It's been such a long time since I've written anything on here-or at least it feels like it! My days seem so busy at the moment that I hardly stop and think about all the lovely things in my life and all around us all. I would imagine everyone reading this already knows about UK Ravelry day. Many people don't know how much time it takes to do the little things, like sorting out ticket orders. We're completely unimpressed by both the company that we're using for the online shop and PayPal, and one thing is for certain; we will not be using either again for next year's event.

On the subject of next year's event, we've already started work on that too. It's all in the beginning stages at the moment, but I know it's going to be a fantastic week.

One of the things I'll be eternally grateful for are the love and support of my children and husband; they are quite simply the most wonderful people in the world and my life was so empty before I met them/had them. Mothers always feel guilty for one reason or another, but I have to say I think my kids are pretty happy at the moment. It's been a tough time recently for my son - he's apparently 'talented and gifted'- at school but things are starting to look up there. My daughter is completely obsessed with High School Musical (I think I can probably sing every single song in the three films off by heart now), just as I was with Grease at her age. It's lovely sometimes when history repeats itself and lovely to share it with my daughter, through a mother's eyes.

In the madness, I do find times to spin, knit and dye. I've really enjoyed spinning some Bluefaced Leicester and (British) Merino that I got from the wonderful Bluefaced.com , which I then dyed with tea and turmeric (mordanted in potassium alum). It's fantastic how easy it is to dye with tea and the vibrant yellow you get from turmeric is fantastic (it reminds me of daffodils for some reason).

Bluefaced leicester: top dyed with tea, middle natural, bottom dyed with turmeric

Here are some more that I did a few weeks ago...

Another experiment with concentrated cake dye! Poppy Red & Navy Blue. Yarn (absolutely delicious Falkland Wool, purchased from World of Wool) was soaked in warm water & white vinegar for approx 1 hour and then I painted on some of the food dye (I didn't rinse out the vinegar on purpose). Then it got zapped in the microwave until it was good and steamy, and left to cool overnight. The result from only painting a few sections was that it ran and mized together, to make soft pinks, purples & mauves. Such good fun!

And here's one I'm super happy with. It's BFL/Tussah Silk (again from World of Wool), dyed in Poppy Red food dye with some tea bags thrown in half way through (it had gone almost fluorescent orangey-red). This was spun one evening after a long day which is probably why it's not the best spinning I've done of late, but I really do love it. The photo doesn't do it justice. It's such gorgeous soft stuff.

In the post today I got a fantastic package which has prompted me to write this post. It's from Debbie, the Mulberry Dyer:

It's part one of Debbie's dye club. This month: Weld (also known as Dyer's Rocket). I've had the pleasure of dyeing with this stuff before, and my word does it stink! It smells like cabbage, really stinky cabbage. But it dyes the most beautiful yellow you can imagine. I plan to tinker around with the acidity of one of the dyebaths (by adding vinegar) so it will be interesting to see what it turns out like.



One of the things I LOVE about natural dyeing is the time it takes. It had given me such a profound respect for our ancestors. It takes a long time - soaking the yarn, scouring it, mordanting it, soaking the dyestuff, preparing the dyebath, dyeing the yarn, leaving it to cool (always the worst part for me!) and then rinsing and drying. Can you imagine how difficult this was in the olden days?!

Knit Pros stand at the NEC (CHSI trade show)

Just a very quick post with several photos, as I'm still not completely recovered from a very intense three days working at the CHSI trade show at the NEC.

Amanda (known as Noonie to many) and I had an absolutely fantastic time working on the Knit Pro stand. The Knit Pro team are such a fantastic bunch of people; I really admire them for their innovation, their dedication and also the way in which they treat their workers. Plus I love their sense of humour too!

On the stand with us were 'Uncle' Ashok, who is based in Germany and is to Knit Pros what Jess and Casey are to Ravelry (so you could call him Papa Knit Pro), Shirish (the boss) and his lovely wife Mietu. You know when you meet people for the first time that you're going to really like them? Rarely does it happen that I meet three people in one go that I know I will like and respect, but it happened last Saturday.

