally been taken out of the house so now I have the spare room back for taking outfit pictures! And me made may starts tomorrow which is always nice because I love seeing what the rest of the sewing world is wearing day to day.

Anyway I made this blanket ages ago. I've been trying to experiment with new crochet techniques recently. This is the basic granny square but done as a hexagon. So its not a huge step but at least I tried something different eh? 

Its only a small blanket and I'm not mad on the colour scheme but it did use up a lot of odds and sods of wool so I guess that's good. 

Size wise its not very big. Big enough for a baby or a small dog???? Yep I'm still trying to wear Rikki down to get me a dog of my own. I figure at some point he'll just get sick of me asking and whinging on.

For now its living in the cupboard. 

In other news! 

Ill be spending the rest of today taking pictures for blog posts! 

Apart from when I'm hoovering! 

Then I'll be editing my next you tube video! This ones about the vintage patterns I picked up at he carboot! Now I just need to get lots of nice fabrics so I can sew them up! 

One issue I;m having with the vintage patterns is that they smell a bit musty? So if anyone knows how to make them smell less musty please let me know!!! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Vintage Knitting Patterns

My Nans come to stay with my mum this week and she came armed with this! 

OH whats that? Well its a big leather wallet filled to the brim with........

KNITTING PATTERNS! 

Some newer ones and lots and lots of vintage ones! I can't show you all of them because LOLZ don't have all the time in the world but here are some of my favourites!

It doesn't have a date on it but judging by the bee hive I'd say 60's maybe? I am so on board with this jumper it hurts! I'm thinking of making it in grey or red???? 

I had no idea jeager did knitting patterns ?

This pattern is designed for teenagers and I think you can tell that its old based on how wholesome the teenagers look! I also like this jumper too and its has POCKETS!!!! 

I don't have a knitting machine which is what these patterns require but this is the only pattern I could find that was dated. 1959! That's pretty old!

How cute are these baby knitting patterns, I really like the booties and I'm always trying to find new baby bootee patterns.

I also like this cardigan a lot. That collar looks perfect for keeping the cold out. I love how we are starting the warm season and I'm talking about how to stay warm.

Okay so I'm not that keen on this pattern but I'm tempted to make them up so me and Rikki can pose like the couple in the picture. I'd have to buy two dogs but I don't see that as being a hardship do you?

Also can we talk about how miffed this poor woman is that she doesn't get to hold the pug? She really wanted the pug its written all over her face and the guy knows it!!! 

I've really be enjoying looking through the patterns and I can't wait to make one up! 

Whats the oldest knitting pattern you have?

Much Love Frankie 

xxx

A Little Cable Hat - Prym Yoga Needle

I'm really getting back into my knitting. Which is bizarre because, hello summers on its way????

But no, apparently the infrequent bursts of sunshine just make me want to sit and knit! 

Last year I told you all about my love for the Prym Ergonomic needle and well they've only gone and done it again! 

Meet the Prym Yoga! 

I was lucky enough to be given a sample of these to try at the recent CHSI stitches show at the Prym stand. 

Now the idea of the Yoga needle is that it does just about everything. Which means it saves valuable space in your knitting bag that you can use for snacks and stuff. 

Its called the Yoga because well its "bendy" like people who do yoga! [Side thought: Have you seen there's such a thing as doga? its yoga but with your dog!!! anyway I digress]

Primarily I've been using it as a cable needle. Oh yeah I upped my knitting game and learnt how to do cables just so I could test this out.

But you can also use it as a stitch holder, auxiliary marker [I have no idea what that is but it says it on the box], a stitch marker or a double pointed needle [Its flexible so its very useful in small pieces of knitting where you might want to bend it out of the way.] 

The ends are the same as the regular prym ergonomic needles they have the smooth plastic and the hook at the end. I've been using the ergonomic needles religiously and now I hate using standard needles, "where is my hook tip? Why are my stitches falling off?"

