African Stripes ~ Love Letters Necklace

 Most everyone has finished their Mud Cloth Necklace and now we're working on the companion piece, Love Letters. Above you can see my necklace.  I'm getting ready to crochet the 4th section.  There will be a total of five patterned sections in this necklace.


 Debbie is doing the traditional colors and her necklace is coming along quite nicely.









Amy is doing two different color sets, and how different they look.  She has translated the color bands into dark blue and white in her second necklace.

Peggy is working in #10 Delicas and is also doing two  necklaces.  Here you can see what the same pattern looks like with both a dark and light background.

Mel choose what she calls an archaeological color set.  This is going to look so well with her mud cloth and winter woolens.








 Toni just didn't like the idea of long, single color blocks so she shortened them up to almost nothing.  Now she's trying to decide if this will be a short necklace or will she repeat some of the section patterns for a longer necklace.














Victoria, our delightful speedy crocheter, has three necklaces going at the same time. It's so nice to see what 3 different colorways look like next to each other.  So far, the one on the far left is one of my favorites.











I've saved the most creative for last.... Terri is doing her rope in 11's and has given it a totally contemporary look. She had never crocheted with Miyuki drops before the Mud Cloth Necklace and has added them in to the pattern where ever they seemed to fit. Isn't this a great interpretation?


This just shows you that a pattern is just a pattern and a theme is whatever you want to make of it.  I pick a theme, suggest beads and colors when I set up a string-along, but everyone is encouraged to make it their own.  Once again, these are all exactly the same patterns, but how different they all look when given a personal interpretation.

Magnet Clasp - all gone

The learning curve has been steep, I couldn't get exactly the colors I wanted, the resin didn't want to cooperate, but I finally have the magnetic clasps I've wanted for the past 2 years.  It boils down to the fact -- if you can't find what you want, then learn how to make them.

I've used them on individual bead-crochet bracelets.

These are all of my pattern samples from African Stripes. It makes a fun wrist full of bracelets.

I designed these for bead crocheted ropes, but would love to see how somebody would use them in stringing or other beadwork. An 8mm bead does fit nicely into the open end.

 Then, for a change of pace -- you can clip them all together for a variable length necklace.

Two bracelets that fit your wrist makes you a choker necklace. . .  nice to know.

8/28/2012

Thanks for the response - all Sold Out...

email me if you have a color that you would like to have and I'll see what I can do for you.

Sights of a NH Summer

I got a new traveling camera today and had to go try it out.  I'd been wanting a camera for the car that had more of a telephoto aspect to it so that I could get photos of clock towers and other far off interesting things.  I'm happy to say that I think this Nikon L810 is going to do the job nicely.

We've been watching the old Antique Barn just down the road from us turn into an ice cream, vegetable and local produce market all summer. It's finally open and then this blue cow just appeared in the parking lot.  They say it's a blue ox, but it sure looks like a plain blue-painted cow to me.

A piece down the road is Beard's Brook, well hidden local, swimming pond.  The water is as low as I've seen it in August, even though it seems as if every time I turn around it's raining again.

The water was still and you couldn't see it moving.

This stump is usually underwater.  It's across the pond and yet the camera picked up every little detail of it.

One of my favorite stone arch bridges.  Sometimes I surprise myself with a photograph.  I love the reflection that makes the arch look like a complete circle.

 We stopped in Hillsboro Center, late 1700's settlement.  The Lost Animal Pound is a beautiful example of the stone walls you see along roads and disappearing into the woods.









The founder of Hillsboro, John Hill, donated a triangle of land with this pound, the cemetery,and  buildings in 1769.  It is all maintained beautifully.

 Up the road is the old schoolhouse, a nice prim & proper New England white clapboard building.











Gray shingles and barn red trim. . . all behind the garden and fruit trees.  This is why I wanted this kind of camera.  This shot was taken from 2 fields away.










New England cemeteries, granite and the oldest slate headstones, leaning every which way.










Winters can be cold and thrifty residents still heat with wood.  A well stacked wood pile means a warm house this winter.

 The grass has gone to seed, and I saw red leaves on more than a few maple trees during our afternoon's drive.


 I am pleased with the photos my new camera took. It was a great day to be out for a drive -- a nice 15 mile loop from the house.

I hope you've enjoyed a glimpse of what New Hampshire looks like in late August.

African Stripes - more Mud Cloth

 This is just fantastic and a true labor of love . . . Cathey has made a 60" necklace in 15/0 seed beads. The patterns show up so well in this size beads.

Amy has finished two Mud Cloth necklaces, this one in the traditional black & white and another, further on down in blue & white.   She says she is struggling with the invisible join.  Don't we all at one time or another?

Mariana's necklace is in a traditional color set of red and black.  I think that the use of the white drops adds a lot to the piece.

I think I see a theme here with the Mud Cloth made with blue and white.  I wouldn't have thought of this color combination, but now that I see several necklaces done this way I can say that it has become one of my favorite color combinations.


This is Amy's second necklace.  Look at the accent of a brighter blue in the diamond and hourglass figures.

Here is Karen's finished necklace.  The combination of cobalt and silver is outstanding. She did not swap  to a white background color at the midpoint.

Compare it to the next necklace and see how different it makes it look. .





Peggy's rope is another in the blue set. It's all done in 10/0 Delicas.  I really like the use of this bead size in detailed pattern work like this.  It crochets faster than in 11's, but has better pattern definition that in 8's.


Peggy did swap the background color at the midpoint.  You can see how different it looks from Karen's necklace. That's the great fun of a String-Along -- you can take the base pattern set and customize it in your own colors as well as play with the overall look of a piece.  Everything here is exactly the same pattern set, but personalized.