Episode 23 of the podcast is now live.

The podcasts will be available on iTunes, PlayerFM and other podcast catchers within 24 hours.

As always, you can find me on Instagram at Mrs_M_Curiosity_Cabinet for my general making antics and at M.R.Keramik and my ceramics website for all matters pottery.

The Harebell Cardigan

In amongst my knits this year was a knitting project that deviated from my normal monogamous knitting: a self-designed cardigan.

Despite feeling a tad awkward about the term ‘self-designed’, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of designing a cardigan and I share some of the decisions and approaches I adopted to work up a fitted lace cardigan from scratch, including:

• the ribbing I used at the hem and cuffs;
• my choice of lace stitch pattern, in particular the Harebell lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns;
• how I developed the general shaping;
• how I worked out how many stitches to pick up around the armhole;
• the many decisions about the neck and button bands; and
• the finishing techniques I used to achieve a polished looking garment.

I also talk about my wool choice: Northiam Fingering, a 4-ply Blue Faced Leicester wool from Kettle Yarn Co, which I had previously used in my Belmont Cardigan by Gudrun Johnston. And in light of the quality and characteristics of this yarn I also boldly suggest a couple of colours that Linda might consider adding to her offering…

A spot of hand-sewing

In an effort to push through seasonal melancholy and accumulated frustration I laid my challenging winter coat project aside for a bit and decided to make another version of my go-to dress pattern, Merchant & Mills’ Trapeze Dress, with linen from the same company.

As the fabric was more weighty than the linen I normally use, I decided to hand-fell the raw seams rather than encasing them with bias binding. This new-to-me process not only soothed my melancholy and frustration but gave me lots to ponder on in the process.

Sampling in the studio

Supply chain issues and slow recovery from injury have been frustrating but they have also been a catalyst to develop a new body of more sculptural work using slab-building.

I talk about some of the gremlins that have kept me from slab-building for so long and what I discovered once I worked through that awkwardness. I also share one of the other creative challenges I’ve been experiencing this year, in particular how I am trying to reconcile the freedom of developing new ideas and projects behind the scenes with the importance of sharing new work in a timely manner.

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Music: As I figure by Kevin MacLeod on FreeMusicArchive and licensed under Creative Commons By Attribution 3.0 License.