If you now wonder what the two have to do with each other, that is indeed a very legitimate question.
When I posted my first spool knitted pieces to Flickr, I was asked to include my pictures in a group pool for spool knitting. I became a member of the Flickr group, later of the Yahoo group (which I have terribly neglected, I must admit) as well.
When the Flickr group admin, Maz, posted a picture of her new spool knitters, I was reminded of Mary Poppins right away. Mary Poppins has always been one of my heroines. She is magic, she is stubborn, she is strict and stern and thinks very highly of herself and still she is lovable and I would have loved to have a nanny like her. I have all the books and I can't even count how often I read them and yes, I still read them from time to time.
It was very hard to pick just one color, they all looked so great, but finally I decided to order a red spool "Mary" and now she's here.
When I opened the parcel, I found a box, that was what I had expected, I was just a little surprised about the height.
Then I opened the box and what I found in that, I hadn't expected at all!
Instead of just my "Mary Poppins" there was so much more in there!
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
Thanks Maz, this was a gorgeous surprise and Mary will get a special place in one of my cabinets for sure!! I wish you could have seen my face when I opened the box, it would have said so much more than my few words ....
And hey, people, if you want to know more about the history of spool knitters, be sure to go by Maz' blog!
I am still not done with my knitting spool. Not at all. Although so many ideas haunt my poor old brain, sometimes the crochet hook has to go to sleep and give up its place to the spool.
The other day I bought some cheap boxes with beads that were on sale. One of them contained a black mix, the other one a purple mix and both of them contained big seed beads of which the purple ones are silver-lined. Suddenly I just happened to have my black and metallic purple wire in reach (even true, there was no planning whatsoever involved at first).
So the beads went onto the wires and row for row the necklace was growing. Take a closer look to find out what exactly I did ;-)
The result looks really best in the dark, I found, just with a little light on (shhh, I still got one of the old light bulbs in my lamp, but don't tell the EU). I tried to take a picture to show you the effect, but I am not a good enough photographer (yet *lol*) to take good enough night photographs. You'll just have to believe me that the light makes for a dark, mysterious sparkle.
Black and purple makes me think of Victorian times, but also of a kind of classic understatement that seems dark and dull one moment and suddenly gets lightened up to reveal the subtle colors. It doesn't always have to be black and red to get into the right mood ...
Imagine a gorgeous dress swishing across the stone floor when you go to meet the handsome vampire and have a dance with him, this necklace sparkling on your white throat.
P.S.
For your information ;-) No, I haven't read or seen any of the "new" vampire books or movies, but I have to admit I still think I could fall for the vampire Lestat, prince of the darkness - and I'm not talking the guy in the movie I don't even want to mention! And by the way, you'll find this necklace in my DaWanda shop ...
Blue sky, white cotton ball clouds, sun, warm - the perfect Sunday for a fleamarket. The one we went to is usually one of my all time favorites, for a great atmosphere and also for some spectacular finds (I am not exaggerating!). Today it was a flop. I don't know what was wrong, but we came home almost empty handed.
So I am sitting here now blogging although I should do some research for something else. I am not sitting in my usual chair, though. When I came to the computer, my chair had already been taken by a furry black girl. I couldn't throw her out when she looked at me with those big eyes, purring away happily. So I pushed the chair aside and took the tall guy's one instead which is not as comfortable for me because I am smaller than him. I only have to look at this picture to know it was the right decision, though. May I introduce the sleeping beauty? Excuse the picture, the colors are a little weird, but my camera was acting up again. I can't wait till my new one arrives.
So here is Esme, showing her bald little ear where the fur has not grown back yet after she got into a fight with her brother and had a scratch. She is lying on a dark and light blue blanket (told you the colors were weird!).
Ah, jealous Greebo is on the way to let me know he still exists, too! Ssssh, don't tell him he is going to the vet's tomorrow because he sounds like a bird, he seems to have a sore throat again.
What else have I been up to the last days? I played with my knitting spool. I had bought these ribbons on sale because they seemed perfect for an idea of mine. I love the fact they don't have clasps, but can be tied in the back.
First, I don't really like to put clasps on. Second, you can adjust the requested length easily. Third, you can actually also use them as hair bands!
Wine red ribbon with light pink metallic wire, spool knit together.
Two ribbons spool knit together without any wire. I happened to have orange and black in reach when I wanted to try that, so this became a Halloween band. Of course, this one is thicker than the ones I only used one ribbon and wire on. While you can easily put chunky pendants (like the crab agate) on the one ribbon ropes, a two ribbon rope works better without. Just my humble opinion.
This had been the original idea. Just the wire is spool knit and the ribbon runs along inside. These strands are not as thick of course, so I made two and twisted them. Do you also hear Christmas songs when looking at it?
And yesterday I finally caught a treasury again. I know I would probably make a terrible mess with resin, so I haven't tried yet, but I would sure like to because I think it's really cool stuff. Check out Soaping of organic compounds if you want to see some great pieces.
Last, but not least I can announce I found two more nests ... I hear funny little purring and scratching sounds in the night and see the cats staring at corners, but not doing anything. They seem wary, but not scared or aggressive. What is going on here??
Sciatic pain, lumbago, whatever the exact word for that what I have since yesterday, it's annoying. I can't sit for very long, I can't lie for very long and it is so embarrassing to say where exactly it's hurting. Wipe that grin off your face, I won't say it out loud.
At least I got a few things done today that I could do in my now favorite half-lying position.
I started out with this blue rose pendant. To me it looks like a rose, if you see something else in it, go ahead and let me know. The first stitches are knitted, the rest is crocheted, both times with fat needles. Actually it was supposed to be something totally different, but as always I trusted my needles to take me the right way.
A few days ago my new knitting spool has arrived. Six hooks instead of four and a bigger hole which means I can work beads in. In this case I only used three of the six hooks to give it a really airy structure. I am looking forward to try different things with it and I am lovingly looking at other spools now with up to 24 hooks, although I think 12 will make the most sense for me.
I used fluorite (wow, it was the first time ever I wrote this word right at the first try!!) beads on the earrings and pendant because I love the different color shades.
By the way, these are not the pictures I will use when listing them. If you wonder about the net, it is a cat net as we have it in every room but one. Ponder helped me taking the photos by trying to steal the pendants, but I didn't let him get close enough, haha! :-D
Can you believe I never used a knitting dolly (Nancy, spool or whatever name you know it under, we call it a "Strickliesel") as a child? After I started crocheting with wire everybody hearing about it said "Ah, with a knitting dolly!". "No, with a crochet hook." "Huh??"
So my sister had been telling me from the start she would bring one for me to try. Finally she thought of it and here is my first attempt. Not perfect, I know, but actually it's not as easy as you might think. Wire has its own mind when it comes to bending and moving down through a little hole to finally come out the other side, I found out. I think after making four strands my right arm developed an extra muscle, but I have the feeling that it could actually get addictive, even as much as the crochet.Now I had four "ropes" of wire, but only knew how to braid three. No problem, what have we got the internet for? I looked it up and really it's so easy. All I had to remember was "over, under, under" and voila, here is the result. Not finished yet because there are no findings on it and since it is not perfect, I'll keep it myself. The idea is stuck in my head, though. I wonder which other vital information had to leave my brain to make place for it, probably I'll know when I don't find my way to or from work anymore? ;-)
