- oky_katie 3 Comments

New Pattern: Sand Dollar Dish Cloth

Sand Dollar Dish cloth

 

Sand Dollar Dish cloth

 

Sand Dollar Dish cloth

Sand Dollar Dish cloth
Sand Dollar Dish Cloth Pattern £1.50

 

This is the Sand Dollar Dish Cloth. I’ve been knitting and using these cloth for about a year and I’m still completely addicted to them. They use about half a 50g ball of DK cotton* so you can get a nicely matching pair from one ball, or just use up those bits and pieces of DK cotton that seem to collect in everyone’s stash.

There are knit from the outside in, which means that seem to speed up the more you knit them! No. More. Boring. Dishcloth. Knitting!

The trickiest bit is the cast on, and making sure the first row isn’t twisted. After that it’s a race to the end. 🙂 They’re perfect for carrying around in your bag, or car knitting, since the pattern is easy to read once you’ve established it. And the finished cloth is the ideal dish cloth or wash cloth size.

They have become my default dish cloth, as they are the perfect size for getting the washing up done, and when they need a thorough cleaning they machine wash and wear really well.

I hope you enjoy knitting them. I can’t wait to see what they look like!

 

 

 

 

*(I know! My first pattern that’s not free and it’s not even in OxfordKitchenYarns yarn!)

- oky_katie 2 Comments

Oliver and S Rollerskate Tunic

 

Oliver and S Rollerskate Tunic

After the Festival of Quilts last Saturday, I was itching to try out the Oliver and S Roller skate dress pattern I picked up. I couldn’t use any of the new fabric I bought because it was all drying on the line, and I wanted to check the size and fit before committing new shiny fabric to the pattern so I looked through the stash and found these two fabrics, plus an old shirt of W’s for the lining. The pattern came together really well, and it was the first time I’d done a notched neckline.

I’m really pleased with the final top, and LR has worn it twice an really likes it, even though it’s not a colour she would usually pick. So I’m calling it a success!

There are more of these in my future, I can see, and I’ll be picking up the bigger sized pattern too, since LR is going to size out in the next year or so.

- oky_katie 4 Comments

Festival of Quilts 2014!

The post-festivalof quilts fabric wash

The post-festival of quilts fabric wash

This year was the first time in 6 years(!) that I was neither pregnant, nor had a small baby with me at the festival of quilts. It was strangely liberating. 🙂

After all this time, Jaq and I have our trip down to a fine art. We arrive as the show is starting on the saturday, we don’t buy a programme so we have no idea where anything is, we go up and down the aisles, and take photos of the booth numbers when we find a place we want to go back to, we ignore the quilts completely (sorry!), and when we arrive at The Eternal Maker‘s booth, we spend a bit of money, and then stop for lunch. (In the last couple of years we have learned to take a packed lunch with us. This saves time, and money.)

Then we carry on where we left off, looking at the rest of the booths, then we go back and hit all the places we want to go back to, including dropping more money at The Eternal Maker. If we need anything from Doughty‘s then we do that last. At about 3.30pm we look at each other and say ‘are we done?’ and then we go home. We get home before W and the children come back from whatever they are doing, have a drink and a snack and a sit down and go through all the things we have bought.

This year (probably due to it being just the two of us, as I said), felt really relaxed. The walk ways between rows of booths felt wider, and though it was busy it didn’t feel squished. We both bought great stuff – I got some great pompom kits for the children (which I’ll do a post on after I give them to them), and Jaq got a brilliant ruler and foot set for quilting.

As for the fabric – the yellow flowered piece is going to be a curtain for the back room, there are camera and Charlie Harper trousers for FB, a toucan dress in the pipeline of LR, and a snail top for HB. Plus honey bee’s and princess’s and peas, and grey and yellow linen that will be made into good things over the next year.

It’s always so exciting to go to the festival for me. I feel like a buyer for my own tiny home label – it really is a good 80-90% of the fabric I’ll be using for the year, it’s the trousers and shorts and dresses that my children will be wearing in the next year or so, and most of it is picked in a frantic 20 minutes in The Eternal Maker booth. I love it! And I can’t wait to do it next year!

 

(Note for readers – I’m not affiliated with any of the companies I’ve mentioned. I don’t make any money off them. I just really like them. )