lori i love your sweater

i hope you like the squirrel lori. i love the whole look. being a pacific nw girl that grew up in a little logging town this is perfect ! i would love to see the leaf as a merit badge. what do you all think?

Monkey business

I'm told that Kathy's sweater originally had a border full of flowers but by the time Karen worked her magic a playful parade of monkeys appeared instead. My fashion consultant and aspiring starlet, sock monkey Vivian, felt it needed a wonky pocket to stash important things for Noah like banana candy...and her phone number. I added a tiny red heel inspired sock on a blocker as a zipper pull.

Down, Vivie...you're embarrassing yourself.

A rose by any other name

It's not often we get to plant a garden in wool...in this case a friendship garden at Karen's request. Her lovely black shawl was waiting to be embellished, but how to start? I decided to add a soft icord flourish to both ends, some mohair and linen leaves and a Lush felted rose that I am hereby naming The Brooklyn Irish Rose.

The shawl is a nice size so what I've added isn't as overwhelming as it looks in this picture. I so hope you like it, Karen.

Quilt Block Inspiration

Hey Ladies,

I just found a great source of 12.5" x 12.5" quilt block patterns: Anna Maria Horner's Rainbow Around the Block., designed to help families affected by the floods in Tennessee.  I'm planning to contribute a couple of blocks to the cause.  There are currently two patterns available, with more to come.  You are all so creative and make up your own blocks, but I'm incredibly mathematically challenged these days, and they take the guesswork out to create a block that's the perfect size for our little project.

Enjoy!

(Dawn, here's a peak of one of your blocks...)

Sneak Peak for Barb

Barb's sweater arrived safely and has been hanging around with the me and the babes.  She sent a gorgeous dark green Edwardian looking number, which I thought deserved some elegant (hopefully you think so Barb:) touches.  Next stop: the Big Apple!

Bee sister projects

howdy! a little peek for B...

As you can see, a beehive is a-growing on B's sweater... we'll see who is coming outta there, soon!

I'm not sure why, but I decided it would be fun to cut a bunch of tiny squares (instead of strips) for the second block, duh...and oh no...it's soooo Willy Wonka (shhh don't tell her- maybe I will send it to Linda to help me outta this ditch) the gorgeous knitted socks were made by the lovely Lori- don't you love how cheerful they are? We had such a fun time together- I hadn't laughed this hard for a very long time... Thank you dear. I hope someday I can return your kindness.

Close to take-off!

Lori's woodsy number has acquired elbow patches as her first request.

insiration

i just wanted to share with you what inspired me tonight. these are oregon salmon berries. we find them in july in the woods by our home. i wait patiently every year for these little gems. i hope you enjoy the picture.

why do we all love, love, love this project.

we could not find more fun then working on a new project. i look forward to each one that comes my way. i do get a little distracted though! i was thinking about upcomming projects and was thinking of yarn, then floss and threads entered my mind. still i guess my mind was not being on task because alas no yarn but lots of crosstitch fabric. do you think this could be useful too? i think maybe.

keeping embroidery threads neat?

B. included two packages of the loveliest Renaissance wool threads to use on her sweater. As I went to grab my scissors, I spied the ball winder, and- I had a caveman brainstorm. (I'm sure everyone else figured this out years ago...)
Instead of my usual, painstaking and clumsy windup by hand, I opened and gently stretched the skein over half of the swift...and spun it like a regular skein of yarn onto the ballwinder. ta dah! I avoided any tangles that way. It's a neat ball of thread now.

I do wish D. and some of you other Bees would please show us the state of your embroidery floss, as well as any other Crafty tips.

Rollin' with the Gnomeys!

What a big sigh of relief I breathed when our dear B.'s freshly handknit sweater arrived this morning. She and I were wondering if the sweater made up an itinerary of it's own...and fly around and around it did. Our miraculous, mysterious postal service decided to see this lovely sweater to its rightful destination after being in limbo for 2 weeks!

We ask no more questions and welcome you... to Roll with your Gnomeys in New York!

PS a little bird peeped that a very special Bee visitor is about to appear soon... keep posted for mischief! Anybody else have news?

my shawl's finally ready to fly...

I knit a simple cream colored shawl, using mostly yarns from my stash. (I treated myself at purl soho, with some beaded tilli thomas for the edge :)

What I wish for, is a monochromatic, wearable artpiece- that your additions will be all in matching creams as well. I am including some leftover balls of cream yarn in my pkg, in hopes that you will knit or crochet flowers, leaves, vines, june bugs, butterflies, spiders, etc then attach them to my shawl. Thanks Bees !!

my picture is not so clear but i used a grosgrain ribbon to do the bands. gigi of knitmoregirls podcast has a lovely tutorial on doing this and also sewing buttons on. she is so excellent in her work and explaining. i wish i had this talent. she a a very talented seamstress as well as a knitter. i hope all of you are having fun.

whew, finally was able to post!

Bbbzzzz little Quilting Break...

hmm who doesn't need a sewing break to clear their mind? (unless their head's already filled with stuffing like mine).

Thanks, B! I received your fabrics to continue our quilting project- and fell in love with all the prints. You have such good style sense in putting things together!

(It will likely be two weeks longer, before I send out my fabrics to you other Bees who wish to keep on!)

very daunting. i have done my work on cheryls sweater and the snipping about made me pass out. as i was told just have a drink or just lie down. i was almost sick with anxiety. but now i feel very good about it. at least we are not signed up to spip at eacg other. have a fun time..

Kathy's Sweater

I have Kathy's sweater and I am soooooo nervous. Being the first to add to the sweater is intimidating me. I have ideas in my head ,now getting them to come to my hands is another thing. I will be spending the Holiday weekend working on it. My shawl is going out to Lori Friday.

is anyone else nervous?

cheryl has a beautiful green sweater we all get to work on. i tried to post a photo of it as i began and now for the interesting part. to snip or not to snip. i have it all ready stabilized so all i need is a glass of wine and lots of nerve. i will try again to post pictures of the befor.