Things Treasured

Crochet Thestral! If you don’t know what a Thestral is, get thee self to a library and read the Harry Potter Books… seriously.

Tiny Barbie Bloomers! I got them from a pattern for an 1866 Atlanta Bell. It’s an outfit based on the one Scarlett O’Hara made from her curtains in Gone with the Wind. I’m looking forward to tackling the dress. That is so massive that even though I am looking forward to the dress, I will likely start with the hat next.

Octopus Jar Cozy! I’m thinking I’ll use this as a weight loss tool. It was originally meant to be a savings jar to go to GG’s big 2015 gala event, but I need the motivation right now for my health. So I will put colored glass and plastic stones in this jar for all of the weight I want to lose. Then I shall get another clear jar. When I lose a pound, I will fish a stone out of the cozied jar and drop it in the clear one. I don’t need to constantly see how much I have to lose, but always seeing how far I’ve come has got to boost moral.

And this is my in progress Haruni Shawl. It’s coming out so beautifully, and I really like working with this yarn. It’s Blue Heron Metallic Rayon. It’s giving such a lovely drape to the material. I’m afraid of running out of yarn before it’s complete though. I need to finish chart A so I can weight it again and see how it’s going.

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!

 

 

 

 

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!

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 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.

I am still not posting here as much as I would like to. However, I do have some things to show you!

This is my monster chunk! How cute is this little guy? He worked up in just a couple of hours and I love him. There will absolutely be more of these in my future. This one went with R. To work. He wanted a little creature for his desk and so I thought this would be prefect. I used bulky yarn for the body and worsted for the feet. These little guys absolutely make me want to get ahold of some super bulky. Also, this is from the author of the Big Book of Knitted Monsters. I must get ahold of this book, especially before I manage to get pregnant.

 

This little guys is my baby red dragon. He was made with cotton worsted held doubled. This KILLED my hands. But it came out adorably. So I really can’t complain. With all of these little creatures, I really need to get ahold of safety eyes at a good price though.

 

This is a book scarf done with thread and a tiny hook. I was really afraid of tackling crochet this fine when beads weren’t involved. But it came out really lovely! I’m really pleased with it. Here it is demonstrating, holding the page in my design journal. This is going to be a gift in a swap package though. I’m going to have to make myself one I think.

 

And here we have my first pair of spats! They are super soft and the colors are really rich in person. The one mistake I made with these, is the top of the cuff though. I made it too small to fit my calf. So I need to wear them with the cuffs turned down which ends up hiding the really pretty ribbing work. Also, the pattern called for 1.2” buttons which I used and they hold… some of the time. I probably should have gone up just a little bit on the button size. I really wanted to add some steam punk buttons to them, but budgeting got in the way.  

 

I have one more project to show, but that is going to have to wait for a week or so. It’s going into a swap package and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

I’m also currently working on a baby blanket. But I haven’t decided if I am going to show that before it is gifted or not. That is what is new if knitting land though!

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!

I haven't been updating too much. This is largely in part because I haven't been knitting very much. The hubby and I are dealing with some issues with the house and being unemployed at home right now. So I've been distracted and focusing my energy lately. I'm still getting things done, just at a much slower rate. Right now in progress...


Sylvi. I've also got both sleeves and one front panel finished. I want to get this finished so badly. Other things just keep jumping in my way. I have the other front panel, hood, seeming, and the flower petals to do. Really, it isn't THAT much.


Swallowtail. Now this is an inprogress picture of the one that is already finished. But imagine this in black and it's a near acurate view of the one I ma working on now. Yes... I said BLACK.. hence why it is taking so long. Well that and the fact that for some strange reason, this is a challenging pattern for me. It is, thankfully, easier than the first time though.


Balmoral. This one is in hybernation, but I thought I would show it to you anyway. I love the yarn, and I am in love with the shawl. I just got overwhelmed during the crafting process as that is when everything started going nuts here at home. I'm a good deal further than this, but I don't have a current project picture. It's probably 2-3x's the size in the picture. But I'm only 10% into it or so. This will likely go on hold until the weather warms up again. It's just not high on the priority list right now.
And then of course I am working on NaNoWriMo. I am behind at the moment, but not desperately so. I still think I have a good shot at completing on time.