peyote bracelet

For this two step peyote I dropped bead sizes to a 10 for the base and then even smaller for the side trim. It fits nice and I'm pleased with the stitch. I also tried it out on a larger bead and it was awful so I think to get it tight one needs small beads or delicas that fit together.

Lucy's purple

This is a 2 drop peyote stitch. I used inexpensive beads of the approx size called for in the pattern from Beadwork creates bracelets. I found that this stitch was extremely loose possibly due to the beads or the thread I used but not entirely. The pattern called for embellishment and I added a bit more as the bracelet needed it. However, it is very pleasant to wear and the peyote stitch is great fun. I used c-lon.
I started it again with different beads and discovered a mistake on row 1. You should string 8 beads on the first row and not 10 beads. But now I'm wondering if the beads shouldn't be size 10 instead of size 8.
I got more new books today: Bead and button: Easy beadwoven bracelets which is really terrific. I hope to make most of them and many were not in the magazine. Also their Making wire jewelry which at this point looks less interesting. Harte, Beading beautiful costume jewelry. This appears to be mainly netting. Her instructions are a puzzlement but the pictures show really beautiful pieces. Blizzard, Beads for all seasons. This is a compilation from Annie's attic and may be some kind of cousin to the magazine Simply beads but I was disappointed on first view as everything is so simple.

Burnham Crystal greens

I have such wonderful bead books. Stephanie Burnham recently published "100 beaded jewelry designs" (Interweave Press) and this one is her choker called Crystal greens. There is a slight error in the instructions and I used fireline 4 but next time might try wires.

Rypan netted diamonds

Published in Step by step beads for Jan/Feb 2006. Maria has succeeded in making the classic netted necklace in one step instead of 3 although it still was a 5-day necklace project. I used size 11 beads and my friend Tami told me she tried it with larger beads and it wasn't a success. She also pointed out a mistake in the chart on the yellow section on the right side as the chart is not symmetrical as published although the actual picture of the necklace looks fine. She also is making it now in same size beads as I did but in different colors and I'm waiting to see it. This is a
great necklace which deserves to be made again.

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.

Noro Iroha and beaded eyeglass holder

This Noro Iroha yarn has been sitting in my stash long enough now. It's 70% cotton, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon so would be excellent for my daughter only she is not into vests as I don't have enough of it for more.
The eyeglass holder was started last night from a kit of Toho that I bought in Tokyo last year before I had started beading and at that time the instructions made no sense. Now it's pure fun.
I was using a Clover tunisian crochet hook in metal for another project but had to go to knitting as the hook was very soft and really bent so it wasn't any fun to use it anymore. But it was a great hook otherwise. Anyone know where I can buy it again?

Caught some fish

I finally caught some fish.

first earrings

My daughter wanted earrings so this is my first pair from the Beadwork earrings book. I also finished a pair of socks for her using some Swiss yarn that got started at least a year ago.

hat

This is a hat using the Zilboorg vest pattern and leftovers. I hope you can see the closeup from the scan. It's a simple 6 row slipstitch pattern and could work with lots of yarns and colors. I enjoy wearing the vest and hopefully the hat but right now the weather is much too warm.

I'm busily crocheting a sweater in baby Grignasco yarn that I bought in Hongkong. I started the front in tunisian crochet and when the Clover hook bent on me, I switched to hdc for the back. I'll probably do something else on the sleeves.

My daughter arrived this week for a fast visit and was interested in my beading. I showed her a bracelet for class that I managed to do wrong twice. The joke is that she looked at the pattern and saw I had done the beginning wrong so now I have to restart from the beginning. I think she was very proud of herself for spotting my mistake and also enjoying th e whole thing too. More bead books arrived this week and I also found where my teacher took that bracelet pattern. It was a Japanese book that I happen to own. The instructions in the book are much easier than the teacher's were.

Ruffled rondelles

This was an unusual pattern in the Dec 2005 Bead and button by Maiko Kage of Japan. I made the 6 rondelles but had to remove one as it was too big for my wrist so now I have the start of either a pin an earring, or necklace, etc.

Class was not as interesting this week as we were assigned bracelets pretty much as in the first session of classes. The difference is that now we are using Beadalon nylon wire and adding embellishments plus using some crystals.

Teacher wouldn't tell me where the necklace pattern came from. Bummer. She also criticized my work which was fine with me. I certainly need help. The good part is that I'm making progress with the wirework. Beadstyle now begins to make a lot more sense to me. I still don't understand why they think it's simple. Not for me. I ran around yesterday and today buying some large crystals as I don't have any. We have two pretty good beadstores in town and both get their supplies from two different importers in Tel Aviv so there is a good selection. I try to avoid Tel Aviv, especially driving there.

