Oh Bobbins!

Believe me the air was blue with language a tad worse than bobbins as I did battle on Sunday with the sewing machine. It was not meant to be a battle. It was meant to be a simple, pleasant exercise with a useful item to show for my efforts at the end of it.

My sewing is not getting any better by looking at the machine and willing it so, practice is required. When I saw the beautiful simple handkerchiefs that clever Kate (who needs our positive vibes at the moment as she recovers from a stroke) created from an old shirt it seemed like the perfect project. A few straight seams did not sound too daunting, it seemed like it would be a good confidence booster, a little bit of fun.Two and half hours later not so much really. Oh there's a hankie but it's got half the sewing it was supposed to have and what sewing there is, is really not up to scratch. I even managed to scorch the fabric with the iron. Worst of all the experience was not enjoyable.
It started out so well, a lovely shirt needing retiring that actually had stripes on, praise be, the seams might even be straight! I was excited to make this project and to really start to make friends with my machine. And then... and then what really went wrong?

It's hard to put my finger on it but most of it is in my head. The bobbin was tricky, getting it threaded, tension etc and once I started finding it fiddly it was as if I was transported back to some kind of horrible reconstruction of the sewing classes at school. It doesn't feel fun. I'm scared and I'm not even really sure what of. Scared of spoiling the fabric I've thought with the other more precious things I've tried but really with a hankie made from a shirt that's had its day, that doesn't ring true. I guess I'm scared of the power of the machine a little but more I'm just worried that I can't do something and it won't go right. Cross that I can't do something 'simple'. I get very stressy which just compounds whatever is going wrong. I feel out of my depth and I don't like it.

I didn't have this when I started knitting as an adult (something I was also bad at when I was first trying it as a child). I let myself knit a mess of knots and gradually get to grips with what I was doing. I was out of my depth but I had a book and I was learning and in a way that was all that mattered. The first horrible little pieces of knitting still made me proud that I was making stitches. Maybe there's a bit of the special knitting magic at work, you're taking a ball of yarn and creating fabric; with sewing I'm taking good fabric and risking creating less? Anyway the knitting learning curve was good: I started out bad, I was patient and practiced and got better. The same shall apply to sewing!!

I need to focus less on the pretty things I want to make for the home and for myself to wear. I so much want to be able to sew the things I see in my head that aren't out there to buy. That vision, instead of being inspiring, is creating a pressure that either leaves the machine untended on the side or leaves me swearing at it in mounting hysteria! When I started knitting I don't think my ambitions were much higher than a plain scarf. It was more about finding something fun to do with the time I have to spend sitting around at home, about tapping in to the benefits of making something tangible. Since then I've refined my understanding of myself as someone who can work with textiles, a maker, a craftswoman and I love that. I'm rightly proud of what I can create with my hands and brain but it's set the bar a lot higher for this new craft. All that internal expectation is too much for this poor ninny and her little machine! I thought I'd dealt with that by picking a simple project but in its simplicity, and almost because of its simplicity I expected the final item to be perfect. Ah that word, so easy for it to become an enemy.

So, enough! I'm in at the beginning, wading in the shallows and I'll stay there and enjoy this stage for what it is as long as needs be. I look at new knitters with a certain envy, those first moments when the obsession is takes hold when you're surprising yourself with what you can make are so much fun. So I'll have them again but with my new friend sewing.

It's safe to say in the making of this funny little hankie and in thinking about how to write about the experience here it wasn't just a little more sewing skill that was learnt.
I'm going to do it all again this weekend - but hopefully with less swearing and a lot more fun. No expectations about the hankie, maybe it will be good, maybe it won't - it will be whatever I am capable of making at this point in time and precious because of that.

Little Things...

...are really fun to make. From my three balls of Baby Bamboo came this sweet little set:Pattern: Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo Jacket 1866
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo: 126,127 and 131
Needles: 4mm Knit Pro Interchangeables
Started: 16 January 2010
Finished: 5 February 2010
Plenty of room for some 'design' features even on this simple little pattern, necessity being the mother of invention and all that. Yes I did forget to make a button hole, though I am in love with the spotty ribbon ties so that was clearly meant to be. Whether the little bubs will have long enough arms to cope with my misreading of the pattern remains to be seen, though I like the little fold back cuffs I created.

I skipped the matching beret pattern for the cutest hat in the world which also happens to look a lot more practical. I have no experience of trying to keep a beret on a baby's head but ...
Pattern: Aviatrix
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo: 126,127 and 131
Needles: 3.75mm for rib, 4.5mm for main
Started: 5 February 2010
Finished: 6 February 2010

This is a super fun and quick knit and I am in love with the pictures of the baby aviators on Ravelry, no babies here so kind thanks to Bear for being a great stand-in model.
The beautiful patchwork quilt is made by the very generous Mr Monkey Suit , so many kind thanks to her for her donation and to the amazing Craft Hope team who co-ordinated the Craft Hope for Haiti shop (still open for a couple more days if you haven't had a little peek at the amazing treasures from our lovely crafty community there).

