Fairy Wings: May 2008 Archives
All the knitting, all the crocheting, it is now complete. The last bit of work on the wings involves using a crochet edge to "gather" in the wings and create a ruffled look.
At this point, it's all assembly. The wings have to be seamed together and the pieces that are used to hold the wings on a child need to be affixed. This is one of those projects that turn out to be a lot more effort than you expect when it comes to getting all the finishing done. Hopefully the nice long weekend ahead of us here in the U.S. will give me time to get this one wrapped up. I'm excited about giving it as a gift, but I am really looking forward to working on something for myself. I have this incredible desire to knit socks. And there is much quilting to be done. And there is so little time in my life for anything extra right now since when Ms. Z is awake she is in "danger baby" mode and crafting of any kind is almost impossible.
At this point, it's all assembly. The wings have to be seamed together and the pieces that are used to hold the wings on a child need to be affixed. This is one of those projects that turn out to be a lot more effort than you expect when it comes to getting all the finishing done. Hopefully the nice long weekend ahead of us here in the U.S. will give me time to get this one wrapped up. I'm excited about giving it as a gift, but I am really looking forward to working on something for myself. I have this incredible desire to knit socks. And there is much quilting to be done. And there is so little time in my life for anything extra right now since when Ms. Z is awake she is in "danger baby" mode and crafting of any kind is almost impossible.
With persistence comes results. The second wing came along much faster than the first, mostly in part to the use of stitch markers to mark the lace units. Why this didn't occur to me for the first wing, I don't know. It certainly improved my experience working on the second one.
It's very simple lace and the variegated yarn helps to give it depth and texture. I think if I were to do this project again, I would save myself the trouble of carrying an extra yarn up the side and just pick a multi-colored yarn that I liked or a solid that had some sparkle to it. It wouldn't change the yarn requirements (I used most of both balls that I purchased), but it would make things a little less fiddly. Normally working with two different colors wouldn't be all that bad, but this "kid merino" yarn is very attracted to itself and other yarns like it and towards the end I got a little tired of fighting that tendency.
All that remains now is the crochet ties. These are made out of a perforated gold metallic ribbon yarn -- a perfect accent to the wings. All the crochet is simple, so you don't have to be a crochet goddess to make them happen. I've finished the first very long tie that is used to secure the wings to the child, and now I have the wrist loops and back piece to finish up.
Since these are birthday present for an early June birthday, I'm being very monogamous with this project. Adults can cope with a special handmade project being a little late, but 5 year olds seem very sensitive to not having things show up on special birthday date.
It's very simple lace and the variegated yarn helps to give it depth and texture. I think if I were to do this project again, I would save myself the trouble of carrying an extra yarn up the side and just pick a multi-colored yarn that I liked or a solid that had some sparkle to it. It wouldn't change the yarn requirements (I used most of both balls that I purchased), but it would make things a little less fiddly. Normally working with two different colors wouldn't be all that bad, but this "kid merino" yarn is very attracted to itself and other yarns like it and towards the end I got a little tired of fighting that tendency.All that remains now is the crochet ties. These are made out of a perforated gold metallic ribbon yarn -- a perfect accent to the wings. All the crochet is simple, so you don't have to be a crochet goddess to make them happen. I've finished the first very long tie that is used to secure the wings to the child, and now I have the wrist loops and back piece to finish up.
Since these are birthday present for an early June birthday, I'm being very monogamous with this project. Adults can cope with a special handmade project being a little late, but 5 year olds seem very sensitive to not having things show up on special birthday date.
The first fairy wing is done. They aren't so bad when you don't have to repeat too many rows more than once. I kept getting distracted and found myself having to tink back more than I would like to admit, so, at the end, I found that I was most successful sitting in the silence focusing on nothing but the knitting.
It's very meditative... Knit one knit two yarn over knit two together knit one knit two knit three slip slip knit yarn over knit one knit two. When I focused on the knitting and blocked everything else out, I got into this wonderful groove, relaxed and forgot about some of the things that I didn't really want to think about but couldn't keep my mind away from. Product knitter than I am, its rare that I am able to put aside my desire to reach the goal and just focus on the simplicity of looping loops through other loops.
It's very meditative... Knit one knit two yarn over knit two together knit one knit two knit three slip slip knit yarn over knit one knit two. When I focused on the knitting and blocked everything else out, I got into this wonderful groove, relaxed and forgot about some of the things that I didn't really want to think about but couldn't keep my mind away from. Product knitter than I am, its rare that I am able to put aside my desire to reach the goal and just focus on the simplicity of looping loops through other loops.
