kinkatink

An upcycled denim skirt

2012-01-21T11:53:00.004Z

I remember a few years ago there was a trend for turning old jeans into denim skirts. But they always had raw edges, and looked just a bit like skirt versions of cut off jean shorts.

Inevitably, though, we have old jeans. I have stack of them: ones I've gone through the knees of (or the bottom of), ones that have faded too much, or been trodden down at the heel, ones that people have given me to make stuff out of. So what to do with them all? Well, denim skirts, obviously.

You cut the legs off to the length you roughly want, unpick the inside leg seam, patch them over and sew the front pieces together, and the back pieces. I put in a little triangle from the back of the thigh so it's not too short or tight.

Then, to stop it having a raw edge, sew bias tape around the bottom. I did one in navy for a colour averse friend, and ones in orange and dark red for me. All in all, less than an hours work for a new skirt. Result.

Resolutions

2012-01-03T10:22:00.004Z

Oh dear, another year has been and gone. To be fair, it's been busy: finished PhD; had loft converted; recarpetted house; went camping with all 3 children lots of times; had PhD viva; Christmas...

I wasn't going to make New Years Resolutions. I never find January a very inspiring time for new starts. Too cold. Too dark. Too miserable. But, chatting with friends at a birthday party yesterday, it seemed that lots of them had made resolutions, resolutions that I could join in on: to craft more. So that's number one. Number two is to blog about it more. And whilst I'm at it, there's a number three. Number three is a topical one. This year is the bicentenary of Dickens' birth. I've read a couple of his books, but thought I would try and read a few more this year. And then one a year from now on. Hopefully that's manageable.

So, in the interest of reporting what I've done, I made a chicken. I actually made it before Christmas, for Mr Kinkatink's present. Pattern in the Guardian. One of these days I'll remember how to write links nicely. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/07/chicken-doorstop-easter-present-how-to-make

Here she is:

Normal Service Will Be Resumed Shortly

2010-10-10T21:44:00.002+01:00

I promise.

Things have been a bit busy recently. Pregnancy. Baby. Summer Holidays (god, what a shocker, I've never done one of those before). Phased school entry.

Now I have a bit of time to myself again I seem to be busier than ever. However, I need to start doing my PhD again, and I find that the more I write, the easier it gets. So, in anticipation of having to write Important, Serious things, I better start with some frivolous bloggy things.

Expect them soon. But maybe not too soon. I don't want to cause any disappointment.

Owl

2010-03-04T17:15:00.005Z

I've read the blog Needled for a while now, and find its mix of hills and wool and thoughtfulness most inspiring. I was greatly saddened to hear that its author, Kate, was taken very ill last month. Kate is very keen on owls, and was the inspiration for this. Get well soon!

It was intended for Child C, but has received much critical acclaim from A and B, so might end up with one of them. Until Child C is big enough to fight back!

New tshirts

2010-03-02T17:04:00.001Z

Inspired by numerous blogs on freezer paper stencils, I've done my own thing: Swallows on a maternity top for me, peregrine for ChildA, angler fish for ChildB. Child C will be lucky to get away with not being called Peregrine.

Celebrating boys

2010-02-25T14:59:00.003Z

I've had a thought about writing about writing about my boys for a while, but the lovely Dana at MADE has finally spurred me on to it. When I was pregnant with Child A, I had hoped he would be a boy. Not from any innate preference towards boys per se, but because I wanted a boy first, so that any subsequent little girls I might have would have a big brother - something I feel was missing from my childhood. I didn't feel that luck would be on my side though: I am an oldest girl, as are my cousins. Mr Kinkatink's siblings all have girls first, and indeed, his oldest sibling is his (only) sister.

Once I had become the proud owner of a son, I became very aware of the second class status afforded to a lot of boys in families, where the assumption is always, as a mother, that you must have wanted a girl. Not at all! And when I got a second son, I was delighted, having well established, by then, an identity as the Mother of Boys. Now, there's a definite distinction to be made between MoBs and MoGs. That said, not all MoBs actually have boys, and vice versa - perhaps there should be an inbetween category for Mothers of TomBoys, or Mothers of MuddyGirls. What's interesting to me now is that I can't think of the equivalent for a gentle, unboyish boy that's not derogatory.

I remember, shortly after having Child B, sitting in a local park watching a big group of families, with maybe 20 children aged from 2ish to 10ish. The girls were playing all together, in a very complicated game that involved lots of bossing from older girls, disagreement, falling out, showing favourites and the like. None of them seemed very happy. The boys, by contrast, were hitting the hedge with sticks. All of them. For hours. Occasionally, they'd spontaneously run to hit a different bit of hedge. They looked so happy. At that moment, I knew where my allegiances lay.

One Two Three lovely boys, in the sunshine in Sidmouth.

And now there is a third progeny on the way, I'm getting lots more 'don't you want a girl next?' questions, which makes me feel very defensive of my little boys. But at the same time, it would be fun to have a little girl to make little dresses for. And little knickers with frilly bits to go over nappies. So I'm torn. Not helped by Child A wanting a brother and Child B wanting a sister (although they change their minds from day to day). One of the main reasons for me to want a girl is that there are so many more things to make for them - or so I thought: until Dana had her lovely 'Celebrate the Boy' month. Now I'm totally inspired to make lots and lots more lovely things for the boys in my life, instead of making things for other people's little girls. Oh alright then, as well as for other people's little girls. Thanks Dana. I'm really celebrating my boys!

A blanket for Billy's brother's baby

2010-02-21T10:56:00.002Z

Billy, of the jeans fame, is a boy child in my office. He has a brother EVEN younger than him, who, astonishingly, has gone forth and multiplied. As Billy's supervisor had given me the wool I made my boys jumpers from, it seem apposite to use it up to make a blanket for him.

It's stripey. It looks like an aeroplane blanket. It's very cuddly. And what's more, it's a dish cloth pattern. I hunted high and low for this, although I could I guess have worked it out myself. It's the sort of pattern that's so obvious it's not published. So on the off chance that you too have been hunting for it, it goes like this:

Increasing
R1: Cast on 4
R2: Knit 4
R3: Knit 2, yarn over, knit to end of row.
Repeat until long enough on the diagonal.

