A productive three-day weekend

It's been a busy and productive 3-day weekend (I took Friday off from work) -- jewelry, knitting, and spinning. Nothing finished in the knitting category, so no photos there. But here's what I've been spinning:


4 ounces of merino and bamboo top, spun into a 2-ply yarn. Handdyed by Miss Babs, purchased at Fiber Space. I haven't skeined it yet, so I don't know what the yardage is. I've got another entire 4-ounce braid of fiber left to spin. I hadn't done any spinning in quite a while, and my spinning muscles are really aching now! I'll have to give my back a rest for a few days before I tackle that other braid.

Now, the jewelry.

I started out with a beading project, using some of the brass findings that I got at BeadFest.


This is made with a brass bird charm, brass chain, aquamarine beads, and oxidized sterling silver wire.


After the necklace, I started playing with some polymer clay, inspired by a new book that I picked up at BeadFest. It's called Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry, by Ronna Sarves Weltman. Ronna stopped by class last Sunday with some polymer clay pieces that she had made using Objects and Elements bezels, and they were so gorgeous that I couldn't resist buying her book.

Here's my first piece -- a polymer pendant with silver wire, strung (for now) on a silk cord.

I'm not sure about this one yet -- maybe a glaze coat to bring up the color would make me like it more. I think I blended the clay a little too much, so that the colors ran together and lost their vividness.

The next piece combines metal with more polymer clay, in the same color scheme, held together with a brass screw. This one's on a silk ribbon for now, as well, but I haven't really decided how to finish it off. Also, while I like the basic idea, I may redo the polymer pieces.


The final piece of finished jewelry for the weekend is a bracelet, using rubber cord, sterling silver, a brass bezel with glass bead, and sari silk. I can't really claim credit for this design, as it was published in the Handcrafted Jewelry magazine that I bought at -- BeadFest, of course. So it's not original, but it's a great design, and I already had all of the components on hand.


It's Sunday night now, and I've started in on one last piece -- but this one involves resin, so it's going to take a couple of days to get all of the layers poured and cured. Hopefully, I'll have photos for my next post.

...and finally, here are a couple of pairs of cufflinks that I actually made a couple of weeks ago, as a birthday present for my husband. One pair made with NY subway tokens, and the other with 10 franc coins -- neither of which is in circulation any more.

BeadFest Philadelphia

Most of what I've posted here has been fiber-related -- knitting, spinning, dyeing, sewing. But this past weekend, I got to spend some time on another hobby that I haven't done much of in a while -- jewelry making.

Taking a class is always a great way to get inspired again, and that's what I did. I took a class called "Rings, Relics, and Riveting," with a wonderful teacher and jewelry artist, Susan Lenart Kazmer. The class was part of BeadFest Philadelphia, a huge bead and jewelry show with lots of classes. So on Saturday, I arrived early to check out the marketplace, where I of course spent more than I'd intended to on materials and supplies.

Then on Sunday, I had my class. Here's the course description:

Combine layers of metal sheet, objects, paper, rocks and fiber build unusual wearable rings. Focus on cold joining techniques such as riveting, prongs and staples. Add height and dimension by use of negative and positive space. Fabrication of metal by hand and tools such as disc cutters and forming block.

We started with a simple design that involved stringing various types of beads (loosely defined as anything that had a hole in it, or could have a hole drilled into it) onto a long piece of brass wire that was then hammered and shaped into a ring shank. Here's the result of mine, using a hammered copper disk and a chunk of hematite.





Then we started using rivets, tiny nut & bolt sets, staples, and prongs to hold rings together. I'd brought along all sorts of odd materials that I thought I might be able to add to a ring, and ended up focusing on a little bag of rocks that I'd brought back from a vacation to Prince Edward Island a few years ago. I made my first PEI rock ring with copper, a pale blue glass bead, and a silver-colored metal spacer bead:



I love the patina that the copper got from heating it with a torch, and the slightly irregular hammered edges of the metal disk. Unfortunately, though, in the process of riveting it all together, I cracked the rock. I haven't had the heart to take it apart yet, but at some point I'll probably put in a new rock to replace the cracked one.

