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Rheinlust

I've finished knitting my Rheinlust Shawl....I think I'm in love!

It’s been a long time coming; almost 6 months to the day. And yet I’ve been mostly monogamous with this project (apart from one little recent blip). With final major project happening, knitting time was limited to bus journeys and the reality was this project was a little too big for rush hour on the bus. After finally getting the house straight again, I picked this straight back up, determined…

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Back to British

Back to British - Where I've been hiding and how i'm still going back to British Wool

Wow, it’s been a year since I last wrote here and it’s flown by. It’s been very busy with the final year of my degree but the Grad Show is now up and open to the public for a week and I’ve finally got time to re-focus on other things I’m passionate about.

I left off having interviewed Rachel Atkinson, creator of  Daughter of a Shepherd,  a rather fabulous truly British yarn. It turns out that…

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Daughter of a Shepherd

Daughter of a Shepherd; an interview with Rachel Atkinson and the Hebridean Hap KAL

As I prepared for my visit to Edinburgh Yarn Festivalback in March, I knew that Rachel Atkinson was launching her Daughter of a Shepherd yarn and put it on my hit-list of Things I NEED To See. Spun from the fleeces of her father’s Hebridean flock in Yorkshire, this was undoubtedly going to be a very special yarn. When I arrived at EYF, Rachel’s stand was one of the first I came across and was…

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Quick Knits

It’s been a busy few weeks here with weekends away, deadlines and new modules to contend with. However, I’ve been sneaking in a bit of knitting both at Straight Stitching and when I’m out and about, and I’m loving a couple of quick gratification projects I’ve worked on recently. Quick knits are generally perfect for on-the-go knitting too.

I love knitting socks; it’s one of the reasons I learnt…

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EYF Stash Enhancement!

Goodness me, it’s taken a lot of relaxation to recover from the weekend, and I wasn’t a vendor! This does mean I’ve had lots of time to squish my new stash….

I went prepared for treating myself to one skein. Yup, one single, lonely skein. I knew there were lots I wanted to look at, but I wanted to be sensible as quite frankly, I don’t need anymore yarn. And on Friday I did indeed buy my one…

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Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016

Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2016

What an incredible weekend! My lovely husband let me have a sneaky weekend off adulting to go and have a couple of days to myself. And what better way to spend them at Edinburgh Yarn Festival?! Held at Edinburgh Corn Exchange, it was easy to access the festival via train from Haymarket or Waverley with a quick walk across the green from the station at Slateford. As well as a range of workshops…

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Join Straight Stitching

As you may or may not know, there is a Straight Stitching group which runs in Solihull on a weekly basis. As well as being a social stitching group, we’ve also been involved in community projects such as yarn bombing and even shop window displays!

The group has been running every Thursday 5-8pm at Starbucks Solihull for almost 5 years, but after a lot of thinking I’ve decided it’s time for a bit…

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Love Sewing Magazine

Good evening Stitchers! I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas & New Year! I’ve certainly enjoyed the break after The Wedding Dress, but it seems I’ve caught something of a sewing bug…

I saw the lovely Kate Heppell, editor of Knit Now magazine, tweet about Love Sewing magazine now including plus size patterns. I’ve never bought a sewing magazine before, and this was precisely the reason why. My…

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Love Sewing Magazine

Good evening Stitchers! I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas & New Year! I’ve certainly enjoyed the break after The Wedding Dress, but it seems I’ve caught something of a sewing bug…

I saw the lovely Kate Heppell, editor of Knit Now magazine, tweet about Love Sewing magazine now including plus size patterns. I’ve never bought a sewing magazine before, and this was precisely the reason why. My…

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A Special Gift

Yesterday we met up with Kate, Micheal, Ben and some family for a little trip to Drayton Manor. As we booked last minute the Wonderland experience was already full, but the decorations, songs and performances certainly made it feel very festive. It even SNOWED!

  Snow at Thomasland

Most of the main park was closed apart from Ben10, the carousel and a pirate boat type ride. Even 4 year old Lily…

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The Dress - in detail

The Dress – in detail

I’m definitely feeling a little bereft this morning without the reponsibility of a wedding dress to make! I quickly posted a picture yesterday for you all to see, but thought I’d do an ‘in detail’ write up too, not just to share with you but to record this for myself too. 

Kate had been and tried on a few dresses and we’d looked at a few online, but there’s two that had design features that Kate…

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The Dress

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Dress deadline looms

There are less than 48 hours until the wedding now. 

It’s all assembled apart from a couple of seams. There’s a bit of tidying up to do, a little bust adjustment and some appliqué.  But it really looks like a dress now. 

It’s been exciting to have Kate here finally and for her to try it on and see her reaction. Final fitting will be tomorrow afternoon. 

Last night was the hen do. I keep…

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Beating the wedding dress

Beating the wedding dress

There are 9 days until The Wedding.  The bride, groom and their little boy arrive from New Zealand in 3 days.

The last two weeks of dressmaking felt fraught….expensive lace has been tackled. We problem solved, found another problem, then problem solved again. And this happened about 4 times.

And then it kind of all came together. Cutting expensive lace was fine. Playing with lace trim was fun!…

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Oliver James

Today is Oliver’s first birthday.

It should be a happy day. Except I am haunted by his birth, and despite being ‘better’ for 4 months or so, today feels like I have taken a step back. I’m not feeling celebratory, I’m a little sad.

So for my own head and thought process, I’m going to write about the timeline of events whether they are my own memories or have been told to me by someone else. If you…

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Yardley Scrapstore

We’ve had a scrapstore in Birmingham for a little while now as part of Birmingham PlayCare Network. They’re based at Vyse Street in the Jewellery Quarter and open Monday and Tuesday (although this is by appointment). So I was hugely excited to see they were opening a new store at the Swan Courtyard in Yardley! 

Selfridges, Rotunda and Bullring Bull at Scrapstore Yardley

I popped over on…

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Flossie

Today I come to you with a little story, about a very dear friend of mine who lives at our house. 

Back in April, we went to the Lake District and stumbled across a charity shop. This was in the window:

  The first lusting…

It appeared to be some kind of German machine (I can’t even remember the name now) and it was priced at £99. My father in law said I should look at a Singer instead. A bit of…

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