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Dorothy Does
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A Handmade Wedding
Saturday 22 June 2013 was the best day of my life. Not only was it the day I married my favourite person in the world, but it was also the culmination of 17 months' hard work and planning.
Matt and I knew we wanted a DIY wedding - not just because we were working to a tight budget, but because we wanted it to be really personal to us; plus, I love craft far too much not to get stuck in myself!
The first thing we decided on was tissue paper pom-poms. They're extremely cheap to make and make a really colourful impact; plus you can make them in a range of sizes from tiny to huge. We bought packs of tissue sheets from eBay in the five colours of our wedding colour scheme: red, yellow, apple green, teal and raspberry pink. Matt found this really handy step-by-step tutorial on YouTube and got to work (we used lengths of wool, instead of pipe cleaners):
We needed to make a lot of pom-poms to ensure we had enough to decorate our venues, so I enlisted the help of two of my bridesmaids:
We even roped in Clem's husband, Tim:
We attached the tiny poms to the guests' seats at our ceremony, along with lengths of colourful ribbon:
We hung them from the ceiling in the dining room at our reception venue, between lengths of handmade paper chains:
As centre pieces for our dining tables, my mum dutifully saved more than 50 jam jars from the recycling. Now I'm not one for horoscopes but, if you believe in such things, Mum is the archetypal Virgo: on the day we came to decorate the jars, she had them stacked, clean with lids removed, in size order, in clear, plastic tubs:
Mum had bought Modge Podge and mixed it with blue, red, yellow and green food colourings to make up different shades to paint the jars with:
She and my brother's fiance, Ellen, spent hours diligently painting jars for me:
Then Mum put them into a baking tray and into a cool oven to set:
They cooled in beautiful hues and we used the jars on our tables in the evening at our reception to hold tealight candles - they worked beautifully. You can find the tutorial we used here.
I had bought tester pots from B&Q of enamel paint in various shades of our colour scheme:
While Mum and Ellen worked on their coloured-gluey jars, I painted another third of the clean jars with the enamel paint, by dribbling a small amount inside and rotating the jar in my hand, upside down, over a bowl:
I left them in the garden to dry and the colours really did look spectacular:
Lastly, I used washi tape (which I bought from Papermash) to decorate some of the painted jars, and the remaining clear jars - we needed to keep some of them paint-free so we could use them to hold fresh flowers:
I had originally planned to knit favours for all of our guests but, on realising this would have driven me insane by the time the wedding arrived, I cast that idea aside. But I felt I still needed to make a woolen contribution to the wedding so, to continue the pom-pom theme, I set about making a few yarn ones. I say a few... what I mean is hundreds.
Having never manufactured pom-poms en masse before, and being used to the cardboard doughnut method, I thought I was being canny when I found the fork trick:
But my good friend Wendy soon set me straight and assured me it was much quicker to simply make pom-poms using your own hand. So, I assembled my sister-in-law Kim, my mother-in-law Karina, and Karina's sister Belinda for a night of pom-pom making, fueled by wine:
They weren't the only ones to help: my bridesmaid Jane, and her four-year-old son, and my friend Becky also made me a large bag each of assorted pom-poms. We ended up with a mountain of them!
Next, after trimming them to size, I popped the pom-poms onto lengths of florist wire (you can buy this cheaply online or from your local florist):
We popped the pom-pom flowers into our painted jam jars on the dining room tables - they looked so cheerful:
I threaded the remaining pom-poms onto a long length of yarn and hung it across the stage at our evening venue, along with this paper heart garland I bought from Pipii:
One of my favourite touches at our wedding, were the frames we made in which to display quotes from the kids at our wedding about love and weddings. I bought some very cheap, Baroque-style photo frames from Wilkinsons and painted them with some paint I had left over from decorating our bedroom fireplace:
I used ink stamps to print the quotes onto the backs of the frames; I'd sent a list of questions to my friends to put to their children in advance - the answers were adorable and hilarious!
I also bought some plain gold frames and painted the backs with blackboard paint, then chalked the quotes on:
We had a hot Caribbean buffet at our wedding reception, and played reggae music while everyone ate so I wanted to make a sign with a lyric from one of our favourite Bob Marley songs - with a twist! My bridesmaids Sara and Clem helped me, with some extra help from some red wine... (Not for Sara, mind - she was very pregnant at the time)
I picked up some large, cardboard initials from The Range - the perfect use for some beautiful, vintage fabric I found during a rummage in Molly's Den:
There's a tutorial online here.
