Now it's really finished...

I've finally finished a little handle and the lining for my little purse. Like I said before, it's now the most perfect but the first time I had done something like this and I did sort of make it up as I went along. So not so bad, right?

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time off but just wish it could have been 2-3 weeks. I've averaged about 14 hours a day knitting, sewing and beading and I STILL don't have time for everything! When my ship comes in, I'm definitely going to be busy!!

The one thing I haven't gotten as far as I wanted to is with my Danish sweater. I have finished 2 of the pattern repeats but I have about 10 more to go. I worked out the other day that it will take about 60 more hours work to finish it. The goal is still the end of the year and I do have a little more time off before the end of the year so it's still do-able.

Looky, Looky!

It’s finished and I’m so pleased with it. This is a reworking of the vintage purse I was telling you about. Of course, it didn’t end up anything like the original but it was great inspiration. How fun is this?!

The body and top is crocheted with seed beads and then the edging and fringe are beaded with a larger bead accenting. I wish you could feel how gorgeous the beads make the bag feel. Although I started with tone on tone, it’s quite a hard color to match for the larger bead, lining and handle but I’m happy with the brown accents and I think they add an authentic color combination. It is lined and I did use a French seam because the lining was quite ravely. I used a very light lining fabric and it gives a nice ‘stained glass’ sort of effect in the light through the lacy bit at the top.

Anyway, it was a very easy project and I think I’m going to write up the pattern and then play around with some alternatives to the techniques here.

Just a thought...

The preacher told this story this morning which I really liked. Ever feel like you’ve lost your focus?

An old lady used to ride a scooter every day across the border in Brazil. Each day she had a bag of sand strapped to the back. After a while the border guard began to get suspicious and wondered if she was trying to smuggle something in the bag with the sand. One day, he made her open up the bag and even though he went through all the sand, he found nothing and had to let her pass. Finally after this had gone on for months, every day a bag of sand on the back of her scooter, he told her he wouldn’t arrest her if she would just tell him the truth if she was smuggling anything. Yes, she told him, she was smuggling. But what are you smuggling, he asked. Her reply? Scooters.

I love surprises! I have this week off from my day job to get some things done for my fun job. One of the things I wanted to do is visit the bead shop over in St. Louis. There’s also a knit shop over there called Knitorious. Several of the ladies from our Fiber Arts Guild have visited and really enjoyed it so I thought, as it was in the same part of the city, that I would stop by. I just wanted to check the web site to find directions and found that they were hosting a talk by a Civil War re-enactor, Deborah Hyland, on Civil War era purses. I got there and found that one of my compadres was already there, also for the talk. Fascinating! She had pictures of a wide variety of purses as well as the old patterns, ladies of the era carrying purses, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed it as these old purses are a particular interest of mine.

As a bonus, I don’t know if I mentioned it but several months ago when I was in Omaha, I bought a couple of skeins of Artful Yarns Portrait mohair yarn in color 122. I didn’t have a plan for it, I was just taken with the colors (jewel tones – green, blue, turquoise, purple). I found a little shrug that I thought it would work lovely with so off I went. Of course, the pattern didn’t call for this gauge of yarn so I had to do a little figuring but I found that I could work the yarn on needles 3 sizes larger than the pattern and work at about 66% of the stitches listed in the pattern and it came out just about right. That is until I got ready to do the sleeves and realized that I wasn’t going to have enough.

Classic story, right? No problem, I’ll call the store and get them to send me 1 more. That’s all I needed – 1 more. They certainly had more when I bought my 2. Uh, yea. They didn’t have any more. But they couldn’t have been more helpful. The owner offered to call his rep and see what other shops would be carrying the yarn. Maybe they would have one. Four shops – yea, nobody had any and, as you can probably guess by now, the color has been discontinued. Classic.

So, Saturday, I’m standing in Knitorious talking to my friend and I happened to look down. There it was! Not only the Portrait yarn but the very color I needed. Probably the last 3 skeins in existence!!! There, right in front of me!! I had a little scream, did a little dance and bought all the skeins they had!! I know I only needed 1 but, honestly, tell me, how could I not!! It was only 3 skeins so I can always do a scarf or a hat or something. I’ll post some pictures once I get it done! How fab is that?

A Place to Crochet

I was in my local bead shop the other day – La Bead Oh – and the owner, Kathy showed me an antique beaded purse that someone had just given her. I was a lovely sort of stripey pattern and as I looked closer, I realized it was double crochet with 2 beads in the first part of the stitch.

I know you’re supposed to be able to crochet with beads and get a beautiful effect but it’s never quite worked for me. But I had a good look at it and decided to have a go.

