Double Amaryllis

It's finally finished! I started it sometime last year? Or maybe it was earlier this year? It sat on haitus over the summer because I couldn't find some wire. Then I did find the wire and it still continued to sit. I decided to clear through some WIPs last week and this was on the top of the list because I knew how close I was to finishing. Of course, there was more search for wire (when I found it the first time, I stuck it in the box with everything else), then search for some 24 gauge green wire, and finally, search for my hack saw. This is what happens when I step away from this stuff for a while. But it's done! It's exciting!

I still have 1 more amaryllis bulb. The goal is to go for a total of 3 potted plants. It's crazy, I know!

WIP Wednesday - a day late

I dug out my amaryllis in progress and kept working. I finally found the wire I needed to complete the centers. All that's left is the greenery. Here are all of the flower parts

Wingspan

Something knitted and finished! This is Wingspan! The yarn is Kauni and this is all knit on size 4 needles. Kauni is known for their long color changes. I was easily fascinated watching the yarn change color as I knit this. I went beyond the number of triangles the pattern called for and just kept going until I was almost out of yarn. I think I may have actually knit double the number of triangles the pattern called for.

More fun with hydroponics

I'm still working on putting the second column of the window farm together. The problem I'm currently struggling with is that when I divide the air flow between the two columns, there's not enough pressure to push the water all the way up to the top.

In the mean time, I have some parsley and oregano that have sprouted. They didn't seem to be growing much more in the pellets and I knew that it was time to start feeding them some nutrient solution, but how? I'm still working on the second column. I remembered something I had seen and in fact had pinned on pinterest. It involved cutting a bottle in half to create a planter container with a wick that draws the water up. I also remembered seeing a version with 2 liter soda bottles and after having built my window farm, I know that plastic water bottles are easy to cut.



The idea then became a reality. I started with the parsley because it had sprouted first. I cut the center section out of a water bottle and then inverted the top into the bottom water reservoir. Into the upper part of the bottle, I placed a small piece of paper towel and then a layer of the rock wool cubes. I then set my pellet on top the rock wool and filled out the sides with more rock wool. The paper towel is used to keep the rock wool from falling down into the reservoir but also to help draw water upwards. The water is more of the hydroponic nutrient solution. I keep the water level filled so that the paper towel is sitting in it so that it doesn't dry out.



That new leaf on the right popped up once I planted it here.

As for the oregano, I only planted it a couple of days ago so I'm still waiting for it to grow a little more.

Window Farm Flourishing

It's been a couple of weeks since I've had the window farm in my window and all seems to be going well. The only real "problem" I've had is that the outlet in my kitchen periodically needs resetting. Thankfully, I tend to catch it after the pump has stopped running for a couple of hours so the plants haven't had a chance to dry out.

At the top of the column, I have some mint julep. I realized that having mint on hand is handy when you want to make mojitos. In the middle is the basil. At the bottom is some Thai basil. I had bought the mint from a vendor at my local farmer's market. I washed the dirt off of the roots and planted it in the rockwool cubes.

The basil has been interesting. I planted it in only a couple of weeks ago but now, the roots have already grown out of the net pot it's sitting in and you can see it at the opening of the bottle and starting to stretch out of the cap!



The Thai basil...well, I started this from seed in one of those little pellet things. Once I saw a couple of leaves pop up, I wanted to see what happens when I add it into the farm. I think it's been enjoying the constant nutrient drip. It's growing slowly but it is still growing and today, I just noticed that another seed had sprouted!



There is some parsley and oregano in the works so this week, I need to start working on my second column.

Pretty Pink Necklace

Last time, I gave you a quick preview of this necklace. Today, I finished it!



The large stones are some crazy lace agate that I found at Bead Fest. The larger round stone is cut in a way that I didn't want to hide one of the sides. The grey portion is also slightly transparent so I wanted to be able to hold it up and see light through it. There is a strip of peyote stitch that goes around the edge and I used netting to capture the stone.



There are some smaller faceted stones in the fringe and that connects the two pieces of crazy lace agate that are some left over tourmaline from a past project. The pink of the tourmaline fit right in.



Finally, that is a straight peyote stitch bale. I did think about adding some fringe or other decoration to it but it seemed to be enough as it is once I put the necklace together. I made a twisted herringbone rope for the necklace along with a beaded toggle to complete the piece!

Pink! Fringe!

I picked up the crazy lace agate and the dagger beads at Bead Fest. I managed to find some of the other beads from my stash. It's a work in progress!

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!