We had so much help from so many willing volunteers in the run-up to our wedding - my dad, brother and Ellen made these great signs for us:
My mum made 100 napkins by hand, from cheap tablecloths we picked up from The Range:
I found these cheap cloth bags online and our clever friend Wendy appliqued the children's names to the front for us - we filled them with books and games to keep them occupied during dinner:
In the run-up to the wedding, Mum and I collected lampshades of all shapes, colours and sizes - we found most of them in charity shops. On the Thursday before the wedding, my father-in-law Martin hung them up in the beautiful big tree in the garden at our reception venue, with festoon lights strung between them:
The final effect was absolutely stunning, especially as it grew dark:
We also used one of the lampshades as a decoration on the buffet table. I collected all of the crockery and cutlery myself for our wedding, mostly from charity shops and car boot sales; I kept some cutlery aside and Matt's brother drilled holes in the handles so his wife Kim could attach them to the lampshade for me. We loved the final effect! (It was an idea we pinched from a cafe we love in Bournemouth called Boscanova.)
The cutlery lampshade is now hanging in our garden - it makes a lovely tinkling sound when the winds blows :-)
Another of our wedding props that we've kept to display in our home is this sign that our four-year-old flower girl, Ava, made - she carried it down the aisle before me and she made it all on her own. I love it - it's going to go on our wall once we've finished decorating:
Even our guests took part in our DIY theme - our dessert was comprised entirely of homemade cakes that our guests had brought along. I left little paper flags on cocktail sticks out for them to write their names and what the cakes were on them:
Some of the crafty touches were a complete surprise. During my dad's fantastic speech, he whipped out a mini, knitted bride and groom, made to look like Matt and I:
But my favourite surprise of all was the one arranged by my super lovely husband. I knew he'd arranged a guard of honour outside our ceremony venue from his fellow lifeboat crew...
But he added a couple of extras, in the form of my friends Jo and Wendy, who were each holding giant knitting needles, that he'd made with his dad:
I was absolutely blown away! Even the pins had our initials painted on them!
All of the wonderful professional photos in this post were taken by Big Bouquet Photography - check out their blog post about our wedding, with lots more photos. And to read more about where we found all the things we didn't make at our wedding, check out this blog post on Love My Dress.
#wedding#handmade#knitting needles#DIY#pom poms#pom pom#tissue#pom-pom#jam jars#washi tape#childrens quotes#frames#sign#fabric letters#lampshade#lampshades#cutlery#cakes#guard of honour#lifeboat#RNLI#oars#giant knitting needles#Love My Dress#Big Bouquet#photography#photos
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Tiny Feet Update
So, the observant among you will have noticed I've been rather absent from my blog for the last month or two - there's been the small matter or moving into my new house and having a wedding, to keep me suitably occupied. Before I launch into wedding details (there we are, below: my HUSBAND and I) -in a forthcoming blog post, I promise- I wanted to bring you up to speed on other exciting developments.
You may remember, a few months back, when I told you about two pairs of super cute moccasins I knitted (from a lovely Purl Bee pattern) for the two -at the time- very pregnant Joannas in my life.
I am DELIGHTED to report that both babies have now made their way safely into the world. Both little ones arrived in April - first, little George and then, a couple of weeks later, little Nancy. I am proud and excited to tell you that they both approve of their woollen mocs - SEE HOW CUTE (and stylish) THEY ARE!
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Dorothy Does Yarnwise!
Well, it's official: I'm famous. The fabulous people at Yarnwise magazine, in their latest edition, are running a (six-page, no less!) feature on my knitting exploits. Never has a knitting magazine been bought by so many members of the same family!
As you'll see from the images Yarnwise have kindly shared with me, beautiful, almost-four-year-old Ava (soon to be flower girl at our wedding next month) is featured modelling her finger-knitted necklace. Her dad Terry promptly enquired as to where he might purchase a copy of said magazine - I only wish I'd been there to see him stood with it at the counter at Smiths!
Yarnwise have also included a copy of my 'Ahoy Me Hearties' dishcloth pattern - so I'm pretty chuffed to have been published for the very first time. Just don't tell me if you happen to find any mistakes...
You can find Yarnwise on Facebook, Twitter or visit Yarnwise.co.uk
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Molly's Den
Today I made an awesome new find, courtesy of a tip off from my lovely friend Charlotte - she told me about an antique and vintage warehouse in Bournemouth called Molly's Den.
I'm collecting various bits and bobs for our wedding in June at the moment, so I went along for a good rummage. The warehouse is HUGE - it's two floors packed with goodies (as well as a cafe, which unfortunately I didn't have time to enjoy on this trip).
The price tags range from bargainous, to reasonable, to fairly pricey. But regardless of whether or not you make a purchase, it's a fantastic day out if you love a root around vintage ware like I do. What's more, the staff couldn't have been more friendly and helpful - I left with several armfuls (lamps, fabrics and antique cutlery) and a very friendly chap carried it all to my car for me. Check out this booty:
I was so tempted by this beautiful bureau:
If I was in the market for small people furniture, I'd have definitely snapped up this 1940s high chair:
I just loved this post box:
One of my favourite finds was this model lifeboat, which my father-in-law (the current coxswain of Swanage lifeboat) informs me is a Solent class RNLI lifeboat. I'd have treated him to it but it was £199...
