"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

8/30/14

Bingo!

I am a member of the Imagining Ellowyne Wilde group on Yahoo. This month we played our annual Bingo game. Not only did I win a Bingo, but I won the big prize too! I was gobsmacked with surprise when I found out. My prizes arrived in the mail this last week.

For my Bingo I won this Starfish jewelry set, here modeled by Amber. It's so much prettier in real life than in the photo.



The big prize totally blew me away. I didn't know what to expect, cuz it was a surprise. I LOVE it! I won a genuine Ellowyne Wilde jewelry set (Arsenic & Lace).



There's a choker, earrings, and bracelet. Ellie had to try it on.



The package also contained a really stunning outfit, modeled by Ellie of course. There's a top, skirt, belt, and purse made with a gold and pale blue print fabric, and a matching necklace, a bracelet, and a pair of gold sandals.



A pair of gold matching slacks too.



My Ellie, she by stylin'!

Since I was taking doll photos, I also took one of Pru with her blue ribbon for her green mohair knit outfit. She is so proud of it.



Live long and prosper. \\//

8/23/14

Fair Results 2014

I worked the INFS booth at the fair yesterday. Work is an overstatement. It wasn't work at all. I enjoyed it. A lot of folks stopped and said hello and it was all very positive. I expect we'll have some new members after the fair is over.

While there, of course, I took a break to go find out how my entries did. They did very well. In knitting I won blue on the knit doll outfit.



I think they may have mauled my doll before putting it in the display case.Even her wig is knocked to the side a bit.  I really wish they would take more care with how they display items. Oh well. I won blue on my bead knitted amulet necklace.



a red ribbon on my fairisle tam,



And blue on my Gansey. Yay!



I won blue on the necklace I entered in the General Crafts department.



In bead weaving I won red on my bracelet (gold and brown on the left) and, surprise surprise! I won blue and Second Premium on the pink and black peyote necklace! (Again, not displayed very well.)



This is the very first premium award I've won on my bead weaving. I am going to be insufferable for months!

We had a visitor a couple days ago. A very nice looking buck came by for dinner.


The weather has cooled off considerably the last few days. It's been in the 70's with quite a bit of thunder storms and rain. Not what I would consider normal weather for mid-August. I wonder if we're getting an early fall, or will it warm back up?

Live long and prosper. \\//

8/18/14

A Productive Weekend

I finished several projects and accomplished my goal for the weekend. To start, we have a new pair of socks for my son-in-law Frank.



Boot Socks for Frank

Pattern: Maritime Woll Socks by Simone Van Iderstine

Yarn: Ella Rae Lace Merino Worsted
Content: 100% superwash Merino wool, worsted weight
Color: No. 1, Brown Violet

Needles: Addi Turbo circular size 6

Cast on: July 29, 2014
Bound off: August 16, 2014

Comments: I really enjoyed working with this yarn. It feels so wonderfully soft and knits up very nicely. The pattern is fairly simple, well written, and clearly understood. A good one for beginning sock knitters.

This is the first time I've done this type of heel. The 3x1 rib pattern continues down the flap bordered by garter stitch. I don't know how well it will hold up to wear, but it is pretty.



The toe is my usual wedge one. It fits the human foot so well.



All in all, I'm very pleased with these socks.



I will be shipping them off to their owner this week.



My eyes feel so much better, and my sight is greatly improved. I had a checkup with the eye doctor on Friday and they are healing nicely. I've got chronic dry eye, so I will be putting drops in for the rest of my life. I can live with that. Anyway, I'm getting my crafting mojo back because I can see! So, on Saturday I turned my dining room into a skirt factory and finished up 14 doll skirts.



I plan to get busy finishing up the little sweaters for them over the next couple weeks. I've got a goodly number of them knit, but not enough, and some of them aren't completely finished. I was really getting tired of making little dolls sweaters, but taking the break for the socks helped a lot. I'm ready to get back at at.

I'm also ready to knit another fairisle sweater. This one will be for me.  I've found a sweater in a Dale of Norway out-of-print book that is so cool! I found a copy of said book for sale at a reasonable price last week and ordered it. It arrived shortly after. I'm going to knit pattern 7911 Moose Sweater.



Sunday I spent the day knitting test swatches and making adjustments to the pattern so it will fit me.

Scrumptious colors!

I've decided to use yarn I purchased last year. I bought two colors of Madelinetosh Tosh DK from Webs, Magenta and Sugarplum, with plans to make a particular sweater, but I want the moose sweater more and it looks like I have enough to make it.  I have more than enough of the Magenta.

Isn't this cool?

I am a little concerned, since I'm enlarging the sweater just a bit (because it doesn't go up to my size in the instructions), I might not have enough of the main color. I ordered a skein of it yesterday just in case. It won't be the same dyelot, but since Tosh DK is hand dyed, no two skeins are alike anyway. I have ways to work around the problem. I probably won't need it because even though I'm enlarging the body of the sweater I am also shortening the sleeves quite a bit, but I like to be safe where yarn is concerned.

This will be my first project using Madelintosh yarn. It feels so good to my hands so I expect I will enjoy it immensely.

The super hot weather finally cooled down a bit last week. Temps last weekend, and for all of this week, are going to be in the 80's, with an occasional thunderstorm. Perfect weather for sitting out on the deck and knitting. Yay!

Live long and prosper. \\//

8/15/14

The Fair This Year

The North Idaho Fair is being held August 20 - 24. I don't have as many entries as I usually do. It's not a case of less finished objects as much as I haven't made much that could be entered. I've given so much away, or it's just not worth entering (for instance, all those itty bitty doll sweaters). Here's what I entered for knitting.

My Gansey.



