Antique sewing and knitting machines, Circular sock machine, Machine knitting

Some circular sock success!

Quite nice alliteration in the title, which makes me happy. Thanks to Wendy from Corramook Cranky Socks and Karen from CSMLove, I feel mastery of my vintage Imperia circular sock machine is within my grasp. Low level mastery – I’m not getting ahead of myself here! I think a big difference was made when (coach) […]

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Machine knitting

Circular sock machine revisited

About fifteen years ago I expressed an interest in circular sock machines (CSMs) and Mark informed me that we had one under the stairs. What?! Apparently when my parents moved from a very large house with lots of outbuildings to a much smaller house, we got all the things my mother couldn’t throw away or […]

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Machine knitting, Sewing, Travel

Kyoto vest

When I was in Launceston in February with my friend Suzanne, we visited Ruche Fabrics, which is the last remaining fabric store in Tasmania (with the exception of quilting shops and Spotlight). Ruche Fabrics obtains some of their stock from Tessuti and I recognised lots of the fabrics they have, but didn’t buy too much […]

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Machine knitting, Sewing

Turia dungarees dress

Hot on the heels of my brown corduroy Pauline Alice Turia Dungarees I have made a dress version also from corduroy. I was busy drafting an a-line skirt for these dungarees when I happened upon a pinafore dress variation by Pauline Alice and noticed that she drafted it with a straight skirt, so I changed mine. Minor […]

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felting, Machine knitting, Sewing

One Year One Outfit outer wear

I made two lots of things for my one-year-one-outfit effort in 2016, and I think they are worth two posts. So post one was about my dress, and this post is about my outer wear, which consists of a coat and a bag. This jacket did not have a good start to life. I made it from […]

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Knitting, Machine knitting

One Year One Outfit: doily dress

When I set out to make my One Year One Outfit last year, I was totally determined that it would be something I would wear often, and what happened is that I’ve made something that, although wearable, probably won’t be worn too often – doh! Let me start at the beginning though. When I was […]

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Machine knitting, one year one outfit

One Year One Outfit final – part one

I’ve had a few false starts with this challenge (see here, here, here, here, and here), but now I have almost completed my final outfit.  I thought I would make it the subject of a couple of posts so that I can do all this work justice. First of all let me reacquaint you with the […]

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Knitting, Machine knitting, Sewing

Knitting trousers,

I have to say at the outset that the prospect of knitting trousers filled me with a certain ’70s nostalgia, as well as dread, but I really wanted to experiment with cut-and-sew, and trousers seemed to be a good choice. I let the natural roll of the knitting finish off the trouser cuffs, but might […]

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Knitting, Machine knitting, OWOP, Sewing, Stashbusting

Knitted White Russian: OWOP Day 4

A few days ago I recklessly tweeted that I was going to make my own fabric for a White Russian. I have a few many large cones of yarn with almost no prospect of getting them knitted into anything useful and I thought I’d knit one of my three cones of chenille on the knitting machine […]

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Knitting, Machine knitting, Mark, Sewing

Layer up!

Today was a strange day clothes-wise. It was beautifully sunny, but the wind was ferocious and freezing. There was no choice but to layer up. I began the day in my second Nettie bodysuit – a grey one this time. When I made the red leopard Nettie I decided that next time I would make a few […]

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