Beaded Knitting!

Hi Everyone!

Last Friday, in my usual class time, I learned about beading in knitting. There are several ways to incorporate beads into your knitting. In her wonderful book, "Knit One Bead Too,"Judith Durant showcases in several chapters, each of five ways to add beads to your knitting. The five ways are: Bead Knitting, where you knit each stitch with a bead, Beaded Knitting, which allows you to string multiples of beads onto your knitted garment or handbag, SlipStitch Bead Knitting, which allows for pre-strung beads to be "slipped" into the piece at certain charted places, Carry Along Bead Knitting, which brings beads strung onto a second yarn into your work and accomodates very small beads that might not fit onto the knitting yarn, and lastly Hook Bead Knitting, which allows you to add a bead anywhere in your work without the bother of pre-stringing and carrying along what can sometimes be a rather large number of beads on your yarn. Hook bead knitting is the only one that does not work with pre-strung beads.

If you have the chance, or if you have always wanrted to try working with beads in your yarn, I would recommend this book. The page illustrations are clear and the explaination of charting is well done.

The only problem I had was in the actual hook bead knitting that I am showing in the photo here. The yarn was probably too thick for the small metal crochet hook that I needed to use for the Japanese seed bead to fit on the hook. Other than that, I think that patience and practice will make for a big win!

Hope you are having a fine day!

Barbara

Be A Red Hatter!

Hello!

Well, today I am showcasing some of the motifs that I have made for Red Hats. They are made from a collection called, Paint the Town Red, by Dakota Collectibles. They can be used on jackets, shirts, Tea Towels (as you see!) or on any fabric. They are fun to work with and easy to make on your embroidery sewing machine.

Take a look!

Fair Isle Knitting!

Once a week, I try to learn something new. A few weeks ago, my friend, Joyce and I took a "Mental Health and Refreshment" day and went to Cape Cod. Our intention was to visit a few yarn shops and one of my favorite quilting shops, Heart Beat Quilts . My other hope was that I would find a DVD in one of the yarn shops that would instruct me on the making of Fair Isle knitting patterns. (The "Fair Isle look" sweaters that you have seen in my previous posts are made using a self patterning yarn called Baby Jaquards, by the Bernat company. That's what lit the fire to learn the "real thing!")

Well, one of the shops we visited was Ladybug Knitting Shop . At that shop, I asked if there was any possibility that they might sell a DVD, instructing Fair Isle knitting. The shopkeeper gave me a web address for the Philosopher's Wool Company , which is located in Inverhuron, Ontario, Canada. They sell an instructional DVD called, "Two Handed Fair Isle Knitting," and it is available on their website.

Well, I purchased it immediately and it came the other day. Yesterday, I used my instruction time to try to make a stab at learning it. I never expected to learn all four stitches, but I must tell you that Anne and Eugene put together a clearly understandable, easy to learn set of lessons and I just loved learning from it! See the results for your self:

So, it only goes to show you that you can learn anything if you have good teachers. I heartily recommend this DVD if you are looking for a way to learn Fair Isle knitting.

Have a great day!

Barbara

A Variety of "Catch Up" things!

So, what do you do when you find yourself with some old projects that you say, "Oh, I'll get to that tomorrow.... (Vivian Leah eat your heart out!!) You just start doing them!

Here are some things that qualify this week.

My good friend, Father Peter, sent me a chasuble and stole to embroider crosses on. They have been languishing for some time because I forgot they were there! Shame on me, but all's well that ends well and here is the final result. The motifs are from Windstar Machine Embroidery Designs. You can find them at http://www.windstarembroidery.com/ . They make a great selection of religious art into embroidery machine motifs. Deb even specially digitized the extra large motif, so that the stole and chasuble would match.

I am also showing the hat and sweater made for my great-niece's first birthday present. This one, at least will be on time!!

I am also just finishing a pair of Tea Towels, made by using a new type of machine embroidery-- at least it's new to me!-- called Photo Stitch, which gives an incredibly real look to the motif. What do you think of it?

So, just keep on trying and don't let being late keep you from getting things finished and out. I'm sure we all have a pile of UFO's (UnFinished Objects) somewhere!

Have yourself a great day!

Barbara