charles – Christina Hopgood

Pyjamas for Charles!

July 26, 2014January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

This is a bit late coming, but look! I made Charles some pyjamas!

On The Great British Sewing Bee episode about patterned fabric, all the contestants had to make mens pyjamas out of a patterned fabric of their choice. After watching that, Charles demanded a set for himself! This is the pattern I chose, Kwik Sew K2388.

Simple button down shirt with a revere collar and piping, and regular elastic waist pants. I omitted the pocket and the piping on the pants, as well as the drawstring (it’s only decorative anyway… although now Charles has to look really hard to figure out which way is the front).

And the result (a bit rumpled as he just got out of bed)…

A roaring success! I used navy spotted cotton, which is quite crisp and not what you’d usually use for pyjamas. Charles didn’t want flannelette as it’s too warm for him. I came across some problems with the fabric as it was super narrow. I needed much more metreage because the pieces wouldn’t all fit across the fabric like in the suggested marker. I also had to add a bit on to the end of the pants, but you can’t see unless you know about it!

This was my first time doing piping and I think it turned out ok! Luckily the seam allowance is only 6mm, which was the same width I needed to sew the piping on correctly.

Piping! Woo!

I made the set in the size small, with the length of the size L. Charles is a tall dude!

He loves them and wears them all the time, so we’re both happy 🙂

charles, jumper

Finished – "Mattias" fair isle jumper for Charles!

April 8, 2014January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

Here is my first significant unselfish knitting project – and my first fair isle project – a jumper for my husband Charles. He was getting jealous of all the lovely new knits I was getting and asked me to make something for him!

Pattern: Mattias, by Sâra Mrdalo, featured in the Knitter magazine

Wool: Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 10ply in Blue Denim

My Ravelry Notes Here

I am pretty happy with how this turned out, seeing as it was my first attempt at fair isle. Knitting fair isle itself isn’t hard, it’s just a little annoying to have to weave in the unused yarn so it’s not too loopy at the back. I ended up with some very tangled balls of wool!

Charles really likes his new jumper, he wears it a lot! But beware this pattern!

I did have to make some heavy modifications to the pattern. I cast off the underarms where written, but stopped for the neckline much sooner than the pattern indicatd. Charles’ arms aren’t as wide as his entire chest, you see. I also re-did the neckline because it was too loose. It’s all detailed in my Ravelry notes, but it was a bit of a headache making it sit right.

When I first sewed in the sleeves, there was a huge amount of bulk at the front, so I re-did the sleeve heads to be smaller and also tucked in a little of the front armhole when re-sewing them together. Now it works pretty well!

It is crazy hard to get a good photo of these colours! It’s a denim blue, quite muted in real life. In photos the white tends to be overexposed which changes everything!

“YES! I have a new jumper!”

Hooray!

charles, frocktober, life

No spending in October – how did I do?

October 29, 2012January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

This October, I have succeeded in not buying anything unneccesary. I have been to the shops lots of times and managed to come away with only groceries and things I really needed. No clothes or makeup has been bought, or books, or games, or music, shoes, or hair care. It’s been really great!

Success!

Wearing all my dresses this month has made me realise that I don’t really need more clothes until the old ones are gone. I’ve come to appreciate what I have more, and learned how to wear those dresses that are tricky to coordinate.

I’ve also saved a bunch of money. It’s good to know I can do that, because living is expensive and I’ve never been rich. Now I feel more able to go forward without spending more money than I need to.

So I’m going to make a donation to Frocktober right now, to help in their cause to find an early detection test for ovarian cancer. I hope you can all donate too!

It’s November in a couple of days, and Charles has decided to not spend any money for that whole month! He’s calling it No-Money-Vember. He’ll be fine!

So thanks for looking at my blog this October! I’m going to keep up my momentum as best I can, take outfit photos and wear the rest of my wardrobe! Should I do Skirtvember? Sockvember?

charles, chocolates, cooking, life

How to make chocolates!

October 23, 2012January 24, 2018 christinahopgood

On Friday, Charles and I made chocolates to sell at the election on Saturday. Since the church was to be used as a voting venue, our friends decided to have a sausage sizzle/ chocolate sale/ cake stall to raise money for charity. Charles and I ended up in charge of making the chocolates! We made chocolate ginger, strawberry flavoured hearts, freckles, peppermint swirl, orange swirl, and rocky road.

Ingredients:

Moulding chocolate – white, milk, and dark.

Crystallised ginger.

Hundreds and thousands (sprinkles)

Food colouring – green and orange

Food flavouring – strawberry, peppermint and orange

Tools:

Chocolate moulds – hearts, or whatever you like!

Aluminium foil

Skewers

Muffin or cupcake baking pans

Baking trays

Tupperware shallow box

Microwave

1. Ginger Chocolates

First, get your crystallised ginger and chop it up into little bits.

Melt your chocolate and put all the ginger bits into the chocolate! Make sure they’re all coated.

Use tongs or chopsticks to get out the ginger pieces and place them on a piece of foil to set!

2. Strawberry flavoured dark chocolate hearts

First get a bowl of dark chocolate and nuke it til it’s nice and runny.

You’ll need some strawberry flavouring stuff, this is what we used. Put a tiny bit into the chocolate and mix. You really only need a little, this stuff is potent.

Get your moulds ready…

Pour in the chocolate! Leave to set in the fridge.

3. Giant freckles!

I forgot to take progress pictures but here’s what you do. Melt some milk chocolate. Put the chocolate into some muffin trays. About a teaspoon of chocolate each is right. Wait a minute til it starts to cool, then put a whole lot of sprinkles on top!

Leave to set. When it’s cool, you can shake off the remaining sprinkles and put them aside for later.

4 and 5. Peppermint/ Orange swirl!

First melt around 500g of dark chocolate. Mix in a small amount of peppermint/orange oil. Line a baking tray with foil and pour it all in.

Then melt a smaller amount of white chocolate and colour it green/orange. Put big splodges of colour onto the dark flavoured chocolate. Like so.

Then using a skewer, mix around the coloured chocolate to make swirls. I like to drag the skewer across the whole tray in zigzag motions. Charles likes swirling in a circle. Be creative!

Leave to set! When it’s set, peel off the foil and break it up into bite-sized pieces with your hands.

6. Rocky Road
First melt 500g of milk chocolate. Add a bag of mini marshmallows and half a bag of chopped peanuts! Mix it up and pour it into a tray. I didn’t take pictures of our progress with this one but it’s the easiest!