I finally got a chance to see the new Trollbeads. I had been wanting to for a while. I was a very good girl. I did not buy any of them. I just looked and planned.
I didn’t see the gold : mini heart, golden wreath, or brilliant hearts; or green or yellow jade.
Surprised by
I was surprised by paradise birds — I loved it, and had thought from seeing it online that it would be one of my least faves.
The lock
Love the swan lock!
The glass
I thought all the glass were a bit smaller than ones in the past, except for the baby boy/girl/hope beads. I prefer them the larger size.
The amazonite
The amazonite was pretty, but had a lot of white in it. I expected it to be more solid green.
Carved flowers
I loved carved flowers — @ $97! But I was pretty sure I would love it, sight unseen. Oh yeah. Love it. Book Girl said it was her favorite of all of them.
Silvers: The chick is adorable!
Zucchini flower and heart ball are large and ornate, very nice. Soccer ball should be a hit.
Fantasy butterfly is beautiful and just like the ones with glass.
The kiss is hard for me to see.
Heartbeat is great for nurses or doctors.
Do you have faves? Have you bought any?
Are you planing to buy any?
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The quartz that I bought is drilled like briolettes, top drilled, not center drilled, so that changed the whole project. Therefore, what I started out to do is not what I ended up doing. I should have paid more attention when I bought them, or the store should have pointed it out, knowing how I intended to use them. OTOH, if they had, I wouldn’t have done the project I did. So it’s a toss up.
On the whole, I don’t like briolettes. They are hard to work with, unless you want the only style they are pretty much used in, and that’s not a style I generally wear. These fooled me because they are flatter, not so round. If they had been round, I would have known they were briolettes.
I ended up making a lariat with a briolette at each end. I can use the S clasp freely anywhere along the piece to make it any length I’d like, but the S is not attached. And I made earrings with a briolette on the end of each. With some left over beads I made a normal briolette necklace that when worn with the lariat looks as though it is part of the lariat, but it is not. And with the very most left over beads, I made a small piece with a briolette in the center, hung from thin leather cord. That’s fun. And considering that I took apart a necklace that I hadn’t worn in years to get to some of the beads, I will wear these, in some combination, a lot more often.
When beading, it is the beads that dictate the finished project. I have to wait until they speak to me. I might still try to make the original project, but only if I can get the right components. I’m not in a hurry. I’m surprised I beaded at all, it’s been so long.
I’m really pleased with the way the lariat and earrings turned out. I’m not sorry I bought all the rutilated quartz pieces. That way I was sure to have enough, since the store is not convenient to get back to, if I had wanted a few more. I think I have 5 left. If I had had less, I would have made only the lariat and earrings.
I must be on a creative kick. I made a couple of knitted collars this past week. Knitting is more relaxing than beading, because there is less thought put into coming up with a pattern. Once I decide on a pattern for beading, it is relaxing too. Sort of, anyway! Either one I can do in the midst of family life.
Do you like to bead? or knit? Now’s the time to knit up a few scarves. The weather will be turning cold for most of you.
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I enjoy beading so I thought I could figure out how to bead a bracelet from a leather lariat. I have one of the early Pandora leather lariats. Mine is quite short, maybe 18-20 inch. Now they make it 36 inches, which is what they should have done in the first place.
Anyway, consequently I didn’t wear it much because I generally like my necklaces to fall longer. I have on occasion worn two lariats together to get the length.
I noticed in one of the Pandora brochures, they showed the lariat as a bracelet, doubled, but they only had one bead on it. Consequently they didn’t need to worry about a number of beads sliding together.
I WANTED THE BEADS TO STAY IN PLACE, not float into each other. FIRST ATTEMPT
In my first attempt, I knotted between stations and only went around once. This works good too.
SECOND ATTEMPT
I thought I’d see what I could come up with using some of the ideas I’ve seen elsewhere.
DIRECTIONS:
Take your leather cord and double it. (It can be just cord you buy, not a finished necklace as I had to work with.)
Knot the end where the silver ends are (or where your cord has the cut ends.)
Pass the doubled end through your beads.
THIS IS WHAT I FIGURED OUT BY DEFAULT.
You will be passing the doubled end through the beads a second time. Some of mine didn’t have a big enough hole. When I figured that out, I staggered my beads so that the ones that wouldn’t pass through twice were in stations by themselves, so that the cords passes through 3 or so a single time, then passes through 3 or so doubled, then 3 or so singled, etc.
THE BEADS STAY IN STATIONS
The result is that the beads stay in stations and do not fall into each other when you wear it.
THE CLASP:
After you have gone around the bracelet twice (with some only once) make a knot about 1/2 inch down from the doubled end. This becomes your clasp that you pass over the knot at the other end (which is now at the same place on your bracelet.)
To take it off, take the loop off the knot, and loosen the bracelet enough to get it off your wrist.
