Work in Progress

If you know me at all, you know this sitting around at the homeschool resource center waiting around for the kid to get an education is driving me nuts. Nuts. It's such a waste of my time, and he doesn't need me there. But rules are rules. (If you know me at all, I also hate rules, but I follow them when required.)

Some of my friends suggested learning Viking Knit as a past-time.... and I have to say, they were right on. I love making it, I love how it works up into something so nice and rich, and I love how I can just put in my ear buds, blast my playlist, block out the crazy school stuff and create something. At school, while I'm sitting around waiting.

Today, I got started on this necklace, an idea I've been holding on to from the beginning (but I had to do that Bead Soup and OWOH thing first!), and I'm very happy with it so far. It needs a clasp, and a bail. And it has a secret little function that I'll tell you about later once it's done. Assuming it works the way it's supposed to. I'll find out next.



This is the bead:



Completed necklace coming soon!

Something Special

This. This is as special as it gets. I am sure that no other mother in the history of time has been gifted with something quite like this. For Valentine's Day, no less, though, it was late due to some design challenges.

A handmade, by my very own child, copper, pronged, ring, holding a big honking chunk of fossilized dino-poop. Yes, dino-poop, you did not read that wrong. Technically, fossilized prehistoric turtle poop, but dino-poop had a different kind of ring to it, doesn't it? Especially special as he found this lovely specimen himself, at Salmon Creek, WA.

Check it out, aren't you just a tiny bit jealous?

That Bead Soup Blog Party Project

The Bead Soup Blog Party rules say... we are not supposed to show our finished work before the party date... 20 days from now... but we can show hints.

So here is a hint. It already no longer looks like this... Though I'm not very far into it yet.

Fun with Viking Knit

I got my viking knit kit and wire last week and couldn't wait to get started. So I sat in my car at the homeschool resource center and in one hour, figured it out. Luke was impressed. So was I. Here is my first attempt - one side (on the left) is single stitch, and the last inch or so (on the right) is double stitch:



Then I made several more. One while sitting in the car waiting for Luke to have Racketball lessons. That one was not so great, but I learned from my mistakes. It took a little to figure out how to get a wire spliced in without it showing too much. But now I have it.

Here are my last three attempts, from top to bottom - single stitch, drawn through the two largest holes, then single stitch, drawn through all four holes to the smallest size, then double stitch, drawn through... I think the two larger holes.



I just ordered some silver wire and need to order some end caps next. Fun!

Sneak Peak

My Vintaj chain came! Here's a sneak peak of what I'm up to. Coming to either an Etsy or Artfire store near you, very soon. I'll let you know which one I finally decide upon.

School Auction Necklace

Luke's school has an auction every year - you might remember the projects I worked on with the kids the past couple of years - the fabric/paint collages? This year that didn't work out for various reasons I won't go into... but I wish it had, it was fun and the kids loved making them and they were pretty popular with the parents too - oh well! So, anyway.. I decided I'd make a necklace to donate instead. It's getting to be last minute, but I think it's going to be something with this stuff in it. Kind of fun, but I'm not sure where to start now! I think I have a week to figure it out...