Wednesday Wonderfuls #61

Happy Wednesday my lovely readers, and an extra hello to all my new readers, lovely to have you here :)

You may have noticed that this blog has been very knitting/crochet heavy recently and that I've been posting less sewing projects. I tend to go through fazes with my crafty things, and at the moment I am loving all my wooly projects, I've nearly completed all my knitting UFOs! But never fear, I will be sharing some sewing projects soon, just bear with me whilst I'm in this yarn filled period :)

Meanwhile, why not join me in the land of yarn? Here are some of my favourite wooly images to get your creative juices flowing!

Image Sources, Clockwise from Top Left:
1. Crocheted Apples, 2. Crocheted Blanket, 3. Stripey Bolero, 4. Crocheted Hangers,
5. Ripple Blanket, 6. Granny Squares, 7. Scarf, 8. Circle Blanket

I cannot tell you how much all these pictures make me itch for my knitting needles!

And now for some more lovely things, my personal picks from the blogosphere this week:

• My mouth watered when I saw these Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls over at Joy the Baker. Her book is already out in the US but doesn't come out in the UK until the end of this month, I can't wait!
• I'm really quite gutted that I missed the WOW festival this week, but Ree Ree Rockette gave so many updates of the goings on there via twitter that I felt like I was almost there myself! After her experience there and all the heated feminist debating, she decided to give up high heels, and I think that what she has to say is well worth listening to.
• Cassie Stephens shared another stunner of an outfit this week, an Alice in Wonderland themed dress complete with a handprinted pocket watch border. Swoon!
• I really want a mini banana split, anyone want to make one (or a few!) for me? :)
• Karen really puts me to shame this week with this post all about cleaning your sewing machine, something I haven't done in a while! It's well worth reading as the whole process is much more simple than you'd think, plus if you have a pretty, kitsch duster it makes the whole job that much more fun!
• I cannot wait for Spring and Summer and drinking cold drinks in the sun, so these lemonades over at A Beautiful Mess made me very happy indeed. Yes please to Cucumber Mint Limeade!

And that's it for another week of wonderfuls!

I hope you have great rest of the week filled with wooly projects and wonderful things of your own :)

Katie xxx

Adventuring on my Two Days Off...

Last week I was lucky enough to have two days off work to do with as I pleased, what a lucky individual I am! I had a wonderful time wandering about London, it was so nice to be back on my old stomping ground and to do all the things that I have been wanting to do for ages. Please indulge me whilst I share with you the details of two practically perfect days!

Thursday

I got up early and glammed up for my day on the town (I don't often get the opportunity to dress up because of my job!)

My train journey was made all the more enjoyable by a good book, "The Best of Everything" by Rona Jaffe. It's getting me back in the mood for Mad Men at the end of this month!

I travelled to Shoreditch and paid the best Hairdressing Salon in the World a visit. I left feeling a great deal lighter and much prettier :)

I took a trip to Angel where I browsed in the gorgeous vintage shops of the Camden Passage, if only I had more money!

I had brunch at The Breakfast Club and ate much more than would be seen to be respectable. But hey, I enjoyed myself and it all tasted amazing!

I was drawn into Loop where some gorgeous hand-spun/dyed wool hopped into my bag so I was forced to buy it. It's a hard life.

I headed to Soho where I wandered through the fabric shops of dreams before purchasing some turquoise tweed for a project that I'm ridiculously excited about.

I walked to St. Martin's Courtyard and met a very dear friend in Bill's for drinks. We hadn't seen each other for almost a year so we had a lot to talk about and had a marvellous time :)

When I arrived home on Thursday evening I cooked for myself and my parents using two Lorraine Pascale recipes: Coq au Vin and Melting Chocolate Puddings. I haven't been able to cook properly in a while so this was a real joy :)

I spent a beautiful evening with my family before heading back to my Sweetheart for episodes of New Girl before a good night's sleep.

 Friday

In the morning I indulged my new obsession and made pancakes. They were so good, covered in blueberries, raspberries and maple syrup :)

We spent the day watching Doctor Who for my Sweetheart's blog, I helped him review Jon Pertwee's first episode as the Doctor. It was great fun, and as soon as it's written up I'll link to it from here.

In the afternoon my Sweetheart and I visited Harrods (one of many places we went on our first ever date!). We tried to see the puppies, but unfortunately they were all out when we were there. Probably for the best or we might have come home with one!

We treated ourselves to afternoon tea at Laduree. It was amazing, I don't even have the words to describe how amazing it was :)

That evening we went to see Florence + the Machine at Alexandra Palace. She was utterly incredible, and I love her more now than I ever thought possible. Sad but true!

When we got home we feel into bed completely tuckered out, knowing that, unfortunately, we both had to work two shows the next day. Ah well, it's the price you have to pay for days off sometimes :)

Have you been having adventures recently? I hope you've enjoyed yours as much as I enjoyed mine!

