Tag Archives: Handwarmers

black velvet hoodie jacket and matching skirt

12/10/2023 4:21 pm \ 3 Comments \

Hello!  long time no blog… I’ve been having a few technological issues.  Specifically, my lovely loyal computer started dying and then… did die *pause for a moment’s silence*  Towards the end it was impossible to do anything without everything crashing …. life was becoming terribly frustrating.  Traumatic times!  Anyway, long story short; I have a lovely new computer now! Yes, that was the short version, thank goodness for that!

Anyway, time for me to blog some of the things I’ve been making…  oh I noticed just today that my blog is just about exactly 14? years old now?  Happy bloggiversary to me!  I can hardly believe it, how time has zoomed by!

So, I made this skirt and hoodie jacket set a little while ago… this is exactly the sort of thing I love to wear during winter and I’m excited to wear it in autumn too.  The fabric is quite warm but the sleeves of the jacket are short, so I can see it being pretty good during the seasonal change too.

Patterns: the jacket is Burdastyle 10/2009, 108; a pattern I have used once before, here.  This time I fully lined the jacket, and did not put in any piping.

The skirt is the new Fibremood Marah pattern, available here.  I cut the mini version, just bit longer.  It’s a pretty cute pattern, like a jeans skirt with a front fly and slanted side pockets.  Plus the usual back patch pockets, and for good measure two extra big pockets at the side too.  These match the big patch pockets on my jacket, which is quite nice I think.

Fabrics; the mustard patterned black velvet is a fairly heavy upholstery fabric that was given to me years ago by a friend, who was cleaning out her mother-in-law’s stash.  It’s almost got thrown out multiple times, but I’ve always saved it at the last minute because it’s really not too bad. I cut the pockets and hoodie from a mustard/caramel cotton corduroy, leftovers from a pair of jeans I made years ago.  It matches the pattern on the velvet perfectly!  like it was meant to be.

I lined both pieces with a deep olive green lining fabric, from old stash.  Yes, actually both fabrics are from old old stash and even the zip was recycled.  I’m still using my supplies up as much as I can!  I haven’t bought any new fabric this year! although I might allow myself one new piece.  My friends gave me a Fabulous Fabrics voucher for my birthday and I would like to use it before the year is out.  That’s ok, because this year I have managed to get my stash right down to about a third of what it used to be.  I’m so happy about that!

Also recently; I made a new pair of Fridgetown hand warmers for my daughter-in-law Kelly.  I’d given her a pair a few years ago; when we first created the pattern, and she’s worn them threadbare!  So thrilled that she loved them so much! and she requested a new pair for her birthday.  Preferably they would go nicely with this navy and white striped hoodie that I made for her even more years ago, and that she still wears very regularly.  I happened to have a just-big-enough length of cranberry merino, leftover from this T-shirt I made for myself a few years ago and ran up the handwarmers.  It’s so nice to have family who likes to wear the things that I make for them; truly I do not take this for granted!  The Fridgetown hand warmer pattern is available here.

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handprinted socks and hand warmers

14/04/2022 7:01 pm \ 3 Comments \

I’ve knitted a new pair of socks and matching hand warmers for myself… aren’t they beautiful?

Yoshimi sent a handprinted sock blank to me for my birthday last year, and I got onto it straight away!  I’ve never seen or even heard of a sock blank before, and was quite interested to give it a go… the sock blank looked like this:

and was knitted, I presume by Yoshimi on her knitting machine, in two strands of sock wool held together.  And then painted.  I started at the bottom, unravelling carefully as I went and knitted my socks from the toe up, because I wanted the red/pink section to be the cuffs of the socks…

The pattern I used was my regular Patons pattern, that has been modified, and then I have also reverse engineered to be a toe-up pattern.  I think I will publish the latter one of these days.

You can’t tell just by looking, but the “foot” section of the socks got re-knitted about three times before I was completely satisfied.  The problem with knitting toe-up is that it is very difficult to gauge what the length of the foot is going to be, at the point where you have to start increasing for the heel, and I got it wrong a few times.  I figured I really wanted them to be perfect, so each time I realised it wasn’t going to be quite right, they got unravelled back to the start of the increases, yet again.

