Beads and Bears, oh my

At first I started to tell you about my knitting shift. Then I thought, gee, they might wanna hear you bead confession first.

Gems

There's been a hunt for a bulk bead supplier for my designs. While searching I buy ya'll goodies all year long for the club and what not. Least that's what I tell myself. They are also used in KAL's but the stuff that's backing up,,, beads a whole lotta beads. A holy mackerel what were you thinking amount.

First there was dyed tigers eye, I mean who wouldn't fall for them? Bottom row. Then I met dyed and heated technique and was entranced. Left middle and top. There's also agate and dragon vein?(lace?) not sure but they are purdy.

Top right, yeah crystals came into the mix, they are just so pretty.

While searching for something I found two more bags of beads that should have become stitch markers by now but haven't. Mother of pearl on the left, agates in the center and pearls on the right.

The frogs aren't beads just too cute to leave behind. The top right is a flower ball which I'm going to make into a fiddler. Yeah weird.

Left side crystals and then 4mm gemstones for small lace knitting markers. Possibly for the heirloom which yes, it's in the works. Actually might be closer to done then I thought.

ANNNNDDD... 6/0 beads! Oh man I've been pulling in smaller then normal amounts just to see if they are as nice as they seem, they are. Now I just need to figure out how to get half a kilo instead of 10 grams at a time.

Needless to say, ya'll are getting gem stones for Christmas in July which will open around May I believe.

The heirloom 

Did I tell ya'll about it? Cobwebs become very difficult to find, so this year we are on a 1750yd/100g weight yarn which is thinner than the 1300's at least right? Its name is something like Diamonds and Stars in Space? Not sure. I only just found out yesterday how much diamond stuff is actually out there. Diamonds wouldn't be so expensive if you could pick them up off of the street (possibly on last two?? planets) that's for sure. Regardless, the name came from the shapes in the shawl, there are stitches that make stars encircling and ringing around the entire shawl, a technique I love. Then the diamonds are down the center of each wedge with a magic diamond edging. Only thing I'm not sure about the set up of the design. I know it's a circle, but is it? It could be a 6 or an 8 wedge shawl, the 6 wedge opened up the front. I have to think about the 1750 yards and start to knit it to figure out how far it's going to reach. The design is about 300 rows currently, way subject to change. 

Other then beads, been making blanket after blanket. Need to get photos of all of them, I think there are 8 on my side of the bed along with 4 quilts. Who needs a weighted blanket? I might be a bit tired of knitting them but always have one to use as comfort knitting. I sit in my nest surrounded by my cross stitch and quilted pillows along with all my critters. For some reason they like to sleep with me. Then I turn on Chinese or Korean historical drama whos subtitles have to be read... which is where the garter stitch comes in. Course there are always skirts, poncho's, ruana's and capes to be knit too. :-)

Knitting veer

Well, it's been an odd sort of knitting time for me. Normally I make functional stuff, shawls, sweaters, socks etc. Until now, I'm determined to replace my 40 year old stuffed bear. Think Velveteen Rabbit times infinity, he was well loved and the plush fabric was mostly mesh. He'd been washed quite a few times and got pretty tore up over the years so there was a good bit of mending and restuffing. Bear Bear was lost in the hospital during the Covid shuffle. I couldn't get to sleep without him most of the time so DH had him brought in to me and...

poof,

gone, gone,

by, by,

see ya.

Instead of buying plush fabric and potentially completing it in one day, I figured I'd knit it and felt it, soft and lovey. Start putting that love into him before I even start to knit. Found a great pattern called Louie Bear on Ravelry, fits all the markers I need, cept the tail but that was just a circle and an easy fix. The designer has even made clothing and other critters, fun. I work clothing on the fly so I wont need patterns.


Pattern calls for 4 hanks of Lambs Pride Bulky.

First one came out spot on to pattern specs, worked on size 7 needles and Peace Fleece thick yarn. I used one hank.

Second one,,, too small with my merino worsted weight and size 4 needles, one hank.

Little bit of Goldilocks going on here.

This one's too big,

this one's to soft,

this one's just right.

Hopefully I'll get the next one spot on. I'll be trying a size 8 (? depends on the swatch) needle with 2 strands of my worsted held together. I was thinking about adding a fun fur or my yarn called Teddy which has clumps of fur on a thinner thread.

Also thinking that my bulky single might do the trick here. It's the one in the center. Gee, never gave a thought to color... HUMMMM teeheehee, look out Bear Bear. Gee, could tie dye him before felting, that would be fun. Or I could paint the dye on afterwards, wouldn't need eyes and nose.

Yeah rambling when I should be: 

dyeing, 

designing, 

making stitch markers,

making Kelp bead bags, 

hanking the dried Kelp (sounds funny)

lableling the kits.

Yeah baby! Nothing but fun ahead, I'm so glad I love my work.

Have a great weekend, enjoy.

 ENJOY!! 💓💜

Done

Well, well, I did it, it's done. The Christmas Club and the blanket are both available. Each has scads of yarn for us to dye. Fortunately Lord Oberon is a great wrangler, he's actually better then I am, his yarn comes out softer. 

The worst part of all this? HUH? Worse? I love the entire process so there can't be a worse. I want to open up Nutcracker for Christmas this year. ACK! Stop throwing those tomato's at me. It's really close and the last of the goodies will be here in a week or so. Haven't been able to see the colors...I keep thinking that I need to leave it in the natural undyed as the soldiers take center stage. They are getting black and white kid silk for hat and beard. There's like 4 types of gold, buttons, chain, 3 different trims, and this tube thing for his hat. Yeah, went all out for this one. Guessing colors,,, need pale so a sky blue for his uniform and a pale red (ok yeah, that's pink) and a gray. Seems like I had an idea about his shiny boots but I can't remember now. Hum, tan?

You guys should see how much stuff I've got for ya'll. I had it all piled up and now it's sorted into KAL boxes, all organized which feels so much better. Plus things wont get lost.

Blogger wont allow me to load photos now so I'll have to skip my show and tell. Oooo geee, I really don't have to, I need a good ramble... time for a video. Will be up later today, hopefully. I've been interrupting my interruptions, makes everything take longer. 😁

Update

Been having a great time buying beads, LOTS of beads. Told myself I was filling out my 6/0's for when I make goodies. But somehow I don't believe that anymore, they just kept jumping into the cart. Definitely too many for filling out the bead trays.

Then there were the Rocailles.... yeah. Then there were duplicates.

I admit it, I LOVE BEADS! TeeHeeHee

Here's a quick update from the YF side, because there's more what? AYUP,,, more beads. Gonna have to get a mug with that on it.

Kelp Forest 

Is in sample knit almost ready, will open first. This is a heart shaped shawl which started from some beads I saw. And see... we're back to beads. 

This shawl started from these beads on the left. I got them off of Etsy. Only thing,,,, they came in much less muchier then the top photo shows. The bottoms more accurate.

What'd I do? Bought more beads. They came in and while knitting I realized we'd need a whole lot more. So what'd I do? Bought more beads. In the photo at right you can see some of those duplicate boxes are stacked.

Dragon Meldy Deep

This is the shawl which is actually shaped as a dragon. The CBP is his body, then left and right wings. Made with 50/50 silk/merino in DK weight. Surprise! Some beads and some fun and different beads come with this one.

The colors are:

Purple & hot pink

Teal & spruce

Red like Bloody Hell only different reds.

Silver but more brown silvers then my normal silver.

Georgiana

Yes of Pemberley but this time I don't feel the need for beads, shocking! This stole is made in Milky Silky and has cables, lace and haystacks that start at the bottom and work their way up to the top. Gorgeous main floral and side floral vine. You will love this one, it's what I was calling Glorious.

The colors are:

Parchment-pale-med brown

Seafarer Seaglass

Champagne  Sort of a yellow/orangey color

Robins egg, lilac, seaglass and silver? poured down it alternating. This swatch did me in, something like below.

Enough outta me, time to dye. Have a great week.

Heirlooms

 Just needed to pop in and let ya'll know that Rosie (heirloom for 2023) is now live. Back in the day I'd have the pattern in test knit the prior year in like October. That's ok though cause Rosies for everyone who wants to make heirloom but get daunted by cobweb and size 0 needles. Our Rosie is perfect as she's worked on fine lace weight with a size 1 needle. Check out the colors and freebies. Kits are limited. Click here.

Been playing with some shawl/hair sticks. Top to bottom Peacock, Heart, Vermillion Bird, Sakura in silver. These are just $5 and shipping, PM me at YarnFairy1@gmail.com, I need the name of which you'd like, your state and email, I'll send you an invoice.

