pom pom | Sewchet

January 31, 2016
by sewchet 40 Comments

Sunday Sevens #73

Another Sunday, another Sunday Sevens, as dreamed up by Nat at Threads & Bobbins – click on the link to find out how you can join in.

I ordered some more gorgeous wool by Juniper Moon Farm to make a matching scarf for the bobble hat I made myself last week.

Juniper moon farm yarn

2. It’s my own design so I’ll share the pattern if anyone’s interested.

pink cable scarf

3. More yarn arrived in the post, this time with two faux fur pom poms which are OK but nothing like as fabulous as the real fur ones from Toft. At just £2.95 for two though, they are good value compared to £8 each for the Toft ones.

Drops yarn

4. Brown bobble hat (as requested by my daughter) already finished!

fur pom pom bobble hat

5. Beanie well underway for No.1 Son in his choice of olive green.

green beanie

6. We had haggis for Burn’s night. It never looks particularly attractive but we love it the traditional way with neeps and tatties.

haggis

7. Saw lots of snowdrops in full bloom whilst walking the dogs.

snowdrops

8. Managed to grab this rubbish photo on my ‘phone of a kestrel that likes to perch on the shed roof. We get loads of birds of prey in the garden as we back onto open farmland – you should see the size of the buzzards!!

kestrel

9. My son’s not the only one with an eye for a bargain – I snapped up this pretty little cabinet in a charity shop for £30. It’s going to house some of my vintage china.

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10. The local parish magazine did an article on ‘entrepreneurs’ and invited me to put a piece together about my sewing school.

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11. The Boys have progressed to jumping. Freddy’s little pony thinks he’s a show jumper and clears the tiny jumps with a foot to spare!

Freddy jumping

12. Bertie’s larger pony doesn’t put in quite so much effort.

Bertie jumping

That’s it for this week – I’d better get in the shower now before the Tesco delivery arrives. No doubt there will be a knock on the door just as I get in…

January 24, 2016
by sewchet 62 Comments

Sunday Sevens #72

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series devised by Nat at Threads & Bobbins whereby you share seven photos of your week. It’s a great way to keep blogging when you don’t have enough for a full blog post and we all get to know a bit more about the person behind the blog. Simple!

Earlier this week I finally had the surgery that had been cancelled on New Year’s Eve because they lost my notes. All went well and I even managed to cast on another bobble hat!

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2. This gorgeous bouquet arrived “on behalf of all your friends in North Cheriton” – how lovely?

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3. Home alone for lunch, this is my favourite way to use up ripe avocados.

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4. Three down, two to go……it seems that everyone now wants a pom pom hat!

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5. I WILL make time to transform this fabulous Alpaco/Silk laceweight yarn into a Summer cardigan in time for Spain in May.

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This is the pattern I’m using which you can download for free at Artesano.

Cardigan

6. Mr H-L and I went for a pub lunch in The Nog Inn, Wincanton. The dogs instantly curled up in front of the wood burner. I made Mr H-L put his lovely wool coat on the flagstones for them to lie on:)

inglenook

7. These camouflage trousers are a sample to show my eight year old boys what they will be making after they finish their back packs. Do you think flap pockets are a bit ambitious for a second-ever sewing project? That’s the great thing about kids – if you tell them they can do it, they believe you and just get on with it!

trousers

8. You haven’t seen one for a while, so here’s a typical lesson underway. There are usually four in each class, but sickness has claimed a few recently.

sewing lessons

9. Saturday morning and these two landed on the doormat! Time for a break.

10. Brunch this morning. Don’t even think about mentioning the rights or wrongs of wine before midday. And who has heard the latest about black pudding being considered a superfood? Yay, recognition at last!

brunch

January 13, 2016
by sewchet 59 Comments

Cable Knit Bobble Hat With Alpaca Fur Pom Pom

I’m not sure when I first noticed the trend for hand-knitted bobble hats with a fur pom pom, last Winter I think, but I know I was grateful for its return.

As any child of the Seventies will attest, the bobble hat was a staple of our Winter wardrobe and was invariably knitted by Grandma whilst we made the pom pom ourselves the traditional way – with two polo-shaped cardboard circles.

