Many-Hues Studios

I've been lucky enough to spend my weekend up at Many-Hues Studio. I was originally just plugging away on these little beauties:

These are done in sterling silver, with Preciosa Crystal drops. I decided that I really liked them... so...

I went only slightly crazy. They're going to be available on my etsy shop very soon, as soon as I've got it set up I'll post the link. They're only going to be listed for $15.

Once I got all of my earrings done, I needed something else to do. My dad set up one of his new lathes for me to play with

My only regret is that I don't have any more wax. If I go any further I risk hitting the chuck, and as much fun as THAT would be...

Dad let me play with one of his new tools to. So I made this:

We had a lot of fun playing around, and I can't wait to get these casted. Altogether, an excellent weekend with a lot of hard work done.

Saquaro and Jewellery

Well, I'm finally home.

Isn't it just fantastic though?

I've been in Tucson, Arizona for the past week. I had a really good time checking out the cacti, talking with other artists, and eating as much Mexican food as I could stomach without wanting to cry myself to sleep. I met a really fantastic artist who had the booth next to us:

MAKUstudio has some really fantastic and original pieces. She handmakes them all herself, so no two pendants are exactly alike. I couldn't stop wandering over to check out her stuff. I also really liked these guys:

BottleHood recycles glass bottles from liquors and beer, and turns them into jewellery using a kiln. They also make really fantastic cheese platters, display bowls, and lamps! Incredibly neat stuff that really got my mind ticking...

And this is the little darling I whipped up. It's a glass bottle bead (made from Patron Tequila, doncha know) wrapped up with a silk ribbon (From this fancy ass artist: Color Kissed Silk) and one of our exclusive Stones and Findings toggle bars. It only takes a couple of seconds to wrap up, it's easy, simple, and looks fantastic. I'm hoping a lot of people saw it and bought BottleHood's beads!

Not too much knitting completed though. The time difference meant that by the time I was back at the hotel every night, all I wanted to do was sleep. Soon though. I'll take some decent pictures of the gorgeous stones I was able to purchase (oy my VISA bill).

Fox Tail Mead

Just wanted to share the magic going on in my kitchen.

This is a rhubarb/berry mead. The rhubarb is harvested from my Mom and Dad's garden. The berries are just your standard, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. Almost 3kg of local wildflower honey, and champagne yeast to bump up the alcohol levels.

I'm hoping for about a 7% alcohol level in the end. Finger's crossed!

Also working on a ginger beer plant. Not sure about that one, but we'll see.

Skull Tablet Sleeve

It's been a busy, yet somehow unproductive, couple of weeks.

Once gifts were finished, I didn't knit from Dec 21st to New Years. It's a Yule tradition, that you lay down your weaving and knitting to spend time with your nearest and dearest.

My nearest and dearest almost weren't worth it.

I got a gorgeous new book, Knitting off the Axis, from my Mom and Dad. It was accompanied by a gift from my Grandparents.. Enough yarn to knit one of the sweaters. I was so tempted to knit up a gauge swatch that I nearly lost my mind.

When I was finally able to knit again, I nearly lost my mind all over again. I spent 4 nights knitting and ripping out the same small piece again and again, because I was finding it almost impossible to get gauge. On the 5th day, I decided to screw the gauge she gave me in the book and knit however I felt like.

Then I got a shipment of new yarn.

And this came into being.

My coworker got an Acer tablet for Christmas, and apparently wasn't having an easy time of getting something to protect it. She requested skulls, and chose the colours.

And I went a little crazy.

This chart took me a little while to draw up, and once I've got it finished I'll be able to write up a pattern for it. To be fair, I finally know how to do the fair isle technique properly! I can't wait to see how this looks finished. It fits my Kobo just fine, so her tablet should be ok.

So that's my new year. How's everyone else doing?

Busy Season

I haven't been able to post for a little while, I've been too busy knitting up christmas presents, sorting with the holiday madness at work, and taking a night or two off for myself. I just need a little bit of time to recover, that's all. Once all of my presents have been gifted, I can post some pictures of them. I can't wait to show them off!

That being said, I've been able to make a few things over the past few days.

I really love this one. That's an ocean quartz hanging from a lotus, and it's such a lovely shade of green it's nearly heartbreaking. I imagine it would look lovely under black light; must test this theory.

This one is an amethyst that my partner gave me for my birthday three years ago. He gave it to me the night before we started dating, with a whole bunch of other crystals that he'd chosen for me. I remember thinking it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I'd ever received from someone other then my family. And I'm finally able to wear it proudly.

That's my life right now, summed up in two pictures. I'll have much more to post once my family have received all of thier gifts!

In which Abby gets a new outfit

It's been a very busy two weeks for me, and it's been hard for me to work on anything that isn't mindless. Luckily, I already had a project started from a Stitch and Bitch two weeks ago.

Abby's a classy bitch.

This is a gift I'm working on for a present, it's a purely acrylic blend. I've knitted the yarn held double, in seed stitch, to make sure it's extra warm. I really love that I have a bust to display it on now! I'm pretty sure she's cold though, might leave her that cowl for a little bit.

This cowl needed a lot of stitch markers on a US 15 circular. So I just had to make some stitch markers too.

 

Aren't they cute? The orange ones are recycled from a bracelet my Dad bought for me while on a family vacation. I ate an entire jalepeno pepper for that bracelet, which I promptly smashed as soon as I got home while throwing a baseball at someone (true story). The purple ones are from a kit my Mom bought me years ago. They all work beautifully.

So.. That's my busy as hell two weeks in a row. Next up, my latest chart..Better start working.

A busy week

It's been a busy week for me here, but I don't have very much to show for it here on the blog. Mostly because I've been working on christmas presents that I don't want to ruin the surprise for!

Here is one project though. Here's what happens when you knit a hat for a toddler, think you know how to felt it, and send it off.

I really can't remember if this picture was taken before or after my attempted felting, which was basically boiling the hell out of the damn thing on my stove. It did felt slightly, but it more or less looked exactly like this when I gifted it. Kinda cool, but not appropriate for a toddler.

It was way too big on him, and although he loved it, not really useful. The next thing I knew, he'd developed a wool allergy, meaning he couldn't wear it at all.

I asked his mother to bring the hat with her for our Thursday night Knitting, and provided a practical demonstration on how to PROPERLY felt.

And now, it looks like this!

I still need to knit a cotton/acrylic liner for it, but I daresay it'll fit him much better now.

Thursday night knitting was a pretty decent success, we taught someone how to knit almost from scratch (his scarf looks amazing!) and we're working on a pair of baby booties for mom.

We also learned that the toddler knows that a torch makes fire when he came running over with my (empty) lampworking torch yelling FIRE FIRE FIRE. I don't know how he associated the torch with making fire, but I'm still proud of him.

I also have a new resident in the apartment. Meet Abigail.

I can't wait to use her! I'm very excited about knitting a Lopapeysa, a traditional Icelandic sweater that's knitted up with a gorgeous Lopi wool, and has a patterned yoke that flows over the shoulders. I'm knitting a tiny one just to see how it knits up.

It's just practice really, but eventually I'll stuff a newborn into it.

But that's my week, hopefully more work to come over the next few weeks!