Baby booties (autumn collection)

I found one day a lovely and easy pattern (which you can see HERE) that did not require two point needles or circular needles that I don't have, yet which I saved for some rainy days :) I couldn't decide what yarn to use. So, my husband convinced me one Saturday morning to go to OSER (something like a flee market probably). I live in Cluj for 12 years I think and my husband for 5 years and we haven't been there until a few weeks ago. Shame on us ! :)
So we went. And I found wool. Real wool !!! I'm so enthusiastic about it cause I rarely find wool. It's always acrylic yarn.
So, finally real sheep's wool... huray :).
I took only 2 balls of yarns, to see if I like it and I can tell you that I adore them. :)
I must go again and buy some more.

So here's my baby booties collection :

Origami Flower Bouquet Instructions

Yesterday our friend F. had her birthday and today our Tuesday group will surprise her with a bouquet of paper flowers.

What you'll need:
                            paper
                            glue
                            wire stem
                            double side scotch
                            white pen

I started from the usual kusudama flower, each one with 5 petals in different shades of lila.
You can see how it is done here : Kusudama-Flower

So here are my petals.

 

 On the most dark ones I wrote with white pen the names of each person from our group.

Then I  glue three petals together with simple paper glue.
Now I used double side scotch to fix the wire stem to the flower and glued the two remaining petals on top of it.

 That's it.  Now you can finish the bouquet however you desire. I choose to live it simple just weaving the wire stems a bit. You can add buttons, paper leaves or whatever you can think of . :)

Knitted shrug

Finally I have finished it. It took me a few months but I did it :) It wasn't that I found it difficult cause it's not at all. It took me a long time maybe mostly because it was just knitting and purling all the time and I felt the need of coming out from this continuous pattern. But now is here and I really like how it turned up. So this morning I woke up early to iron my wedding dress (which surprisingly still fit me after 5 years of eating sweets) and another dress, difficultly pushed my husband out of bed, handed him a camera and drove to a nearby hill to take some pictures. I used white mohair for this and the shrug is so soft and lightweight and it kept me warm on this slightly cold morning. I was almost sorry that I didn't have something like this at my wedding when I had to take my husband's coat at one point :)

 

 

I really don't like someone  taken pictures of me. I can't keep my face still .My husband has a difficult job with me :) 

 

 

As you can see we also found some sheep and goats that I tried to pet but  was not successful in my try :)    

Prisme Pebeo paint

Going through one of my favorite store in Cluj, Rembrandt, looking for some Derwent Inktense new colors my eyes were attracted of a paint I didn't notice till now. Still being in a seaside mood I was completely dragged to the turquoise and blue and imagine all kinds of stuff I could do with this paint.

Pebeo Prisme paint

I had this antique bronze pendant base bought some time ago and I think it goes great with this paint that surprises you with its final results.

  I also tried a new coaster using this paint trying again to represent the beautiful sea. I didn't use any varnish on top of it and it works well like this. Neither the hot temperatures or the water ruins the design.

Hair pin with green sea glass

During our vacation I came across sea glass on the beach. I'm sure I must have found them lots of times before but I just didn't know what they were and I didn't collect them. But lately I kept reading about it so I was very happy to discover them on our beach. To my disappointment I only found green and white ones. I would have wished to pick up lots and lots of colors. But, well, that will do :)

I didn't know exactly what to do with them, especially because I have many small ones and just a few bigger. But yesterday I remembered that I had some hair pins and  brooches that I could use with. So this is what I came up with.

 I glued them first with a glue gun and it looked ok. but I dropped the hair pin while trying to make pictures with it and all the sea glass fell down. So I tried next with another glue that I use for almost everything and appears to be ok. I dropped it again and nothing happened.

 

An eye glass case (counterpane pattern) called "Birdie" FREE tutorial

Let me show you what I did with the alsacian scallop pattern I showed you in my last post. Playing around with it, I came up with the idea of making an eye glass case. So I did just so.

I also made a burlap lining that I hand sewed inside the case and for a special touch from myself I stamped a little bird on the burlap using fabric ink.

