Oops! Oh well, too late now

I have started on the gerbera daisies, which are just like the sunflower, only smaller. So since it has been at least a week since I did the sunflower, I was working my way slowly through the instructions for the daisies when I discovered I made a mistake on the sunflower. Each petal was supposed to be twice as long and folded over to make two separate petals. I missed that part that said "repeat between *s." Oh well, I can't go back and redo them. I think they look cute anyway. My sunflower must be a different variety than the ones shown in the pattern.

The daisies are knit in the round on double pointed needles. I'm a little ashamed to admit that, although I have been knitting at least 45 years, I have never done that. So far, so good. Next post should include a photo of how this all turned out, with the petals done correctly this time.

Here Comes the Sun-flower

One more flower complete in my series for Amy's shop. Here is the unfelted flower, front and back. And the completed flower with leaves. This is one of my favorites so far.

Around and around and around she goes

This is the sunflower that I am working on. I've finished the calla lilies and the tiger lilies. I'm really glad I am doing this style flower last. (There are 4 gerbera daisies to do too. They are just the same, only smaller). If I had started with this one, I might have gotten discouraged. This one is a challenge. You can see from the picture that I've got the circular needle thing going as well as double pointed needles. There's increasing and decreasing and turning and folding and tacking for each petal. The petal in process has been formed, and now I will fold it back down to the circular part and knit/tack it into place, slightly staggered from its original base. Now that I am on the 6th petal, I've got the process down so that I don't have to keep going back to the instructions and saying, "What the heck do I do next?" Don't get me wrong. This is all kind of fun and definitely not boring, just a challenge. It is not for beginners.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

I got the tiger lily all wired up. It wasn't easy, and the instructions were not clear. After some experience, I figured out what I needed to do. The same problem with the brown yarn on the stamens. Trial and error solved the problem. But once done, the lily looks pretty darn good. I have another ready to be wired, but I wanted to post this one while I was in the mood. I still have two leaves to felt and wire up. I have started on the sunflower. Tune in next time for an update.

Valetine's Day Post

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

I think I figured out how to move the results of a quiz from the quiz site to my blog. The above list is what my candy heart would say.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

I'm working away on the felted flowers for Amy's shop. I just have to get the Tiger Lilies wired, and then I'll get them on here for all to see.

Finished!

Here are the completed calla lilies. To be honest, the finishing was not a lot of fun, maybe worse than weaving in ends. First of all, the threading of the florist wire through the stems was pretty hard. On the next set of flowers I will use a half inch ribbon instead of a quarter inch ribbon. Or maybe even some cording. That should improve that threading process a lot. (They should have given a specific recommendation about that). Then the sewing of the wire into the flowers and leaves was challenging too. But I really like the outcome. By the time I've done two more kits (6 or 7 more flowers and 4 or 5 more leaves) I'll be an expert and it will probably be a breeze.

Shoulda said so

For those of you who asked, the calla lilies are a kit by Pick Up Sticks! I do believe Amy will be carrying them in her shop. I have two more kits to do. I have started on the tiger lilies and next will be the sunflowers and gerbena daisies. They are a quick knit, but a little complicated. They are in the moderate skill level. It was really fun seeing the shaping and color-blending progress. A couple of places I had to change colors in the middle of an increase, which sounds harder than it is. The great thing is that, since these are felted, any little mistake is no big deal. No one will ever know.

Shrinking lilies not violets

This morning I felted the calla lilies that I knit for Amy's shop . It is so exciting and a little scary to throw your creations into the washing machine. I think they turned out well. Since I still haven't figured out how to post pictures in the order I want, these may be out of sequence, but you get the idea.

The ribbons that you see peeking out of the felted ones are there to keep an open tube up the stems so I can put a wire through them. Once they are dry and wired up, I will post a photo of the finished product. Then on to the other two sets of flowers.