Changing names

A while ago I changed my blog and Twitter name from Idoru Knits to knitting etc. I thought the latter sounded more serious, more grown up. I was wrong. I want my old name back.

Designer label
There is a reason for this. I’m not just being fickle - not entirely anyway. I want to design things. I want to produce the things I design under my own label. And I want that label to be Idoru Knits. Even though there’ll be crocheted items too. Maybe even some sewn ones if I ever get brave enough to use my sewing machine.

Recently I’ve been busily designing lots of things - a jumper, a wrist warmer, a t-shirt, headbands and flowers. I’m going to write up the patterns and try to sell them, and then make up lots of the smaller items and sell those too. I’m going to set up a Folksy shop when I’ve got something to put in it.

I’m not expecting to make my millions through this little design project. A bit of pocket money would be nice, but mostly this is a creative outlet. I’ve really enjoyed the few pieces that I’ve already designed, working out how make a frill on the bottom and cuffs of my jumper, the climbing vine pattern on my t-shirt, figuring out size and fit. It’s been a lot of fun. Long may it continue - under my new name, of course ...

My new headbands.

Damn and blast

I was at one of my knitting groups last night (3 August). This is usually a very pleasant experience. And indeed it was, complete with cake, tea and a cat. However, this particular evening was marred somewhat by the unfortunate discovery that I’d made a sodding mistake in my baby cardie.

I’d nearly finished the yoke, which meant that just the collar, button bands and sewing up was left to do. Excellent, I thought. So I did a quick count of the stitches. Wrong number. And whatever I did to fix it didn’t work. Turns out I’d cast off the wrong number of stitches on the armhole shaping on both sleeves and the back. Bugger.

I had to undo the whole yoke and sort out the cast off stitches. And then count the stitches to make sure I had the right amount this time. Moral of this story? Always count first!

You can actually see how much I've had to unravel.

Creating crochet flowers

I want to set up my own design label. There, I said it. That’s why I’ve been adapting jumpers and designing t-shirts. It’s also why I spent much of the weekend just gone (30-31 July) making up crochet flowers. I’ve invented seven, of differing sizes and designs. They’re pretty quick and easy to make and they can be made in different colour combinations and joined together to make new and exciting flowers.

There are two points to this. First, I’m going to write the patterns down and then hopefully sell them. The plan is to give one pattern away, but if you want all seven - along with instructions on how to make them in different weight yarns - then you have to cough up. It won’t be much - maybe £2.50 for all seven patterns. I don’t think that’s too much is it?

The second point is to make loads of these things and then sell them at craft fairs. They’re very cute, and when made in pretty colours or fluffy yarns (as oppose to my horrible purple practice yarn), they’re sure to look lovely. They’re versatile too - use them as embellishments, put them in your hair, secure them to a pin to make a flower brooch. I’ve got some lovely alpaca leftovers that are sure to look gorgeous ...