Charleen's Fiberblog

Bead Fest

Bead Fest Philadelphia is going to be a hop, skip, and a jump away so I'm treating myself to two classes. I feel pretty good about my bead weaving work but I need help working with wire. I'm hoping the Zig-Zag Bracelet class will do just that.

Zig-Zag Bracelet
Instructor: Joy Cichewicz
Technique: Wire and Beads

Make a bracelet with wire zigzags and wire wrapped clasp that will beautifully accent lampwork beads. Students will leave with both a copper/bone practice bracelet and a sterling silver/lampwork bracelet.

The beginner PMC class needs no tools. The supply everything so you can see how you like working with metal clay.

Just The Facts. Ma'am: Beginner PMC
Instructor: Ed and Martha Biggar
Technique: Metal Clay

For the beginner: learn about PMC while making at least two pairs of earrings and a pendant. Find out if you love this material while using instructor's tools and techniques in a limited-cost class; pick up finished work the next day.

The PMC class is from 9-12 and the wire class from 5-8. How will I ever fill the time? Oh, there's a market, she says slyly? I guess I can be persuaded to spend some time there!

Location, Location, Location

Location 1: That old adage applies to beading too.

I wanted to make another Jewel of India bracelet for my sister's birthday. I think she'll like these black/pewter/bronze delicas. I'm using a silvery gray fire polished bead as the center accent. I started with the sample on the left but didn't like the multicolored bead next to the accent bead. A little too messy looking. So I started over and put the matte pewter bead next to the accent and it looked much better.

Another hour or two and it will be finished.

Location 2: The corrie tweed cardigan returned home with me last weekend. I dyed and started blending this fiber almost two years ago. I finished spinning and started knitting a top down pullover. Last summer I decided to rip it out and use Claudia's percentage cardigan pattern. I've been working on it at my mother's since her health began to fail last fall.

I have yet to take a good picture of this yarn. It's showing too much red on my monitor. I'm waiting on an extra long size 3 needle to do the button band and neckband and I've still got to decide on buttons.

Location 3: I bought my Lendrum Saxony last March and as much as I loved it I was having trouble with a clunking sound. It bugged me enough that I drove up to Kingston in July. Gord sat down and it didn't make a sound, but when I sat down it got noisy. He couldn't figure out why it happened, maybe the length of my leg (pretty stubby) but he put a little piece of nylon bushing around the brass shaft and that seemed to work. A few weeks later it started up again. So this week I was poking around in the archives of the Online Guild looking for spinning information and found that someone put together a list of the different wheels that people had and comments they made about them. Someone (no names were attributed) mentioned that she had a Lendrum Saxony and loved it. However she noted that she couldn't use her spinning chair anymore but that it didn't bother her because the easy chair was more comfortable anyway. Hmmm. Now I remembered that when I sat at the end of my chaise that it didn't make any noise. So I tried it again and voilà! No noise. I sat on the sofa and spun. No noise! I sat back on my spinning chair and the noise reappeared.

Expect to see much more spinning as I won't have to grit my teeth everytime I hear the clunking. On the bobbin is some gorgeous roving from Anne. This is Peacock - 65% jet black alpaca, 25% dyed silk in royal blue and teal green, and 5% bronze angelina. Be sure to check out her etsy shop.

Now this is a stretch for the location theme but too bad. The sleeves and body of the Faroe Vine Cardigan are ready to be joined. I can't believe how fast this is coming together!

There's nothing sweeter than a well designed sweater and the increases are so organic.

Jewel of India Bracelet

This is the Jewel of India bracelet, designed by Kathleen Kimball-Baker, from Best of Beadwork 2006. You can see several variations on the cover (bottom right).

I used four different Delica beads with a 3mm fire polished crystal as the accent down the middle.

I changed up the ends a bit.

This is a breeze to make using the herringbone stitch. I'm making it again in silver and black. Here's one that somebody did with a button and loop closing.

This month's Online Guild workshop is on crochet techniques. I haven't done much crocheting since college and early baby days. The project for the first week was crochet weave. I've heard of crocheting a mesh and then weaving the accent yarn but we used a method where the accent yarn is carried along with the base yarn which allows you to use heavily textured yarns without worrying about pulling or distorting. One member used raffia as the base "yarn" weaving in iris leaves. Very cool.

Mine wasn't nearly as creative!

This week we explored Tunisian crochet. Just so happened to have several Tunisian (or afghan) hooks on hand so I used the same yarn combination for a sample.

The back is interesting too.

Lots of progress on the Faroe Vine Cardigan too, but I'll save those photos for tomorrow.

To The Sea!

I'm quite secure in following my own path as I traverse through life, but show me a new tool, pattern, or book and my lemming tendencies shine right through!

I read that Carolyn wants to make Amy Butler's High Street Messenger Bag. Done. Pattern came yesterday. I'm not going to use it for my laptop though. I have a very cool backpack that also has a sling pouch for my laptop. What I need is a bag that will hold all the stuff I need when I'm taking care of my mom. Cell phone charger, iPod, etc. This is going to the head of the list.

