Best Wishes for the New Year

Thanks very much to everyone who has read my blog, made comments, given me so much encouragement through the year!

Life has thrown me a couple of curved balls recently. I don't want to disappear altogether but my blogging and reading of blogs may be a bit erratic while I try to field them.

Ninetta's Angel

This is Ninetta's angel, she shared the pattern here. I made a felt bead for the head in place of Ninetta's wooden bead.

 Happy Christmas to all those who celebrate Christmas!

Miss Molly

I've finished the Miss Molly poncho for my granddaughter.  I'll give it to her when Winter approaches. Too hot now in the Southern Hemisphere!

Progress on Miss Molly

This is the point at which I think I'm nearly finished. Not so, but far otherwise, as Kipling would say. I still have to sew ends in, crochet the neck edging and an edging around the whole poncho. I'm debating which colour to use for the edging. Dark pink is at the front of the pack at the moment. I have plenty of wool left because my 60% principle was, of course, rubbish. If you reduce the dimensions by 60 %, the area is much less than 60% of the original, so yarn needed much less than 60%. What would my maths teacher say?

Making a Start

Phew, it was hot yesterday. Good for drying skeins after dyeing, not so good for an afternoon trip to town. I didn't get much done on my poncho, but I made a start in the evening. I crocheted a swatch, then scribbled some calculations to convert Stacey Lozano's pattern from adult size to child size. Perhaps I could call this Miss Molly. Stacey's pattern, which I found on Ravelry, is called Molly after Molly Weasley in Harry Potter.

Colour

I just love turning a pile of neutral/natural wool skeins into an array of pretty colours.

Beaded Tinies

I took some  time off spinning to tat some more of Frivole's tiny snowflakes, with beads added. I was inspired by her example, but my beads are much more substantial and added in a different way. I've used beads instead of her elongated picot.

One thing I did learn - don't use cream thread for snowflakes, even if you're emptying a spool. It looks as though the snowflakes are dirty!

More Skinny Skeins

I now have 12 skeins spun for Isabel's poncho.

60% Principle

In spite of our very hot weather, I'm spinning wool to make a poncho for Isabel. I'm going to use the same Molly pattern that I've used before.  There's a fair bit of leeway in the sizing of a poncho, but an adult size poncho will be too big for little Isabel  So, I'm working on a 60% principle.

My skeins are normally 50 rounds of the niddy noddy. For this project I'm winding 30 times round. That way, I will need the same number of colours as before, 10, two skeins of each colour, So far I've spun 6 skeins, so I have a way to go before I start dyeing.

Beaded Cotter Pins

I added beads to the chain part of Yarnplayer's Cotterpins pattern. On one link I added the beads from the core or shuttle thread and on the next from the chain thread. I like the effect of having three colours and two bead forms, so that there are 6 variations.

Cotter Pin Links

I've heard of cotter pins but can't say I'm familiar with them. Still, I wanted to try Yarnplayer's technique which she kindly gave as a tutorial here.  It's effective and straight forward enough, though, like all new techniques, it will need some practice to get looking really good.

The colours in the photo are not right at all . My computer is not recognising my camera again, so I used my phone to take the photo. What looks like purple is really brown. Puzzling!

I've also been doing some spinning. For socks. My cousin says she will test knit a sock pattern for me, so I'm excited about that.

Tatting To Order

I had an order for 6 crosses, Grace Tan's pattern Jane's Bookmark Cross. There's a link to the pattern on the right side bar. The thread is Anchor Freccia 3 ply. Only two of them are needed before Christmas, but once I started I decided to just get on with it. Interesting effect when I tat a pattern over and over - first cautiously checking on the pattern; then confidently tatting without looking at the pattern; and then so blase that I start making mistakes!

The Whole Flock

I've finished the guineafowl socks. It's 37 degrees Celsius here, much too hot to try on socks in handspun wool!

One Sock

Right. That's one sock done. Now to start the other and avoid SSS - second sock syndrome.

Guineafowls Revisited

After a bit of a tatting detour, I've gone back to work on the guineafowl socks. The sock has gone from UFO to WIP!

Pattern for Dewdrop Earrings

Here's a short version:
Wind 2 shuttles CTM with three beads on shuttle 1.
SR1: Put a bead on the back of the hand before beginning. Work 6 ds with shuttle one. Turn the ring ready for the second half of the split ring, move the bead to the start of the second half of the split ring, work 6 ds, close split ring.

Work SR 2 and 3 the same way. Work a ring at the top, hiding the thread from shuttle 2 inside the first half of the ring and adding a hook.

There's a longer PDF version with pictures, you can find a link on the right hand side bar.

 This is a versatile pattern, you can vary the size of the thread, the size of the beads, the stitch count. For these I've used size 10 thread and a 6/6 count, but for others I've used size 20 thread and an 8/8 count.

Here's another version:

The bead arrangement boggled my mind a little. On shuttle 1 it should be 5 small beads, large bead, then one small bead. Shuttle 2 has 2 small beads. One small bead and the large bead on the back of the hand for SR1. The big bead at the start of the second half as before, the small one left to be caught in place when the ring is closed. A bead from each shuttle between split rings. 2 small beads on the back of the hand for SR2, and one bead for SR3.