Katie xxx

What's on my sewing table... lots and lots of yarn!

Hello there my lovely readers! I hope you all had a great weekend, I certainly did :) I had a brilliant few days off, I'll tell you more about that tomorrow, but I've also managed to fill my time with wooly projects :) Let me share with you what I've been up to...

First up I have completed my first mini crochet project! You may remember my first ever granny squares, well here they are all seamed together and looking pretty.

Granny squares, you've got to love them!

I'm really loving crochet, I already have a few project lined up for when I'm a bit better at it, I've been scouring Ravelry for pretty patterns :) Hopefully it won't be too long before I start working on the crochet blanket of my dreams!

Secondly I have started another knitting UFO, I've had this one on the go for about three years, just sitting in a box unfinished and unloved, but I've finally decided it to finish it. The original pattern was in French (eek!) but I had it translated, although some of the instructions are still a bit hard to follow. It's made by Fifi Chanchnil, and it's a cute little crossover cardigan. It reminds me of the type of thing I used to wear for ballet as a child, I can't wait until it's finished! 

The pattern, isn't it cute? 

Lacy sleeve with fancy edging!

And yes, the yarn is just as soft and fluffy as it looks :)

Finally I have a bit of a confession to make, I may have been a bit naughty on my days off. I know that I'm supposed to be focusing on Stash Busting, but I may have been in the same area as Loop on Thursday and I may have been tempted into buying some hand-spun, hand-dyed gorgeously soft, silky yarn for a short sleeved cardigan that I have been dying to make from the best knitting book ever. I'm sure you'll forgive me when you see how gorgeous this project is going to be...

Is this not one of the most gorgeous patterns you have ever seen?!

I've already knitted up my little tension square, well I say square, it's not a square shape at all! And this yarn was just dreamy to work with, I can't wait to cast on this cardigan, I'm really looking forward to some detailed knitting work, it's been a while since I've worked on something this intricate.

My tension square, or rather my tension random-shape!

Dreamy, isn't it? :)

So as you can see I'm up to my eyeballs in yarn, and I couldn't be happier about it :) Are you knitting/crocheting anything at the moment? I'd love to know what you're working on!

I hope you have a great week full of wooly projects of your own, I'll be back tomorrow to share some more adventures.

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #60

So... this would have been posted yesterday, but my internet died last night, naughty old internet. So let's just pretend that it's Wednesday shall we? :)

Happy Wednesday my lovely readers! I hope that the week so far has been treating you well. I am very excited about the next couple of days as I have taken two days off from the show to do with as I please, so hopefully many lovely adventures will ensue! (And yes, Jess, I'm going to see Florence on Friday too! I wonder if you're as excited as I am?!)

But one of the other main things that has been giving me joy over the past few days is Instagram. You may have noticed that I've recently been including quite a few instagram shots in this blog, I just can't get enough of it! If you want to follow me on instagram my profile is

@misskatiesquirrel

I mean, who couldn't be addicted to pictures as cute as these?!

Instagram sources, Clockwise from Top Left:
1. Pug by @dailypug, 2. Breakfast by @waterbluesky, 3. Clogs by @skunkboycreatures,
4. Outfit by boobookittycouture, 5. Paris by @bazaaraustralia, 6. Kitchenaid by @ohsolovelyerin,
7. Doughnuts by@fancytreehouse, 8. Disney Skirt by @atomic_redhead

I think these pictures make the world seem like a better place :)

And you know what else makes the world a better place? Wednesday Wonderfuls! So here are my picks of the blogosphere this week:

• First up we have a brilliant and well photographed How-To for Victory Rolls over at Midnight Maniac.
• DO you love watching films just to ogle the costumes? Then this challenge might be for you! Lovely Debi of My Happy Sewing Place is co-hosting the Sew Cinematic Challenge, when your task is recreate a look from any film of your choosing. It sounds like such fun, I'm thinking of recreating something from "The Notorious Betty Page" that I watched recently...
• I have no words when it comes to this Dino Skirt over at Did You Make That. Karen, you have my respect :)
• I recently discovered the gorgeous blog Atomic Redhead and I've been loving it. My favourite post if her's so far would have to be her Disneyland skirt, it's so kitsch and cute I just love it!
• And finally I want these biscuits, I really, really, REALLY do. 

And that's it for another week of Wonderfuls :)

Katie xxx

Adventures in Crochet

Well readers, it's happened, I think I can honestly say I've become a crochet addict. It's all come together over the last few days, and here's my progress so far...

Whilst creating the swatches of all of the stitches I had been working solely in rows, and the next exciting step was working in the round. And this was the point when the addiction really started to take hold, once you start making these pretty circles it's so hard to stop!

