Elemental Stitches

A Knit Hat and a Cowl

What a day!  I spent 6 hours chasing one of our falcons all over a desert butte.  Basically a mini mountain in the middle of the desert with awesome rocks.  We had to call off the search when it got dark.  My hubbie is getting up at 430am to climb the butte and track him before daybreak.  I am hoping he will be able to walk at all tomorrow.  He climbed that mountain 5 times almost to the top looking for his bird.  That is dedication.

Before we went out training I had Tom take a few photos of me and my knitted goods. 

While watching Gladiator the other night I started the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret. 

Needle - US 10½ and US 9 / 6.5 mm

Yarn - Red Heart Ltd. Eco-Ways

How much? - Less then 1 skeins = 186.0 yards (170.1m)

Colorway - Storm

I LOVE this hat!  I knit it slightly smaller then the pattern called for.  I was supposed to use a 10 circular for the brim and an 11 for the rest, but I didn't have those.  Instead I used a 9 and a 10.5.  That's close enough.  It came out great anyway.  Too bad this one is a gift.  I have another ball of this color left, so I think I am going to make one for myself.  Part of my dream to have a 100% handmade beautiful wardrobe. 

Here is another step closer to my handmade wardrobe.  I designed a Foliage Cowl to match my Foliage hat.

Needle - US 10½ / 6.5 mm

Yarn - Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky

How much? - 1 skeins = 137.0 yards (125.3m)

Colorway - Cape Cod - Varigated

I have never worn a cowl before, but they are cute and my neck gets cold a lot.  My hair is usually up in a clip or a ponytail and the wind bites at the back of my neck. 

Not sure what I am making next but I have to get a move on.  Time is getting short and my crafty gift list is still pretty long. 

If you want to keep track of my knitting you can check out my ravelry page.  I really like ravelry!  You should check it out if you haven't yet. 

Back in a couple days with more craftiness.

Holiday Patterns - Part 3

The Tree Family

Snowflake

Reindeer

Elf Stitchettes

And the ever wonderful Yahoo search for

Christmas Coloring Pages

Hanukkah Coloring Pages

Kwanzaa Coloring Pages

Winter Coloring Pages

Holiday Patterns - Part 2

More holiday cheer!

Row 1:  1. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfer, 2. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfers, 3. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfers,

Row 2:  4. xmas-sample-4, 5. Untitled, 6. Untitled,

Row 3:  7. www.flickr.com/photos/29038065@N04/4001544506/, 8. workbasket1, 9. holiday designs 2 

Holiday Patterns - Part 1

There are so many holiday patterns on the internet that I had to break this series into parts.  Look for more pattern links over the next week.

Row 1:  1. ornaments, 2. Christmas is too damn close!!, 3. Snow City, 4. shepherd boy, 5. drums,

Row 2:  6. peace, 7. Snowman Family, 8. Snowman, 9. free snowman or should I say lady.., 10. Snowman,

Row 3:  11. Snowman, 12. candy canes, 13. Snowman, 14. Retro Christmas Tree!, 15. Christmas Elves!,

Row 4:  16. Santa, 17. Santa, 18. Santa, 19. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfer, 20. Vintage Christmas Embroidery Transfer

Spinning and Spinning, Round and Round

The last couple of days I have been wanting a break from knitting and embroidery so I brought out my spindle and finished up my very first skein of spun yarn. 

I made a common mistake and over twisted my yarn.  No worries however, I discovered through some research that you can correct some of the over twisting by hanging a weight on the yarn as it dries.  It worked pretty well.  There are still some over twisted parts that I can probably straighten when I roll the yarn into a ball for knitting.

Spinning is therapeutic.  If you haven't tried it you should.  For me its the repetitive motion of the spindle and the movements of your hands as they smooth the twist down the roving. Have you ever seen Mists of Avalon?  I love the movie and recommend it whole heatedly.  There is a part in the movie where Igraine, King Arthur's mother, is spinning on a spinning wheel and it's repetitive motion puts her into a trance.  Then she sees a vision of her future.  I can see where they got that idea from.  I get totally meditative when I spin.

This beautiful purple is the roving I bought in Solvang, Ca in September.  I am in love with the colors.  I cant wait to see what they fabric will look like knitted. 

