Tag Archives: beaded scarf

The Designing Day

10,000th Design Competition finalist Dragonfly Dreams – please vote

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I am thrilled that my new beaded lace scarf design Dragonfly Dreams is a finalist in the Patternfish 10,000th Design Competition announced in the November 2011 Patternfish Newsletter that just went out today. The winner will be chosen by popular vote. I’d love for you to vote for my design if you like it. 🙂

Dragonfly Dreams
Dragonfly Dreams

I knit the scarf in Buffalo Gold Lux color Malachite. For beads, I used Miyuki colors #18 Silver-lined Light Blue (dragonfly wings and scarf border) and #234 Metallic Gold-lined Crystal (dragonfly bodies).

Dragonfly Dreams beaded lace scarf

 This has been one of my more challenging designs to render. I am pleased with the vision finally coming together. I had actually started playing around with possibilities early this year. Then I’d hit a design block or just wasn’t quite happy yet with what I had. When Patternfish announced their 10,000’th Design Competition, this gave me the motivation (and deadline date!) to tackle this design again.

detail close-up of Dragonfly Dreams
detail close-up of Dragonfly Dreams

I am so pleased to be selected as one of the finalists. I’d love it if you’d take a moment to vote for Dragonfly Dreams to be the winner. Voting closes Nov. 18, 2011 EST. Let me know if you have any questions.

p.s. Please feel free to share this with anyone else you can think might be interested in helping me out. The more votes the better. 🙂 Thanks again!

 

 

 

 

 

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The Designing Day

What is it becoming? Crystal Palace Sausalito

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This is the second installment of the series that began with What will it become? … The next logical question is What is it becoming? So let’s start off again with the Crystal Palace Sausalito yarn. If you missed the beginning of this series, it is here.

I am loving the Sausalito!

I had wanted to say that I am having a ball with the Sausalito, but actually I am having 2 balls of fun. That is because I have 2 balls in the Monet colorway that are being turned into the sample model for a new beaded scarf design.

In the design for this yarn, here are the goals I am focusing on —

  • textured knit and purl for pleasing reversibility
  • undulating movement of color (to emphasize the long runs of color in this yarn)
  • self-shaping edges (no hard lines here; just more movement against negative space)
  • and of course beads, but they will just be accents here and there to add to the interest, rather than detract from the flowing colors of the yarn

Sausalito yarn

Remember the beads that I was considering last time? I decided on the #430 Miyuki blue-lined white ceylon beads. It’s always a difficult choice. The blue-lined white and the #592 ivory ceylon were my finalists. I felt the Monet color together with this stitch pattern and the plan to have occasional bead accents (rather than an all-over beaded pattern) required contrast. Either of the finalists would have worked out equally well. But that subtle blue won out this time. Maybe on another day, the ivory ceylon would have been the winner.

Testing beads against yarn

And I did tell you that I’d give you a peek into what the yarn is becoming.

 

Sneak peek of in-progress beaded scarf in progress
Sneak peek of in-progress beaded scarf in progress

This project is hard to put down because of looking forward to the next new color to come up. That always makes the knitting go faster for me. Does it for you?

 

 

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The Designing Day

What will it become? designing with Crystal Palace Sausalito

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The days on the calendar are ticking by faster than ever, and I have lots to do in preparation for the June TNNA Show. That means that I really should be designing and knitting rather than blogging, but it’s important to share what’s happening here at the HeartStrings studio. So I am starting a blog mini-series around the theme of “New Yarns — New Designs to Come“.

The first round of posts will introduce the yarns I will be working with for soon-to-be new designs and sample models. I won’t be following any set order of yarn introductions … it mostly will come about in the order that I have photos ready and have gotten around to writing up the post. After the introductory posts, then I will continue with follow-up posts as I progress through the process of designing and knitting each of the yarns … or at least that is my plan. Throughout the series, I hope you enjoy taking a peek into what goes on during the designing day.

So come on in to the studio to see the yarns with me and let’s talk about what they might become. I have some design concepts and goals I’ve already talked over with each of the company owners of these yarns, but of course I’d love to get feedback on your ideas and what you like, too.

First up is Crystal Palaces’s new yarn called Sausalito. It is a machine washable 80% Merino wool / 20% nylon fingering weight yarn. Each 50 gram ball is 198 yards / 181 meters. Here it is in the Monet color. I really like the melding of the colors in this 2-ply yarn. Oh, and did I mention that it is luscious feeling — I wish you were actually here to pet it.

 

Crystal Palace Sausalito in color Monet
Crystal Palace Sausalito in color Monet

With the 2 balls of yarn, I plan a beaded scarf. So the next on the list to do is to decide on the beads I will use. This picture shows the colors that I have narrowed down to consider.

 

Beads: the semi-finalists
Beads: the semi-finalists

Since the yarn is already variegated in color, I’ve ruled out using more than one bead color (there is a coming design in another yarn that will use two bead colors, though, so watch for that coming up soon).

locksmiths locator 

 

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