Crafter's Annoymous

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am a crafter.

::Hello Jennifer::

July was a pretty busy month for me craft wise. It all started because my birthday is in July and last year my father sent me a string of faceted ruby beads (the ruby of course being the birthstone for July). I was determined that this year I would make something with those beads. I had an idea in my head and silly me I went to Michaels without one of the beads. I tried to find a bead that I thought would match well. Unfortunately, when I got home I discovered that the stones I bought didn't mesh well with the rubies I already had.

As every crafter knows, what doesn't work with one project can best be saved for another day. It just so happens that I saw a comment on a craft blog about Wholeport sponsoring a Creativity Expo and they were giving away free items on their blog with the condition that they had to be used to create a craft that would be posted on their Facebook page. The prize for the top ten items with the most "likes" would be a $50 gift certificate to their store. Now I have never done anything like this before, but I thought it would be pretty cool. I sent away for #7 the Gold Crystal Circle Beads. These looked perfect to go with the beads I had already purchased. I paired them with some smaller faceted pewter colored glass beads.

closeup of earrings

necklace and earrings together

closeup of necklace details

Please visit Wholeport's Facebook page and click "like" for their page and then for my creation to help support my habit. ;)

Well, remember I said the month had been busy. My crafting did not end there. I also attempted knitting...with silver wire and beads.

I will admit that I am in love with this bracelet and it turned out so well. I got the idea for it from the Michael's website. They have some awesome stuff on there. Unfortunately, I can not find the original link that I used for the instructions. Basically what you want to do is thread your beads onto your silver wire before you cast on. I used a little more than 65 beads and I used a random mix of glass pearl and pewter beads (do those pewter beads look familiar?). Then you want to cast your stitches. I didn't write down the number I cast on, but the wire is pretty stiff so cast on till you get the width you want your bracelet and it should be about right. As you add rows, slide beads up as you knit stitches. Depending on how many you add per row and which stitch you add the bead to, you will get a very cool random pattern. But wait! There is more!

So I received a Facebook message a couple of weeks ago that went something along the lines of "Hey, you knit right?". What progressed from the simple question is my new obsession. I was asked to make a pair of chunky fingerless gloves. Now, my knitting skills are questionable.

Back in the day, my Hungarian grandmother taught me how to knit, but then I promptly forgot all about it until shortly before my son was born about six years ago. I was in charge of scheduling community programs at the library and I found a woman who offered to teach knitting once a week for about a month. Her name was Julia, which was my grandmother's name and since I am a big believer in signs, I decided to take her class as well.

For some reason, I couldn't get my stitches to look exactly like the instructors. We think that my brain has somehow meshed what may have been my grandmother's Continental style of knitting with what I was learning to completely turn my skills backwards. The results can be pretty cool, but I just simply can't follow a patten and hope that it will look like the corresponding image. I guess you could say I have my own style. Because of this, I never strayed from simple knits like throws and scarves. Fingerless gloves would be a challenge, but I was excited to try.Yeah, guess you can say it has been a busy month.

Oh, those rubies that started it all...still sitting in the drawer. But I have some antique copper findings and beads that I know are going to look perfect with it...I promise...really...