I Am Back! Fluffy Fibers Knitting, Sewing And Crochet Podcast | Episode 80: Summer Makes

Foreign, thank you. Hello. Welcome to fluffy fibies, the French podcast in English on sewing and knitting a handmade Wardrobe from hectite. My name is Isabel and you can find me on Instagram as isabel.handmaid.stories. I also have an English blog called fluffy-fi boost at wordpress.org.com and where you can find my free knitting patterns for socks and shawls. I also have a French blog, which you can find at Le Petit manufacturers, where I, when I have the time, which hasn't been really the case lately I do share um. You know I do blog about my sewing so yeah. So I am coming to you today from the southern in either the seven mountains in southern France, not very far from Montpellier where I live. So this explains the change in um in setting today uh I'm also constantly looking down, because I have a very, very loving cat next to me. So this he doesn't like to be to be to be cuddled at all uh. So I'm just going to um to have him down here, but he uh his name is Yuki and we adapted him in November 2021., and so this gives you an idea. The fact that we have a new family member in our family. This gives you an idea of how long I haven't been podcasting, and I do heartily apologize for that. Um and the reason for that is simply that I've been absolutely swamped with work during 2021 and 2022, but I'm really really so happy to be back today. I can't tell you how excited I am if you are new to this food course. A very, very warm welcome to you and I do hope you enjoy my podcast on this episode if uh you're not new, if you're a returning viewer. Thank you so so much for coming back and for clicking on this video, Even though I hadn't filmed a podcast in at least I'm going to say at least over a year, maybe much more than that. I really can't remember actually so uh yeah. Thank you. So much for being back with me today do hope you enjoy. So, if you're new um, what I do on this podcast is, I just simply share what I've been working on uh recently and that's exactly what I'm going to do today. Of course, I'm not going to go back and you know share everything. I'Ve been working on over the past few years. You can find that on Instagram anyway, I've been sharing that on Instagram um. You know on a regular basis, um but yeah. So I'm going to share my recent makes in sewing and knitting and crochet as well. Today, I've also been thinking about um enriching the Channel with some tutorials, possibly in French, because I found there is a death of French tutorials friends. Do some crochet every time I share some crochet on Instagram. I have so many friends, friends who tell me that they would love to learn. They don't know how happy so and I did realize there is a you know very, very limited number of videos, video tutorials in French on YouTube. Obviously these would still be closed, captioned and everything, but yeah. That'S something I'm thinking about adding to this channel um. So my I have so in the past, I think I have created over 70 - maybe 73 episodes of this podcast, but they're not currently available on my YouTube channel, and the reasons for this is that I am um. I just felt I'm very uncomfortable having all of these videos floating around when I wasn't filming anymore, and you know some of them do shares you know in some of them. I do share some personal information about my family and myself, and so I just wasn't comfortable anymore having these around uh. So I'm not. I haven't deleted them, but I just put them all to private. So if you would still be interested in viewing my my catalog of past podcasts, if you still find that would be interesting, um do. Let me know in the comments. I would be delighted to hear from you anyway and yeah do let me know, and I may reconsider it or find a different way. You know to to share it. Maybe so not have it listed on YouTube, but still have it listed on my book on my website, perhaps um but yeah. So that's going to be my very long intro for today. I do hope you can understand that this intro is a little bit longer than usual. I still have my usual segments, which I'm so delighted to reintroduce today with an added one today, our next one, which makes me really really excited so my segments for today are going to include my cup of tea, a handmade wardrobe, which is where I share my Current outfit, the art, the handmade outfit, I'm wearing a bit of sewing a bit of knitting, my daughters makes and a bit of crochet, and so for those of you who are new in each segment. I share my past and my recent makes my current mix and then my upcoming projects as well. I love seeing that kind of stuff on on you know putting knitting and sewing podcasts and I love also. Yes in you know the upcoming projects with people uh. You know have bought as patterns or Fabric or yarn that kind of thing, so I do hope you enjoy all that. I do hope you have a nice beverage of your choice as well to accompany me today. So um, it's been incredibly hot here in southern France. For the past two months, without any respite at all uh, it's been absolutely horrid and really really, of course, really really worrying and concerning uh, it's a little bit better today. So we do have our finger fingers crossed. That is, you know the West may be behind us. Today is the 15th of August 2020.. I'M drinking some oolong tea from le pelidite le palidate is a major fine Tea Company here in France, so it's called Butterfly of Taiwan. It'S a really really soft buttery. A very gentle kind of oolong, so yeah also do. Let me know in the comments what you've been drinking as you were watching this and what you've been working on as well, which you are working on as you are watching this so for handmade wardrobe. Today, it's going to be quite difficult to show you, because I have a very so the bedroom, I'm filming in is quite narrow, but um um. Here you are here: you go anyway, so this is a dress that I made exactly a year ago in the summer of 2021, and it's called Bell this shop. So Phil's Beauty. If you want and it's um um, it's a pattern by Lee stayler. So as you'll see when it comes to sewing, I mentioned Lee stayler all the time, because she's a really really dear friend and so Elise, if you're watching hello, Google but um, she um. So she started a fabric company a few years ago and I absolutely love everything she creates. We have very very similar tastes