Decreasing
R1: K1, K2tog, yarn over, K2tog, knit to end of row
Repeat until 4 stitches
cast off.

Happy Valentine

2010-02-14T10:56:00.007Z

Lego hearts. For the valentine who eschews anything romantic.

I got a heart shaped cheese. A heart shaped, unpasturised, mould ripened, soft cheese to be precise.

Don't tell the pregnancy police.

Quilts - a diversion from knitting

2010-02-08T15:44:00.001Z

Something I've really noticed about the way I make things relates to how things are going in the rest of my life. When my (academic) work is going well, and I'm getting lots done, I'm happy to sit at home, picking slowly away at some major opus with tiddly needles and fiddly wool. At other times, I feel like work is a lot of effort, and have a need for more instant gratification. And that's often where sewing comes in.

Knitting, it must be said, is an excellent interstitial activity. As such, it's great for doing whilst you're doing something else. And that's really why I started to knit - so I could sit and watch crap telly without smoking. I love crap telly, but it's never quite enough by itself, is it? At uni, the something extra came by smoking - 'Enders and a fag, Blind Date and a fag. I imagine I smoked a whole bunch less through good films. Now I watch TV and knit. It's really the only time in the day when I have time out - after the boys have gone to bed, after we've had supper, the last hour or two before bedtime, I knit and watch TV. If I go to the cinema, I feel resentment that it's too dark to take my knitting. But then, there's dozens of films and tv series I've never quite watched properly because I'm only half looking.

For some reason, listening to the radio at the same time just isn't the same. And the blanket I knitted through the first season of the Wire (yes, we were late starters) was terribly tense.

Friends of ours are expecting twins in April, and so I've made a couple of little quilts for them. They had their first child a couple of years ago, and serendipitously, I made a quilt for them then too. I'd started blocks for a quilt many years ago, and touted it around Morroco with me, with Mr Kinkatink and the expectant twins father (long before he'd even met the mother). As with many craft projects, it then languished at the back of a cupboard for some considerable period of time. When I heard they were expecting Number 1, it seemed like a good opportunity to fish out the quilt and finish it off, at least in manageable cot size. I say this is serendipitous because the new wife's mum is a super duper knitter, and furnished them with every conceivable knitting accoutrement you can imagine, plus a few more. But no quilts. Precedent has thus been set with Number 1 and is being followed with Concurrent 2 and 3.

They're a good jumble of fabric - some proper fancy craft stuff, some old shirts from Mr Kinkatink and associated Kinkatink menfolk, some just bits and bobs from the back of the cupboard. The backing (and some of the squares) are from a charming stripy sheet I found in a charity shop (one twin's backing runs vertical, the other horizontal). We used to have sheets like that when I was a kid, and people who have seen it say 'ooh, we had sheets like that when I was a kid'. Hopefully now, two little girls in Manchester will look at similar sheets in the future, and say 'ooh, I had a quilt like that when I was a baby'. Happy days.

Baby Surprise Jackets

2010-02-07T19:53:00.000Z

Something you read about in blogland, and see people mention quite often, without really knowing what they are, is the baby surprise jacket - another Elizabeth Zimmerman confection. The idea is they're knitted all in one piece, all in garter stitch, with the shaping formed by increases and decreases. It ends up looking like a cuttlefish but then folds up into a jacket. What a surprise!

Elizabeth Zimmerman seems to have a bit of a cult following, really since the seventies. I quite like how she writes, but can see how it might be really irritating to some. It's full of 'work will look strange, but trust me and PRESS ON' and the like. Her instructions for knitting turtle necks are 'carry on in rib until you can bear it no more'.

And because I seem to have to do 2 of everything at the moment, and because BSJ1 was so pleasing, and because I have a surfeit of sock wool, I decided to do a pink one too.

Two little BSJs. The blue one is destined for one of my oldest friends (most longstanding that is - she's only 7 weeks actually older than me, but is curiously touchy about it). The pink one is going to be kept just in case The Spawn is a Pink Spawn. I can't believe it would be, but you never know. Otherwise, it'll go to the first girlchild born after The Spawn. What lovely surprises!

Little jumpers

2010-02-04T19:42:00.001Z

While Mr Kinkatink was in hospital, not much in the way of knitting got done. Not for want of trying, but curiously I found myself quite busy. Somehow I couldn't quite get round to picking something up and making it, although I did spend quite a lot of time browsing books and patterns, and thinking about what I might like to make.

At the same time, the pregnancy hormones were kicking in, and alongside them, the urge to tidy and organise (doesn't happen often), and to allocate projects for particular bits of yarn and fabric. I've been meaning to make the boys jumpers for ages, and remembering a big bag of cream chunky I'd been given seemed perfect. These are both those circular Elizabeth Zimmerman jumpers that you knit as three tubes and then knit together. Genius. The big one is 108 stitches round (and too big for Child A). The smaller one is 88. They're lovely and cuddly, and my two lovely boys look obligingly coordinating without being weirdly cloned in their not-matching jummies.

Needless to say, since Mr Kinkatink came out of hospital, I've been making stuff to the point of exhaustion. I think that probably I have a set amount of stuff I make a year, and if I have a lull, it's followed by a flurry. Or, more likely, if I have a flurry, it's followed by hiatus. I've also been making pairs of things. There'll be more on this later. Fortunately, I haven't made a pair of babies, so all the twin creations must have been inspired elsewhere.

Promises promises

2010-01-18T15:40:00.000Z

Back in October I said I'd post again soon. I really meant it, but then circumstances prevailed against me. Mr Kinkatink got swine flu, and I spent a week being unsympathetic to his snuffle-snorting and then drove him to hospital where he spent a month in intensive care with pneumonia, a word which now appears as if by magic in my predictive texting. Hat no longer appears, the first preference now being ICU, and boring has been usurped by coping. Apparently he was the illest person in Bristol not to die - quite a claim to fame. Now every time he sneezes (although he couldn't for a few weeks, lacking the lung capacity) I flinch. Men with man flu are now vindicated.

