Incidental craft in Europe - Part 1

As many of you reading would remember, last year my family went camping. We drove from Denmark to Greece, and then back up through Italy to the UK. I talk a little about how we travelled in that previous post but what I didn't talk about was the craft we saw along the way. 

What do I mean when I say "incidental"craft? 

As we didn't plan our route at all, we often didn't know anything about where we were, until we parked up for the day. Then tourist information or google would fill in the gaps. This, combined with the fact that we were camping with three little kids ;), meant I didn't really have the time (or the headspace) to really delve into the traditions and the history of each individual countries crafting culture. The daily chores of looking after kids, finding food, travelling and camping totally filled our days.  

Some of you reading might think this sounds like crazy talk; with Europe at your feet how could you not take advantage of all the fibre goodness it had to offer. But here's the thing - the goal of this trip was family togetherness, and that meant that everyone's needs had to be considered all of the time. We were asking a lot of our kids - they were only 3, 6 and 7 when we left. Many days the kids were too overexcited/tired/grumpy/hungry/dirty to see the sights that were on our doorstep, let alone go on a trek to see a wool shop. Crazily they don't care about wool. Very occasionally when we stopped in a big city I would purposefully seek something out. But most days generally "incidental" craft was really where it was at.

Crafting tourism is something I think I need to save until they have got bigger or maybe even until they have left home? Those with older kids should chime in here - does it get easier to wool shop?

What they often looked like right before they started to wrestle on the ground in a small pile of bodies. 

So when I did see craft, I was pretty happy. And I realised the other day that I didn't show you anything I found - and that seemed a little crazy. So I've pulled off a few photos of places where craft was clearly visible on the street.

Initially I thought I would do this all in one post. But it's getting a little long so I'll post some more next week. Next up we will have Sarajevo and Albania. 

 

Split, Croatia

Split

This was the first place I really encountered craft at a market, or on the street. The lady in the photo came from a knitting family. She or one of her relatives knitted everything on her stall. I (being the stupid tourist ;)) asked where did her wool come from. "Croatia". Obviously. 

We purchased some socks from her - which had some side toe shaping I really liked and recently copied in the first pair of socks I had made for myself. I also got some super cute slippers for the girls. A little crazy but they love them. 

The wool was fairly rustic and definitely not for the feint hearted. Sadly they only lasted a few months before I wore holes in them. 

Showing the interesting toe shaping that I part copied when I made my Irish Oats recently. 

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA

I was expecting more knitting frankly but I didn't see a single bit. Instead I saw many many gorgeous examples of the famous Dubrovnik embroidery. This stuff is truly amazing. I watched a few women for a minute here and there and managed to buy a few small gifts. I wish I had purchased something for myself! 

Just a random stunning photo of the stunning Dubrovnik. 

Hot and tired kids.

I saw her while walking along the wall - and then made everyone figure out how to wiggle through the backstreets to get to her.

Another view from the wall.

The lady we saw from the wall gave the girls bracelets.

An incredibly bad photo as it was inside but there was an amazing family run business a few streets away from the gate. Their work was a notch or three up from much of what we saw on the street. So incredibly beautiful and detailed. 

This man had the most beautiful pair of hand knit socks - on the day though I felt quite bad for him. It was about 35degrees!

This lady was sewing on the street. 

 

If you want to ask anything about our trip then feel free. I'll do my best to answer.

Felicia x

The Best Hemming Trick Ever (in my opinion)

There was this episode of The Good Wife where in order for anyone to say anything to the presiding judge they had to add "in my opinion" to every statement they made. Anyhoo…. In my opinion this is the best hemming trick of all time! It is a technique for doing a double-folded hem, without any measuring, that is accurate, tidy and simple. 

