Basil in the window

My friend had been rooting a couple of basil stalks for me and today, I picked them up and installed it in my window farm. I also poured out the water and started the nutrient solution flow. They have some little bitty roots so the nutrient solution is mixed currently for cuttings and seedlings. The Thai basil seeds I started has one little leafy growth so I'm going to let that stay in my little plastic green house for a little while longer. Today, it looks like one of the spinach seeds was sprouting as well so that is really exciting.

Unleaving

I had bought the fiber from Into the Whirled at Maryland Sheep and Wool this year.




I was on such a spinning high at that point that even though there were only a couple of days before I left for my trip to Taiwan and I had so many things to do, I proceeded to spin it all up.





Right before the Olympics began, I was really itching to cast on something new and started with Unleaving. I didn't have the full yardage but since you start on one end, increase to the middle, then decrease to the other end, I could measure about where the mid point of my yarn is and adjust otherwise. Size 8 needles were used in this project.

Overall, I really enjoyed this fiber and I enjoyed watching the color changes in the yarn.

Starting Wingspan

I haven't been feeling so well the last couple of days. My nose has been congested so I've been light headed and feeling a bit muddled. I don't have enough brain power to do much beading and I have just enough brain power to do some simple knitting. I finished my last "simple" knitting project (write up to come, it's currently soaking) and wanted another "simple" knitting project. And so, "Wingspan"!

This pattern has been knit up by many many people and I loved how it looked with yarns that have LONG color gradients. I had picked up some Kauni a couple of years ago during the St. Paul Frozen Four trip and I thought this was a nice project for it. So, the first triangle, DONE!

Not always about beads or yarn!

It's not always about the beads or yarn here!

My current project involves growing my own food. I live in an apartment in the city. I don't have land. I don't want land. I was never a fan of playing in the dirt. A couple of years ago, I heard about Window Farms. A woman in Brooklyn was learning about self sustaining agriculture and wanted to grow her own food in her little apartment. That idea has grown into a world wide crowd sourcing project. The website offers a DIY model from which people all over the world have build and modified and shared.

In my apartment, I have some floor to ceiling windows that face the east and south. There are two windows in my kitchen in particular that can let in a lot of heat if I don't have the curtains up. I figured, why not? I can grow edible plants in my windows and hope they help to keep the place cool AND I can get some herbs out of it. I hate paying for a bunch of herbs and I can only use a few leaves before they all go bad. Not only that, people have also grown lettuce and most leafy vegetables as well as peppers, green beans, and strawberries! I can't wait!

My test set up is currently hanging off of some eye hooks that the previous occupants had put up. I will probably add a bar to the window to permanently hang these. The lime green rope? I crocheted it with some Peaches and Cream.



I plan on getting some basil from a friend and in the mean time, I'm starting from seed some sage, oregano, parsley, Thai basil, and spinach:

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!

The Eiffel Tower Bracelet

I'm over on the other side of the world in Taiwan. I'm here for a bit and thought kits were a good way to bring some beads with me without having to dig through my entire bead stash. First project that I've finished is a design by Laura McCabe called the Eiffel Tower Bracelet. The kit can be found at Just Let Me Bead.

It was a fun project and I definitely learned from it. Once I finished the first component, the rest went quickly. The construction is brilliant because I wouldn't have thought to combine the herringbone stitch and peyote stitch in this way!

Stashes

Bead stash, yarn stash. I have them both. I recently left my job for sanity reasons and have been doing some traveling and working on my house. I had moved into the place a year ago but it had only been a glorified hotel for that amount of time. The big things have been unpacked but I just didn't have the energy to DO anything to the place. Well, I painted and I got a wardrobe from IKEA. The wardrobe from IKEA was a big puzzle that left me near tears and I finally had to call someone in to finish it. I know people have been wanting to know how I store things and what my stash looks like. At the end of 2011, I showed you all my yarn stash all laid out on my bed. Well, now you can see that from the bed, it went into these Rubbermaid containers


I can't hide these containers in a closet so it gives me extra motivation to work through the yarn because this just looks ugly.
As for the beads...I present the IKEA wardrobe of beads!


The top shelf is just storage of jewelry trays, extra stuff. The large shelf has my stem wire, beading work trays, a couple of containers of unfinished projects, and my container of all of the Swarovski crystals. Then we get to the drawers.

I have trays of focal beads, buttons, lampwork beads, a box of glass beads, findings


A drawer of my tubed seed beads. These are mostly the Japanese beads.


Then 3 drawers full of Czech seed beads

In Suspense

I bought this kit last year at Bead Fest Philadelphia from School of Beadwork. It's a Carol Wilcox Wells design. It was simple and repetitive, perfect for my current mindset. Also, since I was traveling, I figured it was a good project to take a long because the kit came with everything! It's a two sided hanging pendant.

There's a purple side and an orange/gold side.

There are some dangling sparklies at the end of the lariat Overall, it was a fun piece to work on!

End of April round up

I realized this morning that it's the last day of April. Eeek!!!!!! I wanted to throw in a blog post so I have something for the month. I should definitely have something finished to show in the next week.

Then, I'm off to visit the family for an extended trip! I hope there's more to share beyond that but I'm doing a lot of planning so I'm keeping things close to the vest for now.

Suspended

Suspended. It refers to my job that I left but also to this necklace. I had recently bought a red dresses that I wanted some jewelry for.



This was originally inspired by a couple of Laura McCabe creates and I finally made this based off of her Crown Jewels design. Instead of six Swarovski rivolis, I used two and then used beaded rings for the other four sides. That is an odd count peyote rope that I then thread through the rings. I wanted this to seem like it is suspended on the rope, hence the name "Suspended".





I love my toggle clasps. I also love it when I can add a bit of details to the toggles!



The bracelet, well, I'm not that happy with it. I was inspired by a bangle bracelet that I had seen. If I make this again, I wouldn't make it a bangle. I would include a clasp. Also, I'm not sure if I would use the peyote rope because it does have a tendency to twist and stretch which was not something I was going for.

A trio of orchids

The month of beading started off slow. It picked up about halfway through. I went to the National Capital Orchid Society's monthly meeting and found out about the Maryland Orchid Society's show and the art exhibit they have there. I spoke to the woman in charge and hey, it was time to put 3 orchids together to submit.

The show is next weekend, March 9-11 at the Timonium Fairgrounds. If you're in the area and want to go look at orchids and maybe my three plants, go check it out!



I've had the Phalaenopsis for a couple of years. It had the dust to prove it. I wiped it down with a damp paper towel and it was good to go!



I shared with you the re-potted Dancing Lady last weekend.



Last night, I finished up the Lady Slipper Orchid.



The orchids are for sale at the show and I hope they do sell. However, if I have to bring them home, I can't say I would complain. They will end up going on etsy but in the mean time, I can enjoy the beauties!

More beady things!

Yes, I've been busy! I've actually had the parts for this African Violet sitting around my house. I had made them one day while I was teaching a class at Bead Obsessions. That would be at least 2 years ago. When it came time to assemble, I ended up making new leaves and let myself have the creative freedom to not follow a pattern but just go and came up with this.

This became a birthday present for my friend Nina because her cats eat all of her real plants so she can't keep any at home. Well, now she can have a plant at home.

Re-potting an orchid: A pictoral

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you this poor orchid:


It needed to be re-proportioned and a smaller cointainer.












Re-potting a plant in the beaded world is a little different than re-potting in the real world!