The next pattern up to feed my new addiction to making teeny little things is the Little Sister's Dress. I want one of these for myself but sadly although there is a Big Sister's Dress there doesn't seem to be an Awesome Honourable Auntie's one.

And across the way...

...Wendy has now received her yarn ball (and I'm glad to say was as impatient as I to get to the gifties but did so much better than me with the photos.) Yay for the pigeon that flapped all that way.Anyone know of any vacancies to become a professional yarn ball swapper? If so I'm there.

One of my favourite things about this all was choosing the yarn, we both agreed on sock weight and gave some hints on colours and then we had to take the plunge. I wanted to get something as uniquely British as I could to make it likely that it would be a different yarn for Wendy. I dithered a bit but then the lovely Clara P came to my rescue.
I got The Knitter's Book of Wool for Christmas and have been dipping in and out of it with glee ever since. When I first heard about it I wasn't sure I really needed it as it's easy to just think 'wool' and I wasn't sure I'd get much chance to buy different types easily. Then I thought about the little experience I have with different wools, how the socks I've knit in Merino or Blue Faced Leicester are a million miles apart in terms of feel and wear and I knew I wanted to know more and try and be a bit more adventurous.

The book is so beautifully written that I swear you'd enjoy it even if you never knit a thing . For me it's so inspiring and it really encouraged me to look around at what types of wool I could find. Enter Blacker Designs. They have the most incredible range of yarns from British fleece: Manx Loaghtan anyone? I went for a natural colour alpaca and Shetland mix in the end as it sounded a wonderful combination and I just hope it's as fun to knit as it was to choose!

The Raven has Landed

My yarn ball arrived! I don't think it could have been more perfect if I'd wrapped it up and sent it to myself. No surprise that I wasn't the patient type that would wait and knit through the ball finding the presents on the way, goodness I didn't even have time to photograph the giant ball before I had to investigate what was in there - answer:
A completely overwhelming haul of lovely, thoughtfully chosen things - Clover Chibi needles and needle holders, Burt's Bees lip balm and cuticle cream, notepad, paperclips, stamp, chocolate, magnets, a shell pendant, handmade tissue holder, a bead S and the world's cutest pincushion:
And the yarn that held all these treasures? It's my holy grail of yarn - the yarn I've loved from afar - the yarn that the Pacific Northwest did not want to sell me last year. Wendy sent me a corvid in yarn form and I don't think I've stopped flapping with excitement yet.
Yes it really is Socks that Rock in Thraven - oh me, oh my - what pattern shall I choose for it?

For how the yarn ball looked before the frenzy of unwinding see it all wrapped up here at Wendy's post. And yes Wendy I'd do this swap again in a heartbeat too! Thank you so much once again and thank you T for organising.

Preserves and Bumblebees

Preserves are a new and growing obsession of mine.

This weekend I managed to put down the sock of beauty just long enough to make some lime marmalade.Green tomato chutney was a regular feature of childhood and I can remember my first adult foray into preserving was some plum jam circa summer 2004. We moved in to a new house share to be greeted by plums overflowing every surface and house mates heading off on holiday shouting some hasty instructions over their shoulders.

Since then I've dabbled increasingly, getting over the fear that it was all a bit complicated to bother with. No more plum jam as enjoying the finished item is the major driving force behind any preserving effort which does tarnish my 'domestic goddess using up abundant produce' image a leetle bit, but wasting ingredients and effort on turning something into a preserve I'm likely to leave on the shelf until it's finally gone rotten seems like throwing too much good after bad.
We made a big batch of various chutneys, sauces and some lemon curd for Christmas gifts this year and got some really nice responses from the giftees, so preserves are going to be a continuing part of the trying to increase the giving of handmade items. So far we've taken recipes mainly from the internet with mixed success. For a new year of preserving we invested in a new book and by chance seem to have hit on a great one - The River Cottage Preserves Handbook.
In a few quick reads through the preliminaries I've already learnt a lot. It quickly became apparent why our chilli jam had to be labelled as chilli sauce this year. Us novices had assumed jam sugar and preserving sugar were one and the same thing whereas jam sugar has added pectin for a firm set, preserving sugar tends to just have big grains for easy dissolving. I'm looking forward to lots more playing with the pans and jam thermometer this year with Pam as our guide.

And so we move seamlessly from preserves to bumblebees, another obsession of mine. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust are in the running for some funding for a wonderful project in Pembrokeshire introducing a wild flower habitat along a pathway linking sites that should assist in the protection of an endangered species of bumblebee - if you wanted to visit the Live for the Outdoors site and read about the projects that have been proposed and vote for whichever you most support that would be great, if you wanted to vote for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust project then that would be the greatest :)