Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Luxury silk shawl

This shawl is knitted in the most luxurious yarn I've used yet: Handmaiden 100% silk, hand painted in the most amazingly beautiful colours. It took three weeks of internal debate before I had the nerve to open my wallet for this skein… So expensive. But sooo beautiful! The shawl is blocked to a radius of 67cm, which was probably a bit much - the last few pins had to be pulled very hard… But she’s still in one piece, and the lace pattern looks good. :)
 
I've combined two patterns from a set for this shawl: Camping and Gull Wings. Stitch count calculations for the pattern transitions can be found on my Ravelry project page. In fact, I could happily knit an entire shawl in the Slanting Twigs chart, that curvy section in the middle... Love the look, it's a bit unusual with its asymmetry.


The above picture shows the colours exactly as they are, no enhancement. Amazing! The impression is a bit calmer in general, because of the airy pattern and light reflective quality of the silk. Mainly golden and silvery, with spots of bronze and blue. Some colour pooling issues in parts of the Gull Wings section, but not too bad. Pretty much exactly half a skein used, so she weighs next to nothing (~50g). And it means that I actually have enough yarn for another shawl! What to knit, what to knit..... :) :)


Thursday, March 6, 2014

More flowers! More flowers!

 I haven't shown you this one before, have I? I honestly have no idea. Well, it can't do any harm to show it again, because I like it. Really simple design, just a bunch of flowers along the diagonal. The trick is to obtain a certain amount of balance in size and colour. Some washi tape was added first, and when the flowers were stuck on I went to town with beads, rhinestones and Liquid Pearl. Too much? Nope! I love it. :) Those details prevent the card from becoming too boring...


Saturday, March 1, 2014

Love you, mom!

After my friend's step mother had her card, it was time for her mother to get one. Now, I swear I didn't set out to make this one prettier, but I was clearly having a better day when I made this one. Also, it has been photographed with a proper camera in decent light, which makes a world of difference when it comes to image quality. I raised the centre mat with 3D glue, and some Molding Paste and a mask creates an additional three-dimensional element. The sentiment is "Love you, mom!"