Rabbit Trails

I was so looking forward to this weekend since it's the first one in a long time when I had nothing planned.  No meetings.  No trips.  Just a chance to work on the things I want to.

I had a list of things that I wanted to work on.  A lace project, finish my weaving project, spinning project, start a new bobbin lace project, etc.

What I actually did, however, was spangle 48 bobbins:

Stain 48 bobbins:

And varnish 48 bobbins.

What that started was something I hadn't planned on.  While I searched out the supplies to spangle my bobbins, I found a number of jewelry beading projects that had been sitting there for who knows how long.  Sooooo...

and

Plus another necklace and bracelet I don't have a photo of.  A whole new jewelry wardrobe, if spring ever does come.

The 2 necklaces at the botton of the last photo are special.  I know they look like plain beads but they were my Grannie's beads that I've restrung.  I used some of them for my bobbins and the rest I restrung.  The strings were falling apart and I was afraid to wear it for fear of losing the beads.  Now they're back into shape to be worn.

Making the most of it

It’s amazing how a couple of hours you didn’t expect to have can be so productive. I was able to leave work a little early today (because next week the craziness begins again) and I came home and proceeded to get tons of stuff done.

The Ponchette
I actually finished the Ponchette last night and love it. It came out exactly how I’d hoped it would. What makes this fun is that I used a yarn that was different from what the pattern called for and decided to just keep knitting until the 3 skeins were finished. Finishing the 3 skeins made it exactly the right size. I had an idea about finishing it with some shells but I didn’t like the way it came out so I’ve now taken them off. The changes I made are: (1) I did it in stockinette instead of the garter; (2) I changed the yarn; and (3) I added a mock ribbing at the top by working over the first 5 stitches 2 rows of stockinette and 2 rows of garter, giving that top edge a little definition.

Necklace
I found these crystals and locket at a couple of local craft stores and I finally got the idea of how to put them together using these chain links. I like the muted colors together with the silver.

Pin for Portuguese knitting
I gave a little (rave) review of a video about knitting in the Portuguese style. It showed carrying the yarn either around the back of the neck or through a special pin that gets attached to the top of the left shoulder. I told some folks that I was going to try to make my own pin and that I would post about it once I tried it out. So here goes:

I used a Darice 2¼” Coiless Safety Pin in nickel and a Darice Brass 2” Eye Pin in nickel.

First I used my small needle nose plyers to bend it in half.

Then I began making a loop with the straight end and fed it through the eye and closed the loop.

I used a small dowl to fold the eye pin over. This is where the yarn will feed through. Once I had all the ends tucked in and the eye of the pin perpendicular to the fold, I fed the large coiless safety pin through the eye. Easy peasy, right?

Cool. Now I’m going to use it.