Moments of Lace II

It's happening again....




(Fleur-de-Lis by Shui Kuen Kozinski)

Voyager

"The young women emigrants of more than a century ago stepped on a ship and began their voyage to a new home in Canada. They brought with them their skills as knitters and spinners and the willingness to use those skills to clothe their families. Despite the need for utility items of clothing, they incorporated creativity, skill and beauty into the garments needed for warmth in the cold Canadian winters. "
(From the description of the Voyager scarf/stole Shui Kuen Kozinski and Benne Ferrell, at Elann.com)

It's a lovely story to think about while knitting. And it is even lovelier to have a scarf with a story around your neck! Remember my lace from the last post? Well, the scarf is now finished - it is one amazing piece of lace!

Since the end of May, I've been thinking of making myself a nice lacy shawl or scarf in neutral colour, possibly with cotton yarn and with rich and decorative edging. But, each time I'd started making a design, I'd end up with an idea of a lovely edging and nothing else. All this time I've had the beginning and the end of my dream scarf in my head- but not the body of the scarf!

Then I checked Shui Kuen's designer's page on Ravelry again- she has proved to be my saviour in such situations. :)

Of course I found just the right thing there! :) Voyager lace shawl/stole design by her and Benne Ferrell, another dear and interesting lady!

And that was it; before you know it- it was on my needles! Apparently- the force was with me this time and I was able to find the best possible yarn the very same day!

I only "had" to make one small adjustment - to add that only thing that I was able to come up with myself- my lacy edging! :) (The original version is actually extremely cute but- you'll understand me- I had to do it for purely pathological reasons! :))))

It was done in less than 4 days! I really enjoyed working on this pattern - and it was so exciting to watch how this beauty grows under my fingers!

I used 150g/370m of (20 wpi) fingering pure cotton Unitas- Hana yarn and worked with 4mm circular needles. I made the bottom edging and the body of the scarf in one piece and then I made the top edging separately and grafted the two pieced together. I am more than happy with how it turned out!

I can only advise you to make it some day as well and say a huge "Thank you" to Shui Kuen and Benne for designing this beauty!

For those of you who are Ravelry members, the pattern page can be found HERE,

or,

you can simply open the Elann.com patterns page - HERE.

See something strange in the upper right corner of this picture? It's a fish! It jumped out of the sea while I was taking this photo (probably to make sure that it was not a fishing net). A fish! I was lucky! The last time the animals decided to (unexpectedly) show up in my pictures was when I was taking photos of a canyon near my hometown. Then I ended up with a dozen pictures of the canyon with two bugs mating in the bottom right corner (I could have sworn that there was only one!!!!).


I'm not lying!!!!

Moments of lace

Currently on my needles....

pure beauty!

Christmas in July

Hello, dear peopleS! :) Hope everyone has had a lovely July and August and I wish you all a beautiful autumn!

(It is so good to be a knitter; we are always looking forward to wearing sweaters and shawls!!! )

Let me share my deepest and biggest secret this summer with you! (I'm talking about my knitting experiences, of course- stay with me, please!!! :D )

I TOOK UP KNITTING WOOLLEN GLOVES IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY!

There, i said it!

AND, I was doing it at the beach (knitting gloves!!!).

I don't think the latter part actually changes anything as most people didn't really know what I was actually doing- seeing my hands maneuvering a set of sharp stainless steel (commonly called surgical steel :D ) double-pointed needles kept them from asking any questions.

Not normal, aye?! I thought so too. I mean, I did speak to a very good psychiatrist about it and he thought that it was tolerable. He also mentioned a few more words in Latin that I'm not sure I completely understood, 'tho!

The person to be "blamed" for all this is my pal from the previous round of the "Sending Some Sunshine Swap" on Ravelry- BiancaG from Germany! It's the same person whom I got my lovely drop spindle from in June! Besides the spindle, she also sent me some amazing German yarns .( probably in case I never learn how to spin! :) ) that I simply had to use right away.

