April Catch-Up

 

The inside of my brain currently.

I thought I would make a little catch-up post (I know it's May now but it was April when I started it), though it’s a collection of woes to be honest. Currently I have tennis elbow in my left arm and a frozen shoulder on my right. As you can imagine this is a little trying. I have anti-inflammatories which are not very effective and some exercises which are not fun. It’s a work in progress.

I have a 2Tb external hard drive on which I store all of my craft and art references, my downloaded patterns for knitting, crochet and all kinds of needlework, my videos, e-books, inspo pics for all kinds of everything and, you’ve guessed it, it’s borked. Fine one day and then clanking and stopping the next. I’m kind of beside myself about it to be honest. I think I could send it off to a specialist who could get all the data off it but it would cost a few hundred quid and I am after moving back up north so it’ll have to wait and I will have to manage. It’s hard though, I had no idea how much I relied on that drive. Oh yeah, and my blog posts were on there too, for some reason when you download your blog from Blogger you only get the pictures back but not the actual posts which is weird. Luckily I do have my photos backed up in about five different places as I’ve lost them before.

My mental health took a bit of a nosedive and took my motivation with it so I’ve not made much stuff. However, I have made a few phone wristers and keyring/charms. So I haven’t been completely out of it.

Three phone wristers, the one on the right is mostly natural materials.

 

Three new bag charms.

Also I started playing Stardew Valley a few weeks ago and I’m a little obsessed with it so that might have contributed to my lack of motivation to do anything else ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I have finally binned off Instagram. They persisted with the ads in the following feed and I just cannot deal with them I don't know how other people just scroll on by and can ignore them, they drive me insane. I am posting a few pics to Blue Sky until people get used to me posting a bit more often and then they can have the full spectrum of sycamore photos. 

Speaking of, here she is in full bloom, a magnet for bees at this time of year.

 

Right, that’s it, pity party over. It is May! My favourite time of year, everything is so green and the days are getting longer, it is the run up to my birthday but I’ve not yet been disappointed by it so it’s still potentially good. I know they say birthdays are for kids but they also say that about Christmas and frankly, people who say such things can get in the sea.

Free plants from the universe. I was cutting the grass and found a fern and a tiny holly seedling that had planted themselves. There was also a primrose which had planted itself at the front but I didn't get a picture of that.

 

I am expecting a little box of treats ordered from DirectCosmetics which will be a little cheer up, I’m excited about that even though I know what’s in it. (Massive GIF alert)

 

via GIPHY

I might fire my sewing machine up and finally put together the things I cut out last year (why am I like this?) and hopefully get a couple of other things made. 

I also need to cast on another Rowan project as the current one is just too big and warm for knitting in the summer months. I’m thinking maybe Stella, which is a little cropped ribbed jumper knit in DK weight yarn.

Hopefully summer coming in will bring my motivation back with it, in the meantime though, I’ve got livestock to feed and crops to plant 😊

Thanks for listening! Here's a bunch of catch-up pics.

I found an unmoving bee on the path, I gave it the tiniest of pokes and it waved a little leg at me so I got it some reviving honey and it went on its way.

 

 

I have had this peace lily for 20 years and it has never flowered since it was new. I turned it the other day and look! A massive flower! I couldn't believe it, it smells amazing too. I have chosen to take it as a good omen.

 

My box of treats has arrived! Perfume minis, tinted lip balms, a notebook, and the wee pot has some cactus seeds with it, there's also an Elizabeth Arden tote at the bottom which was a pound. One pound!

Bead Soup

 

Following on from my last post about having to redesign my phone wristers, I have made a couple more with the rosary links using various sizes of beads. I’ve been road testing them and they are comfortable and, more importantly, will take the weight of the phone even when suddenly expected to. I have been doing drop tests to make sure of this (over the bed, I’m not that daft).

These are made using smallish beads and somebody on Reddit said that they are very pretty and I will take positive reinforcement wherever I can get it.

 

 

Small medium and large beads, I am currently using the Goldilocks option in the middle as it is just right.

I have had to dismantle all the crocheted wire wristers that I’d made (sob) which is quite a pain in the hoop. I have been stabbed with wire, snipped with wire cutters and lost beads under the table (I think a goblin lives under there, it’s amazing how things dropped will disappear without trace). Worse, I have had to sort all the little beads out to put them away properly.