I use this hemming technique on practically everything - and I generally ignore pattern instructions that tell me something different. The only time I don't use it is when I am making something "special", using a super fine fabric, or something silky or synthetic. Generally as I only use natural fibres this works like a dream. That all said, I am sure there is a professional dressmaking reason why more people don't suggest it, but after 35 years of sewing I can't figure it out. And as most of what I make is my kids clothes, and simple garments like the Scout Tee then this is perfect! It works for skirts and sleeves and pant legs and shirt bottoms - totally multi-purpose. 

I've written a disclaimer down the bottom. Please give it a read. I really want you to be happy.

How to get a super tidy hem with no fuss. 

I should start by staying that this trick really isn't a trick. It is just a super super simple way of ensuring that you get a neat hem with no measuring. I'm sure it has a name somewhere on the interweb and that there will be other tutorials. I just haven't come across them AND I don't come across many people who do hem this way so I thought I would share.

Step 1: Run the basting stitch.

Sew a basting stitch at the point at which you want the hem to be turned up - making sure that the row of basting stitch is twice the width of the finished hem you want. If possible sew the basting stitch in a contrasting colour at least on the right side of the fabric. It doesn't matter what your bobbin cotton is (assuming the bobbin colour is on the wrong side of your fabric). 

The basting stitch on the left was sewed at 1.5cm and the one on the right at 2.5cm. I also do some at about 4 or 5cm - which gives a heavier hem. Contrasting thread on the right side of the fabric.

The key to this whole thing is that you accurately run the basting stitch using the seam guide on your machine. When I am making a wide hem, and the basting stitch is about 5cm from the raw edge, I use a piece of washi tape stuck to my machine as a seam guide. An accurate basting seam is the key!!!

I change the width of the hem depending on the weight of the fabric and obviously the desired length of the sleeve, top, dress etc. On a thinner fabric like a voile I generally run my basting stitch at 1.5cm (or even 1.2cm), and then on something thicker or for the hem of pants, shorts or a dress I might run the basting stitch at 5cm. 

Step 2: Iron up the hem using the basting as a guide.

Iron the hem up using the basting stitch as a guide. The basting stitch should be on the fold exactly. The reason you want a contrasting colour is that you should be able to clearly see the basting stitch on the edge of the fold

Step 3: Fold the raw edge to the fold.

With the fabric sitting on your ironing board - wrong side up - use your thumb and your forefinger to pinch the raw edge of the fabric into the fold and press at the same time. Pin it down and move on.

I kindof pinch the raw edge towards the fold.

You can feel when the raw edge hits the folded edge.

After pinching it together I slide my pointer along my thumb to fold as much of the fabric as I can with one sweep - this is tricky to explain. Give it a go.

Normally I iron as I go. I haven't ironed this yet.

This takes a little practice because it involves doing a couple of things - rolling the fabric exactly to the fold and ironing at the same time  - without burning your fingers. Go slow. Do a tiny bit at a time. Again the key is to make sure that you are accurately hitting the fold. You can do this by feel. There is no need to open the fold up - you can feel it. Just a bit of practice.

Ironed.

This is what it looks like opened out. You don't need to open it out - this photo is just to make it clearer.

Step 4: Sew the hem.

To topstitch down the hem. 
This is another super part of the technique. Because you know the exact measurement of the hem, because it is totally even, as long as you can sew a straight line with some degree of accuracy, you can sew the hem from the right side without worrying you aren't going to catch it. Sewing a hem from the right side of the fabric gives you a more even finish. I usually take my hem measurement and minus 2mm or 3mm from it to give me the measurement that I use to topstitch the hem down. Again washi tape can help. 

To blindstitch.

I would blind stitch on a birthday frock or a nice frock for me. I would still do quite a big hem as I would want the weight to hold down the skirt. 

Prepare as above but then fold back the inside of the hem to do your blind stitch. Google blindstiching if you need to! 

Step 5:

Pull out your basting stitch by pulling gently. When you first remove the basting stitch you may end up with little needle holes. These normally disappear after the first wash and press!