Apart from meeting lots of people I've met before, it was great to meet some fellow Ravellers for the first time too, as well as meet people I've been e-mailing about Ravelry day.

The best thing for me though was the huge boost in confidence it gave me; as I've already said on here, last year was a BAD year for me and I was as nervous as anything about being on public display (mainly because my weight has rocketed and I've got more spots than I used to have), but actually it didn't really matter. I love the fact that there are going to be more shops in the UK stocking them, so eventually I will only have a 20 minute drive to get them instead of having to wait several days for them to turn up in the post. I loved being able to use my knowledge too to help people decide which needles would work best for them, based on the range of yarns they stock and their target clients. And I loved showing off the newer products to the magazines too (e.g. the interchangeable tunisian crochet), so that you will all be able to read about them. I've given Elizabeth from Simply Knitting the challenge of coming up with a tunisian crochet pattern; it will be interesting to see what she does with it!

I love KnitPros/Picks needles simply because they are simply the best knitting needles to knit with.

And now for the photos.

Ashok (left, that's Papa Knit Pro) doing some 'extreme' knitting on the display needles. Notice Shirish's amused look at being made to hold some of his own products in his hands!
He looks quite the natural, doesn't he?! (He'll kill me for putting this on here)

Didn't the stand look pretty? I love the poster to the right of Amanda, which you'll no doubt see at a yarn shop near(ish) to you in hopefully the not-too-distant future!

It took ages for the stand to be arranged, and a mere 48 minutes to take it down and pack all away (with a double inventory done by Amanda and me). It will be interesting to see how long it takes next year!

My life has taken on an edge of the surreal this year, as some of you reading this may well know. It has been so much fun talking to people I admire for their amazing skills and design abilities, as well as all our wonderful UK yarnies out there. The UK Ravelry day seems to have taken off hugely - far much more than I was expecting- and we've got some really fantastic people coming to the event for us to share their knowledge with... It is proving to be incredibly hard to keep my mouth shut - or rather my fingers as they're the ones that do the typing!- but all I can say is that I can't wait until 25th February - which is also my Dad's birthday- to announce the line up, both of people doing workshops and talks, but also about all the wonderful small indie companies that will be coming along.

Which leads me on to a problem I've been grappling with recently. What do you knit for one of the most ungrateful people you know (that's right, I mean my Dad!)? He's so bloody hard to buy for and has upset me, Mum and Angie (my sister) on more than one occasion over presents. When I said to Mum on Skype that I'd be knitting him socks, the reply in the background was "I don't wear woolen socks". So what have I done? I'm knitting socks with a huge cotton content in them; Opal Petticoat Cotton to be precise. I've not taken a photo of the WIP but will probably add this to the post later. The yarn is a lovely mix of blues, greys and sandy colours, which reminds me of the seaside - perfect for someone living in Cyprus.

When people think of Cyprus and Greece, they correctly think of hot sunshine, clear blue skies and the such like. What they don't realise - and I know only too well- is that Greek and Cypriot winters are, in many ways, an awful lot worse than they are in the UK. First of all, when it rains, it rains! Not the drizzly rain that we get here, but it literally power showers everything under it. Then there are the storms. I'll never forget a storm that happened in Thessaloniki in the winter of 1999- blew over trees and everything and was really a sight to behold. In Cyprus, they also get amazing storms which bring sand over from the Sahara (how cool is that?!) and amazing lightning/electrical storms too.

The reason I'm going on about the weather over there is that my mum has requested some knits from me. She's not a knitter (although she could be if she put her mind to it, but claims she's too impatient), but admires the knitting I do. Anyway, to get back on subject, she needs some woolies to keep her warm. The houses in Cyprus are made of concrete and the floors are all pretty much tiled, which is great if you've got underfloor heating (pretty much all of the houses there don't have underfloor heating btw) or if you've got air conditioning which blasts out heat in the winter. I've made her a Boho Waves scarf with two hanks of 'Pebble Sand' magic balls from the wonderful Adele's Mohair - beautiful fairtrade yarn from South Africa (which was sent to me last year for a scarf that was meant to appear in a magazine, but that's another story). I'm thinking of doing a really basic hat to go with it too...