Small Stitch Markers

The other day I needed some small markers. These really fit into that category. The loops are 10mm, you can see that they are so small that they can slip into the loops. This set is pearl, glass, mother of pearl with bead caps. 

Got a bit addicted to making up the color sets, these are next up:

The blue and white have some special beads in them. The tubes are carved bone, porcelain blue painted flower, pearls, glass, crystals on silver. These are a bit larger but really need to be made.

The blacks are all glass and will be great with silver beads and silver metals. Cream pearls?

The colorful box is pearls, lovely pearls. There’s mother of pearl rounds and ovals. There are different colors of sets in here: blue, purple, bronze and rainbow. Along with pearls some of the rainbows are glass. Thinking silver metals with this one.

The Red Brown are just lovely, pearls, metals, glass, metal filigree beads are all in these.

All sets are 12 to a set and are $15 each and shipping. Free shipping if your getting a Rosie kit. PM me at YarnFairy1@gmail.com, I need the name of which you'd like, your state and email. Then I'll send you an invoice.

Rosie

 

This years heirloom is in the works. Rosie and her friends have had many collaborative meetings over this shawl. Lambkin wanted something worked on larger needles and a thicker base to relieve any intimidation that a cobweb heirloom can cause. Course having half as many rows is good too. Pixie #1 is checking that out in the test knit.

Meanwhile, Titania is playing with beads and such. Oooo she’s in the zone, look out. Stuffs flying everywhere, think  scissor hands. Wonder what’s coming from such a large mess? Won’t be too much longer, stand by. 

The most assured way of getting notified of new things, is to be on the newsletter. You’ll get maybe one a month, ish. Email me at yarnfairy1@gmail.com in the subject of email, write subscribe.

See you next time, enjoy.

Dolls

 

I'm way to old for dolls but my bestie made this really cute frog for me. He's made from fabric and I adore him. I've always loved frogs and this wee guy is no exception.

Course I couldn't just leave it at that. I've been knee deep in what they call K-Drama, (C-Drama) Korean period piece, TV shows. I love them... can't figure out the next sentence or the plot before it's in the air like I can with US made. Found out that our Frog Man was designed by oJoodoll.com and she's got a bunch of patterns. There's also video which shows step by step, piece by piece construction. Of course I got the Korean Noblewoman. The body and head are done after like many hours of work. It's very cathartic so far. The face was daunting so I ironed butcher paper on the wrong side of the fabric, scanned and printed off a file of faces. So far so good, after the face comes the hair. 

For that I've dyed a blue black silk thread. There will be braiding, wrapping and what not.

The clothing during the Joseon era was full of many layers of silks. I'm not sure which side of the brocades I like better, the right or the stripes on the back. I need to decide soon, after the hair comes the clothing. For that I'm hitting the sewing machine.

These are the little drink umbrellas, they show how tiny all the goodies are. I have 4 hair sticks to choose from. Can't do much without money so we have a few yen and other tiny coins as well as the money bags, they all have them. The Neko kitty will be fun thing to add to her ornament that goes on the front of the jacket. I've a lot of dyed silk threads which will be perfect for this.

 I would like to knit for them as well. This is a close photo of cobweb on the left and fine lace on the right. On the left of the sheep gauge is a pair of 00 sized needles, the blue on the right are 000 and the pink are 0000, crazy I know but I do love making super tiny things.

And of course I can't leave well enough alone, the other night I made a very long list of dolls to make and dress. Yes, it's addicting. The body has been difficult, I've learned so much doing this. Did you know doll joints can be made from beads? I had no idea but know what my next body will contain. Now for housing... 👵

New Beginnings

This last year and a half has been very trying for me on the illness front. But once every 60-80 days I get to take a med which clears my brains and opens my creative ability and it all comes flooding back. I'm thrilled when this happens. They still don't know what's wrong with me but none of my specialists seem ready to give up, I fight on.

That said,,, I'm alive and it's so good to have my brains. 

Before I forget, LAST CALL for Christmas in July I'm on par for shipping by the end of July. Loads of loverly yarns are available. Actually I think I have too much at this point. I've a huge stack of markers I'm headed off towards for the rest of this week. Join us. And I highly recommend the Super Mondo box as it gets WAY more goodies then the page describes.

