Episode 26 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.

Sock experiment with a twist

My winter leg warmers have inspired me to knit knee-length socks but with a twist.

For the pattern I picked Salvia by Sabine Frisch, partly because it is a toe-up design that involves an attractive lace pattern but also because it would allow me to work the calf increases in a relatively discrete way.

As sock yarns tend to be high-twist for durability, they are not really the type of yarn I enjoy working with so knitting the equivalent of a sleeve on thin DPNs would be a chore. To get round this I decided to knit the socks with two yarns: some left-over West Yorkshire Spinner’s Signature 4-ply, a high-twist wool/nylon sock yarn for the areas that require durability and Baa Ram Ewe‘s PIP Colourwork, a British wool blend that is much more my cup of tea for the leg part. I have no idea how these will wear but why not try a truly me-made approach to long hose…

I talk about the characteristics of the PIP wool blend, which leads me to a muse about our pre-occupation with softness in hand knitting, a term not typically used to describe fabric in sewing. I also detour into how rarely we admit to the scratchy nature of nylon and polyester mixes…

Ditching the tights

Red raw shins and calves have prompted me to phase out tights and look for an alternative. I therefore decided to get over my dislike of sewing with jersey and made myself some leggings. Not the most exciting project but if I am going to make leggings a mainstay in my wardrobe, they may as well fit properly and be made of a more durable material.

I used the Della Leggings pattern from Made My Wardrobe and sewed them out of some of their organic cotton jersey, which is priced at a very reasonable £12/m.

This simple pattern came together with no problems and was remarkably successful. The difference in fit between these leggings and my shop bought ones was quite remarkable so I took a pare of scissors to a pair of threadbare ready-to-wear ones to investigate further…

Covering up post swim

As summer has arrived with a vengeance, I decided to run up a more seasonally appropriate hat to cover my wet hair after swimming and protect me from the sun.

This little practical project turned out to be a lovely palate cleanser and a pleasingly low cost, waste-based make. I used the free Merchant & Mill’s Bucket Hat, some left-over linen from my scrap box for both the outer hat and lining and some calico harvested from a toile to reinforce the linen.

Due to its 3D nature and the convex and concave curves there are some tricky seams but nothing that plenty of pins and a judiciously chalked stitch line didn’t fix. I will definitely use this pattern again but next time I will make a few tweaks for a high summer version.

A bathroom concoction

In an attempt to help soothe my irritable legs I decided to make some lotion bars that I can pop into my bag for some post-swim moisturising. As I am new to making toiletries, I opted for an incredibly simple recipe: equal parts olive oil, shea butter and beeswax. The only flourish was to use some garden prunings to steep a medicinal herb in the oil beforehand… Yet another place for salvia in my me-made life…

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