After that, I decided to break out the expensive supplies -- a sheet of sterling silver. I made another ring very similar to the copper one, but this time I'd learned some things about how not to break the stone (give it better support in the metal disk, and don't hammer so hard on the rivet!) Here's the result:



It's kind of ridiculously huge compared to what I'd ordinarily wear as a ring, but I really like the color and texture of the metal, the shape of the silver disk compared to the shape of the rock, and especially the fact that it will always remind me of a wonderful vacation. And believe it or not, it's surprisingly wearable.

So ... it's Saturday now, and I took yesterday off from work to play with my jewelry supplies. So expect more jewelry photos soon!

Mimi Kirchner and her wonderful, whimsical creations

Did you like my teacup pincushion and felt doll? Both are from patterns by Mimi Kirchner -- check out this Etsy video about Mimi and her work.



(I know I've been horribly delinquent in posting any of my own projects -- I'll get some photos up here this weekend for sure. I made some great jewelry this past weekend that I'd love to show off as soon as I can get it photographed.)

The "Jeanne G. Tour" tote bag

I guess it's been a while since I've managed to finish a project ... but I've been on vacation all week, so I've finished a few. Some still haven't been photographed, though, so for today we have just one -- the "Jeanne G. Tour" tote bag.


This bag is based on the "road-trip tote bag" in Alicia Paulson's beautiful book, Stitched in Time. The bag was made as a gift for Jeanne G's birthday, and shows the route from where she was born to where she lives now, with french knots marking the cities where her family members live.


Details:
Main body of the bag is cotton twill, bottom is ultrasuede, both purchased at Mood.
Cotton lining fabric and embroidery thread from Purl Patchwork.
Leather strap for the handles from Leather Impact.
Vintage bakelite button purchased at the D.C. Big Flea Market.

Another project courtesy of Mimi Kirchner

When the Purl Bee published the pattern for Mimi Kirchner's "purl girl" doll, they included a link to her website, Doll. I added Doll to my list of favorites, and have really been enjoying seeing Mimi's delightful projects. The popularity of the purl girl doll pattern encouraged Mimi to write up a pattern for one of her other projects, the Tiny World Pincushion. Naturally, I couldn't resist buying the pattern as soon as I saw it. And those who know how obsessive I can be about craft projects will not be at all surprised to know that I immediately started looking for suitable teacups to make the pincushions in.

I ended up spending a little more money than I'd intended on teacups, but I did find two really lovely ones, that we're really that expensive. (I'm still hoping to score some really inexpensive thrift shop finds.) So here's my first Tiny World Pincushion -- the Tiny House of Violets.


The tree seems maybe a little too plain, so I may replace it with an embroidered one. Still, I think it's really charming. To play up the purple of the violets in the cup, I made the house yellow (purple's complementary color), with a purple door, then scattered violets across the grass. I pretty much followed the basic pattern for this one, but am looking forward to improvising more on the next one. I've got another cup like this, but with a different type of flower on it. There were a couple more similar ones at that consignment shop ... maybe I'll pay them another visit this week.

If you'd like to see more of these sweet pincushions, check out Doll, or the Flickr group that Mimi started.

There's also a new Flickr group for the purl girl dolls.

I (heart) Mimi Kirchner and The Purl Bee

... for collaborating to give us all, for free, the pattern to make this wonderful doll.


The pattern appeared in the April 8 post on The Purl Bee. The project journal, with thoroughly illustrated instructions, is here.

Mimi's blog, Doll, shows off lots of her clever, quirky, and whimsical creations. Be sure to check out her Etsy shop, too, for more photos. I'd seen her Tiny World Pincushions at Etsy before, but I hadn't seen her blog until The Purl Bee project.


