Birthday Present

To celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday this month, I sent her a couple of hand knit goodies. I have been completely enamoured with Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, so I thought making this airy scarf would be just the thing.

Though I thought this was lovely on it's own, I tend to pile on when it comes to handmade gifts. Hopefully soon I can show you some pictures of the Christmas presents I gave my mother and sisters...I really went nuts sewing. My poor husband still hears the sewing machine in his nightmares :) I found a pattern for a beaded bracelet at Magknits, and couldn't resist trying it immediately. How fun to knit jewelry!

I modified the pattern to include just two rows of beads instead of three, and used embroidery floss instead of Anchor Pearl Cotton. I also used a gold clasp and ring instead of a snap. I am an efficiency freak. A non-waste, reduce/reuse/recycle kinda girl, so whenever I can take something otherwise useless and put it to work in a project, I get positively giddy. Especially when the results are so pretty! This little gold clasp was a decoration on a Jane Iredale Christmas package of liquid eyeshadow (fantastic makeup). It used to have a bunch of gold charms hanging from it, which I used as zipper pulls for Christmas presents. I was determined to use it for something so I had initially thrown it into my stitch marker bag. Until this little bracelet needed closure :) My husband tells me the bracelet looks kinda like snake skin...which I think is cool, but if anyone told that to his mother I don't think she'd wear it - she is deathly afraid of snakes and lizards. So anyway, I slipped the bracelet into a little organza bag I got from my sister, wrapped it up with the scarf in tissue paper and sent it out with a cute little card.

So far, she loves it. I hope she actually wears both items, and that she feels girly and pretty when she does. Lace and jewelry...not such a bad combo. Incidentally, this is the first time I've knitted a lace pattern with lacy yarn...I like it, but I really think I would prefer less fuzzy yarn and a more intricate lace pattern. I didn't make any modifications to the original pattern, so it really was a fantastically fast and simple project. I started and finished the scarf in about 2 days I guess (including blocking), and the bracelet also took about that long. I have another Jane Iredale dangly to play with, so maybe I'll make another bracelet soon....mmm, maybe with red beads?