both in Fabric and in garments in garment shapes and Silhouettes, and so I absolutely love all of the patterns that she's released in the past. So she's, I think she started releasing patterns. I think 18 months ago. I believe, and so I've absolutely love it. I'Ve loved everything she's created so far, so here, of course, I love this uh. You know lovely, very light, um kind of ruffle color here that also you know you, you know, works as sleeves here um and I love the delicate neckline as well. It'S a really really wide V. Actually, it's also the neckline that um she has in a pattern. I just finished, and I I'll be able to show you as well uh, so it has a cinched. Well, I may have done a few, a few things differently. I can't quite recall if this is the actual skirt from the pattern. I included a slightly ruffled skirt and I did cinch in um the dress, as that is how I like wearing it. You can see the back neckline. The back is the same as the front neckline, and I also added a ruffle at the bottom of the dress. To lengthen it and to add even more a romantic vibe to it, this is something I love doing. I love Ruffles and I love lengthening dresses with a large ruffle at the bottom. Um, so I'll be sure to insert pictures. Of course, so you can see, but even though I'm very very petite, I'm five just just a little bit over five foot, um less than five foot, one, definitely which translates into a 154 centimeters in French in in metric measurements um but yeah. So, even though, I'm very short and petite I like wearing really long dresses, they just really match my style and the fabric is really precious as well. It'S organic cotton double gaze from Felix, which is a wonderful French company of um, very um, responsible, um Fabrics. So you always have full traceability on the origin of the fiber, where it was, you know harvested when it where it was spanned where it was dyed and everything is, as you know, sustainably done as possible, and so here it was actually even better than that, because That was actually Overstock from a sustainable clothing company. I think it was ekiyag, which is a lovely clothing company that I used to enjoy back when I was wasn't making all of my my clothes, but I have been making absolutely all of my clothes for quite a few years now. I started sewing in 2004 and um uh yeah. So now I really have a whole Wardrobe full of handmade clothes, especially as I also knit and crochet so yeah. This is for a handmade wardrobe today and for a bit of sewing uh. I actually haven't sewn um much at all this year, because sewing for me is done in the weekends when I have time and energy and lately all of my weekend actually have been swallowed up by whack. So I just haven't found the time and if I had like half an hour or an hour, I just wanted to relax and I just didn't have any enough brain cells to focus on a pattern. Also, in those cases I enjoy knitting or crochet, because they allow me to spend time with my family to be more sociable than sewing. One of the dresses I have I have here that I did finish if a few months ago is um. So all of my sewing projects are here: um is addressed by Creator. Look Emilia Rose, who is a lovely Parisian designer of of um of patterns? It is called the uh Rose, dress and I've been wanting to make this dress for two years. I purchased the pattern. Exactly a year ago, had it all printed out - and I just didn't find the time last summer, but it's a gorgeous dress, which is all buttoned down in the back with again a very graceful. You know back as well as a front neckline and uh. You have ties at the shoulders that allow you to adjust the depth of the neckline. It has a really really full circle skirt and I did line the dress entirely with uh organic white while um. So it's entirely lined. Let me take it out of the hanger. So you can see so um yeah, it's lined with the self fabric for the bodice, but then the skirt is lined with cotton wool. The fabric was actually sent to me for review and you know for to share the results on social media it and it was sent to me by phyletic actually that I mentioned earlier. Uh sophistic approached me in the early spring. I think to tell me they were going coming up with uh these um cotton Lawns. So this is. This is actually cotton, lamb, uh in French, it is sometimes I'm going to be translating a few technical words, because I know I have quite a few french viewers. As well so thank you all to all of my French Louise as well. That'S so lovely that you're watching uh but yeah. So it's a very, very soft and smooth and fine Fabric, and for that reason it didn't need to be lined because it was slightly transparent. But it's an absolutely gorgeous Coral Fabric, and so I loved making this dress and I loved handling the fabric. But as you can see so I have a really cool toned complexion and um oranges. Look horrible on me! But what's wonderful about this is its coral, and this made me realize that I can't you know, wear this shade, which is you know, orange pink. So it's right between orange and pink and that's really made me very happy because I actually think it does work really. Well, so that was a lot a lovely Discovery as well to realize I could um. I could wear this shade so yeah. It also has a belt a fabric belt, but also enjoy wearing this dress, with um like a woven belt, a cream woven belt to Define and cinch in the waist as well so another project that I finished actually two days ago. So I started this dress again. Several months ago that I finished it finally, two days ago so two days ago, I finally was able to sit behind my sewing machine and start sewing again, and it felt like a Revival related to me and it just I'm just so happy and of course that's Also one of the reasons why I wanted to start podcasting again, so the dress I finished is I'm going to share actually the passion with you, so you can see the lines um, so the Aberdeen patterns are always beautifully packaged. I love this about her patterns and so just so you can simply I'm going to undo the tie. So you can see the dresses here, uh so yeah I did the shorter sleeveless version, so the one in blue here and uh, so yeah so uh. Of course. Here the designer lemon that is most intriguing is all the pleats at the at the bodice uh, which were such a joy to make in this fabric. I hope that you can see them. Okay, yeah. I think you can but yeah. So you have this lovely. You know pleated detail