Embroidered trousers

Kasia Jacquot advertised a workshop on embroidering jeans. I really liked the idea and the pattern. I even liked the cinnamon colour of the jeans but couldn't find them in my size. When Nancy Bird advertised her Sol pants in a cinnamon colour and my size, I grabbed the opportunity and ordered a pair (the colour is now sold out). They arrived last Friday, along with some more printed linens from Kasia. As I reported last week, I turned some of the linens into ornaments for the Guild Christmas sale. I got working on the pants straight after.

I thought they might be too long, but they fitted really well, including the length. I transferred one of Kasia’s designs by hand using a washable ink, then went over it with a fine archival pen. You can see both lines are rough - fine as a guide for the bottom of my pants!

I worked it in a hoop -  necessary to get the tension and to preserve my hands. This meant the embroidery was some 6" up from m the cuff but I think that's better than working without a hands-free hoop. Although it looks messy, the hanging fabric was easy to manage and I could work some of it with one hand inside through the waist, some with my hand through the leg opening.

The stitches are simple - satin stitch, stem stitch and leaf stitch. I kept the colours close to the ten shades Kasia uses. The flower heads are DMC22, the leaves in three close shades of olive green and the centres DMC420.

The most difficult part was stitching over the seam that runs down the centre of the leg.  In a couple of places it was easier to do this out of the hoop 

For the most part, each of the three flowers fitted within a 6" hoop with a final move or two to connect up the stem.

I had originally intended to embroider both legs, but decided that was overkill. My granddaughters agreed - asymetrical is best.

I think it would, perhaps, be better located lower on the leg, but it is fine as is.

It's not my usual palette, and I haven't worn them yet, but I tried a few tops against them and think I have at least three that will work

Summer will tell.

Ornaments for the Guild Christmas Sale

The Embroiderers’ Guild holds an annual Christmas fundraising sale, sometimes as a Market, sometimes a Stash Sale. This year organisers appealed for bookmarks and ornaments. When I enquired about my printed paper bookmarks, the idea was readily embraced, so I have 40 of those ready to go. 

Recently Kasia Jacquot had a sale which included a print of her small Folk Motifs on Linen. One I have in mind as a Christmas gift. I thought the lower three could be backed and stuffed to make ornaments for the Guild. The linen arrived on Thursday and I set to work.

I began with the bird (mainly because it was the easiest one to cut out!), working it in my hand, then cutting it out leaving about half a centimetre margin, which I folded under.

I had  thought of beading the edges togrther, but decided that would be overkill, so buttonholed the edges together. It was a very fat bird when finished, but I wasn't going to undo.  

None of the regular wool felt I had was a suitable colour, so I used part of a piece of hand-dyed felt in my stash. It was a bit thinner than ideal, but worked well enough.

I added a message after It was stitched together. Awkward, but possible.

I tackled the next two together, embroidering both before cutting out. This time I didn't stuff them as full. 

I still decided to button-hole the back to the front. I was tempted to bead, but decided it wasn't secure. In the end I machined the edges together, then buttonholed over the machine stitches. That's secure and looks OK.

The backs use more hand-dyed felt, and have a word - stitched before cutting! 

I do hope somebody likes them.

The embroidery on the house motif was slightly more challenging - partly in deciding on stitches and also because the message is longer.

I decided not to embroider every component. The windows seemed best left as printed.

I finally got the chance to add sequins and beads. While I machined the sides and base, the roof line is secure and stable with sequins and beads.  Interestingly, the straight lines make it much easier to ensure the sides are secure. 

This is intended as a Christmas gift and I'm hoping the person I have in mind will like and use it.

I’ve had some little cross-stitched stockings ready to make for several years and was thinking of finishing these for the Christmas sale,  but other things have taken priority. It looks unlikely I will manage these this year.

So, in addition to the bookmarks, I now have a small collection of decorations for the Guild Christmas sale.  I also dug out a couple of hardanger snow flakes I’ve made but not yet gifted, and similarly a beaded Santa. 

I don't know if these will be of interest to people, but I'm very pleased to have brought the idea to fruition, rather than adding to my considerable pile of unstarted or unfinished projects! 

The two remaining motifs can wait. Given their shapes, I plan to back these with template plastic to make either pinwheels or flat decorations - maybe next year. This is enough for one weekend.

Spritz cardigan

After the Wattle Bag and the knitted tote, I thought it time I got into one of the (several) larger projects I have waiting. I have two cardigans waiting to be started - both intended for myself. While the Kate Davies one in English Breeds wool was bought nearly two years ago, it is complicated. The other, in a cotton/alpaca mix looked more straightforward, and, if I can finish it before Christmas, could be put to use, if not in summer, at least in Autumn 2026 (that, remember is March-June here in Australia).