My first crocheted circle

And I think that looks pretty good don't you? My stitches are all pretty uniform now, so I end up with a nice flat and even circle. By the next step in the crochet school was a big one: The Granny Square. And these were the main reason I started crochet in the first place, so I wanted to be good at this stage! Well, here's my first attempt...

A rather wonky Granny Square!

It looks a bit sorry for itself, doesn't it? This particular square used lots of chain stitches in its design, that's what creates all those slightly uneven gaps, so I altered the pattern a bit in my second attempt (as suggested by the Crafty Minx) to make my second Granny Square a lot more compact:

A much neater Granny Square!

I much prefer the look of this smaller, neater and more compact Granny Square, and I think that for now, until I become more used to crocheting, this is going to be the style the works best for me. You can see how different the two square are in shape and size here:

Two little fresh Granny Squares!

I think you'll agree that the smaller of the two looks a lot prettier! So I went ahead yesterday and stitched up four of these cute little squares, and the more I work on them the more I want to make, they are just so simple and easy, a great portable project :)

My Granny Square Quartet :)

Now, for someone who couldn't crochet at all until a few days ago I think you'll agree that this is quite an achievement! The next step of the crochet school is learning how to seam these squares together, so they really will look like a mini blanket soon, it's all very exciting :)

I think I will probably soon have to develop some Stash Busting projects that involve crochet, I do have a huge stash of leftover wool so I definitely have the means to feed my crochet addiction... I'll keep you posted!

Katie xxx

What's on my sewing table (and some new skills too!)

Happy Monday everyone! I have had a really lovely weekend, mostly because I came home, which was lovely enough, but also the next venue of the tour is close enough to home for me to commute, so I'll be staying at home for the next two weeks! So so happy! I'm looking forward to lots of quality time with my beautiful family and my Sweetheart :)

This also means that I will be in pretty close proximity to my sewing machine for the next couple of weeks, so expect lots of projects coming up soon! But let me show you what I've been working on in my happy haze this weekend...

First up I have finally made some progress with my Bombshell Dress!

My Bombshell Dress Bodice Muslin, looking good, eh?

I completed my bodice muslin, using a whole bunch of fancy methods (seriously, a lot of time went into this, and it's only the mock up!), and I'm really happy with how it's come together. The bodice fits really well, but I will have to make a few bust adjustments as it seems I'm more well endowed in that area than I initially thought (well, I'm not complaining!). I'll keep you updated on the progress of this dress and share some proper photos (i.e. not instagram ones!) as soon as I have something really good to show you, like when I cut into my pretty fabric... :)

And in other news, during a fit of insomnia last week I decided to tackle another item on my 24 before 25 list and started to teach myself to crochet. I used the crochet school created by the fabulous Crafty Minx and so far I have stitched up two swatches:

Crochet! And I have to say, I'm pretty proud of my neat and uniform stitches :)

I'm about half way through the crochet school course, and I'm sorry to say I'm starting to feel a little bit addicted. I never thought that I would be able to get the hang of crochet, as a knitter the idea of only using one needle left me very confused and, to be honest, a little freaked out, but it's so much simpler than I thought it would be. It's very relaxing and I love the texture of the stitches, it's really pleasing :) I have always wanted to crochet myself a couple of blanket, and hopefully after this course I will be able to. I'll keep you posted n the crochet front too!

I'm so looking forward to this week, what with these fun projects to work on and I have some great adventures planned, including a trip to London and finally getting to see Florence + the Machine in concert! I cannot wait!

I hope you have a great week too, do you have anything fun planned?

Katie xxx

Happy World Book Day! And a question...

Happy March 1st and World Book Day to you all!

I am going to get some serious reading done today in honour of the celebration of books, I'm currently throughly stuck into "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters and I can't wait to see what happens next :)

However, this blog is mostly all about sewing, right? So I thought, what better way to tie in sewing and books than a little bit of 1950s book print fabric!

I love this fabric! Some of the titles of the books read "Shakespeare", "War and Peace" and "Romeo and Juliet"

How beautiful is that? And it's perfect for a book worm like me! :) However, I'm now rather at odds as to what to use this fabric for. That's where you lovely people come in!

In an ideal world I would love to use this fabric for a 1950s style shirtwaist dress, but I'm not sure whether or not I have the yardage. This fabric is quite narrow, at a guestimate 30/35 inches, but over 4 metres in length, so maybe a shirtwaist dress with a narrow skirt wouldn't be out of the question? How you seen any patterns that might be suitable?

If you think you have seen any patterns or looks that this fabric would be suitable for then please get in touch, I'd love to know what you think. I really want to use it for something special, it's just so unique and pretty I want to get as much wear out of it as possible!

I can't wait to hear any suggestions you have :)

Katie xxx