uh to create, you know, um Dimension and in in the bodice um you know you have a waistband and again a pretty wide sketch, which I think was again a circle or half circle skirt. Maybe and again I lined everything uh with the same organic cotton of well that I love um, so yeah everything is completely lined because again, the fabric was quite see-through, so the fabric is an absolute dream. It is a fabric based trashy. So this is the first time I've used some um strategy fabric, so it's from the spring collection this year. So strategy is a Belgian Belgian fabric company that specializes in Fine Fabrics, Bridal Fabrics, Liberty and over the past two to three years. I would say: they've also come up with their own brand, which is called un like one feminine number, one in French and so yeah, and so this particular design of flowers. They had already released earlier in in previous collections, but when I saw that particular you know shaded blue. This was just all me and I just had to to get it. So this is not organic cotton, it's regular cotton, but it's the same kind of um. Of of material as this, so it's again cotton lawn. I think they call this uh silky cotton. So it's very much akin to Liberty fabric. Really, when you sew this, you really feel like you're sewing Liberty Fabric in terms of handle, and you know how the fabric behaves and the smoothness and the you know the softness and the drape with the fabric as well. So yeah absolutely love this. And finally, yesterday I sewed up this little number, so this is uh again a top, so I'd cut out and sedged all of the pieces. I can see there's a little bit of a thread hanging here still um but yeah um again a month ago, and I finally got around to assembling it yesterday and I might have to say it's so nice too I'd like to do that. You know to batch. Prepare a few projects because it's so nice to then you know not have to worry about cutting out surging all these things and just have fun with the sewing. So this top is - and here you'll see, I'm not original at all. I never do that. I never saw the exact same garment as the designer, but here I just had to so. This is one of the spring designs by Liz Liz Taylor. It'S that her easy peasy top and so what's lovely as well about Lee's uh, is that all of her patterns are bilingual. Her husband is English, so you can be sure that you know the these are actually really well translated, and so you have actually two separate booklets in there. Uh the instructions with Lisa's, um garments and patterns are wonderful, and so you have a booklet in French and then the same in English as well. So you know if you're interested uh in trying her patterns um, you know and you're not you don't speak French. That'S not an obstacle at all, and she also now does sell her patterns as PDFs um. She started doing that recently. I believe uh, so actually that would be a good, a good one to get as a PDF, because it's just a rather simple top, as you can see from the design lines here and so as a result, um it wouldn't be such a hassle to print out. You know and assemble it is an easy top with just this lovely detail here, uh more thread hanging out here. Sorry but yeah. You have the lovely little knot, detail which is really well explained and really not that hard to do, and you can see here it's the same kind of neckline is here. So this really really wide V neckline um! You have to let neckline options. Actually, you have a round neckline and this wide V and I am actually the model here which who is Celine uh, who works for his daily uh. She is wearing the round in neckline, so I did change my version slightly by doing um. This V neckline, which I find So Graceful actually but yeah. I love look the fabric. This was from her spring collection. I think you can I'm not sure you can get this still on her website. This lovely design, it's called escis, which means sketch um, but I think you can I'm sure you can still find it on other retailers and now she has tons of retailers outside the France as well. So again, that's not you know if you, if you're in the US or in the UK, I'm sure and even in Australia. I know she. She has a retailer in Australia. Now say she also has retailers in Belgium and um Germany. I say you know if you, if you want to to try out some of I have this case Fabrics, then you know you won't even have to shop from her French website. So, what's wonderful about Lisa's Fabrics is that, even though this is a viscose she has now, she is now having all of her Fabrics produce all of her viscose Fabrics produce produced using the Eco Viro method, which is really um much more since sustainable than regular viscose Fabric as it uses, you know a closed circuit for the water. So it's it's not. You know. It'S constantly reusing the same water, but also the solvents used to create the viscase. Um are much more sustainable and non-toxic, which is wonderful for the environment environment, but also for the workers who create the fabric and all have have Fabrics are printed very near to her. In Lyon, so in very locally as well for me in southern France, so that's absolutely wonderful, uh! That'S a reason why I love her Fabrics as well, so yeah. That is it! For my. You know what I've been sewing recently, which is quite a feed, because two weeks two days ago, I would have had nothing to show you, apart from the uh. My coral dress so yay, but I do have quite a few projects lined up uh lined up for Autumn. So let's move on to my upcoming sewing project. So during the summer sales um in early July, I purchased a kit from Julie lab Ida. Is another French company that also is very careful to offer local um materials and they specialize in making kits SO sewing kits, so they have a monthly box where you get a surprise, obviously um box, where you can make put your garment, I did purchased a few Of their books boxes, I've, never I've never been disappointed in the quality. So in for each box they create a pattern and they create an exclusive fabric as well. They do have this. You know these lovely um kits really, and so this one was not a monthly box where I say it was a beginner's box or kit sewing kit, but um when they came out with this. I really really loved it, but I just couldn't justify buying anything. I I really haven't bought much fabric at all um over the past year, because I've just been so busy working and I knew I wouldn't get around to it and I