Yesterday I was writing about designing for Kasia; and that was great fun to do, but in fact she had a fairly unusual figure. And you really wouldn't believe that from looking at pattern envelopes (though, thankfully, that is changing these days). Manufacturers of both patterns and ready-to-wear
There is not very much that inspires my creativity better than another similarly creative person; so today I'm going to tell you about Kasia. Kasia wasn't her real name, but she was Polish, so it will do. I met her through my next-door neighbour, who quite
I'm sure I can't be the only person in the world who hates knitting i-cords, as otherwise the French knitting dollies that are frequently given to children (and probably used by more adults than you'd think, as well) would never have been invented. But
Does baking count as a craft? Not sure, but it can certainly generate anecdotes, so I'm going to count it. If you're in the Vegan Society, you can get free nutritional advice. Now I've been having a bit of hassle with Stroppy Sibyl the
Today we're having a little change. I'm going to talk about one of my more obscure crafts; it has various names, including "filet lace" and "lacis". I usually refer to it as "filet embroidery" or just "filet" -
I could have chosen several subtitles here, but the one that comes most forcefully to mind is "I Shall Never Do This Again". Having said that... I'm quite glad I did it once. I like random yarn, or at least I like the old-fashioned sort where
I like rain. I'm used to it. After all, I'm from the Lake District originally. When it's too dry (as it usually is round here during the summer), I get twitchy. We had one summer a couple of years ago where it was so
When you are dressing a steampunk spy, then naturally he has to have an authentic Victorian shirt. There was a further small consideration, in that Mr Wooster doesn't wear neckwear; this is entirely understandable, as spies have enemies, and naturally he doesn't want to make it
The other day I briefly mentioned having made a Victorian shirt for a cosplay. Time to talk about that a little more, methinks. I am a very big fan of the webcomic Girl Genius, which is described as a "gaslamp fantasy", but if I tell you it'
I mentioned in passing the other day that Stroppy Sibyl the Cranky Colostomy requires a pad held over her at all times, in case she blows. (Which, in fact, she has just done; I will spare you all the gruesome details, but suffice it to say the pad helped a
I don't dislike the big pattern companies. After all, one of my favourite patterns is a Burda. But, nonetheless, I find that most of the patterns I buy these days come from the independents, like the five pictured above. It took me a little while to work out
I'm short-sighted, basically. With a small side order of astigmatism, but not enough to make a great deal of practical difference. I first noticed when I was about ten or eleven, and spent a long time trying to convince my mother to take me to the optician; but