Jacquie's Journal

First Competition!

But before that, I made  a few things as Christmas presents and for a swap that I can now reveal:
First, a couple of ambigram cushion covers for my nieces Eden and Maya.

Then there was a pair of wristwarmers for their Mum.

I designed them myself, and I can't remember exactly what yarn it is but it is definitely from Knitpicks and definitely has a lot of alpaca in its ingredients - it's lovely and soft anyway!  The ruffled edging was the Ruffle Rib Scallop from Knitting On The Edge (Nicky Epstein)  then the other end was finished off with a couple of mock tucks and a picot edge that all just happened to fit in with the basic 1x1 rib used on the main part.

Then for a swap I made these:

It was the Crafty Threads'n' Yarns Stitchmarker swap and mine went to Franney .  This is the Competition part!  Franney guessed the answer straight away from the clue I gave her but she has been sworn to secrecy  :D

The question is "What are these beads made of?"

Here are a couple of clues

1. I bought the beads in Moab, UT and I am not sure if they actually originated from there but they could have.
2. They appealed to my inner 10 year old boy's sense of humour!

The prize will be a similar set of stitchmarkers made from the same beads.
The winner will be chosen at random from all the correct answers submitted.
Please send your answer in an email to [email protected]
The closing date is Saturday Jan 19th and I will announce the winner and the answer on Sunday 20th.

Good Luck!!!

Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns

CRAFTY THREADS 'N' YARNS is a brand new message board for those who indulge in all kinds of crafts (if yours isn't there then let us know and we'll add a category for it) to share their crafty experiences - ups and downs, join in our events, make friends, and have a lot of fun. 

My friend Debs aka Deb the Brit aka Melody Yarns and I are co-administering it and we are very excited to have opened our doors for business for the first time this evening.

We have to thank Paula who did all the groundwork of setting everything up, and has very kindly supported us enormously through the last couple of days.

We are a UK based board, but we will welcome you wherever you are from.  Obviously i am not in the UK!

We will be having all kind of events - knitalongs, swaps, secret pal exchanges, etc whatever our members would like to do.

It is also our intention to hold charity events, and publicise charity events organised by others.

We encourage you to tell us about your online shops and show us your wares.

So please come over and see for yourself what we have to offer, and I hope you will join us:)

I promised I would  post a link to show you Lucy's Wedding dress.  Here it is: Lucy's Dress

Haven't Posted for Two Whole Days

It doesn't seem like that long ago since I last posted but it seems it is.  Charlie has posted more than I have.

The most important thing that has happened is that Lucy got her student visa ok - a huge relief I can tell you.  She went to the American Embassy in London fully expecting to spend the best part of the day there (like we did last time we went two years ago)  armed with a packed lunch and a good amount of reading materials, and amazingly she was all done and dusted and out on the street again within an hour and a half.  And not only that her passport was returned to her within 24 hours.

Now she is fully documented she and my sister and niece and nephew have planned a trip to our apartment in Menorca.  It's been a while since any of us have been there, so it will be lovely for them to catch up with things there.

I have been knitting my Lotus Blossom Tank and have reached the third lace repeat.  Some people on the knitalong have done an extra repeat of the lace.  I will have to try mine on when I have done the proscribed four and see if i too need to do a fifth.

We have been watching the series "30 Days" with Morgan Spurlock, the guy who ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days.  The subject matter has been quite close to home for the last couple of episodes (immigration and  outsourcing programming jobs to India) and tonights will be interesting too when an atheist goes to experience life with a religious family.

I have made some more stitch markers.  I am getting better at making loops and wrapping the wire round but one recurring mistake is when I go to use my chain nosed pliers to press the very end of the wire in I end up crunching the top little bead, which of course ruins the whole thing right at the very final stage and I end up having to start again.

I have joined the Ewe-Tah Knits Web ring, so if you are visiting from there - Welcome to my blog!

I am sure I had more stuff to say but I can't think what at the moment.  I guess this will have to do for now!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!  It's early morning so not much merriment has been made yet - will report back later when it has.  But she has opened her presents so I can reveal Secret Project Number 6.  Guess what!  It's an Ambigram cushion.   It says LUCY both ways up.  I used a traditional "four patch" and the fabrics are restful shades of green and blue with the extra bright rainbow colours.  This one was quite stressful to make because Lucy hasn't been going out very much lately, and when she does she is not predictable.  At least when Sam goes out you get an early warning of his return when you hear the garage door opening, but Lucy's truck doesn't fit in the garage so the first you know of her return is her opening the back door.  You then have about 3 seconds to throw the secret work over the back of the sofa and pick up your knitting and try to look like that is what you have been doing all the time.  Because it was stressful I made lots of mistakes that had to be fixed in creative ways - the edging didn't start out nearly as elaborate, but I cut the outside border too short and added in the small corner squares.  Then I realised I had made the inside border too long so I had to add a very thin inner-inside border to make up the seam allowance.  Anyway I prefer to think of it as the cushion telling me how it wants to be rather than me being stupid and I am pleased with the result

As well as the cushion I made her some stitch markers and row markers.  I completed this set of four stitch markers and I hope you can see some improvement in my loop making.

Then I made some row markers  - they have lobster claw clasps instead of rings so you can clip them directly onto the stitches themselves.  Here they are in action on Lucy's knitting.

This was one of my early attempts at wrapping the end to make the loop.  I bought the proper chainnosed pliers specially.

