Finishing touches

Here are my beautiful new shawl pins. I think they are so nice that even the wee prongs can be used alone on, say, smaller shawls or items which aren't even hand-knitted. :-0

I'm mostly going to let the photos and the links do the talking, but suffice it to say that it tickles me that even though I am not at home, I have four shawls to hand to model the shawl pins!
Shawl pin page on Jannette's Rare Yarns
Zeshane Indian Wooden Handicrafts

A Ravelry for sewing?

It was my intention to show you my new shawl pins from Jannette's Rare Yarns tonight, but that will have to wait...

I have spent a while today uploading my few sewing projects onto a relatively-new sewing community called My Sewing Circle. This link is the join-up and log-in page and This one is the associated blog.

There's not much to see if you haven't joined the community (free and pretty much instant) but suffice it to say it's a place where people can upload their sewing project details, photos, fabric stash and join "circles" for specific interests and locations. Sounds familiar? Well yes, it is very much like what I imagine the big R must've been like in its very early days.

It's good, and it could be very good when the membership reaches a critical mass. It has a lot of the same features as Rav and derives its good ideas from there, make no mistake, but it lacks the amazing link-tastic nature of Ravelry.

I'm glad I found it, I've been looking for something like this and I hope to see some of you in there. My username is.....KEDkrafty! I think some of you may like it, maybe my online friends like Sandra in Croatia and Yvette in France for instance.

This has come at a good time for me because I've been doing a bit of patchwork machine sewing this week. Anyway, My Sewing Circle, let's see how it goes.

New tap

Someone else has done all of the hard work this time!

This is a hand-knitted top, not by me, though. It's a former sample garment for Jaeger Handknits.

I'm really pleased with it, it's a lovely colour and it looks ok now but I think it will look even better as I trim down a bit more. I'm also happy because I don't know how to do this loopy stitch so I have no pangs of conscience that I could just as easily have made it myself.

I bought it from Jannette's Rare Yarns, a shop I enjoyed buying from on e-bay, which is now a normal online shop. Prices are shown in dollars, which is no problem at all if you use Paypal and items are shipped promptly from a UK address

Suffice it to say that I got it for a bargain price, and was quite delighted to see it because in my experience sample garments are usually seen in the first or second sizes. I do not have the pattern book that this came from, but I would reckon this would be the largest size, being a 42".

The T-shirt is called "Sym", and was designed by Amanda Griffiths. It was knitted in Jaeger Albany, colour Damson #270. It comes with a code number, JHGB1113, which I think refers to the pattern book. I can't seem to find it, but my mooching around has thrown up that you can still get Jaeger Albany yarn in selected colours at English Yarns (sidebar).

Lovely new tap, lovely new tap, lovely new tap.

Mantilla

This headscarf has been finished for a couple of weeks but I haven't had any decent photographs to show.

Actually I don't event think these photos are any great shakes, apart from number one, the shadow one.

This is the lovely Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, from Interweave Knits, fall 2006.

This is not the first time I have made this pattern but it is the first time I have done the Lily of the Valley section with the nupps.

It's made with Patons 100% Cotton 4-ply left over from this headscarf from last year.

I really enjoyed making it and I will doubtless enjoy wearing it. Hope you are having

a good crafty week. x K