I discovered Craftsy earlier this year, and was amazed to see how fast they worked on this website to make it better.
The online video classes there are amazing, really (forget about Youtube, this is SO much better). I took the one on Curvy crochet (to hopefully learn more about sizing for plus sizes) and love the platform, and how easy and convenient it is to be able to follow the lessons at your pace, stop and come back whenever you want…

So when Stefanie Japel asked me if I’d be interested in working on a Workshop for one of my patterns, I was thrilled to say the least ! I worked on this for several weeks (family issues preventing me to work at my usual pace), starting a new sample for the tutorial and taking probably 100+ photos detailing each and every detail…

And finally, my brand new workshop for the Roselette top is online !! It’s the ideal occasion to brush up your skills if you’ve never crocheted a garment before.

The Roselette top is very easy and quick to crochet, with hardly any finishing at all, as it’s worked from the top down in one piece. It’s a perfect layering piece, ideal for the little ones… and an ideal pattern for gifts, as you’ll be able to make Roselette for all sizes, from Newborn to child size 10 !!

The workshop is divided in sections, with LOTS of step-by-step photos (over 50!), detailed instructions and close-ups. You can come back to the workshop whenever you want, zoom in on the photos.

You can also ask questions (I’ll be there to reply!) and chat with other people working on the same project. I’m so excited and can’t wait to start interacting with the students, and see your Roselettes ! :-)

Also, let me add that this pattern for the Roselette top is still available in its “normal” format (4 pages pdf, with several in-progress pictures but nowhere as detailed as the workshop), with the new added sizes up to 10 yo. And there’s a french version too ! Yes, lots of news on this little pattern… :-)
Price: $6

This morning, the girls were trying to find an occupation, and decided they wanted to “sew a princess”. I said fine, start with making your pattern/template then (which let me enough time to finish breakfast).

The princess first had no feet, and then had 4. A family of bugs it would be then :-) A prince was then drawn, and a bug-dog. Along with a castle for them all.

We drew, cut, sewed, filled with polyfill, cut some more, sewed some more… And ta da by noon we had a castle, princess and prince !! And beware when asking for the door to open, or you might be surprised: some of the bad guys got smashed under the heavy door this morning ;-)
The girls haven’t had much time to play with it yet, but they alreay love it. I can see how this is going to be hours of fun and endless stories… Plus it was fun to make of course !!! :-D

As for the details, if you’d like to make one:
- I copied my daughter’s drawings onto a white sheet with permanent black marker, cut about 1′ around the whole figure.
- Cut some “clothing” in a different fabric which I zigzag-sewed onto main “doll”.
- Sewed main doll (white fabric) with a colored back fabric, with right sides together. Left an opening to turn inside out.
- Girls turned their doll inside out, and stuffed it with polyfill.
- Closed the opening with sewing machine (or you could handsew it, but I was lazy)
- For the castle, I sewed an extra door, with padded fabric. Zigzaged around door on main fabric, and cut inside to create opening. Attached the padded door to bottom of door-opening, and added button and buttonhole to top of padded door.

Today the girls are back to school, and my older daughter’s best friend is back home, after spending four days with us. Her mum also happens to be one of my best friend, which means we had a great time.
The girls played on tons, we chatted like crazy, and sewed and crocheted together. Bliss.

Three or four years ago, I made a Roselette top for this cute little girl. I heard she loved it… but outgrew it some. So it was time for a new one, this time in the brand new size 8 (the new version of the pattern should be available very soon). Haven’t they all grown a bit ?!! :-D

In this picture, you can also see my younger daughter’s newest Roselette, and a matryoshka skirt I made her some time ago. Their friend is also wearing a brand new t-shirt-upcycled-into-nightgown we made her with my friend. First sewing lesson… It seems she’s ready to give in and buy a sewing machine now. yeah ! More crafting together :-D

This morning’s mail brought back 2 of the 3 samples I submitted for the book “101 crochet one skein projects”. No big surprise, they rejected the two patterns which are already published (Disco beret and carré potholder). I made them with different color schemes and yarns, and added a pretty flower to the beret but it seems that wasn’t enough… ;-) Oh well. I’ll probalby list them on Etsy soon instead.