I've done a bit of spinning recently to keep me sane. I got some gorgeous tops from World of Wool, and decided to dye some of it, and to leave some of it the natural shade. [Photos to follow]

And a bit of designing too, messing around with some yarn that was also in the stash - beautiful Scotian Silk from the fabulous Fleece Artist. This jacket (I think I can call it a jacket despite having short sleeves) took only two hanks.

I've called this 'In the Woods'
Yarn: Fleece Artist Scotian Silk
Shade: Woodland (yes, that's where I got the name from)

This is a UK size 10, and took just under 2 hanks of yarn (750 metres). The yarn is slightly heavier than aran; tension will be in pattern which I'll eventually write up after I've refined it with version 2.

Finally, one other thing I've been taught to do is play around with photos on Picassa. Here's one of my 'baby', Poppy (who's now 9 months old, but this was taken when she was about 6 months old). She is such a lovely natured dog (she is doing puppy dog eyes in this one, isn't she?) and we as a family can't thank the Dogs Trust enough for rescuing this little cutie so she could become a part of our family. She was abandoned in Ireland with her sister when they were tiny, tiny puppies. How can people be so cruel as to take puppies away from their mummy at such a young age? It's beyond belief.

Central Hall, Coventry

So here is a photo of the Central Hall, on Tuesday morning. Imagine lots of lovely sunshine and people walking around in short sleeves and the such like, not a grey and wet day in January! To the right is one of the three spires of Coventry, a part of the old town wall. It's now a cafe, or art gallery, or both - it changes frequently between the two and admittedly I didn't go and see what it is currently.
This is the rather huge main hall. It seats 845 when all the seats are in. For our purposes, imagine that the central two blocks of seats aren't there. Upstairs there are over 300 seats, so plenty of space to watch proceedings as they take place.




And imagine a stage over where the lectern is, and lots of stalls where the seats are in the main part of the ground floor.

More dyeing photos

I've done some more dyeing...

1 hank of Hicks Angora 4 ply mohair, dyed with Kool Aid

in grape and the really bright blue one (can't remember name off top of my head). This was dyed in the microwave. The yarn was soaked, but not mordanted (doesn't need to be as Kool Aid contains citric acid).


I've dyed with teal and logwood purple extract dyes from DT Crafts...

Yarn: BFL, DK weight (100 grams total)
Mordanted in alum and cream of tartar
Dyed in microwave

And here is the fun one. I got a load of yarns that I've had for a while (some were already dyed), mordanted overnight in 20% of total weight in potassium alum, 10% cream of tartar (I was experimenting with amounts, to really open up the yarn)

Left to right: 1 x 50 gr hank of Jacob wool, bought at the Wool Clip,
1 x 90 gr hank of 2 ply cashmere, which was initially bright orange,
1 x 100 gr hank of Bluefaced Leicester Aran
1 x 150 gr hank of 2/14 cashmere from Colourmart
1 x 50 gr hank of unknown light pink yarn, aran weight (I think it's BFL but am not sure).

So why different shades? Well, a couple of them already started as different colours, but I think the difference is that I filled about 1/4 of the pot with alkanet, then put the yarn in, and covered the rest with cochineal and a bit more water.


And finally, I've been having a play on the wheel, and this is a hank that I'm a bit proud of. It's small (haven't weighed it yet) but it's pretty much perfectly plied. I love this new wheel.

Handspun: Alpaca (from Sophie, purchased from the Alpaca Spinner) and a bit of bluefaced leicester, to give a mottled effect.

and the result is...

Sometimes in life, things don't work out the way you thought they would. Sometimes they work out better. The same is true of dyeing, or at least my personal experience thus far.

