All the sparkliness

This dress was a combo of random events! In a post-assignment high I started searching sparkly fabrics to reward myself.  Some people buy jewellery or shoes, I bought fabric!  Specifically gold sparkly, sequin fabric from Guthrie and Ghani, its out of stock but they still have silver.  To be honest I wanted the midnight blue sparkles but they were sold out and in my post assignment frenzy I needed something.  I may need to go away and thing about any addiction like symptoms I'm showing here but maybe after I go dance in sequins at our Christmas party!

I knew I needed a simple pattern without many stitching lines, to avoid the number of points I would be feeding sequins through my sewing machine.  I settled on the Ultimate shift dress pattern from Sew Over It.  

Making up the dress was actually relatively simple.  I was prepared for my machine to baulk at sewing through the sequins but it really didn't.  However as soon as you touch this fabric, to either cut or sew it, it sheds sequins EVERYWHERE!  My flatmate and I are now resigned to finding them everywhere for the rest of our lives!  I lined the dress in black peachskin which I've had in my stash for a few years, hopefully this will prevent the sequins jabbing me too much.

This is actually the first time that I've managed to make a Christmas dress, usually things get too crazy and I run out of time but this year is a win!  Time to go dancing and sing loudly to Christmas songs!

Brr its cold outside

After a warm and beautiful October, November arrived with a COLD bang so I was really pleased that I'd finished this make.  I've had no time to sew recently which has been a bit sad but I did manage to knit up this scarf, partly because knitting is portable and partly because this wool is so chunky that you get a finished make pretty fast.  

I'm not sure why I look quite so exhausted in this photo, apparently having my photo taken is extremely tiring!

This scarf is a fairly basic make.  I used Debbie Bliss Paloma yarn in ecru which I bought from Karelia House and just followed instructions for a honeycomb cable and kept knitting until I was pleased with the length (very scientific!)  I used about 4 skeins for this scarf.

This is the second of these scarves that I've made.  I made an identical one last year and the first time I wore it, I left it on a train!  This was devastating on so many levels.  We don't count the cost of our own labour often in handmade items but a year ago when I was a much less confident knitter, this represented a lot of work for me.  Labour aside, this wool is also not cheap and so I had essentially just dropped about 30 quid on a train!  However, on the approach to winter this year, I knew I still wanted a lovely, warm and snuggly scarf, so I just needed to let the last one go and start again!

I'm so pleased with my lovely warm scarf and I'm determined to be more careful for this one!  Bring it on winter, I'm ready for you!