And sew on and sew forth

On Tuesday last week I made the trip to Reading to visit Felix's knitting group at the Global Cafe - such a nice venue, even if there wasn't knitting going on I'd make the trip just for the chocolate cake. Anyway, due to the excellent train service between Oxford and Reading I got there rather on the early side and thought I'd just pop into John Lewis. Quarter of an hour later I popped out again having bought 2 metres of wine coloured needlecord, matching thread and a zip.

As I was away at the weekend I didn't actually make a start on the skirt until Monday evening when I came home from work armed with a strong sense of purpose and two and a half hours of the BBC adaptation of Gaudy Night starring Harriet Walter on DVD. I cut out the skirt during the first episode of that and did most of the sewing up during one of our favourite episodes of Morse. It's all about the Oxford based murder mysteries round here.



I think this gives the best impression of the colour.



I'm rather proud of the zip too.

Pattern: Barcelona skirts by Amy Butler (A-line skirt)
Fabric: Needle cord from John Lewis £8/metre (2 metres though I needed much less)
Size: medium 10-12 (adjusted to be smaller by 1/2")
Notions: matching thread and 7" zip

I didn't think that the cord really needed a lining so I just used the skirt pattern as a template to cut strips of fabric 3" deep to line the waistband on the inside.

It's really comfortable and a great fit. I'm very tempted to make a detour via John Lewis in London on Saturday to see if they have any of the same fabric in the rusty orange that I saw in Reading. In the meantime there might just be enough of the red left for a pinafore for Laurie.

Talking of outfits for my niece I've nearly finished a tank top for her in Baby cashmerino although it's going to be a very close squeak yardage wise.



I've finished the main body and just need to do the ribbing round the armholes but there's very little yarn remaining.

What with this and the 4 balls of Rowan All Seasons cotton I inherited at tonight's Bluestockings meeting there's a bit of a pink-for-girls thing developing - although I really have been trying to avoid this. However, they're both very nice pinks and I've found a perfect pattern to knit with the cotton. I've always wanted to try a proper aran style cardi.