Ruffled Now

The garter stitch scarf now has its crochet ruffle.

It's a gentle ruffle as ruffles go, more like gentle waves lapping at the edges of the sea colours.

Twisty

Yesterday afternoon I was still in the mood for experimenting. The light isn't very good this morning, so this is shot in artificial light, but it should give you the idea.

The beads themselves were rather irregular, plus the bead-weaving was a bit random--based on a circular shape with uneven increases to give the twisted and ruffled effect. I think I'll wear it today.

Experimenting

I've had some fun with freeform wire work before and I've been keen to try some more. I decided to see what I could do with this large bead. Unfortunately I've used up all my thicker wire on this project. And I haven't been able to find a local supplier where I can buy more. I'll have to order it from the USA. Anyway, I decided to try working with four thicknesses of the finer wire--it's 26 ga.

I'm not entirely happy with the result, but it was certainly worth the experimenting time. I like the pattern of wild-weaving I ended up with. I think the multiple finer strands work well there, but the finishing was really difficult. The finer wires don't tuck in well. I didn't want to end up with any loose ends or scratchy rough areas. And the bail was too fine. I tried to thicken it up by winding extra strands of wire around it, but I don't like the effect in contrast to the smoother texture on the rest of the bead. I'm also not entirely convinced that the shiny metal textures around the surface make the most of the underlying semi-precious stone.

My alternative approach for this bead is to nest it in some bead weaving. I don't have time for that today, so I'll just let this sit for now.

Walking Again

I took another long walk this morning and came home with this twisted leaf.

Now I'm off to the studio to see if I can get inspired or at least into some sort of work mode.

Small Things

I've been regularly walking again the last week or so: a long walk through several adjoining parks. It's good for my body and mind. And I come home with little treasures like this.

Where Are They Now?

The baby booties are all knitted up. I decided I need to block them somehow. There are a few oddly stretched looking stitches as a result of the short-row shaping which forms to foot of the bootie. So, here they are floating in my bathroom basin.

When they've had a good soak, I'll tug them around a bit and see if I can get those stitches to sit nicely. Then I'll have to find somewhere to let them sit to dry slowly. There's a row of eyelets around the ankle, so a little bit of ribbon is also on the list. 

Booties

I'm hoping to finish this pair of baby booties today.

The combination of 8-ply yarn, 4 mm dpns and a small item is feeling rather clumsy in my hands, so I've been procrastinating, but now they're just about done. The pattern is from Yarn Thrower. The yarn is leftover from my new bright blue baggy beret. There's also a bottom-up version of this pattern. I may try that next. Or I might cast on another pair of socks for me. I turned the heater on for the first time yesterday--winter weather is coming on.

Now, back to the knitting and I should have these done very soon.