Tomatillos

I had never heard of Tomatillos until I bought a new book by Jamie Purviance to go with my Weber Q grill (you really should get a cookbook with these grills WEBER..). Until the book came along, the grill had not been used to its full potential. Mr Purviance is a genius!

Anyway, I was intrigued by his tomatillo salsa, acquired some seeds from the US and grew them. This week we had enough to make the salsa. They are funny little things, and start off with a little coat like a cape gooseberry.

After all that, I guess they must be an aquired taste - too bitter for both us. So sorry Mr tomatillo...

I like the tailored finish of Marion's designs, the close fabric (although it does take more yarn - 15 balls of Jaeger Extrafine Merino in this case), but this will be a lovely autumn/winter garment with the right smart/casual feel that I like.

Marion Foale finished despite the heat!

Pretty much the hottest day of the year today, but managed to complete the sewing up of my Marion Foale jacket. It won't be getting worn for some time, but I am very pleased with the finished article.

Rowan Windsor update

This is a monster! Rowan must have forgotten to mention that you need a circular needle for this once you arrive at the sleeves. This pic shows it on an 80cm circular - impossible on regular needles.

It's hot, hot, hot!

Busy old day today. Badly needed haircut this morning and a quick whizz round the supermarket. In my absence, Margaret had delivered a basket of beautiful plums. Too many to eat so this afternoon involve unscheduled plum sauce making (fab with duck...) and roasting/smoking the chickens for tomorrow's little lunch party with my French class. Too hot for cooking really, but has to be done.

Work continuing on the Rowan Windsor. But given the sleeves and back are knit in one piece, progress is now slow...

Bergere bolero

The sun is shining today, after a miserable, wet and cold Easter weekend. So I completed the sewing up of my bolero outside. It is worked in Cotton 50 from the Bergere 08/09 Collection. Fewer problems to report than with the jacket, thank goodness, although you need to keep your wits about you with the shaping of the fronts with the increases at both edges. There was quite a bit of late night ripping back, but at least the fronts are little. I also knitted on the front band with a cicular needle, as I'm not too keen on sewing bands on - the finish is never as neat. Very pleased with this cute little garment and think it will be practical too.

Filey waistcoat

I have been a bit of a traitor as I had a notion to do a bit of dressmaking ahead of the summer. I have produced three summer tops and a dress so far and have really been enjoying it. Most of the fabric has been sourced from the internet – yet to find the holy grail of fabric shops here in France, but will keep looking. The ones I have found are either very expensive of full of very nasty synthetic fabric.



Of course I cannot be without a knitting project and the next is a waistcoat in Rowan Summer Tweed in Cape which is planned for Gary’s birthday on 17th March. I might make the deadline? It featured in the new spring summer magazine and is called Filey and was designed by Erika Knight. I love Summer Tweed and there is something so organic about having to wind your balls before you start.

Bergere 125.86 - the woolly jigsaw puzzle

I want to rename the three quarter sleeve jacket the jigsaw puzzle jacket. The knitting went like a dream and after blocking it I settled down one afternoon last week for the sewing up. It made no sense at all. The two sleeves were knitted as ‘opposites’ and there was only one tiny bit of raglan to attach to backs or fronts. I had two customers visiting that afternoon and neither of them had any ideas either. So, I put it all away in a bit of a huff a whole afternoon with one side seam to show for my efforts.

The next day I thought I would search the internet to see if anyone else had reported a problem and it did look as though there were some French comments. And lo and behold there was an amendment to the pattern! The sleeves should be both the same and both have the little raglan bits – it made a lot more sense now.

[Link below for amendment – I hope this might save someone else some pain.]


http://www.bergeredefrance.com/uk/amendments/Collection_Book_2008.pdf

Nothing else for it but take them back to the armhole and knit them up again. Hey ho…

Right, start again. All side and sleeve seams joined and then the little raglans. At this point I was a tad nervous about adding the yoke section as it looked a very tricky task. I was also not sure what stitch to use to join the two parts. In the end I did it with mattress stitch, even though one side is knitted vertically and one is horizontal. Just take care not to pull your stitches too tight.

Et voila – the puzzle is finished. And ready in time for Tracy’s birthday on 8th March. It is gorgeous and has been worth the pain. Although, I have to confess in all my years of knitting this is the first mistake I have encountered.

PS My other top tips are to pick up and knit the cuffs rather than sew them on and to finish knitting the rib part of the yoke to the cable section before sewing them together.

Bergere 3/4 sleeve jacket

This has been on Tracy's wish list since the 08/09 Bergere collection came out. It's time has come in the knit list! A very different sort of construction this - as you will see from the pic it looks rather odd. I'm nearly finished the fancy yoke bit and then it is on the picking up and knitting up to the neck... It will make sense in the end, I promise.