What do you think I should make with my new yarns?  I haven't quite gotten my tension even yet so we will call this thick and thin yarn that I would average out to bulky weight.  I havent measured it yet, but I am guessing I will have at least 100 yards.  Maybe a hat?  You all know how I love to knit hats!

Fun places to see

-Needle Book - An inspiring craft blog with beautifully spun yarns

-Maine Woods Yarn and Fiber - Where I bought my first spindle and roving

-Megan and Abby - Youtube Spinning tutorial Goddesses

Nature Fairies

Inspired by Elsa Mora's book Blossom Buddies we decided to make some Nature Fairies of our own. 

This is Esme.

Mimi

and Lela.

Then Brae made a bug

And a skirt and dress

We had a blast.  Make some fairies of your own before all the greenery is gone!

Harvest Inspiration

I found very few completed embroideries for Thanksgiving.  I am working on a pattern list of Thanksgiving embroidery patterns from around the net so look out for that in the next couple days.  Hopefully we will see some more turkeys in the days to come.

1. Autumn Wreath embroidery, 2. Tired Turkey Embroidery, 3. squirrels: the acorn fairy stitchette, 4. Hibernating Bear,

5. Brown Tumbling Leaf Embroidery, 6. hello, autumn, 7. acorn embroidery, 8. Bunny stitch along close up,

9. autumn bird, 10. hosten3, 11. The Guardian (Palomino), 12. AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN.....,

13. Wild Turkey Pillows Custom Embroidery, 14. Squirrel Friend, 15. Fall Embroidery, 16. Finished Turkey Towel

Dia de Los Muertos Sugar Skull Embroidery Complete

 

Got it finished!  I wish the pictures were a little better, but I didn't take them until this evening and the light was terrible.  I had to use a lamp to get enough light.  I love how his eyes turned out.

I figured out the teeth as soon as I finished the outline of the mouth.  It was an "duh, of course" moment.  Tom didnt like how I had the nose on the original pattern and I have to agree after stitching it.  I am making a couple of changes to the pattern.  It will be posted on flickr in the next day or so.  I chose the same bright colors that you would see on a real sugar skull.  I had the opportunity of decorating a great Day of the Dead altar last year with some friends so I had lots of inspiration. 

Isn't that the coolest bread!  Those are supposed to be bones crossed on the top.  Its a Mexican bread traditional on Dia de los Muertos.

The photo is me in 8th grade with my dad who passed away in 2005.

Hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

Fall, Mail, Yarn, Projects

There is a lot of crafting going on at Chez Melissa.  The leaves are falling, a chill is in the air and a severe weather alert is in the forecast.  70 mile per hour Northern winds are scheduled for Tuesday evening.  These seasonal changes have caused my insides to scream for cozy yarns.  I forecast lots of knitting in my blog's future.  Today I was thrilled when I received this.

My Christmas Knitpicks order.  I have a lot of knitting to do this Christmas season!  Here is my favorite.

This beautiful hand painted sock yarn will become a pair of socks for me.  I can't wait to get started on them, but I wont let myself begin until I finish the green pair of socks.   Speaking of unfinished projects, I have a pile of them I am trying to complete.  Today I worked on hemming pants, sewing potholders, and I finished a quilt top that I haven't worked on in years.

These are some Christmas gifts that are almost complete.  Below is another that I am really happy with so far.  It an owl cable hat.  I need another ball of yarn to finish it.  I thought I ordered another ball in this shipment from Knitpicks but it looks like I forgot to order it.  I guess I will have to make another Knitpicks order now.  Oh darn!

There was also a little crafty instruction going on.  She embroidered for a good half hour.

What did you do this weekend?

Free Dia De Los Muertos Sugar Skull Embroidery Pattern

I love Halloween!  I was looking for a good sugar skull embroidery pattern and I came across a couple good ones like

Urban Threads Skull Pattern

Jenny Harts Day of the Dead Pattern

Marygold Sugar Skull Pattern by Polka and Bloom

However in the end I decided to make one myself.  Tom and I stayed up until 2 am the other night working on it.  We had so much fun!  I haven't had time to embroider a sample, but I wanted to get it out early enough for others to try.  I am going to try it out this week and will post when its finished.  I am a little concerned with how the mouth is going to turn out.  My plan is to fill in all the black areas around the teeth and leave the teeth white.  I might even make one gold! 

I am still working on the owl embroidery.  I ran out of brown thread for the branches so its back to JoAnns.