adventures in jewellery making

2015 in numbers

Posted on December 31, 2015December 31, 2015 by bekswhoknits

6 books in ‘currently reading’ list
2 books in handbag (not on ‘currently reading’ list
7 books on bed side table (some are ‘currently reading’)
37 Books read.

15 levels on Fallout 4 completed
32 levels on Skyrim The Elder Scrolls completed
3 consoles I can play Dragon Age Inquisition on
5 Dragon Age Inquisition playthroughs created but not finished
1 playthrough of the Trespasser DLC completed
1 extra Dragon Age Inquisition playthrough created because I made bad Thedas-life choices
~~number redacted~~ shreiks resulting from Uncharted 2 having two Dragon Age voice actors in it.
~~number redacted~~ tears shed at the end of Mass Effect 3.
1 pair of N7 tights purchased
8 gold PS trophies, 47 silver and 277 bronze (all time – not just this year)
2020 xbox gamerscore
10 video games completed to credits (not including finishing dragon age inquisition on two different platforms because apparently that doesn’t count)

9 levels of German on Duolingo learnt

15 hours watching new Doctor Who
20 hours watching Peaky Blinders (twice)
2 days 21 hours watching 3rd Rock from the Sun (thanks netflix viewing history – i guess…..)
5 days 10 hours and 34 minutes spent watching Supernatural (with cats)

30 years on earth achieved

2 kittens became cats (look at how much Tina’s grown!)

~17 finished objects knitted or crocheted
2 months of not writing in my daily ‘good things’ journal which kept track of finished items
1 resolution to keep better track of projects next year.
1 Frankie diary to help keep that resolution

1 amazing awesome care package received
16 Christmas Cards sent along with various other care packages and letters throughout the year.

28 cuffs stamped (plus 1 wallet and 3 necklaces)
19 etsy sales
5 patterns published on Ravelry
1451 unique pattern downloads!!! (seriously that is awesome! Thanks so much guys!!)
~~actual amount redacted~~ skeins of yarn added to stash
9 skeins of yarn dyed

6014 spotify tracks listened to
104 songs added to my 2015 playlist

9 of my favourite selfies all with slightly different hair!!

Thanks for sticking around with me during 2015! See you all in 2016!

A little stamping

Posted on June 17, 2015June 16, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I took a break from playing Dragon Age and I stamped this.

And then I took a break from listening to Florence + The Machine and made this.

And then I stopped reading Stitch and Bitch and made this.

What else should I stamp???

Embroidery hoop art

Posted on March 27, 2015 by bekswhoknits

There are some things you just can’t do when you’re a cat owner.

One of these things is having a tea cup on your bed side table as a jewelry holder.

Cats will jump on it causing the clinking of China to wake you up at 4am on a Saturday. It may be pretty but sleep does come first.

So I needed to hang my jewelry out of cats reach.

I am pretty obsessed with embroidery hoops so I picked out a couple in my crafty stash which I had painted and put away for future use.

I took some fabric also from stash, secured it in the hoop, cut around the back, and poked some earrings into it!

Then I screwed a couple of hooks into the wall and hung them.

Then I screwed a couple more hooks behind the embroider hoop to hang some of my necklaces on. (If you’re renting or don’t have walls that you can put holes into, 3M command hooks work as well.)

This has got to be one of easiest DIY I’ve ever done.

I now know that I’m missing some earrings which I’ll have to track down. And I found some that I need to return to their original owner!

It also has the added bonus of being almost entirely from stash, keeps my necklaces untangled, and looks pretty cute to boot. That makes it a winner in my book. And the cats aren’t really all the interested!

Kitty cats, crafternoons, and alternate universes.

Posted on March 2, 2015March 21, 2015 by bekswhoknits

So many exciting things I am going to split them over two posts!!!

I have one more quest before I’m finished (well getting to the credits) of Dragon Age 2.

Then I can start Dragon Age Origins. Because the obvious way to play video games is play them in reverse release order. Still I’ve nearly finished 2 video games! I think I’ve only ever finished one other game previously which was Final Fantasy 7.

