Beads & Instagram

On Friday, I received an amazing RAK (Random Act of Kindness) from one of my good friends on Ravelry. The RAK consisted of the stitch markers pictured to the left, and they were so beautiful that I was inspired to make some of my own. I already had a trip to Michael's planned for that day, and it was with the added intention of picking out some exciting new beads and wire (the wire wasn't that exciting).

My Michael's has a great selection of beads, and I could have spent hours in their jewelry section. The prices are marked by color, with the cheapest at about $4 and the most expensive at $15, and since I was working on a pretty tight budget I stuck mainly in the $4-7 range. However, I did find some lovely beads that were originally $10 but were on sale for $2. I have yet to find out what's wrong with them.

I bought four strings of beads and a spool of black wire, and upon my arrival home I set to work with my new supplies and a pair of needle-nose pliers. Shortly afterwards, I was rewarded with these:

Yes, I only made three stitch markers and I haven't made any since, but I intend to in the next few days- I've been busy this past weekend! Well, perhaps busy isn't the right word- I've been knitting and finding a new way to share my knitting with the world, which brings me to the next topic.

You may have noticed the beautifully antique-ified photographs in this post. They are the victims of my Instagram account. I've been having quite a bit of fun, taking pictures of almost everything I do. The downside is that I don't have my own iPhone and have to use the family one. The upside is that almost everybody else has their own iPhone, so pretty much only my mom and I use the family phone, and my mom hates it, so for all intents and purposes, it's mine (for Instagram, anyway). 

I'm not using Instagram too much, though- I'm proud to say I've only posted 17 photos since I got Instagram on Thursday. I don't think it will become too much of an addiction- then, I said that when I started knitting and spinning, too. 

DIY Braided Bracelet Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial for the braided bracelet I posted about yesterday.

Jewelry for Knitting Needles

Stitch markers are an essential tool in knitting. Some people use jump rings, some people use scraps of yarn tied in loops, and some people use these fancy, beaded, dangly markers they buy on Etsy. I personally prefer to just use yarn tied in loops; it doesn't cost anything and it doesn't get in the way of my knitting. But I thought I'd give these dangly things a try. 

I bought beading wire, crimp tubes, and two different kinds of beads at Michael's. I followed the instructions from here. Each one took me about five minutes to make and I don't actually know what it's like to knit with them. But it doesn't matter if I don't like them, because I'm going to give a bunch of them away anyway. 

However, I'll soon find out whether I like them or not. Also at Michael's I bought some super bulky wool that's going to become the face on my Oh My Bear! sweater. I'm using KnitPicks Brava (it's 100% acrylic but at least it's soft) for the main color in the colorway Umber Heather. I actually cast on on February first, but I didn't have the right needle size and my gauge was off, so I had to rip back a bunch today, but now I'm on track with the right needle size and I can't wait to get to the color work. 

Heartfelt Rings

Last night, I made two little Heartfelt rings. The pattern, by Tiny Owl Knits, is available for free here. As you can see, the ring on the left is much, much better. It's the second one I did.

Heartfelt Rings are tiny little felted knit rings with hearts embroidered on them pre-felting. I love the name- it's pure genius. Heartfelt. Felted rings with hearts on them. Get it? Stephanie Dosen (who is the designer of these rings along with dozens of other lovely patterns) was very clever coming up with that.

The first one I knit with some wool of the andes sport weight from Knitpicks. I unplied it so as to have  4 ply yarn (although once I had unplied it it was really only two ply- but as most yarns are 4ply, 4ply yarn is just a rather idiotic synonym for fingering weight yarn). As unplying yarn is a truly tedious task, I didn't make my ring long enough and also the heart came out rather wonky.

But for the next one, I watched the knit-along video which you can find here while I knit. It is a knit-along video after all. You're supposed to do what she does. The video in itself put me in a very good mood. Also I used some of that lovely blue yarn I spun a while ago that I still haven't used (I have like 500 yards of it so it won't be hard to find a pattern, but I've been too busy with Christmas and stuff) for this ring and more wool of the andes for the heart.

I love it! And I couldn't resist using my left hand for the picture- as you can tell it is very badly scarred from when a pot of boiling water was dumped on it 18 months ago. I was wearing fingerless gloves at the time and they trapped the heat. So now I have a permanent scar that I am very proud of. It gives my hand character.

I have about three other posts to write in a moment- spoilers: one will contain kittens! (well one kitten anyway) 

Jewelry+ Hunger Games=

Mockingjay pin earrings! I'm a genius! Well, not really, because Mockingjay earrings are probably very common in the Hunger Games fan world. But anyway...

One shrunk and one not.

Shrinky dinks! Gotta love 'em. I printed out a photo of the pin, but it was way too big, so I made a small copy. I was very proud of that, because I'm a terrible artist. I'm especially bad at copying things. You'll also notice that I made mine backwards... totally by accident. It still looks like the Mockingjay, though. Right?

I actually made three little Mockingjays. You know, just in case I someday sprout a third ear and need another earring.

All three done

Here they are, all shrunk. I'm very very happy with them. 

And, the finished product:

Hunger Games Earrings!

I'm so pleased. They look especially good when I wear my hair in a Katniss-like braid:

I can actually do my own hair in a French braid, though my hair is too short for me to tie it off closer to the tips, hence a slightly pony tail effect. Oh well.

Please, comment on how you like or (heaven forbid) don't like them!