I’ve been meaning to show you something I got as a gift for myself a while back, but I had also gotten one as a gift for a friend, so wanted to wait until after her birthday to share with you all so as not to spoil her surprise:
This is a sterling silver tapestry needle, hand-forged by Celtic Swan Forge. Over the years I have collected several sets of their wonderful sterling silver double-pointed needles, and just a few months ago discovered that they also handcraft tapestry needles as well, in either silver or gold.
As I remembered from past dealings, customer service from Celtic Swan was excellent. Upon ordering, I got an email from Molly letting me know an estimate of how long it would take to make my needle, and when the needle was ready to ship, I received another email with tracking info.
I love supporting small businesses that handcraft beautiful tools. If you are in the market for a special fiber-related tool for yourself or for a special friend, do check out Celtic Swan Forge. They have a lot of lovely tools and jewelry. No affiliation here, I am just a very happy repeat customer!
I love my silver tapestry needle, so much that I hunted for and found an antique silver needle case to house it.
This is German, 19th century. I love it!
In other news, I finished my “The Joker and the Thief” shawl.
I kept trying to lay it out for a photo-shoot, but this kept happening:
So you will have to be satisfied with a modeled pic.
I knit mine from a kit put together by Sunshine Yarns. The background is Ultraluxe Light in the “Charcoal” colorway and the gradient is the “Bag of Limes” set in Classic Sock.
I ran out of the Ultraluxe Light with 12 rows remaining that needed the background color, so fudged the end of my shawl by doing fewer rows in BC and binding off in Color 6 of the gradient set rather than using it to work the last set of Indian Cross-stitch.
I note from looking at other projects on Ravelry that some others who have purchased the kit have run out, so be aware of this potential issue. I generally do not run out of yarn when working from kits, rather, I usually have leftovers. I used the recommended needle size and got gauge, so I don’t think it is “operator error.” 😉
I’m not overly concerned however — I think the shawl is lovely as-is and my mods to not take away anything from the design.
Loki sez:
“Isn’t that shawl for me?”