Saturday, May 30, 2009

29-30.5.09 Shavuot 2009 at Tzippori

Some pictures I'd like to share with you from a journey we had in theTzippori Park.

This is a nice Mezuzah of wheat spike that I find inspiring.

Doesn't it remind you of Diane Fitzgerald's Gingko leafs? This is a mosaic picture of a scene in the Nilus river of Egypt, from the floor of the Nilus house (Roman Villa).

This is my love: the marvellous noble Mona Liza of the Galilee. A master piece of the Roman Villa, dated from about the year 200 AC. Maybe a picture of the landlady or a mythological figure.

Some old ceramic oil tins.

A cute small decorative bird.

Tasty Pita we made ourselves in a local workshop.

Back to Bat Shlomo, we found this beautiful wild Allium:

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

27.5.09 Vicki Star's Fuchsia Earrings and Lesley Stanfield's Crochet Fuchsia flower

Mom was so found of the Fuchsia Earrings I made last year that she got them for her 62nd Birthday (It's a Vicki Star design from "Beading with Herringbone Stitch", p.78-87). I really liked them so I decided to make myself as well another pair. I thought to take the same colors but I was finally tempted to try new colors. I prefer the colors of the pair I gave to mom - but I made some useful modifications in the scheme this time, at the sepals connection, which make them fall exactly and neatly just between the petals located underneath.

I recently made with Varda a Fuchsia flower from Crochet which might find a way to meet the earrings in some way ("100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet" book by Lesley Stanfield, St. Martin's Griffin, 2009).

Monday, May 25, 2009

Sunday, May 24, 2009

23.5.09 The Choco-Moka-Vanil Necklace for Naomi's 24th Birthday

My apologize for the bad picture quality , I had very bad conditions to take it.
The 5-petals flowers close to the center motif are the small "Center or Not" from "Crochet Bouquet" p.21.
The Trimmed "Off-Center Round" - is also taken from "Crochet Bouquet" p.27.
The two types of rounded mandalas are taken from a Japanese booklet.
The small white flowers close to the clasp are the "apple blossom crochet flowers" from here (for free) and originally appears in the 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet book by Lesley Stanfield, St. Martin's Griffin, 2009.
I learned the Santolina flowers (look like small beige buttons) with my friend, from the "100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet", p.86. The small stem is a bit different and is adapted from another project.
Finally, I started the center motif with the Santolina flower and moved on, playing a bit till I got this shape, based on many double trebles.
So here it is, I am glad I have finished it, not so much enthusiastic of my sister's response, which apparently didn't find it so nice for her :-( ....

Thursday, May 14, 2009

14.5.09 Is anyone willing to create for me a video on how to crochet a beaded bead?

Maybe the German community would be so kind to make it?
I think I am doing something wrong because I really have to struggle for each bead that I crochet and it takes me about 3-5 hrs to make one beaded bead with 11 size seed beads and a 15mm bead (including 30mn to string 270 seed beads according to a pattern). Is it normal?

Tibouchine, I tried yesterday to make a beaded bead with slip stitch only, but after the second row I gave up and kept with single crochet. I still haven't finished it and I wonder if I will, it seems to take ages.
I want to see how those wonderful German artists crochet the beaded beads with the 15 size seed beads. Anyone volunteers? :-) Please...
I searched in Youtube but found instructions only for a beaded crochet rope and I want to see how they crochet a bead!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

8.5.09 Mom 63rd Birthday's Present - Crochet Lily of the Valley Butterfly Necklace


A closeup on the clasp:



On Sunday this week, I discovered two amazing Internet treasures. The first one was the crochet and knitting flower free patterns on the lionbrand site. The second one was the "mypicot" site with additional amazing flowers AND butterflies to crochet and knit. I immediately fell in love and decided to use these elements to create a necklace from crochet for Mom's birthday.
I made 4 Lily of the Valley Crochet Flowers (also called in French "Muguet de Mai" and offered on 1st of May) , one Rosebud flower for the clasp and finally a Butterfly. For the flowers I used a regular cotton yarn of 125 m for 50 gr (hook of size 2), whereas for the butterfly I used DMC cotton thin threads ( but can't say exactly what size except the hook which was size 1).
With the great help of two girls from the Crochet Israeli forum "פורום סריגה", I succeeded to overcome the obstacles I encountered in the scheme of the butterfly, as how to read it. (Row 2 of the Upper wings of the big butterfly is: 2 ch, sc in 2nd ch from hook, 13 ch, 1 tr to the center of the wing [in the tr of the middle], 5 ch, 1 tr to the center of the wing, 8 ch, double tr to the center of the wing [ yarn 3 times over the hook], 5 ch, 1dc in the middle of the double tr, 5 ch, tr to the center of the wing, 13 ch, sc in same place as sc of this row and sl st to close to a ring). Also the work of crochet with such thin thread was strange to me at first.
I felt afraid and challenged for how to compose all the pieces together and succeeded to finish on Thursday on time, with the help of Omer and Varda. I hope I did well. [Huib, your inspiration is in the air ;-) ]
I think Mom loves it and it is quiet her colours. So sorry if I overcharge you with pictures - but I wanted to show you how it looks on Mom :-)

To another issue, I discovered recently that some of my favorite Francophone artist blogs has disappeared from the net (such as Benedicte Tarrade, Kim Anderson, Frany et ses perles and more). This is a real loss to the beading community and I hope they will create a new one soon - I miss them.
On the other hand, I had the nice surprise to discover today that some of you can find the links I put here in my blog interesting and helpful (Thank you Louise for the credit). It is my pleasure and I am glad if you can enjoy it.

Friday, May 1, 2009

1.5.09 "Shanti" Scallop-Edge Leaf

"Scallop-Edge Leaf", "Crochet Bouquet" p.116-117.
That is the 4th I am making :-) [See also the 1st, 2nd and 3rd].