Dinosaur Roar

I've been in the mood for some quick knitting and wanted something I could make for the G-man or put in my cube at work. I found this cute little pattern for a small dinosaur using fingering yarn on ravelry and I believe the pattern is literally called Dinosaur Roar!. I had some green and brown left over from some ankle socks and arm warmers so I made a little one first. Then I decided to use some blue and green worsted weight yarn to make a bigger one.


The pattern calls to make each piece individually. While making the first one I found that it didn't take long to make but I hate piecing small pieces together. For the second one I modified the pattern so I could make all of the body in the round and stuff as I go. Then I make the legs and spikes and sew them on separately. Adding pieces on like that is way better than trying to seam sections of the body together. Plus, it really seems to make it go faster.

I have a bunch of scrap, left over yarn from projects so I see a hoarde of dinosaurs in my future.

Trying Out New Things

While I love doing my wire wrapping I have some stones that are too small for wire wrapping. Or they are at least too small for the work I like to do. I have done some metal working but I really just don't enjoy it as much as I do working with wire. I really wanted to start doing some stuff with prong settings and wire and alot of the stones I have aren't a perfect size that I can use a pre-made prong setting for. So, that only leaves doing it yourself.

I searched etsy for a tutorial on prong settings with wire wrapping and came across this ring tutorial. Since some of these stones are smaller I thought a ring pattern wouldn't be too bad to learn, plus I could understand some of the basics on making a prong setting out of wire. This was my first try, which didn't turn out half bad and used a labradorite stone I had.












Speaking of labradorite I recently listed this awesome looking labradorite pendant I call "Tempest" because of the blue section at the bottom that looks like a small storm.


And this moonstone pendant I called "Phantom" since the sutle blue flash on this one seems like it comes from the inside of the stone instead of across surface of the stone.


On the knitting front I am back to starting more projects that I can keep up with. I worked quite a bit on the shrug yesterday at the knit store and am finished with the one sleeve and am now a couple inches in on the back part. This will probably be my knit store project as I can go there, sit down and just work on it and it doesn't seem so bad.

Of course while I was there I picked up this pattern to make the G-man a dragon scarf. It's going quite fast and the more I work with it the more I'm thinking that instead of doing the head as it's shown in the picture I'm going to make it as a hood. Lets face it, it doesn't get that cold, that often here in Florida and if I make it into a hood he can use it more to play with and pretend he's a dragon.



I checked on my special ordered yarn and it will be 6 weeks before it shows up. Maybe earlier but that's the estimate right now. It sucks because I'm anxious to start on the hoodie but I also have these other things going on so that gives me time to finish them.

My New Project and My New Time Suck

Dave introduced me to my latest time suck which is a game for the original Nintendo called Castelian

Actually, the entire website that you can play them on is a time suck. They have just about EVERY Nintendo game that was made, even some foreign ones, and you can play them in your browser window. Definitely a great little bit of nostalgia.

I've started another knitting project, this time a shrug. It's easy enough of a pattern it's just b-o-r-i-n-g. I am not quite halfway through the main part and just a few rows short of finishing up the increases for the sleeve. I'm having a hard time staying motivated on it and can only do about 2 rows at a time before having to put it down. I love the yarn I'm making it out of though. It is a great heather green yarn that is made from cotton and alpaca. In fact the name of it is Avocado.

I'm also just placed a special order for yarn for this hoodie.



I figure it's high time I make one of these to replace an older hoodie I had that was similar in color that I had bought at the mall at a Charlotte Russe or one of those type stores. It was my favorite ever but the elbows eventually got worn out. I'm going to make it out of some malabrigo twist yarn in the color applewood.

New Stuff

This weekend I made another two pendants, this labradorite which is rather large and has a beautiful gold flash


and another amethyst one, which is a birthstone of February.


I also got a surprise on Saturday when some supplies I had ordered and thought weren't going to show up until today came in. Included were some flat swarovski crystals. I've been wanting to do a shawl pin with them and finally got around to purchasing them. I really like how it turned out too.


The long weekend has been pretty relaxing. I've watched a little of the Olympics since the winter games are my favorite. I like to watch the snow boarding, luge, speed skating and the downhill skiing events. It's probably a good thing that it was relaxing because I suspect this next week will be a busy one at work. At least it will be a short one.

Succesful Experiments

This evening, after dinner, I was sitting at the kitchen table where I have a portion of it sectioned off for my jewelry work. There is a box sitting there that has a couple of stones in it that are ones I am the most anxious to wrap. I pulled out one of the marquise shaped moonstones and all of the sudden got a design idea that was out of the norm for my usual wrapping style for this shape of stone.


I love it, it's beautiful and kind of elven or medieval. Something along the fantasy lines at least and I have to say, am quite proud of it. There's always an amount of satisfaction that comes with drawing out a design or imagining it in your head and then the piece turns out exactly how you imagined/hoped it would.

Some Good News

So, finally after 3 and a half months Dave finally got a job offer. They called today and offered him the job, which was the same one I mentioned that he went on an interview for. He is excited to get back to work so it's definitely good news. We went out for our usual celebratory Chinese restaurant.

I took pictures of my new pendant when I got home today and when I got around to taking them off the camera the main ones didn't turn out all that great. Ugh. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow. I did finally get a somewhat decent photo of the new shawl pin design I'm going to try out. I bought 3 more round stones (Labradorite, Ruby Fuschite and Chrysoprase) as well as some more silver wire. I really like how this one turned out, the stone in the middle is a type of jasper.

New Banner

Today I decided to change out the banner on my etsy shop. I recently got new business cards made and they use the 4 pictures in this banner along the top and then my information is below. I still need to do some updating to my actual web page but here is how my new etsy banner looks.


I need to work on changing my avatar as well but that just hasn't happened yet.

On Sunday I made a new shawl pin but I haven't gotten a chance to take a good picture of it yet. It turned out really neat looking though and plan on making a couple more. Speaking of photos and I have a new rutilated quartz pendant that I wrapped last night that needs some photos as well.

Oh How I Love Moonstone

I just finished this pendant up today. Sometimes you just finish a piece and you're like, "Wow, this turned out awesome." For me this is one of those that if it doesn't sell any time soon I won't be brokenhearted just so I can admire it.



I'm anxious to wrap some of the other moonstones I have. I bought quite a few at the last show and all of them are beautiful. I also have a couple of pieces of labradorite that I think will be quite nice as well.

Finished Cardigan, Hat and New Pendant

Today I finished the cardigan I mentioned earlier. It ended up that I did have enough bulky cotton yarn that I could use, just needed to hold two strands together. It turned out quite nice. I still have a few things to do to it like a crocheted border so I can put a button and button hole at the top. It also needs to be lightly blocked but overall I love it and can't wait to find maybe a denim sundress to wear it with come spring.

I also finally got a picture of my slouchy hat I finished. I'm starting a new one but just haven't been as "in" to it as other projects right now. It turned out pretty cute though and I'm considering making the beanie version with a plain or ribbed band instead of the cable for the little one. He looks adorable in a hat, he must get that from me. Haha.
















I'm getting back into my jewelry making and made this amethyst pendant earlier this week.


Just got pictures and listed today in my etsy shop. I also have a new design in the works for a clay and stone shawl pin. I think I'm going to work it up tonight and see how it turns out.