Two skeins of beautiful variegated lace weight yarn in autumn shades that I love so much and a huge 100g skein of pure merino super-wash self-striping yarn in lace weight again. That one I had to start knitting with immediately! I'm not really a sock knitter but a pair (or two) of gloves seemed like a great idea! Especially great in July! :)))

Ok, so, maybe I'm not really a normal person but, if nothing else, unlike normal people- I'll have a lovely new pair of striped gloves this winter! :)

B-day present make-over

Here's the thing!

My birthday was on 11th July. Ok, my 30th birthday was on 11th July, thank you very much for asking! :D And my friend Coey, whom I've been exchanging letters with lately, decided to squeeze a lovely hand-knit present into one of her envelopes and surprise me. She sent me a cool cotton dishcloth in lovely summer colours with a hand-made greeting card attached and the dishcloth pattern written on the back of it! It arrived two days after my birthday! All the way from Halifax, Nova Scotia! How 'bout that?!


I really loved it!

But there was a small problem!!! Just a few days before , I realised that my family was A BIT too lazy and so I firmly decided to give up on doing dishes for them! (I'm not sure if they even realised that it was me who had been doing it all the time; they never saw me doing dishes- they're usually on the beach; they never heard me complaining- the water is often too loud; they don't even know what happens to the dishes once they're done eating from them but they do know that they're always clean and shiny when they're hungry so- maybe it happens naturally?!?! ). And just to "seal" my promise, I took a whole set of newly bough kitchen cloths in lovely pastel colours and decided to turn them into even lovelier beach bags! For me! (:Cheeky grin!:)


And then I got the dishcloth! And what does one do in a such situation? Personally, I thought that turning it into a motley pouch would be the best solution. When I saw it folded inside the envelope, I even thought it was a pouch. A person with kitchen cloth beach bags (absolutely) needs a dishcloth beach pouch- it doesn't get any more simple than that!


But first, I had to ask Coey for her opinion! And she told me that I should BY ALL MEANS turn it into a pouch and spend this summer swimming and sunbathing instead of washing dishes (my friend Coey is SO smart!).

And so I did! I know, I know; modifying a hand-made b-day present is rude- and I apologise! I will never do it again! :)

First, I went to a thrift shop and picked a few light summer shawls. Then I found a piece of lovely orange pure cotton fabric in one of my quilting leftovers basket and decided I didn't really need all the shawls from the thrift shop :D; I bought a zipper and a piece of cotton tape, picked a button.....attached the sides of the dishcloth together with a piece of white cotton yarn....

And, voilà!!!!! it's a beach pouch!!!!!!!

Thanks Coey (Nichole) for a lovely B-day present and for suggesting that I should stop doing dishes! :)))) It took me only an hour to finish it! It took my family about three days to find out that the dishes cannot clean themselves! :D

I really love it!

P.S. Oh, and BTW (and after seeing the pictures again)- in case anyone dares to ask what the blue "thing" in the last picture is- it's a DEODORANT!!!!!!! :D

Summer knitting

I'm here! Hope you haven't missed me because it would mean that you've spent this whole July and a good part June staring at your monitors! Have you???? It's summer, peoples- go outside, 't'aint that hot - if you're lukcy, you'll survive and maybe you won't even get a stroke! (dark humour!!!!!!!!!)



As for knitting.....I've been knitting...a little! But I have been knitting and that's what matters! For those who don't believe me, I'm posting a proof; a picture of me knitting taken by my dear friend Zox. (I've always wanted a realistic portrait!)