At the same time, Child A developed an auto immune response to his minor dose of swine flu, known to the trade as HSP. This manifests as swollen joints, lesions, vomiting, headaches and possible kidney failure. For about three weeks he couldn't walk. He's had it before, and spent a couple of days in hospital then, but I wouldn't let them bring him in this time.

So, understandably perhaps, this didn't leave much time for crafting, although I had already laid the groundwork for a third major opus:

So yes, I spent November and December rotating between children's hospital, intensive care and midwife. I love the NHS, it's brilliant. And it's better than magic because it's real.

But now things are on the mend. Mr Kinkatink is out of hospital and on the mend. Child A is mostly fine, though there's the possibility of recurrence. As the scan shows, Child C is gestating nicely and the computer is still back in the dining room. One of these days we'll even get a radiator in here so I can post without wearing my coat. See you again soon.

I'll be back

2009-10-14T16:17:00.000+01:00

Not that anyone reads my blog, but then again, I never post anything, so why would you. I have excuses, mainly focussed on my lack of dining room and ergo lack of computer. But now it's back, so so should I be. One of these days. Soon. I promise.

A bag for me

2009-07-07T17:56:00.000+01:00

We're having our dining room floor re done. The dining room is where the computer lives, so at the moment, we have no dining room, all the dining room furniture in the wrong places (2 tables in the kitchen anyone?), all the contents of the dining room furniture (good crockery, a zillion glasses, all my material and wool) stacked in the spare room and no computer. So I'm writing this at work. Don't tell! But my work computer won't let me edit photos. So one of them is sideways. Sorry.

It's another of the Buttercup bags, like I made for Anja from some jeans a while back, but in red cord, like Child B's red cord trousers I made in the winter (now, sadly, lost), and lined with some lovely Indian printed cotton that lovely Rosie bought me.

I blogged about Child B's trousers when I made them. For months he had demanded red trousers. Whenever I got him dressed, he wanted red trousers and cried when I couldn't provide them. Shops only make red trousers for girls, and though that usually wouldn't bother me, I just couldn't find a pair that would do. So I made them for him. When he next demanded red trousers, I produced them with a flourish, but he just cried all the harder. Not those red trousers. But it's his birthday today (3, my goodness), so I'm feeling indulgent. Happy birthday piglet.

I love you and my new red handbag.

Anja's birthday present...

2009-06-28T18:39:00.001+01:00

... is a gardening apron.

It's made out of the back of her husband's ruined jeans, and some lovely fabric from Brixton market. If she's very good, I'll stick some secateurs in the pocket too.

World Wide Knitting In Public Day

2009-06-18T19:34:00.001+01:00

We went to Dunster. It's on Exmoor. It has a castle.

And pubs with picturesque beer gardens

And a historic medieval yarn market.

And even though it lacks any actual yarn shops, you can still knit the first round of your new socks there, in the yarn market, to celebrate WWKIP day.

Tshirts to dresses

2009-06-09T15:06:00.000+01:00

I do like a wardrobe refashion and I particularly like it combined with a clothes swap.

This little dress was a tshirt. You know what a tshirt looks like, so I didn't take a picture first. It had capped sleeves and was fine, but nothing special.

I had been holding forth about how easy it was to make little girls dresses out of tshirts, and then someone rather called my bluff, by saying go on then.

So I did. And I must say, I'm rather proud of it.

It's got a ruffle.

It's got a pouch type pocket.It fits the child it was intended for.

I proved a point.

Job done!

The second tshirt is for another friend's little girl. Still a work in progress, but nearly there.

Friday cupcakes and a picnic

2009-06-07T15:11:00.001+01:00

I feel like I spend all day everyday at work (although it's the only place I have any peace and quiet to arrange childcare and think about food shopping), but on Fridays I quite often stay at home with Child B. And even on days when I don't, I come home early to pick up Child A from school.

Like many parents (well, mums) I've found the transition to school traumatic. Nursery used to run from 8am to pretty much 6pm, with snacks and naps all round. Even though it bled us dry, financially, it was a source of emotional succour as the pastoral care was provided as much for the parents as for the kids. School, in terms of weekly budgetting, is a godsend, but in terms of hours per day it's a nightmare. I mean who on earth can fit a working day between 9 and 3? Especially once the guilt laden 15 minutes extra in the class room are accounted for. Even when I work from home, 9.20 to 2.55 hardly constitutes a working day. But in a way, the worst thing is what to do with all that extra time with your child! Much as I love them, I can't be the first mum to think that the less time she spends with her children, the harder the time left becomes. Firstly I don't know what they like to do. Secondly I forget how to play, or how to let them play. Thirdly, there's a lot of pressure to make all the time together precious, when inevitably some of it will be fractious, or involve wiping noses, administering vegetables and shouting.

When it's sunny, we often go straight to the park after school. When it's not we bake a cake. Sometimes from first principles. Often from a packet. The boys mostly eat porridge for breakfast, but porridge augmented (secretly with fruit) with hundreds and thousands, chocolate sprinkles, food colouring, whatever. I think it's still more nutritious than Krusty Flakes, or (insert generic sugar laden cereal here). I means though, that we're at the top of our game when it comes to icing cakes.

Lucy from Attic 24 always takes such beautiful pictures of her little people's works in progress, and manages to even make her housework look lovely and colourful. I'm not quite as adept, but in the spirit of at least trying, here are our little bowls of icing. Oh no, darned computer won't move them. They're at the bottom.

Here we all are at Chepstow Castle. In the sun. Glorious!

A little birdy told me

2009-06-06T21:36:00.000+01:00

These pretty little birds are from spool. I've been making a batch to give to people who I'd like to give something to when they've had a baby, but for whom a knitted blanket wouldn't really be appropriate.

They're sitting in the fence that separates us from our lovely neighbour. Her garden is much better than ours, so it's nice to be looking that way.

The look we aspire to with our garden is something along the lines of repossession chic. Our gardens go back to back with our neighbours, so it would be quite a feat to get a car on bricks through. However, if we did manage, it would feel right at home.

