Things Treasured

This new set of stitch markers was made for the Ravenclaw Postal fundraiser yardsale. I’m about to go put it up now. However, I’ll have sets just like these in a multitude of colors very shortly when I get my etsy shop open. It’s very exciting. I love these little stitch markers.

 

 

And a few tidbits to show you of in progress projects!

 

 

 

 

I’ve been doing a bit of crochet lately. I was attempting to make a messenger style bag. I need a new ‘purse’. Well I sort of just designed this as I went. It’s a lovely green strip, and then a variegated green stripe around and around in a circle. It’s definitely durable because I made it out of cotton. However, it really turned out too larger and too round. I discovered I really don’t want a round bag on my side. But it will make a lovely beach bag I think.
 

You know, sometimes you need to make something just because it is fun. This past weekend, my best friend and her son, her mother, my husband and I went to the pumpkin picking farm. While I was there I bought some sunflowers to keep on my nightstand.
Now if you follow my other blog at all, you know how zombie obsessed I am. You would know all about Plants VS Zombies by now.
Without further ado… my Pea Shooter! He lives on the nightstand with the sunflowers. Naturally.

New creations for Diadem Days.

As it turns out, I like baking. Who knew? Also, diet friendly baking – even better!

Do you want to see pictures? I thought you might!.




This was my first venture into baking lately. Two Banana breads. They came out moist, and banana-y and a little sweet. Just perfect.

I enjoyed some with my tea. It was a perfect treat.

Here Is another banana bread and a honey loaf. Oh my word, this honey loaf is amazing. It’s a little denser than the banana bread but it’s spiced, and sweet from the honey. The little nuts on top are ever so tasty!

In between those two baking experiments, was a pumpkin bread. Apparently though, I never got a picture of it. I’m still working on perfecting the recipe for that one. It came out a bit on the dry side. Tasty experimentation however.

I’m not 100% sure this counts as a refashion. Who writes the rules on what does and does not count though. I’ve certainly taken a plain purple t-shirt and turned it into something special however. 

Note the stained t-shirt

Note the purple butterfly.

Note AWESOME NEW BUTTERFLY SHIRT!!!

I’m currently making a slew of stitch markers in anticipation of opening my etsy shop. Also, Iove making them, so it’s a win/win situation. I discovered I needed something sturdy, and pretty to keep them in.

I have just designed the CUTEST stitch marker holder. I’m going to show you now.

Ready???

How adorable is this thing? If I can figure out how to seal the outside (decoupage maybe?) I might offer these in my store also. I have all sorts of different designs in paper around. I’m so chuffed with it!

Ha, I am actually still working on WIPS despite all of the excitement going on around here. My current project that I am determined to finish is my Balmoral. I have a progress picture, but it isn’t very easy to see the progress because it is on a small circular needle. However, here it is in all its lovely green bamboo glory!

 

My KnitPicks order just arrived. I picked up some cable joiners so I can easily slide this onto a longer needle so that it can be spread out and photographed. However, that probably won’t be for another couple of days yet. Things are a bit busy around here. I’ll get to it though!

My Anniversary was this month! Yup. I’ve been blissfully married for 9 years now. My wonderful husband has always been very supportive of my creative side. When I became interested in yarn and knitting and all that it entails, he held on and was as supportive as ever. Well, for an anniversary gift, he really blew me away.

Do you want to see it???

I can’t believe it! (Oh, excuse the messy room if you will please.) I am so excited! I have tried it briefly, and right now, I am not very good. I admit it. But I am so willing to practice. I’ve gotten my book out that talks about spinning on a wheel, and I am requesting a couple of books from the library. So far I have two major issues. One is keeping the wheel spinning in the same direction. It wants to change on me. I think that is a treadling issue? The other is that I am not building up enough twist and the yarn is falling apart on me. I have the opposite issue on my drop spindle where I often build up too much twist. So, I need to learn how to control my twist.

