Le Grand Baiser

I hope everyone had a lovely and safe holiday!

My husband and I spent time with both sides of our family and had a wonderful time visiting and catching up.  I wish everyone lived a bit closer as we spent a considerable amount of time shuttling from location to location, but in the end, it was well worth it.

Among the gifts I received this year were a few skeins of novelty yarns (that will make great scarves), numerous bead strands, a new beading project board (can never have enough of those),  and an additional set of jewelry-making tools.  One of my favorite gifts this year was a large trunk that I received from my mother.  I immediately set it to use holding my ever-growing yarn stash and one of my cats, Julius, had to investigate:

I also received some money gifts, part of which I used to purchase Son of Stitch’n'Bitch, 2-at-a-time Socks, and The Crotchet Answer Book, a few new sets of straight needles and a couple more skiens of Lion Brand Homespun.  I am looking into getting some double-pointed needles and perhaps a set of interchangable circulars, as well.

I’ve been kept very busy by life this past month or so and haven’t had much time to do much crafting.  Fortunately things seem to have calmed down a bit right now and I’ve been able to work on a few projects here and there.

I had been hoping to complete this scarf in time to give it to my mother-in-law as an additional Christmas present and while I did indeed finish it, I wasn’t happy enough with it to actually gift it.  I was so horrified with the bind-off  that I ended up frogging the entire thing and putting the yarn back into my stash for safe-keeping.  Now that I’m not rushed into trying to complete it in time for the holidays, I can go back and work on my faulty technique.  Hopefully I’ll be able to present the scarf to my MIL before it gets too warm to be of any use (which will be very soon here in California).

To give myself ample practice and to familiarize myself better with reading and following knitting patterns and terms, I’ve begun to work on a series of dishcloths.  They’re fairly simple, knit up in a few sessions, and give me ample practice. Perfect! My first endeavour is a simple one-sided rib pattern from How Stuff Works, using Pigash Peaches’N'Creme cotton worsted in the Earthtone colorway on US 7 needles.  I’m extremely happy with how it’s coming out.

I really need to sit down and also work on a few jewelry projects.  I really wasn’t expecting knitting to be as time consuming or addictive as it has been.  Now that I’ve received some new beads, I’ve got some new inspiration and ideas that I’d really like follow through with.  It’s just a matter of digging my crafting area out from underneath all the junk and alotting some time to sit down and work on it. :)

My invitation into the Ravelry community finally arrived tonight.  My profile is here.  Feel free to add me to friends if you are already a member.

I’m still working on that scarf for my husband.  Here is what it looks like currently:

I’m using one skein of Red Heart Super Saver worsted-weight yarn, colorway #4313 Aran Fleck, on size US10 needles. It’s about fifteen or sixteen inches long at the moment… which means I’ve still got quite a ways to go!

I’ve been working on it a little bit each day, mainly during my two fifteen minute break times at work and a few rows before I go to bed each night.  I’m proud to say that I’ve gone from struggling to complete a row within fifteen minutes (and often longer when I had to backtrack and rip out a bad stitch) to only taking just a little over two minutes each time. I’m also getting much better at keeping my stitches uniform.

After this one is finished and after I feel comfortable trying a new stitch, I’ll be making a scraf for myself out of some lovely cream-colored Lion Brand homespun.

I think it’s safe to admit that I failed at this year’s NaCraMaMo.  I started off strong, but due to various interruptions, disctractions, and lack of time, I wasn’t able to keep up.  I did manage to get a lot done during the month, though, so I am able to walk away feeling that I have accomplished something.

Here are the things I was able to make, but not post:

Iolite is a lovely bluish-purple stone that has an gold undertone that can be seen in the right light. I paired iolite ovals with antiqued gold rounds to make this simple stretch bracelet.

I think this bracelet is one of my favorites.  Mouakite comes in a large variety of vivid and rich hues.  I used pewter here to seperate cream, mustard, and cranberry rounds into a semblance of a pattern.  It was then finished off with a carnelian donut and seed bead loop closure.

Read more…

This past week was certainly a horrible crafting week for me!  I didn’t get anything done while I was off on vacation and then as soon as I got back, I got knocked down with an awful cold.  I’m feeling a bit better now, at least, so I’ve been able to get something done.

Currently, I’m working on decorative cords. They make great pendant cords, bracelets, book thongs, etc and they have the added bonus of being therapeutic to make.

I use the kumihimo method to braid my cords.  I find braids produced this way to be aesthetically pleasing, plus they don’t come apart as quickly as some other braids do.   My current cord is a 16-tama round braid in black and dark red cotton.

When it’s done, it will look something like this:

The end result will be substantially longer and a bit thinner, as I stretch the cord to tighten the weave.

My vacation was quite lovely, although shorter than I would have liked.

On the way up to Graeagle, which is a little ways north of Lake Tahoe, my husband and I stopped in Truckee to visit the local bead store, Specialty Beads.  The store had a great selection of beads, both loose and on the strand, and findings.  The staff was friendly and helpful, as well.  There were several items that I would have loved to have purchased, however, my budget prevented me from indulging.  I ended up walking out with nothing.  Bah!

While in Graeagle, we stopped at Happy Hunting Ground, a local antique store that specialises in Native American Indian artifacts.  While I shopped the turquoise jewelry, my husband managed to find himself a World War II marine pea coat, a compass from the same time frame, and a vintage hatbox.  The pea coat is in dire need of a good dry cleaning and needs the lining on one sleeve repaired (a future project), but is otherwise in near perfect condition.  It even has the original buttons.  The compass is also in good condition, although I’ll have to take a little Brasso to the casing to clean off a couple surface rust spots.  The hatbox has a few water stains on the top, so I was considering re-papering that before I put it to use.

