Tri-Color Inifinity Bracelet with Beads

This is another gorgeous design from davidchain.com and has copper, bronze, and sterling rings with onyx bead accents. It has a lot of life to it when worn.

Once again, I have more chain maille bracelets to show. The top picture is a brass and glass donut bicycle chain bracelet fabricated of 18 gauge brass. The second picture displays three 18 gauge brass byzantine and glass donut bracelets, and the last picture is a bracelet in two-tone sterling and gold-filled rings called status link bracelet designed by Sue Ripsch and bought as a kit from her website jewelrybysueonline.com. With the exception of the status link bracelet, I coiled and cut all the rings by hand and forged the clasps. I'm getting a better result with practice, but unless I decide to spend a lot of money and buy a jump ring cutting system, they will always be a tad bit rough looking.

Copper Scroll Link Bracelet

This design is fabricated from 18 gauge raw copper. I made 56 scroll links, each from 1 1/2" wire, and fit them all together with dozens of 5mm ID jump rings from the same gauge. I LOVE IT!!

More Chain Maille

I've been on a roll this week, after making the first chain maille bracelet a week ago. These three bracelets, one bronze, and the other two sterling, were made in a few hours each. The bronze chain was a kit from davidchain.com, who I can not recommend highly enough. He's a fabulous designer and teacher as well as supplier of his kits. I made the rings myself for the wedding knot bracelet (seen on the black background, on the bottom right) and it's a little rough but I'm still learning. I'm obsessed now.

Brass Rosary Bracelet

I'm sort of obsessed with chain maille construction right now, and here's another piece I just finished up. I made all the jump rings, 18gauge brass, 3.5mm ID, using an aluminum knitting needle (size 4). I have a huge supply of mandrel sizes soooo handy. The second picture shows the first bracelet for comparison which uses 18gauge silver with 4.5mm ID. This one is a bit more delicate.

I apologize for the pictures in the last few posts. I am so unable to wait for the right lighting conditions!!!

Beaded Byzantine Bracelet and Earrings

I'm home from yet another class from Star's Beads and this time I made a Byzantine bracelet and earrings from 18 gauge sterling silver jump rings. It was great fun and the bracelet wears beautifully. A glass donut ring was used in place of double jump rings for this particular variation!

Sterling Pin with Beads

This shawl pin is 16 gauge sterling silver with some interesting sterling beads and a lovely olive green lampwork bead. It was alarmingly easy to make, but I did run into a little trouble with the point of the pin snagging while inserting it. I finally tracked down some 0000 steel wool which made all the difference in the world. I had great difficulties trying to capture the true color of the bead and was unable to do so

Tidepool Multnomah Shawl in Handspun

Once again, I have made a garter stitch shawl out of my handspun. This one is finished in a traditional feather and fan edging and can be made to any dimensions. This pattern, called Multnomah, can be found on ravelry. The varied colors of this yarn are perfect for garter stitch.

Midnight La La Scarf

This piece is handspun merino wool which is extremely soft, almost like cashmere. The coloring is so much like faded denim jeans which I wear almost every day, that I HAD to make myself a little neck scarf. I have been enamored of garter stitch lately so it pleases me in many ways.

Kumihimo Necklace with Peyote Bead Focal

This project was a real pain in the neck, and I won't be doing it again. I love the kumihimo part, which was done with #15 seed beads on a fine beading thread. It took a very long time to do, however, and there are a couple of spots where there was no bead. The embroidered peyote bead wasn't fun however. But in a while, I may feel a lot better about the necklace than I do now!

Alpaca Elina Shawl with Pearly Bead Embellishment

It seems that I spend most of my time trolling Ravelry for information and inspiration and that means that my blog has been neglected. So since I feel guilty, here's another post.

This piece was knit right after my purple Dianna stole. Made from soft gray Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Lace and some pearly white beads toward the edge for accent. The alpaca causes it to have incredible drape, and I've found that I reach for this a lot.

Shawl Pins for Dianna

These were done with 18 gauge wire, but I would have preferred 16 - they are slightly flimsy so I had to work-harden the heck out them with my hammer. The spiral pin in gold has some of the stole beads wrapped around it. I may work on this one some more, since I'm not totally pleased with it. But at least Dianna will stay put.

Deep Purple Dianna Lace Stole

Here are pictures of my latest project, a knitted rectangular stole done in the entrelac technique. I had never tried this technique before, and wanted to see how it worked, so when the pattern was published in Ravelry, I was very interested. It is the lovely Dianna shawl by Jane Araujo, or MaweLucky on ravelry and the link is here: You must be a member of ravelry to see it, but if you're not, it's free to join, and please do!!

