Category: Ruth Singer

Just before Christmas, I got a surprise extra present – a whole huge box of dress patterns! I guess they came from a car boot sale, picked up by my dad and his wife, having heard my plea of “patterns! any patterns! (not 1980s ones though)”. These are mostly 60s, with a few 50s gems…

Its taken months to get my spinning wheel up and running, since Sarah got it going last year. She even gave me some fibre to get started with! Here it is: I splurged some birthday money on masses more fibre from Sarah to spin. I got this one to ply with the yarn already on…

You will probably not be surprised to hear I have a love of vintage sewing stuff. I’ve been after some glass-headed pins for quite some time, but they are pretty pricey on ebay. I was deeeelighted to find some in a job lot of cheap nasty ribbon and random sewing bits where the seller clearly…

You remember Maud, don’t you? She’s a fine-looking (wo)mannequin but she was rather world-weary and threadbare.Now, to give her a new lease of life, ready for a starring role in a forthcoming bestseller (my next book), she’s had a face-lift. Or rather a body-lift. A re-cover. So what I did was make a pattern using…

A few weeks before Christmas, my cousin Ben demanded a hat. An actual demand of “Knit me a hat!” When people ask for (or demand..) knits, I take this as a good thing – they want and appreciate handknits. Or maybe he just had a cold head and didn’t want to pay for a hat.…

I have decreed that February is for knitting. This has been much helped by lovely friends on my birthday at the weekend. Mary bought me this: Colinette Zanziba. Two skeins, destined to be a tiny cardigan thing. A week or two ago I was in raptures about Jen’s handspun yarn. I love natural cream wool.…

Enough of the London-love, at least for the time-being.How about some Leicestershire love instead? Seeing this (in London…) made me think about rocks, so the next day, I went here: We’re good with rocks, round here. And the roads are pretty good too. And the ivy. The Sisley exhibition was excellent. There was one painting…

Window shopping New Look at Blackout 2, Endell Street, Covent Garden. I love this coat! It was a bit beyond my budget (as my budget was allocated to handbags – which also came from here). I didn’t even dare try it on as it might have had to come home with me. And I’m not…

A jacket for my penguin-loving godson. Or perhaps slightly more for his fabric-loving mum. We both fell in love with this fabric at the Festival of Quilts. Its taken months to make it. It wasn’t exactly hard. Then it took ages to find the right button. It was in my button stash all along, I…

Finished and wearing! On the needles: In the stash: Ok. Not autumnal colours at all in that last one. But it is number 3 in my list of fine things to do with a day in London. Go to Loop! Its a fabulous place. This one ball of sock yarn is ALL I BOUGHT. I…