Recalculating

So I made a test skirt to enable me to work out how much fabric to buy for the next one, made a miscalculation and came home with insufficient! How daft is that? I decided to fudge it, knowing that the skirt wouldn't hang as well as the original because it's not cut properly on the cross.  I figured that if it was really bad, I could just wear it at home. But I think it'll do. No one is going to stop me in the street and say, "Excuse me, your skirt is not hanging correctly".

The fabric is a teeny tiny houndstooth. 

I'd still like to make a skirt according to the pattern, so I will have to buy more fabric, calculating more accurately.

With Curds And Whey

The Mary Konior curds and whey edging has been in my stash for a while. Luckily it is just the right length to go around the new skirt, and the pink in the variegated thread picks up the pink of the fabric.

 I've been asked if sewing a lace decoration on is a boring job. No, not to me anyway. It does take time, but I feel rather elegant doing hand sewing - for some unknown reason my pinkie finger crooks like a Lady drinking tea!

Yesterday I bought fabric for two more skirts. Four pieces of fabric because I plan to line them. Sewing is on the agenda. 

In the Pink

I was given this fabric. The colour is fine, but the texture is horrid, an old fashioned crimpalene. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, of course, I decided to use it to try out a skirt pattern I found on Pinterest. Here it is here.  I want to make a warm skirt, but warm fabric is usually expensive, so I want to be sure  the pattern will work, and  know exactly how much fabric to buy.

I traced the dimensions of the skirt out on newprint, as per the diagram. I had to sellotape a few pages together to get a big enough sheet, but it worked fine. The seams didn't need neatening, so it was a quick sew. I think it works. I'll need fabric that is at least 150 cm wide, and without a one-way pattern.  I hope I can find some in town tomorrow.

Miscount

I scribbled a whole lot of calculations and worked out that I needed 54 pattern repeats. Right. So multiplied by 5, I needed 270 chain. Wrong. There should be 6 chains per pattern repeat, not 5.  Hmm. This is not my first attempt at getting the foundation row right, I'm running out of oomph. I've decided to go with the reduced number of repeats. The top won't fit me, but the proportions will probably be better. I'm carrying on regardless:

Marmalade

The oranges on the little tree on the front lawn are ripening rapidly.

Time to make marmalade. I don't have a really big pot for jam making, so I had to 'make a plan'. I cooked the peel until it was soft, then drained it, added sugar to the liquid, and cooked that to jell point.

 I used a digital thermometer, a first for me. Since the recipe seemed to have a few inaccuracies, I checked online that it was right about the temperature for jell point - everyone said 105 degrees Celsius, so I aimed for that. Then I mixed the two and bottled it. I finished up with 3 and a half jars. I reused jars that  originally had pepperdews in them, if anyone is wondering why it says 'hot' on the label!

Starting Over

On Tuesday afternoon I showed my crochet and beaded knitting to the competition fundi(expert). She says the pattern I'm using for a crochet top will work, but I'll have to add beads and ribbon to make sure it qualifies as 'evening wear'. Right. I decided to start over, mainly because I realised that my crochet is smaller than the pattern, so I will need to make adjustments. I'm going to use an existing top as a template. I'm doing 10 repeats on the front panel instead of 8. I've made the central 'ladder' bigger to make it easier to thread a ribbon through it. Let's hope I"m on the right path now and this is the real deal!

Circle

Well, my demonstration of beaded crochet yesterday was not really a success. The lady who had asked me to do it wasn't there and I lost the others early on by being over complicated. Ah well, there are a few more people in the world who know what a beaded crochet rope is.

Some knitting instead. I saw this pattern on Pinterest and I had to try it. The pattern calls it a dishcloth, but I'm sure it could be used as a pot holder or mandala or something.

The pattern said 7 repeats, but when I'd done 7, my circle was not complete, so I had to do some more. That may be because I left the 'holes' caused by turning for short rows as a decorative feature.

I used 4-ply cotton for this. I bought it thinking that it was double knit. I still haven't learnt that in the low cost yarn shop I need to check the label of every single ball, because the different thicknesses are muddled on the shelves. I do like the colour and of course I can always find a use for a ball of yarn, whatever its thickness.