Purple Peacock Sweater

The Purple lace sweater is done, and I'm kind of sorry! I adore this yarn; it is very wonderful to knit with and perfect for summer knitting because it isn't too warm. But I enjoy wearing this even more. It feels incredibly sensuous on. I had a great time playing with lace, and creating the pattern for the hemline increases which result in a peplum effect. Putting crystal beads on the ends of the points complements the yarn and gives a finished heft to the sweater, The only thing I'm not totally done with is the front. I'm debating about putting button holes on it and can't decide how many and what kind of buttons, because if I use glass ones it will weigh down the side they are on, and I like the smooth finish of the rows of single crochet. I haven't cut the yarn yet! Waiting for the right moment, I guess it postpones the inevitable let-down of finishing a project and having to start something else! But I don't have any more of this lovely stuff. And dangerously, Flying Fingers (www.flyingfingers.com ) is having a 50% off sale to prepare for their move. I wonder...

Purple Peacock lace

Here is the start of the next raglan lace cardigan, in Purple silk. I played around with some lace patterns I liked, and came up with this design, which works nicely at 10 stitch repeat with 24 row repeat. I think I'll end it with points also. Now to find the perfect beads for it. I might have to go shopping.
I use a lot of markers, finding it more relaxing to have a marker for every pattern repeat, even though by now I can read the knitting. Much easier to keep track of the increase sections this way also, and less counting if I make a mistake.
After the first repeat, I changed the pattern to make the feathers more defined. I love how the raglan "seam" shows as a solid bar where I incorporated the pattern stitches as I went along.

Cropped Cardigan

I finally finished my Cropped Cardigan, in Great Adirondak Silk, 2 skeins, from the pattern by Ann Cannon-Brown and Michelle Ciccariello here: http://secure.elann.com/ShowFreePattern.asp?Id=104024

I modified the pattern some, doing the raglan increases a bit differently to incorporate more of the lace pattern, and not switching lace on the sleeves. I loved doing the points on the hems, adding 3 triangle beads at each point, and crocheting along the edge so I didn't have to break the yarn at each point.

I plan to add some buttons to the front, but haven't found the right ones yet.

This yarn is so luxurious to knit with, I had to rush out and get more. I cast on for another sweater, which I plan to make longer, and used a different lace motif for the sweater. More later!

Not to be left out, Sha made himself comfortable atop my quilt "Fall From Grace"

My cat Cinnamon enjoyed showing off my finished diamond sweater at the Studio Tour!

Studio Tour Results

Well, the tour is over, and I'm really tired, but it was a huge amount of fun. Over 55 people came to my studio this weekend, in conjunction with a studio tour of 50 artists in my local area, and I sold a couple of hand-dyed scarves and some beaded jewelry. Many people were interested in the quilts, and enjoyed looking at the book of the journal quilts that I laid out, and the large quilts that I put on stands in my living room. One or two people were interested in maybe purchasing one of the journal quilts, and they took my card,so you never know. I did find that smaller works or things that could be impulse- purchased seem to sell better, and according to the artists I spoke with at the wrap-up pot luck dinner they had the same experience. One thing I really enjoyed was giving a mini tutorial of techniques to several people who were quilters and interested in how I create my works, and that was a good chance to practice some teaching techniques. I took the opportunity to clean my studio and found a lot of paperwork and old ideas that had become buried in the layers of junk on my desk, so now I have a nice clean studio and lots of new ideas to get started in my next phase of creativity. It's nice to be able to share my work with the community, and to open people's eyes to the possibilities of the fiber format. I would recommend participating in or even spearheading something like this in your community. You never know what will come of it and it is a lovely opportunity to network and to meet people you wouldn't ordinarily get to know. Someone even left her glasses as a testimony of the impact the work made on her. I hope she took my card--not everyone left contact info on my sign-in roster...

Studio Tour-after

I cleaned and sorted, made a hanger for my jewelery, made a book for my bio and some information about me, dug out some publications, put journal quilts in a notebook, and hung up some quilts. It looks better than it has in years. Now I'm itching to sew!