just really don't like to um accumulate anymore. You know I really like to to sew what I have the lovely Fabrics that I have, and so It actually drives me rather anxious when I have too much fabric at home that I want to make to to sew up so much. But I just don't have the time to approach but yeah and when they put this on sale in July, I just couldn't resist anymore and since it's that easy garment, I know I'm not going to it's not going to take too long to sew up. So this actually is going to give you quite a good idea of what you get in a monthly box as well. So you get this kind of lovely bag printed bag. It'S printed with the fabric actually of the kit, so you can see here the design of the blouse. So it's a Raglan blouse with a square neckline and it's it's battened up as well, which all of these elements I found lovely, especially the square neckline and so the fabric, is this shishu print um with these big, you know gerbera daises on it, which I really Really loved and then you have the pattern, the paper pattern, so it's called, which means, of course, my first blouse. You can see the line drawings here and you have a cure code for the video tutorial. So that's something I absolutely love about French pattern. Designers, I'm not sure how many you know, English speaking designers, do that, because I haven't been selling that many. You know from that many uh English Indie designers lately, but it's something I love about French designers. They tend to have all many of them tend to have like video tutorials, so that, if you're a beginner of or for me as well, I mean when I'm really really tired. I just enjoy following along the video, because you can just you know, get into the vibe and not worry about the various steps, because everything is laid out and you can just relax and enjoy your project. You can see as well. You have a little label here to sew into your garments, if you so wish, which I find is a lovely touch. So what else do we have here so yeah? You have all of all all the Notions so matching thread as well as matching bios tape. That'S really lovely actually and some elastic for the neckline, I believe, matching buttons, and this is also something I've really enjoyed um. You know when you don't have much time or if you're a beginner, and you don't know where to start in terms of when you're purchasing Notions. That'S a really great way to go because um, you don't have to worry about anything or if you're traveling, you know, that's really lovely. You just put that in your bag. That'S why I have it here in this event, because it's so easy to pack really. So that's definitely going to be an upcoming project for my full and winter wardrobe um. I have a few blouses that have made from another pattern by Jody lab, which actually it was their first selling box um. I wear them all the time. I'Ve now made three of them um and it's just a wonderful blouse pattern, and so my I think my very next project, though the the project I'm going to tackle next um, it's going to be this sewing Box by Lee's. So again, it's geared toward beginners, but you know what can I say: it's nice as well to just sometimes just relax with an easy project or not. You know, anyway, this dress. This skirt is so cute, so I just couldn't resist so Liz recently released the these beginnist kits, so she had a couple of them. This is the Juke Lizette, the the so the Lizette scat uh. Again with a video tutorial. We have the patterns, you have the fabric and she has them in in a variety of her prints from her newest collection and um. She also released a cinderbox, for you know if you want to begin sewing to start sewing Jersey fabrics and it's absolutely lovely. It'S called and she actually had um one of her fabric designs, but like a single motif of that design, printed actually printed into the jersey fabric, it's absolutely lovely! So, let's just open this two together, I haven't opened it yet actually um! So yeah you get this lovely Maple fabric. I picked this fabric because I had already purchased a measure of that and I want to make like um. You know an outfit that may look like a dress and so yeah. You have the instruction booklet here and again it is bilingual, as you can see here, in a single booklet um and yes, you have the pattern, matching Notions, everything you need to just get going, you know um and so yeah. This is, I think this is going to be my next project, really fun, quick, little sketch and um, so for the top, I'm thinking of making the Tokyo. So you see, I have this small count of fabric that I purchased earlier and I'm thinking of making the Tokyo top from it. I'Ve already made this top and this dress actually um and so yeah. I'M thinking this might be a really good option for to go with the scouts so that it may look like um. You know a summer dress really and finally, in terms of my upcoming Autumn projects, I'm going to sew a Janie playsuit of jumpsuit, still at least they live pattern that actually was very happy to test for hair was part of the head testing team for this, and I'M going to sew it out of this text: Jude viscose, so again, ecovero viscose by lisayla, not sure how well you'll be able to see there's very black, obviously uh fabric, but it's actually scrumptious. I absolutely love, I think it's love it. I think it's so special. So stylish, you know because it's black, but it's still textured, so you still have you know something going on um and so actually Liz did sew up her Genie. Jumpsuit out of this fabric, I'm just going to alter mine a little I'm going to make the legs full length, as I did in my own test, actually, which is really easy for me. I just don't need you to shorten the the legs at all, but I'm going to tape her the legs slightly and also yeah, I'm going to to do the little ruffle at the top of the sleeve uh exactly the way I did for my test of this Design I'll be sharing pictures of that as well. I absolutely love wearing this jumpsuit. I wear it all the time whenever I want to feel confident, powerful and tall. I actually feel tall in this in this jumpsuit. I just wear this. It'S absolutely wonderful! So I know I will be loving and wearing the Daylights out of this Black Version, because it's going to be so perfect over, you know with the cardigan over it um if it grows a little cooler which hopefully will be soon so I do have the matching Buttons as well for this, so apologies for the crinkling