We used to have a pond. Considering our garden is not large, the largeness of the pond was a particular insult. That it housed newts was a redeeming feature, but it did threaten to drown most children / cats that passed its way. A couple of years ago, Mr Kinkatink decided to fill it in. But first he had to dig another pond. For the next two years, we had 2 ponds, taking up about 50% of the garden.

At the bank holiday I freaked out at the allotment after bastard slugs ate EVERYTHING (well, not the bind weed) so I decided to abandon the allotment (it's going spare, if you'd like one - time wasters need not apply). By the end of the weekend, we had somewhere to sit and drink pimms, and more importantly, to photograph little birds. They are now winging their way around new babies in the greater Bristol area.

Bundles for babies

2009-06-02T03:02:00.000+01:00

I might have mentioned once or twice that it seems like everyone I know is having babies at the moment. Yes, I know I've got two, but they'll be 5 and 3 within the month, and they just aren't babies anymore. So I have to make things for the new ones. And their mummies, and their siblings. In the past, it was always local people having babies, and I'd turn up with a card, homemade bread and soup, something nice for the mum - some nail varnish, or mascara (blue, so when it smudged, it would just look like eye makeup), a blanket for the baby, and a little something for the sibling. I have a stash of cards, blankets and small presents for siblings, so in the event of a surprise birth I'm good to go.

I've made the same cards for a while now: cookie cutter bunnies out of green/blue/purple paint samples on a pink or blue background. I just use two the same, and invert one, but you have to be careful what they're called. I painted a room Sexy Pink once. You wouldn't want to put that on a birthday card. Gender stereotyping from birth is all well and good, but that's a step too far!

In one batch, I was left with two bunnies but not enough samples for the card, so one of the cards like this has two bunnies on. I thought it looked fine, but I think now it's going to have to wait until someone pops twins. Boy twins. No pressure guys.

This here is the parcel I sent to my good friend Joy. I've known her since university days. She was the first to have a baby, who is now a very grown up nearly nine year old (and my god daughter to boot). Time has passed, and we've all grown up a bit, and Joy now has a new husband and a new baby, and I don't see nearly enough of her.

The blanket is tiger eye lace. I did have a pattern for it (as a scarf) but the site seems to have disappeared. It was a bugger to knit! But very pretty, so I guess worth it in the end.

Billy's jeans: the remix

2009-05-13T05:39:00.000+01:00

The bag I made for Billy has been received to a surprising amount of critical acclaim in the office. Several months on, he's still carrying it, says his Mum (who sounds, in his words, awesome) approves and receives compliments on it. It also led to a commission for me! How exciting. My friend and colleague Anja, who puts the mental into environmental, had a job lot of jeans for the charity shop, so redirected them my way.

I've upped my rates a bit, so this cost her 2 pairs of jeans, 2 tshirts and a jar of lovely home made jam. Oh, and some fennel, but I think I was doing them a favour after a veg box overload.

So I made not one but 2 bags - essentially, and without wishing to gender stereotype, a boy bag and a girl bag. Except we're grown ups now, aren't we. A Man Bag and a Lady Bag. Look, Grown Ups get Capitals.

The man bag is the same model as Billy's bag. I think I put it together in a slightly different order, and there was a bit more jiggery pokery with the tshirt lining as I did it all with one pair of jeans and one tshirt. If I say so myself, it's rather nice.

For the other one, I actually followed a pattern, and you can too. It's a Buttercup Bag from Made by Rae There appear to be a zillion of them out there, but none, as far as I could see, made from Anja's old jeans. Also, they all seem to be much bigger. Maybe something went wrong somewhere.

A good haul

2009-04-30T10:13:00.000+01:00

My immediate family is small, and reasonably close, as these things go. But going back a generation or two, they're possibly a bit closer than they should have been. My grandparents, on my dad's side, were related (third cousins, once removed, since you ask) before they got married. They were both from large-ish families, so my dad has lots of cousins. They were all at the same school, which, eventually, I went to as well, though I'm a girl so I don't count.

There's an episode of the Simpsons, where Lisa is worried that there's a Simpson's gene, that kicks in when you're 10 and turns you stupid. Not unreasonably, she's based this on her experience of Homer and Bart. But Marge, as ever, knows better, and in a lovely example of experiential learning, organises a party for all of Homer's cousins. The cousins, including the women, are clearly all drawn from the Homer template. Most of the men look like drop kicks, but there's one, in tux, who Lisa figures looks successful (error #1). Lisa approaches him to ask what he does. On closer inspection, his tux is slightly shabby. Turns out, he impersonates rick people at parties. Fortunately, the female cousins are all far more successful, being Pulitzer prize winning novelists and the like. Lisa deduces that there is a Simpson gene, but it only affects boys. Her and Maggie are spared.

Why this is relevant to this post is because of the similarities of Homer and his cousins. When I see my dad with his cousins, it's like that. Even the ones that aren't related to each other, other than as like fifth cousins, once removed. They don't all look like one another, but you could arrange them like a colour chart, and go, via my Dad, from my uncle Peter all the way to cousin Tony. Anyway, the only time I ever see them all together now is at the funerals of the generation above, my great aunts and uncles.

Most of the great aunts and uncles lived in the North of England, in Cumbria, and over the last few years, there's been a nasty outbreak of funerals. I went, when I was pregnant with Child B, for Great Aunt Cicely's. This was catered by the Women's Guild who treated it as a cake competition. I sat on a knitting needle on the train on the way home, causing considerable blood loss, and the first and so far only knitting injury I have sustained. Even funeral's have high and low points. But a trip to one of these funerals inevitably involves staying in Penrith, which is a funny little northern market town. My mum thinks it's Satan's own market town, but I quite like it. We even went on holiday near there a couple of years ago. We went to Eden Ostrich World. They have a zebroid. A zebroid no less. It was brilliant.

Sadly, this year Great Uncle Vernon died, so we all traipsed up again for his funeral. He was in his nineties, and had been a vicar. There was a considerable ecclesiastical turn out at the church, possibly the most men in dresses you get outside a transvestite convention.

