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Sewing, knitting, embroidery, easy and fashion blog

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We are currently involved in the Journal de Couture project. The Ulule fundraising campaign has ended with 221 sales!

The notebook will not only be able to be born but also, its sale will be able to be perpetuated on our site ! We are very happy with this news, without you, the Journal would not have seen the light of day...

Now to the sales! We have many products at -50% to propose to you and it is by here :

Over 200 items are on sale!

Find at low prices:

- The haberdashery, buttons, braids, embroidery canvas, embroidery kits, belt buckles...

- Cheval Blanc Amande wool, Fonty Bohème wool, Mérisoie wool and chain from the Valgaudemar spinning mill...

- Fabrics, veils, wedding dress fabrics, ethnic fabrics...



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Comments Posted in General information By Amandine

To keep the little heads and necks warm, we have concocted a scarf bonnet for you. This baby knitting kit is ideal in these temperatures!

The bonnet and its scarf are knit in wool Ambiance from Fonty with needles 4.

The knitting kit is quick to make. Start with the cap, then decrease to create the back of the head. The scarf is simply made in the jersey stitch. It is attached by an invisible seam to the cap.

In this picture, our little A has a bonnet in Ambiance wool pearl grey 308 and his Augustin striped sweater assorted.

Rediscover also the Augustin striped sweater knitting kit , one of our beginners kits, very easy to make in striped or plain version.


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Comments Posted in News By Amandine

How to knit socks?

Nov 30, 2016 12:00:00 AM

You dream of a nice warm pair of socks for this winter and you know how to knit? Two positive points to finally get you started.

The equipment

- 1 set of 5 KnitPro double-tipped needles or 3 mm circular needles

- 1 wool ball Balade from Cheval Blanc

- 1 simple socks model

The method

Knitting socks can be a little scary seen from afar, to start we knit in circles!

But don't worry, knitting in circles is not difficult, here is a video that could help you.

Traditionally, socks are started with the upper and lowered to the toes. Other models are presented in the other direction which can be not bad to try your sock at the same time as you knit.

Stem and foot are not difficult to knit. For the heel, there are many methods depending on the desired rendering. You ask me the best heel method, here is one (in English on ravelry).

The tip is the rewarding period of the sock: the final cuts! It asks to realize decreases according to the model, nothing complicated.

 

Knitting needles

The double-tipped needles are not very easy to handle at first, but after a first handling, it goes pretty fast.

With KnitPro circular needles , you will use the magic loop method. It is a simple method which, for my part, takes a little longer.

I advise you to take needles n°3. Tiny you tell me? But it is the ideal number for the socks, thicker than in the trade and thus quite warm but thin enough all the same to continue to enter in your shoes!


The wool

Which wool will you choose? This choice is not insignificant. If you're going to knit socks, they might as well keep your feet warm and last a long time, right?

The ideal wool should contain a majority of wool and a little polyamide. Polyamide will allow the sock to resist friction. We suggest you our favourite wool:

- The Balade from Cheval Blanc balls.

Among this wool, you will have the choice between many colors but also the ecological range! A yarn made from 100% recycled fibres: 70% wool, 20% polyamide and a mixture of 5% other fibres.

If you want to make original, lean for the two-tone , you'll never get tired of it.

This wool is knitted with needles n°3, still our ideal number to knit your first pair of socks.

All you need is only one ball to make your pair of socks.
.

The pattern

Now let's go, you'll see, knitting socks is a wonderful experience! But which model to choose?

Crucial choice because knitting socks can be a bit long, especially that you have to knit 2. You therefore need a model that will not tire you so that you remain motivated for the 2nd sock.

Even if a simple jersey model can attract you at first sight, I advise you rather to start with a relief stitch or with an easy cable stitch.

If you have a Ravelry account (the knitting facebook), otherwise I advise you to open one, it's easy and free (be careful the website is in English). Some easy patterns are available in French:

- Hermione's everyday socks

- Shtroumpfette's socks

- Pretty harbour (english)

Personally, I also really like these and their little cross motifs.



Have you decided? Then go for it. Warm socks for Christmas is a good gift idea, right? Do not hesitate to share your creations in wool socks Stroll on our Facebook page or Instagram #aetapatrons.


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Comments Posted in Tutorials & tips By Amandine

The cashmere sweater and ecology

Nov 14, 2016 12:00:00 AM

This cashmere sweater so soft and warm, we all look for it in winter... Expensive, but prices are falling.