here, but yeah. What'S wonderful as well about these is that she offers all of the Notions matching her Fabrics. So here obviously you're not going to be able to see much but lovely. You know shiny black buttons, um but yeah. I find it so handy to have a shop where you have everything that and you know everything will match beautifully. So that is it for my sewing, and so I think it's time to move on to a bit of knitting and I have to say it's going to be truly a little bit because um uh. Firstly, I don't have much knitting here. I haven't brought much of my past knitting here for obvious reasons, since it's so very, very hot, I did happen to have a recent uh pullover that I made lying around. So I do have this and then I have a linen top to show you and the second reason is really again. I don't know, I don't know I've just been into crochet so much lately as I've been explaining on Instagram. I just feel that's exactly what I needed for relaxation and so yeah. That explains why I have this: I'm going to have a short netting segment and then rather a substantive crochet segment. So the one pullover that I can show you from my winter makes my late late winter makes maybe early spring makes. Is this cumulus blouse, which is a design that I think most of us know by petite knits and which is a design that is knit using two strands of mohair yarn, which makes fun for for a lovely fluffy, Airy, super lightweight, jumper and so yeah? I absolutely love love this um. The yarn is drops uh, mohair, their kids, silk mohair in a shade um. I think yeah, it's called chalk, which is really strange and it shows up on their website as a really really light gray. So I got that I purchased that uh thinking I would get like a because I wasn't sure that their natural shade would be really um. I was afraid it would be a bit too yellow for my complexion, so I've got this thinking. It would be neutral to very very slightly light gray and I got this absolutely lovely gorgeous like powder pink, uh, very, very light. You know it's almost white, it's absolutely wonderful! I love this so much it's so soft, um and so yeah drops kitsub. Merino may not be the most sustainable yarn and I strive to you know, make really um considerate choices when purchasing my materials. But I do make a few exceptions when it comes to. You know when I need a lot of yardage, especially, as was the case for this, for this particular make so yeah. I'Ve got nothing bad to say about this pattern because it went you know it went together really. Well, it's quite fast to knit. I can't remember the gauge, but it's quite a large gauge um um and uh yeah, so the one you know more challenging big, of course, is the top it's top down. So it's the neckline once you've finished style. It'S just you know, it's raglund increases and then it's just knitting in the rounds. So you have and that's an element I loved about this. You have a an i-cord bind off which is so lovely. Also at the sleeves, as you can see here, the sleeves are actually gathered and you have this i-cord bind off, which I love, uh and also, I believe the bottom has this yeah. It has this bindiff as well, which is unusual for the bottom of sweater, but it actually worked out quite nicely. I think so, yeah um, I know I'm going to love wearing this again when winter comes and I'm thinking of making another one of these in um. Maybe a cotton uh, you know custom Blend or a maybe a tencel or something like that for spring or Autumn as well, um, so yeah, and so my one knitted project that I recently finished. I finished this in Late July. Uh is a top uh and I'll be sharing pictures. It'S a knitted linen Top by Marianne who is margone designs. She'S one of my favorite netting designers, she's, a French designer most of her patterns are also translated in English and let me adjust this the lighting here. So yeah this is a dark. Like a charcoal gray, linen top uh, I used althema by um rosarius um, which I had purchased in 2020 uh, so yeah, it's a lovely top with lovely details at the neckline. Hopefully you can see this um. I have this sort of um almost braided detail detail here. You have the same one at the bottom as well yeah. So it's sort of you know Lacy braided detail here, it's very delicate, but the rest of it is very, very simple. So it's one of the typical constructions for for Marian's recent sweaties, actually uh. So it's uh, you know the shoulders are shaped with short rows which makes for a really smooth shape. You don't have any raglines here, uh, so yeah, it's German short Pros, which are you know, virtually invisible. I love them. So I love this top. I haven't been able to wear it that much because uh, you know even a linen top here has been too too hot to to wear, because you know you just want to to wear the lightest possible garments. This is lovely because this is double gaze, so it's just lovely and floating really lightweight uh, but yeah, but I look forward to wearing it as soon as the weather breaks a little bit, and this leaves me really smoothly into my current knit, which I won't be Able to share much of because it's a test net, but I can share the yarn, so I'm actually testing a design by Marianne. I'Ve been a tester for her in the past. I just haven't been testing much at all over the past couple of years. For the obvious reason that it's really hard to commit to testing, when you have so much work, and especially it tended it tends to you know, I tend to stress out, I hate uh, possibly missing a deadline, it's just not something I can bear really yeah. I'M a very committed kind of person, so I only take on a test if I'm sure I'm going to make the deadline um comfortably. Otherwise it just kills the joy of knitting for me or something for that matter, but yeah. So here. What'S what what's wonderful is that recently, so I'm part of mahayan's tester group and recently she's um she's, just been preparing her future designs very, very much ahead, so that you have plenty of time to knit the design before they actually are released, which is wonderful and That'S why I did comment here, um and so yeah. I can definitely so it's the same construction with these short rows to shape the shoulders, but it's going to be a full length. Full sleeved sweater, so same kind of boxed, boxed, silhouette, um and it has a very interesting texture - is all I'm going to say. But what I'm using for the yarn is the West Yorkshire