Lucy is knitting the zippered jacket featured in the latest Cast On issue.  She has done the back and one front and she has just started the first sleeve.  Here is her progress with the sleeve so far. It has a really interesting tweedy pattern in it and a double cable up the centre.  The hardest part has been remembering which way the diagonal on the tweed pattern goes in which area of the piece.  I really love the colour she has chosen for it.  I am nervous about the zipper as I have managed to avoid ever sewing one into a knitted garment so far.  It's a bridge that will be crossed when we reach it, but I can see it being a very rickety rope bridge with lots of missing wooden slats and frayed rope.  We will put on our Indiana Jones outfits and some tension building music, and be very brave.

If you are in France, Bonne Fête Nationale! or Happy Bastille Day!

Hell's Bathroom

We were supposed to be getting some more work in on the deck today but as sometimes happens other things occurred instead.

In the early hours of the morning the basement bathroom flooded again.  This was quite a shock because although it has flooded several times in recent weeks it has been because of torrential rain - which we did not have last night - and anyway on Thursday we went to the trouble of hiring a ladder to unclog the gutter which was preventing the water going where it should instead of into the basement bathroom window well.  Because we weren't expecting it we weren't ready with the entire household stock of towels and the square flip top bin that butts up neatly against the window to catch a lot of the water, and the carpet in the next room got wet.  This is a big problem because if the carpet underlay/pad gets wet and mouldy then it is very nasty and smelly as we found out last year when we had our other mystery flood and had to have restoration guys around to dry everything out and replace the carpet.

Anyway we pressed out as much water as we could by stamping on towels and then Gary went to work to borrow some heaters - everyone has a heater in their office because the air conditioning makes the building too cold in the summer - and a big fan. 

It wasn't inches deep or anything so hopefully we have done enough to prevent the mould from growing..

Anyway the cause of the problem turned out to be a sprinkler head that became broken during one of the earlier attempts to stop water running into the window well, and last night was the first time we had run the sprinklers since the last rain storm.  That's fixed now too.

By the time that was all sorted out and other necessary things had been done it was too late for the deck.  Oh well!  We did work on it yesterday and have put up the uprights for the pergola on top of the deck.  We just need to put the struts across the top and some bracing to keep it steady and we'll be done.

Also yesterday I visited the Unravelled Sheep to get the next item for my One Skein Secret Pal.  I hope she is OK - she has not posted on her blog for ages.

As you can see I got one skein of Paint Box to make a Mason-Dixon felted box.  I have never done any felting before, but people say it can be done in a front loading washing machine so I am going to have a go - if it doesn't work then I will have to do something else instead.  The other ball is Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk which is so deliciously soft.  I used it in the cranberry colour for my sister's Moebius strip scarf.  This time I chose this lovely creamy butterscotch shade.  I hope she likes it.

And while we were out (really to buy more wood for the deck - but the yarn shop and Jo Ann's are kind of on the way) I went to Jo Ann's to buy some more beads, a pair of chainnosed pliers (not sure why they are called that) and some toggles clasps.  During one of my onsomniacal nights I found a guy's blog where he suggests using the toggle clasp rings instead of jump rings for stitch markers because they are solid rings that won't catch on the yarn.  I am going to try thse with the heavier beads.  I have got much better at making the loops and had a go at my first wrapped join today.  Pictures soon when the recipients have received the ones I am giving as gifts in the near future.

On Friday we went to see Superman Returns and reminded ourselves why we don't normally go to the movies on a Friday night.  The film was good, if a little cruel to dogs. It was typical of it's genre, but the theatre was packed even though it wasn't showing Pirates of the Caribbean, and there were lots of noisy small children.  Luckily we had reserved seating so there wasn't the mad scramble for the good seats or that would have been something else to complain about.  It is much more civilised and relaxeed when we usually go on a Sunday lunch time.

Quite a busy weekend all in all.

Unconscious Incompetent

The first of the four stages of learning is "unconscious incompetent", and that is where I am with my jewellery making.  I don't know what I am doing, and I am not very good at it!  I hope that accounts for why i thought I could just go straight into it without thinking I needed any advice or instruction, and not sheer arrogance.  Also I was so excited by all the beads that I guess I didn't even think about the finishing part other than that I needed a pair of miniature needle nosed pliers.

Thank you Auntie Noo for pointing me in the right direction for doing the loops on the ends of my headpins.   I used silver which is quite thin and I think really needs to be wrapped for strength, but I will practice making the simple loops with a thicker wire first, and when I get good at that I will treat myself to some more tools that will help me with the wrapping.

I will go and practice lots and will not post pictures again until I am least a "conscious competent" and have some neat and tidy, well formed loops to show.

Men (and a Woman) at Work

As promised, some pictures today.

Men at work on the deck.  Edward commandeered the power screwdriver/drill on the grounds he needed the practise as he is doing woodwork at school next year.  He did a good job as well.

This is my first foray into jewellery making of any kind.

They are knitter's stitch markers.  I received some free with a magazine and decided it would be fun to make my own and to give them as gifts to other knitters.  I had a great time choosing beads and findings and needle-nosed pliers at Jo-Anns.  They have a huge selection.  i ended up with an assortment of seed beads,  metal beads, and some collections in different colours with some 'accent' beads.  (It is only now that I have seen them larger than life that I realise that I missed a red bead on one of the star ones)  Although I really like those two, I think I will redo them and add a little more - they are a bit short.  The hardest part was bending the ends of the posts around the jump rings (see I am getting the techie beading language already) without having everything fall off or twist round.  I don't know if I am missing a trick or wif it just takes practise.  Anyway I spent a very enjoyable evening choosing combinations of beads that I think look nice together and will probably spend a few more - I have a lot of beads and I nearly know how to use them:-)