Christmassy stuff

I got my Christmas cards in the mail from Flora & Fauna Press. Aren't they great? I wonder if I'm the only person in the world that chooses Christmas cards because they remind me of an Agatha Christie novel. I think it's just the very, very fifties design. Subtle, but definitely there. I wish I knew the name of the typeface.

And behind it is some fabbo Kokka fabric from Duckcloth. Not sure what it will be, but damn I liked it!

Still Life with Owl and Grafted Cable

Alright, it's a pretty lousy shot, but in my defence it's overcast outside and a single energy-saver bulb lights the living room. And I have a rent inspection in half an hour, so I wasn't going to get too creative.


Owl is my Owl from Sugarloop. Framed in a cheapy Ikea frame. He lives propped against the wall on top of Badly Coloured Boy's chest of drawers, because the hook I bought to hang him off is too big to shove through the little picture hook hole on the frame clip. It's an awful photo. I promise he's amazingly crisp and detailed in real life, and I am quite the Sugarloop addict now (as is my mum. Every time I speak to her she manages to bring up how great my print is. I see a Christmas present coming on...)

The fabrics are my newest echino fabrics from Duckcloth. The green dots will pair with the Kristen Doran or the Lara Cameron to make a cushion. The other will be used up in the Placemat Campaign. I really, really love the deep red on natural colourway. It's sort of crisp and retro and rich at the same time.

And you're also looking at a completed left front/ left sleeve for the cardigan. Right side up is the point at which I kitchener stitched the cable together, and the entire sleeve. It isn't perfect, and blocking will help, but I think I did a pretty good job. The whole sleeve had a provisional cast on, because I hate picking up stitches. The instructions called for a regular cast on, then you picked up some ninety odd stitches and kitchener'd them. Figured I'd skip the picking up bit.

There may well be silence blog-wise for a little bit. I'm on study break right now and, lo and behold, am actually studying. Turning off the router during business hours does wonders for my productivity.
Oh, and I'm on Ravelery now. Same username as ever. No pictures yet, as I don't actually have a Flickr account, and the thing is set up to take images from Flickr.

Complex Cable Surgery

I realised yesterday that I'd crossed a cable the wrong way about four rows back. To rip back four rows would mean ripping out my 92 stitch sleeve. Wasn't going to happen. So I dropped back just the stitches involved to fix them. I do this quite a bit in lace and knit/ purl patterns, but I'd never done it in cables before. And while there's plenty of great advice about fixing cables by dropping back the stitches (or cutting and kitchener stitching, or overstitching), the illustrations only ever deal with very simple cables. My mess has other cables hanging about, other crosses to make before I got back to the top, and one pair of stitches were knit on the right side while the others were purl on the right side. It took a while to work out what I was looking at.
My cable surgery took an hour or so, I think. At one point seven needles were involved. Don't you love that despite my awkward situation I still grabbed the camera? I fixed it all up so it looked fine at the front, but there were a couple of weird loops at the back that concerned me, so they all got dropped again. That lengthened the process a little. And a couple of the knit stitches are still 'open' (you know, the oppposite of twisted), but I'm zen with that, all things considered.

I also got another good mail day. Duckcloth/ Kristen Doran fabric. Nicely packaged, and I like that the care instructions were included (machine washable, yeah!).


The fabric is actually a darker brown than this. I'd almost call the colour donkey, or light cocoa. The print is that slightly rubbery kind that sits above the fabric, you know? The detail is very crisp though. The fabric is interior decorating weight - cushion cover or tote bag weight. It's got a kind of sheen to it that I can't quite work out. Different.
I'm thinking it doesn't work quite so well in the living room as I'd hoped (too brown), so I'm thinking the feathers may be part of my placemat/ tablerunner campaign (I'll explain another day); and the flowers maybe will be bag. Because I really like the flowers. And then my Lara Cameron Kawaii (I bought the red) fabric can be the cushion cover (if it isn't too brown as well... hmmm...).

hip, hip hoo-duckcloth!

Three cheers for my new favourite online fabric store, Duckcloth! Not only do they stock Kristen Doran and a ginormous range of Echino but they have free shipping anywhere in Australia! Yeah, free*! And they’re sooo quick and helpful with the Queries and the Orders and the Customers and the Shipping! And you can get 20% off your order until the end of May if you visit MissyConfidential and find the promotional code! Stop looking at all my exclamation marks and go buy stuff already!

I was also told in response to some comments that I added to my order that they’ll be stocking a couple of other indie fabric designers in the near future, but it’s not very fair of me to say more before they do. You can sign up to their newsletter.

My good self got some Kristen Doran Botanical and Feathers to make a cushion cover for my nekkid cushion. In biscuit and red. But now I wants me some Mollybird print too.

* For the Perth girls who avoid a Certain Fabric Store, this free shipping means you can get the same products delivered right to your door at no extra cost! In fact, the Echino fabric is actually $2 less than That Certain Store charges (though though they don’t have fat quarters, admittedly).