Here are the five hanks I dyed yesterday.

Bluefaced leicester, aran weight (purchased from World of Wool)
4 x 100 gram hanks, dyed in Alkanet (with a little bit of cochineal)

Bluefaced leicester, sock weight (purchased from World of Wool)
1x 100 gram hanks, dyed in Alkanet (with a little bit of cochineal)

The photos are showing them to be a salmony-pink, but they are really a soft pinky purple colour and a fair bit darker than here.

Meet the new member of the family

Here is the new member of the family, Cerys the Ashford Spinning Wheel. I learned to spin about six weeks ago and was taught by Linzi, the Alpaca Spinner. The wheel I learned on (Mary) is an Ashford Traditional and I took to it like a duck to water. So much so that I didn't want to try spinning on another wheel. I strongly felt that I wanted a secondhand wheel, one that had been well used and loved. And here she is; Cerys. Cerys has spent most of her 'life' in Wales hence the Welsh name.


Cerys is a wonderful wheel and will no doubt become a good friend. Spinning is the most therapeutic thing you could possibly do. I am now completely free of happy pills; I had been on them since my shocking Post Natal Depression some three and a bit years ago (I had been on the pills for two and a half years as I fed Zoe for 11.5 months), and although they did get me through some very, very difficult times, I had become a bit addicted to them I think. Spinning has been the release I have needed, if that makes sense, a way of coping with daily problems. I am a worrier (that's the Welsh blood in me) who goes through bouts of insomnia, so Cerys is just what I need.


On a day like today, all I want to do is curl up on the sofa with a nice big cup of tea and some knitting, watching Time Team. Thankfully I've got the house to myself this morning - a rare treat on a Saturday- and will be able to watch TT without 'Mummy when can I have CBeebies on' being asked repeatedly!

View from the back garden, about 10 minutes ago. See what I mean?!

I've already spun about 20g of BFL, kindly given to me by Debbie the Mulberry Dyer. It's dyed in madder.


So today I am spoiling myself; spinning,knitting and dyeing. I love dyeing almost as much as I love spinning, but not quite. There's a bit too much chemistry involved for me, but I do love using natural dyes and seeing what happens. Here is some bluefaced leicester, just gone into the dyepot, of mainly alkanet and some cochineal. It's really quite red, isn't it?! I've put in 400 grams of aran weight and 100 grams of sock, so it will be interesting to see how they work out. I've going to make another Liesl with the aran, and some matching? socks with the sock.

On the knitting front, I think I'm about to have an attack of sock knitting again. It's one of those phases I go through every now and again. I've finally finished the Silk Garden Socks (currently blocking and very wet) that I've had on the go on and off since November. The yarn is completely and utterly gorgeous, but I'm not too sure about how the shade (87 for those of you who know your Noro) works on socks. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's just my big ankles and thighs. Nonetheless, they are incredibly warm and cosy and that's all you want out of socks isn't it?

The BFL in the pot. Hopefully some bits will be a bit more pink than red - I love really subtle variegation.

It's the 18th January and Spring is 'springing'...

I do not usually use this space to rant, but today I just have to.

Here's evidence that climate change is in full swing...

That's right, our daffodils are almost ready to flower. I swear that only ten years ago this didn't happen until March at the earliest. In German, they are called 'Osterglochen' (Easter bells) as they used to flower at Easter, and here in the UK are traditionally associated with Easter time too.

It got me thinking...

We have a beautiful world.


Isn't it beautiful? How peaceful does it look from space?!

It makes me so sad that this is happening:

A little boy in Gaza. We are so blessed in this country that our children do not have to grow up like this. And instead, they can grow up like this.

(It's a photo of my daughter, who planted me a hycacinth as a Christmas present at Nursery. She's been looking after it really well and took huge delight in it blooming the other day.)

Barack Obama, you've got a world full of expectation on your shoulders. I pray that you will be able to deliver what other leaders are finding hard to do.