Open
To put it on, put the bracelet on your wrist, tighten it, pass the loop over the knot, spread out the stations and they stay all day.
ALTERNATIVE CLASP:
Attach the two ends with a Troll Clasp or other similar clasp — or one you make yourself, which I have also done.
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If kvetching is second nature to you, I heard today of rubber bracelets to be worn to help you stop complaining. I guess even Oprah talked about it on her show. I’m behind in finding out about things.
It is worn on one wrist, until you complain, then you move it to the other wrist and begin to count again. The hope is to get to 21 days without changing wrists. Thankfully, it doesn’t register complaints in your mind, only spoken complaints.
And I don’t think it counts for legitimate complaints (though we should be honest with ourselves which are and which aren’t, LOL)
It’s spreading around the world. So far, more than 3.5 million have been ordered, going to 78 countries. If you want to read a story about it, go here; or to order bracelets and read more about it, go here.
See my later post on this here. I added pictures from this post below:
My bracelet
I thought about making a bracelet with the words No complaint, but for me, I wanted a positive reminder of what I hope to bring.
I was playing around with alphabet beads to see what letters I had to work with. It isn’t necessary to put much money into making a bracelet like these. I made two bracelets that I alternate wearing. If I find I really enjoy them, I will remake them in silver beads. I added crystals and carved beads to make them more interesting.
Create-Imagine-Appreciate
Bring Joy-Love-Pax
What do you do if you find yourself chronically complaining? What do you want to bring to situations? How do you keep resentments and complaints from sizzling?
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Flipping Brilliant is a short little inspirational book based on penguin life, but it is filled with wonderful, wonderful pictures of penguins.
It is also available as a Kindle book for $6.39. But I’m not sure you’d want it as an ebook yet, because you would lose the color photos. I don’t think black and white would be quite as good, despite the majority of penguin color being black and white.
I had no idea there are 17 different kinds of penguins!
Ever wonder why the Emperor Penguins march so far from the sea before making their nests? This book has the answer — because when the ice begins to melt, if they are too close to the sea, the entire colony would be lost.
I rate this book 5 star for the photos, and the inspirations drawn from them are better than I expected.
Have you read it?
Trollbead/Pandora/Chamilia/etc. penguins
BTW, for those of you who collect trollbead bracelets or Pandora, there are plenty of different styles of penguins to choose for your bracelet. Barbara Maria has one (she designed TB geese) that is really cute.
Another management book: Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter
If I had time right now, I’d read this book among the first of the books I have to read. But it will be on a later agenda, even though it is an approximately 45 min read. It looked very interesting at the book store. Additionally, you can find it at $9.99 for your Kindle. This fable is about a penguin colony faced with a potentially fatal problem. Along the way, the author teaches 8 insights into how to understand and manage change.
Have you ever thought that change either comes too quickly — or not soon enough.
Managing change, the unexpected kind, might be a good thing!
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What do you think?
Have you ever seen or used them? Do they work? One of the sites even has circular needles.
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Karin, just sent a little something to you via email, for your blog. This morning I was thinking of my first trip to the desert in Nevada last year, so I was inspired to write about it.
I’m so sorry it took me so long…life has been hectic! Hope you enjoy,
Mary
Valley of Fire, A Memory
My eyes,
So accustomed to grass,
trees, water, green on blue.
Looked out
On earth the shade of ochre,
sagebrush and twisted life.
The smell
Of salt, rain and flowers,
The lush and damp of home.
The wind
Now carries the scent of
Rock, iron, pinon, sun.
I lift my head and thank
the Mother Goddess for
Her gift.
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Level of difficulty: Simple watch not to split thread.
This is a good one for a child or for a beginner to knit, as it knits up very fast. But I like to knit it for the same reason.
The red one is a bit wider and made with two skeins which made it longer.
I made a lot of these for gifts. The yarn is not expensive, especially when on sale. You can find it at Walmart. It comes in a wide array of colors. I’ve probably made several of all of them. Just pick your own faves. Black/white is very nice as are the Black/Beiges or the Multi-colored ones.
1 skein of Fancy Fur (39 yards)
No fringe.
Knit every row, slip first stitch of all rows except for the first.
Less stitches, means the scarf is longer; more stitches, the scarf is shorter.
Three different patterns,
8 stitches on size 17 needles
or
10 stitches on size 17 (my friend with a tiny neck wraps it around twice and flips it once to hold it)
or
12 stitches on size 17 to make mobius
When finished, twist once and sew the ends together with a piece of leftover yarn, or knit the two ends together as you bind off (which is what I do.) Wear the twist in front. Wear it with the seam hidden, either at the back or the side, though the seam is barely discernible.
This one is Fancy Fur, made with 13 or 14 stitches, which makes it a tad wider and a tad shorter
This one is a combination of two yarns that knit to the same guage. Because the skeins were larger, I could get two mobius out of it, one for an adult and one for a child.
