I finished up my Welsh Country socks.
Pattern: Welsh Country socks from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. A great book full of practical and pretty socks, accompanied by fascinating reading about their origins.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote. I am going to stick my neck out and say that this washes even better than Opal sock yarn. It is a true workhorse of a sock yarn and I love it. I buy mine here at This is Knit and it’s cool knowing that I’m supporting local business both here and in America (Brown Sheep is also a family run business and when I worked at TIK, were great to deal with).
Slogging away on my Biston shrug.
It reaches roughly halfway across my back now and I’m nearly finished my second ball of yarn. I was kind of worried because somewhere in my head, I thought I only had four for the whole project but it turns out I actually have six. Phew! I love this yarn – light and airy but still warm.
I was working on the blouse I’m making for my Mum’s birthday today. Ok, her birthday was almost ten days ago but I had the muslin ready to try on for the day itself. Only minor adjustments were required and for some reason, I added extra room to the centre front at the neckline. There was obviously a crossed wire! The rest of my adjustments were perfect but the wider neckline had to be fixed. Mum unpicked the collar for me, I cut a new collar and stand, trimmed down the centre front and restitched it. I got most of it done in one sitting last night and finished off the collar this morning.
I rather enjoyed all the topstitching as when neatly done, it gives a lovely finish. The pattern is the ‘Amazing Fit’ shirt pattern from Simplicity and definitely lives up to the name. Most of the finishing that I show here is detailed in the pattern but unfortunately not with enough clarity to make it straight forward for a beginner. There are many, many tiny things that you can do to make a better finish; I’ve been gathering little bits of extra information with each shirt I sew to the point where I feel now, I am close to getting a very good finish. Not quite there yet, but getting there.
Once I got the topstitching done, I ploughed on with a cuff. Cuffs are very time consuming but important to do well. I think that the more exact you are, the easier it is to get two that look the same! I will find out soon if I was exact enough this time!
One more cuff and the buttonholes remain. I’m really looking forward to seeing her put on the finished thing!