Penrith is one of those towns that seems to have a lot of bed shops, and a lot of children's clothes shops. Perhaps because it's so cold and bleak, all there is to do is go to bed. And once you're there, you better make some babies cos otherwise you'd get bored. But it also has a fantastic book shop and a knitting shop with one of the rudest women in I've ever met. So rude in fact I'm not going to link to her. Yeah, that'll learn her. But I did still buy some wool from her, to make some edging for a blanket I think I've made and posted off without photographing. Whoops.

It's a terrible picture, but the wool is lots of pinky purply colours. It became a scalloped edging for a chunky cream moss stitch baby blanket.

But really, the star of the Penrith shopping scene is Help the Aged, where I went on the rampage, coming out with three silk scarves, which I think will embellish skirts I have yet to make, and some beautiful vintage buttons. I had to keep bartering the shop lady up. She was trying to give me three for two deals and all sorts, but I put my foot down, and said I was completely happy to pay 50p a scarf, yes, even for the smaller one. I went into raptures for the buttons, and have vaguely fantasized about going back (it's 5 hours away) for some more. They had a whole shoe box of vintage ones. So, all in all, it was a good haul. Just a shame to bury Uncle Vermin though.

Jamming

2009-03-21T16:01:00.000Z

January is Jamuary in our house. Well, technically it's marmalade, but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it. We do family marmalade, the boys on the juicer, the man on the chopping, me superintending with a clipboard (only a slight exaggeration). We've made marmalade every year for gosh, years, using the handy kits from Riverford the marvellous Tesco of organic veg. You know, they're ubiquitous, you feel you ought to go a bit more local, but they are handy aren't they.

One year Helena arrived mid marmalade, when it was a team effort with 2 other women (that's about a zillion oranges). I think she was a bit surprised to see a quiet Sunday, family kinkatink style.

So this year we made normal orange marmalade, plus extra exciting pink grapefruit marmalade. And then we decorated them all with pretty stickers and tops that my mum bought me for Christmas. Now we have a whole cupboard full of preserves, which should last a whole year.

We copied my friend Kate's recipe for marmalade ice cream and served it for Burn's Night supper, alongside brown bread ice cream, which I thought was quite witty.

Roll on summer and genuine jam. I hope you like jamming too.

Billy's jeans

2009-03-07T18:44:00.000Z

A little while ago, I saw a lovely wall hanging made out of jeans pockets in Sew Hip. Aha, I thought, that would be perfect for Child A to put all his little things in. Not too whimsical. Not too girly. Not too hard to make. I thought I could just trot along to the charity shop, stock up on jeans and get chopping. Little did I realise that charity shops charge Lots Of Money for jeans, and don't sell battered ones cheaply, preferring to sell them to the rag man. Now, I couldn't bring myself to spend £30 on jeans to cut up. Nor could I really justify wrecking 5 pairs of perfectly servicable trousers to feed my habit.

As you do, I then started whinging about this at work, to my poor office mate, a 23 year man, who just should not be expected to care about my crafting dilemmas. But (fanfare) he did. And he cared so much, the next day he arrived with a carrier bag full of jeans. He's called Billy. I've had this stuck in my head ever since. Only with alternative lyrics.

Billy's jeans,
Alright my lover
He's just a guy who think's that I'm like his Mum
But the kid is not my son...

So I made a wall hanging thing

Which was a bit weird, because it made my house smell of fabric conditioner. Who knew young men could be so fastidious (or that we are so slovenly, that a well conditioned pair of jeans could change the whole smell aesthetic of our house).

It also left me with 5 pairs of trousers with no bottoms. Which was a bit weird too.

Billy could tell me all about all the different pairs of jeans, and what they meant to him, so even though I don't know the stories, it's nice to know that the whole hanging is embued with the sort of memories that crafters often attribute to their scraps and stashes. But one pair clearly had particular meaning as The Best Jeans Ever. Face it, we've all had a pair, we all know just how much they mean to us, and that, daft though it often seems, we don't ever think it will be recaptured. I did offer to repair them, but on inspection realised they were entirely beyond repair. And I'm not his mum.

So I made him a bag out of them. It took rather longer than I expected, and broke 2 sewing machine needles. But I learnt a lot in the process about how jeans are constructed (rather well it would seem)

I made a closure for it with the button from another pair, and managed to salvage the original Levis badge for the front. I lined it with a holey tshirt from my husband. It was a real challenge to make a bag for a man that wasn't too handbaggy, but I think Billy liked it. He certainly said 'Awesome' a lot when I gave it to him, and I see him use it (which makes me smile). But it does have an ongoing air of 'jeans' rather than 'bag' about it, so that when I see it dumped on the floor by his desk, it does just look like someone's left their troos on the floor. My children are given to doing that, but I expect slightly better standards of dress in my office.

I've also made a couple of pairs of 'jeans' for small girls from the rest of the legs:

And now seem to be taking commissions for more. The going rate is 2 pairs of jeans, 2 tshirts and a bottle of wine. I think I might have to up the rate if I'm going to make my fortune!

Wish list

2009-03-05T10:42:00.000Z

In only a couple of short weeks time it is, in chronological order (as opposed to order of priority, alphabetical, what they add up to if you wrote them in binary) it is Spring (yay!) Mother's Day and My Birthday. Also, by then I'll have done my half marathon, and therefore will have fallen off the wagon in, hopefully, quite a spectacular way. But not immediately afterwards, because I did that in 2006 and it hurt really badly for days, and then I was pregnant.

So, if anyone out there (and really that just means my husband) is wondering what I might like to celebrate with, may I make some suggestions*:

Buttons, ribbons, notions (that means pretty things if you're a man reading this)
Simplicity 4076
A rotary cutter
A cutting mat, for my rotary cutter, so I don't carve up the dining room table
Craft books
Leon Cookbook
A subscription to Sew Hip
A Clothkits skirt or a Gossypium dress
Bendicks After Dinner Mints (I am willing to share these with the donor)
A birthday cake with candles
Blue / green / yellow Kool Aid (but you already knew that)
A sunny day on the allotment

And, most importantly

Time to play with it all!

