Daisy-Chain Spectacle Chain

This spectacle chain was a custom order, and I'd never thought of doing it quite this way if the customer hadn't requested something similar to my daisy chain necklace. However, now I've done one I think I'll do more like this in various colours as I am really pleased with how it turned out.

This particular chain is quite long but it can be done at any length. The 'chain' part was crocheted with teeny crocheted flowers.



I then added various flowers (mostly glass apart from the pink centre piece which is vintage lucite) and teeny beads and sewed them onto the crochet flowers.


The flowers near where the chain is attached to the glasses are smaller than the others so they don't get caught in strands of hair.


I've chosen flowers in red/blue/white and lilac with matching beads, which I think are set off nicely by the black cord I used for the chain.


Despite the glass flowers/beads the chain is light but heavy enough to hang nicely and keep you looking pretty whilst making sure you always know where your glasses are.


If you'd like to commission a daisy-chain spectacle chain in colours of your choice, contact me. The price is around £15 plus P&P. I also have semi precious flowers in which case the chain would be slightly dearer.

Late Afternoon in the Park

Last week, when I needed a break from all the rushing around, knitting, wrapping presents and organising Christmas, I went for a walk in the park with my camera. I took lots of photographs for a new project, but also a few just for fun which I then played around with in Photoshop (TM).

This one was through the branches of a willow tree at the late afternoon sky:


This was through the branches of a different tree. I like the almost Rackham quality of the image.


This is the sunset all in peaches and apricots with a few dashes of vanilla. Looks almost edible to me:


This one reminds me of a horror movie. Maybe the view out of a frosty window.


This one was another picture of the early evening sky but I changed it so much that it now looks like a print on silk. I love the 'Japanese' quality of it.


Finally, the willow tree. I love willows and the rustling of their leaves in the wind. The original photo looked dreary and grey - like a proper English winter - but this now looks like a woodcut where you see the lovely lines made by the tree trunk and the branches. You can also just see the birches in the background.

Crimbo Presents

Caroline reminded me that I'd promised to show all the Christmas presents I made this year, so here we go:

Wrist Warmers

Two of my friends really liked the wrist warmers I'd made for myself, so they asked me to make some for them:



After making these two I was pretty tired of making wrist warmers, but my sister who I'd made a fantastic scarf for decided she wanted some wrist warmers too... so I ended up making another pair. However, this time I changed the pattern quite considerably. I call the set 'Barbie goes Elisabethan', you'll see why!


Barbie goes Elisabethan Set

Here's the wonderful ruffle scarf. Not a design I'd make (or wear) every day, but it looks brilliant when worn. I've used 100% wool, 100% merino, Louisa Harding Kimono Ribbon and Rowan Kidsilk Night for this.

And here are the cute matching wrist warmers with picot edging on the front of the wrist warmers and plain edging on the back.

Funky Punk Wrist Warmers

I ended up making another pair for my friend's daughter. The pattern is based on my Gothic Wrist Warmers but I've added stripes to the mix in a multi colour yarn from Adriafil.


Hats

For the men in the family it was hats this year. They were all based on the brown beanie hat I made a while back. The first one I made was a sort of steel blue:


The other one is in a charcoal grey. It's identical to this one apart from the colour.


Flowers and more Flowers

By this point I needed to make something else... like my Secret Santa present for the Greeting Cards UK mailing list... Each flower in this hair barrette has been needle felted separately. The flowers have been embroidered with raspberry lustre seed beads and sit on a needle felted branch in dark brown and black. The felt is all made from 100% merino wool.


Little Treasure Bag

This one's for a little girl. A little bag knitted in moss stich with a button fastening, more buttons and a sakura blossom for decoration. I've added two sakura blossom hair clips and a little memory wire bangle as a suprise inside the bag.



Deep Red Felted Rose

Needle felted from 2 different reds and black and embroidered with glass seed beads.



Purple Silk Rose

For this one I got my silk rods out and painstakingly separated the layers, sewed them into shape, embellished the centre of the rose with gorgeous Swarovski bicone beads and black matte Magatama beads. The leaves were needle felted from black and purple merino wool and embellished down the centre with tiny purple Miyuki cubes and black glossy seedbeads.



Sterling Heart Earrings

Finally, the last present. The Sterling silver hearts were cut out of silver sheet, filed and sanded, punched with a hole and a pattern, hung from Sterling silver wire and a little round Sterling spacer bead and then oxidised, polished and burnished.
And here they are in their tiny little box looking like they've been laid out on snow...



I am currently working on a scarf that I didn't manage to get ready for Christmas, with a totally new, very practical design. I also still have two more projects and several commissions to make. However, when I was needle felting the leaves for the Purple Silk Rose I managed to make myself some little hair clips too.

Poppy Hair Clips


A lot of the items shown here will be available for custom order in my Etsy shop soon....