FREE Shorties and Longies Pattern

I've decided to share my DK shorties and Longies pattern with the world. I wrote it a few years ago and it's been through a few minor changes since then but it's very easy to do and it works.

It's great for beginner knitters as it's knitted flat (no scary double pins or kitchener grafting!) and being flat it means you can easily work cute intarsia designs or add embroidery to make an extra special pair of woollies.

You can download the pattern as a PDF file HERE. Please remember it is royalty free but not Copyright free. You may not distribute, copy or sell the pattern or use it to produce garments for sale.

I hope you enjoy it! Any comments or suggestions, good or bad gratefully received.

A Special Collaboration

Buy British Month on Cloth Nappy Addicts has been a huge success. There have been so many collaborations between the WAHMs that me and Babylonglegs decided to get in on the action. I had an idea of making a nappy set with some lovely Michael Miller Funky Monkey fabric. Babylonglegs did a custom dye to match the fabric and this is the result!



We're auctioning the set on the Cloth Nappy Addicts forum. The auction ends 6pm BST on Monday 30th June so get your bids in quick!

Buy British Month

June is Buy British Month on Cloth Nappy Addicts and I've been busy making some special items for Flowerpot Tots. I've made some special wool longies sets with my own handspun wool and I've launced my own clothing range featuring hand embroidered skirts and trousers generous enough to fit over a cloth nappy.






Happy Shopping!

...and yet more sewing!

My DH hates taking reusable bags to the shops. He always forgets them and thinks they are a hassle, so I made this. It's a tote that folds up to fit inside the pocket on the front. The design was inspired by the kids fold away rain coats, I made it up last night and it works! Woo hoo!



I'll have a rest from sewing for a bit now. I'm taking my family to the New Forest. Will blog pics when we get back.

More sewing!

I got an idea in my head to make another bag today. It looks pretty good but I need a lot more practice at applique! My stitching is far from perfect but it looks ok from a distance.

I've given up knitting...

...this week and have been doing lots of sewing! I seem to go in cycles, flitting from knitting, to crochet, to sewing and back to knitting again. This week it's definately sewing. I have made this little skirt for my Flowerpot Tots shop:



And a friend of mine was showing me some wonderful bags with skulls on Etsy and I thought I'd have a crack at making one myself...

I got a new toy...

...it's a Louet S15! Yes, I've been spinning since January and so far I have acquired a drop spindle and 2 wheels. Not that I'm obsessive or anything you understand!

I love the first wheel I bought, it was pretty basic and I thought it was ok but as I started to learn more about the art of psinning I kept finding fault with it. It spun very fast, it rattled so much the mother of all was coming loose and on closer inspection the flyer rod was not only bent but was off centre in the flyer so can't even be repaired.

At Easter I visited my good friend Babylonglegs and she kindly let me try out her Louet S10. It was a dream compared to my rustic spinner so I gather together enough cash and found an S15 on eBay going for a bargain. My finger slipped on the BIN button and it was mine!

I was so pleased when it arrived, my DH helped me assemble it but we had a few problems. The treadle connector was split almost all the way through. Disaster! Thankfully Babylonglegs had told me about a way to fix it with coaxial cable so 10 minutes later my DH had pinched some from the kids tv aerial and it was fixed. The plastic cap bit that went over the bearings was slightly cracked and a piece snapped off when we put it on. I got it together and started to spin, a dab of vaseline soon stopped the horrendous squeaking and I was away!

I hadn't had chance to use it much what with family life getting in the way of having a life of my own, but last week I found some quiet time and I sat down to spin some lovely rainbow BFL roving when disaster struck again. I was in the groove, my long draw was really consistent and then PING! The drive band snapped in two and fell to the floor! Thank heavens for the Louet Lovers Ravelry group! A kind soul on there suggested that I melt the ends of the driveband to stick it back together and it worked. :-)

I love my new wheel but I was disappointed that so many things had gone wrong with it, especially as it was listed as hardly used and like new. I sent a message to the seller and I asked for a refund to buy replacement parts. She agreed, but even that went wrong! Instead of refunding me £10 she paid me 10 Euros, I got charged for accepting the payment and I had to convert the amount into US dollars in order to accept it. I got considerably less than the £10 I needed for the parts but I was keen to get it sorted so I accepted it and learned my lesson about buying second hands wheels on eBay.

Hopefully now everything is sorted and I can get to know and love my Louet. I've been busy with my first lot of handspun on it. I spun, plied, hand dyed and knitted it into a gorgeous paiir of longies which are going to be part of a special set in my shop Flowerpot Tots