emmacrew, posts by tag: beadybeads - LiveJournal

Yesterday we took advantage of no school on Wednesdays and lovely weather, and went for a drive out the North Cascades highway. Which meant home-made raspberry chocolate chip ice cream at Cascadian Farm (oddly enough, they've gone from being a little organic farm stand to a division of General Mills which is the largest U.S. distributor of packaged organic stuffses like jam and granola bars and cookies. They still make their own ice cream at the farm stand, though). And lots of knitting time, during which I finished the shawl from Three-cornered and Long Shawls (about halfway down the page) that I've been working on for what seems like forever. I pulled the yarn through the last stitch of the crocheted loop edging just as we were crossing Rainy Pass.

On the far side of the mountains, we had a stop in Winthrop, the fake Western town, where we bought juice and stopped at the candy store. Then we followed the Columbia southwards and came back on highway 2, stopping for dinner at Cafe Mozart in Leavenworth, the fake Bavarian town. I'm not sure what the deal with theme towns on that eastern edge of the Cascades is, but I suppose they have a certain amount of kitschy charm. Then we got the excitement of playing Do Not Hit Deer In The Road for much of the trip up towards the pass. wrog spotted most of them on his own, but at one point I wasn't sure he'd seen them, so I yelled out DEER DEER DEER and he slammed on the brakes and the car went "squeeep" and Pip spent the next 10 minutes laughing like a maniac. Apparently it was the most fun thing he'd done all day.

Today I had lunch with kathrynt and saint_buddha and sadly we forgot to bring a camera, so we got no photo of the three of us looking cranky and holding knitting needles that we could caption "do not piss off the pregnant mods." However, it was lovely to finally meet saint_buddha and her little almost-three-year old guy, who is a huge flirt and a very happy boy. This was followed by a bead shop visit where Kathryn and I both managed to not spend very much money at all, but still came out with some cool stuff. Among other things, I got an octagonal slice of moss agate that's mostly clear, with green squiggles that remind me of seaweed and a little burst of orange. It reminds me either of koi in an overgrown pond or a butterfly through some branches. I also managed to not bust out laughing at the woman who nearly fell over when the total for her items was $80+ -- and yet they all fit in a Ziploc baggie. I know beads add up fast, but I usually have at least *some* idea of how much it's going to be when I reach the counter. She had to sit down afterwards to "analyse her spending habits." I would think the time to do that would be *before* cashing out...

Now at 31 weeks and counting. Whee.

I made a hair comb that sort of matches the spring tiara. I worked on earth a bit, but was frustrated by how to make the acorn work well, and set it aside for a while. And then I decided to make Night, all silver and black and crystalline. So I did. I guess it is appropriate that I did it at night?

Somehow I seem to have scratched the back of my right hand a whole lot with the ends of wires. And I've broken something like a dozen beads, because the newer wire I'm using is stronger than the beads are and I keep forgetting that. And my thumb still hurts from when I accidentally stabbed myself under the thumbnail with some 22 gauge wire 12 hours ago. Hard to tend a wound that's under a thumbnail, really.

I know Kathryn did water today and possibly more.

Yay still raining. In fact, it is currently pouring. I doubt we'll get enough to fend off the drought but any snowpack we can get up in the mountains is a very very good thing.

And now I really, really need to sleep.

Yesterday I hung out a bit with kathrynt and domestinatrix at Country Yarns, where we knit and gabbed and generally enjoyed the ambiance. I'm hoping to put together some pattern packs for the absurd flower hat and the felted beaded bag and selling them there. I think for the absurd flower hat a kit might be a good idea, since it uses smallish amounts of some of the colors. We'll see.

Then we went back to kathrynt's house, where she and I played with our tiara-making skillz. We recently bought beads in several families to do element-themed tiaras. She worked on air (which I don't have a picture of), and I worked on fire. I left water with her, and am going to work on earth. And we have enough beads for 2-3 of each element, so we can make two complete sets of four, one by each of us. And then we're pondering shopping them around various woo-woo stores.

Today I made one for spring, having previously played with one for autumn (which didn't photograph so well). Happy Vernal Equinox. And just before I sat down to type this entry, I saw a robin on the front lawn. :-)

Also, we've finally been getting rain. Huzzah.

Bought Yarns to Dye for at the bookstore today. In general her technique for making self-patterning yarns can be summed up in single concept that anyone with dyeing experience can then apply their own experience to (basically: make a 40 foot hank, handpaint), but it's got some interesting-looking projects in it, and the yarn that shades gradually over the entire ball from one color to another looks like a fun (if messy) project.

Then went to the beadybead shop with kathrynt I went because it was a few blocks from the bookstore, and she wanted to get a clasp. Well, we did get a clasp. But we also got things in "elemental" color combinations. We've been kicking around an idea of making some sort of tiara/circlet headpiece thingies for people who do ritual things, maybe also custom wedding tiaras and jewelry. There does seem to be plenty of space in both the woo-woo and bridal markets. But also, SPARKLY. If we're seriously going to do this sort of thing for sale, we'd need to get the components wholesale. But at this point we think we might be able to make a couple of complete sets with what we've got and see if it's even something we'd consider fun to do on a larger scale, and keep them for the love of having SPARKLY SPARKLY things. Yes, we are both part magpie. I also am taken with the idea of seasonal things, I've got a little experimental autumnal crown (needs more sparkly, but I also have autumnal shades of Swarovski crystals I can add to it) and have started pondering what I can put into a spring one.

Turns out the color of Brown Sheep yarn I need for my Big Girl Knits project is so popular that they had to dye more and that's why I don't have it yet, it's due to be shipped next week. Luckily it's the second yarn needed for the project, so I can get everything done up to the point where I need it before it arrives and not be knocked too much off of schedule.