spiny's elements DK, which is a lovely blend of lyocell and falkland's wool. I love Western spiny's yarn. I love this brand um uh. They I've always enjoyed using yarn from this brand, and this was a really lovely like sustainable but affordable option and actually purchased this from Mercury high schools. So if any of my French viewers or french-based viewers are watching and you're interested in testing Westchester Spinners yarn, they do have a variety of their yarn there, but yeah. So the color here is a very muted uh, uh lilac, shade mauve shave, grayish move. It'S called moonlight and yeah. It has a lovely drape to it. I want to show much on my design, but I'm just hoping to show you a little bit of the knitting here, so you can see that it creates such a lovely fabric. Hopefully, you can see this, I'm knitting this with four millimeter needles, which are size six, always using my trusty Chiago needles to knit this hasn't changed, and my project bagger, for this is one of my favorites, which is a design in France by Melissa petitment. So she actually creates these designs printed and Screen prints them, which is absolutely wonderful. So this one says: let's knit in the woods, which is perfectly apt for me, as I love hiking, and I never fail to have um a sewing knitting project with me when we take a break um so yeah. That is it for my current knitting and my past knitting um and as for my upcoming um knitting projects, I am going to knit uh. So this is yarn that I got for my birthday this year in May uh, it's the beautiful mohair uh, silk Mohan uh produced by Lee's, so Lee's recently started producing yarn as well, which is dyed beautifully and in Shades that match her fabric. So you can have a perfectly cohesive handmade, wardrobe and again. This is sustainable and very ethical yarn because it has the reach standard, and so the reach standard means that uh, the you know, the goats, the more hair goats are treated humanely, but the silk worms as well so the weight for the worms to have left the Cocoons to harvest the silk, which is really lovely so yeah, this colorway is which means storm. I love it so much so this was a very exciting birthday gift from Sam, my husband to me this year and so with so I have, I think, seven bowls of this and I'm going to knit a cardigan out of this, which is a recent car. A recent release: I was planning on knitting, another cardigan, but then this cardigan was released and it just fell head over heels in love with it. So it is a cardigan by olong Avec Anna I'll share a picture uh. It is her Bridal Rosa design, so her Rosa design has this these lovely. You know Lacy Raglan increases, but she completely redesigned the shape and the gauge and what I love about the bridal design. It'S called Bridal because she redesigned it for her own wedding this year, but what I love is that it has a rounded neckline, um and something I found with Raglan cardies that are, you know, are too open, especially if you just have these raglings Raglan increases and Then it's just a bee opening is that they just fall off my shoulders. But when you know the neckline is you know whacked with probably again shot raise, then it just sits really well on the shoulders and I've experienced this with other designs, one design by Mariana. Actually has rather than creases, but this kind of round neckline rather high and it's it works perfectly. You wear it all the time in the in the winter, so I'm very excited to be knitting, this and uh to be experimenting with uh. You know what I could wear with it in my wardrobe and, of course, my black Jenny jumpsuit would look phenomenal with this. So yeah super excited. So it's again a garment that you knit with two strands of mohair for this wonderfully fluffy and very, very lightweight effect. So this concludes my knitting segment and now I'm going to introduce a very, very special exclusive, never shown before segment on this podcast, which is going to be my daughter, she's making. So I'm going to call her now have her call come here. We don't want to share her name or show her face on the internet, she's 10, but we're going to find a way so that we can talk and she can show you her projects and I'm so so excited about this. My heart could best honestly, okay, so I have fetched my daughter and she's come with her own fiber whack, to share with you, she's, actually wearing a handmade dress as well that I made her a few years ago. She insists on still wearing it um, even though it's a little it's getting a little tight, but but yeah. It'S definitely time for me to to make her a new dress, she's the best, the most so worthy and it wealthy person you could ever dream of and so um I'm going to start asking the questions in English. If she understands them, she knows a little bit of English. So if she finds herself able to to answer in English, perhaps the first few questions she may answer in English, but otherwise I'll be in. You know translating back and forth from English to French and vice versa. Okay, so can you tell me how old you are? Can you tell me where you come from? Where do you live um? I love and monthly. Okay, great lovely, okay, so you you're going to show us you've been working on something of your own this summer, which of course has both of us really excited: um, okay, so, okay, I'm going to share it on the screen. Okay, so my daughter has been working on some punch needle uh whack, which I have never done before, and we found this in our local bookshelf if you can believe it, and so it was a box where the kits do have the box trailer. What do you remember I'll share it on the screen, never mind uh. She forgot the box downstairs, but that's fine and so yeah. It was a box with two um kits for punch needle products, and so this is the first one and so yeah we're very excited about this. So I also uh got to learn a little bit about this skill, which again I've never done before either. So can you tell us um, have you been enjoying it it's good day? Yeah she loves it. She finds it really fun. She'S almost done, you can see just a few areas where there's still a bit of cream missing at the center, but she's almost done with it um. Okay. What do you enjoy when you do some punch needle okay, so she's telling me she finds it really fun? It'S not too challenging too hard uh and she finds it really fun to just punish the needle inside and then you know, take it back out again