Kandy Wilfrench

Hi everyone, here is the latest update from Kandy Wilfrench. Enjoy! Thursday 15th: After successfully sewing together 2 stockings ( and feeing very proud about it), I am planning to spend the rest of the day sewing as many stockings together as possible (Lord knows I need it as I am AWFUL at sewing unless I take God knows how long to do it!) I also intend to stick the lining material to the remaining stockings and cut and sew these, ready for a mass decoration operation. In terms of my purses and bags stock, I am planning to slightly felt these in the tumble dryer, and am planning to do the same for my ginger felt men. When I have washed all these, I will line the purses and bags and sew eyes on to the felt men and decorate them. I will then finish my scarves and try to fit in a pair of fingerless mits. Wish me luck! Friday 16th: I have abandoned the stockings,; I think I reached my sewing peak at 2, because the disaster that ensued after trying to sew a third has put me back at least a day! I plan to stick to the knitting side of things (as this is where my skill lies), and I want to make a few knitted snowmen and a present sack from a knitting book I bought at the secondhand market yesterday for 50p. The pattern looks simple enough, its just the sewing up I am a bit concerned about after yesterday’s confidence shaker. Sat 17th: I tried making the snowmen on flat needles, and found an affinity for the knitting side; they worked up quite quickly and looked good enough, but as I feared, the sewing of the curved sides was more complicated then I expected, so as I know I can make the pattern to a good shape and consistency, I have found a technique to knit them which minimises sewing, by creating the round piece as you knit! DPN needles I salute you!! As I only have 16 days left until the schools reopen, I better get my skates on, as I may be asked by the schools that already contacted me to provide samples, and I may start hearing back from the other 6 schools I previously contacted. Have casted on the idea of a present sack on DPNs (Only learnt to do this today!!) Sun 18th: *TO DO TODAY* - Finish DPN sack. -Make a snowman on DPNs, stuff and add features. -Make more of each product if time is viable. Mon 19th: The prototype on DPNS took longer to make then first anticipated. After working on it all day, I finally finished it at 9:20pm, bottom sewn and drawstring included. I am very happy with the results; I do think it looks so much better then the flat knitted ones I previouly made. It seems to habve taken on a sack shape much better, as it actually looks more rounded and "full", as opposed to being a rectangular shape, and as with circular knitting, it only has to be knitted every row to form stocking stitch. The tension was of a good consistent size and formed every row well. The stitches were neat and evenly sized and am very proud of the outcome. My only gripe is that it took so long to make! As I can knit flat sacks and snowmen quite quickly, I took for granted that I could do it on DPNS in about the same time or less, but found that I seriouslt underestimated myself timewise. However, I think the overall outcome slightly outweighs this and the sparkly purple wool I chose really lends itself to the finished product. I showed it to my stepson's girlfriend, who was very impressed with the result and agreed with me that the end product was a much better finish then the previous ones. we both also noted the size difference. The flat knitted ones had a slightly bigger tension, but were smaller in size overall, meaning the needed less to fill them, but the DPN one, due to its better shape and slightly larger size seemed more comfortable ergonomically. Again, there was a question over the time issue, but I am hoping that now I have mastered DPNs hopefully I can progress to make more sacks at a faster pace. Dan suggested that I could fill the sack with Cadbury Heroes and perhaps peek a few out of the top, to make it look like a more authentic sack? I thought this was an excellent idea, as my original intention of putting Millions in, was pointed out to me by Andy that it wouldn't be viable cost wise or hygeine wise, so sweets wrapped up would minimise the risk of any food realted illness which I would be liable for. Working as a cleaner I know this only too well. In terms of my to do list, I have a least managed to finsih my DPN sack to good effect, however I have decided to withold the snowmen so far, as already mentioned, the flat proptype did not work as well when sewn and am not sure how to convert the pattern to DPN knitting yet. I did show Dan the snowman I attempted, who suggested it may not look as bad as I first thought, once the hat and sacrf are attached, but I still wasn't happy with the outcome. I did make one discovery however. I just randomly got a piece of scrap ribbon and put it round the snowman's head like a hat which led me to the idea of getting scrap ribbon, cutting it with pining shears down one side and attaching it to the snowman's head, to look like a Christmas cracker hat, as opposed to the traditional Santa hat. I though it looked quite sweet, so a thought for the future? Dan also got me thinking as she said the snowman I already made looked like a bowling pin, so coined the idea of perhaps knitting 10 along with a stuffed snowball to make a snowman bowling set for little kids. Again, another idea for the future to go on?

HI everyone and welcome to the weekly update on all the goings on in the world of Kandy Wilfrench! I am actually working harder then ever now; I get up at 5am, work on Christmas stock till 6:20, get to work for 6:30 and do all the cleaning till 9:30 ( I work in Chelmsford's only independant department store), then get home and work on Christmas stock till midnight!! So far I have knitted 12 purses, 1 bag, 2 scarves and have 2 cowls on the go, still need to line all the purses and bag, put the zips in the purses, attach a strap to the bag, sew on my labels and sew up and decorate all of my 40 stocking tree decorations and 18 ginger felt men!! Been through 2 jars of coffee already and live off energy drinks at the mo, but I got my music to keep me perked up!! Recently, I've been listening to a lot of Steve Overland and FM (I am a huge fan of both) and it has been keeping me going at both work cleaning and at home, but I do tend to drift into thinking too much sometimes (which is a bad thing). Anyway! for the good news; I have potentially secured 2 stalls at two dfferent primary schools so it looks like I may get a good turnover (if the prices are right) lol!! As soon as I get the dates, I'll give you updates right here, but until next Wednesday, this has been the weekly update for now, c u on the 21st!! -Team Kandy-

Kandy Wilfrench

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

* Update for 21/8/13* PART ONE

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

New updates 14/8/13

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

Our first blog post!