marielle skirt

Right now I am happily riding the wave of my sewing mojo.  My Cambie is finished (a reveal will follow after the wedding I’ve made it to wear at next weekend), and I celebrated by starting something new, straight away.

Maybe this puts me in the realms of weird fan girl, but when I saw the Marielle Skirt on Tilly’s blog I knew I needed this skirt in my wardrobe.

The directions (even in a magazine which I guess might have been edited) were perfectly clear and lovely.  Somehow though my skirt ended up with the opening on the opposite side.  I don’t think I made any whoopsies and my fabric was the correct way up, but clearly something happened, not that it matters.

(There is a strange chicken v dog territory war going on behind me in these photos.  Penny tries to look for squirrels in the tress.  The chickens are unimpressed and charge her, trying to peck her tail as she runs away.  Chickens look triumphant.)

The fabric is some navy cord, and I lined it with a little cotton print I picked up somewhere.  Buttons are from my rescued/frogged Levenwick.

I love how this skirt is going to go with so many things in my wardrobe.  Penny likes it too.

silence

These days I am not as sociable as I used to be.  This past weekend was lovely, filled with loved ones and laughing and fresh air.  Every day I feel fortunate to have such wonderful family.  But suddenly now it is silent, and just as lovely.

This afternoon there will be quiet work in my office, with just Penny curled up behind me.  Chocolate cake.  Maybe a little seed planting.  Maybe a little snooker.  And definitely an epic, muddy hike.  (We can’t say the ‘w’ word around here anymore, it puts sweet Penny into a frenzy.  Soon that will happen for the ‘h’ word too and we will have to find an new one.)

picnic blanket skirt

Ta da!  For the first time ever I have finished a sewn garment that is actually going into my wardrobe!

Not the sharpest picture, but since its also one of the only times I’ve smiled into a camera without looking like I am about to murder someone, its the one that’s going up.  (Bowie the Chicken says hello.  She is in a very friendly mood just now and wants a cuddle at every opportunity.  Its egg-laying time and she hopes I might be a man.  Anyway….)

I made a Picnic Blanket Skirt mostly during a class on Saturday at Ray Stitch, with the lovely Tilly.  It was fun, and I learnt a few things that are probably super-obvious to sewing people of experience, but which being self-taught and always alone at my sewing machine I just never figured out or thought about.  The class also made me want to sew all the things.  Now.

Once I got home and was faced with the final touches on my own I discovered a bit of a problem.  Originally I drew and cut the pattern so the waistband would sit lower (probably closer to where I wear my jeans), but after trying it on this was NOT a good look.  It really needed to sit closer to the narrowest point of my waist to make those gathers look sensible.  In the olden days I would have realised this, though ‘oh well,’ finished it anyway just to be done and then put it away in a drawer.  Not now!  Taking the whole thing apart – gathers, top-stitching and all, seemed a step too far, so some surgery was required.  I figured out how much fabric needed to come out to make the waistband narrower, centred it on the back, calculated seam allowances, cut out a chunk and french seamed right the way up the back.  It means there is a little lumpy bit on the wrong side of the waistband at the back, but it sits nicely in the small of my back and doesn’t bother me.  And it means that I’ll wear the skirt, so I’m calling this a success.

The offending extra piece late at night -

The fabric is Architextures by Carolyn Friedland, from Ray Stitch, and the buttons are cute ones that were on their counter beside the cake.  A darker fabric might have been an idea (I already smeared a teeny bit of chocolate on it), but hey ho, I love it anyway.

I also took the time to finish this really, really well.  I’m going to visit my Gran next week and she likes to look inside the things I make.  She has very high standards…  I even added a hook and eye closure at the waistband to stop any gaping.  (Insert smug face here.)

And now a silly picture, which is going up only as proof that I wore awesome shoes to match yesterday.  Just need to practice walking in them..  They don’t look that high in the picture, but as a chicken-lady who lives in wellies, I teeter in these beauties!

wordless weekend

playing with colour

It was missing something…but now I think I’ve settled on this -

It’s been a relaxed weekend here, eating with family and playing with swatches and yarn.  The above is for a Sixareen Cape, which has been brewing in my mind for a while.

It’s still freezing, but it seems like the garden is starting to defrost a little and the snow is gradually retreating.  And so today our new chicken ladies were settled in their outdoor home after what was a pretty entertaining week in our garage.  Once they’ve stopped gorging themselves on grass and put their heads up towards the sky a little I’ll introduce them properly…

crafting for the animals…and the winner

So…to the exciting thing first – the winner of the Dropcloth sampler, Yarn Yarn silk embroidery threads and possibly a couple of other goodies from the depths of my craft room.  Congratulations Nicola!  Your post was picked at random and I will send you an email in the next few minutes…  Thank you to everyone who entered x

And so back to usual business…the new chickens are settling in well, and I am most definitely head-over-heels in love with them.  These girls are much more active that our last lot of rescue chickens.  This is due to a change in the law for these kind of caged hens in the UK, who must now have (a little) more space, and a place to scratch and roost.  It’s better, but still not good enough in my opinion.  They have a some natural behaviour, but looked frankly amazed when I carried one outside for a wander.  Fresh air is something completely new for my girls.

