Christmasfied

I totally spaced a class today. I was scheduled to teach part 1 of a bead crochet class at 10:30am. I don't know why, but it totally left my mind about 2 seconds after noting to myself I had a class to teach today. At 11am I was working on this blog and thinking about how nice it was that I could spend the day decorating the house for Christmas when the phone rang. Oops!

That wasn't as embarrassing as the time I showed up for a doctors appointment a week early. Sigh. I knew I had an appointment that month (it was written down somewhere), just got the week wrong.

I just hate it when that happens. I know who I inherited it from too. My Dad. I used to get so frustrated when I was a kid because he'd ask me the same question 3 times, then promptly forget the answer as soon as I gave it. I do the same thing now. Urgh. I don't think it's early signs of Alzheimer's cos he's in his 70's and his memory isn't any worse now than it was then.

Anyway, as it turned out 2 of the 3 students who had signed up didn't even show up, let alone be late like me, and the third student, who very kindly waited until I could get there, turned out to be a friend of mine. She's used to my memory lapses so it all worked out.

I have Christmasfied the blog. I got the background tile from Pats Web Graphics. The tree tile in the banner is from there too, though I added some artistic license to it to make it more to my liking.

Another cool place for Christmas web graphics that are free is Hellas Multimedia.

I've knitted enough of my lace cover up to earn another shot of Yazi. Hooray!

Have a nice evening.

My Hand Aches

Note to self: Don't do bead crochet non-stop for 4 hours without taking proper rests. My left hand hurts like crazy. I got so excited about what I was doing I dropped into 'obsess' mode and forgot to come up for air. I have a lovely bracelet for my efforts though.


It was a good weekend. On Saturday morning Ruth came home for a visit. It was so good to see her. We didn't do much. Watched DVDs, took a trip to Costco, mostly talked. That was the best part. Talking with her. As my daughters get older I enjoy them more and more. It's great being able to have grown up conversations with them. They're so intelligent and whatnot that we can talk about really interesting stuff. Oh yes, we went to International House of Pancakes for lunch yesterday. I had Fruit Crepe Fever. Heh heh. They were scrumptious!

I taught my Right Angle Weave class on Saturday. I only had one student, but it went well. She had a finished bracelet at the end of class time. She really liked doing it too. I'd say I've created another obsessed bead weaver. She bought lots of beads to make more bracelets before she went home.

Ruth brought home a couple jewelry items she was hoping I could repair for her. One was a necklace made of black cylinders, washers, and round pewter beads on a leather cord. The leather was toast. It was pretty easy to fix. I just got some cord (satin instead of leather cos it'll last longer), restrung the thing, and voila!

The second jewelry item was a bracelet I think was a gift from one of her friends. She got it caught in her printer a couple years ago (an accident-it fell of the desk into the printer and got caught in the paper rollers). It consists of some enameled metal medieval axes connected together by oval jump rings. There were a few pieces missing, and the clasp was broken. I don't have any oval jump rings so I used round ones. There was an ax missing too. So what I did was remove the 6 oval jump rings that were still on the bracelet, put round jump rings in their place, then put the oval jump rings on the ends between the bracelet and the clasp (3 on each side). I put a toggle clasp on it. Then I hung a little pewter dragon charm on one link near the clasp (dragons and medieval go together, right?). She loves it. I'm so happy.

Sunday afternoon I got a bee in my bonnet for bead crochet. I've been wanting to make a bangle bracelet using size 8 beads.

It all started when I taught myself tubular brick stitch last week. I've been wanting to try it because it looks like bead crochet. I was kind of hoping for a texture similar to crochet too. Alas, tubular brick stitch is quite stiff, even though I tried my best to be loose about it. It's pretty, but I doubt I'll do it again.

My disappointment in that charged me for the crochet. I strung and crocheted the whole thing last night. It was fun. I much prefer using the 8's rather than 11's.

My left hand sure aches now. I've always had left hand ache problems with crochet. I probably need to grip things a little looser. I tend to squeeze the life out of it.

I managed to get a little bit of knitting done. I've added a bit to the Mystery Sock, and I'm just about finished with the back for the swimsuit cover.

