"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

4/13/07

Some Bead Knitting I've Done

Don't have a lot of news today, 'cept I had my very first spinning lesson this morning on a Navajo Spindle. Jean gave me some wool roving to work with that is so soft. Cindy gave me the actual lesson. It took awhile for me to understand just exactly what I was supposed to be doing, but eventually the light bulb came on in the ol' noggin. Then it got really exciting.

I took along my one and only fleece to see if it was worth spinning. It is, thankfully. I've been saving this fleece for 12 years. Back then I had sheep, and my brother-in-law had sheep too. He had a barn, we don't, so we kept our sheep with his sheep. Dan had a ram named Rambo. Rambo was part Ramboulette and part mongrel, and he was the meanest nastiest ram a person could ever meet. He was Rambo for a reason. That idiot loved to knock things around with his empty, none-the-less hard as a rock head. He broke fingers holding onto the fence, he literally tore one side of the barn down--broke right through it. Once he got me right in the stomach and threw me up and back over five feet. I had a dinner plate sized bruise for weeks. Anyone and everyone who got within shouting distance got thumped by Rambo.

Rambo was also mean to the lambs. I had a nice crop of lambs the last year we had sheep. One was a purebred Suffolk ram lamb, another was a pure Columbian ram lamb. They were absolutely gorgeous animals. Rambo broke both their necks (they were 2 of the 4 lamb necks he broke that spring). Broke my heart too. But--he got his just desserts a few days later.

There was a rope hanging from the rafters in the barn. One night Rambo got out of his stall. He got his neck caught in that rope and literally hung himself. Dan buried him (we figured he'd be to darn tough to eat). I danced on that animals grave--literally. I was SO relieved to have him gone. Shortly after that, when the lambs were old enough, I sold off all my sheep. I decided I would wait until I have my own barn near my house so I can take proper care of them. I'm still waiting for that barn.

My fleece comes from Rambo. I think it would be very sweet justice to wear him-either on my back, or better yet--felted slippers for my feet so I can 'walk all over him'. Heh heh...I know, I'm a little touched in the head.

But enough about Rambo. He's been gone a long long time. I thought I'd share some more pics of my bead knitted treasures.

These are fish. The designs are from FiberSpace Patterns. They were SO much fun to make. Very easy too. I'm quite impressed with these folks patterns. They're very well written. These fish are also available as kits. You see here the Fantasy Fish, the Clown fish, and the Yellow Tang. I put a quarter and a penny in the pic so you can get a feel for the size. I hang them on the Christmas tree each year.




This is the Triangle Bag, also by FiberSpace. It's very very easy to make.


This is my own design. I'm still trying to think of a catchy name for it. For now, I call it the 3-strip bugle bag because the beads are size 1 Bugles. I made a dog collar that goes with it too. The bag is now in my sister-in-laws possession (last years Christmas gift from me), the collar is still around here somewhere.



This is a pic of the dog collar.


This is my Tommy wearing the collar. He's so handsome.


This is one of my favorite pendant bags. The pattern is not available, nor can I share it. Suffice it to say, a business deal between me and a then friend went very very sour, so it got taken off the market before it got very far. I was so upset at the time I even tore up my own copy of the pattern, which in retrospect was kind of dumb. I could still make them for me, but I was pretty hurt at the time. No matter. I have this one. I think Woodland Woolworks might have a couple still available (they were our first, and last, wholesale order). It's still one of my favorites though. It's so...elegant.


That's all for now. I'll post more pics another day.

I did start actually writing my book last night. When I'm going to start a big project, I like to think about it for awhile before I actually do anything. That's what I've been doing since I announced here I'm writing a book. A person has to have a PLAN! You can't just go off whillynilly or the thing will never get done.

Last night, Doug and I went out to dinner, and while waiting for our order--the plan came together, just like that. Just "BOOM" and it was there. I know what I'm going to do. I got so excited! I pulled an old envelope out of the purse and started writing like crazy. Got the whole outline done before my enchilada showed up. Worked up over 30 new designs-most of which I guarantee you will have never seen before. Now I need to start knitting up those designs. This is going to be great fun!

Have a nice day.

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