This gives an idea of some that I have made:
Any combination of yarn is possible. Try a few rows and a few stitches. If you like it, cast on the right number for the project you are making and have fun!
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Some people have such fun ideas! This group of 11 from Houston, target public places with knitting. Sometimes they choose the target; other times the target comes to them. They are making their own good news! And it benefits the rest of us.
Sometimes we tag randomly (car antennas, door handles, stop sign poles, park benches) and sometimes we choose larger, more specific targets. The random tag nights are usually “come if you can”, while we knit with a purpose for the larger targets. For one large project we did (24′ scarves on two statues in Houston), we all knit piecemeal, then crocheted all the pieces together to form the giant scarves. Those were nice.
Occasionally, our targets come to us. We get requests every now and then. We’ll still bomb those requested targets under cover of night, in order to retain some sense of anonymity though. Every once in a while, we knit and knit and knit for a trip out of town to spread Knitta out a little. This coming weekend, for instance, four of us went to New York City for 4 days of crazy tagging. We had an extra suitcase full of pieces that will grace the streets of New York (for at least a week or two, we hope). MascuKnitity just got back from a 3-week trip to China, where he was able to leave a little Knitta presence on the Great Wall. We still haven’t figured out how we’re going to top that one.
What kinds of things have they done?
As for quantity of projects, I really can’t say how many tags we’ve thrown since we started this. Probably hundreds of antenna cozies. We covered lamp posts on three local highway bridges with 6 foot, hot pink wraps the night before New Year’s Eve. We laid 24 foot scarves at the end of January.
Bored by long projects? I sure am! Plus, who has the time?! (Except for the Waikiki ponchos.)
We were bored with the usual knitting projects and get-togethers. Personally, I get tired of a project that takes more than 2 or 3 days to complete. I call it crafting ADHD. I had plenty-o-unfinished projects laying around my house that I’d simply become bored working on.
Well, now you have some ideas for unfinished projects. I generally find that I’m not too crazy about a project until I hit the half-way point, then I hurry like crazy to get it finished. OTOH, I know someone who donates her half-finished (or less) projects that she no longer wants to do to Goodwill! I’ve bit the bullet and done it a few times myself. Why finish something you really don’t enjoy!
The woman who started this began with making door knob cosies. How funny is that!
What are you knitting or crocheting right now?
I think I have a scarf going somewhere, but I’ve been doing more beading lately. Yesterday I took apart a necklace and made two bracelets out of it, plus an extender. Didn’t have to change the patterning, just took it apart.
Don’t you think this idea is wonderful! Make some happiness in your life. Go for it!
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Here’s the update, 10 days into it
The design is pretty much off my hand except for the middle of the back of my hand.
It is still going strong — perfectly — on my foot and leg.
I’m still enjoying my henna. People notice and give me compliments every day.
Today, getting my hair cut, I learned that one of the receptionists is married to an Indian, and for her wedding all the family and bridesmaids had henna done by one of the cousins who does henna where she lives. I need to call her tomorrow and say I’d just love to see pictures!
My stylist has a tattoo on her foot, but she wasn’t able to complete it up her ankle because it was so painful. She said I should get the henna design on my leg and foot tattooed and colored. No way! I love the idea of being able to change it.
She wondered if Natasha (hennagirl) had used a template. She was amazed that she had done it all free hand.
I think one of the prettiest designs that Natasha brought with her to show for possibilities of what could be done was one she had done up the arm and shoulder and down the other arm on a woman who was going to belly dance. The undulations of her arms would have been beautiful with the henna.
Can’t you just see it!
Natasha left some of the henna with us, and when this wears off, my daughter is going to try it on me. Yippee skippee! I can’t wait. I might even try to henna myself. How cool would that be!
Karin
You can find more of her work here and here.
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Mary is a talented poet with insights into art. I have admired her posts that incorporate her poems or thoughts with art. Enjoy!
Karin
Dear Karin,
Here is a poem that I wrote on Saturday night. We had dinner at a restaurant on the beach. Afterwards, I went outside to look at the ocean, and on the ride home, I jotted this down.
Hope you enjoy!!
Mary
Nightfall, The Beach
I stood on the wooden bridge
That spans the dunes
And watched the wild whitecaps
Tossing and curling
In the cold January wind.
The waves pushed and pulled
Toward the dusky yellow sand.
The gutteral caw of seabirds
Rose and fell on the salty gusts
And then were lost by the roar
In my ears of Mother Ocean
And her endless, ancient voice.
I looked up into the inky sky
My eyes dancing over the stars.
And saw the thin, frozen horn
Of the New Moon hanging over
Beauteous Venus
In the endless, icy night
And found Peace.
(c) ~Mary~(Velvetsky at POL)
Seascape (1879), Pierre Auguste Renoir
The photo of this painting is at this link. The dimensions here are different than it appears on this blog.
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