I also realised before too long that there was enough yarn in the blank that I thought? hoped? I was going to be able to get a pair of hand warmers out of them too… and there was!  I put the socks onto a length of waste yarn, without casting them off until I knew what was what… and started knitting the hand warmers from the other end, and finished in the red/pink section so they could have a red/pink cuff to match the socks nicely.   I also carefully measured how much I needed to cast off, so I could stop in just the right spot.  I’m proud to say there was a bare few 10cm leftover after I’d cast off!

I’m SO happy with how these turned out!  The hand-dyed yarn is such a pretty range of colours!  Thank you to my dear friend Yoshimi for such a lovely thoughtful gift!

 

 

 

 

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the Fridgetown hand warmers

23/07/2021 8:34 pm \ 9 Comments \

I’ve made a new pattern! along with the help of my beautiful partner in crime of course, Cassie… it’s for a pair of handwarmers, yes it is quite a simple pattern, which is why we’re debuting it for free, however the “twist”, if you like, or maybe the beauty of it is all in the construction, because you end up with a nice pair of double layered hand warmers with all the seam allowances and raw edges hidden neatly inside.  It was a little bit of puzzle working out how to do this, but I think it works out really well and I’m quite pleased with the process!

The pattern is available for free here.

CAROLYN_CASSIE_Fridgetown_Handwarmers_A4_letter

For this one, I did not do illustrations to accompany the instructions, instead I did a youtube video tutorial which I think illustrates the process much better.  It can be viewed below or on my youtube channel.  Jacqui commented asking about how to find my channel, the direct link is up above in the top right hand side bar of this here blog, if you’re interested..x 🙂

To make the hand warmers, you need a piece of stretch fabric, at least 80cm (32″) in length by 50cm (20″) in width, with the stretch going in the widthwise or 50cm direction.  For all three pairs that I have made, I used merino knit, that I bought from the Fabric Store, one pair in colour Vanilla, two pairs in colour Ochre.  This is all leftover from various Nettie winter tees that I have made recently.  It’s actually the ideal fabric for this design in my opinion, thin and lightweight, deliciously warm and cosy, and of course, beautiful quality.

The name? haha, well the name is our little joke… my parents live in Bridgetown, which regularly gets the lowest temperatures in Western Australia.  So a few winters ago this installation gave me a laugh… and it was the first thing that popped into my head when i was thinking of a name!

The pattern is free here, however it’s also available for a very small fee in our Etsy shop… unfortunately you cannot put up free things in Etsy which is why a small charge had to be added on to it.  We wanted to put it in our shop too, just for the sake of consistency and to have all our patterns represented in one place…

Anyway.  We hope you enjoy the pattern!

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cha-cha pink stooff

11/08/2017 1:04 pm \ 25 Comments \

Hello!

Our recent holiday was a pretty multi-locationed one, covering a lot of ground and involving buses, trains, ferries, sea planes, also including a few long loooong waits in airports thanks to flights getting annoyingly delayed by fog, and two long looong ferry trips of a WHOLE day each.  And because I am the eternal optimist about Getting Stuff Done, even whilst away, I had tossed into my luggage some sock wool and needles, just in case.  And thank goodness I did ‘cos consequently I finished two new projects. As they say in Canada, O yaaa! #AirFistPunch

Item ONE! … or should that be items one and two?

A pair of sockeroonies… photographed against the majetic forests of Hanson Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada…   I’m poking my feet outside the tent we camped in, on our absolutely wonderful canoeing trip…

Yarn; Morris Empire Merino 4ply in col 449, delightfully called Cha-Cha Pink; and the small bit of Sheen Green colour way is leftover from my hand warmers.  I used my go to sock pattern, from a 1960’s Patons pamphlet that I’ve inherited from my grandmother.

also here in the stunningly beautiful houseboat we stayed in, on the Khutzamateen River.  I think I’d juuuust finished them here and popped them on for a photo opp immediately!

Item TWO! or should that be… items three and four?!