But these have the added bonus with the middle being bendy. Which means you can form it into all sorts of shapes. For example your favourite type of cable needle. 

Speaking of cables, here's what I made whilst I was trying them out. As you know I'm a firm believer in giving things a good try so I made a hat.

I actually made it for me but it looks horrible on me. I'm not sure why but it does and Lil man has 

currently lost 2 hats at school so this got rammed on his head one snowy morning when he was hat-less and lo and behold it looks pretty cute on him.

It was pretty risky of me to let him take it to school though as I hadn't taken any blog pictures at that point.

You can see the cables better in these photos. There are four on the hat and I really liked how malleable the yoga needle was when I was trying to knit them. And also how light it was in compassion to metal cable needles. I  knit a few rows with my metal cable needle and I found that the weight dragged the stitches down a bit. Not a huge amount but enough so that using a metal cable needle might have messed up my tension.

All in all I really really liked them. In fact the only issue I had was that everybody else in the house seemed to want to play with them too!!! 

Every time either the big or little man walked past my knitting they couldn't resist picking it up and bending it! 

They have never show such a interest in my crafting before!!! 

And then I found myself doing it as I was reading the pattern. Without even thinking about it! So I think we can add "thinking device" to its list of uses too!!! 

If you fancy giving them a try you can find them here! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Getting Inspired at the CHSI Stitches Show

So this was my second year of attending the CHSI stitches show and it was just as inspiring as the first time!!! 

Basically its a trade show so the majority of people are wondering round making business deals and then there's me looking to see whats new that's coming out taking lots of pictures and making notes!!!  

A few brands were kind enough to give me samples so expect a few posts on those products coming up in the next few weeks! There is some really great stuff out there for crafting at the moment and I'm really excited about it all! 

This is a pretty picture heavy post so make a brew and enjoy!!!

As well as their regular caron cakes they are now making baby cakes!!! How perfect would these be for making little baby blankets? But without the hassle of having the weave in hundreds of ends.

The Cygnet Yarns stand was one of the coolest at the show. It was just like stepping into a fairy tale, they had the three billy goats gruff, the wolf, Rapunzel, and this awesome gingerbread house! It was a wooden wendy house covered in knitted and crocheted panels! I'm currently trying to convince Rikki that we need one at home to play in.....

The wools felt beautiful and I couldn't stop touching things!!! Its also worth a mention that a lot of their patterns are on their website and they are releasing a few books this year as well [I can't remember if they are ebooks or regular books though].

Their newest product is their metallic chunky yarns which are perfect for quick knits with loads of style! 

The dashwood studio stand had its usual beautiful array of fabrics, but best of all they had this cute little David Bowie doll! I am 100% going to copy this! I mean how cute! And a great way to use up those small scraps of our favourite fabrics! 

The amne fabrics are organic jersey cottons with prints that are created with children in mind.... But I would wear every single print! The stand was made up with lots of little adorable baby clothes and left me feeling broody!! All of the designs are very clean and would be perfect for making clothes for little ones especially with how soft they all are! [thinking about it they would also be great for people who are sensitive to the fabrics that are against their skin!] 

The Flo-Jo girls had a lovely collection of sewing patterns and kits. Including a swimming costume that I'm convinced would be flattering on every single woman out there! It has some very clever gathering details and could be the answer to some of our swimming costume woes! They also stock all of the elastics and notions you might need in your ventures into knicker making.

The guys at hoooked had me awwing over their cute crochet kits and patterns and their ethical yarn productions. All of their kits are made using waste products from the fashion industry so they are really great for the environment! Plus they were kind enough to send me away with a kit to crochet up this little unicorn! I can see these being perfect gifts for little ones, I mean can you imagine a nursery full of these little guys? Or ya know my bedroom?

As always prym astounded me with their huge array of knitting and sewing products! 

This year they have their leather soles coming out so you can make up your own pair of snuggly winter slippers! 

And I went crazy over their new needle keepers!! They twist up like a lipstick and a small magnet at the bottom keeps your needles safe even if you hold it upside down!!! My jaw literally hit the floor when I saw it in action!

I also got to meet up with two sewing greats, Claire Louise Hardie and Stuart Hillard! Claire Lousie, is still doing her excellent sewing workshops down in London and Stuart Hillard has a fabric line [I got a preview and spoiler alert but its a gooden!] and another book coming out this year! 

Funnily enough the dress I'm wearing is made from one of the prints from his first fabric line for the craft cotton company! 

More of the line can be seen in this photograph, its all sewing based and those jelly rolls just make me want to make a sewing themed quilt to snuggle up in at night. 

These Embroidery hoops combine beautiful illustrations with the chance to practise lots of stitches. They are by Hawthorn Handmade.

The unicorn was my absolute favourite because well Frankie loves a unicorn!

I had the opportunity to take a good look at all the products Korbond has to offer which was nice because our local tesco only has a small selection! 

New for this year Korbond has their House of textures collection and OMGOSH it is lush to look at! Its all made up in tweeds and suiting fabrics and wouldn't look out of place in a sewing room on saville row! I think I fell in love with everything in the collection and its so nice to see sewing storage that wouldn't look out of place in my house. So hopefully these will be coming to your local tesco and Sainsbury's very soon!

The make arcade stocks various felt and embroidery kits. My personal favourite was this cute little cactus. Finally a plant I can't kill! Everything is included in the kit so it would make a lovely present for the sewer in your life! 

Bags by Mrs H is a bag pattern company and believe me when I say they have a bag pattern for every walk of life! From small cross body to large nappy bags! Plus the patterns are only printed on one side so theirs no need to trace! Woop! Oddly enough my favourite is the Nappy bag but I wouldn't fill it with nappies, I'd just fill it with snacks.........

I got to meet with the lovely Lisa Comfort from sew over it.  Number 1. yes she is just as beautiful in real life as she is in her pictures, 2. she has three new patterns coming out this year, 3. she might be expanding into kids patterns at some point [pdf] and 4! Yes 4! she has a collection of six fabrics coming out this year! You can see some of the prints in the photo above but keep an eye on their instagram for close up images! 

I also spotted these fun ribbings by the brand cuff me for albestoffe! Its so unusual to find ribbing for sweat shirts that's fun and these are definitely fun! 

I loved these embroidery kits from Dizzy and creative, they embraced the old style of embroidery but in a really contemporary way. The backing fabric and threads are included and the backing fabric is a really high quality as are the threads! The instructions for the stitches are also written for both left and right handers which is a nice touch. 

These are the Ashmead Paperless EPP templates! Paperless English paper piecing I hear you say? PAPERLESS? Well folks I have a cheeky sample t make up so all shall be revealed! But needless to say these are going to completely change the way you go about hand piecing patchwork!

Its always lovely to see Elspeth and her mum at the show. Its like talking to old friends! The rag kits are vibrant and beautiful! To the point where I apologised for standing on one! This year they have released a new spring action ragging tool which saves a heap of time and they are going to start doing ragged flower kits! Elspeth originally just did them for valentines day but with a make that cute how can you not make up a kit! Plus flowers that don't die? Always a bonus in my book!

Another person I love to catch up with at the show is the gorgeous Jenni Taylor, Typically we end p chatting towards to end of the day when shes not busy and I sit at the Korbond "Bar" and ask her countless questions! This year shes going to be carrying on with teaching and she also has a new book on the horizon! 

Lastly I had to show you these adorable buttons from a little shop. Its run by the loveliest french couple and everything they stock has a very french vibe to it! A lot of the buttons are sewing themed and are just too cute plus they are machine washable! I have a few samples so expect to see them on the blog very soon!  

So I hope you enjoyed that and that you are feeling as inspired as I am! 

My next post will be about the dress I wore to the show and why I chose that style! Spoiler alert its to do with my knickers!!! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xx