70s bobble hat pattern

Looking back at this vintage 70s pattern (above), why do I think the models look embarrassingly outmoded compared to the same style today (below)? I mean, the yellow cable hat is virtually identical in both photos and yet, somehow, the models look ‘cool’ in the modern photograph.

Debbie Bliss Bobble Hat

No doubt we’ll look back in another forty years and laugh but, for now, I embrace the return of the bobble hat.

The hat I had in mind had to be cable, which meant it had to be a knitting pattern rather than crochet, and it had to be written for Aran weight yarn because I had a huge ball left over from a jumper project.

So, having Googled and Pinterest-ed my way through hundreds of bobble hat patterns, I decided on the one above which is a free pattern on the Debbie Bliss website.

Sometimes I work straight from the digital pattern on my iPad but, in this case, I printed it out as it was only one A4 page long.

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The tweedy yarn was Stylecraft Special Aran With 20% Wool in ‘Oatmeal’ which is a neutral, goes-with-anything shade of beige.

I chose an Alpaca fur pom pom from Toft in ‘Stone’ to match, rather than contrast with, the hat. It’s the lightest, softest pom pom you could ever imagine!

I gave you a sneak preview in my #sundaysevens post, but here it is again under construction.

The pattern called for straight 5mm needles which meant a seam would be necessary – I remembered to reverse the seam for the part of the ribbing that would fold back and be on show!

Can you knit cable in the round on a pair of circulars? I don’t know.

Anyway, before seaming I would normally block my knitting but this time I hesitated as I like the raised texture of the cables and thought blocking might flatten them to a degree.

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I asked No.2 Son to model it for me so I could see what it looked like on the head without having been blocked.

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I like it – so it’s staying unblocked:)

Ready for some photos?

bobble hat

Just look at the size of that pom pom!

bobble hat selfie 1

I love the band of wide 2×2 ribbing.

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The cables are suitably reminiscent of the 70s when they were the height of fashion and the fur pom pom brings it bang up to date.

bobble hat selfie2

A quick ruffle through with the fingers and all signs of hat-hair are banished!

bobble hat selfie

Yup, this is a new favourite and I can see myself making several more in different colours to go with different outfits.

Has anyone else succumbed to the lure of the pom pom bobble hat recently?

January 10, 2016
by sewchet 47 Comments

Sunday Sevens #70

Linking up with Nat over at Threads & Bobbins for another #sundaysevens – a blog post containing seven (in theory) photos of your life outside the blog.

1. Had a cosy breakfast with No.1 Son who was working from home.

2. This utterly gorgeous alpaca fur Pom Pom arrived from Toft…. 3…….and this is the hat that it will sit on.

4. I like to make samples in advance of a project for my students to show them what they will be making next and how they can make it individual to themselves. I chose a patchwork cotton and trimmed it with some vintage lace from my stash.

5. I managed to track down another Janome 3300 to match the other three in my sewing school. They were discontinued (and therefore discounted) at the time, and I could only get three. I have been hoicking mine down from my sewing room for each class, which has been a right royal pain in the bum.

6. My latest project for the Minerva Crafts Blogger Network – a bottle green crushed velvet coat with dark red Paisley lining and horse head buttons. Nothing run-of-the-mill about this! 7. His niece from Hong Kong sent my father-in-law a sensory activity cushion designed for dementia sufferers, specifically tailored to his interests in which music played a huge part. 8. Took the family out for a meal to celebrate No.1 Son’s 23rd birthday (top right with the beard). 9. Daughter’s boyfriend managed to actually eat every last morsel of this ENORMOUS double burger! 10. No.2 Son got tired. Luckily, daughter was wearing a blanket scarf and N0.3 Son brought his cowboy hat with him. Don’t ask. 11. Uncle T was over from France so they all went to watch the latest Star Wars ~~yawn~~ film. 12. I would rather eat my own liver than suffer even five minutes of Star Wars, so I spent a lovely couple of hours listening to La Traviata whilst cutting out my coat pattern in front of a roaring fire. Heaven!