You can find out more on the Molly's Den website, on their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter. I'll definitely be paying another visit very soon.
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With Love From Paris
This evening my hands are sore and my hair is grey with dust - it was the first day of my week off work, that I'll be spending at our new house, stripping pant, sanding woodwork and painting ceilings with PVA, in preparation for our plasterer arriving on Wednesday morning. I'm knackered but so satisfied (especially now, after a hot shower and with a glass of warmed red wine in my hand!) - with every stroke of the sandpaper, it feels like we're revealing the real house, hidden beneath dirt, cobwebs and what feels like dozens of layers of paint, applied over the last hundred years.
But it's very hard work and I was there on my own today, after Matt started his new job - old and, as yet, unfamiliar houses make some strange noises when you're there alone, especially in the gale force winds we've been experiencing in Swanage today!
What really brightened my day was a little parcel waiting on the doormat, addressed to me. When I unwrapped it, I found a beautiful card from my best friend and bridesmaid Clemency, who had written to thank me for a wonderful weekend in Paris - typically thoughtful of her!
Tucked inside the package, next to the card, was a little bundle wrapped in tissue paper - it encased the most beautiful, embroidered, 100-year-old, silk postcard; a metal Eiffel Tower pin badge; and a set of antique, Parisian stitch markers - each charm depicting an iconic symbol of French life.
I'm so thrilled with my gifts and will treasure them forever - not only beautiful and thoughtful in their own right, but a reminder of a wonderful memory with some of my best and oldest friends in the world. Thanks, Clem xxx
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Le Brunch à L'Oisive Thé
This has quite possibly been the most exciting week of my life to date. On Thursday, Matt and I completed on the purchase of our very first home. You may recall some months ago that I wrote about having an offer turned down on a lovely flat with a gurt big garden - thank goodness we did! We now own (own!) a beautiful three-storey, end-of-terrace house only a few minutes' walk from the beach. Granted, it's smelly, damp, dusty and half of the downstairs floorboards are rotten. But it's ours. And we couldn't be happier.
This is the beautiful hand-drawn picture our sister-in-law Kim drew for us as a house-warming present - it'll take pride of place on the wall. Just soon as it's been sugar-soaped, and PVA'ed, and plastered, and sanded, and primed, and painted.
No sooner than we'd picked up the keys to our lovely new the house, I had to leave Matt behind and head for Paris (such a hardship!). Kim and I decided, as we're both getting married in the coming months and have several mutual friends, that we'd be extravagant and book an apartment in central Paris for the weekend as a joint hen do.
And it was incredible. The apartment was stunning, in authentic shabby chic fashion; the food was predictably out of this world (we ate at Le Cafe du Commerce on Saturday night - I had veal's liver pan-fried in parsley butter, which literally melted in my mouth); and the city itself was everything I'd hoped it would be: elegant, cultural, historical, fascinating and achingly stylish.
We began Saturday with fresh coffee, fruit and pastries from the patisserie on the corner near our apartment (directly under the Pantheon), then caught the metro to Les Puces ('The Fleas'), the famous Parisian flea market in Saint-Ouen.
The prices range from gob-smackingly expensive to very affordable - and don't be afraid to haggle. I picked up three metal coat hooks painted purple (for the wall in the porch of our new house) and two large printing press stamps (a B for my initial and an M for Matt), which will probably find a home on our mantelpiece.
After several hours at Les Puces, we happened upon a tiny cafe and gorged ourselves on cold meats, cheeses, bread and creme brulee, washed down with a carafe or two of red wine. We finished the afternoon with a stroll around the very vast and very moving Pere Lachaise cemetery, where the likes of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried.
But, aside from visiting Les Puces, what I had most been looking forward to was a trip to L'Oisive Thé, a tiny cafe on a quiet square in the village-like, hilly Butte aux Cailles area, dedicated entirely to knitting and tea - heaven!
Subscribers to Mollie Makes may well remember a feature they ran back in May last year about L'Oisive Thé - it was back then that I scribbled their website address down and vowed that I would squeeze a visit into our Parisian weekend.
Sadly, we weren't in town at the right time to join in with the weekly knitting group Tricot Thé, but L'Oisive Thé is renowned for its brunch from 11am on weekends so we were keen to indulge ourselves.
Le brunch consisted of a glass of fresh orange juice and either a tea, coffee or hot chocolate; two soft-boiled eggs with crusty French bread soldiers smothered (by me!) in salty butter; a thick slab of the butteriest brioche I've ever tasted (so delicious!) with raspberry jam - and that was just the first course!
