Knitting and Masonry

Beads, Nuts and Knitting

Becky Beads
The Yellow one sold at Spencertown

This sold at Spencertown Academy

I have been fairly busy of late getting jewelry ready for the Handmade Holiday sale at the Spencertown Academy

Knitting

My gossamer shawl - I have written more details on my Ravelry page:

 Black Walnuts

 I spent from 1 pm to 7 pm with few breaks
(ha ha no pun intended).
First I pre-cracked the nuts
using the vise in the cellar workshop
then had to use
the wire cutters to pry the meats out.
Milos joined me at about 5:30
so that we could finish up and eat dinner.
We had 2 and a half gallons
of the nuts in hard shells to do,
and ended up with approx. 4 mason jars
of nut meats.
I roasted the meats for 15 minute at 265 degrees
 before packing (smelled wonderful!).
 Note bottom of photo the perfect half:
this happened only three times during the effort.
 Mostly the pieces broke up.

"Chanel Meets the Shakers" Shawl

Shaker inspired knitted shawl of hand-spun Shetland wool
(wool from sheep at Wild Apple Farm, Ltd. Hudson, NY)

I will be working this season at Hancock Shaker Village. The job will involve costumes. I am slowly getting started. I made this one-piece "Sleeveless Sweater" out of left-over shetland wool from the red ruffled sweater (see by clicking on "Jewelry and Knitting" below). It is surprisingly warm and I really like how it hugs the body, stays put and doesn't flop open or loose, or interfere with whatever I am doing with my hands.

Red Ruffled Sweater

I hand-spun most of the wool in this sweater
 Shetland and Shetland/Bluefaced Leicester and Merino.
 I used some commercially spun mohair and lambswool
on the cuff and hem ruffles.

ruffled sweater

I made this with wool I bought at the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. I spun it, plied it and created the design. The black is a natural shetland wool from a black shetland sheep at Wild Apple Farm in Hudson, NY. The aqua and black mix is alpaca from Painted Spring Farm, Spring Grove, PA. I believe the black alpaca is named Felipe.

I had barely enough to finish. I did 3-ply in the all shetland portion, which in retrospect was a mistake. I would have made the transition to the body hem ruffle a more gradual transition if I had had some extra wool to play with. In any case it is very comfortable as long as the Shetland wool doesn't touch my skin. The alpaca on the edges is soft and comfy!

Breast Cancer Awareness Bracelet and More

Pink Ribbon measures 2.5 inches on memory wire spiral wrap bracelet
rebeccanebesar.etsy.com

Holly Necklace

Blue Faced Leicester handspun and hand knit vest

Spencertown Academy Handmade Holiday display

Bead Frenzy worktable