5 posts tagged “beading”
I know that my blog's been pretty slow lately. First I had spring break, and then when I came back I had so much to say that I would start writing up a post, only to end up saving it rather than posting it because it was still incomplete. Does that ever happen to you? So much to say that you don't say anything at all? Well, it's not so much to say, necessarily, it's that I have a lot of pics and the like to add, link to, and post. Anyways, instead of posting content, I've been posting memo's, videos, and other filler. They're a lot quicker than actually writing something.
But I'm biting the bullet, so here it goes. This is my first second week back from spring break, and getting back into the swing of things is being somewhat problematic. It's amazing how much a week off can get you used to doing what you want, and doing absolutely no homework. Over the past three days Mid last week I slowly started to do my homework again. It's very sad, but it's taking me a while to get used to being in school again.
Spring break was wonderful, if incredibly busy. On Monday I went to Vancouver BC with a friend, where we spent the day. We went to Stanley Park, and just had a bunch of fun hanging around downtown all day. When we were at Stanley Park I picked up this little guy.
It became very fitting as later we saw these guys. How apt of a purchase
The rest of spring break was spent hanging out with friends, and it was pretty busy. On Sunday, I took the Amtrak back to school, where my sister picked me up and we went to Powell's, the largest used and independent bookstore in the world(my sister got me a Powell's gift card for my 19th birthday; she knows me too well) where I got the Harlot's new book as well as The Best of Knitter's Arans and Celtics. I love both books. There are multiple designs in Arans and Celtics that I love, but these two are my favorites.
Best of all, they are arans/celtics with SHAPING! Not only that, they also come in my size. No changing needed! I love it. It's going to be my next project after Edna.
Speaking of projects, I have quite a few going. I reorganized my closet which included reorganizing my knitting. Unfortunately, Vox does not allow for the customization of sidebars, otherwise I'd list my WIP's there. I'm seriously thinking of also posting on my Blogger account (still posting here too, cause I love it here) simply because Blogger let's me mess around with it more.
WIP's
- Clessidra from Knitty, using Knit Picks Essential
- Bunny Hop baby blanket for whomever in my family has a child next (several of my cousins have gotten married in the past few years)
- The Counterpoint baby blanket for my friend who's expecting in September
- Edna, of course
- Jaywalkers (I ripped all the way back and started them over)
- Great American Aran Afghan
These are the 6 that, when I have time to knit, I knit on. However, unfortunately knitting time has been lacking lately mainly because my time is taken up by school, and when it isn't I'm either reading or beading. Beading had taken over knitting time for a while because I hurt my thumb and could neither knit nor spin, but I could awkwardly bead. Now though, my thumb is nearly 100% and I can get back to knitting!
I finished
Guess what I made? I'm so incredibly proud of myself!
And of course I made a few pairs of earrings while I was home during Spring Break.
I know it's been over a week since I last posted, but I promise you, I come ready with excuses! Last week was a bit insane due to my huge essay midterm (write 2 complete essays (including thesis statements) in an hour and a half as well as write the answers to the 'short answer' questions, which mean paragraphs), so I wasn't able to post then.
But at the heart of the matter is that this is a crafting blog, and for the last week and a half, I have been unable to knit, spin, and until a few days ago, bead. I injured my thumb on Sunday the 11th, and it's currently in a brace. When I went to the health center on campus they said that it was probably a weird sprain, but that if it got worse or didn't get better within a week, to come back in and they'd refer me to the hospital to get an x-ray. It was worse by Wednesday, so I made an appointment for Thursday only to have it canceled because the practitioner was sick. The woman on the phone brushed me off, saying since I couldn't remember doing anything to it that it was almost assuredly not a break, so I shouldn't come back in. Yet come Tuesday of the next week, it was even worse, even with taking 1800-2400mg of Ibuprofen a day. Yes, you read that correctly. The practitioner prescribed me 9-12 pills of Advil a day. So today I'm going in again to see the nurse practitioner, and hopefully get a referral to get an x-ray.
Don't worry though; there will still be lots of pictures and other things!
Anyways, since my thumb is out of commission, my crafting has been incredibly reduced. The only thing I can do is bead, and even that is quite a bit slower and more awkward than normal. I have made a few things though, and I can show you the knitting I was working on before I injured my thumb.
This is Clessidra, from the Spring Knitty. I'm using the Knit Picks Essential Solid (75% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon) in Burgundy, which is ridiculously soft. It looks like this yarn may be prone to pilling, but we'll see. I'm using one of my Lantern Moon bamboo circs, which I use when I do cables without a cable needle on socks.
