New Beading kit!!!

[Emm-Kaye]

I'm so excited!
Visited my friend today and she gave me an early birthday present (several months early!). A new beading kit from i-bead.com, called Beader's Chatelaine. It comes with everything you need except needles and beading thread (which I have!!).
It's going to keep me happily busy for a good month or four. There are 7-8 parts to it, from a scissors holder, needle case covers, to a tape measure cover! Even comes with instructions for a necklace for any of the parts!
I want to start NOW, but will wait until daylight, so I don't go blind. wink  

[Emm-Kaye]

Promised myself that I would apply to at least 2-3 jobs today, before I start the Chatelaine. It's hard waiting.  

[Emm-Kaye]

Started with the Embroidery Scissor case...have 4 rows done!!!
Kind of turned into a full day project just to get started:
Had another partial project on my bead board, so had to put that away, and managed to drop it. Beads flew everywhere! Got them all picked up, sorted and put away, and the floor vaccuumed (way too much cat hair!).
Then I decided to be smart and organize the beads for this project, so I wouldn't have to search through lots of little bags.
That meant consolidating three partially full bead containers into one, giving me two empties!
Got all the beads organized, it only took one to hold all the beads - 14 compartments, some almost overflowing!
Finally got the project started!!!  

[Emm-Kaye]

And, it is now too dark to see what I'm doing unless I move to another room. Sigh...guess I'll stop for today.
Size 11 Miyuki Delicas are teeeeeny, and hard to see in full daylight, much less with the overhead light or desk lamp.  

[Emm-Kaye]

Getting all the non-essentials done this morning, so I can spend the rest of the day beading.

(Non-essentials being things like: groceries, dishes, laundry, applying for jobs, etc. rofl )  

[Entervixen]

Fun times! I like working with teeny tiny beads, have a bunch but haven't touched them in ages. Wonder if I can find all my stuff for it again?  

[Emm-Kaye]

Well, I've ripped out what I had done, since I'd made a mistake. Following the pattern is ... interesting. If you get the wrong color bead in by mistake, you may not notice it until the next row or two (which is what happened).

Using circular peyote stitch, you are working the pattern almost diagonally, so you actually have to skip to the next bead for each row in the pattern and add the skipped ones in at the end of each row.

Then I started from the bottom of the pattern, instead of the top. 4 beads is so small you almost can't even hold it! Messed up again after 4 rows, so tore it out again.
The pattern starts out bigger at the top, and narrows as you go, ending with just 4 beads. I figure it'll be easier to decrease rather than increase, since it is small to begin with! So I plan to restart from the top.

Then I got smart. I'm stringing the beads onto a thread, following the pattern exactly, but not actually beading them yet. I've got almost half the pattern strung onto one really long thread. I am using a different color/type of bead between each of the rows, to make it easy to see where each is.

Once I get that done, it will be a snap to actually put them together. Simply pull one bead row off, and bead it, starting where I need to for that row, by putting the skipped ones at the end, in the proper order!  

[Entervixen]

Good luck! I know circular peyote stitch, I just have trouble adding more thread when I need it, so it never gets very big.  

[Emm-Kaye]

Adding thread is pretty easy -
Leave a tail on the thread you are ending, go back 5-6 beads (or more!) and weave in your new thread, also leaving a tail.

Pick up your next bead and continue beading in pattern, making sure not to pull too much, so the tail stays. Once you are a few rows up, you can weave in both end/tails and you have it done, with no knots!
(You can wait till you finish the project to weave in the ends if you want. I find it annoys me to have extra threads hanging out.)

The other way is to knot the two threads together, but sometimes that makes it hard to pull through small beads.

I try to do my beadwork without knots, since I don't like them showing in the finished pieces, so I keep a long tail to weave in, to make sure it won't come apart.  

[Entervixen]

That does sound easy. smile I made a nice flat even count peyote stitch bracelet once, and even used epoxy instead of regular glue to secure the snaps. Unfortunately I realized too late I epoxied them on wrong. sad Oh well. Live and learn!  

[Emm-Kaye]

Found my Beader's Chatelaine kit again!!!
I will start it (again) tonight, after work, and hopefully can be done with the entire thing by Christmas...unless I go blind working with such tiny beads. rofl  

[Entervixen]

Sounds like fun! I've been knitting a lot lately, it's so thrilling to be able to do it again sans pain. So awesome. biggrin  

[Emm-Kaye]

entervixen

Sounds like fun! I've been knitting a lot lately, it's so thrilling to be able to do it again sans pain. So awesome. biggrin

That is wonderful to hear!  

[Entervixen]

Emm-Kaye

entervixen

Sounds like fun! I've been knitting a lot lately, it's so thrilling to be able to do it again sans pain. So awesome. biggrin

That is wonderful to hear!

Thanks!  

[Emm-Kaye]

So, instead of beading, or knitting, or doing anything, I've spend most of the weekend sleeping, trying to recover from 127.5 hours worked in 2 weeks...I worked 12 days straight.
Hopefully it will get better...if not, I guess I'll just learn to be sleep deprived at all times again. Been there, done that - not a whole lot of fun.

I look at the massive amount of boxes still in the living room, and think I should actually unpack some of them, then I just go to bed, since I'm too tired to do much else. 10-12+ hour work days do that to you.
I could just put all the boxes in the basement, so I don't have to look at them, and I'd have a living room to use, rather than walking through pathways between boxes.
Problem with that is the basement is already pretty full of stuff...I'll have to reshuffle everything to put more down there.
Guess that's my project for today.