I tried my hand at crocheting jewelry this week. At first I was trying to crochet onto some hoops but that wasn’t going well, so I ended up just freeform crocheting. My initial attempts were using 99cent 32ga wire from the crafts store, which gave me an idea of what stitches and hooks to use. Then my 
sterling silver dead soft 30ga wire arrived on monday. I also bought some (too expensive) pink tourmaline beads at the bead shop.
Here is the final product. The box is about 4″ square to give you an idea of scale. I used a G hook and prestrung my beads. I really like the organic feel of crocheted wire, and since you can only buy sterling silver wire in 1 oz spools (I got mine from artbeads.com) I still have plenty more wire (and beads!) to play with.
These are a gift for a friend who told me that I should make Lorene originals rather than copying some stuff I saw in a jewelry shop. Although the necklace I liked was $5000! And, yes I am still planning on making my own version of it.
I was in Portland, OR for a few days last week and I want on a little fiber binge. Scouting the yarn shops was good way to see the city!
My first stop was Knit Purl. It’s a relatively large shop with lots of different stuff. They carry ShiBui yarns – I later learned the shop’s owner started ShiBui. They had a ton of Koigu. I bought a skein of Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn and ShiBui Kid Merino in honey. Right around the corner is Josephine’s Dry Goods – a yarn store. It’s awesome, they have the most luscious fabrics. I bought a yard and a half of two Amy Butler cottons to make skirts. Then I went to a bead store and picked up some peridot tear drops for earrings I’m making.
Later that day I took the bus across the river and went to Yarn Garden in the Hawthorne district. I think this store must be knitting nirvana. There are 3 rooms at least the size of my bedroom that were floor-to-ceiling yarn. Then there’s another room that was full of books, patterns, and needles. They also have a connected cafe. The people there were very nice. I asked about bamboo yarn and was shown a whole “section” of it. Crazy! I ended up buying a ball of Crystal Palace Merino Frappe, 3 skeins of Louet Kidlin (for a wrap), and 3 balls of Classic Elite Bam Boo for a beret for my sister.
On the flight over and during my hotel downtime I’ve been working on Rusted Root. I’m glad I took the time to laminate the instructions. It’s going pretty well. I’m over 25% finished. The pattern is pretty straightforward and the way the sleeves are made is rather nifty.
I received an invite for Ravelry.com today. It’s a crochet/knitting community where you can track your stash, projects, needles, etc. It’s incredibly well done. I think I need to learn Ruby. I spent several hours this morning playing around with the site. It’s in beta so you need an invite to join.
I finally finished that Twisty Turns wrap I started a month ago. Why? Because I needed to wear it on saturday. Thus I spent about 8+ hours knitting on Friday. I put myself in front of my brother’s 42″ flatscreen and watched tv and knit and knit and knit. I saw Janice Dickinson’s Modeling Agency for the the first time. Seriously, other than the men modeling underwear it doesn’t have much going for it.
Anyway I knit until 12:30am, the point at which my hands were about to fall off. Then I put a note on the kitchen table for my mom asking her if she had a tapestry needle, since I didn’t bring one with me. Then I went to bed. My mom rocks, because as I had hoped, she wove all the ends in for me before I even got up. So all I needed do was sew it together.
I’m really happy with how it came out and I got a lot of compliments on it at the wedding. I love KnitPicks Andean Silk! It’s very soft and has a lovely sheen. I think I’ll wear this even for non dress occasions. It would work with a tank and jeans on a cool night.
I bought Wrap Style a long time ago, basically because I liked the Twisty Turns Wrap. Now I’m actually knitting it. How exciting! On a side note, when I went to amazon to get that link it informed me that I purchased Wrap Style on December 5, 2005)
I’m using Knit Picks Andean Silk in Pitch on size 7 needles. So far I’ve used 3.5 balls and I’m almost halfway done. Flying cross country is awesome for progressing on knitting projects. I only started this last friday. I am going to be snowboarding in Tahoe next week, so I may be able to finish it by the end of the month. That’s good since I need it to be done by mid April.