And so the names – Lady Dorothea Featherbottom (Dotty), Scarlet o’Hara (Scarlet), WPC Polly Parker (Parker) and Duchess Mimi the Second (Mimi).  Here’s little timid Mimi.  I knit her a wee sweater as she’s in the worst shape physically and is completely bald on her belly.  She’s very pale and has been over-heated, so the sweater should help her adjust more gradually.  She seemed quite happy as I got her dressed, but a little less tolerant a few minutes later.  I’ll try it again when we put them outside, she’ll need it then and might be a bit more grateful!

Everyone in our house is getting new things this week.  Mr Saz and I treated ourselves to a fancy new mattress and bedding and it is lovely.  And so last night after the men were relaxing after getting the mattress upstairs, I sat down at my sewing machine and bound a little quilt for Penny that I pieced and quilted a while ago.

This is made from leftovers of a large quilt I’m making for the humans and as you can see above, is nothing really to be proud of!  But the top is a lovely soft cotton flannel, and Penny seems very attached to it already…

excitement!

I had plans to post about crafting today, it was a very productive weekend and I have a couple of lovely finished things to talk about.  But today is all about new chickens!!!…

I am beyond excited suddenly to have some new ladies in the garden.  Just like last time we are rehoming ex-battery hens, which as of right now are still in their overheated, caged and permanently indoor environment.  Only a few hours to go before they begin their wonderful new life in our garden, and learn about things like ‘sky,’ ‘grass,’ ‘beasties,’ and my personal favourite – ‘people that care about them.’

Well, not quite the first three…yet.  Because of the position of the pesky jet steam, Scotland feels like the North American tundra.  I can compare, I’ve actually been there.  So we’ve decided to keep them indoors for a little while and I am building a chicken pen in the garage, which (bizarrely) has its own working radiator.  I’m not sure what the previous owners of this house were thinking at the time, but the new ladies will be grateful.

So – names?!  My mother-in-law suggested an excellent one that I’m sure we’ll use, and I have another in mind as a maybe.  But other than that our new hens will be referred to as ‘orange sweater,’ ‘blue sweater,’ until we come up with something, so please post suggestions in the comments…!  Ever wanted to name a chicken?  Now’s your chance!!*

*No guarantees…it’ll, um, depend what the new ladies look like and whether their names fit.  The chicken above is named after David Bowie.  To me, the resemblance is obvious.

Also – tomorrow I’ll pick a winner of the embroidery sampler and threads, so one more day to enter here.

this moment

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

(inspired by Soulemama)

from my family’s new crafter

Remember this?  My dad turned up at the weekend, cradling his hand-crafted masterpiece in a box.

He turned his 9+ metres of cord into a little bowl!  It is very beautiful, and now cradling my eggs in the kitchen, since it reminds me a little of a bird nest.  Thank you Dad!!  Please feel free to leave suggestions of what his next project should be…he’s pretty attached to his little french knitter and wants to leave the two-needle knitting to my mum.  I suspect this is because he prefers her to knit his socks, rather than doing it himself…

Other news – I don’t think it’s obvious from the photo, but these are shop-bought eggs.  Our two remaining chickens Bowie and Mrs Weasley officially retired from egg production a few months ago and seem to be content merely pecking about our garden with nothing to show for it.  They’re elderly though, so we forgave them.  So for a while I’ve been on the hunt for more chickens to rehome and had almost given up after the charity that usually rescues them decided to stop its work in Scotland.  But this week I got a tip-off about a rescue happening in March, and there are now 4 new chicken ladies coming our way!  There’s a few weeks to go, so plenty of time to build a new enclosure and get things cosy for the newcomers.  Seeing caged chickens experience the outdoors for the first time is a wonderful and entertaining thing – I might try and film it…

There are still hens looking for homes – so if anyone is interested in the details leave me a wee comment and I’ll get in touch.  You’d need to willing/able to collect them from Central Scotland at the end of March…

ETA – I’ve just realised that the blue yarn my Dad used in his bowl is Quince and Co Chickadee in the colourway ‘Bird’s Egg.’  Haha, how appropriate!

frost

I had a pretty relaxing weekend, lots of nice food and family to keep my mind busy.  We had our first little snowfall overnight, and this was the view from the back garden this morning.  The last week though has been properly cold, and the hard frost was really beautiful all over the garden.

The influence of the weather is still appearing in my crafting projects.  I spent yesterday knitting Boreal until my hands hurt, and I am almost done with the yoke.  And I came up with plans for a new embroidery project which I think might form part of a new Christmas tradition.  But more later, I am away to buy Kate’s new book, Colours of Shetland…