Exciting Wee Treasures coming in March.....

Happy Valentine's Day & Updates....

I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day~ I myself have never held it in that high regard, as I don't need any specific day to tell someone I love them....but I will have to admit, I loved the little Valentine's Day parties at school when I was little, giving, and getting those cute little cards in the wee little envelopes.....and my Grandma Brown had the most gorgeous decorated heart boxes up on the top shelf of the built in cabinet in her kitchen... I always oogled those. Well, this morning, when I got the children up for school, look what was waiting for me! Tressa made this for me, and good grief, I just couldn't be more touched, more honored and proud
She did such a good job! AND she kept it a secret??? I cant believe it, and I was so surprised!!!! She knows I don't eat candy, and my card read "these have zero calories Mom". I love this, and I think, besides my husband asking me to marry him 20 years ago today, I think this is the best present I have ever received for Valentine's Day! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will be having my little update on the TDIPT Mercantile tonight, of a few little precious triffles, but also wanted to show you a picture of my second round of beaded knitting~ aren't these so delicate? I have them all strung on in order and ready to start knitting...again.........
I love the colors, and am anxious to see how these will come out, not being exactly the same size, or even round...alot of the early teensy beads like this are more of donut shapes, or like thin saucer beads instead of little round balls. We shall see!

Getting what I asked for.............

aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Look at this! What a mess! Yes, I am totally getting what I asked for. More patience. Yes. Need more patience...much more. ::::sigh::::: The above mess is what comes from using too large of beads on too small of knitting. It looked bad...no, not bad, h-i-d-e-u-o-s! I knew when I knit the first bead the beads were going to be too large, but thought, I can make it work. Nope. They are size 15/0, but still way too large for knitting on 6 ought needles. This ball is the only ball of this thread I have, so I unraveled the whole lot, over a weeks worth of knitting, and am going to start over. Have already sorted out those beads and ironed the kinks out of my thread...so ready to try again

This time, I am going to use my antique beads, that range in size from 18/0 to 22/0~ very very small. I didn't use them in the first place because I liked the uniformity of the modern made Miyuki beads, and they came in so many pretty colors! The early tiny antique beads are so hard to come by, and so expensive...but I have picked some pretty colors, and going to try and try again until I do it! Above, you can see the larger Miyuki beads, and the amber color bead center front, is an antique one~ quite a bit smaller

With the smaller outer diameter, comes also the smaller hole in the middle, but I think my thread will pass thru at least once, which is all it has to do the way I knit. The rose color bead is the Miyuki, and you can see how small the antique ones are behind it~ they look like microscopic caviar.

Beads & More beads!!!
Aren't they beautiful? I love beads~ these are tiny! not as tiny as my 22/0 antique seed beads, but still really REALLY small~ they are size 15/0, about 25 per inch strung. These are modern made Japanese glass beads, and I chose them for my knitting because they have a bit larger hole for my thread to pass thru, and, they are all very uniform in size. Did you catch that, that I said knitting???? Yes, I really am that crazy

I have been working on the other side of my little knit Quaker pin ball, and have chosen a wonderful late 18th c design I will be working in beads for it. When knitting with beads, they are strung on first in order, so that whilst knitting, when you need one, just just slip one up and knit it in as you go~ I think the colors look so pretty, really nothing like what the finished design is going to look like~ what do you think my design is, by looking at the beads all strung ready to be knit???