Earrings and more earrings

Last year I noticed a lot of beading stuff, magazines, swarovski crystals, beads, etc. and it was all so pretty, really lovely stuff. I thought I would give it a try, to see what it was all about. One of the things I wanted to make was a pair of chandelier earrings, all the earrings I've seen at the stores seemed so big and fancy, I just wanted a small simple pair. I followed this pattern on-line that I liked and went to work. After a lot of twisting and turning, spilled beads, pinched fingers and strained eyes, I ran out of crystals, shoved everything in a drawer and forgot about it. Beading is definitely for people with good eyesight and even more patience.

Well, I was going through the drawer and happened upon those almost finished earrings and decided to give it one last desperate attempt. I bought the necessary parts and picked up those nasty pliers and twisted and turned and pinched and —voilà!— my new chandelier earrings.
Of course, I had some more beads so I made these:

And these and these:

Tags: beading earrings

July Secret Pal

I've been really busy lately what with being out of town and taking care of stuff so it was really nice to find a package in the mail from my one skein secret pal. I ripped it open and inside found this lovely cotton mohair skein of yarn. I've never worked with mohair before, it feels really soft. What could I make with it?

Thank-you secret pal for this lovely yarn.

Tags: one skein secret pal

Make your own Hairpin Crochet Loom

I wanted to try hairpin crochet and was able to make a loom from stuff around the house. The project was fun so I thought I'd post instructions for you to try.

Materials Needed:

2 bamboo skewers or other straight sticks. (The skewers were a little over 1/8 inch diameter, could probably go up to 1/4 inch.)
2 hot glue sticks. I used 4 inch 120 degree hot melt glue sticks. Make sure they have a high melting temperature so they don't melt from your hands or in a hot room.
Sandpaper (not shown)
Drill. (not shown, if you have strong hands, you may be able to push the sticks in with your hands.)

Note - This step should be performed by an adult.
Drill a hole, the diameter of the skewer or slightly less, on each end of the glue sticks. Be careful to align the drill holes so the skewers will be parallel to each other. I like to make the holes on one of the glue sticks slightly larger so that it can be easily removed (if it is too large though it won't stay in place).

Lightly sand the skewers so there are no splinters or rough spots. Attach the skewers to the glue sticks making sure to keep the skewers parallel to each other. Keep the glue sticks at opposite ends of the skewers to form the loom.

Here is your new hairpin crochet loom ready to use.

Here is a smaller loom I made with 2 inch glue sticks. You can also drill the holes closer together.

Start to hairpin crochet.

















Here are some strips I joined together.









Technorati tags: hairpin crochet