Unfortunately to the detriment of a territory and a people: Mongolia.

Being an adept of beautiful natural wool and knitwear , this subject particularly affects me. People often ask me: why don't you offer cashmere in a ball?

Here are some arguments to explain you, evoked in particular by my dear spinning Fonty:

1/ Cashmere goat produces very little wool: 100 to 150g. The mohair goat is rather around 3.5kg. You need some cashmere goats to make a sweater! Basically, we multiply the necessary grass area by 20.

2/ Goats pull the grass to the root, unlike sheep.

Cashmere production is naturally in fragile areas: Gobi and Altai steppes in Mongolia. By increasing demand, the development of livestock farming is leading to desertification that is close to an ecological catastrophe:

The Gobi Desert progresses about 500 meters per year.

3/ The extra-fine Merino wool is of a casi softness comparable to cashmere! But here it is, it has less good reputation, is cheaper and resellers make less margins...

Yet this merino wool is now found in each of the balls 100% natural wool from our French spinning mills . The treatments currently allow a washing machine operation at 30°, what more could you ask for? Note that the hottest wools are yak, alpaca, mohair and merino instead of cashmere.

If you are interested in the subject of cashmere, this video will teach you more:


Cashmere, alpaca, mohair...What differences?

This subject affects me even more because Mongolia does not even benefit from its cashmere wool, considered the most beautiful in the world! Indeed, Mongolia does not have the industrialization capable of transforming cashmere into yarn on a large scale nor to knit them... Everything is sent to its neighbouring country (1st cashmere producer in the world): China.

 

So it's decided, not only I still don't sell a ball of cashmere wool but also, my next sweater will be merino wool!

What do you think of that?

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Comments Posted in Discoveries By Amandine

It's getting cold, so we think winter, coats, knitwear?!

What would you like to sew for this winter 2016/17? To help you in your investigations, we introduce you our selection with beautiful novelties !

Buttons for coats

Our coat fabrics:
wool and boiled wool

Knitting kits

The velvet milleraies

 

Image term translation:

boutons en corne pour manteaux : horn buttons for coats
kit tricot: knitting kit

laine bouillie de luxe: luxury boiled wool

lainage pour manteaux: woollen for coats

Our wonderful luxury red, black and blue boiled wools will be perfect to sew you a coat this winter. These boiled wools are 100% wool of very beautiful quality. Metal, wood, horn or marble buttons are ideal for winter coats and jackets.

Don't forget our brandebourgs , these straps can be sewn on a pea jacket, cape or coat and can give a very chic effect. We have brandebourgs to sew in leather or imitation leather.

If you want to start knitting for this winter, we propose you

some Knitting kits for beginners !:

Very nice accessories like the Pavel hat kit with its mohair wool, the Sorlin snood kit in XXL wool and the minute mitts in recycled French wool. Stay informed about the release of the new knitting kits during winter around here.



the sewing skirt, poncho, jacket and sweater patterns made by A&A can be good sewing project ideas for this winter.

And you, what would make you dream of sewing for this winter?

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Comments Posted in Tutorials & tips By Amandine

More than 130 products sold off!

Jul 11, 2016 12:00:00 AM

Summer has arrived, it's time to present our sales! We handpicked over 130 items on sale.

There is something for everyone and all passions:

Fabrics, artificial leather, mesh fabric and devoured fabric, all our embroidery canvas!


But also laces, braids, trimmings with fringes...


The Gueret wool from Fonty, Almond from Cheval Blanc but also some Valgaudemar Spinning Mill cottons...

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Comments Posted in General information By Amandine

Different knitting fibers

Jan 9, 2014 12:00:00 AM

There are many brands, sources and materials of yarn to knit or crochet. It can be sometimes confusing. Astonishment that one might think the wool has a very marginal position in the international market for textile fibers, only 2% of production against 37% cotton and 60% synthetic materials.

We chose A & A to put forward of fibers and spinning that we hold dear such as animal and vegetable fibers carded, spun or put ball in France to ensure that ancestral know-how. To help you better choose your yarn and wool, a summary of the fibers and their characteristics:

- Animal material

As the name suggests, these are all the fibers that may have knit from an animal. So general, it is called wool.

Many animals produce wool , the most common being the sheep , animal inhabiting a variety of regions of the world counted among 1 billion animals. There is also a breed of sheep prized for its particularly rich , soft and warm wool : merino . Sheep wool now comes largely from Australia, China and New Zealand.

