Friday, June 20, 2014

friday favorites v.3

Hi there.  
For this week's Friday Favorites, I'd like to share some of my favorite illustrations on Etsy! 

alayna paquette tea party idrawdogs 
this lovely tea party.
The Raccoon and the Binoculars alicia winget 
this little raccoon with his binoculars-- I love raccoons and this guy is so mischievous!
 ellolovely Rhianna Wurman tea time constellation 
tea and stars-- two of my very favorite things.

 hidenseek hidden eloise girl bear 
 surpriselilydesigns cat tea molly martin 
this charming kitty-- drinking tea while wearing socks and mitts!

I hope you've had a wonderful week!  


p.s.:  due to a huge amount of spam, I'm turning off the option for anonymous comments.  
thanks for understanding!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

celestarium

  Sometimes, from the moment you first see a knitting pattern, you know you absolutely-must-knit-it-no-matter-what.  Even if it is absolutely crazy and huge and you're not quite sure what you'll do with it after you knit it.
celestarium shawl knitting
      For me, Celestarium was that knitting pattern.

     Celestarium is a huge circular shawl with beads arranged to form the constellations as seen from the northern hemisphere, with the North Star in the center.  I began this project on December 21st, 2013, right before I went home for Christmas.  This seems like a pretty intimidating pattern at first glance-- there are 6 sets of charts, and the final chart is 8 pages long.  After I got into the rhythm of count-knit-knit-knit-yarn over- bead-knit-knit, though, it became relaxing and fairly mindless knitting.  It was really satisfying to watch the constellations emerging as I finished each chart. 
 celestarium shawl knitpicks stroll
      I knit my Celestarium with Knit Picks Stroll yarn in the Midnight Heather color.  According to the pattern, it should have taken 1200 yards on size 4 needles.  However, even though I went up to size 6 needles (I am a tight knitter and wanted to keep the shawl light and airy), I only used 1039.5 yards of yarn.  That leaves me a skein and a half of yarn to knit up into little dark blue hexipuffs for my Busy Bee Blanket!  ...Well, eventually.  Not now.  I have had enough navy blue for the moment. 
  celestarium stash dash 2014
My finished Celestarium measures 48" in diameter, though I expect that will shrink slightly since I blocked the shawl pretty severely.  I'm planning to frame it and hang it above my dresser, with a small, framed constellation chart next to it.  I am so pleased with how it turned out!  Finishing the Celestarium has inspired me to start another huge project-- but that's going to be a present for two very special people, so it has to take a secret for now.  I'll be able to reveal it in a few months-- I can't wait!