A Whole Week of Making Things

Made the frilled bloomers

and the bonnet
to match the embroidered dress I’ve made my grand-daughter – see previous posting for the dress. The Bonnet buttons up at the back and when unbuttoned it lies flat which is great for laundering and packing ...

Then I started yet another knitting project – a zipped, hooded, cabled jacket for my nephew whose 8th birthday is just over a month away - will I get it done in time??? It is 12ply (from Bendigo Woollen Mills) so a fast knit but the pattern is from a French booklet and is all in French; to my shame, I’m totally mono-lingual.

However, French knitting patterns are fantastic, they give schematics with every measurement and with the aid of an old French/English dictionary I’ve worked out the basics … maille = stitch (and thence to chain maille ?) aiguille = needle, monter = cast on (I hope) …


Am working (travail) the fronts in one with the back to the armholes (emmanchure ?) and have changed the cables a little.


Those wire frame hats for the Cert 4 Millinery class are progressing – but slowly and they just won’t be finished by the due date – next Tuesday :-/ Here is the black one (I blogged about it when it was a head cage!) I was going to pile a heap of black lace onto it but that made it a hat for an un-Merry Widow and my teacher keeps reminding me that I’m supposed to be making “Fashion Hats” not reproductions from another era. Drat Double Drat - I don’t like most currently Fashionable hats and I lurv the old ones. Anyway, I think this might be a compromise – old tatty lace bits but cream not black and some paper butterflies that I bought in Paris – ahhh! Will look better without the pins and surplus wire.

On the weekend I was busy dyeing – a very old Indian Sari that I’ve had for over 20yrs (and it was old back then) a very lt weight pale apricot silk with metal thread medallions, very lovely.
But it had been in a box for far too long – so although it did feel like a total sacrilege I cut into it and turned it into 4 large shawls and 2 small neck scarves. But pale apricot is not a good colour for people with pallid skin so into the dye-pot they went. I do love playing with dyes, have a huge pot that barely fits on my stove – it is so tall I have to stand on a little chair and I stir the pot with a bit stick, recite Hamlet and feel like a real witch ☺ Very happy with the results, lovely fruit colours – apricot, peach, strawberry, blueberry … I've listed this shawl and one scarf in my Etsy shop.