Second course(!) was a choice of four pastries, served with a green salad - I chose the goat's cheese pastry: delicieux!
Once almost too full to move, I thought it only fitting to treat myself to some luxurious and spendy yarn - well, when in a Parisian knitting cafe, do as the Parisian knitters do! And there was no shortage of yarn to feast my eyes on and squidge:
Spoilt for choice but limited by my purse, I chose two skeins to take home, both Alice by Juno Fibre Arts - 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere. I shan't tell you how much they cost but needlesstosay, I spent more on yarn than I did at dinner on Saturday night!
I also treated my dear friend Becky to some Lorna's Laces worsted merino in 'Turtle Rodeo' (810) for her 30th birthday - she was admiring it so I've promised to knit her a cowl ready for our camping trip in August, to keep her warm in the evenings around the campfire. Here I am looking rather pleased with my stash:
After a stroll around the grounds of the Louvre, we made our way to Pont de l'Archeveche, a footbridge over the River Seine, whose railings are covered with what the French call 'cadenas d'amour': small padlocks, painted with the names, initials or significant dates of couples and lovers from across Paris and the world.
As we were there to celebrate our impending nuptials, Kim and I, as well of some of our girlfriends, added our own padlocks to the bridge - I painted our initials and the date of our wedding onto mine with red nail varnish.
It was a weekend I'll never forget and I can't wait to return as soon as I can, hopefully with Matt, and I be making sure we visit L'Oisive Thé - this time for some cake!
#Les Puces#Paris#house#L'Oisive The#L'OisiveThe#knitting#cafe#Parisian#Pere Lachaise#Thé#crochet#Alice#Juno#Lorna's Laces#padlock#bridge
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Baby Mocs For The Two Joannas
When it comes to knitting, there is nothing I love more than making tiny woolly things for the unborn babies of my dearest friends. And it seems these days I have a never-ending supply of said expectant friends - I guess we've just reached 'that' age.
Most recently we learnt that my very, very dear friend Sara and her husband Mark are due a little one in July - this was truly the best news of the year so far; they'll make incredible parents.
But before then I have another FIVE friends whose babies are due - the first of which are the Joannas: Jo K is due first in April, followed by Jo Q later in the month.
I've been collecting ideas for cute gifts for the small (and big!) people in my life on my Knitted Stuff Pinterest board and the Purl Bee Baby Moccasin pattern is by far my favourite - it's also the perfect excuse for purchasing a few skeins of super soft and fuzzy baby alpaca wool.
For the booties I made, I used Blue Sky Alpaca's Sport Weight in Natural Light Tan (504) and Natural Copper (502) as the main colours - and oddments from my own stash of red, blue and cream wool for the embroidery.
Knitting these booties is very much like knitting socks - using DPNs, I worked a ribbed cuff in the dark brown then switched to slightly larger needles and the biscuity colour to work a stocking stitch ankle section:
Next, I cast off half the stitches in the round then worked the instep on one needle:
Finally, I picked up 41 stitches around the instep and cast off edges and, back in the round, worked a ribbed sole finished with Kitchener Stitch (here's that awesome Purl Bee tutorial I always harp on about again):
Once the mocs were finished and the loose tails had been woven in, I used duplicate stitch to add this Native American-inspired design:
The Jos were both thrilled with their mini gifts and I can't wait to see them modeled in person on two pairs of teeny, tiny feet - only a few months to go!
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Mitts For Little Thumb-Suckers
Just before Christmas, my sister-in-law Kim came to me with a problem: her one-year-old Harry was refusing to wear gloves, which, in this chilly weather we've been having, was far from ideal for a small person. The reason for his indignation was that he's a thumb-sucker, and gloves somewhat get in the way of this particular past-time.
Kim had searched high and low for a pair of mittens for toddlers that kept the fingers toasty but let the thumb roam free, but had found nothing. So she asked if I could knit something up.
I tried various sites, including the vast depths of Ravelry, but couldn't find an appropriate pattern anywhere, so I concluded that I'd have to make something up. It took me four attempts to get the sizing right and the thumb hole in the right place, but eventually I got there (not quite in time for Christmas, sadly). I used less than 50g of self-patterning, chunky yarn - nothing expensive: just 50% wool, 50% acrylic (I felt machine washing would probably be appreciated by Harry's mum).
Harry can't be the only toddler who refuses to wear gloves because of a love of thumb-sucking, so I thought I'd share my pattern with you for free, as a New Year's gift!
The only vaguely tricky skills you need to attempt this pattern are: knitting in the round (I used DPNs), making a buttonhole, and Kitchener stitch (this Purl Bee tutorial is a GODSEND).
