Onwards!

Having finished the beading project and sent it off, I have been having the slow realization that I do actually want to get back to knitting after a fallow period in that arena. I discovered that I had a Blackberry Ridge sock kit in the stash. (I could've sworn it was leftovers from Mom, but she says she's never seen it before in her life.)

I made it through the first six inches, aka the pattern at the top of the sock, and then realized that the yarn is going to produce a really warm sock which isn't washable, and maybe I really wanted to make mitts instead.

So I decided to take the stripe sequence from the foot, and made mitts instead. It didn't go completely smoothly - I learned that I don't especially enjoy dealing with stripes and after a few attempts, it's still a bit baggy around the thumb, but it fits well, and I really like how it looks.

But I've got a lot of mitts because I like making them and can only use so many, so there's a limit to how likely I am to use them extensively. I'm toying with the idea of putting it in the Weaver's Guild Fiber Fair. However, there's always the question of copyright when selling one's work. I absolutely admit that my mitt is based heavily on the original kit. The first six inches are made exactly according to the pattern. On the other hand, I ended up with an entirely different category of finished object. So now I'm curious as to exactly how much deviation from the original there needs to be before it's reasonable to consider it something else. I don't know that I care enough to look into it especially, but I find the question kind of interesting.

And once I'm done with the other mitt - I really must finish both before I allow myself to start something else - I have finally given in and bought yarn for the Hwaet! socks that I've been eyeing for months, so I finally bought the pattern, along with the pattern for Lalique.

Side note, not related to fiber: I've also dabbled in calligraphy lately, and completed my first scroll text for Thalhurst so that we could get his scroll to him before he left on 8/4. It's becoming pretty clear that this is a skill that it's worthwhile for me to cultivate, so I would guess this won't be the last time. hard to believe that was two weeks ago already. Funny how time flies when you're on vacation...

Done!

For certain values of done, anyway. Last night I finished the beading. In case anybody has been following the saga of the beading needles on Facebook, the final coda to the whole silly thing was discovering last night that the beading needles I'd bought explicitly for the purpose are too big for the pearls. *facepalm* I had once again misplaced the needle I'd been using, so the final product is a bit heavier on beads as opposed to pearls than originally intended. However, the good news is that I found my original needle eventually and was able to apply a couple more rounds of peacock pearls, and it's not like the pearls aren't fabulous. Mmmm tiger's eye and gold beads...

Tonight, along with a bit of official business, I will be getting together with Katja so we can do the layout and get the orphery applied, and send the whole thing off to Pennsic. We're hoping to be able to send it by courier rather than having to resort to mail, but it'll get there one way or another...

I'm hoping somebody will post pictures of the final result, because I'm convinced it's going to be great. If so, I'll either post them or a link.

Oh, and just in case this week needed any more deadlines, I ended up doing my very first calligraphy project last night for court tonight. Whee!

Beads, beads and more beads

After spending Thalhurst's going away party on Friday applying cord and a solid push on Saturday, even despite misplacing, replacing and then finding my beading needle, I've got three strips with the cord all applied, and all the pearls and garnets on. Now I just need to make some aesthetic decisions about which beads I want and it should be wrapped up in about an evening.

Right now, that looks to be Tuesday. Tonight I've promised to help Sefa move, and Wednesday is folk moot.