Books I read in May

The Circle (Dave Eggers)
The Husband's Secret (Liane Moriarty)
Knitting Rules! (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee)
Sisterland (Curtis Sittenfeld)

Me Made May: Week 3 (and a sewing FO)

Another week, another cardigan:

This week I've mostly been wearing my Shetland Shorty cardigan. I love this style of cardigan in the summer and I still plan to knit another.

Also me made this week is my first 'dressmaking' project. A Tilly and the Buttons Bridgitte scarf. More of my summer dresses are yellow than any other colour so I picked out this bright yellow spotted cotton. The fabric was shorter than the width called for (115mm) but works well enough for keeping hair off my face.

Me Made May: Week 2

Last week was all about my grey striped Paulie. This week it's my "Hey Tech" cardigan, which has so far been paired each day with my Primark skirt plus a pair of leggings to keep it decent.

WIP Wednesday: Charade Socks

It's been a while since I started anything new and likewise since I knitted any socks.

Two birds, one stone... this week's work-in-progress Wednesday.

Socks for Mr Me in a cotton sock yarn (and some knitting elastic in the cuffs also).

Soon we'll all be able to say "bless his little cotton socks".

Books I Read in April

What's So Amazing About Grace? (Philip Yancey)
The First 20 Minutes (Gretchen Reynolds)
Mirror Mirror (Graham Benyon)

FO: Paulie

Well, I dragged this one out for a bit but it's finally finished, buttons and all!

Whenever I finally make it to the end of a garment I tend to come to the conclusion that 1) this really shouldn't take as long as I make it; and 2) I really should knit more garments, they're awesome.

There's a lot to like about this one. I like the colours and the fact that it's a thin 4ply-based fabric (I'm into thin sweaters at the moment). It was also pretty cheap yarn so I like that it's not a £100 cardigan and that it seems to look pretty great actually (I've not washed it yet, so I hope that I'm not speaking too soon here).

Buttons and yarn were both from my local indoor market stall come local haberdashery. Total cost of the buttons was about 40p and they fit well with the yellow of the stripes/i-cord. They're also the absolute perfect size to squeeze through the button holes without sneaking back out again.

The delay on this was primarily caused by the decision to add a hood without any real idea about how to go about doing so so I'm particularly pleased that after several revisions I seem to have a hood-shaped hood that looks pretty good both up and down.

Pattern: paulie by Isabell Kraemer
Yarn: Stylecraft Life 4 ply (75% acrylic, 25% wool) in colours Cobalt (grey) and Zing (yellow/green).
Mods: Added a hood (see Ravelry notes).
Project: online on Ravelry.

Me Made May

I've been reading more sewing blogs than I used to and over time I've seen more than a few mentions of 'Me Made May'.

Well, today is the first day of May and, perhaps overly enthused by the recent finishing of my Paulie (more tomorrow) I figured I could take a tentative step into the Me Made Madness. I've been meaning to get on and actually sew things so perhaps this will give me the kick I needed... and if not I'll be piling on the knitwear regardless of temperature ;)

Pledge - I sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear a handmade garment (even if it's just socks) at least once each week for the duration of May 2014.'

Now, here's my starter for ten:

May 1 - Hand knit socks made in September 2011 and Paulie - now with added buttons.