Toddler mittens for thumb-suckers
For thumb-suckers aged 12-18 months
Shopping list:
· 50g chunky yarn of your choice
· Set of 4 x 4.5mm DPNs (double-pointed needles)
· 1 stitch marker
· Tapestry needle
Jargon:
· sts = stitches
· k1p1 = knit 1, purl 1
· m1 = make 1
· k = knit
· st st = stocking stitch
· pm = place marker
· k2togtbl = knit 2 together through the back loop
· k2tog = knit 2 together
· sm = slip marker
Let’s go! (Make two mittens)
1. Cast on 24 sts and distribute evenly across 3 needles (8 sts on each needle)
2. Join in the round and work 12 rounds of k1p1 ribbing
3. Round 13: *m1, k3, repeat from * to end of round (32 sts)
4. Rounds 14-18: st st
5. Round 19: k all stitches on first needle; second needle: k3, cast off 5 sts, k to end of round
6. Round 20: k all sts on first needle; second needle: k3, turn, cast on 6 stitches (purlwise), turn, cast off 1 stitch, k to end of round
7. Rounds 21-27: st st
8. Round 28: k16, pm, k to end of round
9. Round 29: k1, k2togtbl, k to within 3 sts of marker, k2tog, k1, sm, k1, k2togtbl, k to last 3 sts in round, k2tog, k1 (28 sts)
10. Rounds 30 & 31: st st
11. Repeat rounds 29-31 (24 sts)
12. Repeat round 29 again (remove marker during this round)
13. Final round: st st
14. Distribute sts evenly on 2 needles and either graft together using Kitchener method, or turn mitten inside out and knit 1 st from each needle together until 12 sts remain on 1 needle, then cast off
15. Weave in loose tails with tapestry needle
Here is the little man, wearing his new mitts - this is his 'Smile for the camera' face:
And here he is, demonstrating the gloves in action:
What a cutie!
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Festive Pinspiration
Seeing as we've only got two more days to go until The Big Day and I've finally got some time on my hands, having finished work and DONE ALL MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING (yeah, man!), I thought I'd celebrate a festive project I've been working on for a couple of months now. Perhaps not so much a project as an obsession: my Christmas Pinterest board!
If you're not on Pinterest, firstly, where have you been?! It's essentially an online scrapbooking site for curating images you find and love on the web. As a crafter and lover of design, cooking and clothes, it's a treasure chest of inspiration for me - I waste a lot of time there!
I wanted to share with you some of my favourite images from my Christmas pinboard - some are recipes, some are graphic design, some are things I want to make, some are cute printables, some are things you can buy on Etsy - click on the images and the links will take you back to the original webpage:
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Christmas Jumper Challenge - Result!
The results are in! On Saturday (not Friday, as planned) I finally completed my woolly creation after three weeks' work at every given opportunity. For each knitting session, I dutifully set my stopwatch and recorded the timings:
I've been manically busy since Saturday night (visiting the Jurassic Coast tattoo convention on Sunday, eating scrumptious food and being in the audience for Radio 4's The Kitchen Cabinet in Bath on Monday, and enjoying the last Swanknitsch of the year last night) so I finally sat down to add up the hours, minutes and seconds this evening.
The result was a whopping 33 hours, 47 minutes and 41 seconds of knitting time! My sweepstake raised a slightly disappointing £14.48 for Save the Children but the charitable winner, my fiance Matt (not a fix - honest!), also donated his £3.75 winnings, bringing us to a total of £18.23. Thank you to the small gang of you who took part - the donation total may seem rather meagre but we raised enough to provide life-saving treatment for 48 children with diarrhoea. Just imagine if our knitty sweepstake goes on to save the lives of 48 children! That really does bring a warm glow to Christmas!
Now, as some of you may remember, I had originally intended to have my jumper ready for Friday 14th December, Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day - I had roped all my colleagues into wearing their woolly wonders too, and even bought prizes for the most impressive. Sadly, my jumper wasn't ready in time (there was some serious stress knitting going on, as I'm sure you can imagine!) so I had to borrow Matt's beautiful, if not slightly oversized, jumper instead. This is me and my lovely friend Catherine at the office on Friday:
Our colleagues at the RNLI made such an impressive effort; some of the outfits were fabulous - there was even a penguin onesie! Most importantly, everyone who wore a Christmas jumper put a pound in the pot and we raised a fantastic £90! I am so proud of my colleagues and so chuffed with such a great result - enough to buy two hygiene kits (with soap, towel and toothbrushes) for children living through the Syria and Gaza crises right now, as well as safe birth kits for eight women giving birth at home in vulnerable circumstances.
So on Saturday morning, I set my alarm and woke up to spend several hours frantically stitching away in an attempt to have my jumper ready to wear for the Christmas jumper pub crawl I'd organised with my friends in Swanage. Poor Matt was on the receiving end of my panic and foul mood - at one point I promised to burn the jumper the following day! (I haven't.) Never has the sewing together of component knitted parts seemed to take so long!