As you can see- there are two black sheep and a cat in thise drawing! And one left sleeve in progress! :D

All ready to become a spinner

As of today, I am a spinner beginner and a proud owner of a drop spindle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've spent the last few months "designing" a spindle, trying to improvise it and talking to my friends, part-time carpenters (full-time doctors and architects :D ), about it but, apparently, I had made the smartest move in this search even before I actually started looking for a spindle or how to make it, without even being aware of it. I had written how much I was craving for a spindle here on my blog some time ago and, my my pal from this round of the "Sending Some Sunshine" swap on Ravelry, decided to peek in here and get a better picture of my likes and wishes and there it was- my wish to become a spinner- written black on white (well, white on black in this case). And so- she sent me a drop spindle.

A letter with a spindle inside in my today's mail. What a letter. What a thrill. What a morning!

So, now, I can officially start spinning! She tucked some fleece inside the envelope as well and there was a yarn sample she had made so that I could see what it should look like. Thank you ever so much, dear swap partner. You have made my day! No- you have made my century!

And, now, since I'm already mentioning it, I know I should show off with other goodies found inside the envelope too so, here you go! It was a VERY MUCH stuffed envelope... :)

...with all sorts of cool things tucked inside! Including two chocolate bars! They're not in the picture- I ate them while waiting for the batteries to be charged. You wouldn't want to see two empty, smudged tin-foil chocolate wraps in a picture anyway, would you?! :)

The spindle came with this cool "small garden" note card- it's lovely from the outside but simply amazing from the inside; there's a package of seeds with a small bag stuffed with soil and a pocket in the middle of the card where the seeds should be planted. It's a slow process- but so is learning how to spin, my pal says in the note. :))) It would be very hard to top this choice of presents for a wannabe spinner who is also a freak when it comes to propagating plants from seeds (read:ME). :D

And I also got this!

It's got nothing to do with knitting (it's got a lot to do with frogging, 'tho! :D) - a gorgeous frog-shaped shower gel holder. And the gel smells FANTASTIC!

What a lovely (sunny) day!

Knit 'N' Natter

I wonder why they didn't get through to the next round!




(I'm not being mean!!!!!! They're cute!!!!! :)))

PhD in Dreamweaving

Guess what I've been doing for the past few weeks?

Yes, making slippers! :)

And the more I think about it, the more I'm sure- when I grow up, I want to be a Slipper maker!

Just listen to the sound of it- a SLIPPER MAKER!

I can already imagine the envy in other people's eyes when they hear that I was a slipper maker while they have wasted their youth studying to become lawyers, or doctors, or presidents....

Curious/nosy/good-looking/well-educated/male/stranger (further in the text: CNGlWeM stranger) : (inquisitively) What do you do for living ?

Me: I'm a slipper-maker!

CNGlWeM stranger: Oh...really? (shocked and embarrassed) That sounds...magical!

Me: (totally cool) Yah, I know...'tho, it's just a job like any other....(cheeky-grin, optional)

CNGlWeM stranger: Yes i know but...a slipper-maker...wow! is that something like a dream-weaver?

Me: (victoriously) Weeeelll, sort of...only slipper makers are Dream-weavers with PhD!

Yes! Mr. CNGlWeM is right -it really is a magical thing to do! The coolest profession of all! :D

'Cause, in case you've forgotten, this is what slipper-makers can do! (And these masters don't even work for money! :) )

Wollknaeuel's - Dzonba- The Himalayan Slipper by Tracy Hudson


Icelandic's Crocheted Felted Slippers (designed by Josephine Woo)

Cinderella slippers, made and designed by Baerbel Born (aka heathergem on Ravelry
Ta-ta for now!

Dress my feet II

What you've seen in my previous post is only one half of my "slippery gallery!! :)))

I've got a few more aces up my sleeve!

Ready for more?....of course you are! :D

Do you know what this is???

:)))) It is one great idea, that's what it is - elf slippers!

They're designed by Carolyn Christmas and, this time, made by graylagran . (And she has made oodles of these :)) - here's her blog haphazard knitter )

Beautiful Irish slippers

Made and designed, knitted, felted and embroidered all by Tarjanne . You can see the process of making them on Tarja's Stitsailuja blog! Just lovely!

