Retro Wallpaper Socks

 Here is another one of my designs. The inspiration was my retro 1070's kitchen wallpaper. It's hard to see in pictures, but the design is basically repeating hourglasses.  I knit these for hubby after being pestered about never knitting anything for him.  You can find a link to purchase the pattern in the upper right hand corner of the page.

New Jewelry

Here are my newest earrings

Sterling Silver Wire and glass teardrop.................. Gold filled wire, crystals annd beads wrapped

beads in two sizes/colors ...........................................with gold filled wire

gold filled wire, crystals ............................................silver shapes, dichroic glass beads

resin flowers........................................................... keishi and coin pearls

Simple shapes added onto ear wires

My newest bracelets

gold end caps, crystals and gold spacers .................olivine, aquamarine and clear crystals

my own design - glass crow beads .........................russian spiral with sterling silver end caps

silver leaves and Amazonite

Rilla Mittens

I made these mittens for a swap partner.  The design is pretty neat but I don't have much more than that to say.  I can't remember where i got the pattern so I can't put in a link.

Silver Beaded Earrings

Here are a pair of earrings I just finished making. They're a gift and the prompted hubby to ask if something like that could be sold online. LOL I can hear the wheels in his heads turning.....

I brought the kids to the airport this morning to leave for the summer with their dad. He used a different airline than he had been because the tickets were cheaper. But, when I got there they informed me that my two youngest were considered unaccompanied minors (which they weren't on the other airline) but the oldest couldn't be considered an accompanying adult so I had to pay a $100 fee for it. He'll pay me back, but it's a good thing I had money! To charge a fee like that on top of the ticket without stating so when the ticket is purchased is just bad business. His economy fares turned into not-so-economy.

So, in short, don't fly Delta/NWA. Southwest is MUCH better all around.

Jewelry and Lampwork Beads Part II

Here is another bracelet I made. It is another "Under the Sea" bracelet but this one is made with Purple and Turquoise beads for Em.

Here another pair of earrings I made. They're simple, but I like them.

These are the rest of the Lampwork beads I made last weekend. You can tell that I got better as the day progressed. My favorites are the upper left hand corner (purple and lime) and the bottom right hand corner (Turquoise, Ivory and Lime - the Ivory reminds me of Toasted Marshmallows).

Dawn (Bead Shop owner) made a bracelet out of her first beads. I liked the idea, so I made a bracelet just like hers. Now I will be able to remember back anytime I wear my bracelet. The class wasn't cheap, but the bracelet ended up costing less than a Pandora bracelet with a complete set of beads. Plus mine is better because I made all of it.

Back from a long hiatus.....

I lost track of blogging for awhile! I haven't been knitting much either. I think I needed a mental vacation from just about everything.

I started making jewelry again though. It's nice to have many hobbies so that you can switch back and forth between them so you won't grow tired of any of them!

I've made some jewelry with silver and gold wire and some with beads. I've been making mostly earrings and a couple of bracelets and a couple of necklaces. Today I took a class in Lampwork Bead making. So much fun and the creative possibilities are endless! Here are half of the beads I made today. These were made in the first half of the class so they are not that great. But, I still love them!

Top left - white with light blue and red dots

Top right - solid lavender encased in clear glass

Middle left - solid cobalt blue rolled in silver leaf and then encased in clear

Middle right - 2 lime green (my very first beads and not very round!) and orange, encased in transparent turquoise with white dots that were melted flatter than the ones on the top left

Bottom left - white round with orange and light blue dots

Bottom right - solid red with squiggle lines of light blue and white

It was such a great experience. The class was pricey but well worth the money. I will definitely go back for another one!

Here are the necklaces. The one on the left is browns and pinks and I kept it for myself. The one on the right was made as a Birthday gift for my friend Rox (Happy Birthday again Rox!)

I made these earrings for the same friend to go with the necklace. I LOVE them! They were an experiment and I can't wait to make a pair for myself.

These are the first earrings I made when I started taking classes. The beads were strung on wire, then that wire was coiled, then another thicker wire was put through the center and the whole thing was coiled again.

Next are all of the earrings I have made and kept for myself. The first pair below were made with gold accents and clear beads with flowers inside. I didn't realize it before, but I could make these beads now. It is just lamp work with flowers "drawn" with glass and then the whole bead was encased in clear. The second pair were made with jump rings and glass bead dangles. I have had these beads for years and love them. I am glad I finally found a good use for them.

This next pair is made with REALLY AWESOME beads. They seem like they are on fire and I had to have them when I saw them. I had no idea what i was going to make with them but bought a few of each side and came up with this design when playing around with them. The pair after those are made with one crystal, one square glass bead and a wooden bead. They are simple but I get a lot of compliments on them.

The next pair is also pretty simple. I think the focal bead is metal. The pair after those are made with another set of beads I fell in love with. I wound the wire at the base into a coil to make them more decorative.

