Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Beading!

I may have mentioned, I am becoming slightly addicted to this beading stuff.  It's only gotten worse since my last post.  I finally got around to making that second bracelet with the gray pearls.


I was disappointed that you could barely see that some pearls were darker or lighter.  I should have gone with completely different colors.  Maybe I'll just need to make a third version?  But at least this one fits me.


This is the underside, see here you can tell better that the smaller pearls are lighter.  (Tutorial link again, it IS in russian, but totally easy to see what she does.)

After that one, I found MORE tutorials I wanted to try.  I ordered some beads and Fireline thread to make a seed bead bracelet from the artbeads website, but when I got my order (on Saturday) the Fireline was not in it. So, they are sending it but as of today it's still not here.  So on Monday I went to Michaels to see if there was something else I could use in the meantime, and ended up getting some Beadalon Wildfire thread.  For the pearl bracelets I'd been using Nymo thread, which is nice and drapey, but splitty and I didn't condition it like you're supposed to because I didn't know... oops! 

Anyway I figured I'd try another bracelet with the beads I got at Michaels with the Wildfire.  I used this tutorial by Jill Wiseman and beaducation.com.  I ended up with jasper beads instead of crystals, and I really like the look of it, although I'd like to do a crystal one as well.  


I really like that the clasp is made with the beads from the bracelet as well.  It looks so put together and finished I think.  This took me less than 2 hours from start to finish, it's really fast and simple.  I can see myself making quite a few of these.

That one went so fast that I decided to start the bracelet I originally wanted to make, with the wildfire instead of waiting on my fireline.  This is the tutorial.  Also by Jill Wiseman and beaducation.  She is SO thorough and talented.  I'm really liking her designs, I just wish there were more!  This is a slow one to make, and uses an absolute TON of thread.  I've used probably three times as much as I did in the above bracelet and I'm not even done yet.



This design also has a toggle and loop clasp made from the beads, which I love.  I also changed up the design a tiny bit.  The original starts thinner and increases to a wide band and then back down.  But I have such small wrists I wouldn't even be able to do all the increases and decreases, so I just started with a larger width and did it straight.  I think this looks very egyptian, or like something cleopatra would wear.

I have more beads on the way for another version of this, as well as a russian spiral bracelet design I saw.  Beads are so cheap, and at artbeads I can nearly always get 10% off and they have free shipping over $10.  So it's easy to fall off the wagon there lol.  Anyway this is the russian spiral I fell in love with when I saw it on pinterest: 


I ordered beads to try something similar, with multiple colors.  I'm really anxious to get them and start this one!  Ok I think that's enough about beads.  Let me do a quick update of all the other random stuff I'm up to.

A final picture of that embroidery, wrinkled, and still not sure what I'm gonna do with it:


I finished the Sugar is Sweet Sampler, I think I will be buying a wooden hoop to mount this in, and maybe the above embroidery, and either wrapping the hoop with ribbon or crocheting around it.  I've seen some cute examples of it.


This needs a good washing, look how dirty it got from holding it, right in a ring around it!

Lets see... oh I finished my hitchhiker (rav link)!  After like 9 months... it was torture, but I think this yarn and pattern are perfect together and I love it.



Sorry for the crappy nighttime pictures.  Color is somewhere in the middle of these.  It's STR Mediumweight in Puck's Mischief, and I needed maybe a skein and a half?  I didn't weigh it yet.  And I did 42 teeth of course.

I started a Wing of the Moth (rav link) shawl, after having the yarn and pattern in my queue for EVER. This was the design that introduced me to Anne Hanson's design's and it has been true love ever since. I just never got around to this first lovely shawl.  Yarn is jaggerspun zephyr in the pewter color.


I also started Winterwood (rav link), another one of hers.  I always loved her designs with the little lace trees, so this was a no brainer.  The yarn is... Tucker Woods Estrellita.  I REALLY wish they sold this online.  I got it at rhinebeck last year, and I looove it.  The color is gorgeous.



Sooo I think that's it for now, still working on other things and there are lots more things I want to try, but I think I'll end here.  Thanks for reading!