My wedding plans

Life is a busy, busy, busy at the moment. My priority is my wedding on 25th May. We didn’t give ourselves very long to organise it as we only booked it in January.

My wedding dress is being made by a local wedding dressmaker and on Saturday I went shopping with my bridesmaid for her dress. Why are all possible bridesmaid dresses in the shops, all in such bold colours at the moment?! I actually came back from the shopping trip and ordered a leaf green dress that I’d seen on the Internet before we went.

Here’s hoping that it will fit her as they didn’t have it in the shop to actually try on. If it doesn’t fit her, then we did see another dress which looked nice on her, but the colour is very similar to the bridesmaid dress I’m wearing for another friend in 3 weeks time and I didn’t want to “copy” my friend!

I thought that our bouquets can be made up of cream and pink flowers which would contrast with the green dress nicely. Another friend came over on Saturday afternoon and we spent over 2 hours looking through wedding flower magazines looking for ideas!

Last night I spent the evening making my tiara. Tiaras in the shops are soooo expensive, but my friend Possum pointed me in the direction of these kits to make a tiara. They are much more affordable so I bought one. If it looks naff when it’s finished, then I’ve not lost much money and there is still time to go out and buy a tiara.

I wanted to get something knitted into the wedding somehow, so I think I’m going to knit my garter. There are a few patterns on Ravelry that I saw. They have a blue ribbon in them too, so that will be my “something blue”. I’m hoping I might have some Serena yarn left over in cream from a top I knitted a couple of summers ago, to make it in.

I’m still doing a bit of knitting though – a summer cardigan in Rico’s new Fashion Summer yarn (a cotton tape yarn) which will go on display in the shop. However I always knit shop displays in my own size so that I can wear them if I want to as well

 

 

FO: Chablis from Rowan Parisian Nights

I finished this jumper in January (just in time for my birthday) but forgot to blog about it. It is called Chablis from Rowan’s Parisian Nights book and is knitted in Kidsilk Haze with a bit of Rowan Fine Lace for the lacy stripes. The stripes have beads in them too, which was a new challenge for me. I’d not knitted in beads before. I wasn’t looking forward to threading them all on to start with, but it wasn’t too bad actually and didn’t take as long as I thought. I quite fancy another bead project sometime.

I’ve worn it a few times now. I do wonder if I should have made it a slightly longer, but it’s not too bad really and looks nice with my little cordroy skirt.

(Apologies for the photo – I should have made sure the hem was lying flat)

 

New books

My Mum and my fiance gave me some crafty books for my birthday back in January which I thought I’d share with you.

Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to the Brioche Stitch technique

When I made the Rico Liesl scarf I used brioche stitch, which I’d never done before. I fancied exploring this technique further when I saw some of the patterns in this book and so I put it on my Amazon wishlist.

Celtic Quilts: A New Look for Ancient Designs

This has some very comprehensive instructions and guidance on how to make bias tape and then applique it into pretty celtic knot patterns. There is plenty of inspiration too and I’m looking forward to having a go and I’ve ordered some bias bars to make the tape with. I think I will try a cushion cover first.

The Complete Photo Guide to Felting

My fiance was told that felting is going to be the next craft craze and so he bought me this book so that I could get ahead of the game! My best friend was given a felting kit for Christmas so we’re going to have a session of felting together sometime soon.

FO: His socks

I kept a knitting project at my fiancé’s house for the weekends that I stay with him. A small sock project would be good, I thought. Little did I know how long it would take me to knit these socks for him. I just don’t do much knitting at his house!

But I finally got these finished and gave them to him at the weekend.

I wasn’t sure I could make them a matching pair, but it turns out I would have had enough yarn to start the second sock at the same point in the pattern repeat. I would also do the toe a bit differently for him. It is a bit pointy.

But they are done, they fit him and he’s now asked for another pair, this time in some chunky wool with a cabled pattern which he can wear as slipper socks!

