Yarn, beads, wire, and books...

Oh, my! It's been a super busy week. Besides work, my creative energy has been in overdrive. I made some progress on my Bias Shrug...



There were a couple of hairy moments where I thought I might have to frog the thing and start over, but I think they are minor enough for me to ignore. See..if I don't mention them here, no one will notice(yeah, right!).

And I've had a surge of inspiration and ideas with my bead and wire jewelry. The following project is from the Interweave folks. I am beading the Sacred Healing Bag. This is my first attempt at the peyote stitch and despite the itty-bitty size of the seed beads, I've managed to enjoy learning something new. The instructions are pretty clear and I only had to undo my stitches once.




I don't remember where I first saw the following project. But a trip to a nearby bead store gave me tons of ideas and I fell in love with these carnelian beads.



I found some beautiful freshwater pearls for the center and picked up some 24 gauge sterling silver wire. The original project calls for teardrop shaped, side-drilled beads which lays nicely while wire-wrapping. I had a bit of difficulty keeping the round beads from moving around while maneuvering the wire. But I really love the end results. I'm looking forward to creating more jewelry.

I also went on a book buying binge! There is a knitting book in that pile...



Knitting for Anarchists by Anna Zilboorg. A passage that really prompted me to think more about how and why I knit is this...

"If we take control of our knitting and do with it what we like, we have nothing to lose but our chains and we have a world to gain."

I have a tremendous desire to create. Whether it be knitting or beading or something as simple as a meal for my family, I derive a deep satisfaction from these activities. I believe it is that age-old adage that such activities connect us with our history and to the spiritual cloth of being on this planet. When we create something, we are offering up to the world a part of ourselves. We are saying, "Look this is me...can you relate to it?" I realize this has all been said before but sometimes it helps me to regain my center after a stressful period to remember why I value creativity.

I am waiting on my yarn for the Lucky Clover KAL. I ordered ten skeins of Rowan yarn in black from Janette's Rare Yarns on eBay. I'm a bit excited because this is my first Rowan purchase. Is Rowan as great as I've been reading? Will I fall in love with their yarn? Stay tuned...