Wedding Jewelry

I made this pair of earrings for a friend's wedding. She had already found the necklace but was having a hard time finding earrings in a coordinating style.

They're actually not put together in the pic - I added a short chain (she insisted on keeping it short) to give them just a little swing. As soon as I get ahold of some of the professional pics from the wedding I'll show off the coordinating garter that I helped her out with too! Plus nicer pics of the earrings, of course.



I had some pearls and silver beads in my stash, and she hunted down some pearls and swarovski crystals that matched her necklace. I was so inspired by making the earrings that I started making stitch markers for my knitting group in a similar style. Fancy pants stitch markers actually do give me a little more motivation to get another round done! I'll try to get some more pics taken soon, but my camera is pretty limited on close-up ability.

The Socks...

For the trade. Yes, I finished them almost a month ago and gave them to the recipient. I received my lovely hand-dyed roving ages ago. And now you get to look at these socks! Yay!

I took too many pics and although I have edited them I'm too lazy to sort them so you get to look at all of the pics. Yup. Don't make fun of my hairy legs, it was too cold to shave at the time. *Ahem.*

Pictures, Finally!

Whew, it's been a while. I've been having so much fun cruising everyone else's blog and putting off my picture editing for this one!

I have some sewing content to post first. My purse's strap fell off, and although I tweaked it there was no saving the thing. I looked in the stores and there were a few purses that met my specifications... unfortunately I'm not made of money so I didn't buy any of them.

I had been playing around with craft bags made from placemats and this idea began fomenting in my brain (yes, I meant "fomenting" and not "fermenting"). An idea for a lining. An idea which continued to grow in complexity but whose most defining feature was an inner pocket with a nifty zip. And the idea expanded to include a top covering with zipper (because my purses inevitably end up upside-down at some point).

I couldn't shake the idea and after a couple of days of hedging I began my quest for a purse! Behold, my vision completed:

This pic shows the front, including the black onyx & pearl beads I added. I had black material for the lining so I needed some black accents on the bag. The pearls are hard to see but they're in the center of the bottom right flower (they're freshwater pearls that are shaped like rice crispies).


The back of the bag with my beadwork.


Look at that cute lining!


This shows the pocket opening (idea) that possessed my brain. I am particularly proud of it.


The rest of the pictures show the interior, with various pockets for my junk.








Oh yeah, I got the cute placemat from World Market. It's fun and easy to make your own placemat bag, they don't need a lining to be handy. Just fold it in half and sew up the sides, then fold in a very short triangle on each bottom corner (making sure they match) and sew it on the wrong side. Add some ribbon for handles and you're set! Perfect for carrying small knitting projects.

Sorry I'm a Slacker

I'm still alive, I'm just lazy about posting I guess. I did a spinning swap on Craftster.





Obviously I had to do a lot of spinning for the spinning swap, plus I did a little sewing project. This bag later received brown velvet handles but I sent it without taking any more pics.



You can check out better pics of everyone's stuff in the swap gallery here. My partner was FroggyFibers and of course I'm Lystessa.

I've been working on a very tedious newborn dress out of the cashmere I recycled from a thrift store sweater... I want to show that one, but I want to wait until it's completely finished. Let's see what else... I've been working on some socks for a trade in the local spinning guild.

Here's the exciting part, the heel turn. I've knitted more but haven't bothered to take any more pics yet.





And I made a batch of extremely ugly soap somewhere in there.

And over December and parts of January we cleaned some, moved some, traveled, cleaned some more, moved some more, finished cleaning at the old apartment, traveled some more, came back home and tried to put stuff away. Discovered that the dryer was inadequate, researched and bought a dryer. (We still haven't hauled off the old one, but we will. At least we covered it with a tarp. So we look like rednecks with this tarped thing on our front stoop, but not complete hicks with dead appliances on our lawn).

Yeah, I think that's about it. I've been neglecting my hobbies and *gasp* cleaning! Weird, I know. I'm afraid to tell my husband that the reason the floor got mopped, and stuff is mostly staying put away or getting put away, and the laundry is getting done... is because I've been limiting my hobby time and I have to do something to keep from being bored. What if he got smart and threw my crafts out? He might never have to clean again... or maybe even cook either! He does most of the supper cooking and that's pretty much all the cooking that happens in our place.

Wanna See Something Cute?

Hehehe, we caught this little guy and my son just thinks he's hilarious! We did release him (a long way away) after taking this video.

One Christmas Present - Done! - Updated!

My husband's niece has become a princess, apparently; so I had to get crafty and make sure she has the proper equipment!

(My son is modelling. He likes it too, and she's just a year older than him AND she's petite, so I think it will be a good fit).







The crown pattern used to be one of the free patterns listed on Interweave Knits, but I can't find it to link to it now. Sorry! If it makes you feel any better, the pattern only covered the actual knitting. I worked out the bead and ribbon embellishments.

**Update** Apparently the website for this pattern was only temporarily unavailable and when I looked today I found it. Although the link was broken and I had to cobble the correct link together by comparing it to a working link for a different pattern. http://www.interweaveknits.com/freepatterns/pdf/sum_06/Make_Believe_Crowns.pdf

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Good luck with all your Christmas projects everyone!!

Mushroom Hat

I made a hat out of some heavy handspun (straight off a washed fleece). I was trying to follow a pattern but it was apparent within the first few lines that the pattern was really really wrong and would definitely not yield the pictured hat. So I kind of winged it from there.

It is hard to get pictures of cables in black yarn when you can't use flash. Sorry!