A pair of adorbs little hand warmers…  photographed against the majestic back alleyways of Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.  Pose is thanks to a grapefruit mimosa and the influence of a group of hilarious Vancouver ladies with whom I spent an awesomely fun few hours… thanks so much to Melanie, Sue, Sveta, Barbara and Louisa for a fabulous morning!

from left: Sue, some random tourist, Louisa, Barbara, Sveta, and Melanie  and yes, those ARE indeed the aforementioned grapefruit mimosas, ahem…

this pic and the one below both courtesy of Melanie… thanks so much Melanie!!

me with my loupe sister, Melanie… we’re both wearing our magnifying glass “loupes” made by Melanie’s talented husband Osamu Kobayashi… I’m proud to say I was Osamu’s very first customer!  I wear my loupe every day and it’s absolutely brilliant for reading menus, labels in Spotlight or in the supermarket when I can’t be bothered hauling my spectacles out of my bag….BRILLIANT, I SAY

and I’m wearing my cha cha pink glovelets, natch! Right here they’re hot off the needles by about maybe an hour, tops !

Anyway… the deets, I’d taken two balls of the cha-cha pink and of course there was plenty of leftovers, and I thought there’s sure to be enough to do something… And fortunately there was plenty!

I just made them up as I went along, pretty simple; and I’ve written a little pattern which I am happy to share.  Please feel free to use, I just ask as always that if you do then please do credit me and link back to me here  🙂

Simple hand warmers:

Note: one size, fits most ladies

Materials:

approx  120m (135 yd) of 4ply (fingering weight) yarn… I used Morris Empire superwash merino 4ply wool  … this pattern uses only about two thirds of a 50g ball

set of 4-5 double pointed needles 2.5mm (US 1) or whatever gives the correct tension as stated below.

Tension (gauge): 31 st and 45 rows to 10cm

Cast on 60 st and distribute stitches evenly onto 3 needles, continue working in the round…
K2 P2, repeat for 10 rows/rounds
Switch to K stitch,continue knitting for a further 22 rows/rounds, turn
sl 1, P59 st… turn.
sl 1, K59 turn
Rep previous 2 rows for a following 20 rows, turn
sl 1, K59 then join work again in the round and continue knitting for a further 12 rows/rounds
Commence K2 P2 rib, continue for 35 rows/rounds.
Cast off loosely

Repeat second hand warmer the same way.

And I’m wearing them today too… wanna see how I “styled” them?  I know what you’re thinking… those things don’t go with her outfit AT ALL.  No, they don’t.  They really really don’t.  But I’m wearing them anyway, hehe. #SayNoToGoodTaste #GoodTasteIsEvil

Details, above:

Blouse; Sudley by Megan Nielsen patterns, in mustard silk crepe, details here
Skirt; Axel by Megan Nielsen paterns, in terracotta pleather, details here
Cardigan; Miette by Andi Satterlund, in Debbie Bliss Donegal luxury tweed in colour Gold, details here
Leggings; self-drafted, in over dyed cotton jersey, details here
Socks (not seen): knitted by me, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

Details, at top:

Tee; self-drafted in striped jersey knit
Skirt; Jade by Paprika patterns, in charcoal cotton jersey
Tights; self-drafted, in black stretch, details here
Shoes; Merrell

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sage skirt, sage skirt, ivory top, orange hand warmers

31/08/2016 1:48 pm \ 29 Comments \


Hello!  I’ve got a small handful of new stuff to show off present … four things to be precise!

DSC_0006Firstly, two sage green/pale coffee, checked tweed skirts.  I inherited this beautiful quality piece of wool tweed from my grandmother’s stash after she passed away.  Although I earmarked it straight away as two skirts for Cassie and myself I just hadn’t got around to it and have sat on it all this time.  It was one of those fabrics I couldn’t bring myself to cut into… you know, inherited from Granny, plus exceptionally good quality, equals inevitable thoughts of sewing tragedy followed by eternal self-damnation…. but I’m making myself get over that nonsense nowadays.  Make it!  Enjoy it!  Live dangerously!  So, finally…  it helps too that I think Cassie has now grown into fabric of this calibre  😉 not that she didn’t deserve high quality fabrics before, but you know what I mean!  it’s very much a grown-up fabric and makes a very smart little work skirt for her now that she has a serious and professional career. The fabric really is beautiful stuff… fine and evenly woven, and there are flecks of all sorts of colours in with the sage green/coffee check… blue, red and gold, caramel brown, forest green, and a hint of purple and black.  It has no identifier on it but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a fully English tweed.  My grandmother was very much into that sort of thing  🙂
Also, this is possibly the first time that my fabulously neutral garage wall has failed me in showing up a garment nicely!!  it blends in way too much here!  Maybe the gorgeous fabric shows up better in Cassie’s picture, below.  Here, she is wearing her skirt with this caramel coloured merino tee that I made for her previously.

