Twisted Herringbone Pyrite Cab

The main portion of the necklace is based on the Gemstones in Ndebele Herringbone Components from Bead and Button, April 2007. I attached a pyrite cab to one of the herringbone spikes.

knitted things

I found that after some exercise, my calves really did get smaller! I put on my Anna Socks today

and wore them for the whole day. The first and only time I had worn them, I had to take them off in mid afternoon because they were cutting off the circulation in my legs. I guess after all the running last year, my calves got smaller!

In other news...I sat down and knit with Amber and Amber on Sunday and told them to yell at me if I attempted to work on anything other than sewing in the ends and putting the fringe on Charlotte's Web. It was not as painful as I had imagined it to be.

dear elann...

why are you so fucking evil? first i saw inexpensive kid mohair. now, 100% silk?

"blogging while drunk"

there are some...

frakin' evil people in the world.

I'M GOING TO DENVER!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

and I took a personality test...I'm a mastermind. Mwahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Some housekeeping

Yeah...of the beaded variety. It's a task I've had in mind so I finally got around to it today. I added 2 items to the etsy shop today:




I haven't decided yet what else will be going on there. I've also been toying around with the idea of putting some floral pieces on there.

Blog titles

Has anyone ever wondered why I titled this blog "From the Depths of My Creative Madness"? Well, if you haven't figured out why yet, let me present yet another example...



That second picture is a close up of the needles so you can see how the stitches look.

This is the Snow Shawl. I've now transferred it from DPNs to a 24inch circular needle. And well, I can't seem to stop working on it right now. Even though the needles are tiny for lace...and the mohair is really hairy...and if I'm messed up, I should just kick myself and burn the thing...I.just.can't.stop.

Beginning of the Snow Shawl

Beginning of the Snow Shawl
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

I bought this Snow Shawl Kit at Stitches 2006. I've been thinking about it recently and decided to start in on this after I finished the Swallowtail. It's pretty, I'm in a lace knitting mood and it looks warm.

So, as I started knitting, I started wondering "WTF possessed me to buy this?"

Okay, yeah, it's intriguing and it's a challenge and it sure will be pretty! But those are size 2 needles using kid mohair! And it's not nice small halo mohair like Doceur et Soie. No. This is mean nasty mohair where if you mess it up too badly, you might as well just burn the thing cuz you're never going to frog it.

Finished Swallowtail Shawl

This is my finished Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits, Fall 2006. The yarn was Schaefer Anne using size 8 needles. I did make some modifications to the original pattern. I wanted to try to use up as much of the Schaefer Anne as I could so first I did 2 extra repeats of the Budding Lace chart. This then added 4 extra stitches to each row. I divided the extra stitches evenly by adding an extra stitch just before and after the center yarn overs and an extra stitch by the edge yarn overs. When I get to the Peaked Edging chart, I now have 8 extra stitches on each half of the shawl. Four I added to the what amounts the first repeat (section closest to edge) and the other four I added to what amounts to the last repeat (section closest to center) of each half.

Me is happy.

First finished object of 2008

The Swallowtail Shawl is now soaking in preparation for blocking. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Finishing

Last time when I wrote, I was working on some socks for my dad. Well, here they are:


Not only was the foot long, he likes a long cuff...I cast on last Wednesday and finished this up last night. I basically made myself sit and knit mindlessly in front of the tv when I was home. I'm glad I got it done. He leaves tomorrow.

And now I continue on with the Swallowtail Shawl and am making good progress.

New Year, New Goals

So, 2008 is finally here. The last months of 2007 have been a bit difficult with some upheaval at work. That caused a funk in the knitting and the beading and a lack of motivation to continue with the running. It saw me running off to New York when I could for whatever reason. So here's to 2008, I hope it's a better year.

What I hope to accomplish this year:

• Create a pattern for a beaded cherry blossom branch


• Knit the Cherry Blossom shawl from Interweave Knits, Spring 2002


• Put the fringe together for Charlotte's Web and finally mark that off as "Done"


• Work through my unfinished objects and either finish them or cut my losses and frog


• Figure out my beading life


• Create some potted plants for some friends to whom I have promised potted plants to in 2007, beaded of course


• Finish 1 amaryllis

Btw, the African Violet pattern is here for anyone who is interested.