This morning I headed to Cindy's for our weekly walk. Unfortunately, I did not check my cell phone for messages before I left. Turns out the walk was canceled. So I came home and took the boys for a walk on the Parkarosa. I wore them out. They're both sound asleep now. I wouldn't mind taking a nap myself.

Have a great day.

Fridays Feast 9/14/07

It's been a couple weeks since I've done a Friday's Feast. So, the feast first, then life's news.

Appetizer
When was the last time you visited a hospital?
It was in 2005, now what month? Funny that I can't remember that. A former friend of mine had back surgery. They put 2 pins in her spine because it got twisted in a car accident. I was there because I care so much about her. She meant a lot to me. Unfortunately, our friendship broke up last year after I closed my store. She is a complicated person, with problems, but I love her anyway. Clearly the feelings were not mutual, which is a shame cos she was a lot of fun.

You know what's really sad, and weird, about this (besides losing my friend)? Folks don't believe she had the surgery. I know she did cos I was there. So, what's with that? I wish I knew.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you?
Here is the definition of ambitious according to Dictionary.com:

1.	having ambition; eagerly desirous of achieving or obtaining success, power, wealth, a specific goal, etc.: ambitious students.

2.	showing or caused by ambition: an ambitious attempt to break the record.

3.	strongly desirous; eager: ambitious of love and approval.

4.	requiring exceptional effort, ability, etc.: an ambitious program for eliminating all slums.

Based on that, I'd say about a 5. Over the years I have come to realize real success is not having a lot of fame, wealth, and/or power. Success is being happy, comfortable with yourself, and having loved ones in your life. It would be wonderful to have the first list of things, but I am not willing to do what is necessary to obtain those things. I'd rather be happy and have fun! I say 5 because those things that I do, I desire to be able to do them well. I always want to keep learning new things. If I ever stop learning, call Dr. Kevorkian.

Salad
Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukelele tings healthily.)
Awww geez...I hate this kind of thing. Okay. Eye - Eat your eggs.

Main Course
If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it?
It would be a knitting club, an actual chapter of The Knitting Guild of America, and I'd name it Knits of the Yarn Table. I want very much to have a knitting club in Rathdrum, but I ran into some road blocks when trying to start one and decided it wasn't worth the fight at this time. Reserved for later.

Dessert
What color is the carpet/flooring in your home?
Hah!! That's a funny one. I'd call it dirty stained light ocean blue. I hate it. When we ordered our house (it's a manufactured home), I wanted green carpet. They came with pink, blue, or grey. Yecch! So we 'upgraded'. Unfortunately, the carpet sample that looked green in the sales reps office turned out to be more blue. I've hated it since the day it was installed. We're gonna replace it with bamboo as soon as we get the chance. Was supposed to happen this summer, but, well, life got in the way.

On to life. I woke up yesterday morning feeling kind of wretched. I'd started coughing during the night and coughed all day. Was I coming down with something? None the less, I carried on. I headed to Bead It! and taught my little tubular peyote class. I had one delightful student. She caught on very quickly. It only took one of the 2 hours scheduled for her to learn it.

While teaching a lady came in seeking help. She wants to learn how to do bead embroidery. I heard the boss say "oh yeah, she knows how to do that. We'll schedule a private lesson for you." I have a very expressive face. Dismay and horror must have appeared cos when she looked at me she started to backpedal. I wish she'd ask before making statements like that to customers. No, I have not done bead embroidery before. It's something on my list of things to do though.

This gal wants a LOT of help, right down to telling her what color beads to use and all. I mean, color choice is so personal! She's gonna have to do that herself. I'll teach her how to sew them to the fabric, the rest? She's on her own. She's got a brown corduroy vest with a paisley print that she wants to embellish.

So, we've got a tentative lesson scheduled for Saturday. When I got home I immediately started researching the subject of bead embroidery. I can sew beads to fabric. That's easy. But I know there are tips and tricks that an experienced person knows that I wouldn't. I learned all kinds of interesting stuff. I made up a little hand out, and I'm ready. I'm SO glad it has turned out to be an easy subject. If the boss does this to me again--heads are gonna be bouncing on the floor!

I also set up a private lesson with my delightful student. She was unable to attend the Cabochon class, so I'm gonna teach her that. I'm looking forward to it.