(I got the 2nd and 3rd images by typing 'planet earth copyright free' and 'Gaza copyright free in Google Images, by the way).

On the Ravelry date

Hi everyone,

I am super tired- it's been a long week- so I'm just posting here to say that the poll has closed earlier than expected due to venue availability.

It's going to be on 6th June - hopefully those who voted for the May dates won't be too disappointed.

Jo
x

Just a very quick post, because of my son feeling like this...


and my daughter feeling like this...

(She was aware she was having a photo taken and even in ill-mode still is fashioning some kind of pose.)

I just wanted to share with you some shade cards that arrived a couple of days ago and what I've done with half of one of them...



Incredibly lovely stuff. Here's the result:
A couple of mug cozies - the pattern for which I found for free on Ravelry. I am now hearing various strains of 'Mummy' so I should go.

Some interesting websites I've found today

I've spent far too long on the computer today, but I've certainly found out lots and lots of interesting stuff. Here are a few that I thought I'd share with you:

Cotswold Woollen Weavers sounds like a very visit-worthy place:
"The smell of wool oil and the clack of the shuttles welcome visitors who tour our traditional 18th century woollen-mill set in the beautiful English Cotswolds"

British Coloured Sheep Breeders' Association is a very useful and interesting website to visit. They will be at Wonderwool...

An indie wool processing firm: Diamond Fibres

and I think this one is probably the best find of the day, and one I'll certainly be using: World of Wool (this links through to their Special Offers page) This is a website run by one of the largest commercial yarn companies in the UK, Europa Yarns Ltd. They say: "We do produce a selection of British yarns. We make aran, dk, lace and sock weight. All of which are on Shetland, BFL, Jacob and Black Welsh. All our british wool is sourced and bought through the wool auctions and is processed here in the UK."

LYS owners: "If you can order larger quantities than this we can send our wholsale catalogue". The prices are really quite reasonable, and they've got a fantastic range of yarns too.

Mad ideas while driving

I don't know about you, but I tend to have some of my best ideas when in the car. One day I will figure out why. Anyway, today's idea was to organise a national Ravelry get together and destash day, the idea being that Ravellers all meet in one central location with their stashes and then either sell or trade them, as they can do on Ravelry. They can meet other Ravellers, maybe buy some more (British) yarn from a small independent producer, have some really good tea and cake, and maybe go along to a talk or workshop too. But the main idea was to be a bit like Ravelry in the flesh for a day.

So I posted this idea on a few forums on Ravelry, and it seems to have gone down well. The only problem is, when to hold it. I had originally thought of the beginning of May, and then it was soon pointed out to me that Wonderwool takes place at the end of April. And then I realised that Woolfest takes place at the end of June. So, for me, the logical idea is either the last Saturday in May (another Bank Holiday) or the first Saturday in June. My personal preference is the first Saturday in June, seeing as most working people get paid at the end of the month and this should therefore help in the destashing/stash enrichment programme that will hopefully be taking place for hundreds of Ravellers...

BTW, I will be inviting everyone mentioned below on the 'Buying British' post below to see if they'd like to come and sell you some of their wares...

ETA: I've just checked out dates of Bank Holidays in May. The 25th is the Spring Bank Holiday, so personal preference is for 30th May.

Here’s my brainstorming:

• You decide you want to come along.
• You buy a ticket* and get a table number.
• You come along to Coventry on the day with your stash and cash, and a Ravelry badge
• You perhaps donate an item you've knitted for the charities we will be collecting for
  
• You then sell/trade/donate to charity your stash (as you can do here on Ravelry)
• You meet fellow Ravellers, and perhaps do some knitting.
• You have tea and cake (and believe me it’s good tea and cake )
• You have a look at some stalls and maybe buy some yarn or something similar
• You perhaps have a wander around the exhibition and/or watch a fashion show
  
• You have some more tea and cake , and perhaps a sandwich too
• You maybe listen to a talk or take part in a workshop
• You have a book or pattern signed by that person
  
• You knit
• You have another cup of tea before leaving with lots of new yarn and catch the train home/drive home…

* Hopefully this will become a free event and all we'll ask you to pay for is a stamp!

