New gloves for "nude" nails

Last week, as I think I mentioned, it was "Witwooo Rudey Nudey week" at All Things Nails, in other words nude nail varnishes, and whilst discussing what gloves I would wear with my nude nails I realised I don't have any gloves to match my nude shades. So I had a sort through my stash and found some Aran Marl wool, no idea of the brand, and dug out a pattern I had used before, another download from Ravelry to remedy this situation.
I used a pattern by Karin Crelling, called Cable - O's, which is an interesting pattern as it has no gusset for the thumb. You just knit about 6 stitches onto a waste yarn and then carry on knitting the rest of the glove. At the end you unpick the waste yarn and knit the thumb from the loose stitches above and below (12) so the thumb sticks out at right angles.
I thought this sounded a bit odd the first time I did it but it's fine, no problems at all, and I discovered an added bonus, if it's really cold you can turn the gloves round and wear them "upside down" so they cover more of your fingers - cool eh!!
They have cables too and I love cables, and you knit them in the round, so no sewing up afterwards - perfect!!

Cabled gloves - the right way round

Cabled gloved - reversed so they cover more of my fingers

 

OPI What Wizardry Is This ?

This is another varnish from the collection inspired by the new Wizard of Oz film, Oz the Great and Powerful, made up of 3 glitters, 3 pale shades and one liquid sand. This is the liquid sand, What Wizardry Is This?
I have already tried 3 of the 4 OPI Mariah Carey liquid sands, reviewed, here here and here and it's safe to say I am completely in love with these polishes, love the texture and the look of them.
I have also reviewed 3 others from this Oz the Great and Powerful collection : When Monkeys Fly! Which is Witch? and Lights of Emerald City here, here and here.

What Wizardry Is This ? is more subtle than the Mariah Carey sands, but no less beautiful. It does not have large chunks of co-ordinating or contrasting glitter, but what it does have is a gorgeous matte, but shimmery finish in a taupe, bronze shade. Its quite hard to describe but it really does have that look of smooth wet sand on the beach just as a wave has washed back down.
It painted on beautifully, 2 coats gave great coverage and I love it!
And here are lots of pics, just because it's so beautiful.

OPI What Wizardry Is This ?

   

 

 

 

 

Nails Inc Grosvenor Gardens

I have already reviewed this here and here but it's so pretty it deserves another post I think.
It is Witwoooooo Rudey Nudey week at All Things Nails so I decided to paint my nails with Leighton Denny Starkers, you can't get much nuder than that. I love nudes, a good proportion of my collection are nudes, but I'm afraid this one just doesn't work for me. (I will add that this is only my opinion, I have seen Starkers look gorgeous on other people's nails, but not for me). My nudes need to be opaque to hide slightly yellow nails and uneven nail lines.
I'll be brave and post the picture anyway, so you can see why I had to cover this up.

Well, Grosvenor Gardens was just sitting there in the box begging to be tried again, so fighting the urge to remove Starkers and abandon it completely I decided to see if it could be saved with some pretty glitter.
This Nails Inc glitter is literally packed with a mix of pink, purple and silver large hexes, smaller pink and purple hexes, then smaller green & silver ones and and fine glitter, and I think a second coat would have given completely full coverage. These pics are with one coat, as I wanted to see if I could live with the slightly disguised visible nail line.
I just keep looking at my nails, they are so pretty and sparkly, and I am ignoring the fact that I can see the dreaded VNL! At arms length I can't see it anyway. I do love this glitter!

Nails Inc Grosvenor Gardens

 

 

 

 

OPI Which is Witch?

This was not the most successful manicure ever, I am not sure that A England Saint George was the best backdrop for OPI Which is Witch?.
To be fair, Saint George, reviewed here, is so beautiful on it's own it didn't need any additions but I did have a couple of chips at the tips and a burning desire to try Which is Witch?
Which is Witch is a wonderful combination of fine glitter, and holographic hexes and bar glitter. My camera really struggled to pick all of this up.
Offset against a dark background the effect was stunning to the naked eye, but interestingly, Saint George lost its holographic shimmer and just became a lovely dark green.
I think Which is Witch? definitely needs to be tried again soon over a paler more delicate base.
Not a lot of pics as I deleted loads :( but I did try to take a few in different lights, my neighbours probably think I am mad marching round the garden photographing my nails!

 

 

 

And finally a blurry one that I left in as it showed the beautiful array of colour picked up by the glitter.

Warm fluffy gloves

I have been meaning to blog these for a while, before I forget what I did.
I had some Sirdar Essence wool left over from a cardigan I made a few years back, not really enough to make anything other than small accessories, but I wore the cardigan recently and remembered how warm this wool is.
So as usual I headed off to Ravelry to find a suitable pattern. I found a pattern called "Ardor Fingerless Mitts" by Stacey Gerbman, available here
I wanted quite a snug fit so I dropped a couple of needle sizes down to a 6mm. The pattern gives instuctions for long and short gloves, but I went for a halfway between and they are great. Really comfortable and warm. Love them!!

and this is the cardigan that I had made, although its quite lacy it is lovely and warm.

A England Saint George

Oh what a beautiful polish I am wearing today, I bought this one just after Christmas and I have no idea why it has taken me so long to wear it, but this is one of those polishes that the second it was on, I loved it. And I knew I would, not one of those I thought I'd probably like, this was a cert!!
It is the most stunning dark teal green with a beautiful fine holographic glitter. This is actually how I like my holos to be, rather subtle and understated and it's such a lovely dark sophisticated colour.
Pictures show 2 coats but coverage was almost there with 1coat. The brush was a little tricky to use and I did have to tidy up a little around my cuticles but nothing major.
I think this is probably my favourite A England polish. I love them all, but some are really special and this is just perfection.
I am wearing one of my favourite dark green jumpers today, with matching fingerless gloves, especially and as you'll see in the pics I think I'm pretty well co-ordinated. I love this so much I could stare at it for hours! I was also very lucky that finally the sun came out, so I could see this in its full glory. Maybe it's a good thing I let it sit in my stash for a while.

A England Saint George

 

 

  

Garfield's new jumper

Just a quick post here, no nails, just knitting today.

A friend asked for a jumper for her Garfield because of this very cold weather, poor thing, he was getting very chilly.

The thing I hate most about knitting is the sewing up at the end, so on this one I seriously cheated. Having knitted a few gloves in recent weeks, I decided to follow the same method. I knitted the body in the round like a glove leaving 2 holes for the arms. I did the sleeves by picking up the stitches around the arm holes and knitted them in the round, like thumbs. 

He does look quite cosy now doesn't he :)