Springbok Socks

A Springbok is a small South African antelope. Here's a picture in Farmers' Weekly magazine of 2nd October 2015 that I used to help me with the design:

In centuries past, great numbers of them used to suddenly migrate over huge areas, destroying everything in their path. That doesn't happen any more, which is probably just as well, but small numbers of them do come and go on this farm.

The Springbok is also the emblem of the South African rugby team. For an American's view of rugby, see Kristen's post here.

Trial and Error

These earrings are much more sparkly in real life than they appear in the photos and hang better too.  It took me an awful lot of trial and error to get anything like what I was imagining. So, lest I have to go through the whole process again, I'm going to write down what I did:

Ring Only Earring
Load 9 beads onto the shuttle. I used a starlit shuttle that comfortably holds the beads.
NB : when working a ring(R), the bead is put onto the back of the hand before starting. When working a single shuttle split ring (SSSR), the bead is not put onto the core thread but moved into position from the shuttle thread at the right time.

R 1 (with bead on core thread): 8 ds, picot, 8 ds cl (close) [hide the beginning thread inside the first half of the ring]

SSSR 2: 8, move bead from shuttle to top of ring, finger tat rest of the ring, 4 very small picot (vsp) 4, cl.

R 3 (bead on hand): 4 join (+) to vsp, 4, + (R1, next to bead) 8, cl.

SSSR 4: 8, move bead into position, finger tat 4, vsp, 4, cl.

R 5 (bead on hand): 4 + (vsp) 4 + (space between R2 and R3), 4 vsp 4, cl.

R 6 (bead on hand) 4 +(vsp) 4 + (loop of thread over bead in R 3) 8 cl.

+ join the shuttle thread to the space between R6 and R5.

SSSR 7: 8, move bead into position, finger tat 4, vsp, 4 cl.

R 8 (bead on hand) 4 + (vsp) 4 + (space between R5 and R4) 8 cl.

+ join shuttle thread to space between R7 and R8.

SSSR 9: 8, move bead into position, finger tat 8, cl.

+ join the shuttle thread to the middle of the thread over the last bead.

R10 (earring hook on hand): 8, picot with earring hook, 8, cl.

Make another one the same!

Crystals and Torch Glass

This necklace looks better in the photo than it does in real life. I'm not really sure about the combination of crystals and the lampwork glass beads. The crystals possibly sparkle too much. I like the rings only pattern though. A starlit shuttle worked perfectly to hold enough beads:

The lampwork glass beads were made by my sister-in-law, Clare Gaylard. 

Computer Woes

My computer has been misbehaving, so I've been AWOL, sorry. I think (hope!) it has been sorted out today. I have some catching up to do, so will post again  tomorrow.

Zebra Socks

I've finished knitting the zebra socks, using the same structure as the leopard skin socks. I think that knitting the pattern all over the socks would be a bit overpowering.

Another Pattern (updated)

Sorry about yesterday's strange post. The computer wasn't working, so I thought I'd create a post on my phone. Mmm, no, that was a mistake. Here is the chart for the sock pattern I'm working on now. And here is the inspiration for it, a zebra who was once part of our family. The top picture shows her outside the sitting room window with her friend the steer; the bottom one shows her with her first foal. 

Woven

I thought I'd turn my weaving into a pouch for my cell phone. Turns out, it's a bit too snug to be practical. A shuttle or two might fit perhaps. Here's how it looked before I took it off the 'loom':