Batch bake beading

Well, it's the time of year when anyone with an ounce of craftiness is either sitting smug or in a tail spin. I'm referring to that subtle pressure to hand make lovely presents. The smugly smug gals started last January and are now happily doing artful giftwrapping. For the rest of us, life got in the way, or we spent the summer gardening, or like with me, didn't really think about it until the weather turned a bit nippy, which is honestly too late.... almost.
I often thought that it would be lovely to spend my spare time all year industriously making things, then book a booth at the local Christmas market. Having just walked around the one in Bath on this bitterly cold November day, I can honestly say that I'm not sure I could stand the chilly winds of commercial reality!

knitted and felted and waiting for beads

Anyhoo, it's batch bake beading time and although a bit eleventh hour here's a project that is definitely
do-able at the rate of beading up one an evening.

First get a ball of Wash+ Filz-it! felting yarn, and a 4pin knitting dolly. Knit yourself 20 -25cm (including the bit in the bobbin). Sew the ends together then felt it. I make several and put them in with a regular washing load. You can easily knit five or six in an evening.

Once dry your knitted bangle will have shrunk a bit.
Also the join may look a bit blobby but will disappear under the beading.

Now for the beady bit. I tend to use up oddments of beads, bags of weird sizes and cheap and cheerful's which may not be ideal for precision beading, but you know, you fell in love with the colour...

seven bead netting, three sets fit a treat

Work the netting around the knitting. I find three sets of seven beads fits well. You can use a bigger  or different coloured bead for the centre/intersection bead. Not sure about netting? there's a good tutorial here So keep beading and rather than stretching out the knitting, push it into the beading so that it is the beaded net which stretches over the knitting. I use a little wooden stick, or knitting needle, or blunt end of a biro.
Tweek the size at this stage if needed, by squishing up the knitting more or less to get the diameter you want. It will look a really weird shape until you've beaded right round.

Once the beaded tube ends meet up, zip them together and the bangle is suddenly perfectly circular and good to go.

One ball of yarn will make about 8 -10 bangles... and there are lots of lush colours to choose from.
Make a gift tag to explain that these bangles are a bit stretchy, can be rolled on, and hand washed too.
If you're feeling generous, tie two or three together with a pretty ribbon and hand them over. If not, pop one in one of those cute organza bags.

finished bangles... can I really bear to part with them!

I am a big fan of netted beadwork, it works up satisfyingly quickly. If you'd like to explore some new ways with netting, my book on CD Beadnet covers all sorts of shaped and hollow form netting, with lots of colourful projects. One of my favourites is the spiky 'Sea urchin' bangle, it's really easy to bead.

Sea urchin bangles in monochrome

Little Owls

crochet and stitched owls

I love the way little icons suddenly get popular, just now it seems that cute owls are everywhere, cleverly made from all sorts of materials. Last year I made these crochet and felt ones for my chums. I stuffed them with cloves and cinnamon so the christmas parcels would smell nice.
Since then I've gradually acquired several variations of fabric ones, from adorably fat ones made of vintage Kimono silk, to colouring book graphic ones made of hand embroidered felt.

felt, cotton and silk owls

I can remember patterns for similar in the magazines and 'How to' books of my childhood. Now they pop up in handmade sites like Folksy and Etsy, with modern twists and endearingly thoughtful and clever variations.

Out of curiosity and a desire to add my own craft to the in love with owls mix, I decided to have a go at making a beady one myself. What started as a 'how can I make a basic owlish shape easily?' turned into several evenings of beading origami as I added or subtracted beaded components! finally remembering the golden rule of 'There are no rules'

I decided to just mix it up and have some fun.

Little Owl charm is now available as lovely kit  for you to create, packed full of beads, thread, needle, charm strap and instructions. It's a really stitch sampler too with no less than five different stitches, enjoy!

Beadiful bug

is this a mini stag beetle?

I found this gorgeous little fellow wandering around in the back yard, probably looking for a winter snoozing space before the frosty weather comes. I love the way it's looking up at the camera, sure it noticed me!