*Not being the greedy type, I don't expect all of this stuff. But a couple of bits would be nice.

Time travel

2009-02-03T13:55:00.000Z

So, I thought I'd written a good long post last night about some of the things I made for Christmas. Except then it vanished. There's a lot to this whole blogging thing I don't get: inserting html; remembering to give credit where it's due; formatting text around my pictures. All this I can deal with. But when I write a post on February 2nd, and it gets published on December 5th - of a whole previous year - that phases me a bit.

If you want to check out what every one got for Christmas, scroll down. If you know how to do anything about my little time travel problem, let me know.

Christmas gifting

2009-01-28T20:19:00.000Z

Gosh, I was such a busy bunny before Christmas, I was too busy making stuff to blog about it. Also, there's always the possibility that someone for whom a gift was intended might read. A slim possibility, it must be said, but one nevertheless.

So having decided not to make Christmas cards, I saw some old sheet music in a charity shop, and was inspired. I also used it to wrap presents, which looked lovely.

I had a good rummage through the pile at the shop, selecting the oldest, largest folios and those that were stapled rather than glued

in the centre. The lady, obviously differently discerning to me, looked over them, and said 'what an interesting selection of music'. I was flattered that she thought I'd chosen it to play, but she was delighted when I told her why I'd bought it.

I also covered a couple of boxes with music to give as gift boxes.

And here is the jacket I made earlier, all finished with button and pockets.

And here is two batches of aprons I made for all my kids' friends. Inevitably, I got the idea online, but can't remember where. All you do is cut the corners off a tea towel, and sew bias tape round, leaving good long tails to tie behind the bag and making a loop to go over the child's head. I also used bondaweb to iron on monograms and little motifs (stars and flowers mostly). They met all the prerequisites I have for bulk gifting: low unit cost, lost time cost, highly personalisable, appropriate for girls and boys of different ages. And they were sweet! I used really cheapy tea towels, but you could really get carried away with some of the beautiful ones you get in craft type shops. Or kitsch ones from a charity / souvenir shop.

I used this excellent tutorial for making bias tape, and now I'm obsessed with it. Expect more bias tape related creations soon!

It seems wierd blogging about Christmas decs too, but I was proud of my angels, one a cut out from the Guardian, the other Heston Blumenthal from the Observer. There's a possibility that he's actually a god, not an angel, but he was good on the tree. The funny cone things were pseudo Christmas trees for on top of the piano. Actually, they're still there.

And finally...

hot water bottle covers for the boys. It's snowing today, and they both sat huddled on the sofa with their hotties, under an ancient blanket. They were so snug! They're just felted jumpers cut up and stitched together. The sleeves make the neck, and I used the waist band for the opening on one side. Dead easy. Just don't tell them that.

Is there anybody out there?

2009-01-25T18:57:00.000Z

Hello world. Before Christmas, I was so busy organising Christmas and making things that I had no time to blog. Then I had a row with my supervisor, and was in a pit of soul destroying existential despair (is there any other kind?)

Since Christmas, I've had my second year report to write, which I'm not going to describe because this isn't a 'doing a Phd blog', but which has been rather time consuming. However, I just (nearly) got it done. First draft anyhow.

I've also taken up running again (big time!) which I'm also not going to talk about, because this isn't a running blog either.

And now Mr Kinkatink's away, leaving me and the boys to ourselves, with not much time for running. So, over the next few days, I'm going to try to reacquaint myself with my blog.

Just so you're warned - there's a lot of backdating to get through!

Lisa, don't read this post

2008-12-07T19:36:00.000Z

You never know who might be out there. Anyway, this is my version of the Ubiquitous Cardigan Refashion . There's ooh at least a zillion out there, but none of them (as far as I know) are for Lisa's daughter, shortly to turn two.

I grabbed this jumper at a clothes swap. It's lovely wool, but was a bit misshapen and had holes in the elbows. No one else wanted it (well, why would they?) and it didn't really even seem charity shop - fit.

But I could see the potential! So I shrank it. And then I cut the sleeves shorter. And then I cut it open up the front. Oh look, did I mention it's DKNY?

Using the sections I cut from the end of the arms, I made two little elbow patches and some pocket shapes.

I have a whole world of ribbons, some left over from my wedding (five years ago), others from whenever I can grab them. I tend to leave other people's weddings with all the ribbons from their gifts too. I have no shame.

So, I went through my ribbons looking for something perfect. I was close with a dark pink, but it was quite narrow, and I couldn't find a good coordinating button, so the lilac came out on top. I think it would be quite self defeating to go out and buy lots of new notions for a refashioning exercise (not that that would stop me), so it was good to just go with cupboard staples.

The jumper felted up so well there was no need to hem anything, so I just sewed the ribbon over the tops of the pockets, and round the edge of the jacket.

I'm not sure what made it go a bit ruffly, but it's a lovely effect, so let's call it serendipity. I made some little flowers out of another felted jumper - a cashmere one of my dad's no less, and sewed on a button, button loop (out of some silver ribbon) and the pockets. I won't put a picture of the whole thing up until it gets there though.

Something for me

2008-11-30T18:17:00.001Z

So I decided to make something for me. I don't often do it, mostly because I had a formative experience at a Get Knitted sale when they were still in a warehouse and only opened once a month. There were a lot of women there who had really got quite carried away with the home made thing and who were firmly of the opinion that really more was more.

Anyway, I was in Ikea and saw beautiful upholstery material and thought 'I know, I want to look like a sofa'. So I made a skirt out of it. I bought a whole metre, which was, I think, £2.99. It was more than I needed for the skirt, because it was quite wide, but I wanted to make sure that I could get the bird pattern going across nicely.

Once again, I drew round something I already owned. Unfortunately, I hadn't worn the skirt for a while, so I hadn't realised how much weight I'd put on, and how small it would be. I really do look like a sofa, when an armchair would be so much preferable.

Don't ask how I put the zip in. I think I called upon dark forces to cobble it together. And then I had to use a hook and eye so it didn't undo. But this only occurred to me after it had already undone a number of times.