I could hardly wait to start one of these dolls, and luckily I already had a stash of nice wool felt to work with. All I needed to buy was some embroidery thread and a couple of buttons. Then it was a just a matter of tearing myself away from my yarn for a while in order to sew. The pattern and tutorial are very well-done; I didn't have any trouble at all stitching this sweet doll.

For my first, I pretty much made her just like the originals -- except that I moved the rose from the front of the sash to the back, to camouflage the fact that my sash didn't quite reach all the way around (oops!).




















I do plan to personalize her a bit, though, with a small bit of knitting. I'd thought I would make her a sweater, but I'm not sure a sweater would fit well over this dress. So I think I'll probably knit up a little shawl. Next time around, I'll customize the clothes in order to incorporate a sweater into the outfit. Just had an idea .... maybe turn the shoes into ice skates, keep the nice full skirt, and knit her a sweater and scarf and hat ... can't wait to get started!

That bowl of yarn

So what was that bowl of yarn in the last post?

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a 10-day trip to Colorado. Thinking this was a wonderful opportunity to start a new project, I ordered a sweater's worth of yarn to be delivered directly to Colorado. Sure, I could have finished one of the many projects I have in the works, or started something with yarn I already had ... but I had just fallen in love with the sweater on the back cover of Vogue Knitting (here, if you're on Ravelry), and just had to have it. It would have been a great project, if the yarn had arrived in time. Unfortunately, it took so long for the seller to ship that the yarn wasn't scheduled to arrive until two days before the end of my vacation.

No problem, though, right? I had a pair of socks to work on, plus another ball of Socks that Rock in my suitcase, so I had plenty of knitting to keep me busy.

But then I went to Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder. Wow, what a wonderful store! One of the first things I saw when I walked through the door was the book Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds. Who would have though portraits of sheep could be so striking? That same table held a variety of Japanese knitting and felting books, something I've rarely found other than online or at Kinokuniya in New York. That was one of the best things about this store -- an amazing collection of books related to all the fiber arts. And years' worth of back issues of fiber-related magazines. I could easily have browsed for hours. And that was before I even started looking at the yarns!

I thought I'd pick up a little project to make up for the fact that I couldn't start my sweater. Then I saw the Koigu rack.


Lots of stores carry Koigu, but very few seem to have much of a selection of the solid colors. SS&S had them, though -- dozens of gorgeous hand-dyed solids. My first thought was that I might pick up some yarn for a couple of pairs of lacy socks. But then I remembered why I really needed some solid-colored Koigu ... the Babette Blanket!


This pattern is in the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet. I don't even know why I happened to pick up that magazine when I saw it at Barnes and Noble three years ago, but when I saw that blanket I decided to buy the magazine -- notwithstanding the fact that I hadn't crocheted in years. Every once in a while since then, I've pulled out the magazine to look at that beautiful riot of color and contemplate whether I was ready to tackle it.

So I guess all the stars were aligned on that day that I went to SS&S. They had that rack full of Koigu, and the magazine with the pattern in it. And the series "Knit and Crochet Today" had recently piqued my interest in trying crochet again, and given me a bit of a refresher course. It was time for Babette!

I picked out seventeen colors, more or less the same as those used in the original version. I spent hours winding them into balls (since my skein and ball winder were back at home). And I started crocheting. Here's what I've got so far. Isn't it gorgeous?


The blanket is divided into ten modules, and I've finished the first six. (They get larger as you go, though, so I"m not yet half finished). The crocheting is very straightforward, and luckily Knit and Crochet Today taught me how to weave in the ends as I work -- with all these squares, and all these colors, I believe there are approximately 967, 347 yarn ends in this piece! I'm sewing each module together as I finish it, partly because I'm anxious to see the blanket come together, and partly to avoid the daunting task of sewing it all together at the end.

On my project page on Ravelry, I've named this "Memere's blanket," in honor of the grandmother who taught me to crochet when I was a child. My Memere was an expert crocheter, and I'm so glad she gave me the skills to make this beautiful blanket.