Staying centered

This week I finished the second pair of Gothic Lolita gloves (black) and sent them off to Silver-Apples stores. I started the second sock of the crocheted pair (these are for me and I can’t wait to walk around the house in them! Do you know how seldom I make something for myself????) And……I did some Spinning!



I don’t know what I will knit from this hand-dyed, hand-spun sheep’s wool yarn. Maybe it will be a holiday present for a little girl I know who likes to knit.

New Knitting (well....crochet)

Have you ever had chocolates for breakfast? I just did! Still basking in the comfort of chocolate-y happiness that my buddy Daniel sent me!

I am trying to keep up with my many projects, and here is the latest knitting... (except that its crochet!)
The Book: Louisa Harding Accessories:



The Yarn: Louisa Harding Inpression colour 04 (and a pic from the book):



The project: Crocheted sock with crocheted cable on the ankle ~ you can just barely see it because of the varigated yarn. This is my own pattern that I created a couple of years ago. I'm going to post it on Silver-Apples with some other original patterns at some point!



I really need to finish these because I want to make an altar cloth for my Deacon friend Daniel with embroidery and filet crochet edging in some medieval designs! Oh, to be at the ocean with a design studio over-looking the sea!!

Knitting to Sci Fi

Home from work early, feeling crummy, I spent my afternoon knitting and watching Sci Fi ("Make it So!" and 'Love that Stargate!' well, actually, love that Colonel O'Neill), and drinking champagne (hey, why not?)...

The Champagne, with orange juice in a vintage pink elephant glass:



The result is a pair of cute fingerless mitts. This yarn:




Balzac Wool (Classic Elite) superwash 100% wool in colour #2989
65 yards and 50 grams/ball
looks like sport weight

The Sci Fi inspired me to make them fingerless~ (easier to carry your communicator)

And the champagne made them ~elbow length~ just knitting and knitting without thinking until the yarn ball ran out! LOL




{The mitts during the bind off process, almost finished, laid out flat before seaming...}


Pattern:
Cast on 36 stiches using size 8 US needles (5 mm)

Rows 1 - 4 Knit in rib stitch (Knit 3 Purl 3) across for 4 rows. You can make this part longer if you want it to cover more of the hand.


Row 5 Knit for 20 stitches, then bind off 2 stitches, then continue knit St to end
Row 6 Purl 14 stiches, then make one stitch (knit in front AND in back of next stitch) in next two stitches, then purl to end of row.
Rows 7 - 19 knit the next 12 rows in stockinette st (knit one row, purl the next).
Rows 20 - to end of yarn, Rib stitch, knit 3, purl 3 each row, each side. Leave enough of a tail to sew up the side seam.
Make two (well, one for each hand. If you're an alien, obviously you'll need more!)



Finished mitt (not my hand, but shows how neat they work with lots of rings)

and this is the fingerless glove with its little skull on it:


Gothic Lolita!

Why I stayed up till midnight

This is what I've been working on...Harry Potter gloves, well...really they're Severus Snape's Slytherine gloves...

Ta-da! (modeled by a friend of mine)



The days have been rainy and the nights cold, with very bright clear stars. In a season like this, its definitely time to bask in the warm products of those virtuous needles!



This is a mohair shawl with a cool vintage pin to close it that I found in the thrift store. Its really a softer rose colour than this picture. The beautiful soft rose yarn is from the Sheep & Wool fair, from Dorchester Farms.

All knits need buttons!

This week my friend from Down Under came for a visit and we went to the Brimfield Antique Fair, looking for vintage buttons. We were very successful and we saw John Malkovich in the button booth!

You know you wanted to see my friend Mark and all the antique Brimfield buttons:

This is Marky at my house. Isn't he handsome? He looks rather like John Malkovich himself! But what's that he's reading????? Its a facsimile of an antique knitting book from Pastimes Press!





These are vintage Celluloid buttons from the 1930's, and down near the bottom right you see a Bakelite Scotty Dog button. I only have one, and Marky has the other.



Now, these are Vegetable Ivory buttons and there are some unusual ones in this group! Near the top and middle are two Plaids, there is a carved Leaf, and look at the center bottom of the photo amd you will see a carved Spider - very rare!



I bought this old button card for a mermaid of my acquaintance (my little sister) who is very into clothing design - its odd for a mermaid to be into clothes don't you think? It would seem more in keeping for her to be into seaweed, or seashells, or fish! But she's a very artsy mermaid!

This evening I'm all about cotton crochet

Welcome to my new knitting blog! I am an obsessed knitter and corcheter, living in an old house in the Northeast US. I've been crocheting since I was five and knitting for about five years...


Tonight I've been reading Buddhist texts and finishing up a capelet for the
Silver-Apples Fall Collection. Here's the capelet; its called "chocolate".



Pattern:


Chain 29 stitches and continue with any design, stiches, and colours that take your fancy until you have reached 150 stiches...
Pretty random, I know... great fun to make though...very Zen...



Here's the Buddhist part of my evening...


Practice Love, Give Joy, and Protection

Arouse your will, supreme and great,
Practice love, give joy and protection;
Let your giving be like space,
Without discrimination or limitation.


Do good things, not for your own sake
But for all the beings in the universe;
Save and make free everyone you encounter,
Help them attain the wisdom of the way.


-Prajnaparamita




Buddha said: "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."