Knitting Dragonflies

The end of August and not getting much knitting done. I did finish one of my Socks that Soar on two Circular Needles , and cast on the 2nd. This is an extremely easy way to knit socks. I have tried various methods of knitting socks with newer methods than the dpns, and always go back to them. However, this method is a keeper! I urge you to give it a try! I am doing a little spinning in the evening, working on the pound of fleece that I started for the Tour De Fleece. The yarn I’m using is Patons Kroy Sock Yarn, at 166 yds, I had this much left over, and I made a short cuff. I rate it a affordable and readily available sock yarn with good color choices.  75% wool and 25% nylon, (4"=28 stitches on size 3 needles), makes it feels nice, I’ll let you know how it wears, but a little skimpy on the yardage per ball. Beware! I have been reading about watercolors, there is so much info on acrylic painting that I looked into that also. I checked out several books from the librar...

Patch First Shop Patch Vintage Shop – This is the shop that really caught my eye. Interesting vintage wear at good prices. SALE Vintage Blue Flora Linen Blouse $32.00 Vintage Pink Kimono Batwing Blouse $8.00 From her Bio My name is Patch, I'm Thai and live in Udon Thani, North Eastern of Thailand. Crystal Beaded Jewelry is my passion. At first I like to buy every kind of jewelry - not expensive one - to match my cloths but sometimes I couldn't find what I want. Then I started to make my own jewelry. All of items in my shop I design from what I like which is another passion of mine Wedding Stuffs... I think about what I will wear when I go to wedding events or sometimes I look at the wedding gowns and think about what will match to those gowns.. As I made them like I will wear them myself, I choose the best quality materials as I can find.. I can guarantee you that you will receive the best quality of jewelry from my shop.. For Vintage items, they are from my mom...

While sitting outside and doing a little knitting I spied this little guy. I first thought he was a bee, then when I got closer, I noticed he was acting like a hummingbird. A long nose, clear wings, and a hairy body? Could he be a moth?   Yep, after some investigating, I discovered he is a Hummingbird moth, see this great slowed down video. He is actually a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth ! We have been enjoying watching him! While sitting outside I’ve been working on my Sock, the basic sock from the Socks that soar on two needles by Cat Bordhi. I love this method of knitting socks! Hoping to get these done soon, it is a fast method of knitting socks, and when carrying them, no worries about having a dpn drop out. May your knitting needles fly as fast as dragonflies..

I found this stop motion tutorial on flickr, The Making of Origami Koi by MABONA ORIGAMI, website here http://www.mabonaorigami.com/ , full of inspirational images! This will make you take a second look at the blank piece of paper. Need a Mid Century Birdhouse ? I grew up in a ranch style house, and now my birds can also. Chris at Curbly.com show us how to make one! Don’t let your birds be homeless! Need a cute Mini Terrarium ? Jenny Ryan on Craftzine shows us how to make one using a Mason jar. Put a little mushroom in and a fairy and what little (or big girl) wouldn’t enjoy having this on her desk? A Copper Ring Tutorial from Karen Makes Stuff, stop and look at her blog, she has plenty of ideas you will be interested in. And for all of you knitters and spinners, take a look at the Knitty fall 2010 , and the Knitty spin close look at Navajo Plying   Knit Fast, Dye Yarn "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning how to dance in ...

I’ve been playing around more with my water colors. I’m trying different looks to skies, ground and water. Just the basic things. Easier said than done. We have not been able to get away during the summer, due to my injury and other factors. So I guess my summer getaway is painting. Images of places I would like to be. I’m reading watercolor books, and visiting watercolor blogs. I tend to forget that I need the white of the paper left, at least some of it! So that is what I’ve been concentrating on. This was painted with the wet on wet technique. I should have used thicker paper or taped it down to prevent the buckling when it dried. I was playing around with trees and everything else was an afterthought. A chickadee on thistles Again, I think less would have been more, the background was added. I should have left it out. I was going for a blurry background, but…… Oops, overworked, I just kept going, I knew it was trash, ha A water bird, working on shadow...

Sqeeee! I got a package in the mail. Jodi at Eternal Arts and Crafts blog had a giveaway of some lovely potholders . After a failed swap, she decided to have a contest for them. And I was drawn! Yay!! What a package! Not only did I get two quilted, vibrant potholder, but two skeins of Debbie Stoller Stitch Nation Yarn, which I have been eyeing, but hadn’t purchased. I’m planning on making a felted purse with them, perfect colors for a fall bag! Also included was a notepad, (for all of my lists), yarn bobbins, (which I needed), and some chocolate! Yum The potholders are perfect on top of my new range! See how pretty they are! They are the perfect compliment to my remodeled kitchen of black and yellow! Thanks Jodi! Stop past her blog, she has lots of good ideas and links!

I had this pattern and wanted to make it for quite some time. After much dithering about the yarn to use. I choose some of my hand spun super wash merino.  And picked out some beads. At first I thought I was going to leave the beads out, then I thought, seriously, take a chance and I decided to use them! I had a hard time finding a color of bead to use that looked good. I  started the pattern, and frogged it once then went crazy and decided to use a variety of colors of beads to pick up with two predominate colors in my handspun. The method I chose to use for knitting with beads was the traditional way, string them all on and slip them down when needed. It worked ok, with this amount of beads (108 beads), but if I was using more, I would attempt the crochet method, (see links below) The pattern calls for the beads to be applied in 5 rows in a twisted rib pattern, I was pleased that it was easier than I anticipated. I found several good blog posts on knitting wi...