Spiritely Elf Shoes

another lovely example made by msblondieknits who is also their designer. You'll find the pattern on her msblondieknits blog.

Felted slippers

designed by Midnattsol and made by Ipo .

Needless to say- modular knitting is another great option for non sock knitters.

Or crocheters...

kedama's Square motif slippers

by p.24 Square room shoes pattern, designed by Keiko Okamoto. (You can find kedama's blog in Japanese HERE).

See, you don't even have to know how to turn the hell (or toes for that matter!). With crocheted blocks, shaping is as easy as pie!

Felted clogs!!!!

Yes, CLOGS! Knitters make clogs!!! :))) Another design by Bev Galeskas . The pair from the picture above ("Fuchsia Felted Slippers") were made by a fellow Raveler Topfrog (and a fellow blogger Topfrog ) .

Slippers for Lily

made by melissalm (knittingsandwich on Typepad). It's Bev Galeskas's design again, it's clogs again only, this time, it's Children's Felt Clogs (CH-38).Children need clogs too!

And how about this pair?! Filz puschen

made by knitrose (her blog Rosige zeit ). It's a very simple basic felted knit slippers ( at the moment available only in German) by COATS GmbH but with a lovely floral decoration and in adorable colours!

And more lovely slippers for kids!

Tocino & Velocidad

made by monotrans (here's her blog ).You'll find this pattern as "Barnyard Cow Slippers" by Spinrite on Ravelry for free.

You never thought these can be hand-made, did you?! :)) It's a lovely present for a kid. Well, you can make them for a kid or you could make a pair for me- I love such slippers (I wear tigers!!! :)))

To be honest, I wouldn't mind having these either :)))

They're tantej's lovely version of Caroline Dlugy-Hegwer's Petit Chou Slippers pattern.

A blog about tantej's knitting adventures can be found HERE!

And a lovely, furry pair of Baby Ballerina Slippers

a pattern by Debra Paradis aka knitdivad,published on her Yarning for You site and available from Ravelry.
So cute!

And, I'm almost done. It's been one long list of beautiful patterns and, still- there's at least a zillion of lovely pairs of slippers out there that I haven't mentioned. At least I've managed to convince some of you that making slippers is a very cool thing to do! :)))

I hope you've enjoyed it!
And, since this odyssey has started from the Orient- it's time to take my magic slipper back home! Remember the Turkish slippersfrom the beginning of my first post?
Here they are again!

"Good Morning Slippers" (yes, that's what they're called when you decorate them with a pompom :)) ) made by nikkinimble aka Three little purls blog.

Or, you could make them in bright colours

only, bare in mind- that's how they become Bookworm slippers. By nikkinimble again!

Thanks to the authors for participating and making all these lovely slippers!

Dress my feet

I love the word "slipper"! It's one of the first words I usually look up in a dictionary when I'm learning a foreign language and, for some funny reason, that word always sounds adorably cute: babbuccia, babouche, pantofola, pantoffel, pantufla, terlik, туфля "tooflya", papuča "papoocha"...probably because slipper is a lovely thing. No wonder you need to lose a slipper to get a leading role in a fairytale (losing other pieces of clothes surely does open new opportunities as well...not in fairytales, 'tho!!).

The other day, while I was searching for some old sock patterns in one of my knitting baskets, I stumbled upon a few lovely traditionally knitted slippers my late grandma had made long time ago. WHY DON’T I KNIT SLIPPERS? Do other knitters make them? I don’t recall ever seeing a pair of slippers on Ravelry. If there were any, I guess I would have spotted them by now (what a mistake!)! But, again- with so many sock knitters out there….
So I typed the word “slippers” into the Ravelry Projects browser and…oh, my! The picture was breathtaking! Ravelers do make slippers! And boots! And clogs! Ballet flats, Cinderella slippers, shoes…They make miracles! In circle, flat, toe-up, upside-down, felted, knitted, crocheted…all kinds of miracles.
And that treasure chest has been in front of my nose all this time.

