Knitted necklace

I was working in my sewing room to clean it up.  I love spending time in there, poking around.  Okay, so I got a little distracted when I ran across 2 spools of wire I bought at Ornamentea in Raleigh in the Spring.  I have long wanted to try my hand at knitting a necklace in wire, and adding beads as I go.  It was so tempting; the knitting needles were right there too....

For this first time, I just used cheap beads as I wanted to see how it worked out, but I'm very pleased with the result and will experiment again.  I don't have a pattern - didn't look one up - not sure I can duplicate it exactly :)

Basically, I cast on and cast off, working beads that I'd threaded onto the spool first of all, into the stitches.  I added them randomly, in the center, because I wanted it to have an abstract element.  When it came to the clasp, I knitted it in, and the same with the closed jump ring.  {Luckily I had these "findings" in my stash!}

For the sheer heck of it, I tried my hand at some earrings too.  I'd never wear them both together, but I know someone who might like the earrings!

I still have a spool of the gold wire....

You win some, you break some

I had a wonderful weekend. Sunday was Easter and I spent a long weekend in Raleigh with Susannah. She’ll graduate in a couple of weeks, and I’m so proud of all her accomplishments. It was a great time to share with her right before she completes her final graphic design project for a student art show next week and then writes her finals.

She had special things to “show” me in Raleigh. One was a delightful bead and craft shop called Ornamentea.   I could have stayed for hours on end and quite easily spent $100. They sell the sorts of things that I totally groove on.  The wares in that store and the colors….oh man - they made the senses that are me go berserk to want to make something SO badly!

We also went to the relatively new North Carolina Museum of Art and poked around for a couple of hours having a gorgeous mother-daughter time. I asked Susannah, with all the learning she’s acquired in the arts, to teach me some neat things, which she did, and so it was a great learning visit for me.  Love-loved it!  The weather was amazing so we enjoyed meandering through the sculpture gardens and admiring the water lilies.

 Easter brunch was at Humble Pie, outside under the colorful umbrellas. As we left, our path home took us right by the Red Cross Disaster Relief team passing out Easter lunches to tornado victims whose homes and college dorms are still unlivable from the storms that were just one week ago. We also saw the heart rending damage.

Then tonight, back home, as I took down my Easter decorations, I was clumsy and I broke my favorite bowl, made when I took pottery.  I don’t know why I liked it so much – the sgraffito leaves and the greens and the yellow border I think. I don’t know how likely it will be that I’ll take pottery ever again, so I’m bummed about it. 

 Yet, really. 

I know. 

I'm so blessed.

It’s only a bowl.