Jewellery Party Specials - Part 2

I have a jewellery, knitwear and accessories party this Thursday evening, 26th November.


Here are some more specials:


Lovely Flower Brooches

African Fabric and Lace Brooches

A mix of African fabric (polka dots and flowers, in the colours of Delft porcelain), glittery blue and cream net fabric, organza and (vintage) lace. Decorated with buttons and beads, some of which are also vintage.

 

Vintage Fabric and Silk Flower Brooches

This one is made from a wonderful brightly coloured vintage fabric, some turquoise shimmery, silky fabric, turquoise net fabric and burgundy organza. A turquoise button and a few blue beads are added for decoration.

This one is made from a different, brightly coloured vintage fabric, pink satin, burgundy dupioni silk and burgundy net fabric. The brooch has been decorated with a vintage bead, a flower button and some sequins.

Fake Fur and Leather Brooch

Black leather, one petal layer with the smooth side up and one with the suede side up, black net fabric, a layer of fake fur and a layer of organza, decorated with vintage beads.

Prices for the brooches depend on the material and the amount of detail, but start at about £8. If you'd like to reserve any of the items, send me a quick e-mail or leave a comment.

Due to a harddisk crash earlier this year, I have lost lots of e-mail addresses, so if you didn't get an invitation, it's not because I didn't want to invite you, but because I couldn't! If you'd like an invitation, please leave a comment with your e-mail address or send me an e-mail and I'll send you the details. If you live in Cambridge or the surrounding area and would like to come, just leave a comment with your e-mail address. And don't worry, your details won't be plastered all over the net, I moderate my comments and will just take the details and then remove the comment.

Quick update - Featured in the Treasury and Presents

It's been a busy few days - working on the allotment all weekend to get the soil ready and planted, knitting like mad to finish a birthday present and so on, and on....

However, I did have a nice surprise as my Dragon Lace wrist warmers are currently featured in a list for the Treasury West on Etsy. I am very pleased about that. :-)



Here are - as promised - the pictures of the wrist warmers and shrug I made for my sister. I hope they've arrived now.


Vanilla Wrist Warmers

My sister wanted a pair of white wrist wamers. I thought really, really white would be totally impractical so made them in Sirdar's Just Soya in a vanilla cream colour.


They are very simply knitted with a ribbed pattern and one single cable to hold their shape nicely around the wrist.



A few buttons in my sister's favourite colours jazz them up a bit.


The Just Soya yarn (really, it is made from soya) is one of the nicest yarns I've knitted so far. It's soft and holds its shape nicely and it looks great knitted up. I can only recommend it.


Emerald Shrug

It took forever and a day to find the right colour in cotton for this shrug. I ordered a few green yarns from the net before I managed to find this on www.yarnstick.com.

The shrug is knitted starting with the cuff, then all the way up to the shoulder with half the back. Then I did the same for the other side and grafted them together with Kitchener stitch.

The cuffs have button holes for the satin ribbon laced through it, which looks pretty but also means the cuffs can be adjusted for various wrist sizes.

The back also has button holes and satin ribbon laced through. Shrugs of this design often slightly balloon out at the back and this allows a nice snug fit that can be adjusted as required.

The collar was knitted separately by picking up the stitches all around the opening (and took forever as there were so many stitches, especially as the stitches increased every so often), but again, it looks nice and makes it easier to wear.

The yarn is the most gorgeous (true) emerald green and was held double. It was lovely to knit with and drapes nicely.

I am currently working simultaneously on a present for a friend and a top for myself.

Dragon Lace Scarf and Fingerless Gloves

This is my latest offering - another lace scarf, romantic and elegant and with a definite Spring theme. The weather might not look much right now, but Spring is coming. Definitely. :-)


I wanted to make a versatile scarf that would go with almost anything and that was light and could be worn in lots of different ways. This scarf is long enough to be worn as shown above, just with a single loose knot or as below with a big bow. It can also be worn wrapped around your neck twice. Either way it looks like Spring around your neck.


Below is a picture of the scarf in flash light which shows off the shimmer of the Habu silk yarn in pale green.


The main part of the scarf has been knitted in a lace pattern that reminded me of a dragon's scales in the pale green Habu silk; the lace at the bottom is crocheted in a web pattern in a a lovely soft cream linen and silk mix. I have also used the cream linen/silk mix for the edging around the main (green) part of the scarf. Habu moiree paper linen and Habu steel covered with moss green wool knitted in a vine along the ends of the scarf separates the main scarf from the lace at the bottom and adds texture and an organic feel. The flower on each end has been knitted with a mix of three of the yarns used with 2 buttons in the centre of each flower creating a focal point.



Below are the matching fingerless gloves. Like the scarf they are my own design. The pattern for the dragon lace came from a Simply Knitting magazine (March 2009/Pattern Library).




I have used the pale green Habu silk yarn and the silk/linen mix from the scarf to make the gloves. The area around the wrist has been knitted in the green Habu yarn in the dragon lace pattern. It is split at the side and laced up with a cream organza ribbon that has a pearlescent coating. This allows the glove to be adjusted to your wrist size. The upper area of the glove has been knitted in ribs in the round with a picot crochet edging at the top, around the bottom and around the thumb of the glove.


Above you can see why I called it dragon lace.

Like the scarf the gloves continue the Spring theme not just with their colour scheme but also with the flowers above the wrist. The design for the flower is by Nicki Epstein - buttercup - although I added a flower button in a pale yellow rather than the suggested French knot. This time it was just knitted in the Habu silk.

The gloves would fit a medium sized hand/wrist, although there is give in the yarn. If you're interested but not sure if the gloves will fit, feel free to contact me and I will send you exact measurements.


The scarf and gloves will be sold separately in my Etsy shop, although together they would make a great set for a wedding or special occasion outfit. The gloves have been sold but the scarf is still available.


News: What's to come?

First, I think, it will be another lace scarf/fingerless gloves set, this time in Habu silk in a pale red with a fishtail lace pattern and more crochet lace in cream. I might add accents in burgundy rough silk yarn.

I also just managed to get some salmon leather - leather made of salmon skins, which normally would be a waste product of the salmon industry. The leather is fantastic, with a soft finish (just like very soft thin leather) and a scaly texture, and it doesn't smell of fish one bit. Check out this shop on Etsy for pictures: Gatsu Shop. I have several projects planned for this.

Another thing I managed to get was some gorgeous silk remnants. The idea is to combine them with some of my other techniques/materials to make handbags and accessories.

Then, there's that gorgeous faux Shibori scarf I really, really want to knit...

Then, there's that shrug I really really want to make in my gorgeous teal seacell and merino yarn... and many, many more projects.

There will also be more organza and tulle flowers in various colours, some fascinators with gorgeous feathers and whatever else I really, really need to make....

So watch this space.