A weekend in Harrogate

My collection of purchases

My husband and I were away from home last weekend, heading off to Harrogate for a few days. Harrogate is a really interesting place to visit, and we chose to go because not one, but two shows were on. I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show, whilst my husband headed off to the Woodworking and machine tools Show. We both had a great time.

Vintage patterns

Stencils, wooden blocks for printing, sheer fabrics and a mat for making lino prints.

Goodies found in a rummage box.

As you can see from the range of my purchases, I am planning to do more printing and dressmaking. The vintage patterns are an indulgence since I just love the style. I have been looking for a nice culottes pattern for some time, so was delighted to find this one.

I think I shall make the skirt too.

Almost two yards of Linen and Viscose mix fabric.

Going round the charity shops I found these two lengths of fabric. The linen/viscose mix will make a delightful blouse, whilst the other length will make a lovely summer dress.

Four and a half yards of light cotton batik.

The battered book you also see in the pile of purchases was found in a charity shop too,

I also indulged myself with the purchase of a light box. This will be so useful.

A light box!

Knitting and a textile book

Another jumper started.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. I have been involved with the Drama group once more. Not, this time, making costumes, but helping out with fast changes. With so much sitting around to do, I had to find a second knitting project since I quickly finished off the jumper shown last time.  I chose to do the same pattern again. So far I have completed the back and knitted the front to the stage between the casting off for the armhole shaping ant the casting off I shall need to do for the neck. My husband really likes the blue jumper, but hasn't worn it yet since it really has been a little too warm for a thick jumper. I hope he doesn't do his usual thing of putting it safely in the cupboard and only bringing it out "for best". This brown version will probably be for me since I could do with another really cosy jumper.

The completed "Music" book

I was also busy during the past week with completing a textile book. This has been going on for such a very long time. The group decided that last Friday was the deadline for completing these. So I got mine finished just in time.

As you can seen from the photo above, it is a concertina book. Each page is just 6 inches wide and 8 inches high. Most of the pages have been produced using an embroidery machine. Not surprising since the group is called the Machine Embroidery Group! I don't have such a machine and so all my pages were made using a mixture of appliqué and free machine embroidery onto my own dyed and printed fabrics.

Brenda's pages

Hilda's pages

Karen's pages

Marion's pages

Judy's pages

A third page from Judy and my explanation of the project.

Judy was very sweet and made three pages for me. This really worked well when putting the book together since I was able to add an explanation about the project onto a single page.

The covers

As you will notice, my front and back pages are free machine embroidered onto a piece of my own dyed fabric. I really wasn't happy with the intensity of the dye on this piece of fabric, but it worked perfectly for this project. It has been hanging around in my collection of fabrics for over dyeing or printing for a couple of years now.

The backing used for the pages showing the hinges.

The back of the book has been covered using my own dyed fabrics. I couldn't bear the thought of cutting these bits up, so having larger pieces like this to show the accidental patterns caused by the dyes was rather a lot of fun. Each of the pages is backed onto a stiff vilene using bondaweb. The hinges are simply dressmakers tape (used for strengthening seams in flimsy fabrics) which I inherited from my late mother-in-law. Each page is zigzagged to catch the tape and bind the edges.

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.