I’ve been doing a lot of cool knitting and crochet related stuff which you’ll find about soon enough, but that’s strictly need to know at the moment. (I feel really super cool just being able to say that. It’s the small things.)

I had a lovely crafternoon picnic hosted by the lovely Lisa of teaandcrafts (and recently Frankie magazine fame!!!!) and some other Perth crafty ladies. PLUS PLUS PLUS!!!!! I got some crafty presents including the coolest cup!

Her drawings are super cute and I love it so much. It’s just purrfect. It’s a cat with glasses, polkadots, purple hair and knitting. Sound like anyone you know ☺️

I already have some ideas up my sleeve for a thank you gift!

I’m predicting an ongoing exchange of thank you pressies.

I also got a lovely package of goodies from Megan from crafternoon nap.

Look I’m even wearing matching socks!

Seriously crafty people are the best!!!

How cool is this scarf?! It has a slip in the pattern which makes it into a sort of tie. It’s super awesome. (I had to show off the dragon earrings I made for myself at the same time.)

I’ve absolutely zipped through Lois Lowry’s – The Giver series. I bought them on a whim before a doctors appointment. One of favourite book shops is right near my doctors office. I use book buying as a treat for going to the doctor.

I read all 4 in one weekend! They are aimed at children so the print is large and they are short, but the concepts are pretty big. Definitely thought provoking.

I definitely have a bad case of the reading bug because Thursday I plucked Night Circus off the bookshelf on a whim and proceeded to read in one whole night. I did not stop. It was one of those books that I made and ate dinner with one hand so I could keep reading.

I was only planning on a few chapters while HWFishes was watching an episode of Top Gear that I didn’t want to watch. Ended up with the whole evening with a nose in a book.

Somehow I’ve managed to save the most exciting news for last.

There is now a new addition to our household. Everyone say hello to Tina!

Tina after my cartoon hero, Tina Belcher.

She’s an absolute cutie that we adopted from our local vet. Currently her home is my crafty room which is the cleanest it’s ever looked. We’ll try and gently introduce herself to the rest of the house.

She’s 14 weeks, adorable, and has taken quite a liking to under the spare bed. She’s already exploring and adventurous. And loves reading over my shoulder. Cute as a button.

Well that’s enough for now. Maybe next time I’ll talk about knitting!

I have too many nail polishes that I don’t actually like on my nails.

Posted on November 5, 2014November 5, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I cannot apply black nail polish to my nails. It just doesn’t work.
Most of it ends up on my cuticles and it never looks neat enough.

Same with the banana yellow colour I have. You need 15 hundred coats to make it look any good and I just don’t have the patience to keep my hands still for that long.

Somehow these unusable colours keep finding themselves into my nail polish collection. I blame the $2 price tag and the 3 for $5 sales that all my local chemists seem to have. (I go to the chemist a lot at the moment.) A gal only has so much will power.

So inspired by my polka dot jars, which I’ve just found out I never actually blogged about.
So quick tutorial – I used nail polish and hole punch protectors and you combine the two to create polka dots on jars.

We have a rather large collection of empty jars. They’re just so practical! I use them for my dyeing but also for storing things on my desk, but they have to be pretty.

I didn’t have a plan, I just turned the jars over and poured nail polish over them. Very simple but effective with the right combination. Really how can you go wrong with black and pink.

My desk is messier than usual because I’ve been busy. As the Pogona needed 20 stitch markers I thought I’d better make some more. And of course some earrings had to be made as well.

Jewellery inspired by gifs

Posted on April 4, 2014 by bekswhoknits

Whoop! Jewellery inspired by gifs.

Now if only the gifs came to life and we could put them on our walls and then everywhere would be tumblr.

Also a quick update on the Liz Lemon hat. It is now pompomless. The pompom decided that it no longer wanted to exist and so unravelled itself in a fit of rage.

Jewellery pimping

Posted on March 28, 2014March 28, 2014 by bekswhoknits

Out in this mail this week went several little packages.