I'm OK with bugs, I am fascinated by their incredible structures and always trying different ways to 'draw' it out in beads. 

red crystal bug 8cm long approx

This red beady bug was one of my first experiments at making Albion Stitch bugs, the body is an acrylic crystal about 5cm across and I kind of built onto it. Red bug usually sits on my shelf in the office, but comes on visits to workshops with me and is a great conversation starter! the bugs have slowly grown more elegant and refined (see the pic at the top of my blog) as I graduated from plastic to divine Swarovski crystals... so much sparkle, so many lovely shapes to bead around!

beaded bead caterpillar on felt leaves

My articulated beaded bead caterpillar is 'feasting' on some dry felted leaves. He has a pin to attach like a brooch and kind of wiggles about as you wear it. This really creeps some people out, but better than those 'Living jewel' brooches (apparently all the rage in the 19th century) which were real beetles with crystals stuck on their wing cases and a little gold chain tethering them to an ample decolletage. I always wondered what their owners fed them on.

Sally's giant bed by 30cm long
not including antennae

One dear chum saw red bug and handed me a giant crystal she had found in the V&A shop in London. 'Bead a bug out of that then!' was her challenge and serious commission. The crystal measured 20cm and it took me weeks to get to grips with the dynamics of working at such a different scale. The wing cases are wire knitted with added bead embroidery (otherwise the whole thing would have weighed a ton!). It took many weeks of going back and trying different things, but happily my friend is very pleased with her bug. The legs and antennae are posable as they are made from iron wire embellished with beads and crystals.

It lives on a beautiful wrought iron bedstead fashioned like wild grasses, so we call this the giant bed bug.

bobbin along

Just got these little cuties into the post for a magazine article which will be coming out soon. I'm having such fun with the French knitting. I wrote a little book about it, then I did a mini marketing campaign for the book... and it's all sort of snowballing from there. I've had lots of invites to create projects, and to answer questions about my book and French knitting in general, which is just lovely. It's definitely one of my fave ways to relax... you can't always relax with beadwork!

More acorns...

knit an acorn today

When I'm not busy beading, I do like to tinker with a bit of yarn! To make these acorn pomanders you'll need some pure wool (a skein of tapestry wool is ideal) for the acorn, some chunky wool for the acorn cup.
Also gather together some acrylic toy stuffing, an 8 pin knitting bobbin a 3mm (or similar) crochet hook, some dried herbs... I used a mix of cloves, crushed cinnamon sticks and dried lavender.

Knit the Acorn, wind the yarn around each bobbin pin in turn, then wind round each one again so that you have two rings of loops. Stitch by making a new loop, lift the bottom one over the top two and off the pin. This gives a nice snug stitch. Work for 20 rounds then cast off by lifting the two stitches off each pin and pulling the yarn through both. Pull the cast off yarn tight.
Turn the whole tube inside out and stuff lightly with toy stuffing. Sew the end closed.
Felt the acorn... dunk the whole thing in hot soapy water and keep washing until you feel the yarn begin to firm up and shrink. Rinse it in cold water and squeeze out the excess. Roll the acorn into shape and leave it to dry.

add a scented mix of spices

To make the acorn cup, use a chunky yarn and cast on one row of stitches onto the 8 pin bobbin leaving a long tail to work with later. Knit 8 rows and cast off loosely, leave another good long tail.
Use the yarn tail at the start and crochet three or four chain, work back up the chain in single crochet to form the stalk of the acorn cup. This is not an exact science, but use the rest of the yarn to fill in around the base of the stalk until you think it looks nice and cup shaped.
Stretch out the top of the acorn cup and single crochet around the edge with the second tail (or just over sew the edges if it's easier).
Fill the base of the cup with a pinch of dried herbs. Slot the knitted acorn into the cup and stitch the two together.
Make several and pile them in a bowl for a sweet and seasonal room scenter!

sew the edges together

add some fir cones and horse chestnuts too