In the end, I had to weave a length of red ribbon through the collar and make do:
I was still going when our friends arrived for a glass of wine before we set out to the pub!
But finally, after holding my friends up for 45 minutes, I was ready and the jumper was complete!
So the drinking began! Everyone had made a great effort and there was plenty of festive spirit (gin, sherry, rum...):
We even had a dog in antlers! (Excuse the blurry photo - this was several pubs in!)
And yet again, everyone was so wonderfully generous - not only did all of our friends put a few quid in the collection box but other customers in the pub contributed too. In the end we raised another £60! Thank you so much to everyone who donated, especially Mimi in the Snack Bar, who donated £10 when we popped by for a cocktail at the end of the night.
So the grand total raised for Save on Children stands at £168.23, which makes me a very happy girl. Together, we've made the world better with a few woolly, sparkly, garish and festive sweaters. Well done, folks, and merry Christmas!
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Christmas Jumper Challenge - Update
Seeing as I'd not brought you an update for a few weeks, I thought I'd better post a few pictures of my Christmas jumper project, which is still -worryingly- a work in progress.
Tonight, I finally finished the first sleeve (see below), while watching La Vie En Rose, the lifestory of Edith Piaf, who was also a knitter, it turns out:
This is Matt modeling the front of my jumper (it's a little small for him - thankfully). Note my ingenious makeshift stitch holder, consisting of a DPN and two hair bobbles (my second stitch holder seems to have gone walkies):
I've also finished the back of the jumper (I decided to cheat and omit the Fair Isle pattern on this side to save time) so I've just got one sleeve and the making-up to do - IN TWO DAYS! Fortunately I'm off to London on Thursday (to be in the audience for an edition of Radio 4's Kitchen Cabinet - exciting!) so I've got four and a half hours of train journey, which should see me right - fingers crossed!
It's not too late to take part in my sweepstake if you'd like to have a bash at guessing how many hours, minutes and seconds it'll have taken me, by Friday, to knit this jumper - you could win some dosh and it's all in a very good cause. Place your bets now!
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Lovely London Finds
Last week I had to go to London for a meeting and I arrived a little early. So what d'you do when you're near Regent Street and have half an hour on your hands? You treat yourself to a nose around the haberdashery floor at Liberty, that's what! Liberty is famous for its fabrics and it really is a veritable treasure chest of loveliness - I could've spent all day in there!
Of course it's also mega expensive. Amongst the yarns I found these ace knitting kits for beginners by Wool and The Gang - everything you need to complete your own basic knitted garment. Just a snip at £90! Hmm... Super if you can trust yourself with exquisite baby alpaca - when I was a beginner I stuck firmly to trusty acrylic for months until I knew I wasn't going to muck the whole thing up!
There was a wall covered entirely with packs and spools of ribbon - it was a feast for the eyes! At this point I really struggled to resist the urge to spend!
I didn't resist the urge entirely but I did manage to restrain myself enough to only buy Christmas presents for other people, and not myself :-)
After my meeting, I headed back to Waterloo on the tube; before I hopped on the train back to Dorset, I took a stroll round the corner to Lower Marsh, a shopping street on the south side of Waterloo station, to find the independent I Knit London shop:
You may recall that back in the summer I volunteered in the I Knit tent at Camp Bestival, but I'd never been to the actual shop. It was jam-packed with goodies and such a warm, welcoming place to pull up an armchair and settle down for a crafting session. Unfortunately I didn't have time for that, but I did have time for a good rummage.
There were some stunning yarns on sale:
On the counter was some -wait for it- Arctic musk ox wool, blended with Bombay silk. Needless to say, it was incredibly expensive but ridiculously soft and warm. Sadly it was ever so slightly out of my price range...
Instead, I treated myself to a skein of artisan, kettle-dyed Manos del Uruguay ('Hands of Uruguay') Silk Blend - 30% silk, 70% Merino ultrafine. I haven't used it yet but I have a special Christmas present project in mind that it would be just perfect for...
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Knitting Adventures in Primrose Hill
Today has been the slowest day. All day I've been so excited to get home, pour a glass of wine and write this blog post. I've also been absolutely shattered - I didn't get into bed until 1.30am and couldn't sleep for thinking of all the ideas whirring around my brain after meeting such a talented and interesting bunch of women.
