Last summer I was busy translating my first book ever (I’ll admit it was a bit scary… but so exciting!), the famous “The little black dress” by Simon Henry. And now the french version I worked on is finally released:
I received 2 copies from the editor this morning and am glad to offer one to a lucky recipient (it will be the FRENCH version!)

Still a novice sewist (I do free-style a lot, being never too good at learning from other people), I did learn a lot from this book while translating it. It includes a wide section on techniques, and I’ll certainly try to insert an invisible zipper someday following his tips: I love that this book is richly illustrated, and Simon Henry made this book really accessible, with no complicated supra-technical language. It’s like making the whole toile-making process seem easy.

The book also includes lots of information about the history of the Little Black Dress (”LBD”), choosing your fabric and the right kind of dress to suit your body type, detailed instructions to make your toile (kind of a fabric replica of your own body, basis of any future garment you’ll want to make to your own measurements).

And it shows you how to alter your toile to make 3 dresses: I’m especially in love with the wrap dress… and all the variations on that design you can think of (like a light fleece ballet wrap cardigan, or a beach wrap sarong..). Someday I’ll take the time to do that.

… and because I want to share the goodness with you, leave a comment telling me why you’d love this book (remember, we’re talking about the FRENCH version here :-P) and I’ll announce the winner by the beginning of june. Good luck / Bonne chance !

While I tend to stick to worsted weight, warm colors, and green/plum combos, it’s sometimes nice to venture outside your comfort zone. My mum gave me a bag of vintage thrifted yarns, in bold tones of emerald green, navy blue and white. It begged to become something new, an easy mindfree project to do in between working again and again on new or not-so-new personal designs. I’ve always loved the Willow squares, and decided that would be a good start.

Yarns were not perfectly the same weight, so I decided to double-strand them to try and even out the differences. That meant using a LARGE hook… I bought a new 8 mm susan boyd hook (my absolute favorites!) and started hooking.

Squares were large. Very large. Perfect, as that would mean quick and bold. My first plan was to mix and match perfectly my 3 colors in each square… until my husband said it didn’t look right, colors weren’t balanced enough. Ahem.

So I ripped a couple squares, and made them all with white as middle color, which indeed worked out much nicer in the end. I had yarn for 6 large squares, and used trebles for the edging, granny-style (groups of 3 tr in each space around, 2 groups of 3 tr separated by 2 ch in the corners if I remember correctly).

In the end, the blanket is not very large…. but covers perfectly my legs on the couch. And the fact that the yarn was held double-stranded makes it Oh-so-warm and comfy, I just LOVE it. :-)

Aha ! My tutorial to make felted soaps is number 1 seller among the felting patterns on Craftsy today. Not tons of sales but still pretty to see my profile featured in that side column… :-D

Lynn was so kind as to send those pictures of the Ermeline hooded cardis she made for her grand children. Now that’s a gorgeous family shot, … and super long hoods… ! :-D

And here’s the kind note she sent along:
“Just wanted to send you a couple of photos of the sweater/jackets I made for all of my grandchildren this past Christmas…LOVE THEM!! They just wore them on a trip up to Vermont and got so many compliments on them everywhere they went. The one photo attached is of my granddaughter doing the “Sound of Music” swirl on top of the hill at the VonTrapp Home in VT. You probably noticed that I added quite a bit to the length of your hoods because our family loves the elf/goblin very long type hood. I also just adapted your pattern to make one in an infant size as a baby gift. Can’t wait to see if they love it as much as we do! Thanks so much for your wonderful pattern. It was very easy to follow and worked up beautifully! Thanks again SO much!
Lynn”

Also added to the Gallery:

More Babouches and a cute baby altay hat. Send your pictures too: We’d love to see them ! :-)

Oops, I just sent a newsletter with the wrong subject. Sorry, of course it should have read “new Marguerite patterns” ! :-P

The pattern for the Mini Marguerite cardigan is now available for purchase, and to accomodate for my new french customers it’s available both in english AND french !

It is made following my favorite round yoke top-down construction method, with a large hook (6 mm) and bulky yarn (Cascade Eco +). That makes it both a super pretty, fun and satisfying project, as your little one won’t have to wait too long before she can wear it !

Features a cute daisy motif around chest, with empire waist below and pretty shell edging. Closes with 4 buttons.
Instructions given for 4 sizes, from 18 months/2 year old to 6/7 year old, with detailed instructions, lots of step-by-step pictures and 2 bonus pages of tutorial for the daisy motif.

