Thursday, July 26, 2007
HSS2: Spells for Mini Wands - Stitch Markers
A student asked if I could share my incantation for Stitch Marking Wands (stitch markers). So for the benefit of those new to mini wand incantations... Muffliato!
This was fun to do and probably takes longer to explain than to do. I searched Hogwart's library and found an incantation similar to what I used. http://www.sheepinthecity.prettyposies.com/archives/000201.html
Other variations on the incantation are listed below... I did not wrap the pin tail around the marker neck since I used a thicker 2" head pin.http://knittgeek.blogspot.com/2005/07/guide-to-stitch-markers.html
http://www.wormspit.com/stitchmarkers.htm
http://cjsachiko.blogspot.com/2005/03/stitch-markers-la-cee-jay.html
Ingredients found at a tiny (craft) store at Diagon Alley that sold rainbow beads, dragon tears, ocean spray, elf made rings and silver moonlight head pins.
Choosing the ingredients is such a subjective thing.
Here is how I went about it. I conjured the wands like a story with a headline, a subhead and body of text. One 1/4 inch large bead would be the 'headline' focal point. Medium 'subhead' beads about 1/8 inch would give added color and texture. And the body is made up of small neutral color seed beads (helps the colors on medium and large beads stand out more.) (Make sure the seed beads have holes large enough to go on the head pins.) I chose to place one large focal point towards the bottom to visually anchor the wand. The rest, I folded a piece of white paper in half, and put beads on the inside fold to play with combinations of size and sequence until I liked what I saw and then placed them on the head pin.
Note: Longer markers with thick glass beads may end up being heavy. So shorter markers may be more user friendly to a sock knitter. I just happen to like the length to look like a wand. So my markers may be a bit heavier. Certainly the one with the largest bead on it.
Try it and have fun.
Labels: HSS2, stitch markers
