Weekly Manicure

Today I shall be sharing with you another shade from my BK Collection. Today it's number 26 which is a light peachy orange with a nice orangey smell just like it's sister colour number 25 which I shared with you last week.  This one also dries up quick and lasted for about 3 days without a top coat. It only took me two coats to get the perfect colour.

Here are some pictures of the finished look:

The pictures were taken on the third day and you can see some fading at the tips just like the one that I showed you last week. No need to repeat that this can be avoided by applying a top coat :)

This colour is mostly ideal for spring and autumn, because of it's light and not too vibrant colour and it matches quite a few colour schemes as well.

If you like this polish you can buy your by clicking on the picture below :)

 

As I advised last week, check back often to see whether the colours are all available and for their prices because they tend to change according to promotions.

I hope you found this review helpful :)

Till next Tuesday,

Saranghae,

Pauline

Craft Corner

Hello Again :) It's time for the fist post in the Craft Corner.  This corner is not going to be a weekly corner because making stuff takes quite some time, but every now and again I shall be updating you with my current Work In Progress (WIPs) and finishes.  For the first post in this section, I decided to give you a small tutorial on how to work with Ruffle Yarn and share with you two scarves that I have completed in the past few days and which I mentioned in the Fashion Friday section.

Before starting off with how to work with Ruffle Yarn, I want to explain what this novelty yarn is.  In reality is is noting like the traditional yarn that we are used to, but it is more like a wide fabric kind of yarn.  It comes in various shades and structures, but most of them have a kind of ladder on the top part where you are supposed to insert your knitting needles. When worked it creates ruffles and the way the ruffles turn on themselves is determined by how you pick up the stitches.

I will explain two ways of creating scarves using this yarn below but first let me show you the basics of working with it.

 

This is how the yarn is packed. This particular variety has different shades of grey and pompoms at its end.

 This is how it looks when you unwind it from the yarn ball. It doesn't look anything like a ruffle.

 And this is how it looks when you open it up. You can see the perforated ladder at the top part and the pompoms at the bottom of the ruffle.

 6mm Needles are the ideal size to work with these yarns.

 In order to pick up the stitches all you have to do is insert the needle from the front of your work into the ladder part.  I decided to work in between the first diamond block such that I have two threads on the needles in order to avoid it unravelling. Below is how the picked up stitches look.

When working with this yarn, you must always insert the needle from the front. To knit, all you have to do is insert the needle in the next hole on the ruffle and draw it in the loop on your needle as if kniting. Always turn your work when you get at the end of your row and turn the ruffle yarn accordingly such that there are no twists at the end but it looks more like a fold. Just like when folding a ribbon. When you are done, all you have to do is bind off normally. You will find that the last stitch will be hard to secure. I tied it up with the loose ends in the ruffle at the end, making sure that the knots were strong and tight enough.  If you don't have loose ends, you will have to sew it in the fabric of the ruffle with some matching thread and make sure that it is secured.

When you run out of yarn, don't worry! You either work all the yarn in one ball and work the next stitch with the new ball or else if you want to secure your work a little more, overlap the first two stitches of the new ball with the last two stitches of the last ball. There is no need to make any knots or join yarn :)

Scarf 1

The first scarf is made with shades of blue with yarn which was prepared by Lidl for their craft section.  The instructions that came with the pack require that the scarf is worked along the whole lenght of the scarf and advises that 200grams are necessary to finish it to a decent lenght.  It also explained that 80 stitches are what is needed to cover the entire lenght of the scarf.  I worked according to these instructions and the result is a nice ruffled scarf that when hung from the tip, the ruffles kind of circle in on themselves to form waves.  Here are some pictures:

  The picture is a little sideways but you can see the wavy ruffles.

 Scarf 2

The second scarf is worked differently. I decided to deviate from the instructions and instead of working along the lenght of the scarf, work along the width.  I decided that 10 stitches would be enough for a decent width and then worked all the yarn in the 4 bundles. The result was a slightly longer scarf that the blue one with ruffles overlaid on top of each other.

Here are some pictures:

Sorry about the picture being a litte sideways. You can see the ruffles are different from the blue one.

I hope you found this tutorial useful and if you wish to check out on some ideas on how to style these scarves, you can visit last week's Fashion Friday here.  I shall be featuring these two in other Fashion Friday posts and create new looks so look forward to that.  If you have no idea how to knit and don't know where to begin, if you live in Malta I would be more than glad to knit your scarf for just 5Euros, provided that you buy the yarn of your choice yourself :)  All you have to do is drop me a message below or on Facebook  here :)

Till next post,
Saranghae,
Pauline

Fashion Friday

Welcome to another Fashion Friday and today I am going to talk about scarfs :) These scarfs that I want to share with you today are completely hand made and knitted with the latest novelty yarn on the market called ruffle yarn.  I bought two pack from Lidl and they had instructions on how to do them inside the packet so being the crafter that I am, I gave them a shot.

That is one of the packs in shades of grey. It came with four 50gram bundles and the instructions said that with 200grams you can complete a full scarf.  Along with this I purchased another pack in shades of blue and green.  I followed the instructions using the bluish pack and then decided to try out a different way of doing it with the grey ones.  Here is the result:

The blue one is worked sideways, where you pick up the stitches according to the length you want the scarf to be, whereas the grey one was worked in the traditional way, from top to bottom, where the first row determines the width of the scarf.

I will post a tutorial on how to work with ruffle yarn in the coming days, for all the knitters out there :)

I tried out the scarfs with a purple top and I must say that both colours matched in. I don't intend to pair them with purple (at least not the blue one) but here are some pictures on how they look:

  

As you can see, the blue one ruffles differently from the grey one :)

I am going to pair these scarves with light coloured clothes, for example white or cream tops or dresses that are so in fashion this autumn, and am thinking of tying them with a coloured brooch or maybe a ribbon.  They will look great without the brooch when worn with blouses or blazers too.  You can really be creative with these kind of scarves, even when choosing the material with which to work them as the ruffle yarn comes in an endless variety, some even have glittering thread in them.

Please look out for other Fashion Fridays where I shall be incorporating these two scarves in the looks :) And for my local followers who are not into knitting and would like to have these kind of scarves, all you have to do is go to a craft store and purchase enough ruffle yarn and make contact with me, I will be glad to knit them up for you for a very small fee (for the time taken to knit them). 

Well, that's it for now, see you again next Friday with another Fashion post :)

Saranghae,

Pauline