Artemis - Wrist Warmers and Brooch Set

Here's my latest wrist warmer set:

Artemis

The wrist warmers have a fancy yarn (guinea fowl yarn is what I call it) cuff section and a burgundy red Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 'glove' section. There is a lovely diamond lace pattern running up the centre front and picot edging along the edge of the hand section and thumb.



The brooch is a double cabbage rose in both yarns and adorned with real guinea fowl feathers:


When the writst warmer is worn the lace pattern shows up nicely. There's also a little irridescent ribbon to finish off the 'Artemis' look - elegant, glamorous and timeless. :-)

The back has my trademark cable at the inside of the wrist. This makes sure the wristwarmer sits nice and tight around the wrist.

Here you can see the details:

The set will be available in my Etsy shop unless you snatch it up first. If you're interested, drop me a line.

I Knit Show Or Yarn Heaven

Last Saturday was taken up by a visit to London and the I Knit Show.

My blogger friend Caroline from over on Uniqart and her lovely daugher joined me and we trudged all the way from Waterloo to Westminster and got rather an indepth view of Westminster due to a terrible map (and some map reading errors on our side). However, we finally got there, and, yes, it was definitely worth it and next year's show is already marked in my diary.

The show was held in the lovely Lindley Hall Conference Centre, which is bright and airy and has great facilities including a reasonably priced cafe.

There were tables for people to sit and 'talk yarn' and lots of stalls with gorgeous, lovely, amazing, interesting yarn delights. :-) Yep, it's that bad. Really. LOL

I knew it'd be bad so I'd set myself a budget and resisted using the cash machine in the centre. I only bought things I really, really, neeeeeded. LOL

Here's my stash, partially wound up in balls already (couldn't resist playing with my yarn the minute I got home, footsore and exhausted but happy).

Like Caroline, I bought mostly lace weight yarns.


Below is some feathery pink yarn with black spots interspersed throughout which I'll be using as trim and also the black lambswool laceweight yarn.

This was one of my 'neeeeed-this': beautiful Malabrigo Silk Blend yarn in cherry red.

Rose and green alpacca lace weight yarn.



Feathery fluffy and, oh so soft, 'Guinea Fowl' yarn. Again, I will use this as a trim.


And this is the second of 'had to have' yarns: Louisa Harding Willow Tweed in a soft blue with little white dots throughout. Totally gorgeous!!!

And here's some Filatura di Crosa baby merino lace weight yarn. So soft and yummy. The colour is a pale silver. Very similar to the yarn I dyed - see this post.


Apart from the yarn stalls there were also seminars and stalls with 'made' things. One of the stalls was particulalry memorable. Unfortunately I didn't take a card, so can't remember the name of the lady, but she made the most beautiful sea creatures from knitted, very thin wire. Totally amazing. We also saw some people spinning - with spinning wheels and drop spindles. If there had been a spinning class.... one of the things I want to try before I die. LOL

A great day out. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Nest Brooch

I definitely had fun with this! I have been admiring the 'nest jewellery' I'd seen on Etsy, but something never felt quite right. Nests are supposed to be messy, there needs to be camouflage, something to soften the twigs, and something to keep the eggs warm and cosy. But all the nests I saw were bare and cold. :-(

So here's my take on a 'nest'.


I wanted it to be as natural as possible and to fit right in with it's surroundings, hence the pictures of the brooch on some bay leaves (above) and some rosemary (below).

And here it is again on my garden table:


I've used lots of different materials. The nest itself was made from antiqued copper wire, which I have combined with green Habu steel yarn (100% wool over steel yarn), Habu paper moire in a mossy green/brown colour and teeny tiny guinea fowl feathers.

The eggs are freshwater peals which have been threaded into the nest, so they won't fall out. The nest has been placed on a brass filigree (which you can't see unless you're looking at the back of the brooch). There are more guinea fowl feathers on one side and a black marabou feather on the other side.

The nest and feathers sit securely on a brooch pin, which is just under 4cm (1.5"). The brooch itself is 12.5cm (approx. 5") wide and the little nest is 2.5cm (1") in diameter.

Despite the amount of wire I've used the brooch is still quite light. I wouldn't use it on your best silk shirt, but it's fine on something a little more substantial.

Nest and Spring in Paris will be available in my Etsy shop later this week. I am determined to upload some more items to my Etsy shop this weekend. However, if you can't wait, the brooch is £15 + P&P.