Knitting: Yes I'm knitting a lot as now is the "winter" season here. I started the Zilboorg "Rosemary" sweater is the Liisu mohair/wool yarn. I really like this wool a lot as it has a very good strong feel to it. The Allspice vest was in the same yarn. For the pattern, I didn't like the way she does the Alsacian scallops as she changed Mary Phillips original pattern by knitting in the back of the stitch to twist it. But she managed to really complicate what is basically a simple pattern; so I dug out my Phillips book and am doing the scallops her way. I also had to rewrite the whole pattern due to my looser gauge so I'm now thinking about changing the sleeves to a raglan.

instructions and a whine

This a part of the instructions I got in class for the necklace below. If anyone recognizes the source please let me know as I would love to buy it. It's wirework, not netting.

Whining: Actually I'm in a great mood today. It's gorgeous outside and plenty of sunshine in my workroom. I just located a book with a pattern used by Zilboorg in her sweater I'm about to start and this pattern is much easier than hers. Yesterday I got FC easy crochet 2005. What annoys me is that every yarn in the magazine is Bernat but nowhere did it indicate that (not on the cover, not on the website, etc.) So I regard this magazine in the same way as I do the Lion brand stuff: with much loathing. Even though I do like Patons merino. I also got the fall Knitters and there is nothing I want to make, not even a hat. And they write I am entitled to one more issue still. More suffering to come. And finally yesterday I got the Sept/Oct Step by step beads in a plain white envelope. This must have been their second mail to me as the first one in a see-through never reached me; but meanwhile (hence the whine) I already ordered and received this copy from Beadbabe.

Well the mail today was considerably better; the new Bush sock opus. I want to compare it to the books I have here with similar patterns to see how they got changed and which ones I already have in my collection. I also got a book on beaded flowers French style and it calls for some kind of wire used by flower stores and I have no idea where to buy it either.

But in a few hours Israel is taking me out for Italian food at this place that really reminds me of Italy back in the late 50s. Life is good.

homework

This was my homework from bead class. It's the first homework I actually completed and the hardest one too. It took me almost the whole 2 weeks between classes as I had to go buy all the missing stuff. I'm still not pleased with the 4mm jumprings I bought.
If anyone recognizes this pattern, I'd like to know where it came from as I'd love to buy the book with it.
Knitwise: I'm working very nicely now on a butterfly pullover from Lori Ihnen's book of last year. I can only do about 3 circular rows a day as the fairisle design requires constant referral back and forth. I discovered in my supplies a great magnet kit from Clover that I bought in Hongkong. It sits on the pattern so I can at least find the right row. The fairisle pattern is 60 rows and I figure it will take me another 3 weeks. But after that, the rest of the sweater is just stripes and should really move quickly and then I will have a lovely sweater for me.
But I also went back into my unfinished sock collection and finished 2 of them after I gifted Israel with 3 pair of socks. He is so happy with them as they really keep his feet warm.
He kind of reminds me now of Woody Allen in the movie Annie Hall which I watched again last night. And I must be his Annie. I am as far removed from his culture and upbringing as is Annie from Woody. Instead of her singing I have my beads.

Zilboorg's Allspice finished

This was a lovely project and it went very quickly. The kit included 14-50 gram skeins of assorted colors and the pattern was a simple garter and slip stitch over 8 rows using 2 colors for 8 rows and then switching. Choice was mine. I also added pockets and buttons using different colors for each one. I bought the kit from Ellen of earthfaire.

Inviting vine

Tami: this is because of you. Thanks for telling me to keep on beading. The bracelet is from Bead and Button, Dec. 2005 by Donna Graves. It was quick and fun to make and I love it because it's not bombastic (I'm only 5'2"). I think this particular issue was very good so I will probably make a few more.

I got 4 more books this week plus the new VK. There's only one interesting sweater in it with some fairisle on the yoke section. The books are interesting. The new Sally Melville on color might just be the best knitting book of this year but still I have some questions. For example, why doesn't she ever say fairisle? Also, there seem to be some overlaps with this book and her first one using leftover yarns. However, I'm slowly reading it and find some very good information which I wasn't expecting and also a few possible items to knit.
Then: the 2 afghan books and one called New crochet by Terry Taylor. This one disappointed me but I'm not ready yet to explain why. One reason might be the special type of yarns such as hemp. I did like the bikini although I wish there had been a chart with the size. Too many items are just the regular type stuff. Anyway, maybe I'll write more on it later. If you are thinking of buying it, I'd suggest to hold off.
Join as you go afghans is all crochet and mainly granny square type things. The only difference is that the squares are joined so that at the end there's no sewing or joining which is rather nice.
Easy afghans for knitters seems to be a useful item and also has more from Barbara Venishnick and other type knitter/designers.
I was very excited to eat at the new Moses restaurant and was very disappointed with it. Everything arrived too salty so I won't be returning.

New Arrivals

Wonderful mail today:
Assemi Cheryl: Beaded elegance and beaded elegance too. These have lots of bracelets, necklaces and earrings. They look like easy to make but very attractive.
Stringing, Fall 2005. I counted the number of patterns and it is 68 and not 150+ as on the cover. Those extras are items on 4 pages and they have to be bought from various stores. I call this advertisements.

