Things Treasured

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.

Today starts a brand new term over at HPKCHC. Over time I’ll be adding past projects to my blog here. I just really need to inventory what I have shown already. Silly me.

There are a couple of things going on over at the tower. I am no longer running monthly challenges over there. We as a staff have decided there is so much going on that at least for the time being, we should let group projects creep up organically. It’s working so far. There is a Steam Punk along in progress. Everyone seems really excited about it.

As it happens, the History of Magic prompt is perfect for getting my steam punk inspired project into a class. I printed out the pattern today and checked how much yarn was needed. about 213 yards. Perfect! I ran to the closet, dug through the sock yarn and pulled out some lovely dusty purple – 221 yards! However, as I held the yarn in my hand and looked at the pattern, I just couldn’t believe this one skein would make the item.

Reread the pattern…. WORSTED WEIGHT.

Well shoot. I really didn’t have what I wanted in WW. But since I can’t just be running out to buy yarn, I’m making the pattern in a worsted weight acrylic I have on hand. It’s beautiful yarn, just not the texture I was going for as it does have a bit of a halo effect. But it should be lovely.

I’m going to be making these

In this yarn

I found the most amazing buttons, but I really can’t afford them right now. I also think they might be a little to large, but as far as steam punk buttons go… how perfect are these ones from Twin Rose Designs? Gear buttons? How grand.

So I am off to cast on my project. I have a lot I want to accomplish this month.

I am so behind on showing things. I am trying so very hard to get organized. As soon as I do there will be pictures of projects! But for now, pictures of good things!

These are badges I've been working on for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup. My most noble house of Ravenclaw has won again this term, and we had the pleasure and honor of sharing that win with the lordly house of Gryffindor!! It was a Tie!

Do you know what is more awesome than 50000 words in 30 days?

50000 words in 29 days!!! WINNER BABY!!!

i AM ALL SET TO START KNITTING A TEST KNIT FOR A FELLOW RAVELER.

Well, I thought I was. I cast on and began knitting. At the end of the second day I was 15 rows in, lifeline inserted and ready to start the first decrease round. When... uh oh. Extra stitch. This means the foundation row is wrong, and that is a problem because after it is knit, you then go to the cast on edge and knit a lace border onto it. Ugh. Also, It was coming out too large.

So I ripped it all back and began to cast on anew. I HAVE TRIED TO DO THIS 5 TIMES NOW. I am so frustrated. I like using the long tail cast on for knitting in the round. I can join it easily and it doesn't leave a funny gap. But I have not yet been able to get the right length of tail. Either MILES too long, and by that I mean somewhere in the ballpark of 8 feet... or way to short... 14 stitches or more. WHY CAN'T I DO THIS?

I am measuring the yarn the same I way I did the first time I cast this on and it worked. So now, two days later I have zero progress... a mess off yarn and very frayed nerves.

I am currently working on the Jacket called Sylvi.

This is what it looks like. Mine will be in green, and in an extra large. This one I think is probably the extra small. It is the largest project I have ever undertaken. It is also the most complex cable work I have ever attempted. Now, I finished the sleeves with relative ease. I had a small freak out from not understanding the instructions, but the 'Claws straightened me out. I have also been going along merrily on the back and getting through all of those cables and enjoying myself. And then I hit the decreases. The decrease section of the back is so ungodly confusing. Maybe if you are used to raglan decreases it makes sense to you, but for me it's like it's written in Greek. No worse than that. I was translating the Greek that is working from charts. The decreases are like being written in cuneiform!

It took probably 10 hours yesterday from me to get from row 100 to row 109. That's more than an hour per row folks. The most frustrating part is if a few sentences had just been written into the pattern to explain some of the directions, I wouldn't have been in such a mess yesterday trying to figure out why it wasn't working.

What is the point of having a chart if the stitches you are actually knitting don't match? Why then wouldn't the information be presented in written form which is so much easier to understand! (for me anyway) The part that exploded my brain last night was that k2tog are marked in the chart with this symbol '/', So you k2tog and continue on with the pattern as written. Once you get to the dec rows, the symbol appears to k2tog just as normal, but you somehow magically need to know that you now need to SKIP the next stitch as it is written. You don't do it later, you just SKIP the thing. HOW IN THE WILD WORLD OF SPORTS are you supposed to know this?

Fortunately my husband is very mathematically minded and after I completely lost it with this pattern he sat down with me. He had me explain all of the stitches and what they did and then he worked on the pattern mathematically. He is the one who figured you that you need to skip the next stitch. OH and to make it more fun, you also need to skip the stitch BEFORE the SSK... fun eh?

And to think... I am actually thinking ahead to making another one of these? At least I will have been through all of the crap first!

I'm still out here crafting away! I was working on a rather large piece. However, it's a gift so I can't show it until it has been gifted. But, very soon I'll be posting three headbands I just finished, and progress on two of my larger projects I am working on. All in all it's very exciting!