The yarn, as you can see, was in hanks. It is several years since I used my swift to wind yarn. I looked everywhere for it, taking my craft cupboard apart, doing a bit of sorting as I went about it. No sign of the swift, but the cupboard is a bit better organised.

The simple Amish swift I had bought at the Yarn Trader is no longer available in Adelaide. From the information on websites it is either discontinued or out of stock. In the end, I sourced another one in Victoria and paid for express delivery. Ordered on Sunday, it arrived on Tuesday. I set to work immediately. Over the next three days I wound all 7 skeins.

It was only on the sixth skein that I worked out that, rather than working from a lounge chair, with the swift on the floor, it was far more efficient to have the swift on a table, at the same height as my hands - fewer tangles and no yarn working its way off the pegs.

The pattern was not as straightforward as I had expected. There are textured bands running horizontally throughout. The sizing is not generous. Measurements are only given for the bust, not hips.While the largest of the three sizes covered is right for my bust, the calculation I did, based on the recommended tension and number of stitches, suggest it is not likely to fit my hips. As it is knitted in rectangles, adding width is unlikely to cause problems. However, given that each of the given size difference was 8 stitches, I added 24 stitches to make sure. It was likely, therefore, that I would need more yarn.  Each of the three given sizes recommended an extra skein of yarn. I figured I would need at least one, and probably two, extra. 

Again, the Crafty Frog in Canberra, where I bought the yarn, has no stock left. Eventually I sourced a supply in Tasmania. I wondered if I should wait to see how much I got knitted from each skein, but since there were few places with stock,  I ordered two more skeins straight away. 

It took a while to figure out how to create the textured band. Once I worked out that Purl=ridge means  'use a row of purl in a knit row', I was underway.

The first ball ran out at 28cm. At that rate, I might have managed without the extra skeins if I'd been careful. As it is, I should be able to add another 15-20com to the length.

I'm posting this well before the project is anywhere near finished, My plan at the moment is to keep going until I have used two balls of yarn and make that the armhole insertion point (provided, of course, the extra yarn arrives!).

Now I know how it works, it's fairly easy knitting. It is, however, relatively fine, so doesn't grow quickly.

I will probably not post again until it is finished. That's certainly weeks, maybe months, away. In the meantime, I've been winding skeins I have in my stash. I've added two more balls to this pile since taking the photo, but the swift is now packed away to use the table for a family dinner. I've found patterns for these, but they are jobs for a much later date! 

Wattle Tote

I’m making an effort, in between knitting projects, to diminish the pile of Ink and Spindle linen bags I have cut out. I began with this heavyweight Golden Wattle on Indigo 

My idea with all these bags is to embroider a couple of highlights but let the hand-printed linen speak for itself.

In this case I planned to cover some of the wattle bloom with Ghiordes knots. For those unfamiliar,  Ghiordes knots are made by creating and anchoring a series of loops close together then cutting the loops. 

The fun part is fluffing up the cut threads.

Creating the loops is exacting, and, to me, a bit tiresome on scale. I was pleased to get to the end of the small bunch I’d chosen.

The threads need to be brushed up with a small stiff brush. When I first worked these, some 15 years ago, I bought a boo-boo stick - a brush designed for removing mistakes in cross-stitch. It’s a while since I used it, and I couldn’t find it. It’s in that safe place.  They are hard to come by in Australia. I’ve ordered another one from Tasmania, a guarantee the original one will turn up!

In the meantime. I found an adequate substitute in the brush end of a dressmaker"s pencil.

Ink and Spindle linen comes in three weights, and I use all three for these bags. This one is heavyweight, which does give a lovely firm surface to work with.

I have a big pile of these bags waiting to be made, all cut out ready to construct once the embroidery is done. I cut according to the shape of the piece, which in this case was separate front, back and sides for the outside, but the lining was cut with the front and sides on one piece and the back and bottom on the other. It took me a while to figure it out! The strip left for handles was a bit thin, so I substituted some denim.

Once I figured all that out, it took under an hour to stitch the bag together on the machine.

I tested the result out on a couple of family members. As I feared they thought there should be a little more embroidery, suggesting  the lower right-hand corner.

I was inclined to agree.  While not ideal, it was possible to embroider through the layers of bag and lining, so I did. It won't hurt to hold the two layers of linen together there near the base.

It's a definite improvement. I'm now pretty satisfied with this one. 