If you read my blog post yesterday you'll know that I was invited by Save the Children to a blogger event in London last night to publicise their Christmas Jumper Day fundraising campaign. I packed a small... ahem... bag, then headed for the train station:
The journey was two and a half hours long, so I occupied myself with some serious Christmas jumper knitting:
Upon arrival at Waterloo, I headed a few stops up the Northern line then set about trying to navigate my way to Mary Portas' Living and Giving Shop in Primrose Hill. There was a lovely festive feeling in the air - the streets were already decorated for Christmas; being a country bumpkin, I felt altogether rather Dickensian:
If you've never visited one of Save the Children's Giving and Living shops, you must, just as soon as you get the chance - they are lush, inside and out, brimming with vintage goodness:
Shortly after all the bloggers had arrived, we were each handed a brown bag filled with goodies - namely three balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto DK in delightfully festive colours:
And then Debbie Bliss herself (complete with arm sling due a to a climbing-on-a-patio-chair injury) stepped forward and explained our task for the evening:
The task was to select and make one of these adorable miniature Christmas jumpers, fit for purpose as an egg or wine bottle cosy:
So we all got to work and, I have to say, I have never felt such a slow knitter! Some of these women were on fire!
But somehow we also managed to make time for an awful lot of nattering and scoffing of mince pies:
Sadly, I didn't finish my cosy within the allotted two hours, largely down to the nattering and scoffing, I'm pretty sure, but it's already looking ever so cute, nonetheless:
The highlight of my evening, naturally, was getting to meet such lovely ladies, and none more so than Debbie Bliss herself - she was so down to Earth and lovely:
She even complimented me on my Bo Peep scarf and enquired after the pattern, which pretty much made my month :-) And check out her gorgeous shoes!
After a truly lovely evening, we packed up and headed home, filled with ideas and having met some really inspirational bloggers with which to stay in touch.
But as lovely as the evening was, it would be extremely remiss of me not to tell you about the real reason we were there; the reason behind Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day campaign.
On Friday 14th December, more than 250,000 people (and counting!) will be wearing a festive woolly to schools, offices and workplaces all across the UK, with everyone taking part donating £1 to Save the Children.
Money raised from Christmas Jumper Day will help bring life-saving care to some of the world's most vulnerable children. In the world's poorest countries almost seven million children die every year from easily preventable causes like diarrhoea and malnutrition. Simple solutions, like vaccines and mosquito nets, save lives - so these knitted jumper jollies could make a real and important difference.
If you have a moment, please do visit the campaign website, Facebook page or Twitter feed to find out more. If you'd like to get involved by donning a Christmas jumper on Friday 14th December or holding an event of your own, there's a wealth of information and resources available online to help you get started.
And if you'd like to have a go at knitting your own Christmas creation, you can find the patterns online, for free, courtesy of Save the Children and Debbie Bliss:
Egg cosy pattern
Christmas jumper patterns
And don't forget, you can have a bash, for £3, at guessing how long it'll take me to knit my own Christmas jumper in my online sweepstake - 50p of your stake will go into the pot for the lucky winner to cash in, and the rest will go to Save the Children, to support their incredible work.
A huge thank you to Save the Children and the fabulous women I had the pleasure of meeting last night - it was a truly inspirational evening and so much fun. You can check out the blogs of the other participants on the links below - I can't wait to read all of their write-ups...
Damn, Knit and Blast It
Angharad
Bee and Buzz
Chichidee
Shoreditch Sisters
Misadventures in Craft
I Heart Teaching Art
The Knitter
Simply Knitting
My Life in Knitwear
Fraggle Knits and Stitches
Planet Penny
Nest
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Making The World Better With A Sweater
For more than a week now, I've been waxing lyrical about my endeavour to knit myself a Christmas jumper for Save The Children's Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 14th December. You may also have seen some of the media coverage this week of some rather well-known slebs sporting their own festive knitwear in support of this fundraising campaign.
So you can image just how thrilled I was when I was invited by Save The Children, as one of a privileged few craft bloggers, to an event at Mary Portas' Living and Giving Shop in Primrose Hill this evening, to help publicise the Christmas Jumper Day campaign!
During the evening, we'll be tasked with knitting a mystery project (to be revealed tonight) and the session will be led by none other than Queen of the Kniterrati Debbie Bliss herself, along with her special guest Trisha Malcolm, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Knitting.
I will, of course, be taking plenty of pictures and will write a blog post just as soon as I can tomorrow (I won't be home from London tonight until gone 1am) but, in the meantime, I've compiled a list on Twitter of all the folks attending tonight, so you can take a peek this evening to see what we're up to. Everyone will also be using the #XmasJumperDay and #XJDknitter hashtags.
Apparently I need some 3.25 needles for whatever it is we're making tonight, so I'm off to the craft shop now before my train to London!
#Christmas Jumper Day#Save The Children#knitted#Christmas#Jumper#Debbie Bliss#Trisha Malcolm#Vogue Knitting
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Pom Pom Pleasure
Today was a pretty bad day. I think it would be fair to describe my overall mood as glum. As regular readers of my blog will know, Matt and I have been living with his ever-patient folks for nearly 18 months now, fastidiously saving our pennies to buy a house and get wed. It's been a long slog but finally, over the last month, we've been in a position to look seriously for somewhere of our very own to buy. Last week we found somewhere pretty special - with a big garden for Holly Dog to play in and plenty of room for Matt to tinker with campervans and boats and other toys, while I pottered about, doing all the things I like to do. So, excitedly, on Saturday we put in an offer and waited, anxiously, for four days.
