Viking knitting, band aids, and roses.

Monday was good - went to Williamsburg for my lace group meeting. We did Viking Knitting, we had all taken the same class (although we did not know each other at the time) three years ago but none of us had done it since then. It is done on a dowel or hex wrench. The tape at the end just holds the wire on. When finished you pull it through a hole in a dowel in everything evens out. Once you get the first couple of rows done it is easy. Check out page 2 of this link and see the end results http://www.fineartbyrocio.com/vikingknitdirections.html
Late afternoon I went to Glitz and Tommy gave me a great haircut - 3" off feels so good.

Tuesday - this is where the week started to go downhill - if I picked it up I dropped, spilled it or broke it. Not exactly the day I was looking forward to getting blood work done.... but I went to Labcorp (read that as vampire center) on Midlothian signed in and started reading a Janet Evanovitch. About 70 pages later (and trying not to laugh out loud) I looked around and everyone was still there. 2:30pm, an hour later and no one had left the waiting room - there was only one technician. Now I have really tiny veins so I decided by the time it was my turn that would be one grumpy technician so I checked out. I went across town to pick up a piece of glass I ordered and decided to try the the location on Forest Avenue. I only waited only a few minutes and and everyone was pleasant - the technician had "the hand" because I did not even feel the pinch of the needle going in. If you need blood drawn go there. I started to get a migraine on the way home as the barometer was dropping for the evening thunderstorm. I decided to make something to go in the kiln but wound up with 3 band aids from glass cuts. I did not make it to TNK.

Yesterday got better after playing in the garden and cutting roses to bring in I put the designs elements on a plate I had fused and experimented with a new firing schedule so that it would remain 3 dimensional - took it out this morning - success! Here it is - I need to take a better picture but I want to get started priming the hall wall. Wish you could smell the roses.

Nancy sent me a picture of a windchime she is working on - there is a caterpillar on the leaf but I can't see it in the picture. Today she is having a root canal but is here on Friday for a weekend of "fusing fun."

Busy weekend,shawl almost done & scary glass

I am almost finished with the Prayer Shawl - I got all the rows finished on our trip Sunday (more about that below) and last night Patsy showed me the magic to create the fringe. I'm almost done.

We started off the weekend early by going to the Greek Festival on Thursday evening - good food and we always see people we haven't seen in a while. Friday afternoon I drove to Chapel Hill where I met up with 3 of my bobbin lacing friends with whom I went to the NCRL Spring Lace Day on Saturday. We stayed at a hotel in Graham, NC and ate dinner on the patio of a local restaurant in the tiny downtown. Saturday we drove into Chapel Hill for lace day - it was fun. I bought bobbins from my favorite vendors, a wooden one from Richard Worthen and from Susan Wenzel (aka Lacy Susan) a lovely carved bone and a glass one, which I will need to spangle with beads. Aren't they pretty?

On Sunday Gerald and I went to the Chrysler Musuem to view more of the art of glass exhibit, we got there late and they gave us a discount so we plan to return on Friday. There is an entire room of the works by an artist from Italy, Lino Tagliapetra who at 74 is still creating incredible works of art. http://http//www.linotagliapietra.com/ but pictures do not even begin to do his work justice.

Some of the glass I made during the week - I have more but have not taken pictures.

Blues and greens: I really like dichroic glass and my favorite combinations are blues, greens and purples followed my the red, orange and golds. It was the first that I played with last week. Dicro is difficult to photograph because it reflects ligth every which way, but that is why it is so nice to wear.

It is only one pair of earrings but I took pics at diffrent camera angles. The center is blues and purples.

After making the shawl pin for Cathy I got on a pink binge and made a few pendants then since I put blue stringer in one of the pendants I was going to make earrings to match but that blue and green thing I have took over. I have been trying different ways to make the jewelry look good in phots and used a milk glass dish that belonged to my mother but I think I need to arrange the beans better if I want to use it. I like black beans because they do not create more of a reflection..and they make great soup too.

What was I thinking! I really really want to like frit - it is so pretty in jars and bags but just does not work when I use it. I could see them as buttons on some voodoo doll.

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.

Bobbin Lace and Flowers

Although I only like sunny days I do appreciate what the rain does for my garden. I truly believe the drops that are heaven sent do so much more than anything out of a garden hose. The first two picturs are iris' that came from my father's garden. The last iris and the rose garden (well one section of the rose garden) is compliments of my husband, Gerald who has put in many many hours making this my special area and I really do appreciate it.

I have not done much bobbin lacing for quite a while and on Monday I went to Williamsbug to join a goup that meets monthly. I reconnected with two ladies - that I had not seen in quite some time. Carolyn(at whose home we met) and I used to take classes with LacySusan aka Susan Wenzel who makes beautiful lace so fast that her hands are a blur of bobbins and thread. The other lady looked so familiar when I met her on Monday - turns out were in my first lampworking bead class that we took at a bobbin lace convention in Pennsylvania several years ago. I had a wonderful time and half finished a very simple bookmark. Here are pictures of my pillow before and after class. .....I only took up bobbin lace to collect pretty bobbins. The ones on this pillow are mostly carved bone and blown glass.

Art of Glass 2 Exhibit - a must see!

On Friday we went to the Suffolk Cultural Arts Center to one of the Artof glass 2 exhibits, http://www.artofglass2.com/, which is now in several locations across the tidewater area. On display are works of art by well known glass artists. Neil Duman, who is an internationally recognized artist living and working here in Richmond, was outside demonstrating with his portable furnace. He was so down to earth and when he handed me the punty rod with a gather of molten glass, to hold for a few minutes I was hooked and am now anxious to take some classes in yet another form of glass art. The best news - Gerald is even more exicted than I am about it. Here are a few of the pictures. Oh, that blob turned into an incredible vase.

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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