Cast on

How to Knit – Casting On from Penny Dablin – www.TheKnittingSite.com

Very clear instruction, assumes no prior knowledge and is has a good visual everything’s done very slowly, even so I had to replay the video a few times before I got it (and have gone back to it for every new project since!)

• I found on some other videos the hands sometimes masked what what was happening a little or it was done a it quicker maybe?

Apparently there are two methods to casting on and according to this article the thumb method, shown in the video above, gives a less firm edge to your knitting. Maybe it would be worth trying to learn the other method – which uses two needles, but I didn’t find a video I could follow using that method – if you know of one please post a link in the comments!

Knitting

How to Knit for Beginners : How to Make the Basic Knit Stitch, Expert Village.com

Now I had had previous instruction in the knitting part, so just needed to find a reminder but this video is really clear and I’m sure will make it easy for someone who’s never seen it (sorry the permissions for embedding this were disabled, but it’s a really good vid).

Casting off

I like this video – especially the size of the needles used.

Threadheads have a clip, which joins all of these together which is a good refresher if you know the basics but need a reminder:

Next steps

This glossary of knitting terminology might come in useful once we get onto using patterns.

My next project is going to be a shrug – my mum’s tested the patten, her dog (Buddy) ate a chunk of it, the lady in John Lewis helped me find the right wool and needles.

So far I’ve just asked which needles I will need as I buy the wool but this video explains the different types of needles and the different materials they can be made from.

So there you go – using those videos you should be able to wow your friends with your scarves

Having had several conversations with people about how nice it would be to join a book group I decided it was about time that we did.. in a rare proactive move I set one up..

It was so easy.. I just emailed 3 friends and told them to invite a couple of people and that was it

We’re meeting in a bookstore that has a bar and serves cake (covering all bases!) and I thought it might be nice to share..

Our first book is the 19th wife by David Ebershoff and we met on the 24th March. If you’ve read the book or have time to read it let me know what you think in the comments below and I’ll share your thoughts with the group and report back after we meet..

So that’s what I’ve been reading,

I’ve been watching Series 1 through 6.. (this may explain my intermittent blog posting)

playing Ginger Dawn check out the intro

buying wool – I’m trying for a garment rather than a scarf this time.. you may see photos (depends on my success!).

I’m playing catch up on reading blogs as well as writing posts but have just spotted a great post on different scissor types over at Purl Bee. I have a worrying scissor purchasing addiction which this may do quite a bit to feed!

Photo by Aussiegall

I’m back. Did you miss me?? I know I’ve been neglecting you all recently but it’s been for a good reason…

Over the past few months I have been working hard on a new and improved list of sewing blogs. I am hugely thrilled and humbled by the success of the current list. Maintaining the list and the blog in my limited spare time became a constant struggle and in the end I didn’t do either.

Sewing-blogs.com is much more than just a list. It allows you to comment and tag all of the blogs. The sewing world is an amazing community that I am privileged to be a member of. My wish is that Sewing-blogs.com can become a small corner of that community where people can find new and exciting blogs to read and can strike up some conversations in the comments.

If your blog isn’t listed there is an easy form to add your blog and once approved you will be part of the list.

When you next have a spare hour to get lost reading the many amazing blogs on the list can I suggest you check out sewing-blogs.com, create yourself an account and help to extend our fabulous community.

how can I help??

There are a number of ways you could help:

1) spread the word – please tell all your friends about this blog post and sewing-blogs.com

2) grab a badge – if your blog is listed then help tell the world and put a badge on your site

3) get involved – the way sewing-blogs.com becomes truly helpful is when there are lots of people tagging and commenting on the blogs

4) subscribe – lastly I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog, I promise to write more frequently now the new list is up and running!

Thanks for all your comments about reformatting the Big List of Sewing Blogs, I have that underway my lovely husband is working very hard to get it finished and if you’d like to be involved in testing the new list please let me know!

Since my last post – many moons ago the number of people to be added to the list has grown and grown so there will definitely be an add your blog section on the new and improved list of sewing blogs..

My discoveries since I last blogged include: Ravelry – a great resource for knitting – I found this scarf through it and just about figured it out..

On the subject of knitting, I discovered a knitting group literally under my nose. The ladies in question admitted snooping in our kitchen window which overlooks the local pub. They run an annual street party, a book club, film club, knitting group and I was invited to football training.. Obviously I knew there was a street party, but I’d no idea there was such a lovely community group right on our doorstep.. Which is a shame as we’re starting to look into moving further out of London

And the Kew image library - which I know already is going to be fab, I love the botanical embroideries of Trish Burr and have already found a beautiful image on there which I’d like to gave a try in silk shading

I received another of Trish’s books for Christmas – through strong hinting on my part, followed by a quick email with the amazon link to Duncan.. I already had the Redoute’s flowers book which is really lovely but the Long and Short Stitch Embroidery book has a fantastic introduction to the technique followed by some small projects to get used to the technique.