This is the back. I even sewed vents and things in so it fits nicely over my bottom.

And because the bird is a bit high up on the front, I kind of have to tuck my jumper in. But I am SO pleased with it - it gets lots of comments, so I must have done something right. Mostly, I think, pick good material.

Only problem is, I didn't think about the fact that things are backwards when they're inside out, so the zip's on the wrong side.

And then, not content to rest on my laurels, I made a dress for my friend's little girl. I used an old pattern I've made lots of times before, but I can't remember what sort it is. I kind of adapted it - like by scaling it up to fit a two year old, and using two sorts of fabric. I wonder how the intellectual property works with that?

As ever, I forgot to take photos as I went along, although to be honest, I also forgot how to make it as I went along, and ended up unpicking it about 6 times.

You can't really tell from this, but it's kind of latte coloured corduroy, lined with African print cotton from Brixton market. I just tried to link to Brixton market, but it doesn't have a website. Someone needs to get onto that please.

I've made this dress a few times like this, and it works really well. Because you have to line it, I thought it would be really bulky with two layers of cord. But one is fine. And it stops your child looking too much like a geographer if it's not too cordy.

And because presentation is 90% of the battle (clearly, military strategists might disagree with me on that, but on the present front, I'm willing to stand my ground), I put it in a little bag and did it up with the same button. You're never too young to accessorise.

When Child A was little, a friend of mine used to look after him for me, when I went back to work. She had a little girl the same age, and when he, inevitably, had accidents, she would dress him in her clothes. I remember him being a vision in pink velour dungarees, and demanding his hair be put in bunches. When I tried to get Child C, who is the same size as the intended recipient of the dress, to try it on, he got really distressed, and tore it off. And it's not even pink. It's amazing how different two little boys can be...

Haven't I been busy

2008-11-24T19:21:00.000Z

Right, so, lordy knows what I've been doing for the last however long.

Some of it has involved work. I think half term might have come in there somewhere. I went to a conference at Fire Service College so was away for the best part of a week with a pool, running, bar and an awful lot of carbohydrates. They do like carbs those fire fighters. I except the boys were ill.

However, I have also been doing lots of SEWING. I am very excited about sewing at the moment - it's so much quicker than knitting! It's the perfect instant gratification craft, and the longer the Phd drags on for, the more instant I like my gratification to be.

So, I've made some good kids' stuff, for mine and for other kids.

Child C is potty training at the moment, and every time we change him, he demands red trousers "my wear red trousers now mummy / daddy / insert name of temporary carer". He doesn't have red trousers. I did try and find him some, and got quite close in H&M. But they had hearts on them, and appeared to be bootleg. He's not that in touch with his feminine side so they weren't really an option. I had to make some.

Needless to say, there weren't any decent patterns for little boys trousers either, so I was forced I tell you to resort to the tried and tested 'drawing around a garment that fits' technique.

I think it worked - this is how I did it:

First, I drew round some trousers onto the wrong side of some red corduroy with nothing less than the sort of chalk you do pavement art with. Sorry, in my boys case, pavement 'art'.

F is front, B is back. the regular rectangle is for the waistband and the funny shape for the pocket.

At this point, I will warn you not to economise on fabric by folding it a different way - my nap runs in a different direction on each leg, giving a pleasingly harlequin type effect.

And why thank you, it is a nice rug isn't it. It's Iraqi, but we got it in Jordan quite a long time ago.

Then I ironed all the hems into the waistband and pockets. This is easier than pinning, and also I don't like people to think I can't iron, it's just I can't see the point except for sewing.

And then I sewed it all together. And in my haste for instant gratification (it's a drug you know) I forgot to take any pictures until they were done. But basically, I sewed the pockets on to the front, then sewed the legs together like in the dragon suit. Then I cocked about with the waist band because I didn't know how to do it. I'm not sure I did it correctly, but they stay up, aren't too bulky and were a whole new voyage into half elasticated waistbands.

See what I mean about the harlequin effect?

Enter the Dragon: Part II

2008-10-03T19:15:00.000+01:00

So, as promised, here is the top bit of dragon suit. Or Doot as it's known in the Kinkatink household.

Find an appropriate garment to draw around (like a hoody). I only drew it onto newspaper because I thought I didn't have enough fleece left and so spent ages working out the optimum arrangement. As it happened, I didn't have enough fleece left, so I had to go back to Ikea and get another bit, so I could have just drawn straight round the fleece. Doh.

If you're sewing spikes in, you have to remember to sew it up in a funny order, and to cut the back piece in half (allowing a little bit for seams as well).

The order I did was:

Shoulder seams
Arms on
Hood pieces on
Spikes in and under arm seam together
Spikes running up the back

Then I thought it was missing something, so I sewed a 'tummy' on. This has brought great critical acclaim from Child B, who rubs it convincingly, going 'Yummy dragon tummy' like he's just eaten something particularly delicious.

It also looked a bit raw at the front, so I sewed a bias type tape of the orange fleece around the hood. If you wanted to be a bit less full on, using the main colour would work well too - although with fancy dress, I would err on the side of 'more is more'. It does have a bit of an 'Oh my god they killed Kenny' look about it now, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Here is the dragon in action. Being a creature of mythical power, he's rather hard to catch on camera. At least that's my excuse for the poor picture. Below he has been subdued by his fearful adversary Brave Sir Dander. Or Siddhartha as a friend of a friend thought he was called.

All in all, these two costumes were probably three evenings work - less if I hadn't had to keep remeasuring and had just gone and got a second bit of material. Child B loves his so much he sleeps in it, and Child A, although less effusive, seems fairly chuffed with his too. Time well spent.

Fancy dress

2008-09-25T19:48:00.000+01:00

My lovely boys have been invited to a friend's daughter's 4th birthday party. All very lovely, but the invite had those two little words that strike fear into so many mothers' (and the occasional fathers) hearts: "Fancy Dress".

I work full time. I have 2 children. I've just come back from my holiday. Needless to say, I have to make EXCELLENT outfits for the 2 of them. I think it's something about compensating for the working.

