tiny owl knits swap: received

Hello lovelies!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

Today I'd like to share with you what I received in the Tiny Owl Knits Common Room Swap on Ravelry.  I was very, very spoiled by my sender, who goes by SoEffie on Ravelry.

 

Here's a group shot of everything that was in the swap package I received!  Isn't the tissue paper and ribbon adorable?

 

This is right after I unwrapped everything-- it was so exciting!   The tea is delicious, and the little cream-colored case is perfect for storing my cable needles.

 

This owl card was filled with a sweet message from Effie.  I love the beautiful patterns on the owl's wings!  I'm going to frame this and add it to the gallery-wall I'm working on in my front hallway.

 

The beautiful green flowered project bag in the lower right corner of the group photo is reversible-- the inside fabric has this charming owl print, I just love it!

 

I am in awe of Effie's embroidery skills!  This little owl pouch is so precious.  I haven't decided what to put in it yet-- maybe a little lavender sachet to keep my knitted items nicely scented?

 

Effie had filled the owlie pouch with these beautiful hand-made stitch markers.  They're so delicate and pretty!

 

Isn't this owl stationery set so sweet?  It was so thoughtful of Effie to send a desk set.  I love all things stationery-related!

 

Effie also included this beautiful yarn.  It's Araucania Ruca Multi, a DK weight yarn made of sugar cane in the prettiest pink, pale green, teal, violet, and gray.

Last but certainly not least are these two lovely leaf washcloths!  They're so soft and cushy.

Thank you so much, Effie!  Everything in the package was so lovingly crafted.  I love it all!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

♥

tiny owl knits swap: sent

Hi, and happy Friday!

I recently participated in a swap on Ravelry, in the Tiny Owl Knits group.  A quick explanation of how Ravelry swaps work: One person is the swap organizer, and they post a questionnaire on the message board for the group.  Anyone who wants to participate answers the questionnaire, and then the swap organizer matches up participants.  Sometimes it's a straight-forward exchange, where you send goodies to the same person who is going to send goodies to you, and sometimes it's more of a round-robin situation, when you send a package to one person and receive a package from someone else.  The Tiny Owl Knits Common Room Swap was the latter kind, and it was so much fun!  Tiny Owl Knits is the designer of the Beekeeper's Quilt, which I've been knitting for about a year now, and since most of her patterns are whimsical and foresty, I tried to stay with that feeling for the swap package I put together.

Today I'd like to share the knitted items that I sent to my lovely swap recipient, Robin.

 

Cotton Leaf Washcloths-- these were very quick to knit, and two of them used up less than one skein of Sugar and Cream dishcloth cotton yarn.  I packaged these with a bar of lavender-scented L'Occitane soap and two of the beehive candles I shared in my last post, like a mini-spa in a box.

I also knitted the Damson Shawl by Ysolda Teague in the very, very soft Anzula Cloud.  It's a merino/cashmere/nylon yarn and it truly does live up to its name-- when you put the shawl on, the knitted fabric settles gently around you, just like a puffy knitted cloud.  I definitely plan on making a Damson Shawl for myself, too.  It has a unique, fluttery shape when it's worn that gives it a capelet sort of silhouette.  The pattern was perfect train-knitting.  It wasn't too complicated to knit on in half-hour segments, but it was interesting enough to keep my mind from drifting off during my commute.

I also sent along a hexipuff, since Robin is also knitting the Beekeeper's Quilt, and 10 mini-skeins of yarn for hexipuffs.  Each mini-skein was 30 yards long, so hopefully she will get at least two hexipuffs out of each one, maybe three, depending on her knitting gauge.  

Tomorrow I'll share the amazing package that I received from my wonderful knitting-fairy Effie!

♥

adventures in candle-making ♥

Happy Wednesday!

On Saturday, I attempted a new-to-me craft project-- candlemaking!

It was lots of fun, and not nearly as complicated as I'd thought it would be.

 

I made six vanilla-scented beehive candles!

I originally made these because I wanted to send a few to my partner in a swap over on Ravelry.  I sent out her package yesterday, complete with two candles!  But I don't think she reads my blog, so it should be okay to give you a sneak peek. :)

 

First I made a makeshift double-boiler with a soup can and a saucepan and melted some paraffin candlewax.  In another can-and-saucepan arrangement, I melted yellow solid candle dye and vanilla fragrance, then added that to the wax.

 

I dipped some candlewick into the wax to prime it, so that the candle will light more easily, and threaded it through a rubber candle-mold.  Then I put the mold into a jam-jar of cold water, and when the melted wax reached 190˚F, I poured it into the mold.  The cold water helps the candle cool and solidify.

 

When the candle was completely cool, I peeled back the rubber mold and trimmed the wick.  I repeated the whole process five more times, and ta-da!  Beehive candles!

