Becka’s Project Journal

(Just squeaking in under the wire.  I nearly forgot it was Wednesday!)

Top secret work in progress this week.  Just a sneak peek for you.  That’s all I have to say.

I have had a long couple of days at work.  Things came up that I wasn’t anticipating, it’s almost the end of our fiscal year, so there is lots of wrap up stuff to do and track down and finish up.  I spent all afternoon running around replacing broken things for the kids programs, searching for deals on new irons and decent scissors and trying to calculate how many of whatever I need for the 6 residencies I have coming up in April.  I am beat.  So I am going to spend a few minutes sitting on the back step with a few guilty pleasures – iced coffee with milk (I will regret the caffeine later), an Entertainment Weekly and some yellow chick Peeps (the yellow chicks are the only kind).

Researching for my beadwork lesson has resulted in lots of beadwork.  I have stopped making puppets (long story) so I was trying to come up with something new to make for the Textile Center shop.  I started with simple peyote stitch tube beads, which I turned in to earrings.  On a whim, I beaded a tube that just fit around these round black beads.  The black beads are reclaimed from a thrift store necklace that I took apart to do other things with.  I made a necklace for myself and had quite a few leftover beads.  These are about the size of a dime and pretty lightweight.  I sold this pair already and this morning while drinking my tea, made another pair with red and turquoise striped beaded tube around the same black beads.

Had a ball teaching my beadwork class today.  We had fun stitching.  I had men in my class (this always tickles me to pieces.  I love a guy who sews or knits!)  We chatted, we brainstormed and best of all, I think everyone “got it”.  Some of them didn’t love it as much as I do, but they figured it out.

I have lots of samples stitched by other people, but I didn’t really have anything I had stitched in the technique I was teaching, so I made my “Duet” bracelet.  That is a single row of lane stitch with a picot beaded edge (the two skills I taught in class).   Size 11/0 beads, stitched on wool felt with 8/2 perle cotton.  (Click the picture to see the whole thing)

Green for St Patty’s Day!

More rows finished on my shawl.

I am also making class samples for a workshop I am teaching on Saturday about Native American beadwork.  It’s a teacher training session and I am showing the “lane stitch”.  The blue lines on this sample are the lanes.  You stitch rows of beads in lines like this to fill large areas.  The colors in this sample are not the greatest, but this was what I had for beads the right size.  I am teaching using size 6/0 beads (big ones) rather than 12/0 that you think of as “seed beads”.  Easier to see what you are doing in a larger size and I can use embroidery needles and heavy thread.  I have several techniques all thought up for adapting to different ages too so I will be stitching more samples up tomorrow so I can pass those around.  (You can find me on Saturday 1:00 – 3:00 at the Arts for All Conference for St Paul Public Schools.)

It isn’t even remotely warm enough here to wear sandals yet, but I couldn’t resist and bought these.  I wear sandals from the first day it is almost warm enough in the Spring until October or November, so I treat myself to a new pair every summer.  I don’t own tennis shoes, I wear my hiking boots only when I have to, so it’s either cute sandals, maryjanes or my Dansko clogs.  I have been addicted to Born sandals for the last few years and they had these in GREEN!  I have been looking for green sandals and these are perfect with their ankle straps and big buckles.  Now if it would only warm up a few degrees and stop raining…

Here’s the edge of my shawl with a few more row. I finished the bit you saw last week, picked up 187 stitches along the edge of that and started knitting perpendicular to the previous piece.  I have about 6 rows of this section left to go.  You can see that it is starting to make a slight scallop shape. There’s one row that has some purls where it should have knits, but I am leaving them alone.

For my birthday yesterday, Andy and I both took the day off.  (It was his birthday too.) We went to the Como Park conservatory for a while and just walked around in the steamy greenhouses.

Since St Patty’s day is coming up soon, here’s a freebie embroidery pattern to stitch up and celebrate.  It’s a lucky little sheep in a field of shamrocks.  Click to download  a pdf version of the pattern. 

This is the beginning of this shawl: Andrea’s Shawl You knit the lace edging as a long strip, then pick up stitches along the straight edge and knit the rest of the shawl.  This is the first shawl I have made and this edging is for some reason very entertaining.  Which is good because I have to do about 95 repeats.  The best part of this project is the yarn.  It is a new one from Cascade called UltraPima and it’s 100% cotton.  I usually hate knitting with cotton yarn, but this is really lovely.  My photo doesn’t even come close to showing you how pretty the colors are.  (If you click that link, the Cascade photo really shows you what it looks like.)  It is super shiny and the colors just glow.  I am working with 2 greens – 3744 & 3745