Knitting also came in:
Diagonal delight vest by Maureen Mason-Jamieson. This is quite an amazing pattern using slipstitch, garter st and mitred squares and uses dk yarns. Stash stash for this.
Then Knitscene which is a new item from Interweave press. I subscribe to Interweave knits so first of all I was annoyed that one has to buy this one separately but it seems to be the start of a new magazine or something. It also is geared for the new knitter or the one who wants instant gratification. On a quick glance there semm to be a few interesting sweaters but probably too easy to bother with. The magazine is also smaller in dimensions than IK.
Inknitters fall 2005 has a few interesting patterns as well. This magazine is not for sale outside of the U S and Canada.
However, being resourceful, I discovered that for $9 I can get them plus a few other items all sent by global priority airmail and that is a lot better than ordering just one of them. I recently ordered the crochet magazine from Interweave and I had to pay $12.50 just to get it to me by airmail. So for anyone not in the western hemisphere, contact me and I'll tell you how to get them for less.

63 easy to crochet: heirloom afghan; Morris fairisle

About 3 years ago at least, I bought some Decor in 3 colors for this gorgeous afghan by Darla Sims (Leisure arts #555). There's a Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/63AfghanCrochet and also a blogging group http://yarntomato.com/63squares/ doing this one. Anyway, I restarted it this weekend doing about 5 squares so far. The problem is getting them on gauge and for that one needs to be constantly checking and then changing the hook size. H or 5.00mm is the recommended hook but I find that 4.00mm is working for me although one square was good with the 5.00mm. The problem is getting the edge sc going around each square to work out to 25 sc. I can't do it. So I've decided to just make each edge look right and then when I finally sew them (after blocking) I will skip where I must in order to get them matched up.

I thought that maybe I would have to forget this one but I really do want to make it so that is my plan.

I also started a nice fairisle from an older Cast on (fall 2000) by Charlotte Morris using the Harrisville shetland style yarns also in my stash a few years. It looks like a very simple fairisle being only a 6 stitch repeat. So I have already changed the pattern. With 6 sts I see no reason why each size has to jump 24 sts so I want my fairisle to be around 45" on the chest and with my gauge of 7 sts=1", I know that about 320 sts around is right for me. So I rewrote that part of the pattern and also changed the # of ribbing sts.

Beading: I signed up for the second set of classes because I found that the Israeli train system is great and gets me very near to school in only 10 minutes from my town. The train is new, very clean and I would give it top rating except for a few points. There is a very long walk inside the terminals to the actual train. There are elevators but I took the elevator at the main center in Tel Aviv around 8pm when it was already dark outside. When the door closed, there was complete darkness until I reached the floor and the door opened. That was kind of scary. And also, while the announcements are great, they are only in Hebrew and there aren't many signs in English. I know that Tokyo or Hongkong have English also and I think this is a bad mistake. However, the employees that I met were very helpful. So because of this great train, I have signed up for another 6 classes and the teacher told me it is not beadweaving that I have previously learned. I think if all goes well, I will also take the next course after this one with the antique style of beading which uses wires and beads and is gorgeous.

bead crochet

Well, finally. I began to work on this last winter! failure, failure. My books were worse than useless as they gave me the wrong information. Finally, just by looking at it I figured out what to do. There are two books though that have some good points: Carol Wilcox Wells has it correct in her second book and Neiman in her book on this subject while very scanty on material does have a few decent tips. For some reason, this whole topic is top secret. If you want to learn you can pay $$ to learn and that's about it. Now that I've got it, I have to move along to smaller beads and different hooks and threads plus doing more interesting things with it.

autumn

This is a new project with a nearly finished raglan sleeve. The yarn is
Diadomina from Diakeito of Japan. The color is 308 and it looks like autumn colors to me. I'm doing a sleeve first to get the correct gauge for circular. I got exactly 4.5 sts= 1 inch on 3.75mm needles. And it looks tight enough to me although I think on the label it says 20 sts=10cm. There are 112 meters in this 40 gram ball and it seems to be going very far. I haven't finished the first one on the sleeve yet. I actually bought 20 balls, but am hoping I can do a raglan with just 10. I want to finish it quickly and also a few more that I bought of the Japanese yarns as I'm hoping to get back there in November. So I cast on for the body once the sleeve got quite far along. I'm using the instructions in the Jacqueline Fee book as usual. I've always found it successful with any weight yarn for the raglans.
I'm also on the final finish on the log cabin vest with the Koigu yarns and I just hate the whole thing. Each 2" square has 3 yarn ends to weave in and there are so may of these things. Never again. However, I think it is going to be a real stunner.

end of summer

I finished this nice cotton top in baby Sesia. I used a stitch pattern from the Stanfield book and then just winged it on the sleeves. I knit until I used up all the yarn or I would have made the sleeves longer. I actually didn't do the stanfield pattern correctly so I guess it's my own because the one in her book was more open and I preferred a more closed lace.