I have no specific purpose in mind. No one I know needs another Ink and Spindle tote - but I'll add it to my stock, which will find a good home one day.

Knitted Impressionist bag

Piecework Magazine for Fall 2025 had a knitting project that appealed to me. Called Water Lilies Tote, by Sarah Kelly, it is a knitted bag inspired by Monet’s Wattler Lilies series. I liked the look of it and thought it would be an interesting knitting challenge. I also happened to have some wool in similar colours, some of which was even in the recommended wool, Rowan Felted Tweed though not enough dark pink for the whole, and none in the dark blue background colour. I did, however, have a whole 200gm ball of Bendigo Woollen Mill’s  10 ply Rustic Tweed in a very close colour, and three pinks to mix.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I gathered resources and set off stitching. 

I found the instructions a little confusing.  I didn't want this to be my debut in double-layer knitting. I didn't have enough of the pink and green wool to work two sides and I had no intention of working it using the intarsia method. I therefore adapted, working the floral front back and forth, using mainly Fair Isle, then a plain back, sides and base. I added a few stitches to the front, to allow for joining. Unfortunately I miscalculated, and ended up needing to adjust the chart. 

It took a while. There are a few places where I used Intasia (the yellow, for example) and but I enjoyed the challenge. There are errors, but I figured felting would cover them.

When I began the plain back, it occurred to me if I created a steek I could knit it in the round, without purling, I seem to have come a long way since my nervous first steek in 2022! It worked a treat. It used the same number of stitches as the front but because the tension was much looser without the multiple colours, it was wide enough to cover the sides as well. The 200gm ball of dark blue ran out a few rows short, so I added a green edge.

I stitched between two stitch lines on the machine and cut the steek. I also used the machine to join the front to the back and form sides.

For the base, I picked up stitches along the lower front and worked across, binding each row into the sides of the base at either end as I went. I found a very close match  to the dark blue left over from  Alice Starmore's St Brigid Aran. It served for the handles as well.

I closed the last seam with knitting, after pinning it to make sure I got it even. 

The result pleased me. It was a decent size but a bit loose and floppy. Since it was meant to be felted, I wasn't concerned.

It's a while since I felted an item in a washing machine. I'd forgotten that when I last did it, I had a top-loading machine. I prepared the bag, but couldn't raise the temperature of the machine on anything but a 140 minute cycle, longer than recommended in felting instructions. I took a punt and tried the  shortest cycle which only heated to 30C. It didn't work, so I tried hand-felting. That barely worked.

I then took a risk, and added it to my washing machine along with my sheets, and washed it on the bed linen cycle, with temperature raised to 60C. Two and a half hours later, it emerged - felted. There are places where you can make out the lines of stitches, but it is well felted.

 It was also damp, but not saturated, after  the spin. I placed a cotton cushion inside it to give shape as it dries.

This, I think, will be a useful and sturdy bag. It looks quite good and has used up about 300 gms of stashed wool.

That's a win on several fronts (and backs)!

Dathan Hap- an accidental keeper.

 

In September last year I went through my wool stash in an effort to use up leftover wool. I set aside three bags - one of alpaca, one of English Breeds, and the largest, one of Rowan Felted Tweed, matching each bag with a shawl pattern. I resolved not to start or buy a new project until I had made at least one of these shawls. I did break my commitment to knit the Justice beanies but otherwise stuck to my resolve.

The Rowan wool was left from two major projects, a large cardigan and a blanket.

There were several complete 100 gm balls and more than a dozen substantial partials in a range of colours. 

I found a pattern in Kate Davies's  Knitting Season book. It is also available on Ravelry. Named Dathan Hap, its four row pattern, designed for stripes, increases at the edges and the centre, so infinitely expandable and ideal for my purpose. 

I began in early October last year, playing with colour combinations as I went. I had (still have) 3 balls of black, which I had intended to disperse throughout, but quickly changed my mind.

The pattern increases both in the centre and edges, adding 10 stitches every 4 rows, creating a roughly triangular shape. I stopped when I had 615 stitches on the needle. I still have wool left, and could have kept going. I stopped because I didn't want it to reach the ground when on - and I was finding half an hour to knit one row was getting a bit tedious. 

I had not intended to keep this for myself, but tried it out on an early morning medical visit. It was comfortable, warm, and easy to put on and take off. Two people at the surgery exclaimed and asked where I got it. Later in the day a man in a park stopped me to ask about it, called his wife and friends over to look at it, and told me it had made their day. Reactions at my Pilates studio were similar.

After 10 and a half months I'm glad to have finished it and surprised at its reception and usefulness. It seems I have a keeper!