Song of the Ocean

As many of you guessed, I am quite the bead artist. I have posted in the past some of my Christmas Tree ornaments, and sometimes to challenge myself, I will set out to create something completely opposite of what I normally do.

Art Jewlery to me is about free expression and the merging of diffrent components into on piece. So after a trip (or three) to Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, I managed to collect enough of there components to create a free form bead embroidered piece that not only blew my mind, but reminds everyone who sees it of the ocean.

The piece is embroidered with Czech Seed beads, glass bugle beads, large blue quartz rounds, 24k gold plated seed beads, freshwater pearls, czech glass pearls, two oval abalone shell cabs, and Swarovski crystals. The clasp was hand made using seed beads and a second abalone cab, and is hooked using a hook and eye clasp that I hand made especially for the piece.

All beads were purchased at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, Washington with the exception of the following materials: The large Swarovski Starfish in Crystal Golden Shadow, and the size 15 24k gold hex seed beads came from a booth at The Puget Sound Bead Festival operated by Beyond Beadery In Rollinsville, Colarado. the Caribbean Blue Opan Swarovski Crystal rounds in Palace Green Opal came from Fusion Beads here in Seattle, Washington. And the mint green alabaster size 6 Japanese seed beads are form bellomodo.com.

Anyhow, until next time I finally get around to blogging.

Sock Club times 2!

Hello again, I know it has been a very long time since my last update or post here, but I decided to take a diffrent route regarding my Sock club memberships this year since they arrive every month instead of every other month now. It's a time saver really.

The March shipment from Blue Moon Fiber Arts was AWESOME to say the least. It was just what I was craving due to the lousy and mostly dreary weather we have been having here in Washongton state. All thos bright colors mingled together made me just toss aside what I was working on and cast on these socks. They turned out awesome too!

Hazel knits was a great suprise as well. It is almost as if we have dyers that read our minds. It helps that they live here in the PNW, and experience the same cruddy weather too. (Snow in April, come on nature, are you kidding?) The pinks and greens reminded me of pretty flowers, and the pattern really set off the whole shebang by pulling both of the sock colors together in a nice little package that made me display them longer than the other shipments.

I can't wait to see what comes next time in the yarn club shipments now. I may end up ordering some more of that yummy colorway from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and mabie the pink color from Hazel Knits in the pink colorway. I don't know if I will though, I have to save money for Sock Summit after all.

Hazel Knits Sock Club the first!

I just got the first shipment from the Hazel Knits Sock club for this year, and may I say that I LOVE the yellow. However, don't let the candy bar in the picture fool you, I did not let one tiny taste enter my mouth, instead I tossed it up in te air and enjoyed the show as my husband and son fought over the tasty treat.

I am geared up now for the Rockin Sock club now, and am over a barrell as to what to knit with the lovely yarn I just got.

An Update on my Challenge.

Hello everyone, and happy Valentines day to you and yours!

Well, I have gotten off to a strong start on my year long sock knitting challenge, and I am happy to say that I have worked on, and completed 5.5 pairs of socks. I have half of my Rockin Sock Club kit done, which makes the half of a pair of socks. With that said I now have 24.5 pairs of socks to go, and I have yet to run out of steam......... or sock yarn for that matter.

So far I have knitted the following:

1. A pair of plain black socks for the husband.
2. Eunice by Cookie A. (From her book Sock Innovation)
3. Genetian by Lisa Stichweh (Free Ravelry download)
4. A plain pair of purple and blue striped socks.
5. Raven Swirl Socks by Cookie A. (Available through Blue Moon Fiber Arts)

Hopefully I will finish the socks I am working on, and then move onto several other pairs I have planned.

Anyhow, I have much knitting to do, and my next post shoud have the first installment of the Hazel Knits Sock yarn club.

See you all then!

Sock Club the First!

This year I signed up for two diffrent sock yarn clubs, and the first of them has arrived at my doorstep. I was happy to see the Blue Moon Fiber Arts delivered as promised. I was disappointed however to see that both patterns were colorwork. The bane of my entire knitting existance. However, I am going to give it a go and see how it all turns out. If it is a disaster, I will frog it and forget it ever happened. There are other things to do with yarn after all.

Love. This. Book.

When I put this book on order at Amazon.com a few months ago (It was backordered due to demand), I couldn't wait to get my grubby little hands on it. I own Cookie A.'s first book Sock Innovation, and have been drooling over her other patterns on Ravelry.com over the last year or so, but I never thought I would love a book of sock patterns this much.

OK, from reviews on Amazon.com, I read that some people are not pleased that there are only a few new patterns in the book, but I didn't care because I really wanted them anyway but never had the money to fork over to collect them one at a time. So buying this book just made sense to me.

From the time I tore open the cardboard shipping materials and loveingly opened the front cover I was already dreaming of knitting all of these socks, and the vividiy colored pictures were a great jumping off point for my daydreams,as well as my plans for how much sock yarn I was going to have to invest in. Each page was filled with clear, well written instructions on how to knit up each sock, with clear diagrams in the margins explaining sizing and chart placement. Each part of the projects were even labeled clearly.

The only down side to this book I could see, was that the projects were leaning toward being yarn hogs, and some knitters (including myself), sometimes don't have the money to go out and spend on two and three skeins of sock yarn to complete a project. It's a good thing that Hazel Knits offers quarter skeins though.

2011 - Year of the Sock!

With the dawn on a new year, and a new decade for that matter, it came time again to decide on this year's knitting challenge. However, the truechallenge was to decide on what to do this year to make it stand out above all the rest. My first instinct was to continue in last year's theme and knit 11,000 meters of yarn, but that would get old since I had done that already. i thought to knit eleven sweaters or shawls, but sometimes, even I take a few months to finish anything larger than a mitten.

Stuck in my quandry, I began to look forward in the year for inspiration. Many of the events I looked at happen every year, and none had any themes that I could turn into a year long challenge. I was close to giving up when I saw it, the one event with a theme that I could use to make a year long challenge, and have tons of fun while doing it.

SOCK SUMMIT!

Now to make a long and boring story short, I plan to knit thirty (yes) pairs of socks in one year. And to tie it into my diet that I started at the beginning of the year, I set the following rules:

1. No more that two socks may be knit on a circular needle.

2. All ends must be woven in to consider the socks completed.

3. Socks must be made to fit a human being. No catsocks, no dog socks, or hampster socks.

4. If I cheat on my diet, I must deduct one pair of socks from the total number of pairs knitted. Ewample: I have worked three pairs of socks. I sneak a cupcake, I have to deduct a pair of socks, leaving me with two pairs of socks.

5. Socks started before midnight December 2010 may count toward goal, yet any socks not completed before 12:01am Janurary 1, 2012 may not count toward the goal.

With that, I have to get off the computer now and get working. Thirty pairs of socks is alot when you think about it, and well, I have 59 socks (Thirty times two is sixty) to go.

Happy knitting.