First Needlepoint Project
June 21, 2009 at 8:06 pm | In Embroidery | Leave a CommentTags: Counted Cross-Stitch
Over at Nuts about Needlepoint, Janet has been asking people to tell the story around their first needlepoint project, so here’s mine:
This is a counted cross-stitch picture worked with a kind of thin wool. It came in a set, and I think it was the first relatively big “grown-up” project I’ve ever finished. I must have been somewhere around 13 or 14 at that time, and although I’d been doing quite a bit of needlework ever since starting school, I don’t think I finished a lot of things. I still have the embroidered needle-book I did in needlework class in 3rd grade somewhere, and the crocheted bag that was my first crochet project, also done in school. I use those, but they’re not the quality of project you can show off.
But this cross-stitch picture is different. As you can see, it’s nicely framed and behind glass, which my mom had done for me at a framing shop, and hangs in my appartment. While it’s not my usual style, there’s lots of good memories connected to it, and looking at it still brings a smile to my face.
Addicted to Lace
June 14, 2009 at 4:22 pm | In Knitting | Leave a CommentNow, that’s nothing new around here, isn’t it? 
After writing that glowing review for Victorian Lace Today a few weeks ago, of course I had to try my hand at one of the patterns. I’m going to make the Maltese Shawl, after finding the appropriate yarn, of course. Thanks to the perfect service from Jürgen Weidner, I soon was in the possession of this:
Three skeins of Malabrigo Baby Merino Lace in Bergamota. The first skein is already wound using my shiny new ballwinder, which I acquired at the same time. The yarn feels really yummy, and it’s a joy to knit up, as you can see here:
I made a provisional cast-on over a spare cable of my Addi Clicks, and acquired a 4.5 mm Addi lace needle after a few rows, since I want to make my life with this as easy as possible, or I’ll never finish. The pointier tips of the lace needles are just what I need here. I have the feeling the gold-coloured finish of the lace needles is a bit less slippery than the normal Addis, but this could well be my imagination.
The picture was made after 3 pattern repeats from 88 comprising the main panel of the shawl, so I’m into this for the long haul. You can also see some big bulky metal rings in the picture. Those are my sorry excuses for stitch markers currently, since my open plastic ones were driving me to distraction with catching the yarn in all the wrong places. I’d like to have some closed rings a bit smaller, but for the moment those will do.
So, don’t expect to get updates of this venture very often, this is definitely not TV knitting, being “real” knitted lace, meaning every row is a pattern row, no dreaming while purling back across the wrong side allowed. But I think the look of the finished lace will be so worth it.
Temari, again
June 1, 2009 at 6:37 pm | In Fiber Art | Leave a CommentTags: Temari
I’ve been including something handmade by me in the birthday presents I’m sending my nieces each year for quite a while now. Problem is, the crazy quilt box wasn’t going to get finished for the ninth birthday of the younger one this month. There’s just too much work left on it, and I’m missing some inspiration for the remaining seam treatments for the sides of the box. So I needed to come up with something that I would be able to finish in a week of half and hour here and 15 minutes there every day. So I remembered temari. I made my first project over a year ago for the older one’s birthday, so it only fit that the younger one would get a temari ball this year.
I used a different pattern from the same book, Temari für Einsteiger, but this time I didn’t just use the colours suggested for the project, but came up with my own combination. The green background reminds me of a spring meadow with beautiful flowers growing on it:
I’m pleased with how the colours came out. The book uses a similar gradation for the foreground colours, but has a pale blue background instead of the green one I chose. This one feels like spring, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve! I hope my niece likes it as much as I do.
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