Birthday bracelet

Spent a lovely day with my longtime friend Bug. She patiently read a magazine while I got my teeth cleaned (living in the boonies + snowstorm = you have to be efficient about your trips into town). We hit up a yarn store where she picked up some Estelle Frill Seeker to knit her very first scarf. Yay Bug! Visited a tea store. Ate an unhealthy lunch. And then back home to sip some new tea, chat and knit. Now that's friendship.

And she gave my an (early) birthday present. A gorgeous Swarovski crystal bracelet she made for me. You can probably tell by the colour :) Beading is one hobby I've managed to not pick up (so far), but Bug does amazing things with it.

Such a delight to be gifted with a beautiful piece of her work.

Check out a closeup:

Of course it had to travel home with her for some adjustments. Totally my fault. When she asked for my wrist measurement I used my second-best measuring tape (my good one appears to have disappeared with those blasted pattern instructions)....and thought my wrist measurement was 8". I thought it seemed rather large, but trusted the tape. Then the made-to-size bracelet turned out to be far too large:

Apparently the 6 and the 8 look very similar on my now-deemed-evil measuring tape.

Doh.

Sorry for the extra work Bug!

Fabulous scarf for a fabulous friend

Finished a birthday gift for a friend last night - only 9 months late! I really don't have any excuse, these types of scarves knit up stupid fast. I was just intimidated by this particular type of mesh, which is a fair bit finer than what I normally use (Katia Triana). Turned out not to be a terrible experience once I got the right needle size and tweaked the pattern. Don't think I'm going to make another anytime soon though.

In my excitement to give the scare to my very patient friend, I totally forgot to take a picture for this post. Silly me, not looking out for good blog opportunities 24/7.

Leftover yarn to the rescue!

Made a quick scale-model scarf this morning, worn by the surprisingly tolerant Nicnic.

Yarn: Estelle Frill Seeker
Colourway: 701 (such uncreative nomenclature)
Pattern: I started with the free pattern recommended by Estelle, but found it too dense. After some Ravelry-browsing  and examining a similar scarf my grandmother has, I modified the pattern to 7 knit stitches across instead of 9, and increased the distance between each stitch to 2-ish-inches. (The model scarf pictured is only 3 stitches across). This makes it more flowing and frillier.

The last Christmas present

Shortly after Christmas Heather mentioned needing to finish making my gift because I had "already ruined one part of it" and was on my way to ruining the second. Needless to say, I was puzzled since I hadn't been making anything for myself that I could remember. And felt a bit guilty at having accidentally participated in the "ruining" of anything. I'm only a destructive person in video games. But Heather didn't seem genuinely upset with me, so I didn't worry. Much.

Then it was in the mail! Squee!

I stalked the post office daily. Have I mentioned I love getting packages?

Then it arrived and I had the biggest grin preparing to open the padded envelope. She made me a gorgeous holder for crochet hooks. I'm so blown away and touched that she considered me a sew-worthy friend. Crochet is a very new hobby for me (I picked it up accidentally in December) so aside from a set of hooks, and stitch markers bummed off my grandmother, I really have no crochet "stuff" to speak of.

A little tour:

It is long, with tons of room for more hooks, and adorable little pockets for notions. She knows my favorite colours almost better than I do.

I apparently ruined part of the present by going out and buying a basic set of hooks before Christmas - in my defense they weren't on my Christmas list and I'm not at all used to anyone in my life thinking to get my crafty supplies unless I specifically and repeatedly ask.

Personally I don't think the present was ruined at all.

She tucked all kinds of useful notions in the pockets. I'm particularly enchanted with the large grey needles with the loops - they look so useful for sewing in the tails of bulky yarns.

The entire thing is beautifully made, far better than I would have done.

I'll be putting that claim to the test soon. Like the awesome enabling friend she is, Heather included the rest of the fabric in the envelope. So of course now I need to make a matching holder for my knitting needles.

Post Script

In getting the lovely model to pose for the picture we heard a clatter as one of the hooks fell out. It's large and purple and shiny and didn't sound like it fell far so we finished with the photo shoot before beginning to search. Well now we can't find it anywhere, and it's in a pretty uncluttered room. We've hunted high and low - nothing. It's not like looking for a needle in a haystack; it's a freaking purple crochet hook on a floor.

And then there were 7....

An unexpected gift

My grandmother is one of my favorite people in the world and an amazingly crafty woman, particularly when it comes to knitting. She is incredibly generous with both her time and tools. We were over visiting earlier this week and she was helping me make some decisions about a knitting project I'm working on. We determined I was using the wrong needles, and she dashes upstairs to her stash to find me better ones, and also comes down and quietly hands me a pouch with this guy tucked inside.

Her MP Handy Guide. Bought in the 1950s when she was a new bride learning to knit (her first pair of socks came up to her husbands thighs...thankfully she has improved since then).

Talk about a touching gift, from one generation of crafter to another.

Some more pics:

I love how you can tell that she used the "rows" and "times" counters a lot and the "increase" almost never.

Handy dandy ruler on the bottom. This thing it mostly metal with a beautiful weight to it. I love things from a different era, before scads of cheapo plastic products.

The instructions on the back, too faded to easily read. But for the curious, Wikipedia to the rescue!! Scroll down a bit to find this guy, and the instructions are part of the article.

Awesome grandmother is awesome and am so touched that she considers me knit-worthy. I also came home with a pair of socks from that visit :) She is going to teach me how to make them soon; I look forward to spending the time together more than learning a new knitting skill.