Ribbon flowers

I bought a bunch of attractive ribbons and I decided to match them with my mini doilies. Originally I was to use them as an addition to some other flowers for girlie headbands, but now I am having second thoughts. However, inspiration never ceases.

In the world of tube necklaces

 

 

 

 

I finished my third batch of tube necklaces today and cannot describe the wonderful selection of colors my customers come up with. Unfortunately I cannot always snap a picture of all of them because it is either already dark when I finish, if not- then probably overcast or I am rushing to the post office to send them to their homes. But today, I finished while there was good, natural light to capture the last batch. 

 

The color palette is almost the same as for my Irish roses I wrote before, but the customer let me choose and I was in a romantic mood (is there a period when I am not romantic you may ask - there certainly is!) so... I just love how they turned out.

These make phenomenal last minute gifts and stocking fillers, so if you are interested I have an interesting offer. 
You can make them yourself, or I can make them for you.

Kids fashion: Inspiration board

Sometimes I wish the day would last for more than just 24 hours. 
I had fabric cut out to make some baby shirts and that's it. No sound of a sewing machine at work... sadly. I am still heavily immersed in creating crocheted art.

However, I ease my soul by (daily) checking my inspirational kids fashion board, filling my eyes with beautiful clothes, and wishing I own some of the pieces.

Here are my recent picks for girls: 

 

And picks for boys:

Check out  my kids fashion board. 

You.will.be.stunned. I promise!

For a purple fall

 

  

Lately, I've been crocheting a lot in purples. I must say I am a bit disappointed at the purple palette I see in yarn stores - there are just not enough hues and shades I'd like to see and buy. But since ordering from abroad seems a little too over the edge (price related) for the time being I have to do with what I've got.  For the magenta bead in the last photo I used a fuzzy yarn that has been in my stash for way too long, and although reluctant to what it might look like used on a bead  I am pretty satisfied it turned out great. I think I just found out about this yarn's niche :)

Until my next post, have a lovely weekend!

Crocheting baby gifts - a shrug and a beret

I   made these yesterday for a friend's baby. 
For the shrug I used a lovely puff stitch crocheted motif which I must admit looks more adorable in cotton yarn than wool. The beret was a breeze making it. However I am a bit uneasy if it will fit the baby (which is by the way 6 months old) since I didn't use any pattern but rather increased the stitches of a pattern for a 3-months old baby. I need to make a flower for it - I don't like to leave it bare, on the other hand whatever flower I put on it looks inappropriate. Hope to get my dilemmas resolved soon.

Irish Rose Necklace - a Photo Tutorial

 Just a quick notification.
The Irish rose necklace photo-tutorial is available in the shop now. It includes 2 variations of the rose pattern. 
You can buy it here.

Wooden Beads and Cotton crochet

When it comes to making jewelry - I only need a handful of wooden beads and a skein of brightly colored yarn and I am in heaven. Not hard to please -  do you agree?
This is a color combination I have made repeatedly this summer, both for me and my customers and it has proven to be a total hit.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts there are embroidered beads being made in the crochet kiln and I can't wait to match them with my new batch of lovely woodies. 

Bye!

Happy Halloween

I appeared in class like this and caught my students by surprise. It was a worthy sight, let me tell you.
We made lots of photos, but I cannot post  them - they are for our eyes only. Among them there were witches (of course), some mummies, ghosts and spiders.  Working in several groups, they made skeleton and ghost garlands, carved some pumpkins, played 'pin the tail to the cat' and "Don't Eat Frank". It was a 'thrilling' day by all measures.
I have a Halloween board here if you are in need of ideas - for future Halloweens that is.

Through my son's eyes

Today, while checking on my son's school work I saw that he had a written assignment - to describe a member of the family. My sweetness chose to write about me. 

He wrote:
My mother's got brown eyes. (??? My eyes are green). Her name is Maya. She's got brown hair. She works in a school. My mother is short.

And there you can see us together. I am the one in front. 
Things like this melt my heart.

Mini doily necklace - leaden winter

 

I think the title is too harsh for this lovely necklace although poetically true. It's been a while since my last embroidering project and this week  I started embroidering some crocheted beads. And once the embroidery floss box was out, there was no returning it back. At least not soon. I made a couple of my doily necklaces in various palettes inspired by the fall (we are still having Indian summer here) and some 'wintery' ones.  

Talk to you soon!

Arm knitting - Orange scarf

 

 

I wanted to try arm knitting the minute I saw this fabulous tutorial on the internet and finally I did it. It was challenging at first because my knits and crochets are quite tight, that is to say I am no loose knitter and I had to re-do this 4 times until I was satisfied with the right .. um.. "tightness" of the stitches if you know what I mean. Once I couldn't slip the yarn off my hand ...

Of course I could have used some big, and by this I mean REALLY BIG knitting needles and I do possess such only my husband was playing the handyman one day  trying to unplug / clean / fix something using one of them and he broke it so.. in lack of needles I thought this might be a good time to employ my hands/ arms instead. 

If you are in need of good knitting needles try this buyer's guide and reviews!

My newest supplies

Lost in the sokaks of the bazaar, it is excruciatingly hard not to buy anything - at least it was for me. But my husband, as supportive as he always is, urged me to stock up on my supplies, but I was reasonable, trying not to lose my head, being aware that we are traveling with friends and didn't want to discommode our traveling arrangements. Above is some of the yarn I bought.
 

 

I couldn't pass by this amazingly soft YarnArt yarn and took some for my scarves. The orange is finished and I am to show it soon.

  

These are 100% wool. I went nuts when I saw it. Plan to buy a ton next time we get back.

This is kid mohair yarn. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but it has an amazing, spiderweb quality. Unfortunately, this was the only color available. 

 These little cuties came in all possible colors and in an unusual weight skeins. About 30 grams. It is pure cotton and I was  intrigued by the weaving of the threads.

 Lovely mixed fiber yarn - on sale and only in "dirty" white. 

 

Pure wool felt. Almost drooled upon seeing it :)

Some of the metal supplies I treated myself to.

I can't wait to put all these into good use!

Istanbul - Topkapi Palace (still on the wish list)

 
 

Hello all!

There's a fine layer of dust here on my blog and it's time for dust-busting. The reason is that I got the travel bug bite. One day after we arrived from Turkey I continued on a three-day trip around my country and finally I am back. So, next I want to share an interesting adventure we had at Topkapi Palace. 

We came to the Palace very well aware that being a Saturday and a mile long line for tickets, there was a fat chance for us to get inside, enjoy soaking up the details of it (and we were told that we need good 2-3 hours to really see everything) we decided to leave it for another time. Yet, I couldn't console myself with just that so I dragged my husband to the Palace Museum Shop at least to treat myself with a guide book of the Palace. And as we entered, there was a small room with props so that people can take memorable photos of themselves dressed as royals. I almost jumped out of joy. My husband was reluctant to do it, but as you can see, I have well-developed persuasion skills and now we are so glad we did the photo shoot. We will certainly never forget it.