Planets in Space - Take 2

Yesterday I finished the second version of Planets in Space, the necklace I made with my first polymer clay cabochon/cane project. 

I incorporated the moon, 3mm Swarovski crystals, and star beads plus I added some AB black teardrops that I found when I rummaged around in the stash. I also found some 5-petaled flower beads to use as spacers on the ends of the peyote tubes.

And I even had enough of the peyote tubes to make a matching bracelet.

I am infinitely happier with this one than I was the previous one.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

I heard right away from the winner of my little contest. So it is officially done.

The Entrelac mitt is coming along fine. My method for making it smaller is working out fantastic. It fits so much better now. I'm one tier of squares before the thumb. The thumb is supposed to be done flat then seamed. I am anticipating doing it, figuring out how to do it in the round, frogging it, and doing it over my way (the thumb, that is). We'll see how it goes.

Last night we attended a party for my nephew Tyler. He has joined the army and will be shipping out for boot camp later this week. This was our opportunity to say good bye, good luck, keep yerself out of trouble, etc. I took the mitt with me to work on during conversations. I got a lot of compliments on it. Entrelac is fascinating to look at as well as do.

We got a lot of rain the last few days. I was beginning to wonder if I should get the kayak out of storage.It cleared up though and the sun is shining today. Rumor has it the next few days are going to be warm and sunny. As in, 50F degrees and warmer. I am so hoping that happens. If it does, I just may sit out on the deck in the sunshine and knit. Woot!

I am so sick of winter and it's drab color. I want spring with its bright green leaves. I think we are going to get an early one. There isn't nearly as much snow right now as there was this time last year. Hurray! The Parkarosa Bird buffet has been extremely busy with customers of late. The cats were finding it entertaining to sit on the windowsills and watch them.

Well, I need to sign off soon. Sweet Hubby is champing at the bit. On Friday our satellite dish signal went down. We're getting no signal at all. I've set up an appointment for the repair guy to come out on Monday. However Sweet Hubby went out and did a little investigating and figured out what was wrong (water got in and rusted out a wire connection). He wants to go into Coeur d'Alene to buy parts. If he can fix it, that'll save us the $95 to have repair guy come out.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Bracelet Swap

First, the big news. I finished knitting the hood for the lace cover up last night. Whoo hoo!!! Need to block it now, and find the instructions for the super stretchy bind off that I tried once and liked-argh. (Was that in the pattern for the Christmas garland I knitted 3 years ago? sigh)

In November I participated in an internet bead woven bracelet swap. The way it worked was we signed up, listing our favorite colors and the colors we hated, plus our wrist measurements. The Swap Mom then matched everyone up to a partner. When our bracelets were done, we sent them to Swap Mom, then she sent them on to the proper recipients. I had 2 partners, so I made 2 bracelets. I've been waiting until my partners got theirs before posting the pics I took of the bracelets. I didn't want to ruin the surprise for them.

As it turned out, one of my partners was Swap Mom. I think she did that cos we both love love love purple. That way we both get to bead something purple, and receive something purple.

This is a pattern I made up. I started with the Sidewinder pattern that was on the Howling Rabbit web site, which no longer exists. (I'm so glad I printed that pattern out.) It's basically a chevron stitch. I used that as my base, and went from there. I'm really pleased with the results. (I almost didn't send it in.) I used size 15 transparent purple seed beads and 4mm silver pearls.


My second swap partner mentioned she liked lilac and black, amongst other colors. So I put the two together, more or less, in this right angle weave bracelet. The pattern is in the August 2007 issue of Bead and Button magazine. The name of the pattern is 'Stripes Forever' and it's on page 110. I used dark bronze size 11 seed beads, satin finish lilac size 11 seed beads, and size 8 dark bronze drops.



I wanted to use a button for the clasp, but could not find one I liked. So I dug out the polymer clay and made one.


This is the second bead swap I've done. It's a lot of fun. I haven't received my bracelets yet, but I know they're on the way.

If you would like to see all the bracelets that were made for the swap, you can. Swap Mom took pics of them and made an online album. Click on the link:

Bracelet Swap 2007

Ruth is coming home for Christmas break today. She's bringing Lindy with her. I sure hope my fur kids remember her, and remember her fondly.

Have a great day.

I Think I've Been Short Yarned

On my way to bead group, yesterday, I stopped at the post office and asked Roger to weigh the Garter Rib sock and the left overs of the skein. A person can do those kinds of things in a small town post office. I wouldn't try it in a larger city though. They'd probably get irritated.

Anyway, Roger weighed the sock and said it's .9 ounces. The skein weighs 1.1 ounces. He then declared "You have enough." What I found interesting was that I don't think it's the first time someone has asked him to do that. I thanked him profusely for his help while the customer behind me laughed her head off. She thought the whole thing was hilarious. Here's the first sock. Isn't it purty?



I've cast on the second sock. However, a question comes to mind. 1.1 oz + .9 oz = 2 oz. This is supposed to be a 3.5 oz skein. Where is the missing 1.5 ounces??? I'm seriously suspicious. I think I've been short yarned. I've been knitting from the center (after all, that's the whole point with pull skeins, right?) and I've been quite frustrated with how much the inside is a tangled mess. Huge globs of knots have had to be undone while working on these socks. This just adds evidence to the possibility of having a short yarned skein. Sweet hubby said "What difference does it make if you've got enough for the second sock?" I paid close to 20 bucks for 3.5 ounces. Not 2. It's the principle of the thing. Sigh...I don't want to think about this anymore.

