Autumn Kaleidoscope

Fresh off the needles and just wet blocked, pinned and dried.






I'm calling it my Autumn Kaleidoscope because of the subtle fall colour changes and leaves tumbling this way and that but its real name is Dianna by Mawelucky.

3-Dimensional Embroidery Practice

These are some stitches I've been practicing from Pat Trott's Three-Dimensional Embroidery Stitches book.


The lupins are formed by one row of raised chain band. The flowers that look like the insides of Dorset buttons are whipped spider's web. The purple rose is a woven rose and the pink and white rose is a Banksia Rose which is made up of loops of varying lengths. The yellow daffodil like flower's leaves and petals are woven picots which actually stand proud of the fabric and the trumpet part is raised cup stitch.


The multi-coloured flower at the bottom is formed by bullion knots and the leaves are raised leaves. Raised leaves is a really neat method of making leaves by stitching over a strip of card and then removing the card. All of the stems are stem stitch except for the multi coloured bullion knots flower which has a Palestrina knot stitch stem.

I'm still working on this and will keep it just as a sampler page of my stitch practice of the various stitches in this book. I can see loads of different uses for these stitches in the future to create 3-D effects.

Aeolian Shawl

Well, the yarn of silken loveliness got twisted this way and that meandering it's way around my needles until it became this. If you want to see more detail, please click on the pic and it will enlarge.


I am so pleased with how it turned out. It's a nice size - a shoulderette - and will be great for someone to drape around their shoulders on summer evenings. It's not for me. I wonder where it will end up??

The clear, silver lined beads show up really well against the topaz blue. For those of you in the UK who have been used to getting your Rowan/Jaeger beads from John Lewis, Rowan are no longer doing them, hence John Lewis are unable to stock them. However, Debbie Abrahams is now stocking them and she has them in sizes 06 and 08 in lots of lovely colours. I had already started knitting when I ran out of beads. I had some clear, silver lined beads in my stash but I knew I would need more and was getting a bit worried when I found JL didn't do them any more but, after discovering Debbie had them, I rang her to make sure I got the exact ones. She was so helpful and they arrived really quickly so I will definitely be shopping at her website again. Get Knitted also have them but I think they only have them in size 06 which, personally, I think are too big for laceweight although they work great on thicker yarn.

In other creative endeavours, I was taught how to make flowers from old coloured tights and wire and here are my efforts.




They are very easy, if a bit fiddly, to make and I can think of tons of uses for them including extra embellishment to gift wrapping, jewellery, etc.

I was also secretly beavering away on knitting 20 feet of lace edging to be sewn on to a baby afghan. Here it is wet blocking on towels.


And here's a close up when it was ready to send.


The afghan itself was a group effort and was for a lady in the MA group who is shortly to have a baby. All of us who were contributing made blocks and I sent the edging to the US so that dear Purr could sew it on. The following photo is courtesy of Purr.


It came out really nice, don't you think? Amazing to think that so many hands from all over the world have contributed to it and Mum-to-be was thrilled with it!

I like to try new things and, as I hadn't done entrelac before, I thought I'd have a go at an entrelac lace shawl. Here it is in progress.


The design is called Dianna and is by MaweLucky. The yarn, Jojoland Melody, is from stash and the colour changes in it are just perfect for this design. Not only is it entrelac but it's entrelac lace and I love the way the colours are panning out and the way the construction causes the leaves to face different directions. At the moment, it has that 'egg crate' look which knits sometimes have before blocking so I can't wait to finish and wet block to see it open up and 'bloom'.

Silken Loveliness

This came in the post today.


I love it's topaz blue splendour and it's ocean-like shimmeriness. I love the fact that it's silk and so soft and luxurious and I love that, all being well, it will become this.