Butterflies

I've been doing some back-breaking cleaning everyday for the past 2 weeks. You see, I have many visitors: my in-laws from Southeast Asia, my dad and stepmother from Texas and my godmother from Taiwan. All my visitors are very nice people, but still...there is some stress and anxiety from having out-of-town visitors. I worry about making sure that my house is clean and meticulously orderly (I'm not horrible, but this area is not my forte), and I worry about places to take them. Needless to say, I haven't been crafting or knitting much.

For the last several weeks I have been working on this stole. It's my own design. I custom hand-painted it in shades of navy and blue from my stepmother. The larger center panel is a modified snowshoe lace, but it reminds me of butterfly cocoons. The photo is a little overexposed and it will be much better after I finish and block it. I'm not sure when I will be able to finish it -- I certainly won't be working on it much this month. Also, I've had to rip many parts of it out already. That's what I get for trying to knit lace at knitting group.

Several days ago, I took some of my visitors to the San Juan Capistrano Mission, where we took in the splendor of the building and the beautiful garden. We were lucky enough to see lots of monarch butterflies fluttering happily with the wind. We even spotted some cocoons, and I managed to get some macro shots of the monarchs.

Beaded Mohair Capelet (& Skirt?) Finished and Submitted!

Okay, so I did finish a few things since May/June, but I have been TERRIBLE about posting and documenting all my crafty endeavors. I am now going to try and catch up a little before it gets worse.

Remember my Rude Awakening to the Catastrophe I had with Whitey Coyote, aka Mohair Ripper? Well, I finally finished that beaded mohair/silk capelet I was knitting for my godmother sometime in June. I did make the deadline and actually submitted the pattern to Debbie Stoller for her next book. I also submitted a drawing and graph of a Chinese Lantern bag for which I knit a prototype, and a drawing and graph of another pattern idea that I did not have time to knit.

This is my first attempt at submission to any publication online or otherwise, and I am eager to hear back from her. In the call for submission, she said that she'd make the decision in 2-3 weeks. About 1-2 weeks ago, I got an email saying that she's still reviewing. I doubt my chances are good, but hey, I tried. .

Anyway, I finished the capelet when I went up to San Franciso and Big Sur to scatter the rest of my mom's ashes. My sister is the model.

Chic Front View








Back View

As A Skirt Over Jeans

:)

A close-up showing the beads randomly scattered throughout.