30-31.3.10 Borot Lotz - West Har Hanegev

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One of the most magnificent trips and views in my life so far, an exceptional sight on the desert in full bloom.

24-27.3.10 Lavender Vine Lace hat for Uria

It's been a while that this free pattern of the Vine Lace Baby Hat by Sandi Wiseheart is in my "to do" list. I remember that about a year ago or less when I first looked at it - I immediately understood I couldn't make it since I didn't know anything about knitting, not to say of working in the round with several needles that sounded to me then as a miraculous skill :-)

Although I have done several mistakes there (will need to practice more in order to loosen my knitting tension as well as making sure to tighten better in between the needles work, while working in the round), I really love the result of this cute hat!


After the starch blocking, I thought to decorate it with a Lavender flower designed by Lesley Stanfield in her book "100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet" on p.58, project 28.
I had already tried to make it a few months ago for Ynon scarf's, with no success.
However, this time, I saw by chance a forum post by gracecody in ravelry with exactly the same question I had and a very helpful response from AggieMay which really helped me to understand. So here you go for those of you who want to try and encounter the same problem.

In Row 5, how to cast on 3 sts and then binding them off, altogether remaining with the same number of stitches?

*You begin to knit 1,

then use the knit cast on on the next stitch, 3 times !(and make sure this is the knit cast on and no other type of cast on. It happens that in the beginning I understood completely wrong this knit cast on and thought it was some kind of yarn over several times. It’s not! so check your knitting books or internet for demonstration, if you are not familiar with it)

Now that you have added 3 new knitted cast on sts to your left needle (starting from 1 stitch and ending with 4 sts), in order to bind them off, you need to knit the first new 2 sts. On the right needle, pass the first knitted stitch over the 2nd knitted stitch. Keep on by knitting one st from the left needle and bind it off on the right needle by passing over the nearby st to his right. Knit one more and bind it off the same way. You will now have on your right needle 2 sts only. *
Repeat all this explanation (*) as required till the end of the row, 4 times in total.
In the book explanation, they have forgotten to include the first K1 in the square parenthesis. You end up with 1 Knit!

If it helps, here is the citation of AggieMay post:
“Remember, to cast on 3 you need to use one of your 9 stitches so, Knit one, using the next stitch, cast on 3.
Now, to cast them off again, you need to knit 2, pass first stitch over second, knit 1, pass stitch over, Knit 1 pass the stitch over so you have now used the stitch you started your cast on with as part of the cast off.
You have now used 2 of the 9 so when you repeat the K1, Cast on 3, cast off 3, 4 times, you have only 1 stitch left so you knit that.”

By the way, the crocheted leaves are taken from the fern instructions leaflets, pp.110-11 in the "Crochet Bouquet" book by Suzann Thompson.

PLEASE Don't be cross at me!
Thank you so much for your vote, I really appreciate your action and opinion. I had a tough decision to make on how to embroider the Lavender flower on the hat and this time the decision was not made upon the majority vote, but other strange decisions to promote number 2, such as:

1. It looks better on the elephant doll
2. It looks to me more decorative this way
3. The vote summary was 72% for n 1 and 27% for n 2 with 33 votes at the moment of writing this post. Since 27 is my lucky number this is just one more excuse to chose n 2
   
4. I am stubborn
5. Omer suggested n 1 and myself n 2
   
6. I hope you forgive me :-(
   

Nomnom got the Lavender perfume and soap, while the small baby, called Uria, received a cute hat for his first week in planet earth world.



Mazal Tov small sis!

Please vote: What do you prefer?

1

2

Thanks!

24.1-18.3.10 Elephant Pacifier Clip for Ynon

This cute Elephant's instructions can be found on pp.101-102 in Itty-bitty nursery book by Susan B. Anderson and errata here. Very nice project made with cotton yarn and 3 mm double pointed needles and hook.

This is a present for baby Ynon, who already got a scarf, but his mother also needed a pacifier clip. I couldn't refuse and had to try this one.

15.3.10 Tso Flower Ring

The original six petal flower project appears for free in B&B website and is based on the explanation of the new yet familiar Tso stitch that contains elements of peyote and right angle wave (B&B April 2010 Issue 96, pp.18-19). Hsiao-Hsuan (Eddy) Tso (kikiba), who stands behind this stitch, has published in B&B website some of her masterpieces works and is a very original and talented beadwork artist (to visit her gallery there, click here). She also has an etsy shop under the nick kiki8800, now also selling beads, in addition to booklets and original jewelry.

I first encountered her work few months ago and fell in love with her 5-petal special flower, such as in this creation she did. I was very curious to know how to make them and contacted her for more information. It took some time but I finally had the great surprise to receive the B&B magazine and see that they have published the secret of the Tso stitch :-)
Evidently, I had to try it immediately and started with 11/0 instead of 8/0 seed beads. I quickly realized, that it would become too big to my taste even in 11/0. So I had to move to size 15/0 seed beads and work with a size 15 needle, which make the work harder (since the holes are smaller and you need to go over several times) and probably longer ( several hrs, maybe 4 to 5).
I managed to finish this project even if I was a bit dissapointed from the stitch after expectation of 1 whole year from now. It feels like if there is an error, it can be difficult to spot immediately and almost impossible to repair, unless you unpick a lot!
Anyway, I admire Eddy for her creativity and patience to bead so many of these flowers creating lovely colourful and lively necklaces with this stitch.
I was too lazy even to make a couple of earrings, so I stopped in 5 petals and made a ring out of it.

28.2-10.3.10 Turquoise Indian Amphora for Mom

Mom came back from India with this amphore and kindly asked me to prepare for her a nicer necklace, such as a nice spiral. So here is the "before":

and "after":
closed amphora:
opened amphora:

1-3.3.10 Work Meeting in Sion and Ovronnaz (SWZ)

Raclette (cheese) evening with steamed potatoes:

Beautiful and tasty dessert of chocolate tartelette with pistachio:



It was too quick, but better than nothing ;-)

We had a beautiful weather on the 1st day in Ovronnaz and very gentle snow on the 2nd day.
All the vines in the area were naked and I had a very pleasant afternoon with a friend, in Sion centre. One of the things I was the most impressed of in Sion is this green garden with recycled glass pieces: