Playtime

Just playing with beads:simple earrings, wire strung bracelet and the red and gray on the elastic. All learning experiences. Top photo: my third peyote bracelet this time with earrings to match.

Rypan Fanned waves bracelet

This Ukrainian type bracelet designed by Maria Rypan was in Beadwork Feb 2005. It took me a little longer because I wanted to use my new Toho beads my son brought me. They are really a bit hard to work with in this design but I think they would be just great for eyeglass holders and items where it's mostly stringing. Up next is another Maria project that just arrived in a new Step by step beads.

crocheted wizard scarf and hat

My son agreed to model this scarf and hat. He's wearing a Starmore fairisle done a few years ago. To crochet the scarf I used stash yarn that was worsted wt. I needed 160 grams of the red and just small amount of the gold. My hook was 5.00mm. Chain 30 sts and work every row 28 double crochet stitches (dc). Pattern was *rows 1-8 in red, row 9, gold, row 10, red, row 11 gold and then repeat from *. Work until you feel it's long enough. My scarf measures 8.5"x63".

Hat was the basic one. Start with 4 chain sts and close the circle. Do 6 hdc into the center of the ring for first row.
2nd row: inc in each st.
3rd row: *Inc in first st, hdc* repeat from *.
4th row: *Inc in first st, 2 hdc* repeat from *.
5th row: *Inc in first st, 3 hdc* repeat from *
Continue in this way until you have a diameter of approx 7". At that point just work hdc without increasing until it fits over your ears.
I ran out of the red so continued on with the gold color.

Cheviot gardens

I finally finished it just n ot in time to wear now. It's a Kaffe Fassett in fairisle with Rowan dk cotton. I added pockets and changed the neckline but used the same colors. The pattern is Rowan knitting magazine #19.
I'm holding the line and not adding to my yarn stash. But my children are adding to my bead collection. Danny just came home from Capetown and surprised me with a bag of Tohu beads from Japan. Remember readers: train your kids right and you can be like me!
The red car is great, isn't it? my favorite color these days and my daughter has loaned it to me as she won't let me ride the buses.

J&S shetland chunky raglan

I love this sweater. The J.Fee book is my help when making raglans and so far they have all come out well. The yarn comes from Jamieson & Smith and is being discontinued and is a very good purchase.

new bracelets

These were from Bead and button and I made them for bead class. The teacher approved but it was a learning experience and next time they will be better. I discovered that the red one which is peyote stitch, was a lot of fun to make. However I need to use smaller seed beads so that t he bugles stay closer to each other. For the green one, I didn't have the right beads so just used what was available locally. It was nice but quite complicated with a lot of steps and threads.

Russian netted necklace

This took 3 days as I found a knot and had to redo quite a bit. It was a homework assignment and I think it came from a Russian pattern but it could also be Ukrainian or Polish in origin. I have some books by Maria Rypan with similar work; but without the assignment I would have not been pushed to make it. It's the kind of jewelry I really like. The beads are t he small Japanese ones and the thread was Fireline 6 pound. Except for that one knot, it's very good and doesn't give me problems with knots.