Autumnal creativity

It's high time for a knitting update! Because I finally finished my scallop jumper, sleeves and all,  and even though I'm better at posting pictures on Ravelry I'm so excited that I want to share them on my blog, too. And, by the way, this is the original Top Shop jumper that served as inspiration. Thank you, internet.

 Besides the jumper I also managed to squeeze in a beret in preparation of colder days (finally!), a project with leftover yarn from my fair-isle cardigan. I used the "Kim" pattern from Madeleine Weston's and Rita Taylor's book "Knit Vintage" which I found in the public library by chance. It's a lovely pattern if maybe a little too big (this time I really made sure I used the right gauge but it seems like I just have a small head).

I currently have another cardigan in the making and this weekend my stash was (not so miraculously) enlarged by a donation of some wonderful Latvian wool yarn in all shades of red and blue. Pictures soon to come.

"Journée de la Laine" @ ParckDesign

On 14 September, the "Journée de la Laine" (or "Wool Day") was organized as part of the ParckDesign festival here in Brussels. I saw the notice on the good old Stitch'n'Bitch facebook group and it sounded really interesting, especially because the festival focuses on sustainability and eco-friendliness so I was quite intrigued. I read an article in the Guardian recently which suggested that 99.9 % of wool produced in the UK is a by-product of the meat industry - that certainly gave me something to think about. It also made me wonder about the mass produced yarn that I usually buy and that the sheep who provided the wool were probably not happy on a green pasture somewhere but in all likelihood already transformed into stew. It had actually never crossed my mind before.

The ParckDesign festival thus looked like a good start to explore better alternatives! The idea was to show different stages of wool production and processing in a simple way, including the carding, spinning and dyeing processes. The little farm that was established within the framework of the festival actually had some real sheep, too, but I doubt that they contributed the raw material (it looked like they were more of a petting zoo).

The people that organized the different workshops were super friendly and patiently answered all of my questions. Of course I know a thing or two about knitting but I did not really know much about how the yarn is being produced. This was all very small scale and to be honest, it looked like it's doable - even though you need some extra equipment such as the carding machine or the spinning wheel if you want to do it properly. It surely takes some time and practice to master the arts of spinning a regular thread and dyeing seems to be yet another step on the professional ladder but it would be worth trying. For the time being (and lacking the proper equipment) I have decided that I will start by trying to buy more ethically sourced yarn. I haven't done much research on this but if I have some recommendations I will certainly post them here!



Festival impressions:

(1) The park (2) Dyeing yarn with natural dyes (3) Walnut skin dye (4) Spinning with drop spindle (5) Weaving demonstration

Transformation Thursday II

In the second part of this mini-series I attacked this originally completely hideous shirt (see proof below), a vintage gem ca. anno 1970. I spotted it in a heap of old clothes at a flea market and fell in love with the sailing boat pattern. I got it for 1 € - the lady probably thought I wanted it as a dish cloth. To be honest I didn't even know what I wanted to do with it but when I got home I remembered that I still had some leftover bias tape which had the perfect colour to match the blue background!

I didn't take any pictures during the transformation process but basically I just took an old pattern that I used for the scallop hem dress amongst others and cut off the sleeves roughly according to the pattern. The ugly v-neckline was annoying (and I could hardly get it over my head) so I made a nice and round one. I don't know what kind of body shape people had in the 1970s but the shirt was also quite tight around the hips so I had to make two incisions on the sides, otherwise I would have looked like I had a pot belly. I don't, I promise! 

About an hour and some struggle with the bias tape later the transformation was complete. Voilà: