Been Knittin' and Stuff

I've been knitting again after a short break. I completed this sock last night made from gorgeous Noro Silk Garden yarn.


I got the pattern from this great little book, 'One Skein' that I have mentioned before. This sock took less than one skein of the Noro, so I could have made the ankle part longer, but I just followed the pattern as is. The toe turned out kind of pointy. The pattern doesn't do that, but I thought it looked cute, and elf-ish, so I left it. Maybe a little bell on the end?

Now I just have to knit another one just like it. The pair is for my Mom, but she doesn't know it yet. She has been looking over my shoulder and oo-ing and ah-ing over the colors.


Big Creative Step

Today I placed a huge order for tools and supplies for silversmithing. This was a big step for me because it was quite a bit of money to spend and on many levels, I have been resisting moving forward on this (it's been a mixture of fear of failure, fear of success and many other heavy emotions in one big ball of confusion). But I am walking through that and now that I have taken action, I am SO EXCITED! My new motto, 'Move Forward."

I bought a torch, and all the related equipment so I can start doing some soldering. My Mom has a great workbench that she says I can adopt while I'm here, so I'm going to get set up and work on some things. Most of the stuff I can take back to New Zealand with me, with the exception of the torch and a few chemicals.

Art Chix

I was turned on to this website (www.artchixstudio.com) by the teacher of one of the classes I took recently. This is a GREAT website for romantic, whimsical images to be used in collage, scrapbooking, jewelery and other crafts. What fun stuff!

More Lampwork

The last two days, I had some personal instruction on lampwork from a well-established and talented artist, Lisa Claver (www.lisaannclaver.com) who lives nearby. She is a friend of my Mom's and has shown her beads and jewelery at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach in the past. I won't have my beads until early next week, so I'll post photos then. I learned some very valuable tips and techniques.


Lisa's fish beads. She also makes wonderful flowers and goddesses. I learned more about using copper and silver leaf on beads and also how to embed cubic zirconia crystals into beads! So exciting!