A swap project

Finally! I can share this with you! I was participating in a swap on ravelry and knit up this little shawl. I had been hiding it since I didn't want the recipient to know or for it to get back to her. Finally, the package arrived in its destination and I can post about it!

 

The pattern is the Soleil Lace Shawlette. I used Neighborhood Fiber Company sock yarn in the "Shaw" colorway on size 8 needles. For anyone not familiar with Neighborhood Fiber Company, each color is named after a neighborhood in Washington, DC. Shaw happens to be where I live.

 

The pattern called for size 6 needles but I found that the fabric was too tight so I switched to the size 8s. With the size 8 needles, I could only do 13 repeats for the small size instead of the 15 for the larger size that I originally wanted to do.

A surprise for someone

I have finished knitting something but I can't post it for the world to see yet. I'm participating in a swap with a bunch of hockey loving knitters on ravelry (the group is Puck This!) and this is my package for the person I'm sending to. When that person has finally opened the package, I shall reveal my finished object.

For now, you can also wonder at what is in here

Frost Flowers & Leaves

Some time last year, my friend got engaged. She and her husband both knit and in fact she taught him how. Their wedding has a knitting theme and they wanted a knitted Chuppah. I was talking to her and had offered up some yarn that I had bought way back when at Stitches 2006. Somehow, it ended up being that I would knit it. I have always wanted to knit Frost Flowers and Leaves ever since I saw Eunny Jang's Frost Flowers & Leaves

Well, I started last year first winding up that large (LARGE) skein of yarn that was over 4000 yards. Not only did I wind it by hand, I wound it double stranded. Here it is sitting on top of my bike lock.







It came with me to Taiwan and China and while I was in China, I finished it.


Now my first day back, I washed and blocked it out on my bed. The outer stitch pattern is a lot more flexible than the stitch pattern in the center (you can see that in the photo above) so I actually had smaller blocking wires stretching out the center first before I went ahead and put the blocking wires through the outer edges. I also individually pinned each scallop along the side.







The wedding is in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping it all goes well with the chuppah poles. I'll post some action shots then.

Ring around my finger

I don't normally go for beaded rings but I'm here in Taiwan with barely any bead stash so I'm making do with what I've got to work with. There were still leftover beads from the Eiffel Tower bracelet and the shape of the components was inspiring me. The chatons wanted to be made into rings and so...







I picked up some Swarovski bicones to add some additional sparkle. I'm hoping to play around with this design some more and submit it to one of the magazines as a pattern. If not, look for it as an individual pattern sometime in the future!

Go For Baroque

Go For Baroque is a Melanie Potter kit from School of Beadwork. I picked it up at BeadFest Philly last summer and it is finally done! As usual with a Melanie Potter design, there's a lot of chevron stitch involved.



The seed beads used are all size 15/0s. Tiny!



The most frustrating part was probably the clasp. While normally odd count peyote stitch isn't a problem, it gets to be really finicky when you're working across 7 beads on size 15/0. I made the clasp three times before it was finally done. Third time's the charm!

And there's a set of earrings

Half year round up

I've been busy! I showed you the finished Eiffel Tower bracelet while I as in Taiwan. Then I headed to visit my dad in China where we went to Beijing. I got to climb the Great Wall!



I also managed to finish knitting the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl. There will be a separate blog post about that once I'm home and it is washed and blocked.



Finally, back in Taiwan, I also visited the National Palace Museum and ooh'ed and ah'ed over jewelry from the Qing dynasty and the House of Cartiers! Very inspirational for me!

Finally! I also finished this set from School of Beadwork called Go For Baroque. I will also include a separate post about this necklace but for now, I'll show you pictures!