Although I wasn’t able to get crafty while I was away, I did manage to find myself a few projects for the near future.  Good trade off, I think.

When I got back into town, I took the money I hadn’t spent on my trip and went on a shopping spree on the Firemountain Gems website.  Pretty soon I’ll have even more yummy items to add to my jewelry supply stash.

Day Seven:

The cinnamon seed bead necklace is finally finished!  Originally I was planning to make it permanently twisted, but in the end I decided to do it so it can be work like pictured above, or the wearer can twist it themselves before putting it on.

I may add a pendant of some kind to this necklace, just as soon as I can find one that I like.

Day Eight:

Amazonite rondelles and rounds, with Cone Shell heishi beads as spacers.  I love the color of amazonite and find it to be very relaxing.  I purchased a lovely 36″ strand of the heishi beads a while back and thought they would look lovely with the amazonite.

From tomorrow until sometime Sunday evening, I will be off on vacation (going up to a small town near Lake Tahoe).  I’m unable to take my crafting supplies with me, which means I won’t be able to get anything done. Boo!  However, I will be stopping at several bead stores during the drive up there. I hope to score a bounty of wonderful finds.

See you all when I get back!

Wow, I can’t believe I got so far behind in posting!  I guess that’s what happens when you’re sick… and when your camera battery is dead.  Whoopsie!  It also doesn’t help that my husband and I are trying to get all the preparations done for our upcoming vacation.

Even though I wasn’t able to post, I was able to get some crafting in. So here are days four, five, and six (and then I should be caught back up):

Day Four:

Day four was a bit of a failed experiment.  I saw a similar design in a magazine and wanted to try my own variation.  The chain I used was too small and, at first, too long.  I trimmed it down some, but then I realized the beaded strand was too long as well. Argh!

Although I will be breaking this one back down for parts, I would like to revisit this design in the future.  With the right materials and with proper measuring, it should come out looking quite a bit better than this (which admitedly doesn’t look quite as bad as this photograph would lead you to believe).

Day Five:

New Jade, Black Onyx, and silver.  I must say, I’m not very fond of the new jade I used in this one.  It’s too strong and too strange of a green for me .  I also don’t much care for the Czech bead I used to keep the new jade donut on.  Originally I had planned to use another onyx bead, but the ones I had were either too large or too small.  Other than these things, I’m pretty happy with the overall design and will probably try this in another colour scheme.

Day Six:

This is the start of my current project.  Two out of five strands that I will be turning into a twisted necklace.  The seed beads are a beautiful cinnamon color (think brownish dark red).  Unfortunately, they seem to be of dubious quality.  They’re quite un-uniform in size and hole width, plus a number of them are so malformed that they’re unusable. Normally I get my seed beads from Firemountain Gems, but I decided to try out my local bead shop.  This seems to have been a mistake and I don’t think I will be patronizing them very much, if at all.

Each strand has taken me approximately half an hour to forty minutes to complete and I’ve had to take frequent breaks because of the pain in my wrists.  I think it will be well worth the effort, though, and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished piece.

I’m an avid World of Warcraft player and I recently invested in one of the authenticators that are offered to help make your account more secure.  I still haven’t recieved it in the mail yet, but I thought I’d jump ahead and find a way to keep it from getting lost once it does get here.  My solution? A lanyard.

Originally I was going to braid one up on my kumihimo disc but my husband requested that it be beaded instead. So I went ahead and whipped this up:

Black Onyx, African Turquoise, and antiqued silver beads. At over thirty-six inches long (if I were to unloop it), this thing is mammoth… and with all those beads, it’s also quite weighty.  Definetly not something appropriate to wear as a necklace or badge holder, but it hangs quite nicely on the wall and adds a nice splash of color to our bare walls.

I had to keep it color neutral since I play Horde and my husband made the awful mistake of playing Alliance. ;)

I’ve also started working on a new bracelet using aquamarine squares, but I have to do some research on the best stitch to use to hold it all together before I can really get started, so no pictures for now.

For day two, I decided to take some time out from my jewelry making and concentrate on making the decorative packaging I use when shipping a piece out.  For bracelets, most earrings, and smaller necklaces I ship them out in baggies.  Plain baggies are dull and unattractive, so I liven them up by using decorative papers to showcase my jewelry.

It’s not a complicated process, although it can be a bit time consuming (especially when it comes to picking the right background for a piece).

My tools for this project are:
- scrapbooking papers (I love Martha Stewart’s papers because they’re quite lovely AND they’re double sided, but anything works, really)
- plastic baggies (you could use something else if you prefer)
- scissors
- a hole punch (for making earring holes and what not)
- a paper scorer
- a cutting board (you could stick to scissors, but I find this gives a much more uniform edge on cuts)

Read more…

National Novel Writing Month is now upon us.  As I’m not much of a creative writer, I tend not to participate.  Many of my friends do, however, and I get a little jealous watching them have their fun.  Apparently I’m not the only one, since one brave soul over at the craftgrrl community on lj felt the same way and decided to do something about it.  She’s gone ahead and started organizing National Craft-Making Month, a NaNoWriMo alternative for the crafty.  You can learn more about it and check out what other participants are doing here.

I’ve decided to focus mainly on my jewelry this year, but will hopefully also be able to throw in some variation (like packaging for my etsy shop and small sewing projects).

For day one, I’ve come up with a Amethyst nugget bracelet featuring a gold toggle clasp.

It’s incredibly simple, but with a stone as lovely as Amethyst, I don’t find it necessary to make an extravagent piece.  There are a couple more pictures in the gallery, if you’d like to take a closer look.