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

Life's ups and downs

Life is a bit hectic at the moment. The beginning of the new University term is looming so I am spending my time preparing for the Autumn round of teaching. Last Saturday was a welcome break from this. I attended the inaugural meeting of the Priory Beaders. There are 20 members so far and we meet in Stanpit Village Hall on the outskirts of Christchurch. It is a lovely venue with great views across Christchurch Harbour towards Hengistbury Head. The Beadworkers' Guild are celebrating their 10 anniversary in 2009 and to mark this occaision they have asked each of their members to make a beaded bead. These will then be made into a giant necklace, with the aim of getting into the Guiness Book of Records for the longest necklace in the world. It will subsequently be auctioned for charity. As most of the Priory Beaders are members of the Beadworkers' Guild we decided to spend our first day together making beaded beads. For those of you who are wondering beaded beads are just that - beads made out of smaller beads. They can be hollow or have a wooden core. You can see some superb examples on the BeAdfinitum web site created by Gwen Fisher and Florence Turnour. I am in complete awe of their talent.

Some of my beaded beads

The weekend was also spent knitting a second Marsan Watch Cap for my Other Half. He liked the first one so much that he asked for another. I used differnt yarn this time and to my utter frustration it has turned our shorter than the first one. I will now have to partially unravel it and reknit it. Grrr!!


Spurred on by my good friend 'A Girl in Winter' I have cast on for the February Lady Sweater featured on Ravelry. It has an intriguing structure in that it is knitted in one piece from the top down. This has the advantage that you can try it on at any point to check the fit. I will let you know how I get on.


Finally after a lovely, relaxing weekend disaster stuck. On Sunday evening I bit into an oatcake and broke a large chunk off one of my teeth. It just goes to show that eating low fat food really isn't good for you. I am sure that it wouldn't have happened if I had been eating a chocolate digestive! After an emergency visit to my dentist yesterday I emerged with a temporary filling, another appointment on Monday and a bill for nearly £100. That was a very expensive oatcake!