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Both skirts are pretty much identical, apart from the size, of course!!  Both made using Vogue 8363; the waistbands and pocket linings are cut from cotton calico, and the lining is a beige polyacetate.  Ivory/beige invisible zips in both skirts, closure by a wide hook and eye, and I cut the linings big and eased the extra fullness into the waistband with big pleats, for some wearing ease.  As always, I like to hand-stitch the waistband facings and lining down on the inside, much neater I think and the fabric deserved a really nice finish  🙂

skirt innards

 

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Next up, a little top for Cassie!  we bought this ivory/grey cotton French terry while we were in Japan recently… and can I just say… OmigawdthisfabricisthemostGORGEOUSstuff and I would sob with pitiful happiness if only I knew I could go back to Japan again… *sigh*  When Caspatternmagic3sie moved out of home she left this fabric behind and I almost started to factor it into my own plans mwahahahahaha… but of course she hadn’t forgotten it, o no!  The reason she had deviously left it behind was so that I could make something for her with it!  HA!  She chose the wings top from Pattern Magic 3, modified so as to have the wings gone; I’ve made this for myself once previously too, and I like Cassie’s new one so much I’m now wondering why I threw mine away!  I left the lower edge raw so it curls up nicely, and the sleeve edges and neckline I overlocked the raw edge, turned it under once and did a nice discreet little zig-zag to finish it.  It looks quite nice, I think.

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Item number four, and actually this is nothing to write home about really… I refashioned the fabric from an old woollen jumper of Craig’s into cosy new hand warmers for me.  I have my nice sheen green knitted hand warmers, that I’ve been wearing all winter, but! It’s still cold, I’m bored to tears with all my winter clothes and I just really fancied a new colour.  And the jumper was such a divinely rich tangerine-y colour and going begging because it had developed a large moth hole in the front.  Also, it had felted and shrunk a little bit when some careless person had accidentally tossed it in with too hot of a wash, tut tut *whistles innocently* and I have NO IDEA who that could have been, hum de hum!!!  Anyway!!  I cut open the whole jumper, assessed for holes, and cut out two rectangles, carefully avoiding said holes and a few stains.  I kept the ribbing intact for the bottom edge, and cut holes for my thumbs, overstitched those all nice and secure, and sewed the long side up.  I put them so the seams are on the outside because I liked the bobbly look of them, then sewed a little casing in the top edge and inserted a ring of elastic so they stay up my arm.  Bam! and bob’s your uncle.  New hand warmers, and making use of an old thing that would have otherwise been tossed out.  WIN!

Details:

Item 1)

Top; Burdastyle 04/2014-111, white bobbly stuff, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363, sage green/coffee check wool tweed
Tights; my own pattern, black stretch stuff, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; made by me, my own design, details here

item 2)

Top; drafted by me, caramel coloured merino wool, details here
Skirt; Vogue 8363, sage green/coffee check wool tweed

item 3)

Top; the wings top from Pattern Magic 3, ivory French terry cotton knit

item 4)

Handwarmers: made from an old jumper
Tshirt; self-drafted, dyed black cotton jersey, details here
Skirt; Vogue 1247, dyed purple denim, details and my review of this pattern here
Cardigan; Miette knitted by me, details here
Cowl; knitted by me to my own design, details and my original pattern is here
Tights; my own pattern, black stretch stuff, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; made by me, my own design, details here

orange hand warmers

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Sheen green hand-warmers

24/01/2014 1:49 pm \ 23 Comments \

Obviously I’m not in Australia here….  😀  we’ve been visiting Japan, and have thoroughly enjoyed seeing my friend Yoshimi again.  Thank you Yoshimi, it was so lovely to spend time with you and to meet your gorgeous family too.  It was lots of fun!
Sorry for my silly photos here. Snow is still such a huge novelty to me, you see.  I can’t stop marvelling at it.  It seems like such amazing and magical stuff! and maybe it puts me in a kinda loopy mood  😉  I never even saw snow until I was in my late 20’s, and first put on a pair of skis at the age of 36.  Meaning, I’ll never be anything more than a really slow and cautious skiier, but I still love it!  My quads are killing me, but!!
Now for the point of this post: hand-warmers.  Bright ones!  Highlighter hand-warmers!  These are brand new, fresh off the 2mm bamboo dpn’s.   I lost my ultramarine blue arm-warmers last year, I’ve searched and searched and searched, in vain (massive sad-face).  No time for moping but; I needed some more, pronto!  These were cast off in the nick of time to be pressed into immediate service….  🙂  
They are basic tubes knitted in the round with a gap for my thumbs, using Morris and Sons 4ply merino wool.  The colourway, Sheen (col419)  is kind of a whoa! in-your-face colour, like a hi-vis construction worker vest.  In my present surroundings though, I’m considering that to be a plus.  If I get stuck and incapacitated in a snowdrift I can just stick my arm up, and the arm-warmers will be like a beacon for the rescue crew.  In-built safety feature!

