The Sun is Shining…

The sun is out, the sky is blue
There’s not a cloud to spoil the view
But it’s raining
Raining in my heart

Well, not really, I just really wanted to quote that line from Leo Sayers song, “Raining in My Heart”  There’s no rhyme or reason to it, I don’t question the urge and neither should you. 😉

However it is true that the sun is shining and there isn’t a cloud to spoil my view of the not so lovely street outside my work.

On My Needles:

As I listed last week, Mothers Day is this coming Sunday and since my mother loves 2 things that I am sure of, I decided to create a sort of story fiber art sculpture incorporating those 2 things.  1) She loves birds houses and as I result I knitted and felted a series of three birds nests.  Two of them are for the sculpture but I couldn’t bring myself to be to artsy so I made one for it’s practical use of housing a family of sparrows or what have you.  2) Her favorite poet is Edgar Allen Poe, in particular the “Raven” poem.  So after felting my nests, I needled felted a raven on to both and broke up the line “Quoth the Raven- Nevermore” half on one and half on the other.  I have then proceeded to bead on shiney seed beads, outlining the birds, the opening in the nest and creating a vine like tree limb feel to the whole thing.  Pictures to come.

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I never make anything easy for myself, and with that thought in mind, about 8pm on MOnday night I decided to make a neckalace for my good friend who was to trun 30 the next day.  No big deal I already knew what I wanted, knew what she would like and had everything to hand so 2 hours later and Ta Da we have lift off!

 

Beaded necklace, three stranded seed beads in chartreuse and turquoise.

Now it was 10:30pm and I realized I still had no clue and less time to figure out what to get my other good friend for, again, her birthday which we were also celebrating the next day.  Then I thought of it, that lovely, soft, meltingly beautiful creamy yellow Bellezza wool I had hidden away for something special. That thought spurred the recollection that Elise wore scarfs with abandon and the lace scarf idea was born.  

Now in general I am not a fan of scarfs, I don’t like to wear them (people with no necks have empathy with me here) and I especially don’t like to knit them as they seem never ending.  For any of you out there contemplating your first knitting project warning: Steer clear of any and all scarfs.  They will suck you in and half way through you’ll realize how far you have left to go and throw the darn thing in your closet where it will molder and morf into that dreaded monster we all feared as kids.  Take my advice and start with something like a hat, half the time and you great bang for your time.

So needless to say, crazy woman that I am I decided to knit Elise a scarf that night.  Not only that I only had one skein, so in order to stretch it for a full length scarf, I made up a quick and dirty lacr pattern.  It went as follows:

Cast on 17 sts (or any odd Number)

knit 3 rows

lace row: *K2tog, yo 2* till 1 sts remains. K1 (34 sts total)

K row, dropping the first of every  yo 2  to end up with 17 sts

K 3 rows

repeat lace row.  

And that my friends is all she wrote.  For those of you not savvy in the knitters language here’s what I said:

knit 3 rows (self explanatory there)

lace row: *K2tog, yo 2* till 1 sts remains. K1 ===  K2tog meane “knit 2 stitches together in order to decrease”  and yo means “wrap yarn around needle as if to knit, then insert needle into next stitch and knit, I just added and extra wrap”

Here’s how she looked being blocked:

 

Elise's lace confection of a scarf being blocked

I had to block it at work as I stayed up till 2 am then up again at 6:30 am and knit till I finished it at 8am.  This meant I was late for work.  I couldn’t give Elise the scarf without blocking it though as lace looks like complete crap (or a very messy spiders web) before it is blocked.  So I took up an entire table, and blocked it on my break… By the end of work it was done and looked marvelous.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Party was a real corker.  Since it was Sinco Di Mio  I obtained a pinnate and filled it full of their favorite treats.  We all gathered at a friends and had a roaring good time whacking the living daylights out of it.  

A swing and a miss! Don't worry I got the bugger in the end!

personally I took out my frustrations with life on the poor innocent paper donkey and completely demoliched it.  tore it limb from limb in fact.

 

 

 

 

 

Noteworthy Sites:

 

 

Dandelion Summers

First I am going to be completely shameless and promote my brother and sister in laws wonderful organic website (organic as in they sell organic products.)  My older sister started it a few years ago, but now that she has so many kids at home and no time on her hands, my brother gladly took it off her hands.  

” Visit this site for all your organic baby needs: organic crib mattresses, organic baby bedding, organic mattress pads, organic Moses baskets, organic baby blankets, organic baby clothes, organic adult bedding, organic mattresses, organic sheets, organic mattresses, Ostheimer wooden toys, Waldorf style playstands, wooden building blocks, wooden toy trains, Holztiger sets, Noahs ark sets and all kinds of organic and natural products.http://www.dandelionsummers.com/index.html  ”

 

Pink Argyle

Next is a wonderful blog I lately discovered written by a mother and daughter team about – you geuessed it knitting.  It is fun, and informative two of my favorite things. http://www.pinkargyle.com/

 

Finally another blog I have fallen in love with is : Bagatell

It is absolutely delicious and that is all I will say.  So go check it out and discover it for yourself! http://www.spellingtuesday.com/