Stitches and Thrills

One of my knitting friends asked our help for giving some ❤️ to healthcare workers. During the first wave of Covid there was applause. Today the people are faced with impatience and verbal and physical abuse. Below I will describe in Dutch our mission to give some love and appreciation to the people working in health care, at homes for the elderly, in public transport and other front lines during the 2nd wave of Covid in the Netherlands. Via Inge : Deze Corona tijd is eenzaam, vervelend, angstig en frustrerend. Samen houden we vol, maar de zwaarste lasten liggen bij de zorgverleners. En juist zij hebben de laatste tijd te maken met agressie en bedreiging. Velen voelen zich in de steek gelaten en ervaren geen waardering meer voor hun grote inzet. In plaats daarvan moeten ze langs bewaking naar hun werk en verzoeken ze hun patiënten via het keuzemenu op de telefoon of met posters om vriendelijkheid en geduld. Laten we de zorgverleners Hartverwarmers sturen, als teken van onze ...

Having been at a Twin Peaks party a couple of weeks ago I realized that my life was missing a log pillow. (The hostess of the party had one!) So I was thrilled to find the free log crochet pattern on the Club Geluk website ! The pattern is in Dutch, but I will explain some adaptation I made, and as a bonus: how to make it into a pillow. I used 100 grams of light brown yarn (it was actually a variation yarn, but that worked well). 50 grams of beige and 50 grams of dark brown yarn. All yarn DK / light worsted (usual advice would be needle size 4). I used a crochet needle 3.5 mm to get a close firm stitch. The recommended 43 chain stitches (light brown yarn) cast on gave me a circle of 9 1/2 cm diameter. I closed the circle and knitted 55 rows to get a 39 cm tube. I did make a small change to the pattern in the 2 end circles of the log (beige yarn). As recommended I did cast on 8 stitches in a magic circle. And then increasing each round following in the pattern. However: I did...

More mittens to make! You just got to love these Meow Mitts by TinyOwlKnitsPatterns . I know I do =^x^= Pattern available in her Etsy shop. Pattern: Meow Mitts by TinyOwlKnitsPatterns And if you don't like cats - hey wait, what are you doing on this blog then? -  she also sells patterns with bunnies, birds and butterflies, among others.

The free pattern for these fingerless gloves is available on the blog Knitting And So On . Aren't they amazing? I have never seen anything like it. I can't wait to knit them! Free pattern on Knitting and so on

Papieren diamantjes hanger. Hier is de eerste beschrijving van de Etsy #CraftParty 2015 in Leiden. Materiaal:  Papieren stroken . Voor een diamantje heb je een strook nodig waarvan de lengte 8x de breedte is. Dus bv als de strook 2.5 cm breed is, dan is de lengte minstens 20 cm. Of als de lengte 32 cm is (bv een atlas pagina), dan knip je hem op 1/8 dus 4 cm breed. Dun touw en een lange naald . Stokje / takje / grote sateprikker. Je kan ook een mobile maken door bv een oude borduurring te gebruiken. Paper diamond hanging decoration. Here's the first tutorial from the Etsy #Craftparty 2015 workshop Leiden! Material:  Paper strips : For 1 diamond  you need a paper strip of which the length 8 times the width. So if your width is 1 inch, than the length is at least 8 inch. Thin thread and a long needle. A stick or little branch. Or you can go circular with an old embroiderie ring. Draai de strook om en vouw een hoekje van 45 g...

Final part: I have been making the Vivienne Westwood Drape Shirt via a free pattern on the Worlds End Shop Blog. Look here for part 1 & part 2 . Once I had posted on Facebook some friends said they also wanted to make it, thus it became a sew-a-long. After post 2 I did the buttons, button holes and pocket. But when the shirt was finished it was not yet quite what I had hoped for. To tell the truth: when I put it on I felt like the missing 6th member of Duran Duran in the Seventh & the Ragged Tiger years. (...and I should know, but you will never see THAT photo until I might have an unfortunate drunkblogging mishap... ) It took a few days to figure out what was missing. I needed some unbalance added to the design. If you use a stripe or plaid that effect comes from the print of the fabric. With this small houndstooth it was kind of dull and more like the wrong side of the 1980s. So made a second pocket using the selvage side to place angled over the or...

Continuing from part 1 . While I am making the Drape Shirt from the World's End Blog, some friends started to join in. :-) So this is officially a sew-a-long. This second post continues with the sleeves. As I have not sewn that many garments before (I am more of a small accessories sewer) this was the first time I'd have to gather a sleeve ! Luckily I had just read about this in my Tilly & the Buttons book . And actually: it is pretty easy. You stitch from 12 to 13 in the pattern in a very long stitch (4 instead of 2-2 1/2). Using a contrasting colour makes it easier. Make 2 rows. Then softly pull the thread from either side until gathered as required. Then came another first. The pattern called for a French seam along the long edge of the sleeves. This had been a Great British Sewing Bee learning moment for me last season. For a French seam you first sew the fabric wrong side to wrong side with a small seam. Then turn the fabric around to sew it right side to righ...

After coming across a post about Vivienne Westwood's Reading List I was browsing around on the WORLDS END SHOP blog and found an interesting free Do It Yourself pattern of the Drape Shirt . Enthusiastic I shared the link to Facebook friends. And now some friends are going to make it as well. Do you want to join in? Here's the link to the pattern: http://worldsendshop.co.uk/drape-shirt/ The pattern comes in 3 sizes (small/medium/large). The PDF has to be printed out on A4 papers. For size large it was 43 pages. Very important: do not mess up to order of the papers or you're screwed! Clear a floor space of 2x2 meter minimum. Start in the top left corner. Lay the first printed page down. Place the second under it. Continue till page 5. Then cut page 6. The lowest half of page 6 fits on the right side of page 1. See photo's: The arrows show where to connect the pages. Then crawl on all fours for half an hour with cellotape taping all the pieces tog...