My baby loves me! I was gifted with a gift!!! For no particular reason, my love decided I was worth a gift. I must just be that awesome. :D I have had my eye on a knitting bag for a little while. unfortunately, they are CRAZY RIDICULOUS expensive. But we had an idea. The Bealls Dpt. store was having a sale today. 20% off your entire order including clearance and sale items. WOOT! So we went out looking and I got the most amazing bag ever. It was 50% off and then and additional 20% off for the sale! Rock on! A bag this size that is designated a knitting bag is between 70 and 150. I got mine for 40!!! DEAL!

I finally was able to edit my blog layout. As a result, on the right hand side, you will see widget that shows off my projects for Ravelry. You have to be a member to look at the projects over there and while membership is free, people who don't knit or crochet probably have no interest in being a member. So my projects can be seen there. I try and post updates here when I do them. Sometimes when it's a project I am squeezing in under the wire for HPKCHC, I might forget. So enjoy!

I have some things I wold like to add to the blog as far as layout goes. However, for DAYS now the layout function has not been working. Blogger say they are aware of the issue that anyone having custom content is not able to use their layout feature right now. AGGRAVATING.

There has been no update on the blog so as far as I know there hasn't been any progress. Naturally, I leave my setup alone for ages at a time. When I finally found someone to help me add a function I have been looking for, blogger decides to not work.

Grrr

This Sunday the 4th was the second Annual Harry Potter Party at my house. It was so much fun that all of the planning and work was worth it. Yey! It's always grand when that happens. Everyone's costumes were wonderful. I really appreciated that even though money is tight for everyone right now, that the effort was made to come in costume. I was really chuffed. Here are just a couple of photos.

So I got to work on the paper carnations for the baby shower today. I have one fifth of them finished. Half of the red bunch all done! I wanted to take pictures but the batteries in the camera are DEAD. So I will have to photograph them when the batteries charge. It's really rather funny to sit there and realize you are trying to scheme ways to cut a better circle! LOL. But I figured out how to twist the chenille stems to make each one have a small flower and a section that is a bit sturdier for if it is put into a vase. Overall they came out quite pretty. :)

I really really really want to make these. They are the most awesome shoes. I think they would be prefect for Ren Fest.

Now... where yo get a hold of some leather, and laces and a hole punch thingie....

I was browsing my older blog entries today and kept getting drawn into how DARK my blog was. It was deep and mysterious and delightfully moody. While I loved it, it didn't reflect my art well at all. It at least does not reflect where I am right now with my art and my creations. So I have once again updated my blog template. I find it to be colorful, uplifting and fun. I find this complements where I see my art and my creative force going much better. Do tell me what you think of it!

I realize many of the older entries are going to be hard to read because of the colors I used in the old blog template. I will update them over time to make them readable again.

I very much need to post something new and wonderful. Things have been so buys I haven't had much time to produce anything. Undertaking major projects in the house seem to monopolize me. am working on something special right now, but I won't be able to show it for a while because it is a gift. However, once I am finished with that I will be working on the favors for my Halloween Party and those I will be able to show. Whew... it's been a busy year thus far!

So upon receiving some much appreciated good news this afternoon, hubby spoiled me by ordering me a new beading book.... THE WHITE BOOK... it's a Russian beading book that is pretty hard to get a hold of. I've had my eye on it for quite the long while. Well I finally found it in stock somewhere so hubby went ahead and ordered it for me. I can't wait!

This odd term came to my attention via the All About Beads forum on Delphi. It stands for Bead Art Trading Cards. I signed up to the do the BATC swap this year. The cards are not due until October. However, my muse has been a little quite lately since I got sick. Well I am better now but apparently the muse is still recuperating. So in an effort to get the juices flowing a little bit, I sat down and started on one of the cards. This is only the very beginning but I already had a ton of fun. I am really enjoying this whole concept of combining paint and beads! There are no beads added to the piece yet, but there will be. So here is a a picture of my starting efforts. I don't actually know yet whether or not I am supposed to show pictures before the swap is finished. If it turns out that they are to remain secret until the time of the swap, I will simply gift this one to someone else and make new ones for the swap. :)

As you know Mother's Day is approaching. Since I needed a project this week, AND I actually knew what it was I was going to do for Mother's Day, I finished my mother's gift. However, there won't be any pictures or descriptions this week, because my mother is very capable of reading this blog. So.... just know that my project is finished on time and I'll post pics as soon as I give it to her. :)

I changed the URL of my blog to http://thingstreasured.blogspot.com from http://journeyofsilver.com. I want this blot to be about all of my art and not just my wire work pieces. it DID effect bookmarks and I wanted to give anyone who reads this a heads up. :) Plus now it matched my Etsy name.