I updated my progress meteres on the right. I frogged those DyeoRama socks so I took it down. I came across the Knitty Sweater at home. I need to finish that up…maybe when I’m back for week in April.
I finished making the Knitty Fetching wristbands last week. They are a gift for my friend’s birthday. I was originally going to use KP Andrean Silk, but it didn’t get here in time so I used the recommended Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran. I’m glad I did; this stuff is luscious! I can’t remember the name of the color but it’s a lovely orangey red that photographs horribly.
In terms of project notes I did this using magic loop and I didn’t do the picot bind off. I gave them to Sue last night and she loved them. I bought another ball of cashmerino in blue to make some for an expecting friend and some tahki new tweed in brown to make them for myself.
Here’s how they look on so you can see the ribbing in action
One of my friends is coming to NYC to celebrate a big birthday next week so I decided to knit Knitty Fetching wristwarmers. I was going to order some Andrean Silk from Knit Picks, but with their shipping times I wasn’t sure I’d get it in time. So as you can see below, I went to yarnware.com and got some cashmerino aran.
I am a magic looper so I had to pull something off my Denise 40″ cable to get started last night. The knitting went pretty quickly once I got a rhythm for the cabling. I can’t wait for my grooved cable needles to get here!
I think I should be able to finish this one up tonight. I’m liking it in general so far and I really like the cable ribbing. I may have to make some mittens!
I recently posted about some camo yarn I had kettle dyed. Well last week I finally finished knitting the hat. It’s for my friend and he told me last night that he loves it and it fits perfectly. That’s good because he had claims of a big head, so I made it and it was huge! I had finished it when I realized was too short, even for me. So I undid the crown shaping and added an inch.
My friend didn’t even know I did they dyeing which I take as a compliment. It’s couture baby! I also did the inside band on smaller needles with a single strand, while the rest of that is on 10.5s using 2 strands of Knit Picks Andrean Silk.
I’ve decided my hats deserve real names. So may I please introduce Luella….
Luella has a ruched band that you can’t see so well in these photos. She’s made of KP’s Wool of the Andes (grey) and Lion Brand Wool Ease (green). She needs a large pompom. Luella is also not that pointy. My model’s head is just not a big as mine.
And here is a closeup of the ruching. I had originally planned to do a few rows of ruching, but it’s a lot of work and I am lazy.
I will write up the pattern…someday.
I thought all those ballband dishcloths from Mason Dixon knitter were pretty cool but I don’t have any use for them. Since I’m always looking for new patterns for hat I decided to adapt it. I don’t have the book but the same pattern is readily available on the internet.
It was an interesting knit. I don’t love the colors. I used Patons Classic Merino in green and one of the new ombre colors. I’m a lazy knitter so I always double up my yarn for hats, but that means the colors didn’t shift as they would in a single strand. If I had to do it again I’d make it with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky and Bulky Handpainted.
So here is the hat with the superpom
here is a detail shot of the pattern
I have both Vogue Stichionary books and I love them. I bookmarked a few patterns that I’ll be using for future hats.
My friend Amanda’s birthday was this week and I needed to send something off for her so I decided to make her a necklace. She broke her arm a few months ago so I decided to make her an agate necklace. One of the metaphysical properties of agate is healing. I got 2 stands of 4mm beads and on of 8mm beads. I’ve made necklaces before, but after the amazing bead flying incident at fuzzy’s bbq last week I wanted to try out knotting.
The smaller bead section is knotted between every 8 beads. The large bead secion has knots between every 3 beads. I used a bead awl so the knotting was pretty simple to do, but I’m surprised I don’t have a blister on my left index finger. Altogether the necklace is about 49″ long. So it can be single, double or triple wrapped.
I also made up a little pouchette for the necklace. Healing stones made me think of the little crochet bags my mom used to make when I was younger. I used to have a collection of stones I carried in the pouch around my neck. I decided to do a simpler version (my moms had patterns) with #3 pearl cotton. I used a 0 crochet hook and double crochet so it went rather quickly.
I’m sending her the necklace with a wee baggie of sea salt for purification. I hope she likes it.