Vic’s Knits is 6 years old

I’ve been a knitter and writing this blog for 6 years now. Today is my blog anniversary and I usually take this opportunity to review the past year and set myself some goals for the coming year.

I’ve just looked at my projects on Ravelry and I hardly knitted anything in 2012. I’m quite shocked actually and maybe even a little bit disappointed in myself.  I did start my It’s Raining Cats and Dogs quilt though, which was an aim for 2012 and that occupied me for quite a few evenings, so I do have that excuse. I hope I will be able to finish this quilt in the next few months.

I also taught myself entrelac too, which was one of my goals as was doing some more weaving. I didn’t do a lot of weaving but I have had some fun on my inkle loom.

I hope that you had a nice Christmas. We had a very chilled one. My brother was home for a few days and it was just him, me and my parents, eating lots of good food and watching lots of films on TV. I didn’t attempt to knit any Christmas presents this year. I normally knit my brother something, but I’d done hats, gloves, scarves and socks and even a cardigan, so I thought I’d probably exhausted the list of knitted items he might wear.  I have had a pair of socks for my fiancé on the needles for ages, but I’m not sure if they are going to fit him, so I didn’t bother trying to get them finished for Christmas. I need him to try them on.

Did you get any knitting related presents? I got 3 excellent looking knitting books this year.

Firstly, Cast On, Bind Off - 54 different cast ons and cast offs. They explain the advantages and disadvantages of each one and the diagrams look to be clear. I’ve yet to try one of them, but am looking forward to expanding my repertoire and choosing the right technique for my future projects. It’s quite a small spiral bound book, so should fit in my knitting bag.

Circular Knitting Workshop is the second book I had. This looks to be very comprehensive indeed – it’s a big book! I want to do more circular knitting and am hoping this book will help me polish up my technique.

The third book is The Knitters’s Handy Book of Patterns: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes and Gauges (Interweave). I hope that this book will me to come up with some of my own designs.

So as far as 2013 goes, this is the plan:

Knitting Goals:

• Learn and use some different cast ons and cast offs.
• Finish the UFOs in my knitting bag
• Knit some things that are in my Ravelry queue.
• Knit a pair of socks that aren’t just the basic pattern.

Sewing Goals:

• Finish the Cats and Dogs Quilt.
• Start the Farmer’s Wife or Sampler Quilt.

I’m not going to make too many goals this year as it’s going to be a busy one, both personally and professionally. Shop-wise, I’m moving to the first floor of my building, which will double the space I have, and I’m going to start selling sewing machines as soon as I can get the website upgraded and updated. Work is going to be pretty busy over the next few months!

Personally it will be busy because I’m getting married this year! My lovely man proposed at the end of November. No date set yet, but we’d like to be married by the summer if possible. In fact we’re going to look at the first possible venue this weekend. I had it in mind that I might try and make a quilt for our first home together, but not sure I’ll get it done by the time we are married. If I’ve started it though, that will be nice. I have some fabric set aside for it, so it is just a matter of working out the design.

What are your plans for 2013?

Sock Knitting for beginners

Found this website (via Ravelry) with step by step instructions for knitting socks. Have found it helpful to remind myself of certain parts so thought I’d just mention it here.

Silver’s Sock Class

Look! I crocheted a bag!!

Towards the end of the summer we got these new crochet kits in the shop and so I thought I’d better make one up for display. I then forgot to blog about it, so here you go…

Now I’m not much of a crocheter, as you may realise if you regularly read my blog. But the Lucca handbag kit is described as being for beginners, so I thought I might be able to manage it. And it was very straight forward to do. Definitely suitable for beginners.

The yarn is called Zpagetti, made by a Dutch company called Hoooked. It’s actually made from a stretchy cotton t-shirt like material, left overs from the fashion industry.

There are 3 different crochet bags kits which you can see here, two of which have nice handles included.

I had a fair bit of yarn left over in my kit so I could have made a bigger bag, or two smaller ones.