This morning our offer was rejected. Not only that but some other bugger had put in a higher offer, and it had been accepted. Game over. Back to the drawing board.
On my drive home from the office today, I didn't think much could cheer me up. But I was met, on my return home, not only with a lovely plate of smoked haddock and mashed potatoes (kindly cooked by my mother-in-law) but also a pile of parcels. Is there anything more exciting than receiving a parcel?
Depressingly, the first package was a reminder of the offer, waiting to be accepted, from our mortgage company. But the second parcel was rather more lovely.
Wrapped in navy blue tissue paper and tied with silver string, the parcel came with a little brown card tag that read 'Thanks Becky! Pom Pom x'.
Pom Pom is a British, quarterly magazine now in its third edition that I discovered just the other day, after chatting to Lisa Mutch, a knitwear designer, on Twitter (@nbknitting) - she was excited to see her new hat pattern in print; admiring its prettiness, I asked her where I could find it, and she recommended Pom Pom. (By the way, in real life Lisa is based in Canada, but you can find her on Ravelry and she also has a beautiful Etsy shop, where she sells hand-dyed yarn, as well as her patterns.)
After subscribing to Mollie Makes just over a year ago, I never thought I'd have my head turned by another knitting/craft magazine, but this one is pretty spectacular. Not only does it contain tonnes of truly gorgeous patterns, but some really lovely features and recipes too (Spiced Cranberry Hot Toddy, and Cardamom and Black Pepper Oat Shortbreads in the Winter issue). The card stock and design are also stunning, and I'm a sucker for great presentation, me.
I've got a five-hour round trip to London planned tomorrow so I'm saving the rest of the magazine to savour on my train journey.
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The Christmas Jumper Challenge - preparation
A few days ago I told you about the challenge I had set myself to knit a Christmas jumper in time for Save The Children's Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 14th December. Having selected my pattern (freely available on the Save The Children website), I ordered myself some Wendy Mode Chunky and Sirdar Click Chunky from the Deramores website and -excitamente!- it arrived in the post yesterday! I went for 'Sailor', a lovely purpley blue, as my main colour and 'Loganberry' as my contrast colour:
In readiness for beginning the jumper this weekend, I did something this evening, which I must confess I have never done before: I made a tension square. This makes me a badly behaved knitter but, frankly, I could never be arsed. Knitting a jumper (for an adult), however, is a different kettle of fish and you really do need to ensure you get the sizing right - especially when I am that adult and I have to wear said jumper down the pub, in front of all my friends.
So I cast on 14 stitches and worked 20 rows of garter stitch, as per the pattern's instructions - fortunately, it did measure the required 10cm:
My challenge now is to knit the jumper as quickly as I can so that it's ready in time for Christmas Jumper Day and the Christmas jumper pub crawl I've organised. To motivate me and to raise some extra pennies for charity, I've set up a sweepstake on the Guess2Give website where you can take a punt at how long it'll take me to complete my woolly creation. Each bet costs £3, of which 50p goes into a pot to be cashed in by the winning guess - the rest will go to Save The Children. Click here to take part - go on, you know you want to!
I've been conversing with Save The Children on Twitter this week and it seems there are a few of us who're tweeting while preparing to knit a handmade Christmas jumper - we've earned ourselves a hashtag so you can follow our antics by searching #XJDknitter.
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The Christmas Jumper Challenge
It's started. John Lewis, Coca-Cola, M&S, Debenhams, Asda, Aldi, Matalan - they've all come out in force with their festive telly offerings. Saturday night's X-Factor ad break was a barrage of snow-covered, retail merriment. I love it!
Save The Children have also embraced the bandwagon with their Christmas Jumper Day, which takes place this year on Friday 14th December. They're encouraging folk to don a suitably gleeful, woolly wonder for the day and organise a fundraiser at work or school, or simply make a donation. You can go Scandinavian cool a la Sarah Lund or all-out, Wham-esque kitsch. Find out more and register here.
For those mad enough to take on the challenge with only five weeks to go (totally nuts), Save The Children have also teamed up with Debbie Bliss and T Bramsden to produce three free knitting patterns, including this besnowflaked beauty, which I'm going to attempt myself. Just sign-up on the Save The Children website to access the other two patterns, which include a very cute kids reindeer sweater.
I've organised a Christmas jumper pub crawl with some of my friends on Saturday 15th December so I have a strict deadline to work to! The rules of the pub crawl are that everyone must wear a Christmas jumper of their own creation. Inspirational photos to follow in a few weeks' time, and hopefully we'll raise a few quid for Save The Children.
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