Original Tila herringbone necklace

I submitted this to Beadwork and it was rejected. It uses herringbone and Tila beads in ladder stitch.

Roberti bracelet

Russian spiral

Tila bracelet

My adaptation of a design by Jane Cruz and which can be downloaded from the Bead a nd button website. I used 3mm crystals instead of pearls.

own necklace design

Skobel necklace

can be found online.

Cube bead bracelets

Tami was wearing a bracelet like this an d it seemed a great design for using up my 4mm cube beads.

Cape by Gaughan from Wrap style

Great for keeping warm at night in bed! Slalom aran wool was used and it is a bit heavier than that called for in the pattern.

details of sweater below. neck and inside pocket

Edwardian day coat by Oberle

This was started a year ago. I made several changes. Yarn was Galway worsted which is warm so I changed the v neck to a round one without her collar. I added after thought pockets which were knitted to the inside bottom with the 3 needle bind off after unpicking one stitch to begin the pocket. I am wary of her instructions to change needle size to get the gauge as it doesn't work for me. The pattern is quite lovely but at one point I was sure I had made a serious mistake only turned out I was wr ong on that.

Beadwork triangle bracelet

This is from the June 2011 Beadwork issue and I changed it at the end by adding Swarowski size 4 crystals in the center holes. The instructions as written are not correct.

Tila necklace

Design from Beadwork Oct 2011. I changed the bottom from 9 drops to 7 as forgot to buy 9. It's pretty easy and could make a nice bracelet with a small change. the new booklet from Bead a nd Button has a nice bracelet which looks like the bracelet adaptation I had in mind. And it has crystals. Have to make that one soon

some russian spirals

I have the white russian book but yesterday I learned two more of the Russian spirals. The first one which is really pretty is to use size 11 beads plus two bigger ones which could be crysals or 8s. A good combination is a dark color for the 11s plus two lighter ones which should be about the same size. Start with a circle of 7 beads of size 11. go through again. Then add 3 eleven plus one of the other beads. Continue again on next second bead, etc. On following rows, you add 3 of the eleven beads plus one of the others into the last of the eleven beads just before the larger one and you alternate the larger beads each time you add. Tighter tension is good. I use a nylon bead thread. There will be 4 large beads on the outer row at the top.

The second Russian spiral is easier with just 2 colors. Start with 9 beads: First bead of one color and then two beads of next color a nd repeat for total of 9 beads. Then on next row add the two smaller beads (size 11) plus one of the larger one into the smaller bead after the larger one on previous row. so the beads will be arranged large, 2 small a nd you enter the first of the small beads coming out between the two small beads. Keep a tight tension here. The top row will have 3 large beads at the top. This spiral is narrower than the top one and better for a bracelet or bangle.

aran cardi from old Paton's leaflet

Second time I've made this. this time size 40 and it fits me well. Time before I did 44 and it was too big. But when the recipient died and I saw how his heirs were fighting over it, I decided to make it again, this time for me.

Tumbling blocks

The pattern is from Beadwork, June/July 22011 p. 62

designer knitting, aka vk

I just got another issue of Designer knitting or what is known in the states as Vogue Knitting. This is the early autumn 2011 issue and it has nothing in it that interests me except for some ads. There are no arans or fair isles, no vests. There is a poncho a nd some lacey stuff and several new designers. Deborah Newton has something with 2 colors. And also interesting is a granny square vest by Sui but her colors are very ugly. Universal yarn has an interesting aran in its ad. Across from it is a Koigu mitered whatever. My favorite ad is from Ozeyarn of an aran something by Jane Slicer-Smith. Anyway, I'm having problems subscribing as the price has to be sent to England which makes it prohibitively expensive. However for $4.99 I can pick it up on my Ipad. The problem is that there's nothing I want so no reason for it. I'm beginning to think that this magazine has become rather old fashioned. There seem to be more interesting newer ones out there. I got a gift subscription from my penpal to Love of knitting. This issue from summer 2011 has lots of practical, useful things. Nice throw by Leapman and a chevron lap robe, There's a vest and a summer top with short sleeves. all easy knitting but something I just might do one day.
Meanwhile I just need to sew on some buttons to the aran cardi from an old leaflet so I cast on the sleeve for an aran pullover.

Ohl bracelet in Beadwork supplement

new earrings: McCabe book

Roberti earrings

spiral bracelet

Spiral bracelet. Core is gold 6mm and around are 3 purple 6mm. Embellished with picot of pink crystal, small gold, pink crystal using back stitch, Also embellished with white crystal and gold bead

Хор Турецкого - Кошерное попурри

light and shadows

more Jaffo with manual

shots of Jaffo

Learning to use manual on camera

I have a Nikon D50 my son gave to me. It takes beautiful pictures but I wanted to know how to use the manual as that is apparently the best way to handle light a nd get good shadows. So yesterday I was up at 4:30am and drove to Jaffo where my class was meeting by the famous clock with eli, our teacher who is a professional newspaper photographer. Most of us didn't know anymore than I did so I felt pretty good after awhile. Eli showed me quickly where the manual was and how to find the famous 0. I think my camera is hard to use as the same screw works for both getting the number 60 and the 0. what we were doing was taking photos in the "magic" hour when the sky and the ground get the same light. The sun hadn't woken up yet and it was also raining which helped to prolong the magic hour. First we shot towards the east and then as the light came up turned south and west. Then we proceeded up and down hill finally reaching the port with the fishing boats. After that we started back an d I got a few good shots showing light and shade and finally walked back to our starting point. We learned to check the light source using our hand as a focus for the light. when we could get the 0 on our camera focusing on our hand or at some points (in the rain and shade) on the ground, then we were set to photograph.