Unfortunately, the production of wool in sheep in France today is very valued, it is also very competitive . However , spinning Rougnat ( Fonty ) created a project in partnership with a local association of the Creuse to upgrade and use local merino black sheep . They relocated Portuguese Merino breed in the Creuse and have created a range of unbleached wool black (with white merino wool blend ) natural undyed: The Fado wool.

Besides the sheep, wool can also come from the alpaca, a native animal of the Andes in South America whose production is mainly in Peru. Its wool is soft, very warm and slightly hairy. We find more and more alpaca wool mixed with sheep's wool or merino wool in the ranges of French mills. In Fonty, we have Boréal and Pole , in Cheval Blanc, we have Quito .

Mohair is a very hairy wool from the Angora goat (not to be confused with the wool of the same name from angora rabbits) from Turkey. Mohair is very soft and light, especially used for stoles, shawls, scarves... Mixtures of wool or mohair and lurex knitted yarn in some loosing way can also give a beautiful rendering. Mohair now comes from South Africa or the United States.

Cashmere wool is known as a "luxury" because it is very fine and soft and dear formerly found everywhere today. Wool from goats of the same name is produced mainly in the region of Mongolia. Part in the country of the same name, and the vast majority in the Lower Mongolia in China, in the Gobi Desert. Cashmere production has greatly increased in recent years in this country, flocks of goats have intensified, causing an increase in desertification and dust to the region of Beijing. The country is mobilized today to avoid the problem takes more important.

The angora comes not from goat but the rabbit! This is a very soft and supple fiber. Raising Angora is made on a large scale in China (the first world producer) and on small farms in France and Eastern Europe.

The camel also should be knit. It is a soft, fine wool like cashmere but quite rare. The hair is from the Mongolian camels down and from Kazakhstan.

The rarer Yak wool is very soft and warm. This wool is mainly harvested in Mongolia. Fonty offers camel wool and yak wool in different natural colors.

Silk is an animal material from the cocoon of the caterpillar of the mulberry tree. This is a popular fiber because it is very light, strong and unusual amount even if production is rising sharply. Industrial sericulture is mainly developed in Asia. We offer a range of merino wool and silk that is silky and very enjoyable to knit from spinning Valgaudemar: Merisoie. .

- Plant material

There is much to say about least hot plant material, much less known knitting because lighter and therefore preferred for spring or summer. Still, there are some very nice models top, dresses, accessories for spring and summer knitting cotton or linen.

The cotton plant material par excellence. It is a soft, highly breathable, and inexpensive, this makes it the most widely used natural fiber in the world and the most cultivated plant (2.5% of global agricultural land). The main producers are China, the U.S., India and Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the cultivation of cotton requires a lot of water and pesticides which resulted in many soil degradation in producer countries.

It is therefore important to highlight the culture of organic cotton much less profitable but helps preserve the environment. Spinning Rougnat (Fonty) offers organic cotton yarn from natural or stained Peruvian without chemicals (through dye plants): Coton Nat . This is an extremely soft and comfortable knit cotton.

There are also cotton yarn from recycled jersey: the trapilho. This large wire turned on itself is very pleasant to knit or crochet to quickly create large pieces bags, baskets, baskets, mats, etc.. We offer on-site large or small coils trapilho.

The cultivation of flax goes far back in the history of agriculture. This is a very resistant and extremely breathable fiber for great heat. France to long been a major producer of the material. Today is also China and Russia produce. World production of flax is losing momentum. Fonty once decided to enhance the production of yarn Calin available in cone or ball of 50g and more still.

- Synthetic materials

Less expensive than natural fibers, synthetic fibers are now ubiquitous in all the clothes: acrylic, polyamide, polyester ... you see them everywhere! acrylic may seem soft and silky and is very easy to tint. The polyamide is very durable and wrinkle resistant. The polyester is silky and very lightweight.
Synthetic fibers such as acrylic are created from chemically fused to obtain a wire polymers.

Moreover, these fibers pose many problems:

They are charged easily with static electricity, which can sometimes make it not very pleasant to wear clothing.The acrylic can look very soft to purchase and easy to maintain in the long run proves very biased to pilling. Synthetic materials are often heat-sensitive. Their chemical production releases harmful gases.

We offer little or virtually no yarn from wool plastic because we opted to develop natural fibers. Whether animal or vegetable fibers, their production and manufacturing issues are often of an ancestral know-how that we wish to highlight to allow income to local farmers that produce them. Find all our knitting yarns on this page .

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