Sunday 30 November 2014

Friendship bracelets

A little while ago, a new hobby came up among preteens: silicone band bracelets. Since my sons are still too little for this craft, I only fleetingly noticed about this fad on social network sites - until my husband's niece came to visit during summer break. Her unbridled enthusiasm and shining eyes reminded me of my own time many years ago, when it was fashionable to knot friendship bands, give them as gifts, swap them and outdo each other trying to learn complicated patterns.


I immediately started to dig in my old treasure bins and found several samples, for which I was rewarded with a teenagers "Wow! That's cool." - a praise well worth the effort.


For our subsequent knotting session, I prepared well - for starters, to refresh my memory, I made a few bracelets with a simple pattern, and of course, I prepared a treasure chest with a full color range of linen yarn, to give her imagination free reign :)



Our niece immersed herself in this business with great enthusiasm, quickly comprehended how and in which order to make the knots, and teaching her was a real pleasure. Her first bracelet was far from perfect, but from her third one onward, our relatives were unable to distinguish who made which one.
                      Over the course of one evening, we accumulated these riches:
Afterwards, we prepared a bunch of workpieces in different color combinations, to be finished later on
:) The girl was very pleased with the outcome because among her friends, SHE ALONE has these, and I felt happy, too, remembering how I used to make them when I was younger. My suggestion for all of you surrounded by loom band plaiting youth: give it a try!

Sunday 9 November 2014

Linen lace shawl

Hi everybody! This is my brand-new blog, and my very first post shall be about she shawl I knitted from Natalia's pattern - Lavender Fields. 
My first impulse had been to knit this from a nice lavender shade as could have been expected from a shawl with "lavender" in the name, but then this nice natural tone caught my attention, and in combination with amber-colored beads, I thought it was just perfect! The first one I made a year ago and then found a lovely spot to photograph it amidst the dunes of the Baltic coast.

























This shawl had found its new owner a long time ago, but just now, I have been approached by a bride-to-be with the request to knit her one for her rustic wedding. It goes without saying that nobody could say "no" to such an honor!



Now about "crunching numbers" - 
Pattern on Ravelry - Lavender Fields 
Yarn - natural undyed Linen #104 2-ply, 95 g (3.35 oz)
Needles - 3.5 mm = US 4
Сrochet hook for adding beads 0.5 mm = US 14 steel
Сrochet hook for binding off 3 mm = US between C and D
Beads - #8 by Preciosa