 TUTORIAL :

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton
Needles: 3mm

Cast on 45 stitches (21*2 + 3)

row 1 - knit
row 2 - purl
row 3 - knit
row 4 - knit 1; yarn over, knit 21; yarn over, knit 21;  knit 2
row 5 - purl 2; (purl 1,knit 3) - 5 times, purl 2; (purl 1, knit 3)- 5 times, purl 2; purl 1
row 6 - knit 1; knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, (purl 3, knit 1) - 5 times, yarn over ; knit 1, yarn over, knit 1, (purl 3, knit 1) - 5 times, yarn over; knit 2
row 7 - purl 2; purl 2, (knit 3, purl 1) - 5 times, purl 2; purl 2, (knit 3, purl 1) - 5 times, purl 2; purl 1
row 8 - knit 1; (knit 1, yarn over) - 2 times, (Slip, slip, knit the 2 slipped stitches together, purl 2) - 5 times, (knit 1, yarn over) - 2 times; (knit 1, yarn over) - 2 times, (Slip, slip, knit the 2 slipped stitches together, purl 2) - 5 times, (knit 1, yarn over) - 2 times; knit 2
row 9 - purl 2; purl 4, (knit 2, purl 1) - 5 times, purl 4; purl 4, (knit 2, purl 1) - 5 times, purl 4; purl 1
row 10 - knit 1; (knit 1, yarn over) - 4 times, (Slip, slip, knit the 2 slipped stitches together, purl 1) - 5 times, (knit 1, yarn over) - 4 times; (knit 1, yarn over) - 4 times, (Slip, slip, knit the 2 slipped stitches together, purl 1) - 5 times, (knit 1, yarn over) - 4 times; knit 2
row 11 - purl 2; purl 8, (knit 1, purl 1) - 5 times, purl 8; purl 8, (knit 1, purl 1) - 5 times, purl 8; purl 1
row 12 - knit 1; knit 8, (Slip, slip, knit the 2 slipped stitches together) - 5 times, knit 8 ; knit 8, (Slip, slip, knit the 2 slipped stitches together) - 5 times, knit 8;  knit 2
row 13 - purl 2; purl 8, (purl 4, transfer them to a third needle, wrap the yarn around them 3 times counterclockwise, transfer them to the right needle again), purl 9;  purl 8, (purl 4, transfer them to a third needle, wrap the yarn around them 3 times counterclockwise, transfer them to the right needle again), purl 9; purl 1
row 14 - knit

Repeat rows 1 – 14  for 5 times (or as much as you need to fit your glasses in).

Final part:
1 row: knit
2 row: purl
3 row: knit
4 row: purl
5 row: knit
6 row: cast off leaving a long tail

Measure your piece and choose a fabric for your lining.
Thread the tail  into a needle and unite the sides and the bottom of your work.
Hand sew  the lining inside your knitted case.
Finish ! :)
Enjoy it.
 

Do you see "Birdie" ? :) Isn't she a cutie ?:)

This picture is taken with the sunglasses totally inside the case

Knitted socks

My grandmother used to knit us socks. Every winter, on every Christmas, each person of our family received 2 pairs of knitted socks. It was a lovely present, a great tradition that we all expected every Christmas morning. I still have the last socks she knitted for me and I barely wear them for fear not to ruin them. I will cherish them forever.
Every year I look at them and I wonder when she managed to do them for all of us and I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to learn to do it myself from her.
So this year, I put my mind to do it. Kept searching for patterns and they all seem so difficult to make :) And I thought I will never learn to do it.
But, after long searching I found a pattern from purl bee that seemed easy enough for me.
So, I did it.
My first socks. :) While I was knitting them , I felt like I was doing them with my grandmother. And it was lovely :)
I recommend this pattern to all you knit beginners :) 

And here they are mine :

Felt and Needle felting

On that Christmas I discovered a fabric called felt. Wow, what a great thing that is, especially for beginners like me :) All my gifts for family and friends were meant to present them this miracle called "felt". So I made these phone cozy. You can easily the faults I've been making but remember I was still trying the things I used to know once :)

For a computer addict :)

To my mother

To my grandmother who has been raising and loving bees ever since I know her :)
 Trying the needle felting also :)