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!  

New Stuff

I've continued with my obsession with trying out new things.  In two days I made 3 rag quilts!  I had already had some of this fabric forever, with the intention of doing one for Olivia.  I loved it so much I had to make two more for a friend.  She just had a new baby and has a daughter as well, so I made one for both of them.  This first one is for Olivia, it's cotton fabric on the top and bottom with a flannel center.  I mistakenly bought regular cotton when I went to the store and just went with it.  I love how it came out and so does she! (Link to the tutorial I used)

This is shown pre-washed, as are the next two.  I have since washed Olivia's and it's frayed up nicely. These two I made a bit simpler.  Just a flannel top and bottom, and they also need to be washed. Joanns had a sale on flannel prints, half off per yard, so I picked up a few prints and threw these together pretty fast.

I can't wait to see how they wash up, but I need to get to the laundromat!  I should also mention that I used a half inch seam to sew everything b/c the tutorial didn't specify but other tutorials I found generally used that.  And I did not bind it, I just did a half inch seam all the way around and snipped it as well.

I started and finished my first "real" embroidery.  Cross stitch doesn't cout to me.  I found this pattern free here, and followed it.  I had a lot of fun with it, and love how it came out.  Of course this picture is not the finished one... I guess I forgot to take one lol.  I need to figure out what to do with it! (Oh the other picture is on my phone I guess! I wonder how to get those here...)

I bought more cheap glass pearls in the right sizes, to make another of those beaded cuffs.  Just for kicks.  

And I have two other cross stitch projects in the works right now.  Because I have project ADD like that... this one is the Sugar is Sweet Sampler:

And the autumn sampler, which I had to modify (I cut out a square) to fit the fabric I wanted to use up.  It's my last piece of aida, and I thought that the blue would look great as the sky on so many of the frames.

I am also desperately awaiting their Tea Time sampler that I think is coming out on April 1.  And I have one last treasure to share.  I keep seeing pictures on the Frosted Pumpkin FB group of everyone's wip's. And all these adorable needle minders!  I decided to make my own, but it came out pretty horrible, so after seeing a few members had shops, I looked around and bought two from Oh Needle Mind.  They were a good price, and she had two of my weaknesses, hummingbirds and matryoshka dolls.

I think they're perfect.  I looks like an image is glued to the back of some clear acrylic or stone and then the magnet is glued behind that.  It's very secure, and the magnets are SUPER strong.  They are also a silver color, I know most magnets are black.  I bought black ones from the craft store when I attempted my own, and they leave black smudges.  My magnets are also weaker even though they are probably twice as thick.  These are very low profile.  And they hold the needle very well.  Not so strong you're yanking the needle off it, but strong enough that I held my hoop upside down and it didn't come off, not even when I shook it really hard.  Either way I love them, and want more!

Alright, enough from me!  Until next time...

  

Welcome!

It's been years since I've blogged.  But lately I've missed keeping track of my projects and crafts. Ravelry sort of replaced my blog I guess, but it doesn't cover everything I do, since I've branched out so much in my hobbies.  More than knitting, crocheting, and spinning, I've begun dabbling in beading (both the weaving and embroidery kind) and embroidery/cross stitch.  So let me show you the things I've been doing lately!

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest searching for interesting things to craft.  One day I came across some bead embroidery collars, they were SO beautiful.  So I began searching for tutorials and then kits.  I found a cheaper kit on etsy: Purple Bead Pendant.  The instructions were very clear (and the seller was extremely helpful and responsive!), and it included nearly everything you need to get started.  I had to get my own glue, needles, and thread.  It took some patience, and came out a bit lopsided, but I'm proud of it!  The oldest girl child has claimed it.

I also made this bracelet.  It was my first time trying something like this.  I mostly did it to see if I could. I followed this video tutorial.  I bought super cheap beads from my local store, but even at that it looks pretty good.  The seed beads are one size too large, I'll be doing another with the right size, and it came out a tiny bit too big for me.  Also it would have looked better if I used the larger beads in the contrasting color for the 2nd and 4th rows as in the tutorial.  But it was REALLY fun.

I'm doing a lot of cross stitching lately.  I recently made this one as a gift and LOVE how it came out.  I used the eiffel tower chart from this etsy shop, and then added my own lettering from free charts I found on pinterest.  (Does it look a little crooked??? I hope not...)

I'm also working on some Frosted Pumpkin samplers.  Right now I'm still catching up on the woodland one, and just started on the autumn one with some changes.  I also have the materials to start their Once Upon a Time one, but I'd like to finish woodland first.  I also bought the pattern for the sugar sampler.  I plan to do that one as a gift as well.  Here's a woodland pic, I've finished april june and july since I took it though...

On the knitting front, it's mostly been things I can't show yet, but right now I'm knitting a shawl for my sister for her wedding.  It's in October, but its cobweb yarn so I want to have lots of time to do it.  And actually I would like it done for her shower in August anyway.  I'm using Filatura di Crosa Nirvana in the cream color and this is the pattern: Victoria.  I am 3 repeats in (out of 22 I think) and while I don't want to show it, in case she wanders over to this blog somehow, I can show you the swatch.  

She picked the pattern, and saw the swatch anyway.  I've gone up 2 needle sizes.  The swatch was on size 3's and I'm using 5's.  I wanted the pattern to be more open.  I can't wait to see how this shawl comes out.  

I've started using audible again.  I have a ton of books from the last time I was paying for it that I haven't even listened to.  I had built up a bunch of credits and one day just used them all up.  Right now I'm listening to the Eragon series.  I don't know how it's taken me so long to get to it.  It's not bad, considering his age when he wrote it.  I'm on the third/last one and i'm enjoying it well enough.  I've also recently downloaded the first two books in the Way of Kings series, those will be next I think, they have amazing reviews.  And for the kids and I to listen together, we've been doing a learn to speak russian one (pimsleur audio).  They enjoy it, and I'm finding it fairly easy to pick up and remember.  So far so good!

Well I think this will do for now.  I'll have more pictures to come!