Price: $6

This pattern is also available on Craftsy and Etsy. :-)

Happy easter ! The girls are with their grand-parents for a few days, and having a great time. :-)

Meanwhile, I can spend time with my husband, who’s been having health issues for over a year (adrenal fatigue, anyone ?).. and work.
There are translations. I’ve had the pleasure to add “Bergère de France” to the list of my BIG customers (they’re one of the main yarn companies in France), as they now publish their designs in english as well in special booklets. Good to know, I’m sure ! :-)

Also sending vintage french lace motifs with home-made personalised letterpress since I’ve used up all my Moo cards… This cute matryochka stamp was cheap (bought on Etsy here), and I’ve been using it tons: it really ads to plain enveloppes or paper notes, and there’s my “ChezPlum” name on it!! .. it certainly says “handmade” ! :-)

I also wanted to take a break from designing or reworking my own patterns.
Been in “icelandic mood” lately, reading another Arnaldur Indridasson’s novel, playing with my skeins of Lett Lopi and perusing “Icelandic knitting” by Helène Magnusson (I am SO making the 4 flowerpot sweater sometime soon)… but even if it snowed about 1 cm last night, I’m afraid spring will be here before I finish an ambitious project. Ordering a kit for a purple “Olga” hoodie instead for the girls: I just need to feel that slightly rough nordic yarn between my fingers.

And started oversized “Willow” squares (we’re talking 8 mm hook (L) and double and triple strands of yarn) with a bag of yarn my mum gave me. I love that square, so graphic and perfect, and fun to make. Still not too sure what those will become: cardigan for me, sweaters for the girls… or just a pretty lap blanket (last option being the most probable seing the bright colors, not the ones we usually wear in this house).

How are your holidays ? :-)

This morning I managed to deal a photoshoot with the girls (in exchange, they got their “flocon” and “2ème etoile” ski medals earned during ski lessons at school). Here are some of the pics we took:

Older daughter had nothing to model… so she tried it on as well even though it’s a bit small for her. Having a look at the smaller (18 mo/2yo) sample.

I told the younger one to act naturally, and “move around”: she then starting dancing ! :-)

Always acting crazy.. that’s my girl ! :-)

The pattern is now being tested. There’s still a couple openings for testers btw. Contact me for details !

Heads-up: I have just finished writing and checking the pattern for my newest design, Mini marguerite cardigan, and am looking for a few testers. The pattern used Cascade Eco+ yarn (only 1 hank for smaller sizes) and instructions include 4 sizes from 18 months to 6 yo.
For the Ravelers, you’ll find more details here.

If interested, drop me a line :-)

Every now and again, I’ll translate a french pattern that’s a bit more complicated… and one potential issue is definitively this “endroit” versus “envers” issue. I won’t go in detail about this particular issue yet, but thought it would be a good idea to go back to basics, with those words quite specific to the french knitting lingo.

While the english language distinguishes between the action of knitting and purling, in french there is no such distinction:
Both are called “tricoter“. But we’ll be told either to do it the regular way “tricoter à l’endroit“, or the reversed way “tricoter à l’envers“.

This alone can be a bit annoying IMO, because when adding french abreviations, this will read either
tric. à l’env. OR tric. à l’endr.
Maybe it’s just me, but I keep getting mixed up when reading those, they just look so similar: just imagine a whole pattern of “tric 2 m endr, 3 m env, 2 m ens à l’endr, 3 m env, 2 m endr“… It’s just nowhere as easy to read (or translate!!) as would be “k2, p3, k2tog, p3, k2″ !!!

And then there’s another meaning of this endroit/envers terms: they also mean the Right Side /Wrong side of work. Are you still following me ?

All in all, it’s not very unusual to read something like :

tric. 1 rg env. sur l’endr. et 1 rg endr. sur l’env.
…
…
which as you probably easily guessed
…
…
Just leaving a few lines to give you a chance to figure it out by yourself :-P
…
…
means : k 1 row on WS and p 1 row on RS

:-)

Look at what I received this morning, freshly delivered from the offices of Cascade yarns: 2 hanks of Eco + yarn in a super pretty shade of purple for a larger size sample of my Mini Marguerite cardigan !!

I’ll probably be casting on tonight :-P

Speaking of which. The smaller size is now all finished, except for the buttons. I have this large box of vintage buttons, full of pretties… but when it comes to finding 4 similar buttons, that’s another story ! My husband helped me pick my favorite 4, now only to sew them up and the cardigan will be ready for pretty pictures (that is, as soon as the weather clears up!)

I really should organise my button box someday. You know, threading together all the similar buttons in a loop of thread…