On to more positive things. At bead group I finished a Biva Nepal style bracelet. I call this the Raspberry bracelet. I started it last spring, but got side tracked. Decided to finish it yesterday because I've got a friend with a birthday coming up tomorrow. I'm going to give this to her. I think I'll pop a little piece of silver safety chain on it first though. There's a magnetic clasp on this bracelet. They tend to come apart if snagged on anything. I don't want my friend to lose her bracelet because of that.


This is the polymer clay button I made for the swap bracelet. Not my best work, but it is the best I could do. (I've still got a LOT to learn about working with polymer clay.) I don't know how to smooth that top out any more than I have. I used my Dremel to polish it as best I could. It does have a nice sheen to it that doesn't show in this photo though. I'm not showing the whole finished bracelet because there's a chance the partner who gets this might visit my blog. I want the bracelet to be a bit of a surprise. That's part of the fun of a swap like this.


I took this picture of my Burning Bush yesterday. It's getting prettier and prettier each day.



Oh yes, one more thing. I was a bad girl last night. I found a really great sale on Opal yarn at Little Knits, an online knitting catalogue. At 47% off, I couldn't resist. I've ordered some solids. I've got tons of printed sock yarns. I need some solids for the more intricate stitch patterns I want to do.

Have a great day.

Beautiful Weekend

We are having the most beautiful weather this weekend! Yesterday the sun shined all day, the sky was a cloudless crystal blue, and it was so nice and warm. Sweet hubby and I puttered in the yard, getting things ready for the winter. Blowing out the sprinklers, draining the pipes in the trailer, cleaning the icky stuff out of the garden and stuff like that. I soaked as much of the suns rays as I could while I was at it.

Ruth is home for the weekend, being lazy. She needs the break. Last weekend she had a nasty accident on her Geology field trip to Nevada. She fell down a steep slope, getting bonked in the shoulder by a very large boulder that ended up going down with her. She's very lucky to be alive. Even luckier still, nothing got broken. Just a bruised shoulder (where the boulder struck her), some scrapes, a sprained lower back muscle, some bruised ribs, and scared wits.

Last night Frank and Sarah came over for dinner. We played a game called Munchkins. I know it must be a very fun game because you're collecting treasure, casting curses on the other players, and whatnot. But for the life of me, I just couldn't seem to get the game. It was very frustrating. Maybe I can talk them into bringing the game over again some time for another try at it.

Today is yet another gorgeous fall day. Sweet hubby and I are in agreement. The fall color is especially brilliant this year. We usually have pretty coloring in the fall, but this year stuff that isn't ordinarily brilliant is downright gorgeous. Even my Burning Bush is pretty. I've had this bush a good ten years and it's yet to actually get red leaves in the fall. Usually they turn a dark burgundy, then all fall off. They're supposed to be a brilliant florescent red. Well, this year about 1/3 of the bush is it's proper fall color. I'm enjoying it very much. I have to admit, though, I gave it a good scolding last week. I found it interesting that later in the day of the scolding, red started to appear. I wish I'd thought of it years sooner.

I am waiting, at this very moment, for the polymer clay oven timer to 'ding'. I finished the bead weaving of the first bracelet I'm making for the bracelet exchange. I couldn't find a proper button to use for the clasp, so I'm making one using my polymer clay. I'm not very good with PC yet, so it's not going to be a professional looking job, but it will be much better than what's available in the stores around here. I actually used some of the beads in the button. Just pressed them into the clay. I'm anxious to get it done. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.

Oop! There's the ding! Have a great day.

The Book Has Begun

I did not sew that piggy together last night. I decided I can sew piggy together some other day, and I started the first model for the book. Just a nice, easy, basic pattern to use as a foundation for the rest of the designs. Took me 10 minutes to figure out what needed to be done (God, I'm smart-hee hee!). Knitted it up in just 3 hours. Now I need to sew the side seams, slap on a strap, and it's done.

Writing it up won't take long. Maybe a whole paragraph of instructions. But I need to do some research to find out what is considered 'standard' notation for bead knitting patterns in the publishing industry. It will mean a quick trip to a dangerous place for me to go--(begin spooky music here) Barnes and Noble. My bank account always takes a large hit when I go into that store. I just LOVE books so much!

Something else I need is test knitters. It's all fine and dandy to write up patterns, but I need folks to test them for me and make sure I haven't missed anything in the proofreading. Where on earth am I going to find test knitters?????? Some of the patterns will be easy-peasy. But some are gonna be bloodcurdling-difficult, so I need knitters who know what they're doing. Hmmm....I will have to think on this problem.

Our tax refund arrived. Hurray!!!! I logged onto Amazon today and transfered the wish list to the shopping cart. Woo Hoo! Gonna love getting that box. It'll be like Christmas. Ordered a few books, couple dvds, and a drill press for my dremel. I'm working on some lovely disc shaped beads in polymer clay (learning how to do swirly patterns) and it occured to me that getting a straight hole through it without mashing it is gonna be near impossible for me. I will bake them holess and drill holes in later-with the drill press.

Learned an important lesson in blogging. Don't use urls for pics on here. Last Fridays blog I used pics in my Yahoo Groups album. Suddenly, they disappeared from the blog. Don't know what is going on, but I'm never doing that again. I place the pic in my blog files, or I don't post it. Yeesh!

Went walking with Jean and Cindy this morning. I was still feeling pretty tough from the bug I caught over the weekend, but decided to brave it anyway. I'm so glad I did. By the end of the two miles my tummy was feeling so good. We saw 3 Marmots. They're living in the rocks along one part of the trail we're walking (bike trail between the river and the freeway). They're so cute! Like giant gerbils. Ah yes...gerbils. Now there's a walk down memory lane, which I'll share some other time.

Have a good day!