Ahem; and now, a silly little haiku…

Neon hand-warmers
on tatami mat.  Empty,
Momentarily.

Hmmm, okaaaay then….  Poetry has never been my forte 😉

Details:
Hand-warmers; knitted by me
Beanie; knitted by me, details here
Thermal top; Kathmandu, neckwarmer; Kaos (both old items I’ve had for years)
Ski pants and boots; hired

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Easiest knitted handwarmers, ever

09/08/2011 9:48 am \ 14 Comments \

So, I mentioned that I had plenty of socks already, but still some sock yarn kicking around… so I turned to another extremity on my person that really feels the cold; my hands.  I am definitely a cold-hand person… and can be relied on to lay a soothingly cool hand on the brow of a feverish sick person, anywhere, anytime.  Nice for any sick people in my life, but nonetheless I am forever engaging in some futile attempt to lift the temperature of my hands above that of a corpse.  This takes form in various procedures; whether it be slowly rotating my hands over the toaster in the morning, making myself a gazillion cups of tea not necessarily because I am thirsty but so that I have a hot china mug to clutch for a short while (warning; this particular hand-warming method greatly increases the required number of visits to the ladies room), walking about with my hands stuck weirdly in my armpits, or sitting on my hands, which by the way is good for warmth but not for maintaining any actual feeling in the fingers.
And yes there are gloves, some pairs of which I do have and are wonderful for warming the ol’ handies, but not when one is doing delicate stuff such as knitting, or working on a computer keyboard and one’s gloved fingers keep typing in such gems such as: “hekoo there., anmd how arte yourd tofdsy?”
Anyhoo, I brilliantly detected this gap in my wardrobe, and set to filling it…

Here is my pattern for these super-easy handwarmers, suitable for knitters of all levels of ability.  It really doesn’t get any easier than these things…

Yarn; 4 ply, I used Morris Empire Superwash Merino 4 ply
Quantity; 1-2 balls…  exactly how much yarn depends on how far up your arm you want your handwarmers to extend.
Set of 2mm double ended needles
Tension; 28 stitches and 36 rows to a 10x10cm square of stocking stitch

Cast on 60 stitches, distribute so there are 20 stitches over three needles.
Bringing the last stitch on the third needle round to join onto the first stitch on the first needle to start knitting in the round, commence in K2, P2.  Leave the long tail from your first slip stitch hanging loose without weaving in, this marks the starting point of your knitting and enables you to count rows more easily.
Continue in K2 P2 for 8 rows.
From the 9th row, K in every stitch.
Continue for 20 rows.
Row 29; turn and P 60 stitches.  Note for this stocking stitch section, always slip the first stitch purlwise on a purl row, and knitwise on a knit row)
Row 30; turn and K 60 stitches
Repeat last two rows until there are 20 rows of stocking stitch.
Row 50; join the work so you are knitting in the round once more, and continue knitting in each stitch until the work measures the desired length (in this example, 31cm from the beginning)
K2, P2; for the next 8 rows.
Cast off in K stitch loosely, and weave in the loose ends.

Voila, one handwarmer!  Now just repeat for the second one… if you want to get fancy it is pretty easy to incorporate a cable design or something down the backs of each hand, but this is the basic unadorned model to start with.  This is a super easy project that doesn’t require much thought at all, so is perfect for while your family is watching TV or something and you want something mindless to do… and your toasty warm hands will thank you in the winter!

Details:
Handwarmers; my own design, knitted in Morris 4 ply merino, in Imperial Blue (col 424)
Top and tights; Metalicus
Skirt; Vogue 7303 in charcoal suiting, dyed blue by me here
Scarf; a gift
Boots; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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