um, so the yarn she finds is really soft. There'S no detail on what the yarn is. Really, I think it's acrylic, but it is really really soft. It'S quite um fluffy, quite plump, really yeah yeah. She wants to show you um her needle, which is actually quite lovely. It has a wooden handle, as you can see, um so yeah. It has a wooden handle, it's really quite lovely, actually and um, for this she's borrowed one of my absolute favorite bags, which is a bag by um uh Erin, my dear dear friend Erin, who used to sew project bags quite a few years ago. Now and she we wear friends back then she used to have a podcast as well and we've all week with my friends back then, but we're still really really dear friends, and so I remember she sang this to me as a gift. It'S absolutely lovely, and I also have another one that I purchased from from her Etsy shop back then - and these are my you know some of my most precious bags, so it made a lot of sense for my daughter to borrow it to to put her her Project in okay, so she says soon, perhaps even today, if she uh picks it back up this afternoon, um do you think you'll be making the other one next, yeah, okay, the other one, is a lovely Dove as well. So what? What do you plan on doing with that? Because, okay, so she plans on um, decorating her room with art and next to her bed? Actually, so so yeah and she's um, she might start on the other one. Next uh or maybe she'll do a bit of crochet because we also started to do a bit of crochet. Didn'T we don't know um, yeah and she'd like to um to do more of that as well. So that's so exciting! Thank you. So much for coming over um, I'm so excited, I'm so glad you're here um! Thank you so much darling! Okay, do you want to say bye-bye okay time to move on to the next segment? Then right? So I hope you enjoyed this little interlude with my daughter. I was so delighted that she wanted to be on the podcast. So now I'm going to conclude with uh the very crochet projects I've been engaging in over the past month or so so I actually um. You know. Uh crochet was one of my first crafts and my maternal grandma taught me how to crochet. When I was very little. She taught me just the basics and I remember not enjoying it too much, but I remember as well that the young was very tangly. The crochet was really tiny. You know the hook um, but what I did realize later on is that she did you know uh. She did teach me enough that when I got back to it as an adult, it felt really easy and very intuitive and so um. This is the same grandmother, my maternal grandmother, who was a professional seamstress, who you know inspired me to start making my own clothes, and so after I started sewing my clothes in 2004 2005 after a few years. I realized that if I did Want to Have a Holly handmade wardrobe, I would have to master some other Fiber Arts as well to make you know garments. You know Woolen garments, warm um, warm garments. Warm ladies and I didn't manage to teach myself knitting uh on my own, but I was, I found really easy to get back to crochet and I remember it first in the late 2000s I I I made a profusion of crocheted garments and you know accessories and All that and say crochet to me feels like going back to the certain sources going back to something very cozy and comforting. You know because it definitely harks back very unconsciously to these memories very hidden. You know very, very old memories that I have of crocheting with my grandma when I was seven, probably or eight, and so what I've been making have been bags and also have been starting a crochet blanket to Granny Square crochet blanket so for my son's uh end Of school gifts, so my son um left um kindergarten in in July, so he is getting ready to start. You know Primary School in September, and so I wanted to make homemade gifts for all of the assistant teachers that are often forgotten when you're making end of year gifts. But they have been so supportive of my son over these past three years and I know they've had a huge impact on him, because my son needs a lot of nurturing and caring and he was able to cope thanks to these um assistant. You know teaching assistants, and so I really wanted to show them, so I made them each a crocheted purse which I will be showing on the screen and they really enjoyed it and it just got me onto back onto the path of just crocheting, and so this Also made this uh this crochet bag, which I shared on Instagram and stories. I never shared it on my feed uh, it's not quite finished yet it still needs a button here. It still still needs a few ends woven in um. I was considering at first giving it to one of the the assistants, but then I remember I realized it. I would never have time to make three of these and it was quite different from the other two and I felt there was too much of a gap between this this one and the other two. So I just made two three rather similar bags, and so I cut this one and I absolutely love this, so it is actually, as you can see, it's called a boho Circle bag um. So you have these straps that you can wear crossbody as well. Um and yeah - it's quite capacious as well, and I lined it with fabric and uh. So the pattern I used for this so for the construction is um um. It'S called the circle boho bag. I can't quite remember the name of the designer and the pattern for the the design for this circle is actually from another designer, and it's one of her, my it's called Maru Square, three um and uh, it's quite intricate, so it definitely put me back into crochet. I hadn't been crocheting for a while when I I did that when I made that so definitely got me all back on track and I really enjoyed making this, and I actually made recently made another one of these. So this is actually one of my most recent makes. I started this uh on the train to northern France to see my family, which was wonderful. We I hadn't seen my brother and sisters since the start of covid, so it was absolutely wonderful to see all of them again, and so I made the first circle on the train and I made the other one uh in the next in the you know. Following few days, so this one is um a taupe, a light brown color. If you want um yeah there, you go both of these use. A French organic cotton yarn by Berger de France, so Berger de France, is a well-known brand uh um, a French yarn that they have been around for decades um, but lately they've really been developing a more sustainable options