Some amazing books

I was lucky enough to get a few amazing books for Christmas, which I'd like to tell you about here.

A history of hand knitting by Richard Rutt (listed on Amazon for £80 or so, my DH got it from Wingham Wool Work for £26). This is, quite simply, an absolutely amazing book. It is so well written and researched. I'd highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the history of knitting in the UK. I was struck by how people used to fit knitting into their daily lives and around other chores, just to make ends meet. We're so blessed that we no longer need to knit to earn our daily bread.

Following on from that book, The Old Handknitters of the Dales by Joan Ingliby and Marie Hartley is a very interesting read too. I still cannot fathom how the knitters used hooked needles and only one hand... The only thing missing from this book is a map of the area.

If you're interested in knitting history in the UK, here are some links which may be of interest and provide you with some interesting days out this year:

The Fashion Museum, Bath

The V and A, London

Knitted Together

Knitting Together All about the East Midlands Knitting Industry

Scottish Knitting History from NMS You have to pay a subscription to view the images/packs, but it's well worth it if you're researching this...

FURTHER READING: The History of Knitting - Knitting History, website of the Knitting History Forum

Buying British

Edited to add: Please note that this information is moving to a new website, www.britishyarn.org.uk, and I won't be adding any new companies/traders to this list. Please do e-mail any more to me though at: jowatso21@yahoo.co.uk. Thank you!

I've been trying to think of knitting-related New Year's resolutions (and other ones too actually) but I've not been able to come up with anything. And then I started reading a post on Ravelry about buying British yarn. So that's what I'm going to do in 2009: whenever I need to buy yarn (which, admittedly, is not much) it will only come from the back of a British-based sheep. This is going to be a hard one to keep, given all the lovely yarns that are imported into our country.

I'd like to find out about as many UK-based independent yarn producers this year, and in fact any other British-based companies selling British products. Please let me know if there are any others that can be included.

England

Farm Yarn

The Nude Ewe

Gedgrave Flock of Wensleydales

Coldharbour Mill

Crookabeck Angoras

Hicks Angora

Greengate Wools

The Natural Fibre Company (some very interesting links)

Frangipani

Bluefaced

The Wool Clip

Cornish Organic Wool

Devon Fine Fibres

Krafty Koala

The Natural Dye Studio

The Mulberry Dyer

The House of Hemp

Oxford Kitchen Yarns

UK Alpaca

The Alpaca Spinner

Great British Yarns

Wingham Wool Work

The Alpaca Wool Company

British Breeds Yarns (no prices on here but contact details are available)

Wildcraft (for handspinners only)

The Knitting Goddess

Heathland Hebridean

Skein Queen Debbie says: "I have several lines of British grown and dyed yarns - my Encore (BFL/nylon), Blissful (BFL) and some new BFL weights I’m introducing over the next couple of weeks. However, the rest of my stock is non-British"

Rosewood Farms

New Forest Mohair

Artists Palette Yarns

Aragon Yarns

Wool and Willow

Violet Green Jane says: "I sell British Bluefaced Leicester Aran.Most of the yarns I hand-dye are spun in the UK (Socrates sock yarns, both laceweight yarns, Utopia sock yarn, DK Alpaca), so using the tiny British spinning industry, but the merino used comes in from the Falklands."

Scotland

New Lanark Fantastic Soil Association- certified wool in DK and Aran weights. Incredibly reasonably priced. A world heritage site, well worth a visit if you're anywhere near Lanark.

Northern Lace Liz Lovick's website, full of patterns and her own North Ronaldsay Wool - Natural and Hand Dyed

Jamieson's of Shetland

Artisan Threads

The Yarn Yard

Virtual Yarns (Alice Starmore)

Shilsadair

Moondance Wools

Old Maiden Aunt


Wales

Posh Yarn

Fyberspates

Garthenor Organic

Bowmont Braf

Honourwood Flock

Knitwitches

Cambrian Mill (looks like a very interesting place!)

