String Revolution » sunday stash

Sunday Stash, no. 6

leannich — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:31:15 +0000

Hardware! I love hardware. These are the accessories that came with my old Singer sewing machine, which I inherited from my great-aunts. (A Singer No. 201K, incidentally, with “rotating hook, reverse feed, for family use”.) Aren’t they marvellous-looking things?

I should confess straight off that I haven’t used a single one. When I was younger I found them quite intimidating, particularly the enormous contraption on the right, which if I’ve correctly deciphered the beautiful black-and-white halftones in the instruction booklet is The Ruffler.

(Also pictured: The Binder; A Combined Edge-stitching, Lace-joining and Piping Attachment; The Gathering Foot; The Adjustable Hemmer; The Bias Gauge; The Quilter; and some miscellaneous hangers-on.)

Nowadays, I’m older and braver – and what’s more, I’ve discovered a deep and abiding love of tools in all their guises (power tools! Rarrrr!). So I’m thinking it may be time to put these gleaming babies through their paces.

Sunday Stash, no. 5

leannich — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:47:13 +0000

It’s been quiet around here this past week, because the household has been felled by swine flu. The Feaster and I got it on Sunday, the Oyster on Tuesday. Niall either had it two weeks ago or will be getting it some day soon.

It knocked me over, attacked my children and scuppered my birthday, but AT LEAST it didn’t prevent me from going to the Knitting & Stitching Show (though mind you, I was already feeling pretty urghy by Saturday, and I’m sorry to everyone I breathed near while I was there that day – I didn’t know!).

Of course, I added to my stash! The photo above is of some rather lovely Re Fa Baruffa laceweight from This Is Knit (I know, I can go there whenever I want, but their stuff is just so lovely). I’m planning to make it into the astonishing Forest Path Stole from The Best of Interweave Knits(here’s the pattern page on Ravelry). Entrelac lace! Yay!

Sunday Stash, no. 4

leannich — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:31:15 +0000

My sister’s best college friend is from Kolkata (aka Calcutta), in India. When she went there for a visit, I gave her money and said, “Silk. You know the sort of thing I like.”

And she did. Isn’t it gorgeous? It is so GREEEEEEEEEEEEEN and so PEEEEEEEEEEEEENK.

I can’t remember how much fabric there is, but maybe four or five metres of each colour. I have all kinds of ideas – front-runners on this specific evening would be a full-skirted 50s-style summer frock in the pink, and something trousery-jacketty in the green.

Like the Vietnamese silk I showed you a while ago, I won’t be using this while I’m still breastfeeding and/or wrangling small children, but in the fullness of time, I’ll take it out and lead it reverently to meet its fate.

Sunday Stash, no. 3

leannich — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:24:02 +0000

Here are two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Sock, which I bought in This Is Knit a long, long time ago.

I’m embarrassed (how interesting) to confess that I’ve made a grand total of – count them – two socks in my time. One pair, to be precise. Socks seem to have an almost forbidding mystique about them, don’t you find? They are so the thing for the “modern” knitter to take up – quirky! Portable! Now!

Or maybe that’s just me. (I am not a “modern” knitter, I don’t think.)

I still want to make more, though, because they’re so satisfying, so astonishingly comfortable – and there are so many beautiful patterns out there in yon online knitosphere. Yet I procrastinate. Why?

Partly, it’s because my pregnancies brought on my latent varicose veins, and I’m supposed to wear horrible support stockings all the time – I mostly do, but it’s been seeming less necessary recently (hope!). Partly, it’s because it departs from my knitting roots: my grandmother knew how to make socks, but didn’t. Partly, it’s because I find sock yarn so pleasing in itself – and what if I married it to the wrong pattern? (I mean, what?) There’s that high stakes business again. Nonsense. I know it is.

So here. Let’s say I cast on some socks next, yes? Yes.

Sunday Stash, no. 2

leannich — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:21:30 +0000

I went a little mad at the Alpaca Select stall (incidentally, that link has an automatic video, and it’s LOUD!) at last year’s Knitting & Stitching Show. That’s 100% alpaca, in a mixture of DK and 4-ply as far as I can tell (the weight is not marked on the band), and it feels gorgeous. So gorgeous, in fact, that I may one day use it to knit something with.

I bought it with fair-isle in mind, but then I started worrying that I know far less about fair-isle than I ought to (thank you, superego), and shouldn’t “waste” this beautiful yarn on a beginner project. Should instead, presumably, use yarn I don’t love to make something ugly, because it will build character. Yeah. (No.)

Sunday Stash, no. 1

leannich — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:28:53 +0000

Feast your eyes on this thrilling silk, which a dear friend brought back from Vietnam as a present for me when she travelled there a few years ago. Isn’t it amazing? I adore the way the woven pattern is so sumptuous and intricate on the front, then recedes to make way for the calm stripes on the back.

My friend gave me this beautiful fabric when she came to meet the Feaster for the first time, when he was nearly a year old. I was so touched by the gift – not least because it was emphatically for Sewing Léan, and not for the Mama Léan who has been in the foreground for the last few years. My wardrobe these days is exclusively machine-washable, but that won’t always be the case. This silk will be waiting for me when I’m ready for it.

Meanwhile, I can daydream about what it will become. I have about four or five metres, I think (that’s eyeballing – I didn’t measure). Perhaps a longish tailored jacket with a full skirt, like an eighteenth-century grandee? Or an ultra-simple sheath dress? Suggestions welcome!

(Incidentally, I’ve been meaning to write a Sunday Stash post for ages, but this is the first time I’ve been sufficiently organised. I saw it first at Red Pepper Quilts, and then Rita kindly pointed me at the original post by Tam of 1/4 of an Inch. I love the idea, and I intend to join in as often as I can.)