Sir Pugsalott Comes to Form

I've been off work ill the last two days and have hated not being kept busy. After numerous lemon and ginger teas and season 7 of The Simpsons I started to get a little bored (of the repetition, not The Simpsons).

I dug out my last knitting project, found a new drama Broadchurch (a fantastic detective programme my mum would be proud of) and made another lemon and ginger tea. With supplies in place I got to work. 

Say 'hello' to Sir Pugsalott. 

 












And, because she's amazing I had to include the inspiration. Doesn't she look happy?













 
Note to Catherine: I'd rather poke my eye with a rusty fork than watch Jeremy Kyle.

A Creative Christmas

Yes, it is now 12 January and does seem a little late to be writing about Christmas, however I made quite a few Christmas presents this year I wanted to share my creativity without compromising the reaction from my gift receivers. 

During a rare shopping trip to Chelsea I spotted a brilliant clearance end of a dog print cotton fabric in Peter Jones (the Chelsea John Lewis is called this for some reason). I simply couldn’t take my eyes off the dogs in jumpers print and decided upon making cushions for my brother and sister-in-law who have a pug, the wonderful Nibbler. 

I tracked down a pattern from the internet, cushions off Ebay and visited, for the first time, the sewing room at work after a day’s slog. I sat at the sewing machine and immediately felt like I was back at the Uni, minus the tirade of banter and slagging matches that used to bounce back and forth between me and my mates. 

On a technical note, the sewing machine was truly outstanding: Brother, industrial, automatic back stitch and an underbed thread trimmer. ‘Glorious’, I thought, I had missed the sturdiness and ease of industrial machines. I confused myself during a few practice runs as to why I kept swinging my knee to the right, until I realised I was on auto-pilot attempting to lift the foot. ‘Duh’. This was the only feature the machine missed, which meant stitching corners was a hassle, but I managed. 

The sewing room also contained an overlocker to my joy, however was threaded up in black and with no white threads to be found I decided on increasing the seam allowance instead as the cushions are bagged out and unlikely to fray anyway. 

Pins and bobbin at the ready I got started: 



 



 



The fabric I brought was just under a metre at around £6. Adding the price of the cushions the final cost for these four beauties was less than £2.50 each.



From my previous posts it may be clear I’m a keen knitter. My brother requested I knit a crocodile for him and his wife, but I was more interested in the thought of my unborn nephew playing with it. Unfortunately I only have some work in progress photos:





Another yarn related gift was a crochet collar I made for my secret santa gift at work. I trawled the internet for patterns and made myself the navy one in the below photos for myself. I eventually found a better pattern with a button fastening. I made one version as per the pattern, however there were too may fan shapes within the pattern therefore I ‘tech’ed’ the collar and reduced out 4 fans and started again. The result was much better, I will have to take a snap of my colleague wearing hers and upload for all to see. 







Moving on to a creative new year, I received the best present from my secret santa. Place your orders for your favourite dog now. 
 

Stripes are back

I've completed my latest knitted creation: a zebra. It does not boast to be sustainable in any way (acrylic yarn stuffed with polyester wadding), however it does have the ability to bring a smile to a face. Or in the case of my brother, a light chuckle.

Have you ever seen a garment constructed before?

I decided to set my self a challenge in November: to knit my brother a jumper for Christmas. It is now mid January and hurrah I have just completed it! Thankfully he is patient and wasn’t too disappointed (though rather confused) when opening his present of a knitted back panel.

I managed to complete the final pattern pieces (front, 2 x sleeves and a collar) in the following four weeks after Christmas; pretty good going I thought. On Tuesday (18th Jan) evening I texted him an update: ‘Just piecing your jumper together’. He immediately responded requesting I send a photo, to which I obliged via email.

‘Wow! It looks great. I’ve never seen a jumper opened out like that before!’

This made me think; there must be many people who have never seen garments in the process of construction. With clothing appearing on the high street at low prices, consumers rarely make their own clothing to understand the process of garment manufacture. This (I think) can lessen the value of clothing in the consumer’s eye; as they cannot relate or appreciate how things are made. Therefore I set about taking photographs of the stages during the construction of the jumper to evidence how a garment is put together.

Laid out flat, attaching right sleeve head:

Me wearing jumper with attached right sleeve head:

Laid out flat, attaching left sleeve head:

The mattress stitch – used for attached two pieces of knitting together:

Shoulder and sleeve head seam:

Fully constructed jumper:

Me wearing jumper:

The jumper appears somewhat too large for my brother’s skinny frame, I hope it fits! I’ll keep you posted as to whether it fits, fingers crossed.

Prick Your Finger “Murder at the Wool Hall”

On the evening of 18th March at the Stanley Picker Gallery, Prick Your Finger held a spinning workshop/disco. Entering the event was a sight unseen before; an eclectic bunch of people jumping around, knitting, dancing, riding a bike, DJ-ing and spinning yarn. Who wouldn't feel a little intimidated at first?

Being immediately welcomed I settled in and received a lesson in hand spinning, which involves carding (in order words combing) wool and through pinching, teasing and spinning with assistance from a dradle like implement spinning the wool into yarn. Sounds simple, right? Looks simple too. Don't be fooled, it took me several attempts to produce a wildly lumpy and totally uneven ball of yarn. Yet I did feel a sense of achievement, thumbs up!

Another thumbs up to mention was the free beer and homemade cake received upon arrival. Perhaps the beer could be blamed for my poor attempt at spinning, however I was told it did take practice.

One of the Prick Your Finger girls talked about the project; collecting wool from farmers around the M25 that was destined for landfill and processing it themselves as well as offering workshops (like the one being held) to teach the public. Most of the wool collected is quite coarse which is commonly undesirable (amazing, as I thought it was lovely!). They also offer knitting and crochet classes at their shop in Bethnal Green on Thursdays and Saturdays. The bike in the centre of the room (which had puzzled me since arriving) was also explained to be powering the music as well and spinning yarn when cycled.

The process was intensely relaxing and teamed with the sound of The Smiths and Bob Dylan, some may disagree with this statement, was highly enjoyable. I realised I had witnessed an example of slow fashion (if yarn is knitted/crocheted into garments, anyway), which I have learn about through my MA. Slow fashion can be described as trans-seasonal as it does not follow trends, is local to a community (skills or materials) and usually connects people either through design and manufacture or emotionally.