Pearl Sticken - Gollar Done!

Whew! Spent the last couple weeks putting the final finishing touches on the gollar and developing a section for our website showing all the Pearl Sticken projects with research notes (visit http://www.bayrose.org click on the Pearl Embroidery link). The gollar has been quite the labor of love as you will see.

I have known for quite awhile that I can't just recreate something. I can't do someone else's pattern or project. If I am going to do needlework, it needs to be a creative experience for me. Once I got past the hurdle of re-creating the gollar in the portrait, the project worked for me.

For the most part, I kept the elements of the portrait gollar. The key difference is that I changed the lower wide band from geometric to one that was a floral. It is my Poppy gollar. As a member of the Order of the Golden Poppy, I can wear a wreath of poppies - this is mine :)

The gollar is heavy, but the weight distributes well enough to wear comfortably. It fits me better than the mannequin and I can do up the center hooks to "close" it as shown in the portrait.

It will have its first official outing this weekend at Purgatorio. I will take pics to post then. It is all about the setting and I'll have on the right outfit to show case the gollar.

Hope you enjoy the eye candy.

Temari

Toward the end of last year, I had the opportunity to take a workshop class on very beginning temari. The ball on the right is the result. And I was hooked! Bought rice hulls and began looking at temarikai.com and several books. Even began making balls for decorating.

Then this spring Shining Needle Society announced an online course with Barbara Seuss (www.japanesetemari.com). The instructions and pics were online and it came with a kit of materials for making the class ball and 2 companion balls. Finally finished the class ball (ball on left). GREAT class! The project really walks you through lots of the beginning designs and concepts. I will do the challenge pieces - eventually - when time permits.

I have also signed up for the EGA Correspondence Course with Barb. It was last months online group course (your group is all the people who sign up with you online and the group fee is waived). The instruction folder has arrived. Let the wrapping begin!

Small Wins

At the West An Tir War over July 4th weekend I took a class in patterned knitting from Christian . I have knitted a bit as a child and a few years ago picked it back up. I don't do a lot, but have been trying to advance my skills with small steps and classes. Christian agreed that I could do the intermediate patterns so here is the result.

It still needs to have the different yarn ends worked in, the drawstring braided and put in, the handle woven and attached, and the tassels put on the bottom BUT the knitting is done! I'm addicted! It was lots of fun and quite transportable. I could do small portions at a time, which with my current schedule is very important.

Lessons learned with this project:
- when casting on go over 2 sets of needles - the ones you are using and another which is removed but makes for a bigger stitch to start
- small balls of yarn work well - use a half hitch to hold the ball so not too much is running around. Using this method, I could and did have 5 different yarns running around the bag. It also allowed me to let them untwist/tangle as needed.
- how to do a simple bind off
- how to do a 3 needle bind off -- the instructions, photos and video from knittinghelp.com were great! Having started with the enlarged stitches, it was easy to insert the needles into the starting stitches and do the bind off for the bottom.

Knitting will not take over my life, but I am a fiber geek and letting myself play with fiber makes me happy.