Kilim - Traveling Bracelet in the East

I had very good intentions... intentions of taking a photo of every new state we crossed into.  

My new camera didn't like that idea at all....... it sat there and dithered around, trying to decide if it should focus on the bracelet (up close) or what was in the background (farther away).

At highway speeds, once the camera makes up it's mind, it's too late!

See what I mean?   We got passed by the Oscar Meyer Winermobile!

... and this is all of a photo I managed to get.

Some states had welcome centers that were still open and we could stop, walk around and take a photo or two.

I don't remember the name of this town, but I'd want to live where the water towers gave both Hot & Cold water.





You can go through a lot of states in the East in four and a half days.

New Hampshire

Maine

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania

Maryland

West Virginia

Virginia

Tennessee

Georgia

Alabama

Mississippi

Amazon Overseas

Just a little bit of excitement here as I found out that two of my books can be had both in Great Britain and the rest of Europe.  You need to do an Amazon search in your country for either of these two books.  They still are only in English, but the stringing tables and graphs are universal, no translation needed.





Triangular Bead Crochet





African Stripes 


This book is also just released as a print copy at Amazon.

Kilim - a Traveling Bracelet

 Sig Wynne-Evans is the mastermind behind the traveling bracelets.... and they keep growing in number.  Please jump over to her blog and catch up on the background.   I have been graced with Kilim, or (as I call it) the flying carpet bracelet.  I'm going to see if somehow this one can visit each and every one of the 50 states.  It's going to stay with me for more than a week as I drive from my summer studio in NH to my winter abode in AZ and then get passed off to Marcia DeCoster to complete a sea-to sea journey.

It Starts.....

Hurricane Sandy left us wet, semi-functional electronically and under heavy overcast skies.  Couldn't get on-line and the house was dreary so we took off and headed for Portsmouth NH on the Atlantic ocean. Portsmouth was incorporated as a city in 1653.  I think it is about 80 miles East of where I live.  This bracelet really had to officially start at the Eastern edge of the USA for this trip.




They were moving a crane on a barge in Portsmouth harbor.  This little piece of water has some working fishing boats in it.

 We were next to Strawberry Banke Museum, just across the water from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.  all of that green grass was water and wharves back when the dark brown building was built in the 1600's.







Then my boyfriend had to get in the act and insisted that we were so close to Maine that we had to go over the bridge into Kittery.   Quickest visit I've ever made to Maine since I moved East 40 years ago!  I can see it now..... he's going to be finagling the trip route the whole way to catch small corners of states.

But.... we can add Maine to the list of States visited.  That's two; NH & Maine. I guess I need to make a check list to keep on the blog.


Now it's time to start shutting down the house and put it into cold storage for the winter.


Oh, dear..... all of the beads need to be cleaned off of the work surfaces, put away into the cases and then packed for the trip.  Then we can hit the road .... hitting the road in 9 days.

Bracelet Side Trips......

The bracelet was sent to me early to make sure I had it before I left.  While waiting for the trip to begin, it hurried up the guys putting cedar shingles on the end of the house.









It went to the BSNH Fall Bead Retreat with me.  A lot of the gals there added notes and best wishes to the booklet that goes with the bracelet.

Lots of good karma at a bead retreat.

Stripes, Native & African

 It doesn't look Native, but that is the pattern set that  Cathey used.  Her colors are not at all Native Stripes, but aren't they delightful?  I'll let you in on another secret.... she made her peyote bands a bit longer than needed and put in snaps.  That way they can be un-done for a quick conversion to a lariat.  I love the creativity that pops up in the beading world.









Marlene Brady takes things seriously when it comes to creating.  I commented that an armful of bracelets would compliment African Stripes necklaces nicely . . .  So Marlene made an armful -- fun aren't they?








Glen hails from down under and has given us a very green Mud Cloth necklace.  She says, "I enjoyed working this pattern so much, I'm playing around with putting other colour combos together - none of them are African either."  But isn't that the fun of these pattern sets.... making them your own.  It's hard to believe sometimes that what you see are all from exactly the same pattern(s).

Marcie Picked up the colors for this Mud Cloth Necklace from the background fabric.   Wearing them together makes an outstanding combination.

Mariana had to add a bit of her own twist to her Love Letter Necklace.  Instead of plain color blocks she stuck in a spiral pattern.  This works so well because she didn't swap her background colors half way through the Mud Cloth necklace.  This is a very unusual set, but so beautifully effective together.

Peggy shows off what both a light and a dark background Love Letter Necklace will look like.  The neat thing is that they are done in 10/0 Delicas.  I asked to borrow the dark one as an example to photo in the eBook.  I had fun as I met her down in Mass for dinner and watched her finish crocheting her necklace.  She's good, real good, as she can work in a loud Irish Pub setting and finish up with an excellent invisible join.




I need to show you what Amy, one of the British participants, did.  I'm intrigued with the forest colors she used in her Love Letters.  I guess it sort of reminds me of Sherwood Forest and tales of Maid Marion.  It's so clean and traditional, just not African traditional colors.


I think that every Monday should start off with beautiful things to look at.  This post has a lot of that.  I supplied the patterns, others did the work, beautiful work that I'm so happy to look at and share.