London

I'm leaving for London for the beadweaving course at Missenden Abbey. Unless there's a good sale somewhere I don't plan on buying anything! However, I will be checking out the bookstores, beadstores and the few yarn sections around. Last time the yarn dept at Liberty had been placed in a hallway with minimal lighting! John Lewis usually has some good tools and I'm looking for more of the afghan hooks in plastic.

I thought until this morning that it was going to be pretty awful in London as my travel agent booked me into a hotel far away from everything and with no air conditioning. I hit the ceiling, which is very rare for me, so she found another one in an excellent location but still no air cond. So again I was upset and this time I told her I would cancel the whole deal at which point she told me I'd lose $100. Anyway, I calmed down and had a good night's sleep and this morning she called to say the hotel is now across the street and has good air cond but still t he first night is at the other hotel. However, she was hopeful that it might get changed before the flight.

Knitting: yes, I have finally finished the Topping fairisle vest and it is gorgeous. However, since there is steek sewing up and hem sewing up to do, no picture until I come back and finish that. The colors are great. Mostly pastels with a few dark ones like #82, a dark green. The pattern was an allover quite easy to do but not boring. There were a few minor errors but the designer is very fussy and I learned quite a few new tricks from doing this vest. If I ever make it again, I think I'll go for the next larger size as this one came out tighter in tension than my usual one.

So now I am working on summer stuff although I do have this fairisle scarf to finish this summer. My biggest problem about packing is what to take to knit or crochet. Since weight is a problem, I think the only thing I can take is about 4 balls of sock yarn in cotton and a crochet top to finish, also in cotton. I have vowed not to open my pocketbook, but knowing me that is a rather meaningless vow as any sale and all of that goes out the window which is why I need to have room in the suitcase for yarns. Beads can go carryon as they take no room and weigh a lot. Books not at all. I plan to look at books all over, and just write down the titles I want and order them later. with the odd exception of course. There's this Italian knitting magazine I see sometimes in London called Susanna. That one I'll buy if it's there. There's this big kiosk on the way to Covent Garden and that's where it is found.

I won't get to Harrods or the V&A on this trip. My foot seems good now, but I'm not taking public transportation and I can't walk that far either. I also won't be visiting an interesting bookseller who has some Hungarian embroidery books to sell.

So everyone be good until I return.

RAW one more time

My instructions for the second row of single needle RAW or right angle weave bead stitch which is based on those from http://www.bead-patterns.com

Step one: Start by entering the bottom bead at the far right on the first row. Bead is labeled #1. Head in a direction from right to left ------------> or clockwise.
Pick up 3 beads (2,3, and 4) and go back into the top bead again from right to left
R----------->L
Then go through the 3 new beads one more time. The thread is now exiting from the top of the last bead on the left. In diagram the first time is done in red and the second in blue.

Step two: Go through the top bead (bead one) of the first row which is now to the left of the first set and going from left to right R <--------------L
Pick up two new beads and go into the left bead you made in step one, back through this set's top bead and finish with bead on left side (first one of the two new ones). Direction is counterclockwise and the thread now exits the left bead from the bottom. In diagram the thread in green begins the movement and the orange thread shows the progression.

Step three: Pick up two new beads and go through the top bead of previous row on the left of the last set. Enter it from the right and go to the left R------------->L
Go around ending again on the left bead. Thread now exits from top of this bead. The direction you went was clockwise.

Repeat steps two and three until you reach the end of the beads from the first row.

RAW struggles on

I've made two bracelets (see below) with the right angle weave stitch known by its initials as RAW. This is a really lovely stitch as it goes around to 4 points of a square connecting them up and being able to go off in all directions to make lots of items not necessarily jewelry. There are various techniques but the one I'm concentrating on is the one needle method. The best instructions online were at www.bead-patterns.com but I decided they were not clear although I know they have checked it again so by now it should be just fine. Anyway, above is my own set of instructions for the second row as the first row is no problem.

Corrected motif

When I looked at the photo I added here yesterday I realized there were quite a few mistakes and then I started looking through all my patterns to see if I could find the motif. I couldn't. So either it exists somewhere or Traci created it as an original. Anyway, it belongs to the category of granny squares. I have now done it the right way and it is moving along quite fast. It's very easy to make the tunic larger or smaller so I'm waiting for my daughter to tell me if she'd like it. I decided to leave the picture from yesterday to show the difference between the right way and the wrong way. Here is the corrected motif:

Brown sheep tunic crocheted

This tunic is in the spring, summer 2005 issue of Easy knitting. # 18 by Traci Bunkers in Brown Sheep Cotton fleece which is 80% cotton and 20% wool and very pricey. I have a lot of leftovers from other projects in my stash which has been sitting around for a few years and this seems like a great project to use some of it up. I really do love the tunic in the original colors but I can't see buying more with what I've got.
Anyway, I'm using the H hook which is called for but doing the smaller size which gets me the medium size. I'm not sure about the green color though. This is a granny square variation and it's a nice project for taking along, but probably not taking along to England as I don't want a weight problem.

Topping

RAW 

topping fairisle

I put Luskentyre away for now after completing the body and neck and deciding it's for me. Just too hot to do the sleeves now. So then I got to work on a fairisle from Candace Strick's first book with Harrisville yarns: her scroll one. It's gorgeous but again way too warm so that went back to the closet. So I'm working still on a vest by Marion Topping in J&S and I have gotten about 11" so far which is about halfway. I find early in the day is the best time to work on it.

For cottons I pulled out something I bought from Irene York years ago and I am happy that it is already 3/4 done. It's a modular top with a lot of ribbon yarns which are just awful to sew in. I have way too many modular stuff in my stash and while it's fun to do, it's all a real effort to sew in all the ends even when I'm able to weave them in while knitting. I still like to sew in a bit anyway especially when it's ribbon.

So beadweaving class is now 2 weeks away and I am really excited. I'm trying to make more jewelry and here are two samples using variations of the Right angle weave stitch or RAW.