I modified the triangular shape to make it rectangular, and added a knitted-on lace edging from Victorian Lace Today. I am THRILLED beyond belief at how it turned out. There are some beads on the stem of the leaves too, although you may not be able to see them well. I used Blue Heron Mercerized Cotton in blueberry.

Vermont Mud Toe-Up Socks

Hot off the needles are a pair of handspun socks, knit from the toe up using Cat Bordhi's upstream architecture. The wool is from Grafton Fibers Colorworks club and was spun in two batches, one for each sock, and then navajo plied. My spinning was not very consistent and one half of one of the balls was quite a lot larger in grist. Both socks started off at 60 stitches around, but when I got to the second sock heel, I had to decrease to 56 stitches and go up a needle size. I bound off both with an i-cord bindoff of 3 stitches done with a larger needles size and grafted the ends together - not well - but functional.

Final Picture of Chloe's Shrug

Well it sure did turn out very well, and the fit is excellent. She seemed pleased and wore it out to lunch in Shirlington! Looks great on her, doesn't it??

Shrug for Chloe

This cute cotton shrug is made for my daughter. It is knit from Lion Brand Cotton-Ease which is cotton and acrylic and feels quite nice. It took 3 1/4 skeins to knit the smallest size. The pattern is free from Lion Brand and is called the Textured Circle Shrug

Small Purses for Small Children

These silly purses are being sent to California to my niece and nephew for their birthdays. The badger purse was the first I knit and I love the stumpy legs and stumpy toes! I wanted to make a Hello Kitty bag for my niece and had to modify the pattern to do so. My embroidery is sadly lacking but it came out quite cute, I think. I hope they like them!!

I have a link to the pattern on my project page in ravelry, if you're interested. They are are perfect size for an iPhone.

Lava Rock Necklace Completed

I knew exactly how I wanted this to look - I had some rubber cording which I have never used previously. Most of the holes in the beads were slightly small and I had to ream them out with a bead reamer. (My thumb today is very sore.) But it worked well, and I made the clasp connections afterward since I hadn't planned that far ahead. Super glue is very strong for this purpose and overall I am quite pleased.

Buttons and Lava Rocks

After our button making-workshop, I bought some Amazing Mold Putty from Michael's to make my own button molds, and of course I had to make some buttons right away. These three buttons had a center of green clay, had thin slices of a shell cane place around each one, and then were pressed into the mold. Each button was buffed with a dremel tool after baking.



These lava rocks were made from plain ole black clay, formed roughly, and then pressed into kosher salt. I made a few more indentations with a needle tool, and then baked. After baking, I immediately dunked them in water so the salt would dissolve and buffed them as well, for a subtle sheen.

Buttons

So here are the other buttons made during our button workshop. They were made with molds, which our hostess so kindly made beforehand out of Amazing Mold Putty. The mold is flexible.

Crazy Button Tile Necklace

My knitting group had a spectacular workshop to make polymer clay buttons. These buttons were a joint effort by Julia and me and were really fun to make. However, I sort of knew in my heart that I really wouldn't use these as buttons, although they are pretty nice for something. I did not have a project in mind when we made them. So I thought I would try a necklace. Very very simple design using C-lon thread in brown. I figured that I would simply cut it apart if I need the buttons!

Pansy Smoke Ring Completed

Here she is, all finished. It fits me very well, and it easy to put on over my head. I am seriously happy with the final product.

Progressive Smoke Ring

You can see the successive stages of this roving. I'm calling it the 'Pansy Smoke Ring'. The roving is hand dyed falkand wool roving. I had never used this sheep's wool before, and I was thinking all along: socks. But the wool is way too soft for that as I found out.

The idea was to spin in long color sections for socks so that the purple would be at the toe and the top ribbing with the colors in between. The idea is good, but since it was so soft, it became a soft lacey cowl.

And I have to say that I am blown away by this lovely thing. I liked the colors in the roving very much, and didn't like them in the skein, so was trying to figure out what to do with the yarn. I had a little more than 2oo yds. And just started knitting rather than thinking. I love it!

Yet Another Circus Bracelet

I just finished another treasure woven bracelet, seen here residing next to the original one. I probably won't make another since there are only three of the clay base beads left, and I'm also running short on the other beads. But at least the new one fits me! I was pretty sad that the first one was too small, but I know one of my granddaughters will most likely snap it up.

Thanks to all the lovely folks who left comments for me about various and sundry projects. I have seen a very large contingent of UK people sent here from Woolly Wormhead to look at my beads. I'm thrilled that people enjoy my items.