Wire Crochet

Lately I have been playing around with wire crochet. I recently made this necklace and pendant. Over the past several years, I have done crochet, knitting, beading and several jewelry making techniques. I have wanted to do projects that combine these skills. I thought that crocheting with wire would be a good project for that. I learned to wire crochet from the book, Crochet with Wire by Nancy M Wiseman.

I started by making a stand using the colors, blue, beige and orange. When I finished, I didn’t look done to me. I decided to add a strand using blue beads. Crocheting with wire takes a little getting used to. You can’t hold the wire the same way you hold yarn. Also the wire doesn’t lie flat. When I finished this project, it curled up more than I would like. The beads had a tendency to move from one stitch to the stitch below. Next time, I want to use beads that are a little larger to see if the strands will lay any flatter.

I also made this pendant. I started out by making the circle in the middle. I had the idea to crochet a circle with pink glass beads throughout. I then added the 2 circles to the sides. I am not sure what I want to do for the strand and the clasp.

Unexpected Good Things

Sometimes a sincere compliment or kind comment can have unexpected rewards. This week has been a long week where I wasn’t feeling well and struggling with a creative block on a project. I have also been thinking a lot about how I want my life to be like and how to get there. Those are never easy questions and I was very discouraged.

On Friday, I was reading blogs connected to FO Friday. One of the bloggers had survived cancer and was doing a giveaway to celebrate. I congratulated on her being cancer free and went on to read other blogs. I didn’t even think I had entered the giveaway. I just wanted to wish her well for surviving such a major illness. I found out the next day that I had won the giveaway. It really cheered me up after a difficult week. It made me think about doing giveaways in the future. I won a skein of yarn, a book and some beads. I am so excited to receive the items.

Another time a couple of years ago, I was looking at pictures of beadwork on a craft group on Facebook. Someone had posted pictures of her beautiful projects. I complimented her on her beadwork and told her it made me want to start beading again. The next day she friended me on Facebook and encouraged me to start beading again. She introduced me to some great beading and craft business websites.

Current Projects -WIP Wednesday

Right now, I feel a little bogged down with projects. I am hoping to finish a couple of these in the next week. Since I started beading more often, I haven’t knitted or crocheted as much. Here are my current projects. In the first project, I have made a lot of progress since I last blogged about it. I would like to finish this project soon. I want to start a shawl that is more appropriate for winter. I think it is a pretty pattern and a good use for the yarn. The yarn is Caron Country. I had bought it for another project that didn’t work out. I think it will be a nice scarf to wear over a dress in the spring or summer when it is finished.

I have also started this hat pattern. One of my first knitting projects was a scarf made out of the same yarn and color. I used the yarn, Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Worsted. I wanted to make a hat to match the scarf. I am almost done with the hat. I am wondering how it will fit. I may have made it a little too long.

Since I last posted about this granny square blanket, I have only made a few squares. I wanted to show some squares with bright pink yarn. I think the color adds some brightness and contrast that the project needed. I have been feeling blocked about this project. I am not sure how I want it to look or how I want to arrange the squares. Last night, I reviewed how to join squares and that helped. I also reserved a book from the library on different motif patterns. I may add another motif to the project in addition to the granny square

The last project is a knitted lace dishcloth. I wanted a challenging knitting project and I like lace. I thought that a dishcloth would be a good project to try out a new lace stitch. I really like the pattern it will make a pretty dishcloth. The author of this pattern has many more dishcloth patterns in different knitting stitches. I have already had to start this project over because I messed up on the stitches. Lace knitting takes a lot of concentration.

FO Friday

I started this scarf last summer. By the time winter came, I had been working on this project the longest. For a while I put it aside to work on holiday knitting and other projects. I finally finished it almost a month ago and I wanted to report on my progress. I didn't use a pattern. I came up with the idea for this scarf after I had taught myself to do cables. To learn to knit cables, I used instructions from the book, Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller. After I knitted a couple of test swatches, I realized that if I added ribbing on either side of the cable it would make a pretty scarf.I am very happy with how it turned out.

Beading

Before I started knitting and crocheting, my main creative outlet was beadwork and making jewelry. The last few years, I have mostly been knitting and crocheting and I have been beading very little. One of my goals for this year is to do more beadwork. Over the past couple of years, I had three projects on my desk that I would work on every once in a while. One of my first goals is to finish these projects.

The square piece in the first picture is part of a bracelet pattern. When this is finished, they will be linked together. Here is a picture of a few of the links. In the second picture, I had made several diamond shaped pieces out of black and white beads. I sewed them together into this piece. I was going to use it as a pendant for a necklace. My original idea was for a choker. When I tried this idea, it just didn’t fall right. I am not sure what I am going to do with that piece right now. I may make some red pieces in a similar shape and decide how I want to join them together.

The third piece is a choker. On the bottom edging, I tried a new technique. It was supposed to lie flat but I made the stitches too close together and it turned out like a ruffle. I like it though. Since I took this picture , I added an edging on the top. I ran out of the crystals I was using for the edging though. I need to wait until I get more crystals to finish this.