I had to share that beauty with you, of course, so I picked a “few” projects and made a gallery-like post (well, two posts to be more precise, there’s no reason to reveal all the beauty right away, is there?!) of what bare hands can make (to make bare feet feel warm). All that with help from their authors and designers, of course!
And, no, I won’t get paid for saying how beautiful their works are (recession!!!). :)))

I’ve picked some lovely pictures and I’ll put links to the original patterns wherever it is possible - you can drain the inspiration from them, CO some of the projects yourself, enjoy watching them, buy them or get them for free, faint or bow to the authors if you like…what ever you do, I promise you it’s going to be a jaw dropping set of pictures. (I’m allowed to say that- none of the projects from this post is mine. But, then again, it’s my blog and I’m allowed to say whatever I want, anyway! :)) ).

Only, bare in mind- this is not a top list of THE most beautiful projects; there’s still a sea of outstanding hand-made slippers out there. My main intention was to show you some of the most interesting shapes, designs and ideas. Oh, well, yes, I did add multiple examples of the same pattern here and there but I just liked them so much…Yah, I was a wee bit subjective too, I admit! ;-)

That said,

The story of the magic slipper from my imagination begins long time ago somewhere in Persia…

...and that is where this list begins as well...

Persian Slippers

by Gryphon Perkins . You can find them at Sanguine Gryphon portfolio page. Beautiful!

Traditional crocheted Turkish slipper pattern by Erika Knight

with a touch of Italy and lovely floral insole made by windspirit...

...or...

...with a touch of Persia again, Pixie slippers made by flexibleknits . You'll find more lovely pictures of her slippers on flexibleknits blog.

I just love this pixie look!

Plain or Flowery Slippers by Sarah M. Hughes from Ravelry Patterns Library

Three examples of how different colours and the right choice of small decorations can make all the difference

A warm and feminine version in pastel shades by Kristiinake

then

a Brazilian "white flower power" version named "Tathi" by OliviaClaudia (her blog in Portuguese is Pequenospontos )

and

AnnaPuh's Flowery slippers in beautiful cool colours. AnnaPuh's blog in Swedish is HERE!

You should check out this pattern sometime(the link is in the title)- it's great for non-sock knitters and for all those who are not familiar with short row techniques and working with DPNs or aren't keen on working in that manner as this pair of slippers is knit FLAT!

Let's continue,

beautiful Ballerina Slippers

made by another Ravelry member bongomama (here's her bongo-mama blog ) and by Bev Galeskas's Felted Ballerina Slippers pattern.

(These are REAL shoes!!!!!! :)))))

And, another example of the same pattern only in apple-green

Slippers for 2paw by Aussie (Tassie :))) ) Raveler ratherbeknitting (I agree with the nick-name, of course you would, who wouldn't. ;-) )

More lovely green

staceyb's version of Julie Weisenberger's "Pleated Ballet Flats" pattern called "Jen's Magic Ballet Flats".

Julie is the author of cocoknits.com and one of the most imaginative "footwear" knitters out there. I've included two of her designs in this list but I might have just as well added them all. I'll get back to cocoknits near the end of this post but, until then, you might also want to check out her cute knitted loafers on Cocoknits . Adorable!

A pair of vintage, toe-up slippers called "Amy March slippers"

made by Pamie and designed by tiny owl knits (even if you don't intend to knit these slippers- read the pattern, it's hilarious :) ).

A pair of "regular" open House slippers designed by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark

and knit and felted by Smeelia (aka Cecilia knits )

Now, why would I ever want to buy a pair of open slippers again after seeing those?! :))

And, like I promised, cocoknits and Julia Weisenberger again

and their lovely Prairie boots .

And only one more for now- Ice Age Boots designed by Maggie Pace

and made by imlovinknit (agreed again! )

Didn't I tell you- knitters do make boots! :)))

Enjoy, and I'll be back with some more soon!

TO BE CONTINUED....