Le sigh

 

I was thinking about what I could make to use those smaller beads up and remembered the free-form bracelets I made a few years ago. I stopped making so much jewellery as I ended up with a massive box full of stuff that I’d made to sell rather than made because I liked it and it got a bit disheartening. I have since dismantled most of it to re-use the beads.

Imagine a crate filled with boxes like this one, each one filled with handmade jewellery all to be taken apart.

 

What a job! I think I actually wrote about this last summer.

These more free-form bracelets I did really like, they are comfortable to wear and don’t over-involve themselves in your day-to-day life by getting caught on clothing or making a racket whilst you’re on the phone while still making quite a statement.

I don't know why red always photographs as orange.

 

Also I really enjoyed making them and I like the finished article so that’s a win-win. I am currently sourcing toggle clasps that aren’t silver which is harder than you would think as I like using bronze and copper wires which look pants with a silver fastener.

I cannot wait to get started on them.

When Wristers Attack!

 

Naughty step for you.

I have discovered an issue with the phone wrist straps that I’ve been making.

They are made by crocheting two strands of beaded wire and twisting them together. In use though, the strands can come a little untwisted and after being re-twisted a few times the wire is breaking. Fortunately this only results in the loss of one bead, but the wee stabby end of wire that is left behind is no fun. I put the wristers on the naughty step and pondered.

Little stabbers.

 

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now and thought about trying waxed thread, I have a few reels of it that I use for bookbinding (oh boy, there’s a future post in the making). The thread I have is 1mm thick which works for larger beads but there’s no chance of using the small sparkly beads that I love with it.

After searching for a couple of days I managed to find one store that sold 0.5mm thread. Only one! I ordered some in a few different colours which took an age to arrive as I guess it was not in the U.K as stated but ho-hum. I dismantled one of the naughty wristers and tried to remake it with thread. 

Colours of light 

 

The thread makes them a lot more flexible which is nice but I cannot twist two strands together, they just will not hold in the way that wire does. I ended up using the same thread to sew two strands together which highlighted another major difference between the wire and the thread. The strands made with thread are much shorter.

Remade one on the left, I'm not getting my paw through that.

 

So, I dismantled another one and instead of trying two strands I made one longer one. I didn’t like it. It was too thin and mingy. It was not giving abundance. I like the things that I make to be voluptuous and full not sad and miserly. Back to the drawing board then.

It's just not giving abundance is it, I like the purple thread though.

 

Lying in bed and overthinking instead of sleeping, as you do, I suddenly thought “why don’t I use rosary links like when I make jewellery?” I can use bigger beads so the strands are more generous and I can also indulge my favourite thing of collecting together beads in different materials to fit a colour scheme or other theme. The only fly in the ointment here is that the phone charm hangers only come with silver hardware and I like to use bronze wire for a more vintage look. It didn’t seem to matter so much on the crocheted ones but I can’t stand it with links. I thought I might try to make my own but, in the meantime, I can use a bead cap to almost cover the silver, I’m only making for myself at this point so it doesn’t matter too much.

I don't why the silver hardware didn't bother me before but it does now.

 I took the peacock colours of the wrister in current use on my phone and pulled together some beads in the same range, I quickly became aware of the weight difference as most of the beads were glass, it can’t end up too heavy or it’ll be unusable. Le sigh. I got it put together and, as usual, I had got carried away and it was too long, also it was 12g heavier than a wire one which doesn’t seem a lot but is very noticeable. I removed a couple of beads and now it is only 5g heavier which isn’t too bad.

 

It's not the best solution to the silver hardware problem but it'll do for now.

I’ve been using the new one for a few days now and I really like it. It is a lot more flexible than the wire one, it doesn’t stab me in the wrist which is nice, it isn’t any chunkier and it takes up a lot less space due to the aforementioned flexibility. I’ll make a couple more and see how they go. One thing though, I am so glad I found out about the wire before I uploaded them to my Kofi (as yet unopened) store, that could’ve been a disaster. This is why I always road test these things myself. 

It's more comfortable to "wear" than the old ones.

 

It has a nicer drape.

 

Scrunchable :)