Circus Bangles ~ String-Along

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April First ~ No Fool

OK, let's try easing back into some creative and productive bead crochet.  The medication regime I'm on has given me back about 70% functionality.  Danged Rheumatoid Arthritis will not keep me down, I'll be fighting it all the way.  Besides, I have a backup crocheter.  Terri Bottalico up in the Phoenix Arizona area has agreed to be my other pair of eyes and hands as I need them.  Besides, she uses other color sets than mine which will make those non-bright colored people happy.  I'm willing to give this a try with something shorter than long necklaces.

Now, with winter hanging in and more snow in the forecast for many parts of the USA, I'm feeling cabin fever.  We've also had 4 snow storms here in southern Arizona - three too many in my book!  I'm so ready to just run away from life in general and join the Circus.... to be limber enough to wear spangly tights, laugh and eat cotton candy.  I couldn't believe that I still had this old circus pennant from St Louis in the early 1950's.  I guess I'm just too old to become a circus roustabout at my age.... but I can dream and the right jewelry helps.

So, pick some bead colors and join me in making a set of Circus Bangles.  A Bangle is defined as a rigid bracelet or anklet, especially one with no clasp, so those of you who are tight, tight crocheters will be right on the money.  Loose crocheters like me may have to resort to an internal wire to get the rigidity.  

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With more Information

Bead Room Clean Out

Most of the leftover beads have found new homes.  There are a few interesting lots left.  Download the PDF HERE  for prices, lot numbers and general descriptions.  Pretty much, what you see is what you get. Sold by time stamp on your email to judith "at" beadline.com. All payments must be through PayPal.

Now, here's a special deal... buy all 4 lots of beads, 1 lb+ of interesting beady goodness for $150 ($6 SH Priority) and I will pack it all in a Bead Girl jewelry pouch.  Once an individual lot has sold, this offer isn't valid.

At $38 per group, there's a bargain or two.

The Eyes Have It

Too much excitement came in the door yesterday.  Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, along with two pairs of old French doll eyes arrived from Kate McKinnon. Stacked on top of that box was a box of beads from a Tucson Vendor.

OK, I held off opening the book til bed time and then enjoyed burning some midnight oil with a well organized, information stuffed, beadwork overloaded book. There is so much there that it's hard to figure out if I want to do some of it, and if so, where to start?

This was one of those strange impulse buys.  The eyes are neat and they open and close.  The mechanism is weighted to make them work right, however it makes them too heavy to incorporate into beadwork.  They are too small to be shelf  knick-knackery.

So, for the time being.... 

Here's looking at you.... creatively!

I had seen a photo of these daggerless daggers and asked one of the Tucson Vendors to bring me 1/2 mass of them.  Then the beads went missing and never made it to Tucson.  They had to wait til they got back home to send them on to me.  I think they will work beautifully in bead crochet.  As you can see, they are the same size as these gold medium daggers, just not a flared dagger shape.  These are the only beads I've seen in this shape.  One could hope to see more and especially in opaque primary colors.....

What do you think?

Working Hands - Hopefully

It takes crocheting a lot of samples to come up with workable rope patterns.  I have some wonderful bead faeries who do a lot of it, but when it comes down to the wire, I need to see myself that what I have on paper actually works with the beads. 

The agony of inflamed and swollen joints the last 5 months has meant that I haven't been able to pick up a hook.  I had some bead crochet patterns, but then I'd see that maybe a change of one or two beads would make the design work better.  It's hard to deal with the time factor that bead faeries need when I could do it in 15 min. or less.

Finally, after misdiagnosis, no diagnosis, Doctor head scratching, more tests and more than one specialists referral ... they are pretty sure that I have a severe case of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Why me, at my age, all of a sudden?  Who knows . . . There are so many people out there who have this, live with it and manage it.  I can do no less.  Give me time to get this all sorted out and I hope to be back to beading.

The specialist has me on a modified, low-dose Chemo regime.  It'll take a while to kick in -- about 10 weeks all told.   If it works and the side effects don't drive me batty, then this bout of nasty arthritis should be pushed into remission. Thin hair and a weekly bout of nausea is a small price to pay to have my hands back again and to be able to walk more than a hundred feet.

I won't dwell on it, nor bore you with any of the details of what's working and not working.  However everyone that's asked for future patterns, books, workshops and string-alongs needs to know why I've been so very quiet and non-productive.  Getting old just isn't for wimps, is it?  When I feel I can, the first thing I'll do will be a new string-along.