Bucky was very helpful-- he snoozed in a box on the kitchen floor.  Occasionally he got up for a snack, which was so exhausting that he had to go back to sleep.  

It's a rough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

I hope you're having a wonderful week!

♥

tea time bee time ♥

Good morning, sunshines!  

Or afternoon.  

Or evening.  

Whatever the case may be for you at the moment.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was participating in Nerd Wards on Ravelry.  I posted my first project submission yesterday-- this bee hive tea cozy!  It's knit from some of my early handspun, which isn't the softest yarn in the world, but the squishy bee hive ridges improve it a lot.  

The challenge for this particular project was to choose a character from another kind of nerdiness, then make something that reminds you of something you would have on a date with that character.  Naturally, I chose Winnie the Pooh-- he loves tea, and he loves honey, so I think he'd love a honey-themed tea cozy!  

The other part of every challenge is to find a way to tie your project into your team.  Since I'm on Team Precious, I needed to connect my tea cozy with something from Tolkien's writing, or the movie adaptations.  Luckily for me, there are plenty of examples of hobbits either drinking tea or offering tea to their guests.

Was anybody else a nervous wreck during this scene in The Hobbit?   All of Bilbo's lovely plates and bowls and cups being tossed around-- Eeeeeeek!

Honey is also mentioned several times, either on its own or as an ingredient in foods like honey cakes (and someone actually devised a recipe for them, based on the description in The Hobbit!  How cool is that!)  So it was easy-peasy to relate my tea cozy back to Tolkien's work.

As per usual, more technical details and modifications can be found on my Ravelry project page.

Have a beautiful day!
♥

news flash, I'm kind of a nerd.

I know this may come as a shock to you, but...I am kind of a nerd.

Or rather, I am a nerd about very specific things.  Two of the things I'm nerdiest about are fiber arts (knitting/crocheting/spinning) and anything Tolkien-related.

Enter Nerd Wars.

Nerd Wars is a game on Ravelry (social networking site for knitters/crocheters/spinners/weavers).  In short, there are different teams based around different genres of nerdiness, and there are challenges based on different categories.  Some of the teams include Team Tardis, for Doctor Who fans, Team Space Alliance, for those who love Star Wars and Star Trek, and Team That's What She Said, for fans of NBC comedies like The Office and Parks and Recreation.  Members of each team earn points by participating in these challenges-- usually by making something that can be somehow linked back to their team's theme.  (This is the simplified explanation-- if you'd like more information about Nerd Wars, check out the official Ravelry group.)

I joined Team Precious.

So basically, I'm going to be knitting and crocheting and spinning a lot of Tolkien-themed projects over the next three months.  I also love Star Trek and The Office and Parks and Rec, but I think my aesthetic fits best with Team Precious.  I can make lots of hobbit-y, woodsy things-- like a knitted and crocheted version of Rosie Cotton's wedding circlet.

because obviously this is going to be a highly practical piece of knitting.

This round of Nerd Wars starts tomorrow, February 1st. 

I am very, very excited.

What are you nerdiest about?

♥

fibery goodness

Well, helloooo!

(in my head I said that in a high, loud voice, like a Dame Edna voice.   We're two sentences in and I'm already talking about Dame Edna.  That's how you know it's a good post.)

Yesterday I finished spinning the grey alpaca to ply the 'Odds and Ends' fiber with, and I plied them together, and this is what I ended up with.

I've got to admit... I am completely in love with this yarn.  It's soft and squooshy and the colors blended together beautifully.  And there's a ton of yardage, too-- it's 856 yards out of a combined 8 ounces of fiber.  It's going to become a Lala's Simple Shawl that I'll wear more like a scarf.  I'm really excited about it, I think it'll be just enough texture to show off the yarn, but not so much that it will become muddled.

The grey alpaca makes it incredibly soft-- I was holding a skein up to my neck earlier, because I have pretty sensitive skin and I wanted to make sure the yarn wouldn't be itchy, but it was just fluffy and cozy.

It took about three hours just to do the plying on this yarn because there's so much of it and it's quite thin.  It's definitely my favorite handspun to date.

And after what must be the most ridiculous struggle in history with the postal service, I received some super-cute Ravelry stickers in the mail!  (Readers who don't knit, crochet, or spin:  Ravelry is basically a social networking site for fiber artists, and it is awesome.  If you've been wanting to learn, check out Ravelry and I guarantee you'll be intensely motivated.)  They were delivered to the wrong house, then nobody at the post office knew who the substitute mail carrier was that day, it was such a fiasco.  But some lovely person put the envelope back in their mailbox when they realized it wasn't theirs, and ta-da!  Stickers for me.  Aren't they adorable?  I think the middle one is going to go on my laptop.  

...And here's a picture of Bucky and Cocoa for no particular reason other than that they were being adorable.  Who doesn't love an adorable cat photo?

I'm off to alternately snuggle my cats and my yarn.  Have a great night!

♥