And now to the disclaimer!! As I haven't done this with every fabric and every sewing setup I can't guarantee these tiny holes will disappear. Please check on a scrap of your fabric. As I mentioned above I just want you to be happy in your sewing life! 

UPDATE: I just wanted to add one more photo which might help those of you trying to do the hemming trick around a tight curve for something like a shirt tail hem. Snip a few little notches about a third of the way towards the basting line before folding - as you see in the photo below. It will then sit flat. 

Enjoy!

Felicia x

Around the Traps - Kid's patterns

 

Stash Less in action today my friends. Rather than purchasing patterns that I don't have time to use, I am listing them here, so I can go back to them when I do. 

New stuff I've found or have been meaning to try. 

Just last week I saw this adorable pattern for the first time - the Mini Hudson pants. I so so love the shape of it and am particularly obsessed with the mid calf version. The only issue is that none of my kids like wearing trackies. I don't know why….. wish I did. My last post features me basting the quilt while wearing trackies so it isn't like I haven't been setting an example.

Another pattern that I have never made, but have been meaning to for the longest time, is the Flashback Skinny Tee. Brienne has some gorgeous versions of it here with some fabric paint detailing. I will get to this the next time I need to make some for my boy child. There are so many amazing versions of this tee on the web if you are looking for inspiration. 

Oliver and S has three patterns that I am a little obsessed with and again don't own. The playtime tunic I have mentioned before. And then recently the Bento Tee. So so cute. I'm also loving some of the roller skating dresses I'm seeing around the traps - like this one from Kristin at Skirt as a Top.  She also has made a super cute version of the Mini Hudson pants. 

I also love the Edelweiss Dress by Hey June. I haven't made it but I mean too. There are a few super pretty versions if you google images it.

If you are looking for homemade kids clothes inspiration you can't go past the online magazine Stylo. Goregeous styling, all the patterns are detailed, and it really shows what you can do if you get a little creative.

My other favourite source of inspiration is Kids Clothes Week. I participate now and then when I need a bit of a kick start. It now runs four times a year so there is always one just around the corner. It's free to sign up to their site and then you get access to all the photos and details of the pretty pretty things people are making. It is a sure fire way to find new patterns and get inspired. There are SO. many. gorgeous. patterns in their database. Patterns I hadn't come across before. Having a look at the old photo pool though (if you aren't a signer-uperer) is also an option.

Things that I have talked about before on the blog
 

My favourite sewing book for kids - Happy Handmade

Also in the past I've talked about baby sweaters, my favourite girl cardy's and my favourite girls dress pattern. I've also done a post on the super gorgeous City Gym Shorts which has to be THE best shorts pattern ever, and the beautifully shaped Banyan Tee. 

And finally a totally random post from Brienne about why she sews and knits with a quote I just love. 

I'll be back on Friday with my all-time favourite sewing trick! Until then I'd love to hear your favourite kid patterns?

Felicia x

Going against (my) nature.

People don't normally quilt with linen - and there is a good reason why. It shifts in all directions; it has movement and lacks stability. It's structure is not fixed - like a cotton. When we painstakingly cut our shapes out for a quilt pattern, what we are normally looking for is precision. Using linen distorts your pattern - your straight lines end up a lot less straight.

I'm a fan of precision. I have an undergrad degree in measurement. That is why (as Anna pointed out to me this week!) my urge to quilt with linen is so interesting. Our nature is part of us; our tendency to do things in a particular way and look for certain qualities in what we are creating. A big part of mine is about loving order in what I make. Loving logic and maths and symmetry. I struggle to create things that lack these qualities - unless I have purposely decided before I begin that it is a hack job type situation. 

What Anna pointed out to me while we were basting this quilt was that I seem to be pushing against my own nature. Looking for ways around my nature - creating disorder out of the orderly process of putting together a quilt. And through the process, maybe learning how to live with me-created wonk. Or even better yet - maybe learning how to embrace the wonk. 

The linen/cotton mix of the denim stripe has a more fixed structure - so two corners of the quilt have straight lines. 

