Weekend show stuff/Cool knitting stuff

Okay, I've been busting my rump to get stuff ready for Saturday and here is just a taste of the goodies in store if you wish to come and buy my stuff and support not only a local artist, but an awesome locally owned shop (Tempe Yarn and Fiber... I'll be there this Saturday from 12-4 with cool stuff and a neat demo).

Here's a pair of earrings (all fine silver, carved onyx beads) and a pair of bracelets that I made recently. The bracelets are the first two in what I hope will be a long line of stitch/row counting charm bracelets. Sometimes as you knit, you're asked to repeat a certain number of rows a certain number of times. I don't like to mark up my patterns/books a lot because if I want to make the thing again it's hard to discern between my two sets of markings. So these bracelets are all fine silver (the chain made by me, link by link, the clasp and the headpins the beads are on--all me!) except for the hooks which are made by me, but out of sterling silver instead of fine because the sterling has a bit of spring to it and will let the hooks stay formed longer. If they ever do loosen a bit, it's really easy to just squeeze them closed again. Anyway... the idea is that as you knit, you can move one charm along one side to count rows and one charm along the other side to count repeats. That way you don't have to mark up your pattern. ^_^ And they're GORGEOUS. So, yeah. You know you want one.


Here are other bracelets I made in the last couple of days for the weekend. I really love these. From left to right: Another bracelet inspired by my pwoosha son, Thad (he had made me a bracelet when he was 5 for Mother's Day... I gave him free reign in my beads and he picked only Swarovski crystals and bali silver [good boy!], but he mixed them all up so freely and used all kinds of colors and shapes, and it all looked so good and that bracelet goes with everything and I still get compliments on it.), with various Swarovski crystal beads; black onyx and fine silver; Swarovski and fine silver; Swarovski again and fine silver; and amazonite and fine silver... All of these bracelets, again, are made by me 100%, every link, every clasp, and every bit of awesome. LoL. I LOVE these.


And Barbara let me borrow one of her spinning wheels. Yay! Here's the first test yarn I spun on it to get used to the wheel. I love it even though it's just plain red without fancy colors or anything.


Here is my second Malabrigo sock almost finished....


Here's the most artsy photo I took of my completed glorious socks on my feets:


I just bought more Malabrigo today to make socks for my sweet husband who is my favorite person on this earth. $20 for a skein of yarn and SO totally worth it. I laugh at myself... if I tried to describe Malabrigo to a non-knitter, the first thing that comes to mind is, "It's like the cashmere of wool yarns." LoL. I guess it gets the idea across. Until that person gets to paw some real cashmere. *sigh* If only cashmere socks were able to stand up to wear. I wonder if I could knit myself a pair of cashmere socks and just sleep in them or something. Something to ponder... Now those would be expensive.