Paper Collages

New today for sale on my Etsy shop are three tiny paper collages based on my paintings of Anglesey. I made them by picking and painting colour samples, then cutting and tearing these to make images that simplify the landscape and create new textures and patterns.

I've mounted them to fit into 5" x 7" frames, so they're great for adding little splashes of colour to even the tiniest of walls/spaces - please take a look right here

Seaweed Fair Isle Cowl

Last but certainly not least, (my personal favourite) is the Seaweed cowl.

This one simplified a loose ink drawing of seaweed into a knittable image, which becomes fairly abstract and organic when the cowl is being worn.

You can see the links between photo, image and knitting sample here - all with the same distinct seaweed shape but each material/technique obviously offering different qualities! When I made the knitting sample, I was exploring duplicate stitch, which is how I managed 3 colours. The pattern for the seaweed remained largely the same when I was translating it for the cowl knitting pattern, with the exception of dropping the duplicate stitch element.

You can see the resulting final pattern more clearly here. There are 3 repeats lengthways, and the seaweed motif is mirrored in the round, which I think adds to the organic effect. Colours were picked out from my matching silk scarf (to be revealed later!) and I think they compliment each other really nicely, especially thanks to the yarn I used (Rowans SilkTwist) which has an almost glowy effect. Again, this cowl is available to purchase from my Etsy shop right here or, if you want to knit it yourself in your own colours then you can buy the pattern from Ravelry!!

Heather Fair Isle Cowl

Now I've given you a brief introduction to how I designed my cowls, and showed you my Holyhead Mountain cowl - it's time to meet cowl number 2, Heather.

This cowl was born out of scanning and blowing up my paintings of heather by massive amounts. "That's a nice painting," my tutor would say. "Let's blow it up by 200% again!" The result was an abstract mishmash of colour and texture.

I, like before, took the information in the image and tried to replicate that in my knitting samples. I practised with different colour combinations, and found that using colours quite similar worked really nicely together, and created subtle, organic pattern. 

Intarsia interpretation, which I didn't like as much - blocks of colour are less visually appealing. 

The end pattern used 3 complementary colours in purple and pink tones, together with one turquoise contrast, mixed with pale green lace weight yarn to add extra depth and variation to the colour. I knitted this cowl with a provisional cast on, and joined it with kitchener stitch - rather than knitting it in the round as I did with the other ones. 

I really love how this pattern combines geometric and organic shapes to create a really unique and interesting design. 

Like the Holyhead Cowl, you can download the pattern from Ravelry, or buy the original cowl from my Etsy shop! Please take a look and have a go!

Briar T-Shirt and Kelly Skirt!

Now I made my Kelly Skirt AAAGGGEESS ago but I hadn't posted about it so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and post an entire handmade outfit (with muchos lovos to Megan Nielsen who made the two patterns I made!).

So here are the front and back views. I made the Briar top in the short cropped version purely because I only bought 70cm worth of wide jersey (I went fabric shopping with my Mum and fell in love with the colour but not the price!). The original pattern has a deeper arch at the front but I shallowed it a little as I cut it out as I didn't want to bare too much midriff as unlike the Man Repeller I feel I ought to avoid the Resort-full-on-belly-reveal trend! The sewing on the Briar top is far from perfect, but for my first time sewing with jersey I am rather pleased.

The Kelly Skirt is another fantastic pattern! Please excuse the creases and runkled-upness of the skirt - I'd already worn it the day prior to taking these photos and, well, I really hate ironing. I do really love the fabric I made it out of but next time I think a cotton twill or any fabric with a nicer drape would be better as it does rather stick out a bit. I'd also make a smaller waist band because, although you can't tell from the photos, it is tooo big for me! I can tuck a t-shirt, jumper and more into that thing (which to be fair has led to some interesting outifts!). 

Here's a closer look at both of them, and the horrendous creases in my skirt.

Completed Thurlows! (and Exams)

So my latest project has been the Thurlow Shorts from the awesome Sewaholic . And I'm so pleased with them. I'm a major pear shape so finding shorts on the high street that fit my hips while not being stupidly huge on the waist or vice versa is a bit of an issue - luckily Sewaholic patterns are designed for pear-shaped women so getting them to fit was actually pretty easy. I made a muslin (ALWAYS MAKE A MUSLIN) in a size 0 as the finished measurement on the waist matched my own. The fit around the waist ended up being perfect and then I just used the Colletterie's Pants Fitting Cheat Sheet and this chart of common trouser alterations to change my paper pattern, whip up a new muslin just to check and voila! I was ready to go! Turns out all I needed to do was add a touch more room to the inseams near the crotch and at the side seams so I literally only graded those sections out towards a size 4 and back again.

Sadly for a beginner, Sewaholic pattern instructions are a bit sparse in some places so I'd urge everyone making them who's a bit unsure about certain tricky sections (the double welt pockets for example) to read Lladybird's Thurlow Sewalong. The only thing she wasn't that useful with was the cuffs at the end - turns out I don't know how to make a cuff! However after a little bit of Googling I found this tutorial which helped me out.

 

I went for some swish navy blue gabardine because I wanted some nice smart shorts that I could wear with tights in winter too, but they'd work just as well in a lighter cotton for summer!

My lining was pretty standard navy too but I really fancy making a pair in perhaps a beige cotton with a really crazy lining like this:

Como Bright cotton lawn by Alexander Henry

                     

My next project is going to be Sewaholic's Cambie Dress with the full skirt. I have always wanted to have a dress like that so I can't wait to get started!! I was inspired by this fabric which I saw in John Lewis

Charleston Farmhouse Bloomsbury Parchment by Felicity Miller

But I'll have to see if it's still available :( It's just perfect for the shape with it's fifties vibe and really reminded me of Angie Lewin's art (one of my favourite printmakers).

                                 

Thurlow Shorts

Now, I'm very excited (and a little apprehensive) to start my new project - these lovely Thurlow shorts from Sewaholic!! There's a lot of pattern pieces (always something a little scary about patterns with more than, say, 5 pieces xD) and includes making pocket welts AND attaching a fly zipper - something that the Great British Sewing Bee has taught us is a rather hard thing to do. So it'll be a learning curve but with the help of Lladybird's Thurlow sew-a-long, hopefully they'll turn out well!!

I've also recently made the gorgeous Kelly Skirt from Megan Nielsen. The whole internet seemed to be going crazy over this pattern and for a totally legitamite reason - it's amazing! Pictures shall come later :D

Now, I'm off to make a toile D: