Silver Soldering

Last weekend I got to do something incredibly fun.  I took a soldering class at a local bead store. 

The class was exhausting,  tt went from 10:30am 'til 5:00pm.  The funny thing is, I don't have much to show for it:

This was all we accomplished in 7ish hours.  Doesn't look like much does it?  Of course, we started with plain sterling silver wire and got all these different effects with just a hammer and a blow torch, so I suppose that's not too bad.  The teacher has been doing this professionally for about 25 years and learned from an exacting German jeweler. 

The rings above will eventually be put together into a necklace or bracelet, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Now,  I have to go now and finish up a Medusa costume for a Halloween party at my son's school tonight,  You guys have a great weekend!

I Won A Prize!

A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to win a contest over on the My Little Slice of Pie blog.  Well, it came in the mail a couple of days ago and I haven't been able to show you until now:

It's a Tote Bag!

Click to enlarge

Now, I hesitate to call this cute, but not for the reason you think.  Adorable and fabulous are better words, as well as the word, HUGE.  Not only is this tote wonderfully made with great fabrics, but I could fit a small child into it.  Here's another pic to show the size:

Here's the 9 lb. Chinese Crested Powderpuff that desperately needs a bath with the bag. See, here's where the word cute gets its proper place.  Cute is small, not huge, kinda like the dog above.   I could put at least four of her in it!  (But I won't, cause she's dirty and would mess up my pretty new bag.)  This bag is beyond cute, it's huge!  You should see this sucker opened up, you really should.

This is a very generous prize and I'm thrilled with it!  I've walked all over the house planning what to put in it. This will more than be enough for a large sweater project bag and tomorrow I'll show you the project that's going to get stuffed into it.

Thanks so much Sabrina, I love it!

One Day Beret

The One Day Beret, by Kirsten Kapur, is now finished, though it's not blocked.  It took a total of about four hours to complete.  Maybe.  It's difficult to tell when you're starting and stopping over and over.  Taking pictures of it by myself was much more difficult. 

But I did get a shot where you can see both front and back:

Told you I look like a dork when I wear hats on top of my curly hair:

Sorry for the godawful pics.  They're not very sharp.  Best I could do in a tiny bathroom on a cloudy day with poor lighting.  Self photos are not my strong suit anyway.  But don't you like the towel rack in the background of the second shot?  I should win an award for creative backgrounds, really.

Not the Best Day

It's been an utterly frustrating day.  We found out today that the hubby has been given his two weeks notice which is, frankly, terrifying.

In the not quite so bad category, but still frustrating.  I ran out of yellow yarn for my son's Quidditch Sweater.  I only need about six more rows worth of it too.  I am now pleading with various and sundry people on Ravelry for their leftover yarn, but I think I'm going to have to suck it up and purchase another skein to be able to finish this sweater. I am about 95% finished with the sweater and it's now come to a halt.

Better news, I started a different knitting project to fill in the time.  This is a slouchy beret that is being made from my own handspun yarn:

This was spun from fiber that I dyed with Kool-Aid and then mixed using my homemade hackle.  I love the coral and turquoise in the yarn.  The only problem with this hat is that in order to wear it I'll have to start straightening my hair again.  Curly hair has memory.  What ever shape you put it in, it keeps.  So when my hat makes hat hair.  It's there until I wash it out.  It also sticks out in about a billion directions from under the hat.  It's not particularly attractive.  I'll have to take a picture and show you sometime.

So, that's it for today.  It could have been better.