Knitting and printing

The start of my husband's jumper.

The last couple of weeks have seen a lot of knitting - I finished a waistcoat and started a jumper for my husband.

The waistcoat.

The front of my husband's jumper showing the cable detail.

The jumper is Tire Trace by Agata Smektala. The pattern is a free Ravelry download and can be found here. 

The waistcoat can also be found on Ravelry here. It is by Meghan McFarlane and is an extremely quick knit having no seams at all.

I really enjoyed knitting this cosy waistcoat and am looking forward to wearing it.

We also travelled into Manchester and went on the Big Wheel. 

View of Manchester from one of the Big Wheel capsules.

The Big Wheel can be found in Piccadilly Gardens right in the centre of Manchester. Such an extraordinary experience being up so high and able to see for miles around. 

Fabric printed and stencilled.

There has also been some printing using some of the techniques taught by Gillian Travis during her workshop. Here you can see some photos of the fabrics I played around with. All have been painted with acrylic paints with some spraying and the use of stencils, thermofax screens and block prints.

This last piece may, or may not turn out to be something. I am rather late to submit it to Sky's the Limit for their November challenge - Townscape. The photos come from buildings I photographed whilst they were being demolished in the early 1970s. The brick shapes come from paintings I made around the same time.

Making a miniature quilt

The Quilt blocks part way through assembling the quilt.

I've been having a little fun making something very simple for a change. This is a foundation pieced Miniature Whirlwind Quilt. I had decided to have a bit of a break from my lengthy list of projects, and make something where the design was already set. The result is this set of sixteen pieced blocks. I shall quilt these very simply and add sashing and a border.

The completed 12" square centre.

The design comes from http://quilting.about.com/. You will find the design here. There are a number of other quilt designs to choose from. The prompt to make something like this came form an online group, one of the My Sewing Circle forums which was starting a quiltalong. I just couldn't get my head around any of the projects I really should have been getting on with, so decided to have a go. I really didn't fancy making a twelve inch square block, so looked around for a design for a miniature quilt which would end up being 12 inches square. This little quilt when finished will probably turn into a cushion cover. I have plenty of these fabrics left over to make another three cushions. Perhaps by the end of doing these my piecing may have improved.

My finished edge to edge cardie, or waistcoat.

During the past week I finished off my waistcoat. I haven't worn it yet since it has been rather too warm. However, it is really nice and I am looking forward to wearing it later in the year. first posted about this project here.

The next project a cardigan.

My new project is just about ready to be started. Pink is really not my colour and so my version is going to be a pale green. As you might have noticed, this project is also in the same booklet as the edge to edge cardigan above. It is unusual for me to knit more than one project from a book, but this will be my third.
The first project and the book itself were written about here. The completed first cardigan was shown here.
I haven't knitted so much in months.

Now that the knitted elements of my wardrobe are under way I really ought to start getting some clothing sewn. As you can see, I have already bought the fabric. From the top here is some wadding, two patterned fabrics - a soft cotton destined for blouses and some blue chambray which is going to become a new skirt. The bottom fabric is a soft poly-cotton fabric which will become the skirt lining. All these fabrics, apart from the wadding has now been laundered and is awaiting a final ironing before I can start cutting out and sewing. I am hoping that it won't be too long before I can get started.