I finished my little beaded vase (see earlier post) and still had beads on the thread so I started there and you know, it’s easy peasy! I’m really enjoying doing it (it’s actually easier than knitting with size 0000 needles!) and I’m loving the effect. So now I have a couple of other ideas of things I want to try.

It’s a little like the knitting in that what you’re seeing is actually the wrong side of the work. Like this:











(sorry about the blur)

But when you turn it through, there’re the lovely beads!!














Now I’ve just got to decide how long I’m going to make the tube and how I’m going to finish it off. I think I’m going to just do a flat bottom and then put a beaded fringe on the bottom but I’m not sure about the top. A little more thought is needed…hmmmm……

I Love Beads

Can I just say, I love beads. I love how they feel and how they catch the light and how the fabric feels in your hands and how they look. I’m enamored with beads. No one who knows me will be surprised by this sentiment but I just felt it needed to be said. I also love the fact that, even in the hands of a novice, they make things lovely. I’ve knitted with beads and I’ve crocheted with beads and I’m learning how to tambour with beads. But this is my first foray into just plain beading for a bag like this. Well, not the absolute first. I’ve done a couple of little amulet bags but this is the first real people size beaded purse. As you can probably tell, it’s my own design – not very even but did I mention it’s my first? And I’m in love with it. Just like a first car or first house or first love, it’s special. Even if it’s a first beaded bag that only a creator could love, since that’s me I feel pretty good about it!

As with other things I make, this started out life as something else. This was the top half of a bag knitted from Noro Silk Garden (which I still intend to finish by the way). But when I got into it, I didn’t like the proportions so decided to finish this off as I did and I’m ever so pleased with it.

Did I mention I love beads? OK. Good.

Ahoy, Matie!

I've had this pattern on my mind for several years. I originally made it for a colleage having a baby but it was one of those fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants things that came out only so-so. But I've been wanting to refine it and get it written down. Here's what it looks like so far with the sleeves still to come. It's very exciting to finally get it sorted out. I will have it in 4 sizes, this being the newborn/preemie size, and will have it for sale on my web site eventually.

My biggest news is that I've finally started my own business. People have been telling me for years that I need to do this but it was never the right time. Now it just seems to be the right time to start and, as I'm telling people, everyone's reaction seems to be, "Well, it's about time." That's been a very satisfying reaction, I can tell you.

The web site is http://www.wandagraysondesigns.com/. The name comes from joining my mother's and father's names because they are the ones who have inspired my curiosity and creativity throughout my life. A new adventure, for sure.

This part is really for my Mom. Here are some of my plants,the second on is what I was telling you about. No idea what it is but it's turning out so pretty. You can't really tell in the picture but the flowers are a pale purple.















And, finally, in the serendipity rocks category, is a little project that I thought was supposed to be a little knitted bead coin purse, but turned out actually to be a little beaded vase. It still needs starching and shaping but I was thrilled to discover it. I was actually going to rip it because it wasn't at all attractive. I discovered, however, quite by mistake that I was knitting it inside out. All the other things I've knitted with beads I've done in garter stitch so I never thought about a right side or wrong side. With this one, because I was knitting in the round with the knit stitch to the outside, I discovered there definitely is a right side.

Here's a picture of what I was seeing. Not too clever, right. But just turn it inside out and wha-la - a while different picture:

knit side:









purl side:

Shangri-la is in your mind...

Next year the Olympics will be in China which is a huge deal for the Chinese government and people. Having been cut off for so long from the rest of the world, ordinary people are hoping that the huge influx of people from others countries will highlight their struggles with a totalitarian government, which the Chinese government still is for all intents and purposes as well as showcase all that is wonderful about China, the Chinese people and Chinese culture. The government is making every effort to show the best side of their country to show that they have everything to be proud of and to prove they are not a second-rate country but a strong, proud nation.

In their effort to make their country accessible to the enormous number of visitors, they have faced a few stumbling blocks. One is how they have tried to make all their signs and posters read in multiple languages but largely in Chinese and English. Taxi drivers have even been made to learn at least basic English so they can best serve the travelers. All very noble efforts towards the goal. Unfortunately, not all of it has turned out as they would have wished. Especially at issue are the signs like this one(which is my favorite of the ones I’ve seen).

(Click to see a larger image)

The government has now had to draft in Western retired businessmen to work with them on cleaning up the signs which, unfortunately will do exactly the opposite of what they’ve wished. I’m afraid most people will overlook the great effort which has gone into making Beijing accessible to them and will end up mocking their efforts.

I just want to know…where IS my buffalo?!