.. Good point though is that my third submission has good chances to make it into the book. :-D

I have now finished the apricot colored Roselette, and nearly done the turquoise one (in size 8). Sizing seems all good for those new added sizes (up to 10 year old) and I should be updating the pattern next week. If you want to buy a copy, do it now before the price rises to $6 ! (and if you bought it previously either from ChezPlum or Ravelry, you should receive an automatic update :-D)

And now, let’s cast on for another Roselette (I had to order more yarn as the plum colored one was too dark for good photos)… for a very exciting project !! :-D

Life is busy here, and at the end of the day, there’s not much time for crafting… and even less for blogging about it. Yet, I have been crocheting some to double-check the new sizes I am adding to the initial Roselette top pattern. It will now include sizes up to 10 yo.. so I can continue to dress my girls with those all-time favorite sweaters ! :-)

One should be finished pretty soon. So nice and relaxing to work on those large shells once again: I have made so many Roselettes by now that it really feels like déjà-vu. Which is exactly what I need these days anyways.
The second (plum-colored) one is still only a swatch, but I will get started on it soon… for a very exciting project ! Will tell you more about it soon. :-D

Finally, let me share the cell-phone cosies my students made in our customizing/sewing/recycling textiles class. Quite not yet finished then… Those 4 girls are a lot of fun, and always joyful and motivated, which is awesome ! Just the look on their face upon seeing the pile of ribbons they could choose from was worth its weight in gold.. :-)

My grand-mother passed away earlier this year, and my mum and aunts decided to give me her former sewing machine, an elna “supermatic”. It’s probably over 50 years old, but she so took such great care of it that it’s still in great shape. I found on Ebay a set of extra cams, and now I can do all those super pretty fancy embroidery stitches.. ! :-P
It’s quite special for me to be able to sew with my grand-mother’s sewing machine… especially when reading her notes on the manual or sewing booklet that came with it. I always have a thought for her and nearly feel like she’s around, which is nice. :-D

Excuse me otherwise for the lack of posting. Some rather serious health problems happened in our house lately, and I just had no time for crafting or even working altogether. Hopefully this should get better, little by little. I haven’t had time to work on the larger (XL) size of the Jehanne cardigan yet, but should be done soon with the revised sizing for the Roselette. Testers for the 6-8-10 yo sizes anyone ? :-)

Thanks to the very helpful feedback and edits of Krysten TenDyke, great feedback on my questions on Ravelry… and after another quick triple-check of the sizing on another cardigan (that’s how it always works, start a new project to validate the former one, right ? ;-)

I’m now VERY happy to introduce the long-awaited pattern for my Jehanne cardigan, which as I have just learned, features a “liripipe“, long medieval-looking hood. So glad I learned a new word today, and all the more as the more I look at pictures of liripipes and medieval reanactments, the more I see my Jehanne hooded cardigan and Jehanne capelet (the perfect “Chaperon with liripipe” !!) would fit perfectly in medieval festivals !! That makes me happy as I love those middle-ages costumes… :-D

But let’s get back to the pattern: the Jehanne cardigan is available so far in 4 sizes, going from XS to L.
An XL size will be added asap. ( all those who purchased the pattern via ChezPlum or Ravelry will receive the updated pattern then).
It’s meant to be worn very fitted, with a body-hugging silhouette that’s very feminine and flattering.

As usual, my pattern is very detailed, with lots of step by step pictures so that you will visually see where you’re going and what is the next step. I personally hate to crochet in the blind without “seing” what I’m meant to do, guess I’m a visual person.

Jehanne hooded cardigan – $6 –

One last thing: this pattern is also included in my “Around the granny square” ebook, which now includes TEN patterns for under $20. Quite a deal I’d say, and you’ll have all three liripipe designs: Jehanne capelet, Jehanne hooded cardigan and Ermeline. :-)

“Around the granny square” ebook – $19.95 –

ETA: I have just sent an exclusive coupon code for 20% off this design and my ebook to people already in my Newsletter. If you haven’t signed up for it yet, do it now to be notified when I release new patterns… and get exclusive discounts ! :-)

This may look like an entire new design… yet it’s meant to double-check my final edits on the Jehanne cardigan.
If all works well, I’ll also have a pretty colored cardigan at the end .. :-)
The yarn is icelandic Lett Lopi, highly recommended by Helene Magnusson so I had to try it !