These were pretty easy to make, but the wire bends easily so they become misshapen every time I wear them. If you hammer wire, it becomes less flexible but then it is easily snapped too, so I am afraid to try to use that as a solution.

This pair is easily my favorite pair. LOL They were stupid easy to make but I get a lot of comments on them. Most often, I hear, "Oh I get it! Chandelier Earrings", which is the direction i was going when I chose the materials.

Finally, here is the first bracelet I have made. It is called "Under the Sea" because some say it resembles a sea anemone. It was pretty time consuming, but well worth it. The beads are "sewn" onto the base and each stitch includes a 6.0mm bead an an 11.0mm bead.

So, there you have it. That's what I have been up to other than hanging out on Facebook taking stupid quizzes. LOL

Nutmeg Spinning Guild - April Meeting

Abby Franquemont was the guest speaker. I'm totally bummed that I had pre-decided to leave at lunch and made a commitment to go to the car dealer because she did ABSOLUTELY no spinning in the first half of the meeting. I'm not sure if she will spin after lunch but i will be evilly jealous of my friends if she does. But, alas, I need a new car......
I finally learned to spin with a spindle today. I have been spinning for just over a year on a wheel. I tend to jump into things with both feet and usually put the cart before the horse. So, this backwards learning is normal for me. HAH! I bought a "beginner" spindle at Rhinebeck last year and had yet to dig it out and try. So, I packed it up this morning with some Coopworth fiber that I have an ass load of and skipped off to guild. After about 20 VERY frustrating minutes of trying to spin and draft that fiber, I gave up (I know I'm impatient!) and went back to the vendors and bought a beautiful, but inexpensive smaller spindle that would spin faster so I could try lace weight and some BFL from "The Painted Sheep" that would be easier to draft. I tried spinning with that for about 20 more VERY frustrating minutes and found that it wobbled too much. So i went back to the vendor and asked if she would consider taking the spindle back for an upgrade to a more expensive spindle that would be easier for a beginner to use but still light enough to do lace weight. I settled on a beautiful all wood spindle that I would tell you the name of except my fiber is currently wound over the top of the name. ;0) I'll get back to you on it!

But here it is.....

Sundara Yarn Collection

I finally got into a Sundara Sock yarn Collection. I signed up for Summer. The description of the colors sound like they will lean toward what I like, so my fingers are crossed. These will be my first skeins of Sundara Yarn so I am excited. The sign ups are here, if you are interested. They just opened today.

New Fluevogs...

I got my new shoes today. Aren't they loverly????

My Whole House is Full of crazies....

...but these two are probably the craziest (and yes one of them is the dog!)

Even though she thought it was creepy, "E" couldn't get enough of my "disembodied" foot "mannequin". She thought it would be fun to model with my new Peeps Socks. Narrative by "E"

and then who can resist taking a picture of the most beautiful dog in the world???

"Wouldn't it be funny if I took a picture of myself smelling the foot???"

"Well, if it's good enough to model socks, it's good enough to rest my head on" (yes that is the foot)

This girl is seriously deranged....

"Hey! Why don't I take a picture of the dog looking at me upside down?" (isn't this the CUTEST picture ever??)

No photo shoot is complete without a wet kiss!

I love these two NUTS!

My New Pot Rack

My mom and step-dad have a pot rack in their kitchen that he built himself. I loved it so much, I asked him to make me one too. I've always wanted a pot rack and thought it would be perfect for my new kitchen. I even bought my first really nice set of pans in anticipation of being able to display them. I want to add to the pan set. There aren't nearly enough saucepans. But, this is a good start. Before now, my pans were a mismatched set that I collected over the years. I feel like a "grown-up" now!

After we hung this up and got the pans on, I felt like it was a real kitchen for the first time since we moved in 8 years ago. "E" said that it felt like home now. LOL Took long enough huh? Who knew all it would take is a couple of coats of fresh paint and a pot rack??

Woolgirl 2009 Sock Club - 1st installment

I got the first package of the new club year. The theme is "Queen of your Knitting - Cleopatra"

For the first time (since I have been a member) the kit included not only a sock pattern but also a scarf pattern. Jen wants us to stretch ourselves and knit something else with fingering weight besides yarn...

The yarn is a nice gold color (of course) and is Zen Yarn Garden. I love the rich color.

This is a small box shaped like a pyramid that had two chocolates enclosed. The chocolates were dusted with gold and silver powder.

Next is a note card with art by an artist who is local to Jen. It's pretty cute and right on theme. Love the sheep!

She also included an annual calendar magnet complete with all of the 2009 shipment dates. Clever girl!

Of course, she included some soak since no good sock kit comes without a sample of soak. ;0)

Her kits usually include a stitch marker and this one was made by Mama Llama. I really like the design. Snag-free!

The project bag is rich looking. It's from Lantern Moon. I love the color combo!

Hand made hand cream...

and finally, a pen that says Queen of Knitting.