Le beau voyage

When travelling, why not do it in – homemade style. Fabric toiletry bags are so much nicer than the plastic ones. The bags can be made exactly the colour and size necessary to fit all those little things needed to take along to the road.




All it took to make this bag set was actually quite a pile of bits and pieces in black and ivory: light cotton fabric, wadding, ribbons and cord, lace and tulle, elastic band and zippers... Arranged as you go and sewn together in the right order – well, mostly.




La Belle Époque, the amazing era around the turn of the 19th and 20th century, was the source of inspiration for this project. I have collected many lovely pictures associated with that period on my Pinterest pinboard.




Although the times have changed, the combination of black and ivory never seems to go out of style and is still widely and elegantly used.

Argyle Autumn

Classic argyle pattern can be seen on all sorts of knitwear and hosiery, but it is always more fun to find things in a little unexpected places. I used the repeating pattern in a scarf that is basically a closed loop tube worked in the round, as this seemed like the best way to incorporate stranded colourwork.

The pattern for this scarf can be found in the newly published Knit Now, Issue 13.
Knit Now is a terrific UK based magazine, concentrating mainly on trendy accessories and quick little knits.

© Practical Publishing

Choosing, which colours to use in this scarf, was quite easy: something blue to go well with denim and something contrasting like the autumn sun. It would be really exciting to see the scarf in other colour combinations.

© Practical Publishing

© Practical Publishing

The styling and setting is just lovely. I do hope to visit the English countryside someday - some autumn, preferably.

© Practical Publishing

This sample scarf was knitted using the wonderfully soft Artesano Superwash Merino yarn in shades Navy, Sand Yellow and Grey.

Plum and olive mixture

Just accomplished my first yarn painting experiment with purple and green textile dyes. That seems like a dangerously addictive activity, no need to look for that perfect shade of yarn again.




As there were no better vessels for this operation to be found in the household, a cake tin had to be sacrificed, and it worked out very well.




The colours came out really bright, except for some parts of yarn inside the hank, that remained unintentionally a bit too light.




This is how the yarn looks after knitting:




Leftover dye made it into more experiments, a painted piece of lace




and plain cotton fabric (so many new ideas for making a matching wardrobe instantly coming up):

Lacy days

No time for a shawl, but the lace bug still needs feeding from time to time. These are simple tube shaped lace cuffs, with nupps, of course.




The stitch pattern used is the third lace edging in the pink Haapsalu Shawl book (page 172), with some improvised rounds added to form the diamond shapes.

Teddy ready to sail

A little playtime in summer is allowed, I hope. After all, the yarn stash is all sorted out and detangled and ready for the autumn season. Some leftovers found their way to this seaman's sweater, teddy can now enjoy the summer and the sea.
The naked glass buoy got a rope net around it and does not roll off anymore.

Antique finds from the closet

My great aunt was making an inventory in the closets and I asked her, if there were any old needlework pieces survived that were handmade by the women of our family. And here are the results.

This round framed cross stitch flower picture was made by my great grandma in the 1930s. Just love the colour scheme.






The blue and white decorative kitchen towel is also embroidered and crocheted by my great grandmother, probably in the 1920s or 1930s.




The oval shaped lizard doily was embroidered by the sister of my great grandfather possibly around 1900, when she was in her twenties. Pure art nouveau!

A little bit of crochet

Found a piece of silk-like fabric in my stash, that looked great but was too small for anything but a scarf. To add that little something, I crocheted two lace trims using two shades of pearl cotton and sewed them on the scarf ends.




Really like these dark teal colour accents.

Rosy times ahead

There can never be too many small vessels at home for this and that, especially in the craft room. After taking a look at the expanding tin and napkin pile, it was quite clear, what sort of experiment should be carried out. (And there was a big sale at haberdashery). So these rosy lacy cans were born.



The tins were painted first, then roses cut from napkins positioned and moistened with water using a brush, and then three layers of mod podge applied. Finally, the cans were trimmed with lace and twine to protect against sharp tin edges.

Cosy needles

In order to make the finding of double pointed needle sets easier, I made some special cosies for them. Although I liked the look of them all together in a jar, this way the sets are always handy and any member less likely to be misplaced.




The cosies are simple tubes worked in the round and embellished with a tiny crochet flower.

Cotton baskets to put things in

There can never be too many vessels at home, where to put smalls things in. These white baskets with 'woven' pattern are knitted in the round almost like hats. Firmness is not their strongest quality, when empty, so all the more reason to fill them up.

Takeaway knitting sack

To make knitting projects portable and take them outside now that the weather is warming up, one needs a suitable bag that would blend in with the natural environment.
This drawstring bag is made of linen fabric and cotton yarn, the knitted embellishment, of course, is essential to show that this is a knitting and not sewing bag in question.




The drawing strings are made as knitted i-cord. They end with vintage wooden beads that are attached using yarn tails.

Knitwear trends from the thirties

There is a 'new' magazine issue in my library: Eesti Naine (Estonian Woman) from January 1933. This is the oldest monthly women's magazine of Estonia, published almost continuously since 1924.
There are articles, essays and poetry in the magazine, but about a half of the contents is dedicated to home, fashion and crafts.

These lovely fitted and draped dresses are only a few examples from the collection of 60 outfits in the issue. There was no pattern sheet included, but anyone could order sewing patterns by mail, made to fit exactly to their size. Just send in your measurements and the money: 20-50 cents plus delivery costs 10 cents per pattern. Add a sketch, if you'd rather have a pattern for something that was not in the magazine. This system is probably not working anymore...







For knitting, there are some interesting designs, like this lace sweater in two colours:




Colourful striped sports sweater with matching scarf and hat:




Wool sweater to be knitted using two different stitch patterns or colours:



The schematics for this sweater looks like this (measurements in centimeters), that and the two explaining text sentences is all the pattern includes:




Crochet vest variations for him and for her with schematics (no stitch pattern, seam neckline and armholes with a single crochet row):






There was also an article about washing woollen garments that might contain some useful evergreen tips for us today:

How to wash a wool sweater without colour bleeds
To determine if a knitted garment is colourfast, wet a part of it in an unnoticeable place with cold water and then squeeze with white towel. When towel gets coloured, it is recommendable to only dry clean the garment. However, with care it can be washed at home as well.



Wet the sweater in cool rainwater, take it out and press out water. Then put the sweater quickly into cool soap foam and squeeze throughout. Use as many quick soap water baths as necessary to clean the sweater - until foam will not disappear.
Rinse in soft cool water. Add vinegar to the last rinse to fasten the colours. Squeeze dry and lay flat on a towel or sheet.



Drying is the most important part, garments get ruined mostly while drying. Insert clean towels in the pockets, under the sleeves and between front and back parts of the sweater. Roll it and press water firmly into the towel. Remove the wet towels, add new dry ones, and repeat the rolling for two more times.



Then lay the sweater flat and let dry on a new dry towel on a table or bed. It will dry fast now and excess water cannot make the colours bleed along the fibres. Do not dry in a too hot place like next to stove, that will make the sweater shrink. Do not hang the garment, as the water will flow to the bottom and make the colours bleed on the edges; besides, it will not dry evenly. When dry, the sweater can be ironed with cool temperatures.