Back to the coughing. As I said, I coughed all day. The air around here is pretty smoky. I can hardly see the mountains to the northeast of us. There are forest fires all around--all 150 miles or more away, but the wind carries the smoke here rather well. Then there's the Coeur d'Alene Indians. They're burning their 1000's of acres of blue grass fields. I mean, the air smells like burning grass!

When I went to bed last night I coughed and coughed. Darn! I'm getting a cold of some sort. Then I started analyzing just exactly how I was feeling. Tight chest (having difficulty breathing--actually painful to do so), goo coughing up (yecch!), slight dizziness (definitely oxygen deprivation going on here). I am such a dummy! I'm having an asthma attack! Clearly the oxygen deprivation is causing my brain to malfunction! I grabbed my inhaler, puffed twice, and haven't coughed since.

Have a great day.

Getting Up on a Soap Box

I had an interesting experience last night. Before bed I just thought I'd check my email and found the following message from Diane Fitzgerald, the famous bead work designer.

"Dear LJ...

A friend just wrote to tell me you are teaching a class from my website...the Chevron Chain. It is published in my booklet, "A Dozen Beadwork Chains." If it is true that you are teaching this, I would very much appreciate it if you would give me credit for documenting this chain as I think it was not previously published. I assume you are writing your own instructions since the material is copyrighted and you may not reproduce my instructions without my written permission.

Please get in touch if you have questions."

I find this to be extremely offensive and insulting. The implication and assumption is that I am teaching this technique using illegal copies of her precious published work and claiming it as mine.

I did no such thing. I gave her FULL credit. In fact, I call it the Diane Fitzgerald Chevron chain. In addition, I did not make copies of anyone else's stuff to use as a handout. I didn't even have a handout. If I am teaching a particular project that is published in a copyrighted manner, and that material is necessary, I require my students to purchase a legal copy of said copyrighted material. I don't make illegal copies and hand them out, nor do I allow my students to use illegally obtained copies of patterns in class. I am a PROFESSIONAL when it comes to my teaching. I resent that she, or anyone else, would assume that I would be otherwise!

I have talked to others who have had this experience with her and other designers of bead work patterns. What a shame.

The email immediately brought to mind an experience I had with another 'famous' bead work designer last fall. This person has a wonderful design that she is selling kits for. If you buy the kit, you get the pattern, beads, and everything else needed to make the project. I don't buy kits, as a rule. I like to buy the pattern and use my own choice of beads. In this particular case, her kits did not come in a colorway that I found pleasing anyway. So using beads from my stash, or purchasing my own, was even more desirable. So I emailed her and asked if she would sell the pattern minus the beads. Her reply was no, I was encouraged to take one of her classes, and I quote:

"We do not sell patterns individually in order to maintain the integrity of our designs."

Maintain the integrity of our designs--talk about a slap in the face!!! In other words, I am not capable of picking the proper beads to do her designs. Only she can do that. Anything else would ruin her reputation. What I find ironic is that I could buy the whole kit, discard the beads, use my own, and that would be perfectly acceptable. Needless to say, I did not purchase the kit. I decided I don't want to make that particular necklace after all. Not from someone who is insulting. I wonder how much income she's missing out on because of all the other beaders like me who loath buying kits, but would love to buy the pattern? Hmmm....

What is with these people? Is it they have an enormously blown up perception of their own self importance? Or complete paranoia due to severe lack of self esteem? Are there that many folks out there 'stealing' from these ladies? (Are there that many inept beaders out there making hideous recreations of their designs?) My experience has been no! The majority of people are honest and do the right thing.

This is a phenomenon I have come across since joining the beading world that is disturbing. Designers so protective of their precious creations that they are downright oppressive toward the public who, supposedly, they create their designs for. They assume the worst in all of us, not giving us the benefit of the doubt. We all are trying to steal from them. I've even seen articles in bead magazines that say it's unethical to learn a technique from a designer and then go teach it to others because you may be depriving teaching income from that designer. Huh? Since when did learning and then teaching what you learn become unethical? If that's the case, then there are thousands of college professors out there who are being extremely unethical, aren't there? I feel sorry for these designers. They can't be happy if they're spending all their time worrying and policing about this stuff.

