Gemstone of the Month: Amethyst

February’s birthstone is Amethyst, a beautiful richly coloured transparent to semi-transparent gemstone, ranging in hue from pale lilac to deep purple grape. It is the most highly valued stone in the quartz group, the most important deposits being found in Brazil. Silicon dioxide is its basic composition, coloured by traces of manganese, titanium and iron. Its name means not drunken in Greek, and was worn as an amulet against drunkenness.

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Amethyst and silver knitted earrings showing the range of shades
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Cape Lilac Amethyst knitted onto silver wire

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I use amethyst in a number of pieces of jewellery; plain individual colours as shown in the photographs above, as well as mixed with other gemstones and glass beads to give a rich texture and colour to unique earrings and bracelets. To see my full range of Amethyst jewellery and stitch markers, please go to the Granary Knits Etsy shop.

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new in store

The gemstone knitting stitch markers have been made, photographed, described and tagged, and now they have arrived in store. They look fabulous!

There are sets of lapis lazuli, rose quartz, snowflake obsidian and the stunning amethyst

making the "bead"
making each individual bead using a ball head pin and a stack of lapis lazuli chips

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This coming week, I shall be working on stitch markers using Chinese Turquoise and Amazonite (a beautiful pale green).

Visit my Etsy store for these and more lovely stitch markers!

coming soon!

I have been working on some new stitch markers in the last few days and my test knitters are currently trying them out for ease of use. Here is a sneek peek at some of the upcoming additions to the shop.

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Lapis lazuli polished chips wired and ready to be turned into a stitch marker
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Polished amethyst chips on the workbench
snowflake obsidian
Snowflake obsidian completed markers

Visit the Etsy shop to see these and more unique stitch markers.