Stitch markers!

Yesterday I took the kids shopping with me at the craft stores. I went looking to find size 8 seed beads to decorate a shawl I plan to knit, but I didn't find what I needed. But I did get some inspiration from hanging out in the bead aisles and decided that I wanted to try my hand at making some stitch markers.

I bought some inexpensive bead variety packs, some jump rings in 7mm and 10mm sizes, some pin things and a beading tool that is similar to needle nose pliers with some extras on it.

Last night I sat at my desk for a couple hours having a great time putting these things together. I ended up making 20 markers, which I had divided up into 5 sets of 4 by coordinating colors/styles. The 7mm will fit on knitting needles up to size 7 and the 10mm ones will fit needles up to size 10.75. Each of the markers is roughly an inch long. Here are some pics:











And a size comparison:



The stitch markers in use on a new sweater I am making:



I still have tons of supplies left over so I will definitely make more. I think next time I am at the store I will check out what other size jump rings are available. I'm really proud of the ones I made so far, I think they are really pretty and the project was really fun! =)

Josephine set - completed and worn

I finished the triangle hip scarf on Wednesday. It took me 2 evenings to attach all the fringe and then I steam blocked it to stretch it out and hold its shape. The scarf pattern was just a series of chain loops, I didn't make the actual "Josephine Scarf" pattern because the last time I made it it ended up being really too big for me. I just wanted something simple to match the halter and the gloves.

I wore it to the monthly hafla I always attend, and I got a lot of compliments on it and ladies asking me how I made it etc. I directed them to where they could find the pattern on the internet.

Here are a few pictures I took of the outfit when I got home from dancing last night:






I did have some problem with the gauntlets slipping down my arms a lot over the course of the evening. I think I will need to use like a drawstring tie at the top opening or something to fix that. But overall I think the outfit looked good :)

Matching gauntlets completed

I finished up my purple sparkly Josephine Gauntlets this afternoon. They are really nifty. I had to make them a little smaller around the top so that they would fit more snugly, and I used a smaller hook overall to make them smaller to fit my thin arms. I am not sure how much they will slide down while dancing, I will have to test that out. But right now they are comfortable and not too tight.

Yay for FO's!

Well this week I actually have a few finished objects to talk about. It's been a little while since I updated, so here is what I've been up to:

I made this awesome Hello Kitty angel as a going-away present for my friend Rebecca who just left for Florida. I used baby yarn for this one and a smaller hook. She came out really good I think.

So I have now created a trio of Hello Kitties :)

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After I finished that, I decided to work on this pair of socks that I started like 2 years ago and then buried in the bottom of my knitting bin. It's a really simple sock with some inexpensive acrylic/wook yarn. Nothing terribly exciting about them, but they were the first pair of socks I ever tried knitting. They just happen to not be the first pair I ever completed... Feels good to finish up an old project that has been in limbo for a long time.

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Tonight, I finished up my purple sparkly Josephine Halter. I made this one smaller than the black one that I made last year. I also sewed in some bra cups that I got from JoAnn fabric to give it a smooth shape. It looks really pretty, but this sparkly yarn doesn't photograph well. I have yet to get a picture that really represents the color of this yarn faithfully, but these should give you an idea. The true color is a darker shade of purple.


My goal is to make a set of long gloves to match this. And depending on how much yarn is left over, maybe a triangle scarf to go with it.

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I also started spinning my "Kites" colorway of BFL fiber from Spunky Eclectic on my spindle.



And I received a new roving that I ordered. It's called "Gypsy" from Enchanted Knoll Farm. If I end up buying the spinning wheel I want, this will give me something else to play with :)

Amazing

I really want to see this movie now.

MAC Hello Kitty!

MAC Cosmetics came out with a Hello Kitty collection this month. While sitting here drooling over the collection pictures I got the idea to crochet my own "MAC Hello Kitty". I used the basic components of the other Hello Kitty I made, but reversed the black and white and improvised a dress and bow. The dress was really hard for me, I had never really worked with switching colors so much and I had little patience for it so I just rushed through it instead of forcing it to work out the way I envisioned it. But I think it still came out really well and I am excited about it. A comparison:

See the rest of the promotional photos here http://www.temptalia.com/mac-hello-kitty-collection-promo-photos

Naturally I had to order myself some of the makeup... ;) (http://www.maccosmetics.com/)

Twinkletoe frogging and calorimetry

Frogging. Think of a sound that a frog makes. Riiiiiiipit.....rrriiiiiiiipit. Yeah...

So last week I decided I wanted to make something out of my handspun "mandy" yarn. After much research, I settled on the "Twinkletoes" slipper pattern. I took the project with me over the Superbowl weekend and worked on it while at my mom and dads. Yesterday I had the first slipper finished and the second one finished but the trim... and I decided I didn't like the way they looked and fit. Well crap. Really the whole point of me making these was to have something I would get a lot of use out of and would have plenty of opportunites to look at my handspun yarn all knit up into a creation. But if I was never going to wear the slippers, it kinda defeated the purpose. So I frogged them. Then I wound the yarn back up into a ball.

Then I sat around annoyed, thinking I really wanted to make somethng out of this yarn. So I decided on "Calorimetry". I printed the pattern out months ago and knew that I wanted to make it sometime. I worked on it last night and today and when it was finished... it was too big for me. Meh. So in the spirit of not giving up, I decided to make a second modified Calorimetry. With the second one, I cast on 1/3 less stitches. I got that one done in a couple hours tonight and it turned out well and fits me more like what I imagined it should.

I still have the too-big calorimetry. I might frog that one and make the yarn into something else, some fingerless gloves perhaps. We'll see.