If I teach a class and my students go out and teach what they've learned from me to others, that is an enormous compliment to my teaching ability. If they go out and teach others one of my designs, Wow! Now that's a compliment. Nothing makes me feel more proud than someone doing that.

When I teach a class of my own design or anyone else's, I do not require that all students must make the project in the exact same colors I chose for my project. I encourage creativity. Let them pick colors they like, instead of being restricted to my choices. This is what teaching is all about. Expanding someones ability to do an art.

For me, teaching is not just passing on knowledge, but also helping the beading designers, publishers, suppliers, and retailers in their business. From that single Diane Fitzgerald Chevron stitch class , someone learned about this fabulous designer. I gave her information to find Diane's web site so they can see her kits, books, and patterns available for purchase. This may lead to a sale for Diane. In addition, the owner of the shop I teach at benefits because the materials for the class were bought from her.

I suspect, though, that most of the designers with such a suspicious attitude see it only as a way to make money. That's really sad. They're missing out on the whole point of designing and publishing patterns.

Another Hat

I did not go walking with Cindy and Jean this morning. My knee and ankle are still swollen from falling down the steps on Friday. It hurts too much to walk 2 miles. So I'm gonna give these two body parts some tender loving care. Ice Packs, Neosporin, painkillers, and later this evening a nice dose of Southern Comfort.

In the meantime, I am in a definite knitting mood. Don't feel like beading much at all, though I've got to finish a project I'll talk about in a bit. So I started another swirl hat for Knitwits. I'm using the leftovers of the terracotta yarn (this will be the 3rd project-from one 3.5 oz skein. I'm impressed!), some white, and a ball of Patons Twister, which is a novelty yarn. Didn't have enough of the terr and the white to make a whole hat, so added this for fun. This particular one has a strand of pink chenille with a strand of multicolored feather yarn wrapped around it. It's a little thick for size 8 needles, but I'm managing okay. The stripes are only 6 rows.

What I SHOULD be working on is my Alice Starmore sweater. If the sun comes out later, I'll take it out on the deck and work on it. For now, it's the hat.

My headache is slowly fading. That's a good thing. Of course, there's always the possibility that it's the same as it has been, but I'm not noticing it as much because of the throbbing ankle and knee. Ha ha.

About the beading project. Argh. I got a call from Gayle last week. Could I teach a class on the "Hearts in Swarovski" necklace? I had NO idea what she was talking about. Apparently one of my earlier students told her I'd said I'd teach a class on this if she could talk Gayle into it. Really had to sift the ol' brain cells for this one. Eventually, as Gayle kept talking, I remembered.

One of the students had a Firemountain Gems catalogue with a picture of this necklace collar done in a sort of basketweave stitch with twisted bugles. She's asked me if I knew how to do it. I distinctly remember telling her I'd never done the stitch before, but I could probably figure it out given enough time. From this she gets "I''d be glad to teach a class on it." Argh....what is the matter with people?

I dug out my Firemountain catalogue, found the picture she'd shown me, and I'm now in the process of figuring out how to make the darn thing. I've got the basketweave figured out. It's actually quite easy. I am having trouble motivating myself to finish it though. This is not something I would ever wear, or make for someone I know. In addition, I'm unable to find some of the necessary beads I need to make it. I will have to mail order them I suppose. The class is April 21, so I have some time.

My biggest question is: How does Gayle expect me to teach this when she doesn't carry the supplies needed for it? I've left her a message. She'll have to get the supplies in stock, or I'll be sending her customers to my friend Cindy's bead shop for them.

I'm going to go knit my hat now. I'll deal with the beads tomorrow, when I go to bead group.

Eggs and Orchids

Yesterdays class went okay. I was expecting 5 students. When I got there I had 1 left. 3 had rescheduled for a class I'm teaching in April, and 1 cancelled after arriving for the class. She said she wasn't aware it was a seed bead class. Huh? The sample on display, the photo in the newsletter, and the list of supplies needed should have given her a clue. Anyway, I ended up with just one student, but I got paid for two. So I can't really complain.

Having just one made it a lot easier. It was someone I know. A frequent customer to my knit shop, Marge has apparently got into beading too. So it was like spending the afternoon with an old friend.