Anna is smart - just have a look at that first image on her website! She is an artist and an art teacher, is very thoughtful and she often has words for things I struggle to explain. I talk and talk, and she turns my curly thinking into something I understand. And I love her for it. Working with her to baste a quilt, either hers or mine, is one of the simple joys in my life. We have done it before and we will do it again. One of the things I love most is the process of putting a quilt together encourages discussion about the big stuff; life, love and ideas. The basting providing time and space to discuss future projects, and ideas, and allow them time to take shape. We are often discussing craft as we baste; it's value and meaning in our lives. The way it allows us to see and understand more about ourselves and what makes us tick. The way craft can make clear to us, through all the tiny choices we make as we create, what we value and who we are. 

One idea that has come up over the years is that what we are attracted to in other people's work is sometimes what we ourselves would struggle to create. If you look at my craft-textiles board on pinterest you see two very distinct types of quilts. Those that are incredibly precise and ordered, and then those that are abstract, loose, improvisational. Order and precision I can do. But, while I adore improv and looseness, the idea of doing something like that myself makes me feel kinda stressed (what do you mean the corners wouldn't line up?) . 

“There’s a sunset and a sunrise every day. You can choose to be there for it, you can choose to put yourself in the way of beauty.”

— Cheryl Strayed’s late mother Bobbi, from Wild

Ever since I saw the film Wild with my women the other night, I've been thinking about the idea of "putting yourself in the way of beauty". Making a choice to live beauty, to make beauty. By choosing materials that work against my (strong) instinct to control things it's almost like I'm forcing myself to create something that I would consider beautiful. I love the looseness but if I tried to create it I would just keep making things neat. I almost can't help it!  If I hadn't made the choice to use those particular materials I wouldn't be able to create it - the looseness that I think is beautiful. The materials themselves are choosing the shape of the finished product and it's one I have little chance of controlling.

This quilt has involved so much fudging! Fudging to retain my strong straight-line design while accepting in part that I can't achieve it in linen. So many contradictions. I've wanted to pull it out and start again many times - but I didn't. I decided to go with it, fudge a bit and see where it lead. By using the materials I've used, I end up with a finished product I am proud to have created but that doesn't come naturally to me.

Stash Less - Why Restrictions Rock - has then stretched me even further. By creating a rule that means that I can't just buy more of the dirty blue linen, I was forced to (shock, horror) improvise and use some denim linen cotton to fill in the gaps when I ran out.  

By nature I would have created an orderly two colour design - the second blue gives the quilt some interest and some depth. What the process has produced is something that is more beautiful than I would have created if I had made it as designed with one colour blue and straight perfect lines. 

I totally fudged one side of the centre by ironing it when we were basting and hand sewed this extra flap down. You can see why in the photo at the top of the post on the right hand side of the main square. None of it is square.

That isn't camera distortion my friends - the corner of the quilt that is totally distorted. 

To use linen in a quilt and then to not follow it where it leads seems to me to be going against it's nature. But the fact that I chose it, and the fact that I am following it's lead, making the piece it wants to make is almost going against my nature.

That said (and again as Anna pointed out to me ;)) part of my nature is to challenge my nature! 

Have you ever intentionally or unintentionally worked outside your comfort zone? And did you love the result?

Felicia x

How to get faster at knitting - Part 2

So I wrote post last week called How to get faster at knitting - and I'm so chuffed you guys liked it. I read through the comments and started answering them but then decided that I should just follow up with another post in response instead - with some answers to questions, some additional info and a summary of your suggestions.

Before I start I wanted to say I really appreciate all the suggestions you made! What the comments definitely showed was that every-single-one of you has your own take on it, and your own knitting history that lead you there. 

Learn to knit without looking!

Jillian suggested in the comments that she would love a video (rather than my description) that showed how to learn to knit without looking and so I did that. This one is for you Jillian!

The video is good for throwers and flickers. Might not help you continental folks. 

Pain when knitting.