Anyway, I am looking forward to completing my list of obligations, cleaning a perfect spot for my new wheel so I can sit comfortably and practice. I have read that just 15-20 minutes a day is ideal. I’m such a lucky, thankful, and happy girl.

Thank you my love for all that you do and in all the ways you are supportive.

I am supposed to be working exclusively on WIPS right now. However, a new madness has struck the tower. This is a bit like when Ysolda fever hit the tower hard. I was never struck with the Ysolda fever even though I admired her designs. At the time, I could only afford to knit free patterns. Though I just picked up Whimsical Little Knits 2. So I may succumb to that fever yet.
But back to Hexipuffs. Hexipuffs are these hexagon shaped little puffy things. (We use all the technical terms here) They are knit in the round and then lightly stuffed with batting. Once you have about a bajillion of them, you connect them together to form a quilt. It is the top, batting and bottom of the quilt all in one. I have to say, they are quite addictive. There is something soothing about knitting them, and something delightful in holding them. I like watching them gather together as I finish them. Some of the colors compliment each other, and some clash, but they all work well together. I’m really very pleased. I’m in no hurry to ‘finish’ this project. I will just happily knit puffs when the mood strikes me until I have somewhere near a bajillion of them. 

Interested? Check out Tiny Owl Knits - Home of the Hexipuffs This is the creator of the “Bee Keepers Quilt” which is comprised of hexipuffs. 



 


 

Tell me that doesn’t fill you with delight even a little? To egg each other on in this epic hexipuff project, the Tower is participating in a mini skein swap. Here are my contributions.

 


 


 


I just want to hold them and squish them about for a while. Seriously. Remember, Hexipuffs equal love. If someone infects you with the hexipuff lust, don’t hold any ill will toward them. After you make your first one, you will understand the love!

I have finished the Gems Socks. I am so happy with them. I love the colors of this yarn. It positively sings to me! An interesting thing happened with these socks. You will remember me saying how well they fit. Well, they still fit well, but they are now too big. I’ve lost 30lbs since starting them and it’s really evident in my feet! But no matter. They are still beautiful and I love they way they feel on. They are going to go into my DnD bag. When I am playing DND is most often when I wear socks. Comfy ones are essential! Without further ado…

I’ll be adding a better picture of the heel this evening. It was an interesting short row heel with no wraps and no gaps. It was slightly tricky to understand at first, but once I got the hang of it there was no problem with it.

The yarn is Premier Yarns Serenity Garden in the colorway Gems.

I finished the baby blanket in time for Sandy’s baby shower! I am really pleased with how it came out. I won’t be tackling this pattern again because the edging was a nightmare. I don’t think the pattern is written quite correctly. Or it could have to do with the fact that I needed to adjust it because I didn’t crochet the blanket full size as called for in the pattern. Had I continued as far is it said to, that baby blanket would have fit my queen size bed. 

I really do like the pinwheel pattern it produced though. I may try that again with a simple shell edging. It’s really quite beautiful a blanket. I was very flattered to find that when I went to the house of the expectant parents, that the blanket is draped across her glider. I’m very honored. I am so happy they like it also! 

That is my latest FO. I’m still working on my lovely GEM socks. I’m going slow on them because my hands have been giving me trouble. The next post will likely feature some drawings I have been working on for the table top RPG I am playing in right now. I haven’t done drawings in a long time. So they have been taking up some time also. But drawing hasn’t been bothering my hands as much as knitting or typing. But let me get to the pictures. 

I haven't knitted in a month or so. I feel kind of lost! But I've been working on a gift for this weekend that I hope to show. But in truth, I haven't touched that in about a week or 10 days. I'm just not motivated.

What I have been doing is drawing though. I play in a table top Role Playing game with my husband and a couple of really good friends of ours. I've been drawing characters from the game. It's nearly halloween in game time. My character is going as little red riding hood... I hope to get those pictures scanned and posted. It's been a lot of fun.