Some will be expected and some won’t so I hope they brighten up the recipients day.

I’ve also pimped out mum with a pair of earrings.

Made a bracelet for an alcoholic dinosaur.

A bracelet for a strong, smart, sensual woman.

And a couple of rings for me. Just because I can.

part – time crafter

Posted on February 14, 2014 by bekswhoknits

Feel free to hum Stevie Wonder while you’re reading this post. I know I am.

Although my shoulder is improving, after 8 hour at my desk job it gets pretty tired. However if I don’t get to knit, I get really cranky. So I’ve been trying to sneak in a little tiny bit of crafting.
This means that the socks which take 5 minutes just to figure out where I’m at on the pattern are out. Same with the jumper which is nearing it’s 1st birthday.
What I can do now I have the luxury of being able to leave crafting supplies out is jewellery.
(Seriously not having to pack everything up just so someone else can use the space is a total luxury. Also a luxury is actually having natural light to photograph things with! So much excitement!)

So I’ve been making earrings. Just one or two a day so I can fulfil the creative part of my brain which doesn’t get exercised during my day job. After spending all day at a computer I quite often don’t feel like I’ve achieved anything (even though I actually have you just can’t see it).
Hewhofishes was a roof carpenter for many years so quite often when we’re driving around the city I get a guided tour of the roofs that he built.
Which is really cool to see what he made.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my day job and I have a great sense of job satisfaction. But at the end of the day it’s nice to come home, spend some time actually making something that you can see.

Problem is, I already have too many earrings than I could possibly wear.
So I’ve decided to reopen my little shop.

And you my lovely readers, because we’re already friends, if anything takes your fancy I’ll ship it to you for freeeee!
Just use coupon code ‘parttimecrafter’.

Procrastination

Posted on August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

My knitting monogomy is making me multicraftural.

Because I’ve been working on the same knitting projects I want to branch out in other crafts.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that when I made all those pretty stitch markers, there were also some earrings in the photo.

I didn’t draw attention to them because I had intended a pair to be a surprise for my best friend who was overseas at the time but is an avid reader of my blog (despite not being a knitter).
But she’s back now and I’m seeing her tonight (we’re seeing Cold War Kids!!) so I’m going to spoil the surprise.

So MidnightMoose I have a pair of earrings waiting for you. As always you’re allowed to hate them and you’re really more of a product tester because I’m really not sure of my jewelry making skills just yet.

But I can’t just give her a pair of earrings. Not when there’s jumper instructions to decipher and understand.

So I grabbed some photo paper, my new scallop edged scissors (typo bargain!), a silver paint pen, some washi tape, and a needle.

Put them all together and you get a wonky earrings set.

Maybe next time I’ll use a ruler too.

So oh moose who plays at midnight, when I see you tonight remind me that I have some earrings to give you???

Jewellery for knitting

Posted on July 22, 2013July 21, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I’ve been putting off knitting Parcel for the silliest of reasons. The stitch markers I had were annoying,
A while ago, inspired by knitnrun4sanity’s; jewellery making adventures, I bought some supplies.
It was a half baked scheme which was concocted whilst in Spotlight. Ideas that happen whilst in the shop are usually half baked which means that I don’t actually know what I need, but I want to buy stuff now and not wait to research it properly.

So I bought a starter kit, a plier kit, and some pretty things that caught my eye. My first attempt was so unsuccessful that I gave up.

Now I’ve joined My Sisters Knitter’s knitalong to finish off all those pesky unfinished objects I figured I needed to do something about my stitch marker situation.

So I had a look in my big craft book which wasn’t much help. Well I didn’t have the right tools. The Internet was more useful with this tutorial on stitch markers.

I modified it slightly but I ended up with some stitch markers.

Now I have no excuses not to knit parcel.

Look at me playing wire and stuff.

I may have got a little carried away. I had only planned to make as many as I needed. Instead I used all the round things I had.
I think these mean that I can put Jewelry making basics on my new crafts to try list.