So I have heard some stuff - like that knitting lever style is good for pain in the hands as it is a big movement using the full arc (this from Stephanie Pearl McPhee) of the hand - therefore is less likely to cause RSI type pain as that is mainly about little movements that aren't using the full extent of the muscle.

But I also think that there is just a logical train of thought about this. If you are in pain with a particular style, try one of the other styles and see if you can use different movements and muscles. For example if you are knitting right handed then try Portuguese - a different hand and rather than using the fingers you are using your thumb to flick.

The lovely Sara pinged me on instagram after the post last week. She tried something from the video that meant she could knit after a six month knitting hiatus due to pain! She didn't change her style but just one of the movements she was doing. Happy happy days.

I wish you luck if this is an issue for you and would love to hear how you get on. I'm sure others would love to hear your experiences of pain/nopain if you have managed to sort this out. 

Other places to find efficiencies

I wrote a whole paragraph about this but forgot a couple that I think are worth mentioning (people's comments reminded me of a few of these). Points 5 & 6 are the new ones.

1. How you hold the needles, from above or below.
2. How you tension your yarn, around which fingers.
3. How you wrap the yarn around the needle tips - throwing, picking or flicking.
4. The angle with which the needle tips meet - could be almost parallel facing one another, at 90 degrees or heading towards parallel.
5. How you load and hold the stitches on the needle
6. How close to the needle tip you knit the stitch - closer to the tips is generally faster.

Another more specific efficiency I was thinking about was around using DPNs. I spent a bit of time working on this last year and it really has made a difference to how fast my small circular knitting is (sleeves etc). For me, I needed to remember to push the stitches to the end of the needle so they were ready to go for the next lot of knitting, not drop the yarn when I changed the needle and do a kind of needle flip to take the needle from my left hand (where it had no stitches left) to be ready to be my right hand active needle. My transitions became much smoother and I got faster with DPNs and stopped avoiding them. Win. The point of this paragraph is I guess to say that there is always learning to be done. Unless you are Stephanie Pearl McPhee maybe. 

Experimenting with knitting styles

So there were many many comments about this and I wanted to make a summary of some of the suggestions. Forgive me if I miss any. 

1. You can not only use elements of multiple styles BUT you can knit one style and purl a different style. This works really well for some people. There were many different examples in the comments of people choosing this. Nana left a comment pointing to a video of combination of Portuguese and Continental http://nionoi.pt/es-mais-portuguesa-ou-continental/ - Thanks!
2. There is a style called combination style which I have heard of but know nothing about, so you might want to investigate it.
3. Another thing you might want to investigate if you have an aversion to purling is knitting backwards - youtube it!
4. Lots of left handers have luck with Portuguese or Continental!

Continental Purling
So obviously my continental purling left a little to be desired but doing the video clarified for me that I prefer the twist method. I just need a little more practice.

There were a couple of other suggestions in the comments. 

1. Robin left a comment saying that her continental purling looked more like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOS8pIEa8iU where you are holding the yarn much closer to the needle. This was instead of my large (awkward) swooshing movement. 
2. Tasha and Kate also talked about wrapping the yarn of the continental stitch in the opposite direction. Elizabeth Zimmerman calls this the "easy way to purl" but there is something really important to understand if you choose this. It twists the stitch on the needle so that the right hand side of the stitch is on the back of the needle rather than on the front. On the next row, to make sure you don't twist the stitch, you need to knit into the back of the stitch. All this means is you need to have a good understanding of the structure of your knitting - if you are unsure then go and have a look at my post The Secret of Becoming A Great Knitter. It will help - promise!

Lever Knitting
One thing that got mentioned a few times about lever knitting was that you couldn't knit in the round, or use circulars. You can! Instead of using a static needle you hold the right hand needle of the circular static by kind of cradling it between your thumb and your forefinger. You can see it in this youtube video here. 

As always love to hear your thoughts, successes, and suggestions!

Felicia x