now THAT'S better

the first of the new vases stitched down

I am much happier with this color as the one for this vase -- the darker color for this one, like the lighter color for the other one, just didn't work well -- in both cases the vases just disappeared against the background

there has been a small change made in the shape of the bottom edge of the vase too, making it more curved, which improves the 3 dimensional look of the vase against the table and the wall

there is still the cording trim to be done, but I've decided to do this vase and the second one at the same time since they don't overlap

rolling along







I started working on the next bracelet yesterday

this will be the center link, and it is 2 inches square

most of the surface of this link is this carved floral piece, that I am now embellishing with bronze crystals around the edges

there are some stamped brass flower pieces in my box of odds and ends that I also plan to use on one of the links

I'm experimenting with non-identical link sizes and shapes too -- we'll see how that all works



and another hat complete

mulberry and mauve --

this is number 5 -- 7 more to do

last night I started the next one too, which is going to be made of some of the left over pieces from the earlier ones



I have started working on the band around the front of the hooded sweater I'm knitting for myself -- the original pattern called for the sweater to have a zipper, but I don't have one that is long enough and I don't want to buy one, so I'm using the same band/button/loop idea that was part of the pattern I made for my grandson for Christmas on the front of my sweater -- so the row of knitting is 398 stitches -- takes a while to get a row done! I'm excited that this is getting so close to finished