sporty's birthday was july 2nd, and i made him this sweater vest outta valley yarns's longmeadow, periwinkle. it grew a bit, width-wise, when i put it through the wash. i was suprised by this, since it's 60% cotton and i was sure that it would shrink. it's a version of the men's tennis sweater pattern found in the summer 2006 knit 1.
i took a break from forcast to make the v-neck. once i was done, i went back and finished it. the sleeves seemed to take forever. i tried making it with the cables and bobbles, but it was a bit too much with the verigated yarn. i ripped it out, and did it plain style, which i think looks much better. however, i'm sort of wondering if this wasn't really meant to be made in a solid color, and still contemplating ripping it out.
i made three pairs of socks. the top pair is a gift for mary prioux, and the bottom pair i made for me (which i obviously wore before i took this pict...). the third pair were orange lace (i don't remember the yarn maker or type) and were sent to nathalie as a birthday present without taking a picture of them. perhaps you know nathalie, and can ask her to show them to you!
lastly i made tessy some sweaters for this winter. she sorta needs them for when it snows, so her belly area/belly hair won't get all frozen. i made the one on the left because i was sick of hearing everyone assume tessy is a boy, just because she's got a beard! it's from the knitting for dogs book by kristi porter. the middle one is a pattern i kinda made up. it's based on the hogwart's scarves (ravenclaw colors) from the first two harry potter movies. the sweater on the right is from the first issue of knit 1. i've shown the belly area to highlight the super cute buttons i found. they look like the leather ones, but they're plastic, which means they can be washed! how stoked is that?!?!?! you can see picts of tessy in all the sweaters in her album in the picture area.
there has also been some beading! i wanted a necklace that i could wear to dress up any t-shirt and that yelled summer for realz. this is what i came up with. i was suprised to find that i had the flower toggle clasp amongst all my beading materials. the fact that i don't really know all of what i have for beading materials tells me i should prolly be cut-off from buying any more. although, i have to say it was a nice suprise that i had just the right clasp for such a spontaneous project....
i made this cloysienne necklace for my brother's wedding. it looked really nice with the dress i wore, even if the craftsmanship on the beads wasn't so consistant.
then i went to a.c. moore (a kind of michaels), and there were so many cool beads in the 50%off bin, that i bought some to make this vintagey bracelet. in particular i love the swarovski clasp! even though it's a little difficult to take off.
i was still on a bracelet tear, but also wanted to use a tube of mixed seed beads i'd bought at beadissimo before i left san francisco. i came up with this band bracelet. this was made with the crazy version of a box-stitch i use. i liked how the closure button came out. it's based on a medallion i saw in one of the bead and button magazines i have (i'll try to come up with the issue, for reference, later). at first i wasn't sure if i liked it, but after wearing it a couple of times, i've decided i really do!
while parusing b-n-b i found a great pattern for these crochet earrings i still have not decided which style of closure i prefer. the rounded one hangs far down, and makes the earring feel heavier, but the straight one doesn't dangle too well....oh the dilemas...
once i made the earrings, i knew i needed to make a bangle for myself, using the same pattern. i went with red simply because it's my favorite color. the bracelet took MUCH longer than the earrings combined.... i also can't take my eyes off it whenever i wear it; it's so sparklely! the bangle is so worth the time it took to make it!
then i wanted another goes-with-anything bracelet. i made this knotted glass druk bead bracelet, and was suprised, once again that i had the perfect clasp! even though it looks like plastic beads, in a way, it's weight reveals it's in fact glass. i particularly like how the bracelet lies just between my wrist and the upper part of my hand, but not in a way that makes me fear it's gonna fall off.
finally, finally, finally, my thoughts have finally turned to christmas, which means i won't be able to show any f.o.'s until january or so....what i can show for now are some ornaments i finished. this year there'll be a real tree, so i made some larger ornaments. i got the basic pattern for these beaded pinecones from interweave.com. i altered the pattern somewhat, because i didn't think they'd hang correctly. instead of putting the "spray" behind the pinecone, i made it underneath so the ornament would be weighted properly to hang centered on a tree branch. i also used the christmas tartan i bought at a.c.moore when i was partaking in those 50% off beads......how convenient!
and that's all of it...that's six months of crafting....how quickly it passed....