Some designers are super methodic, very fond of math and will tell you all about their grading systems, with 5 to 10 sizes for a single pattern… This has always scared me so much, looking like a different language I could never understand let alone speak.

For all the garments I designed so far, I knitted/crocheted intuitively, designing directly for myself or my kids and followed my intuition for the rest… trying to keep the “math part” to a minimum, as I always felt that however hard I tried, it never translated into something wearable in real life. This un-method kinda worked so far.

Then there was the Jehanne hooded cardigan. I designed it based both on the general shape of the Violaine, but most of all, on my own measurements and fit. BUT this time, there was a glitch and the helpful people testing the larger sizes showed severe sizing issues. I knew I had to alter those sizes, but for some weird reason I had no idea where to start, it seemed so daunting.

So I hired Krysten TenDyke to do some tech-editing for me, hoping she’ll get her magic wand out and hand me out a “perfect pattern”. Magic wand she didn’t have, but her notes, remarks and questions were JUST what I needed. I tell you, hiring an expert can be pricey, but it will be worth it because they’ll point out the important points. :-)

So. What I learned in the process is:
- while it would seem logical to have the front of a sweater larger than the back, it is not the standard used in the knitting/crochet industry, and there are good reasons for that (thanks to Raverly for all the valuable input I received on that question!!)
- an excel spreadsheet IS not as difficult to use as it seemed, and you know what ? It’s even a bit “fun” to see all those numbers coming out of it: sudenly I nearly have all my sizes ready, and all those triple-checks say it should even work !

- last and not least: triple-check gauge. On your swatch, on the finished garment and also after a couple months wearing the garment. Sometimes I keep finding different numbers, wondering if I was sick last time I checked gauge or if somebody changed those numbers during my sleep ;-)

Anyhow. So now I’m redoing all the math for the Roselette: this pattern highly needs a bit of TLC. There’s a couple things I want to edit, and I wasn’t happy with the current 6 yo size. The new version should go up to 10 yo size. How’s that ? I will also take in-progress pictures of the samples I’ll crochet to check those new sizes, and add those pics to the pattern.

This is making me very happy today. :-)

For once, I’ll be posting in french to introduce my new french site, “Fibre créative” dealing with my fiber experience in Vercors, France: knitting and crochet pattern-writing, workshop teaching, and translating craft books and individual knitting, crochet and sewing patterns.

Bonjour,

Une fois n’est pas coutume, j’écrirais ce post en français, histoire de vous présenter mon tout nouveau site aux couleurs de mon Atelier en Vercors: Fibre Créative !

Ce site sera l’occasion de développer l’aspect plus “local” de mes activités, autour du Vercors et de la région grenobloise, mais aussi de manière plus globale en France lorsque j’aurais l’occasion de me déplacer sur des festivals (on croise bien sûr tous les doigts pour qu’il y ait d’autres éditions du “Lot et Laine”!!)

Pour le moment, Fibre créative est encore un tout petit site, mais j’ai essayé d’y présenter l’esprit des ateliers laine que je veux animer, à la fois par le biais de la Maison pour tous de Villard de lans (attention, les ateliers débutent cette semaine !!) mais aussi par le biais de stages thématiques à Lans en Vercors sur le filage de la laine ou le feutrage, probablement un samedi matin par mois … (au moins tant que je n’ai pas trouvé de studio dédié uniquement à mes activités)

J’y ai inclus un petit diaporama de diverses photos, une page “boutique” qui sera amenée à grandir beaucoup dès que j’aurais traduit certains de mes modèles en français comme cela me l’a été demandé (oui je sais, c’est un comble pour une française !).

Et j’y présente aussi mes services de traduction de modèles de tricot et de crochet anglais ou américains, puisque je travaille de plus en plus avec des client(e)s français(e)s.

Quant au blog en français, il sera bientôt intégré au site, mais pour le moment il est encore sous blogger. Chaque chose en son temps ! :-)