Paper corset

Last weekend was another round of fantastic rugby games in the Six Nations. As I prepared to watch Scotland v France at Murrayfield on the TV I knew I wanted to have something constructive to show at the end of almost two hours in front of the box.

I decided to try out a pattern from de Gracieuse, which has an absolutely fantastic on-line resource for patterns for Victorian clothes and underwear. I downloaded some pages of the magazine with corset images and patterns, imported the pattern page into photoshop, started removing lines I didn't need but soon tired of it and decided to just persuade my partner (who has an A2 printer in his office) to print out the pattern page for me at 'human' size and trace off that.

The arrival of spring

The first of March brought with it mild weather and a definite sensation that spring has arrived. It's been a very mild and dry winter here and it feels as though we've almost skipped a season.

Not only is the first of March a notable day in the changing of the seasons but yesterday, as my computer booted up and I opened up the internet, I was greeted by Google UK reminding me of St David's day.

St David is the patron saint of Wales so, as Google encourages us to do, I found myself reading about St David, looking at images of Welsh national costume (as a girl I had a collection of dolls in national costume and a Welsh one was there too!) and flags. The Welsh flag is a powerful and dramatic image, with its red dragon on a white and green background.

From there it was a short hop skip and a jump to heraldic symbolism and the names and rules for using. Yet another thing to try to find time to experiment with!

Extreme knitting

My, it's a busy old time.

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail mentioning extreme knitting needles. What? I thought.
Okay, cue some googling and an 'Oh' and 'Ah' and a 'must try this' kind of moment. I dug out some lovely 10mm bamboo (super lovely to work with) needles I had bought a few years ago in a moment of weakness and started experimenting.

I absolutely love this type of knitting – using several yarns at the same time it's possible to combine colours to make your very own colour scheme and texture. Fabulous. I must admit that I got quite carried away and the results are now on Etsy!

I've been making lots of bags too and still sorting out my next batch of corset designs. I'm planning on launching a little 'collection' during the next month so I'm trying to rationalise the ideas I have and create a cohesive look rather than being swept along with the scattergun of things I like.

Magic and Ravioli

Yesterday I was given a totally unexpected and very exciting gift – both Pattern Magic books! There is a third book but it's not available in English until May.

My partner had been looking for books on paper folding and while treating himself to Folding Techniques for Designers: From Sheet to Form by Paul Jackson (9 May 2011) he stumbled across the Pattern Magic books and treated me! Sweet.

Each book contains beautiful photographs of creative design ideas and very clear drawings and instructions for how to achieve them – lots of inspiration. Now to find the time to experiment!

On another note . . .

Last week I was making some quick little lavender sachets to put in with packages and thought 'ravioli'!

I think they are super cute.

Tartan special

Before

At the weekend my youngest daughter announced that she would like a tartan skirt to wear to a school ceilidh this week. It wasn't a lot of notice but, since she announced this in a fabric shop, at least I had the chance to get the fabric I needed to make it. She chose a black and white check, which tips its hat to being tartan without being a 'true' tartan. So a plan was formed . . . a wide elastic waistband with the fabric gathered and sewn on. Simple.

After

Snow!

I woke up this morning to a street covered in a thin film of white – not the soft fluffy deep snow of last year but a damp slippery-looking layer of slush. Still, it is white and it is the first of the year. Snow always makes me feel like a kid and the excitement is always there. Same thing with rainbows.

Anyway, the excitement of the snow got to me and I thought I'd make a snowy treasury in Etsy. Here it is . . .

Enjoy!

New listing – at last!

I've not posted anything for a while so thought I'd share the fact that I've finally gotten around to listing the item that left me unable to create anything for ages. Here it is, the neck cosy . . .

It's crocheted in a random arrangement of rows of double and treble crochet (UK versions) and edged in lots and lots (and lots) of trebles to create ruffles. I really enjoyed making this because the flat pattern is so simple, yet, when buttoned and all scrunched up it looks pretty sumptuous and dramatic.