The Wool Hunter

Colinette

Preseli Mohair Centre

Wool Out of Wales
no website but e-mail to pjteamwork@aol.com
(Ravelry page: http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/wool-out-of-wales-wool-out-of-wales)


Ireland
To be worked on at a later date!

Kimonoro sizing and yardage

This is just a quick post about the Kimonoro. I actually calculated exact yarn requirements (to neareat 5g) which not only helps with having a larger skirt than top section, but also may well help more with yarn substitution. So here are the charts.

Please e-mail me at jowatso21@yahoo.co.uk if you want to discuss.

Happy knitting!
Jo
:-)



_________________________________________________________________

PATTERN NOTES

The band is designed to fit comfortably under your chest and can be pulled as tight or loose as you wish. If you do not like the buttons, or want to have the option of changing the tightness, you can knit I-cord ties (four stitches) and place where the buttons are on the band (you will still require a medium size button for inside). The upper section is designed to fit bra sizes A – C comfortably. If you are a larger cup size, you may well want add in some extra darts. An excellent online tutorial an be found at: http://web.mac.com/honeybee33/iWeb/Site/Reference/A8F85235-97FC-4B2A-9229-BB276C02C46F.html . Remember to add in some extra yarn if you add darts.

The size charts below are split so have the flexibility to make a larger top section or skirt, depending on your requirements. If you have a larger skirt than top (i.e. a size 4 top and size 5 skirt), you will need to add some short rows into the waistband to accommodate the different sizing. Likewise, if you choose to knit a larger top than skirt you will also need to do this. It is suggested that you do not go up/down more than one size.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Bust

30-32” 76 – 81cm

34-36” 86 – 91cm

38-40” 96.5 – 101.5cm

42-44” 107-112cm

46-48” 117-122cm

50-52” 127 – 132cm

54-56” 137 – 142cm

58 – 60” 147- 152.5cm

Finished bust

32” 81cm

36” 91cm

40” 101.5cm

44” 112cm

48” 122cm

52” 132cm

56” 142cm

60” 152.5cm

Waist

22-24” 55.9 – 60.7cm

26-28” 66 – 71cm

30-32” 76.2 – 81.3cm

34-36” 86.4 – 91.4cm

38-40” 96.5 – 101.6cm

42-44” 106.7 – 111.8cm

46-48” 116.8 – 121.9cm

50-52” 127 – 132.1cm

Finished waist

32”

37”

40.7”

44.9”

49.2”

53.5”

57.7”

62”

Upper hips

30 – 32”

34-36”

38-40”

42-44”

46-48”

50-52”

54-56”

58-60”

Lower hips

32 – 34”

36-38”

40-42”

44-46”

48-50”

52-54”

56-58”

60-62”

Finished lower hips

36” 91.4cm

40” 101.6cm

44” 112cm

48” 122cm

52” 132cm

58” 147cm

62” 157.5cm

66” 167.6cm

A: Yarn required for sleeves and upper section

	Yarn	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
A. Sleeves	MC	135g	145g	150g	160g	170g	180g	190g	200g
B. Back & chest	MC	45g +40g 85g	45g +50g 95g	50g +60g 110g	55g +60g 115g	60g +70g 130g	60g +80g 140g	65g +80g 145g	65g +90g 155g
C. Skirt	MC	120g	150g	170g	200g	230g	265g	295g	340g
D. Waist	CC	45g	55g	60g	70g	80g	85g	95g	100g
E. Edges	CC	21g +19g +11g 51g	22g +21g +12g 55g	24g +23g +12g 59g	26g +25g +12g 63g	28g +27g +13g 68g	30g +28g +13g 71g	32g +30g +13g 75g	34g +32g +14g 80g

NB You will need approx 5 grams of each shade for your tension squares.