We got the income taxes done this morning. We're getting a refund (hardwood flooring in my future-hurray!), and I can now officially say, we are done with the store.

I have finished a project for the KnitWits. I've knit an egg. Seemed appropriate with Easter coming up and all. This is my own design, though I must admit to using a Jean Greenhowe pattern as my starting point. However, as usual, when I'm in a creative mood, the finished product barely resembles the original design. By the way, my egg has been in the south for the winter (lucky little gal), so she is sporting a nice tropical tan.

These next pics have a story. In 2002 I bought a Dendrobium orchid. It was in bloom, of course, and was white with purple in the center. Eventually, the flowers died, and my orchid did not bloom for awhile. The fact it survived at all, with me as it's caregiver, is a miracle. My thumb is more yellow than green. However, summer of 2005-lo and behold, a miracle- it bloomed! It had been long enough that I could not remember what it was going to look like. All I did remember was purple was involved. I was very excited about the whole thing.

Imagine my surprise when the bud opened and it was all white. No purple. Period. I scratched my head over that for months. The blooms were beautiful, and I enjoyed them a lot, but still. I could not remember getting a white orchid.

Last Fall it bloomed again. WHAT??? The flowers are white with purple. Now wait just one darn minute! Just a few months ago it was all white. I have witnesses who can corroborate that!

By Christmas the blooms faded and died. However, in January TWO flower stems sprouted. They are now in bloom. I am NOT going crazy. Please note-one branch is white, and the other is purple and white. There must be two plants in the pot. They're just so close together they look like one plant. I've taken photos so I can prove my story. The first is the plant.

The Purple and White flowers.

The White flowers.

Last but not least, this is a new member to the family. Just got her today when we went to Home Depot to get parts for the drippy shower. (Hubby is fixing it as I write this. Such a sweety.) I've never seen a Dendrobium colored like this before.

Teaching Today

I'm teaching today. Gonna do the Chevron Chain from Diane Fitzgerald's web site. I'm told I've got six students. This is one of those rare times when I really wish I could cancel the class.

After yesterdays blogging, I went outside to set up a chair on the lawn so I could knit in the beautiful sunshine, and promptly fell down the steps. I didn't break anything, but I sprained my right ankle, scraped the skin off my right knee, and have bruises all over. I guess I'm lucky to be alive. I'm glad there were railings. They saved me. So, besides the headache that won't go away, my ankle is swollen and throbbing, and I ache everywhere else too. I've tried all the pain killers in the cabinet. None of them are working. Sigh.

Alas, the show must go on. I will teach.

I hope April isn't as hard on my body as March has been.

Teaching Beading

Being a professional knitter, one has to wonder how I ended up teaching beading. I've only been beading a few years. Well, this new beading store opened up in Post Falls last October. Always on the prowl for something new and exciting to bead with, I went in to check it out. The owner, Gayle, was there and after a bit we got to talking. Some of the questions she asked me had to do with what kind of beading I like to do and whatnot. When I mentioned I love doing Peyote, she asked if I'd ever consider teaching it. Since I'd mentioned I was looking for a teaching job in knitting, it was kind of a surprise. I'd never considered teaching beading before. In thinking about it I realized there is absolutely no reason why I couldn't do that. I mean, how different could it be? So we set up a peyote class in December, just to try it out. I taught the class and really enjoyed it. Gayle got great feedback from the students, and my little job was born.

Yesterday I taught my first Odd Count Tubular Peyote class. While doing so, I made an observation. Teaching beading is way more intense for me than teaching knitting. After 2 hours I'm exhausted! My neck, shoulders, arms, and back ache, my brain feels like the life has been sucked out of it, and my energy is gone. It's all I can do to drive home. But, I have a lot more fun doing it. So what's with that? Makes no sense to me.

The class went great, by the way. I was honest with the students from the start. There is no way they can make the bracelet that was chosen as the project in 2 hours. I pointed out the title of the class was "Odd Count Tubular Peyote Stitch", not how to make this bracelet. I guaranteed they'd know how to do OCT Peyote by the end of class, and darn if they didn't all know how to do it when we were done! They didn't all necessarily like it, but they knew how to do it. Mission accomplished! They also said it was the most fun they'd ever had in a class. You have no idea how good I feel about that.