When I heard someone mention micro-macramé on one of the DIY shows a couple of months ago I didn't think much of it, but then I saw Maus' new earrings. Before I could stop myself I was ordering the Joan Babcock's Micro-Macramé Jewelry and Sherri Haab's Beaded Macramé Jewelry. I quick order for some C-Lon and I should be in business by next weekend.

On one of my drives through blogland I saw a hat that I might actually wear. So I grabbed some handspun and started knitting Calorimetry. Since I have an absolutely huge head I tend to knit hats on the big side. Several years ago I posted this picture of a hat I crocheted for my sister (about 10 at the time). This was no exception. It's supposed to stretch out and meet at the nape of the neck with a button closure.

That's about an 11" overlap there folks.

Is anyone else thinking Mick Jagger??

But I really loved the way a rather blah ball of yarn knitted in this shortrow pattern, so I ripped it out and started over. I kept the size 8 needles which I felt produced a nice fabric. I cast on 80 stitches and short rowed until I had 28 in the center and 26 on each side. This fits perfectly but I couldn't get a picture with my cellphone so it will have to wait until I'm back from my mom's.

I finished another necklace yesterday. This was my own design. I did a base row and then three rows of scallops.

After the second row I was worried that it would be to ruffled but once I started on the third pass it started to look good.

I was going to do a square stitch across the base row but that distorted the neckline.

So I ended up going through the first row again for strength and added a pewter bead which stick ups a bit and looks rather like picot.

Out with the OId - In with the New

I rang out the old year finishing up some projects. The three ply grey corrie is finally done. This is for an all natural wool Faroe style cardigan. Next up will be the chocolate brown - unless I take a short break for some more colorful spinning!

I also finished the twill placemats using 4/4 cotton. Leigh asked if this was the same as Sugar and Creme. This was called Peaches and Creme but it's the same thing, the heavy cotton that people use to knit dishcloths. I got 8 placemats from one cone of ecru for the warp and about .75# of the variegated for the weft. I was very pleased with the way the washed up. They make a nice heavy mat. I've heard people say they've used this for baby blankets, but it seems a little heavy to me.

I tried several different means of reserving space for the fringe - strips of plastic grocery bags, and strips of posterboard. I was going to try some rags or doubling up the weft but ended up sticking with the bags.

I used a three-step zig zag and sewed along each side with the bags still in. Then I pulled out the strips. If I hit it with a stitch or two the plastic ripped very conveniently and pulled right out.

Placing my hands on each mat and pulling gently for tension I ran a second row of zig zag down each one. This is when I realized I should have done a few rows of tabby as a header.

I was able to use the same piece of string for each mat keeping the finished mats within 1/4" of each other. After washing they look identical.

These were sett 10 epi, 140 ends and woven to 19.5". They came off the loom at 11.5" x 17.5" and shrunk very little (less than 1/2"), which really surprised me. I will use this heavy cotton again, but the next time I am going to use a tabby header and a hem. When I weave towels I weave the turned under portion of the hem with sewing thread. For these placemats I'd use 8/2 or 8/4 to reduce some of the bulk.

New beading: I'm trying my hand at designing my next necklace. It's pewter and copper metallic seed beads.

New weaving: Boundweave! I put on a 10" wide warp of white rug warp and I'll be following along with Nancy Hoskin's video.

Another Necklace

I usually don't like making the same thing twice but since this pattern is so easy I thought I'd do it again to help me gain some speed and dexterity. I used size 11 seeds, iris metallic olive and metallic copper.

After attaching the clasp I came back across the top adding a seed in the space between each motif. (see close up of the previous one)

I didn't like the way I attached the clasp the last time - it seemed a bit stiff, so I added a little loop and attached the clasp and ring in the center of the loop. I guess that means I didn't actually make the same thing twice.

I find doing this netted beadwork very relaxing. Much akin to spinning. Once you've decided on the yarn you're spinning or the pattern you're beading then you can let your hands take over and allow your mind to wander.

ETA: I forgot to mention where I got the pattern for the necklace. It was Basic Net Necklace designed by Sandra Halpenny.

New Necklace

I finished the necklace and wore it last week. The shiny beads are silver-lined blue zircon delicas, the main beads are olive iris seed beeds. This was an easy to remember pattern. I'm making it again in moss iris beads with bronze metallic seeds for the accent.

This lump is the finished, but unblocked, Swallowtail from the fall IK.

Here it is blocking, but I must have skipped a zero when typing in the thumbnail size. Since I'm at school I can't correct it.

I have to get some TIG wire (recommended by Sara) as trying to pin out the points was getting tedious. I can only imagine how tired I'd be if it were a full size shawl. This is from the singles I bought at WEBS last spring. There was so much energy in the yarn that I had to hold it up and let it unwind every row or two.

