Well, the best laid plans…and all that.

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.

Karin

Originally posted 2007-09-18 09:47:55.

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See more at Addicted2Troll Beadsandmore.

I’ve updated this pattern with pictures.

Closed:

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.

Here’s what it looks like on:

Let me know if you try it.

Enjoy!

Karin

Originally posted 2009-05-29 13:03:01.

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These are intriguing to me. I’ve never seen them in person or used them, but they appeal to my aesthetic nature. I don’t know how practical they are. They might be aesthetically pleasing, but annoying to use.

What do you think?
Have you ever seen or used them? Do they work? One of the sites even has circular needles.

Karin

Here’s a whole list of sites
when I googled them.

Originally posted 2009-04-15 08:42:51.

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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!

Karin

Originally posted 2009-03-07 14:01:35.

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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!

Karin

Originally posted 2009-04-15 08:08:39.

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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.

Originally posted 2009-03-11 20:59:46.

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Perhaps you remember my earlier post about the knitters from Houston who are engaged in knitted graffiti.

Once again knitted graffiti is on the march, because of the Houston group, this time in Stockholm, Sweden, where graffiti is prohibited.

Imagine measuring a statue that they will knit a sweater for! I don’t know whether this makes me laugh out loud (I’d love to see it) or whether I think they have too much time (or yarn) on their hands. This is taking street art to a new level.

Actually, you can find a picture of the sweatered statue here, and it does make me smile. You’ll also find pictures of some of their other knitted graffiti projects.

Maskan (“the stitch”), one of three code-named female founders of the Stockholm “guerrilla knitting” group, , is telling me about their upcoming knitting graffiti action. Inspired by the Houston group, Knitta Please, Stickkontakt decorate everything from lampposts and bins to park benches and tree trunks with colorful yarns. “We often have political messages,” Maskan tells me. “But sometimes we don’t. Once, we decided to celebrate Sweden’s few female statues by dressing up four of them as super heroines.”

There is a zero tolerance policy for graffiti in Stockholm; any unauthorized street art must be removed within 24 hours. But that hasn’t dissuaded guerrilla knitters.

Does this sound like vandalism to you?
Not to me!

“We’re hoping that our actions – which can hardly be called vandalism – will serve as a kind of gateway to making people more open to street art in general,” says Maria, cofounder of another knitting graffiti group called Masquerade.

Maria and her friend Lina, the other cofounder of Masquerade, see knitting graffiti as fun, harmless, quirky, and soft, with the potential for a global impact. In fact, they recently returned from a trip where they used knitting graffiti to “tag” along the Trans-Siberian railway in Russia, Mongolia, and China.
By Nathalie Rothschild | 09.22.09

What is the difference between the two Swedish groups Guerilla Knitting and Masquerade?
Maybe not a lot. You can see pictures from Masquerade here.

Would you be a part of a knitted graffiti group?
Doing something out of the ordinary to bring color and joy to people’s lives appeals to me. I could be a part of it. How about you?

Karin
A fellow knitter, at least at times, but so far no graffiti — I tend to decorate me, my friends and family.
www.savvythinker.com
don’t steal my posts

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How it began
Perhaps you’ve heard of the church that gave out rubber bracelets with the words No complaint. The idea was to wear the bracelet on one wrist, moving it to the other when you caught yourself complaining, with the hope of going 21 days without complaints. I’m not sure, if this was only for expressed complaints or included complaints in thought, but unexpressed to others.

They offered these bracelets to others for a donation. Later they added a charge for them.

My little complaint — sorry! — is that I ordered some bracelets for myself and a few friends which were never grandfathered in, so I never received them. I thought it would be a good exercise for us.

Prone to complaining
Some personality types seem more prone to chronic complaining. It’s not easy to be the person thinking complaints all the time or the one around them.

For the most part I try not to complain — perhaps I do more of it than I think!

I knew someone who would express negatives, then say, “I’m not complaining; I’m explaining!” However, it was voiced just the same.

Habit of complaining
The habit of complaining can be routed out of ourselves, sometimes with difficulty, if we desire it to be and are willing to work — and sometimes pray — toward it.

We can leave the negatives of our personality type behind and pick up the positives from other personality types as we become more Christlike.

Is complaining ever a good thing?
It’s hard to know what part of complaining is a good thing. It’s almost a truism that progress comes when complaint turns to action. If we were always satisfied with the status quo, we’d still have gas lights and live in caves.

Yet complaining for the sake of complaining, or being in the habit of complaint, works to suck the joy out of the very air around us — and out of the consciousness of those around us who might most need a little boost, not something to drag them down.

If our complaining doesn’t add up to our own happiness or the happiness of those around us, then it is time to be free(r) of it.

I venture to say that nearly everyone has a joy-sucker in their life — it isn’t always a person, it can be a situation — but hopefully we are not adding to the negatives!

Gratitude is riches
There’s a hymn with the words:

Our gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty. Vivian Burnett

It’s something to contemplate: that every bit of gratitude or appreciation expressed or even thought — no matter how small — adds to the riches of ourselves and those around us.

And then, the reverse: that every time we complain for the sake of complaining it depletes us in some way — or perhaps even worse, shows up on our face — ouch!

We would be less quick to complain about vexing situations, without some action following it that might bring change, if we would just catch ourselves with these reminders.

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?

Karin

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A couple of the boutiques here have shown very expensive purses made out of jeans. They take the top, cut them off, add a base and lining, a beaded handle, and insert a fancy belt through the loops…somehow it is stiffened very, very stiff so it holds its shape…

My then 9 yo had a darling pair of denim shorts with tiny embroidered flowers. She’d worn them so much that the seat was pretty well gone in them, but I had hung onto them thinking I would iron on a patch, but then didn’t think it would look right…so they sat in my mending area until she outgrew them. (Sound familiar?)

I decided to make a belt bag out of it or a shoulder bag. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I generally don’t carry a purse, but wear a belt bag.

I did not line or stiffen it.

Here’s the finished purse:

When I thread the back of the shorts onto my belt, it is a belt bag. I still use a shoulder strap to keep it from opening, as I haven’t decided what to do with the opening yet. It works fine like this. I use the strap through two of the front loops. There is no weight on my shoulder this way.

Or, if I wear it as a shoulder bag, I do the strap through a back loop and a front loop, and it hangs right.

So far, I’m getting some compliments on it and people ask me if I’ve seen the other bags.

There was basically zero cost to me, but a little time. I stitched across the middle seam to make the shorts lay like a skirt, cut the excess, and stitched the leg openings just above the hem so that the vent would still show. This morning, I patched the back on the inside as I felt I would continue to wear this area out. Much of it was already hidden in the seam.

Here’s the back:
You can better see how I seamed it and how it was worn out, then patched, but since this is to my body side, no one sees it. It is still nicely embroidered!

I put into the purse one of those purse inserts that you can buy at Bed Bath and Beyond. I already had one. It sort of conforms to the inside dimensions and adds just enough shape. (It is not inside the purse in these pictures.) What a waste to have thrown out the shorts with so much pretty embroidery.

What do you think?
You could go on a hunt at Goodwill for pretty shorts to do the same thing with.

Karin

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Have you read the story of the 98 year old woman rescued under the rubble of her house after Italy’s recent terrible earthquake?

When asked what she did alone in the dark for 30 hours? She crocheted! What a gal! I’d love to see what she crocheted.

I don’t think it is possible to keep a woman like this down.

My dear grandmother was quite a crocheter but she stopped long before age 98. She made one beautiful bedspread out of the equivalent of string, the thread was so tiny.

Do you crochet?

I like to crochet, but lately I’ve been knitting.

Karin

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