Lets twist again...

Beading is dominating my life at the moment. My evenings and weekends have been spent trying to complete some projects. If I stop and think how much I have got to do between now and the end of July I start to panic. So, I have been keeping my head down and trying to take it one step at a time.


My experimentation with spirals continues. This time I am playing with peyote or Cellini Spirals. These are great fun. By varying the size and shape of the beads you can exaggerate the shape of the spiral. There is a really good tutorial on creating this spiral here. My aim is to make some beaded beads out of spirals and put them together in a necklace to sell on our stall at the Community Festival at Christchurch.

Then I have to concentrate on my course work so that I am ready to exhibit at the Textile Kaleidoscope exhibition at the end of July. This is a showcase for local City & Guilds students. Sadly it might be the last ever exhibition as Dorset Adult Education is scaling down the range of art and craft courses it offers. Apparently government funding has been cut for 'leisure' courses choosing instead to fund adult literacy, numeracy and computer courses.

Even though I am up to my eyes in beading at the moment I still need to have a project on my knitting needles. It is really nice to have a project in my bag to work on in my lunch breaks or when watching the television in the evenings. I have just started a pair of socks for my OH as he really loves my hand knitted ones. I found this pattern on knitty. It is a great source for beautifully designed hand knitting patterns and I would highly recommend it.

Diamond Waffle Socks designed by Danny Ouelette

Gardens, elections and other things..

The weeks are flying past and another Summer Term is whizzing past. Last week I took an extra day off to try to get to grips with some of the beading projects that I have on the go at the moment. I have several items partially made for my NCFE Beading course. In addition to that a group of beaders, myself included, will be taking part in the Community Celebration of Christchurch at the end of May. We are going to have a stall displaying and selling our beaded jewellery. I am really excited about it and have been making two necklaces for it and will be trying to sell them along with my Spring Flowers bracelet. Most of my waking hours seem to be consumed with either thinking about beading or actually beading! Most other things, including my knitting, are having to take a back seat at the moment.



Last weekend I took some time out to visit a local garden with my OH. It was open as part of the National Gardens Scheme. This encourages ordinary people to open their back gardens to the public. Visitors pay a small admission charge which goes to charity. This Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday my OH and I visited a beautiful garden just a few minutes walk from where we live. It is a favourite of ours and it did not disappoint. It was full of colour from rhododendrons and azaleas as well as a host of spring bulbs. They also always serve a mouthwatering selection of homemade cakes too.

Yesterday I took some time out in the evening to go an vote in the General Election. Our route to the Polling Station took us through Alum Chine, a deep, wooded ravine which leads down to the sea. As we were walking back I was struck yet again by how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place. I was really happy to note that there were a lot of people coming to vote. I can never remember see a queue at a Polling Station before. It makes me really angry when people are only too happy to complain about the state of the economy, the NHS etc... but can't be bothered to vote and try to change things. I don't feel that this blog is the right place to discuss party politics but let me simply say that I was disappointed to discover the result for my constituency when I woke up this morning, although to honest the outcome was fairly predictable.

My route to the Polling Station

I am currently considering whether to carry on with this blog as, according to StatCounter it is only ever read by 2 or 3 people. Although I suppose I was being a bit arrogant in assuming that anyone would be interested in what I have to say.