Child A's current obsession is with knights (in a suit of armour, dragon vanquishing sense, rather than in a throw back to feudal heritage), so his was an obvious choice. Skinny polo neck from a charity shop, grey tights with the feet cut off and some handy work with some tin foil and you're away (photos to follow).

But what for Child B? A-ha, a dragon. I had some fleece material left over from a summer project of making camping suits, so thought I would run up a dragon outfit, complete with spikes. In the interests of the sisterhood, I thought I should share, so here are instructions. (NB: I've never done instructions before, I know I'm not a great teacher and I got so carried away I kept forgetting to take photos. Sorry.)

These are the fleeces before I hacked them up. They were just cheapy blankets from Ikea. I'm not sure if it works out cheaper than buying the yardage from a fabric shop but, wierdly, Ikea is closer than the fabric shop, and (sorry Fabricland) they have better colours. These, if you can't tell, are a rather fetching lime green and Guantanamo orange.

Then you make your spikes. I cut the long edges off, put them together and sewed a line of zig zags just off centre. Then I did it again to the other off centre. As I was using yellow thread, you can barely see, but there they are. Then cut CAREFULLY between the lines and fold each one the right way round.

Look, spikes.

Now for some pattern cutting. I do this by finding clothes that fit the correct child, and cutting round them. Trousers (especially for a nappy wearing child) are dead easy. You just need 4 bits the same. Sew them together at the inside leg, then outside leg - not forgetting to put in the spikes.

Turn one the right way round and put inside the other (basically so they are still right side to right side) then sew round the groin.

Don't forget your tail.

I made a top too. That's for another time though!

Three times the excitement

2008-09-11T19:29:00.000+01:00

So, today is exciting for onetwothree reasons.

First, I got pictures of my green leafy lacey blanket in situ. Not even a week old, and already sporting such stylish knitwear. Interestingly though, her mummy has put it ninety degrees clockwise to how I would have done. Still, I couldn't possibly comment, firstly because it's a gift, and once they're gone, they're gone, and secondly because it wouldn't do to comment on anyone's (quite obviously terrible) parenting...

Second: new Knitty with the most fantastic Op Art Blanket and some lovely lace patterns. Clearly I have something for knitting leaves, as the

leafy socks are pretty cool too.

Third: I'm now on my hols (dances little jig). We're off to Croatia for some loverly sunny sunshine. I've packed so many books I don't have room for clothes and I'm taking lots of Noro yarn ends to make some Christmas hats with. No pictures yet as wouldn't want to spoil surprises. The boys will just have to entertain themselves with a stick and half a biscuit. See you when we're back.

Backdating

2008-09-07T14:43:00.000+01:00

The baby blankets have been going on for a while - even before I found out that nearly everyone I know is pregnant, I had a couple on the go. When we had the last population explosion with all the second babies two years ago, I thought I would never manage to give away everything I'd knitted, but somehow it all went (actually, some of it stayed for my little boys). So, presciently, I started stockpiling again and inevitably, the friends started procreating again.

I like knitting baby blankets. They're not too much of a commitment, and you can never have too many. They're a good way to work out about new techniques without having to cope with a pattern too. For a while I was really into cable. Now it's lace and raised styles. I think it's fun to take elements of different patterns and combine them together in different ways. Fun obviously depending on personal preference. They make lovely gifts too, and that's the most important thing. A home made and unique present is the best way to welcome a home made (or maybe hotel / car / beach made - who am I to judge) and unique little person into the world. They'll get enough mass produced consumerism over the course of their lifetime.

This one was my first foray into lace. It's the pinky blanky from Knittingjuju. Her's is made with huge wool on huge needles. I just used Rowan Soft Baby (again) in yellow on little needles, and followed the chart. Just about. I went wrong in a couple of places, but mostly I'm very pleased with it - especially as a lace virgin. I imagine there'll be more lace to come.

These are the little geometric leaves in close up, although they seem slightly more 3D in real life. I was completely captivated as I knitted this at the process of creating leaves and watching the pattern unfurl.

Definitely not a social knitting project however.

This was a social knitting project though (or one for drink knitting - particularly suitable for red wine, being dark and acrylic). I started these to contribute to the Oxfam Maternal Mortality Campaign but then realised I had missed the deadline, so just sent them a donation instead. It was such a great idea for a campaign - a knitted petition to highlight deaths in childbirth.

In an attempt to reduce my yarn footprint, I used up ball ends and did half mitred squares. OMG - maths and knitting. Genius! I just love how you start with a straight line and it ends up going round a corner.

This is a close up of my favourite square. The photo doesn't really do the colours justice - they're all rich, jewel like colours that have that lovely sparkle you only get in squeaky shiny acrylics. I don't even know what the original projects were that resulted in such funny remnants. Still, they made a sweet little blanket.

I did a couple of rounds of crochet (Thanks for teaching me Amy!) around the edges to make it a bit bigger and to bring the colours together.

This last one is really a terrible photo, which is a shame because it's a lovely blanket. It's loosely based on the Stitch n Bitch big bad baby blanky, so moss stitch round the edge then 4 big stocking stitch squares. It's knit in lovely soft woolly wool which I got in Penrith last year whilst visiting my great aunt and uncles. I was going to knit Child B a jumper, but by the time I came to it, I suspected he might be too big for the balls available so turned it into a blanket.

And so it begins

2008-09-06T19:20:00.000+01:00

My good friend Estelle just had her baby (a little girl) so I got to send off the first of probably ten baby blankets I'll be knitting over the next few months. My friends appear to be undergoing something of a baby boom, and whilst it's making me hugely broody, I'm having to subsume any thoughts of having my own baby into making blankets for everyone else.

It was based on the Lace Leaf Wrap http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lace-leaf-wrap# by Janine Le Cras. One day I'll know how to hide those links. I can do it in Word. Why isn't it the same? I knitted it in Rowan Soft Baby, which is, for some reason, discontinued. I've been trawling the web for yarn shops that have remaining stock as it's so lovely to knit with.

It was one of the hardest things I've ever made! Three different charts, all with repeats at different intervals, and in way smaller yarn than I usually use.

Definitely, definitely worth the grief though.