I do so enjoy a good swap. I started doing swaps through Reducio Swap. I had so much fun that I told my best friend all about it and we decided to do one ourselves. Who doesn’t love some thought out gifts, even if they are small?

We decided the theme would be inner goddess. So our packages were designed around honoring, celebrating, and bringing out our inner goddesses.

In my package that I gave to her I included a card, with hand punched paper stars, some glittery pens because I know her inner goddess is glittery, and some knitted items. I also included a few knitted items, and a small purple notebook. I do know how she loves notebooks! I hope she will use it to write about all her goddessy qualities.

 

This is the tea wallet I included that I knit. It’s stuffed with delicious tea!

And this is the Goddess table cloth I included that I knit for her. I hope when she is ready to start practicing again, that this will be an asset to her. In the mean time, it would look awesome as a wall decoration I think. If I ever get an altar together, something I’ve meant to do for years, I hope to knit one of these for myself for my altar.

The package from her was delightful!

She included yarn, goddess hair in my favorite colors, hand drawn goddess art, face lotion, a mystic river rock, from my 1.5yr old nephew, a beautiful card and instructions on how to love and care for my inner goddess and the Knitting Goddess book. Can you believe it? I can’t believe she found such a book. She is clearly awesome, and clearly divine!

I love it so much! She must have also because we immediately began talking about the next one. We have chosen the theme. It’s going to be “My favorite things” where we try and include each others favorite things in the package and share a couple of our own favorite things as well. I’m excited. We have until the end of August for this one, and I am going to certainly need the time for something I have in mind.

So I have a few things in the works at this moment. I have two swap packages that are waiting to go out, and I will show the goodies contained within once the parcels have arrived at their respective recipients. I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.

Right now on the needles however, I have a shawl. The pattern is called Sargasso and this is a picture of it from the pattern page.

It’s absolutely beautiful and I can’t wait to have it finished. As it turns out, it is knitted LONG ways. So each row is 308 stitches long. These rows take a LONG time. However, the pattern is relatively easy. Last night however, disaster struck. I dropped a section of the shawl off my needles and in trying to fix that, I made a huge mess. I contacted the local yarn store via Ravelry and while they kindly got back to me quickly, the news was not good. They told me that lace was extremely difficult to repair once it has been dropped, and the only lady who could probably help would likely charge me for her help. Well.. I am actually already overdrawn on my spending money this month, so that was a no go.

I took a very deep breath, closed myself in a room with no distractions, and began to frog (that is unravel for you non knitter) the shawl. I took it back five rows and ever so carefully began to put the stitches back on the needles. Can you believe I actually got all 308 stitches back onto the needles? It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I did learn while fixing the shawl that the pattern reverses at one point (row 11 actually) and I missed that the first time through. As fate would happen, the row I put back onto the needles (completely by accident) was row 10. So, three hours later, the shawl is all fixed, the pattern is correct and I have inserted a lifeline. I have admittedly, put it aside for the evening. I need a break until tomorrow.

Oh, I’m making it in this lovely squishy beautiful yarn.

You can be jealous. It’s ok.

Now. The other thing in the works is not on my needles. It is in fact on my spindle. I’m working on spinning some lovely grey roving into some lovely grey yarn. Why grey? I have no idea. It was the roving that spoke to me so I grabbed it and started spinning it. I’m getting faster with my spinning, but I’m still having trouble with consistency. But that takes practice and I haven’t exactly done A LOT of spinning or anything. I think part of the consistency issue was I was trying to make a slightly thicker yarn, but I keep defaulting to a thinner yarn. I plan to ply the yarn with itself though so hopefully it will all even out to a relatively consistent thickness.

I am wondering though, if I add Easter egg dyes to an already grey yarn of the colors will come as deep jewel tones. I might just leave it grey though. It is a lovely color. It may end up in my etsy shop, or it may end up as a finished item in my etsy shop. Decisions, decisions, decisions.