I finished Butterfly a month or two ago but finally got around to blocking that. This going to be a laprobe for my mom. I didn't keep any ball bands, but it's a German dk superwash I got in a swap a few years ago. Not enough for a sweater, but it blocked out to a 46" square. This was a very easy knit. I would do it again in a laceweight for a largerer shawl.

New Beads

After several attempts at figuring out how I wanted to attach the clasp I made one vital error!

I fixed it and here's the finished necklace. Just what you wanted to see - a 55 year old neck close up!

When I took the right angle weave class the instructed has us use Nymo B doubled. I see instructions for netted or woven beads using single strands of Nymo D and some with single strands of Nymo B. In this necklace you can see where I had to go through beads more than once and I don't really like that. Any suggestions?

I started a new necklace which is much prettier in real life. I've used Topaz Iris seed beads but you can't see the beautiful shading. I forget what the blue beads are called but they are cylindrical.

Indecent Exposure

Except for the boundweave sampler warp that I casually draped over the castle, the loom has remained dressed in only its birthday suit for about two months. With cool weather blowing in this weekend I decided to wind a warp for a blanket in warm autumn colors.

It will be 2" blocks woven double width (10 epi, sleyed 20 epi). 40 ends green (the yarn in the foreground is more green than it shows in the photo), 40 ends gold, 40 ends brown, 5 times, then 20 ends green at the fold. I wanted to do a plaid but it was taking me too long to figure out how to do it in doubleweave so I went with something easier. I'm still trying to work out the plaid, there's plenty of this yarn left.

So, what do you think this is?

Give up? It's polar fleece lined with flannel and this cool elasticized fold-over binding around the face opening. 1" elastic around the bottom holds it over the car seat. All that and it's reversible too. After I get some feedback from the new mom, this may end up being my default new baby present. I'm Wallaby'd out and this little gem only takes about an hour from start to finish.

What Passes for Normal

It's funny what seemed so stressful a couple of weeks ago begins to feel normal - whatever that is. I really appreciate all the comments and emails. Just knowing there is a virtual community out there is a comfort.

I got a chance to get a little beading done on Saturday. I played around with some variations on the Serpentine design and came up with this.

I'm using 11/0 topaz Iris beads which, along with compacting the design, makes a narrower necklace, as you can see below.

Once I finish that I want to finally start on Mesh Motifs from the August 2004 Bead & Button. I have read over the directions so many times it's dog earred but I know I'm ready now!

More Beads

I found a semi-local bead place and took a class last Thursday evening. In one of those small world things the woman teaching the class was in my needle felting class with Sharon Costello. She showed us how to make a right angle weave bracelet that can be embellished with beads, pearls, etc. By the time I left I had about half of the bracelet done, along with the button loop and a few embellishments. It only took about an hour the next day to finish up.

I had a few beads left over so I tried to come up with earrings to match. These looked all right until I stepped back and realized they would look like Bojangles dancing on my ears! I cut them apart and made them again, this time with just the two blocks and no square stitch. I attached the piece to the ear wires with loops of metallic delicas. I forgot to take pictures of them and it's too dark now.

I also started some sewing projects. More details tomorrow.

Dude! I'm Beading

It's been almost three years since I started collecting beads and tools, but did I have anything to show for it? Sure I do. A couple of stitch markers! That is until this weekend.

With the rag rug samples finished took the table loom back to the basement (on the pool table, where else?) and cleaned off the dining room table. It actually looked like a dining room for about 5 minutes, then I brought up all the beading supplies and started working.

Fortunately I didn't see the mistake on the right until the next morning, so I went to bed happy. I wanted to use a magnetic clasp (we are supposed to have break-away lanyards) but was worried it was too heavy. I was able to put the clasp on and secure it with those nifty little Beadstoppers. I attached a key (because I know it's heavier than my plastic id) and wore it around the house for a couple of hours. When I was sure it would be secure I fixed my mistake and added the clasps. This picture, taken this morning in daylight, shows a truer color.

My learning style involves gathering all the resources I can find and then reading, rereading, and reading one more time. Three years of this and I think I'm ready! So I took out a kit for a Serpentine Necklace. I'm not sure I'd wear it - it's very sparkly and if you know me at all you know I don't do sparkle. However, it was an EXCELLENT pattern. Well written and easy to understand. It also had very good illustrations. If you are a first time beader I would encourage you to try one of her kits. She walks you right through the process.

Here's a close up. While my daughters fight over this, I think I can adapt this to use with matte beads, using only half the width of the design.

Now a question. I have two pairs of earrings that I love. They are metal discs, the one on the right seems to have a glaze over copper, I think. I vaguely remember glazing copper disks in high school art class.

Do you know what these are called? What would I ask for? Every catalog and website I use has plenty o' sparkle, but I'm having trouble finding elements like these. I found two bead stores that are fairly local so I can try there too.