Last call for the color work club too. Third quarter color work is a sweater which has colors opposite on the color wheel for this smashing result you'll love. The peeps who have been with me all year and stay to the end are each receiving a hand made photo album, book or journal.

Over the last two days I've been painting... LOVE TO DYE finalized the samples for:

• Faded Memories the heirloom of 2022. It is supposed to open here in the next few days, hopefully it will. This one has no beads for a change as it's all about the lace and texture... stars in side of stars and boxes inside boxes. Perhaps I should be calling this Enigma. Design in test knit by our fearless Joss who just cranks them out.
• Met me in St. Louis, finally got the blanket colors nailed down, course I've said this before. It shrank down to 14 skeins of sock but it's going to be a very nice gradient. You will use 2 strands to make your blends. Then it can be work it in take along pieces or as a whole. I need to write this one yet. Ya'll know how much I don't like writing patterns but this one is heavy on the diagrams, it's just fun. I'm doing Victorian designs on the corners and inspiration was taken from Victoria homes and the Judy Garland movie of the same name.
• 
  Stranger Things, this one's been on the back burner forever! I'm tempted to just open it and not have it tested as the final episodes are just so close. I had real trouble with dyeing this one or it would have been opened years back. Finally settled on two Meldy Deep colors, Blue Eyes and Red of the monsters face. They can be done ala Meldy or I can hit them with black ala Raveneske. Your choice. This one comes with optional beads, clear AB silver lined (I think) which you can put into the background of the shawl. Yes, it's the feathery stuff falling in the under ground/upside down.
• 
  Color work club just received the last pattern of the 2nd quarter, Midnight Roses. These patterns start and stop with my special beaded picot edging, video support available with both the cast on and bind off.

Wondering, now that there's no email associated with this blog, does that mean no one sees this unless I share the post?

The rest is all cross stich, just HAD to share.

If you like cross stitch, just finished hand painting the following:

• 
  Plight of Fancy by Long Dog Samplers. I feel hard in love with this one last week. Tried not to buy/dye it but I couldn't help myself. The colors are all dyed and I changed the red boxers towards the bottom, they are either blues or purples... your choice as the kits have enough of each color to make the change. I left the rest of the colors alone. LOVE the top and bottom flower bands, they are smashing. Mine probably will not have the alphabets but it's getting everything else. Photos will follow as soon as I'm able.

• Then there's Arachne the Knitting Fairy. HELLO! I didn't waste one second getting her. Well, I did stutter with the colors so I change the yarn ball to Tanzanite and the wings are now kelly, radioactive and they blend into purple, and these other hot colors.

There's metallic threads, beads and other funsies. I've got all these great PU leather homemade patches and wood yarn balls... they have to figure in here some place.

Course you can color it in as you please. I'm sure ya'll will be moving colors around, your all so very creative... so I'm sending out a gray and white sheet for you to color. I do send out a new color chart and the skeins are each labeled with the replacement colors so no need to freak if coloring in your own isn't your thing. There's just 33 colors, 12 of which are still the original DMC as they are for the skin and hair. After coloring in the wings of the new color way, Pixie #1 pointed out that the greens in the wings need to be at the top of the needle too. On that sweet little bow.  I'm sure ya'll with get the kit and play. 

• 
  Lastly Tough Guys is the ready made kit by Riolis, sheepums! I'm giving each order some tiny curly locks made from BFL, a sheep known for their tight curls. 

These you can attach where the back stitching is to give the look of locks. Now you will actually be able to grow them for your boys.

I've got a needle minder started in my pea brains, sheep of course. This will go along free too.

My Bees Knees by Carolyn Manning should be done any day now, this is an older photo. It's the fourth pillow in my set on the bed. they make me happy looking at them all finished and setting here. I'll make up pretty bee quilted cover for the back and background, line it and make a snap or button closure. All of the others need a bath and I noticed they didn't get the lining so I'm going to rip them apart and get sewing.

Yes, you can give me the money if you'd like. I've always got people saying where's the cart buttons and buy now. (tee heehee)  I can make up invoices before the pages are loaded, PM me at YarnFairy1@gmail.com Thinking I need to start creating my Cross Stitch Kits page again, just start and keep going forward. Then I can sell the older kits as a sale/auction. Fun! I've always wanted to do a "Live Auction" like on FaceBook but our internets so slow here in the sticks.

Hope ya'll are doing well. See you soon.