The regular topic for today is “Something to Aspire to” – i.e. patterns or skills that you aspire to. At the end of the Skill + 1Up post, I mentioned that I’d like to tackle colorwork, work on sweater fitting skills, beaded lace knitting, and maybe even steeking sweater or a cardigan. Apart from that there’s always double knitting, more extensive cabling, intarsia, Tunisian crochet and entrelac, So since I’ve already posted on that, I decided to devote today to the Wildcard topic Embellishments.
Wildcard – Embellish the story
Embellishments come in all types and forms. Some are more than purely decorative and form a practical function – pretty buttons are as much part of holding a garment together as mere decoration, and some are just there to give a piece an extra ‘something’. Blog about an embellishment, be it a zipper, amigurumi eyes or applique patch which you are either saving to use or have in the past used to decorate a project with. Write about whether you are a very minimalist kind of knitter with classic lines and timeless plain knits or whether you love all the bells and whistles or sticking sewing and otherwise attaching decoration to your pieces.
I’ve knit Amigurumi toys, and most patterns require the use of safety eyes. However, for small children it’s not really advisable to use something which such small parts since they can be swallowed. Amigurumi for friends still get plastic safety eyes (if I can find them), otherwise I make them out of felt. And if a raised look is required I sew over the felt to give the eyes a raised look.
Globetrotter - a travelling gnome (with plastic safety eyes)
Sheldon - felt eyes sewn over with embroidery floss
And now, my favorite embellishments: buttons . I ♥ buttons. I have more buttons than I need for my current projects, and I have a bunch of buttons for kiddie projects, cause hey, you never know when you might need to knit up a quickie baby/kiddie gift.
Here’s my button baggie:
buttons are hiding in their baggie
Oh no, the buttons have escaped into the wild!
buttons escaping into the wild
And here are the buttons I just got in the mail – I got a custom order for the replacement dress for my goddaughter and buttons for my new nice/nephew’s baby sweater.
apple buttons for the dress, mushroom buttons for the sweater
Aren’t those the cutest buttons? And they’re machine washable! I got them from Buttons by Robin – and the best part is that she does custom orders, too!
That’s it for today. I can’t believe that the Knitting and Crochet Blog week is almost over! Anyway, if you’re interested in more of my knitting shenanigans, you can find me on Ravelry, username anji. And if you’re interested in seeing other posts on the topic ‘A Tale of Two Yarns’ from other bloggers who’ll be blogging today on this topic, just search on Google (or another search engine) for the tag 2KCBWDAY4, and on Twitter #2KCBW.