The Big List of Sewing Blogs is growing longer and longer, so I was wondering about how to format it? I thought the best thing to do is to ask the people who use it – so what do you want me to do?

Keep it as one long list?

Move it into pages – if so how many blogs per page?

I have a huge backlog of blogs to add – so if you’re waiting to hear back or you’re waiting for your Technorati rank to be updated, then please be patient – I’ll get there!

I will also write up a few posts that I’ve had on the back burner – if I tell you about them I have to writ them up :

How I taught myself to knit using the internet

A tutorial on transferring patterns to fabric for embroidery

and pretty pictures from a recent course in silk shading at the Royal School of Needlework and of a workshop in Blackwork embroidery.

I can finally blog about the project I worked on through the summer.

Very good friends of ours got married in September, Duncan was best man and as they have both always been supportive of my embroidery I wanted to give them something special.

It’s from an Anchor kit called Cheng Yang. Which by-the-by was bought from sewandso a site I’ve bought from a few times now and have had great service..

I know it has the size on the description, but it didn’t really compute until I opened the pack It was certainly the biggest piece I’ve ever done and it was pretty intense sewing between our wedding in June and Will and Heather’s in September.. but it was great fun to do, with the outline drawn it felt a bit like colouring in – it’s mainly long and short or satin stitch with a bit of stem stitch.

There are other kits available in a similar style, which are quite tempting..

Tomorrow I’ll be starting on a new project. A few months ago I offered to make a batch of cards as an offering in an auction of promises to raise money for the Light Opera group I’m a member of. I took along a few photos of cards already featured on the blog and my lot sold 3 times over.. Two girls wanted cards but the guy I’m meeting tomorrow wanted a piece of artwork, so tomorrow evening we’re meeting to decide what he would like! I’m very nervous as my designs have tended to be quite small but I’ll take a bunch of books along and see what style he likes..

When Duncan and I got back from honeymoon we searched through the 1300 pictures he had taken! I have previously posted some of my favourites. Duncan’s favourite was a picture of a cheetah he had taken on the second day of our trip.

We were driving along the bumpiest road known to man. The route took us from Lake Manyara, up past the Ngorogoro Crater and on to our lodge in the Serengeti National park. About 10 minutes after leaving the check point to pay for entrance to the Serengeti our driver got a call on his radio about two cheetahs that were just sat by the side of a small road we were about to drive past. (How anyone spotted some of the animals we saw I will never know!) We turned off and sure enough there were two brothers relaxing in the sun. The had obviously only just eaten, their bellies were enormous and they still had blood around their mouths. We spent a good 15 minutes just sat in the van admiring them.

Duncan had already found a place that did canvas prints – CanvasRus. We went for a canvas with gallery wrap which looks amazing. The print came within a week and we are both chuffed, I’d definitely recommend you give them a go.

Cheetah canvas print from CanvasRus

The honeymoon was amazing and having this picture around will bring back all the memories. We are going to put it up in our hallway.

Just surfacing from an amazing holiday

I’ve been back for a couple of weeks but laundry and life have gotten in the way of my blogging!

I returned to 800 unread blog posts, around 70 blog submissions for the big list and a huge pile of work at my day job.. So apologies to those waiting to get added to the list – you’re all on the database now, just waiting for me to republish the list.. but that’s not working at the moment, so while you’re being even more patient here are some photos from Tanzania:

It’s quite strange – who would have thought I use ‘Just Lovely’ quite so often!

Last Sunday Duncan and I packed some sandwiches and headed off to Hampton Court. It was the annual exhibition of work by the apprentices of the Royal School of Needlework. The apprenticeship is 3 years, the first two learning different embroidery techniques and the final year is more business based with work placements in the RSN’s studio as well as externally..

This year’s exhibition was a little disappointing in 2 ways, as the course is being phased out, there was only work from the final year students – so it was smaller than when we’ve been before and probably because of this it was in a room outside the palace, when we went before it was in the Queen’s chambers – a big imposing room with wooden panelling – just the kind of room where you’d imagine some of the techniques were developed..

The work we did see was by no means disappointing – I’ve said it before, but there are some very clever women out there.. Unfortunately not all the graduates had websites, but this one showcases one of my favourite pieces of the exhibition this lily in silk shading. There was also an amazing dragon in goldwork, but photography wasn’t allowed and I can’t find any photographs..

This afternoon we went into Wimbledon to buy silly hats and other necessities for our honeymoon. I can’t believe it’s only 2 weeks away! We’re going on a safari in Tanzania, hence the silly hats, I have a feeling there will be quite a lot of khaki!

Thank you so much to Lisa at The Hem Line for this award!

The rules of the award mean I have to nominate a further 7 blogs, so congratulations guys (in no particular order): angry chicken, Bella Dia, Feeling stitchy, U-handblog, I have to say…, Blissed out and Kimono Reincarnate.

Here’s what the winners need to do:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs