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

African Wax Print Dress

Hey hows things?

I've managed to sneak a quick half hours blogging mainly down to some kind people letting us have access to their disney+ account (you guys know who you are and i bloody love you)

Which is a very welcome break, yesterday little man needed to be constantly occupied and was feeling very frustrated with whats going on. Technically its the Easter holidays which would typically mean lots of fun days out and seeing his cousins. But at the minute its just a lot of playing in the garden and trying to find things to keep him happy.

But onto the dress. I'm going to apologise in advance for the fact my feet are in these pictures. As i have previously mentioned my Dad took my most recent set of pictures and opted to tell me I should have worn shoes AFTER we had done every single outfit. And to be honest he didn't look like he had the strength to re shoot all the outfits again.

The fabric is a BEAUTIFUL african wax print cotton that my pen friend Jeanette sent me after me and my ex split up in an effort to cheer me up. Its a beautiful thick cotton that presses nicely and drapes beautifully. 

I actually think its one of the most beautiful cottons I've ever seen.

Being a wax print cotton meant that cutting out was a logistical nightmare, but this girl loves a challenge. I chose simplicity K1418 as the pattern because its a princess seamed bodice and I feel like that gives me a bit more control of where the pattern ends up on my bust. For example I knew I wanted the fan detail front and centre and that I wanted the keep the pattern central on the front of the skirt as well.

The skirt is just gathered which I find works nicely for border prints because you don't have to worry about curves extra. 

Length wise I left it a bit longer than normal because I've been going without tights in the summer. Which is a pretty big deal for me as a I hate my legs. I did worry it might be a bit too long but I wear it constantly so I think it might be just right!!!!

In fact I've worn it that much that I've had to do repair jobs on both of the straps!!! 

The bodice is lined with a plain yellow cotton so the inside is nice and clean and the zip is one of my better attempts. 

I even did my best to mirror the pattern on the back as well. 

As a quick thing, I don't tend to go for traditional pattern matching where the print is seamless through a seam because well who has the time? [apart from well everyone right now......] 

Instead I tend to go for the more laid back, lets how the pattern is mirrored or a least lines up sort of vibe.

In other news......

- well lock down is still happening so that's a thing......

- lil dude is still doing a combination of school work and fun stuff, today he wrote part of his story for school, wrote a song and identified some gemstones I had ordered online.

- I've been re reading the Harry Potter series and I'm currently on the Order of the Phoenix. Something about reading a book I enjoyed so much as a child is making me feel very relaxed during these different times. I had forgotten how wonderful it can be to fall back into the world of Harry Potter. Its like a warm hug or greeting an old friend. 

- I picked some flowers from our garden and have them on the window sill and they are making me smile every time I see them. Fresh flowers are one of my weaknesses.

- Sewing wise I haven't got much done. But lil dude goes to his dads for the second half of the Easter holidays next week so I'm envisioning a lot of free time on my hands and I'm hoping that sewing will save my sanity. And hopefully stop me pining for little dude too much.

- I have been knitting quite a bit though, mainly the mindless kind that I can just pick up and put down without too much bother.

This last photo is one of my dads best, He had asked me if this dress had pockets and I said no and this was the face I pulled which obviously he had to immortalise! FYI I do wish I had put pockets in!!!!!!

Much Love

Stay safe guys!!!

Frankie 

xxxxxx