As for beading, I made some Bluebell earrings.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but a few weeks ago when my sister and I went to Buffalo Exchange, I found an incredible purse. And I do mean incredible. 100% real leather (it creaks and everything!) that has been carved/burned into a beautiful rose design.
The detail on this bag is simply amazing. I think it's relatively old, although if anyone can contradict that, I'd be happy to know. I am completely in love with this bag. It's common knowledge in my family that I'm an avid bag collector; I just love having new purses. I am a bit picky though. Any bag has to fill several criteria. One, it has to be unique. I try to avoid the bags you find at Sears, or everywhere. You know the ones, the ones that although they may be made by different companies, they all look the same. Two, it has to be colorful. And obviously, I have to love it.Those are really my only criteria, but you'd be surprised how much that eliminates. Of course, if the bag is so extremely colorful it may overpower the fact that I found it at Macy's. But even then, because it's so colorful, not that many people will have it, at least in the surrounding area.
This Saturday I went to see the Plain White T's. Since it was an all ages concert and it was St. Patricks day (Portland really gets into it) there were a lot of high schoolers there; a few too many for my tastes. However, the concert was amazing. I moshed for hours in the pit, so when I came back I was exhausted. I was going to buy their cd, but I figured since I can buy that anywhere I'd get a tshirt instead. I'll have to pick up their CD later.
I'm going home on Friday! Go spring break!
Lookie! I can't stop making them!
Surprisingly, I've had quite a good day. It's surprising because the day didn't start out so well. I studied the completely wrong things for my criminology exam this morning, so I was a bit annoyed about that. Unfortunately, it happens, as it was the first test of that class.
However, my calculus teacher drastically reduced the amount of homework that's due on Friday, which is also when our exam is. And I found out that I passed my Gateway, so I don't need to be bothered with that anymore. I was sure I hadn't passed it, which is what made it such a surprise.
Secondly, I made some beautiful earrings last night. I finished the Holiday Star earrings, as well as started and completed another pair of what I'm calling Purple Star earrings.
I'm simply loving my earring book. It's amazing. I'm so glad I bought it in spite of it's bad binding and the bad shape it was in. In the back, it has diagrams and explanations of several different kinds of stitches like right angle weave and brick stitch, so since I don't have any money to buy wire supplies right now, I'm going to create my own patterns for earrings using the seed beads and other beads I have on hand. I think I'm going to make at least one more pair of the Holiday earrings; I just love their design.
And lastly, I made these. I'm calling them Sparkling Heart earrings. I love them, but I'm definitely going to have to go out and buy some wire in bulk so I can practice making wire wrapped loops. Part of the problem was that I didn't have enough space left on the head pins, but I know a lot of it was due to the fact that this is a brand new skill and I'm not used to doing it. Of course, even though on the second one (the one on the left) I left a little bit too much wire before the loop resulting in that earring being a little bit longer than the other, the wrap looks a lot better than the one on the right.
Like I needed another one, right? What's this new addiction of mine? Notice I don't say hobby. Frankly, I think that anyone who is as obsessed with knitting and spinning as I am (and there are many of us) are in too deep to consider it a hobby. My new obsession is beading.
It's amazing how one addiction leads to another, kind of like gateway addictions. First, it was knitting, which I loved so much I wanted to start producing my own yarn, so it got me into spinning. Knitting also got me into bead knitting, where you knit the bead into the fabric. This introduced me to the wonderful world of beading. It was temptation itself to enter a bead store and to see all the bright and shiny things. Even if I didn't know what to do with it past using it in knitting, or bead knitting, I still was attracted to it. I started thinking: 'You know, I really like to wear unique dangly earrings. Earrings which I normally buy from small local and independent sellers. Wouldn't it be cool if I could make my own? They'd be the ultimate unique earrings, and once I accumulated a stash of beads, they'd actually be less expensive than buying them.' This train of thought has been in my head for over a month and a half, but what was really deterring me from getting started was the fact that I couldn't find a good book. There were plenty of good intro books to beading, but they only had one, maybe two projects of earrings, if I was lucky. At this point in time, I'm really not that interested in making anything else, although that may change. So a book dedicated to everything else probably wasn't for me.
Then. on Saturday, I found a book dedicated entirely to earrings. So far, without looking on the internet, it remains the only book that I've ever seen dedicated solely to earrings. It's called Beadwork Creates Earrings, and is wonderful. Look what I made!!!
My roommate's going to sleep, so I have to switch over to my laptop so my typing is quieter, so more on this later.
I'm going to bed. 'night.
