Saturday, December 26, 2009

2.10-26.12.09 Echarpe Volante knitted with Omer's needles




In a difficult period, this scarf knitting "Echarpe a volants" (Bergère de France n°132, In > 21 - Echarpe) was a great therapy for me. It was very very long to knit and I thought I was becoming mad, but I succeeded to finish it!!!
By the way, the needles I used which appear in the pictures, were handmade by Omer (!!!) and are of size 9mm.
I got the idea to make it following my visit to La Bouclaine, this summer in France. Thanks Marie for your help with it!
By the way, the 2 100m skeins are mohair (Bleu canard de Le mohair des fermes de France - Caresse) and smells so warm and gentle... They served as a great cuddling stuff along the way back from Barcus, back to Spain.

25-26.12.09 Chinese Pitaya Earrings

In fact, the Pitaya is an exotic fruit, quiet tasty, which comes in several variations. I also have the plant on my balcony, it's a kind of cactus, which up to this day, gave only 2 impressive flowers, which felt down and have never bared any fruit :-(
The Pitaya earrings are pictured on a Pitango tree which gives tasty fruits only when they are very ripe, even already on earth, otherwise it is sour. The Pitango tree is so beautiful these days, changing its fruits color from the green, through orange, to the strong red. I really like walking aside on the way to work and see each day how the colors are gradually changing.

Thanks to Tali (רוצהM) who kindly translated Mariposa's beautiful Pitaya Beaded bead design, I was quiet motivated to try it. See what beautiful earrings Mariposa made in her Golden Pitaya Dragon Eggs and here as well. Thank you both!
In these earrings, I managed to I kill 2 birds at once, since I also tried Diane Fitzgerald's netted tube - (Netted Beadwork, pp.81-85) only that I used 16 instead of 32 seed beads to begin the tube, at the size of 15/0. A small problem arise when attaching the tube based on 4 to the BB based on 5, but I somehow managed to connect it.
Last, after 4 different fringes trials, I found one variation that was "heavy" enough, not too long and with enough presence/volume to complete those. To me, they remind of a lucky Chinese Symbol.
The Pitaya BB itself takes about 1 hr and 1/4.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

24.12.09 Indian Flower Earrings for Sarah, Inspired by Maiko Kage Flower Bracelet

Very thankful to my Doctor for her excellent diagnosis and care, I made her this pair of earrings, motivated by Varda and inspired by Maiko Kage flowers that I learned from Susie S. explanation. Hope she will like it.
About 4 hrs of work in total (1hr for each flower).

Friday, December 18, 2009

18.12.09 Garter Scarf for Ynon




This scarf was done for my Oldest sister newborn's baby, 4th child - but first son.
The pattern is a Free design by DROPS, called " b17-7 Scarf and socks in garter st in ”Eskimo”".

It took me 5 hrs.
Since I didn't use the same yarn, it required several changes, so I casted on 20 sts, using 2 strands together of the TeDdy's Wool Sympatic yarn. The total length and width are accordingly 60cm x 16.5 cm. The hole is 8 cm length (about half the width of the scarf).

Sunday, December 13, 2009

5-13.12.09 Saartje Booties for Nomnom's baby


When Nomnom chose the blue and yellow and said "no way pink" it was obvious it is a baby boy, but she won't tell till next April 2010 :-)
Surprisingly, I didn't enjoy making these free pattern Saartje booties. I don't like the way they came out ( it's not neat enough to my taste, the sewing is too much obvious and can be even disturbing, there are too too many weavings at the end, it took much more time than other crochet booties I made AND one of the stripes came out really ugly :-( ).
I am sure there are enough people that will disagree with me. Up to this day there are 6688 Ravelry knitters that did it :-) One of them which I find SO CUTE, ORIGINAL and geniously talented are "Saganaga" versions here, here and here. Just have a look at her projects in Raverly! It's really a must ;-)
The booties were knitted with 2 3.75mm needles with Double cotton thread.

Monday, December 7, 2009

29.11-7.12.09 Ribbit by Susan B. Anderson





Hello from Ribbit...
My First Knitting Work with 5 needles! Strange but fun.
Finally, that wasn’t such a good choice to work with 4mm needles and this thin cotton thread. Next time, working with this thread would be the best with 2mm needles.
Thank you Susan for this delightful frog free pattern.

Friday, December 4, 2009

3-4.12.09 Page 81 Booties for Rom- designed by Susan B. Anderson


These cute booties are a present for a baby boy's friend called Rom. The instructions of the booties are free and kindly shared here in Susan B. Anderson's Blog.
I used a doubled thread of Teddy’s wool yarn and casted on 17 sts for the 0-3 month size (Instead of 21). I think each square was about 30 rows of Knit. Since the result was quite stiff and thick - I made only 2 squares for each booty.
The flowers are crocheted based on the “Meconopsis” Flower, designed by Lesley Stanfield and appear in “100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet” p.72, project 50. They are made with a 2mm hook size and cotton thread (50gr/125m).
They took me about 4-5 hrs.