among the Yarns, which is wonderful and we we Are very lucky in Montpellier to have had for the past two years and a half a local yarn shop, held by two lovely, ladies, who are also friends uh, who were friends before they opened the shop um. It'S called, and if you, if you ever come around in Montpellier or around, you really really need to make a stop uh in that shop. They also have you know a little cafe there, where you can have lunch or biscuits or a cup of tea. They have wonderful organic tea as well um, but they also sell actually but yeah, so they, their selection of yarn, is very considered um. It'S there are two passionate Knitters, and this is wonderful because it means that all of the Yarns are going to be hand-picked like they have a wonderful uh. You know it's wonderfully curated yeah, that's the word I was looking for, and so this particular yarn is an hour and Western weight yarn uh. It'S a cabled cotton, which means it's really lovely to crochet, because it's not going to split on you, um and so yeah. So I first made this one, which is in the caliway uh sodelite, and then I made this other one in the colorway argil, which is called clay, and this one actually uh is a gift that I'm making for you so um. I decided recently to me because there was a lot of enthusiasm for this bag when I shared it in my stories, so many people responded and told me how much they loved it, and so I decided to make another one that I will be uh sharing in A giveaway on Instagram very soon as long as soon as I find a pattern and line it, I'm going to line it with this lovely polka, dot, uh taupe fabric as well. It'S slightly slightly lighter um, but I think it works out really well with it. So I'm going to line it with this and um and yeah um, and so after it as a giveaway, possibly I'm going to add a few goodies there, I'm going to do some tea, maybe some chocolate if it's not too warm, definitely tea anyway. Maybe a few other goodies as well, but I hope you're you're excited for this, so it's the exact same as this one, but because uh back by by the time I made this I've been back to intent. You know intensively crocheting and so uh. This felt so much easier than the first one. I think it's more regular as well. The stitches are, you know, everything is it's better. This one also was a little wonky because for some reason one one of the circles is slightly smaller than the other um, not sure when it did uh. Maybe just my my tension changed, but these are really perfect. I mean you know they. They are the same size. Everything works much better here, so I'm very excited. So again you can wear this on the shoulder or crossbody. As you can see, it's a doubled strap. This took forever this. It felt that, like this strap to make took as long as the you know, one one Circle uh, because you um you, you make a chain of stitches and then you you in you know you make slip stitches in each of the backbends of it. It'S just insane, but it creates a beautiful strap though it looks like all most and I cause a knitted eye chord. Doesn'T it but and it's it's a little flexible but very sturdy as well so yeah. I hope, you're excited about this. So if you want a chance to to win this and if you're not yet following me on Instagram, I really suggest you you, you go there and follow me there, because it's the best way to stay in touch anyway. That'S really where I share my projects. The most regularly I also made recently another bag that I actually started making. While I was in northern France last week and I finished the squares um on the train back from northern France, that's the beauty of taking the train when you travel a long distance. You know it's much much more gentle on the environment, but also you can do whatever, whatever you like on the train so yeah these are this bag. I haven't shared it on Instagram, yet uh it is the summer days, Daisy bag by Stephanie, LA and she's. All about Amy on Instagram, she has a plethora of beautiful crochet patterns of your knitting patterns as well, and I I just was obsessed with this bag. When it came out, this is made in the same yarn as this just different colors. So again, this beautiful by Berger de France, organic cotton, so I used citrine, ecru and sudelit again for the blue. You can find all the details on my Ravelry project page. I am very. I tend to be very thorough with my project pages on rivalry, if you're ever interested. In my makes over there my my handle various fluffy fibers, but yeah, I loved, making that I absolutely love making that the construction is so fun as well, because she explains so Stephanie explains everything so well on her blog. So it's just so fun um to to put it all together, um! So yes, so and actually before I left for northern France, I did go back to my sewing machine just for a few just a for an hour or so to make a crochet hook. Holder case, because I didn't have anything to you know to travel with with my um when I was crocheting, and so this is extremely dear to me, because the fabric I purchased exactly 15 years ago, and so my husband and I went to Sweden for to hike 15 years ago, which was absolutely wonderful and at the end of one of our final hikes, we arrived in the little town of Nora and there was a fabric shop there, and I found I had a lovely chat with the owner and I found a few wonderful Fabrics among which was this and I have never been able to sew it up because it was so precious to me, but you know um. It was time so, as you can see, it's lots of little squares. It'S a little linen fabric. That'S a cute! Little squares with um flowers and fruit and Little People, my favorite one, is the little Caravan here so make sure I you know, put it on display on the little uh. You know, pouch that I have her zippers pouch for my Notions, uh and uh yeah. So, as you can see, it is home to my very assorted. Very you know, miscellaneous assortment of crochet hooks and I love it. I'Ve Loved this so much uh. The button is super cute as well: um, uh and yeah. Even the ribbon is vintage from uh seb's Grandma's uh stock. She gave me quite a number of things ages ago and so yeah, that's one of one of these one of them so yeah and yeah. And finally, of course, I have to address my most major crochet project that I started in early August as I was finally able to take some time off, so I have to confess one of the things that just got me through July was placing this order.