First Blogiversary Giveaway

Firstly, thanks for all the advice on the question posed in my last post as to what I should drink. I think I've solved it now but have had to compromise a bit because I really missed my cups of tea too much. I'm now having the odd cup ot Earl Grey but extremely weak with lots of milk added. I know that the proper way to drink Earl Grey is black with a slice of lemon but I don't care because I'm not that posh! LOL

And so, it'll be one year on 31st July since I started this blog and, to celebrate it, anyone who leaves a comment on this post from now until 12am on July 31st will be entered into a draw to win a piece of my handmade jewellery. So, as well as my regular readers who comment, if you're reading this and haven't commented before, why not say hello? I'd love to hear from you though if you'd rather not that's cool, too. The winner can choose which piece they would like (jewellery or stitchmarkers) from my photo gallery here and, as shown below, I've made a reasonable amount in the short time I've been doing it. If a piece is chosen that I haven't got any longer, that's okay, because I can make another just like it. The winner will be announced on 1st August.


A few more bits I've made are another set of 'Frog Me Not' stitchmarkers (after sending the first set to Rain at the Frog in Knots blog, I rather missed them so decided to make some for me!);


'Evergreen' Necklace made with glass beads and copper chain;


Green and Amethyst Pin (Nathalie's now got some blank pins in just waiting to be embellished with beads, etc, so I was really pleased to get some to play with and lost no time in experimenting with this one!)


Here it's being worn on the Frilly Scarf but they seem to be 'in' at the moment and can be worn on wraps, to keep shrugs and cardis closed, and I've even seen long dangly ones on the waistband of jeans. Nathalie was wearing one like this and it looked really stylish. I've also noticed in the shops that pins are being worn with buttons on as well as beads.

Next up's the 'Jet Black' bracelet to match the necklace I made ;


And, finally, the Safety Pin Bracelet!


This would make a great little project for kids, perhaps to fill in a rainy afternoon during the school hols, Its simple yet effective being beads threaded onto safety pins and then the fastenings pressed tightly with flat nosed pliers to make sure they don't open again afterwards. The safety pins are then threaded onto beading elastic making sure they are alternately opposite sides up and a bead is placed onto the elastic in between each safety pin. This is done for the holes at both the top and the bottom of the safety pins. The elastic is then either knotted or crimped to secure and the knots or crimps hidden under a bead and that's it!

Knitting-wise, the beaded lace scarf now only requires three more of the 20 row pattern repeats and a good blocking to complete it. I'm amazed that it looks like it's only going to take one skein of the laceweight Posh Yarn which is excellent yardage though I shouldn't be altogether surprised as the yarn is extremely fine!


I've also cast on for the Long Top in Sirdar's "California Girls" booklet in Sirdar Luxury Cotton.


I'm not normally a great Sirdar fan but I have to say that I like this cotton which is very soft. It does have a tendency to split so you have to be careful when knitting but I suppose this is the trade off as it needs to be loosely plied I think to achieve this degree of softness.

In other news, Maidstone Knitters met for their July meeting last Saturday and welcomed another couple of new members, Marie and Sue. Sue's a textile artist and brought along some of her work to show us. She knits with plastic as she likes to draw attention to the increasing volume of plastic which we use in the hopes that we might start to turn the plastic tide. One of the objets d'art she brought along to show us is the dress below, entitled 'Address'. It's made from postal plastic - all those items which used to arrive in brown paper envelopes and now come in plastic bags. Isn't it amazing?!


If you'd like to have a look at some of the other pieces she brought along to show us (all knitted in plastic) have a look at Maidstone Knitters' blog. At our September meeting, she's going to show us how to create a knitted bracelet using wire and I, for one, can't wait as I was strongly coveting the one she was wearing!!!

EDIT: For all those who've asked in the comments section about the kilt pins, I got them from the Pink Palace in Maidstone and, yes, the twists are already in the bars.