Another Maple Leaf and More Maille

Howdy. Looks likes I did it again. I said I would post soon, and I don't. Oh well. As I promised here is the second maple leaf that I made around Canada Day.


This leaf was made using Yarnplayer's Summer Trail HDT in size 30. As you can see I turned the motif into a bookmark by making a length of lock stitch chain where the stem is. I really like the way it turned out. I'm going to count this as Motif # 23 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.

I haven't done much tatting since I made the two maple leafs. I have done some crocheting however, and I plan on tackling some knitting-I would like to mention I really hate knitting. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to have all your stitches on one long needle, where you can drop them. Since you may ask, I knit due to necessity. I found a really cool looking sock/slipper pattern from Lion Brand, which is available in both knit and crochet version. I tried the crochet version, and found the result to be, well, ugly. I figured I could manage the knit version. Now that I have that off my chest, onward we go.

Well, I've been playing around with chainmaille some since my last post. While I was working on my belt (see here if you missed it), I ended up with a length of European 4-1 that I couldn't use for my belt. I wanted to make a belt using stainless steel rings. However the rings I chose were too weak to use in a belt. As it turns out, a number of other weaves can be made using narrow strips of Euro 4-1, by rolling them up and "stitching" the long ends together. So, that is what I did and created this:



This particular weave is called Box Chain. This is an easy chain to make. It is (apparently) the chain that Byzantine is based off of, and because of this it can be made almost like Byzantine instead of stitching Euro 4-1. I used Stainless Steel rings to make this, and, since you're probably wondering it weighs approximately 2 ounces (56 grams), and is about 1/4 inch in diameter (~6-7 mm). I think this will be mine.

Well, that's all for now. I am working on another weave right now. I had a Eureka moment last night while trying to learn a new weave. I am still toying with the idea with selling some Chainmaille items through Etsy. What I might do is, over the next few weeks, make a half a dozen or so bracelets and what not, and create a store. I'll let you all know what I decide to do when I've done it. OK? Till next time ....... which I hope won't be two weeks from now!