Yeah, finally made it to TNK - Tuesday knit night after way too many weeks. Had a very relaxing time and got several rows done on my feather and fan.

In March my sister and I did a weekend show in Virginia Beach and on Mother's Day weekend Gerald and I did the Gosport Arts Festival in Portsmouth.....pictures below. I really love my new kiln because we can make larger pieces.

Gerald and I have also been taking a lampwork bead class from Brad Pearson who is the most amazing lampwork artist and a great teacher. I'm now saving up to go from my Hothead torch to a minor burner (it uses both oxygen and propane). The good thing about Gerald taking the class is he no longer warns me not to burn down the house! I'll get some pictures of our beads on another post.

                        Virginia Beach Spring Market

Great show people were lined up around the convention center before the show opened. Packup was so easy - only brought home 7 pieces!

       Gosport Art Festival - Old Towne Portsmouth:

Mother's Day weekend, the weather was perfect Saturday. Sunday early showers but cleared shortly after the show opened. The sponsors put on a amazing dinner for the artists, they treated us like royalty......then we had to return to reality on Monday.

 

Feather and Fan

I did not think it possible that I would ever knit lace but, with the help of my knitting friends at TNK, I ventured there and am making progress. Everyone told me this was a simple/basic pattern that would be easy to learn - I had my doubts but it is coming along and I've memorized the pattern.

Weekend Craft Fair

It was a great weekend - first of all my sister Nancy was here which always guarantees fun.

My knitting guild, the River City Knitters , had a Craft and Art Fair for this months meeting. It's always great to see people enthusiastic about what we do and since these customers are our friends we'll have the opporutnity of seeing them wear our creations.

We really appreciate all the hard work our friend Cathy did of putting this show together - she did an amazing job.

Myrtle Beach - 3 days away

We will be heading to Myrtle Beach on Thursday to visit my father-in-law and we're taking our Winnebago and staying at the Myrtle Beach RV park. It is right on the ocean and under a mile from a campground we used to camp at when we were kids, which has the longest fishing pier on the East Coast - more about that later.

Last weekend Gerald washed and waxed her and she is all pretty and shiny. Yesterday afternoon we packed linens, made the bed and cleaned out and rearranged the outside compartments- we had a lot of things we never used and everything is now more efficient.

This will be our first trip since our new floor was put in, now the only carpet is under the slide and in the drivers part of the cabin.

I plan to knit on the way down. I would like to finish my Daria purse, http://www.ravelry.com/projects/christinak/daria-purse, on this trip - I already packed it up. I know I won't knit a lot while I am there or at least until after the sun sets because if the sun is out and it is warm or hot I will be outside.

I packed my fishing poles, too. I like to fish more than Gerald does but he keeps me company, takes the fish off the hook, cleans and cooks them - what more can a girl ask for?

8 More Rows, Beads and Raindrops on Roses

Every time I stop I know there are only 8 more rows to go but some imp must come and undo my work at night. I have been knitting this never ending shawl for my church group and hope to have it done soon. After a long winter I dug out my torch to make some glass beads -after not doing it for so long I was out of practice (see the good, bad and really bad below) but finally got back in the swing of it. I decided to put a topper on the end of a rather short silver shawl pin - now I normally use a rather long mandrel to lay the glass on and discovered that short piece of silver gets hot rather quickly.

I made this shawl pin for my good friend, Cathy, with these sticks. I hope she will let me know how they work out - especially the one with a lot of glass on it. If it is too heavy it can always be stuck in a potted plant or the garden!

Here are the pictures of the good, bad and really bad

When I waved my DH off to work I noticed the raindrops on my very best favorite rose that is just outside my dining room window. Mirandy is the most fragrant flower that faithfully blooms in a spot where no rose should be expected to even survive - it is in the shade most of the time. One flower will scent the entire room.

Row Counters

My sister and I made some neat row counters that can be clipped onto anything. Nancy likes to clip them to the welt on her sofa cushions, I clip them on my sweater or knitting bag. Here are some of the picture. Send me an e-mail if you are interested in adding some of these to your gadget collection. They are made with very nice glass beads, with the exception of the Ultra-Lites at the bottom of the page. For more pictures and details visit my flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/20434219@N07/

Ultra-Lite collection:

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Knitting, painting, new glass success!

I did not make it to knit night due to a migrane(I really miss spending time with my TNK friends) but did get to knit with my prayer shawl group at church later in the week. I am almost done with the shawl and hope to get in done in the next two weeks, after the sale at Daisy Days, because I am ready for closure on this project. I will then finish another so nearly done piece - my Daria purse - I think I only have 2o inches of 6 stitch rows to complete the strap and then just need to sew it together.

I have been wanting to experiment with Spectrum 96 glass because they make such lovely vibrant tranparents. It fuses differently than COE90 that I use and is not compatible with the 90 so has to be stored separately. I had success with the larger piece but would like a crisper edge to the smaller ones. I will have to work on the firing schedule for pendant sizes but believe I nailed the large size on the first try! Here they are.

Today I am going to prime my dining room to repaint it. It is in need of fresh paint since it has been the old neutral, Navajo for about 13 years. We want to liven it up but having a hard time picking the color - the room faces the north and unlike the rest of the house gets only sun in the morning and the neutral looks so drab in the afternoon that I try to avoid coming in here. Ger has his vote in for yellow - good golly there are a zillion versions of yellow but as long as it does not scream at me and goes with the adjoining open kitchen which is turquoise (my favorite) I will glady go with it. I wonder what samples he will bring me tonight.

COOKING with GLASS !

I have have been away from my knitting needles this week but do have some FO's to show off. These are the pendants that I attached bails to yesterday.

This morning when I opened my little kiln this is what I saw. I hope you can see the little "fingers" on the snowman.

I also made some buttons. The bottom green one was an experiment using clear stringer. I wondered why on earth they put clear stringer in that package but decided to try it anyway. I was happy to see that it did not just fade away into the background. I like the results.

Next are some blue buttons. They are all from cut from the same sheet of glass. I think they would be pretty on a sweater. I bought the glass because it was the same color as my favorite car - it was a 1988 Nissan 300ZX. Oh my, I cannot tell you how many speeding tickets I got in it!

This last one did not turn out as I expected but I do love the tropical colors.

My week started off slow and I did not even make it to my Tuesday night knit group ( I always look forward to time spent with this group of friends)because I was a bit under the weather. Once the barometer went up and the sun came out my energy returned and I have spent time in my "studio", which is really the breakfast area that I turned into my sewing room. It is now my sewing room/glass studio. I love this little area with its five windows where I am drenched in sunshine and can at least pretend it is warm outside.....have I mentioned that I prefer 365 days of summer?