I wasn't going to because I'm not real pleased with the workmanship on the gussets. However, I decided a Gansey needs to be seen by the public. Who knows? Maybe it's better than I think. I tend to be my own worst critic.

Starry Night



Well, yeah!

The green mohair doll outfit.



It had to be entered on a doll. Prudence volunteered. I did change her wig to short red hair, the shoes to brown, and I made different jewelry. She looks very elegant and refined now. (Should have taken a pic before I entered her.)

The Victory Tam



I haven't done nearly as much beading as I usually do, but I do have 3 entries.

L'Or Noir et Blanc



I entered it in the General Crafts department under Jewelry/Necklace.

Tila Trellis



Last, but not least Rose Licorice.



That's a total of 7 entries for me this year. Counting mine, I had a total of 34 entries for Knit Wits. Way down from last year. So I'm not the only one low on entries.

I will be 'working' at the fair this year. I belong to the local Inland Northwest Freethought Society. We're doing a booth in hopes of finding new members. (That's how I found them, so I know it works) I'll be working two shifts. One on Thursday, and one on Saturday. Should be interesting, and fun.

Live long and prosper. \\//


8/13/14

It's Definitely August

I can tell we're in the month of August now. Aside from all the forest fire smoke in the air, the deer and moose are showing up way more frequently to eat in our green oasis we call our yard. Just in the last few days we've had 2 moose show up after dark (so I couldn't take pics), and we've had some Whitetail deer, of which I did get pics.

This doe showed up at dusk.



Then a couple days later, in the middle of the afternoon, I noticed this guy.



While taking his picture, this guy walked into the frame.



They are so beautiful!



Others have come to our green buffet during the night to eat. I'm sure of it, because the dogwood vine has been decimated, and the lower branches of all my deciduous trees have been stripped clean. They haven't bothered the Geraniums in the boxes on the deck though. That is good.

Life on the Parkarosa. Never a dull moment.

I got all the Knit Wits fair entries in. It went pretty well this time. Only had 2 items missing their tags, which the fair people printed up for me right away.

Something I have not blogged about. I've been having trouble with my eyesight the past few months. It's the main reason I haven't been beading much. It hurt too much to try focusing on those itty bitty pieces of glass. In the evening my eyes would hurt so much I even stopped knitting and have been knitting mostly in the daylight.

A week and a half ago I finally went to my optometrist to find out what was going on. I really expected her to say my cataracts were much worse and I would need surgery. That isn't what happened, thankfully. The problem is not serious, and is fixable. Something has caused my eyes to become seriously inflamed, and even swollen. She isn't sure what the specific cause is, but it's probably a combination of things (air pollutants, allergies, etc), including needing a new prescription for my glasses. So, I got new glasses, which I picked up yesterday.

In addition, she has me using prescription eye drops several times a day, hot compresses at night, and massaging my tear ducts. The treatment is helping. My eyes are feeling much better, and as you could see yesterday, I'm able to bead again. Originally I wasn't going to try and finish that necklace to enter it, but my eyes feel so good I had to give it a go. I'm glad I did.

I go in again for a follow up appointment on Friday so she can check on the progress of my eyes. I'm glad they have stopped hurting all the time. And it's nice to be able to see clearly again. Aging sure sucks though.

Live long and prosper. \\//

8/11/14

Rose Licorice

I have been beading like crazy the past few days. North Idaho fair time has arrived and I decided I wanted to finish a necklace I started quite some time ago and enter it this year. I finished it late this afternoon. I present Rose Licorice.



I made the pendant in July of last year. The pattern for it is from a Russian web site called Black Lily, and it's free:  Twisted Beam Star Pendant. It's done in peyote stitch, using different size beads to get the twist in it.



I decided I wanted to enter this project in the Beaded Peyote Necklace category, so I made some tubular beaded beads and combined them with 6mm Rose Pink Swarovski bicones, some 6mm round Onyx, some sterling silver 4mm round beads, and some interesting silver bead caps. I made 2 types of peyote tubular beads. First are 6 of these black ones. I used delicas in matte black as the main color with shiny black for a 'barely there' diamond on the front and back.



In keeping with the diamond pattern, I did 4 tubular beads in shiny black and the bright pink silver lined delicas used in the pendant.



I strung everything on wire and used crimp beads on the ends. The edges of the holes in the round silver beads are super sharp, plus I've got those crystals in there. I didn't think my usual Fireline thread would be able to stand up to either of those for very long.



The tube beads are hollow, so I stabilized them to make them hang correctly. I inserted pieces of plastic drinking straw inside to firm up the sides, then strung them over top some size 6 seed beads in black. They are nicely hidden by the bead caps.



The finished length is 24 inches.



I will be turning it in at the fair for entry Tuesday afternoon, along with all the other entries I have. As usual, I am taking care of the Knit Wits entries this year. I have a few other things I'm entering myself too, but I'll do a separate post about that later.

Now I need something new in my wardrobe to go with it. Hmm...

Live long and prosper. \\//

8/6/14

Ellie and Cable

When we got home from our trip, even though it went a week and a half without being watered during one of the hottest weeks of the summer, our lawn was again covered in blooming clover. I had to take some pictures. I also had a doll photo contest I want to participate in. Take pics of Ellie with her favorite dog. Cable obliged. This is the photo I entered.



She was very cooperative. She likes to pose for pictures. The doll bothered her at first, but when she realized what I was trying to do, she settled down.



Best friends.



I made the outfit Ellie is wearing. I've donated it as a prize for a Bingo game I'm participating in being held by the Imagining Ellowyne Wilde group.



After taking these pics, I mowed it all down. Poor little clover heads.

Live long and prosper. \\//