Brightly coloured wrapped headphones

Ages ago now, I got some new headphones because mine broke, as they do now and again. My old ones were pretty pastel colours, and the cables were light blue with little hearts on them, and they were generally delightful. My new ones are black. This was a big disappointment to me, even though the quality of the headphones is good. But! I was looking at things on the internet the other day, and I saw someone had wrapped theirs, and I did the same.

It's a basic macrame/friendship bracelet knot, with the cord as the 'lazy' thread and embroidery thread or similar as the working thread. My stripy one was done with a colour-changing thread, though you could just as well do stripes the old-fashioned way. This was me doing it on the train (which intrigued my fellow passengers):

And here's the finished headphones:

Supposedly it also stops them from tangling, though I'm not sure that's actually true.

Long wavy stripes

I made some crochet things for my mother's birthday. (At the moment basically everyone gets crochet things for their birthday.) I did this long scarf with stripes along its length. I like doing stripes this way because it's something you can't do with knitting, unless you had super-long needles because you have to make it in just a few rows with a LOT of stitches. I can't remember how many stitches per row for this one but it's probably over a hundred. The wavy pattern is made by making different height stitches (double, half treble and treble) and doing the opposite on the next row so the peaks and troughs match up. The ends of the rows were a bit untidy so I double crocheted the ends to neaten them up.



Then I also did this little purse, which is a really cute pattern: you start in the middle working rows vertically, and work increases into the last stitch each time to make the round part. You go back and forth around the centre. Hard to explain but it's from this pattern.


And finally, Tony made a linocut card, inspired by a fossil ammonite after we visited the shell grotto in Margate.

iPad cosy

Here's another very simple thing that I crocheted: an iPad cosy. It's extremely simple, but I like the colours and the way the stitch looks. It's from that 200 stitches book I linked to, and the rows slant in alternate directions. Not difficult at all, but I love it, people comment on it, and it cost me a lot less than the boring old cases you can buy. (If I have one criticism of the iPad, it's that it doesn't come in bright colours. Well, I fixed that.)

Stitches

One think I've really found that I like about crochet is how easy it is to make lots of different kinds of fancy stitches. Here's a couple of practice goes I had, of making rounds, chevrons, 'eyelash' stitch and one that I then used to make a complete project (photo soon).

Phone cover

I've got into crochet since I last blogged, ages ago. I've made quite a few things so will try and photograph them and put some posts up.

This one is a phone sock I made for Tony because he was carrying his phone around in an actual sock, an old (clean) one. I made it in the pub, which caused excitement among the regulars.

It's just rows of double crochet, alternating every other row. It was approximately DK weight with a 4mm hook. I added a little button loop in chain stitch just to hold the phone in, as it's not a tight-fitting cover. 

Making paper beads

It's both my aunts' birthdays in early March, and this year I made them both necklaces made of paper beads. These are so easy to make (if a little bit of a faff) and they look great (if I do say so myself). 

If you're not keen on making them, you can very easily buy them. Get them from a supplier like this one and give some money to Ugandan women at the same time. If, however, you'd prefer to make your own, there are lots of Youtube videos and online tutorials to show you how, so I'm not going to do that here. This is a good, simple set of instructions if you want them. 

I made two very different necklaces with mine. For one aunt, I made them from Peter Capaldi. Magazine pages are good type of paper to use, as they're thin and glossy and good colours. I chose Peter because I thought my aunt would like the resulting beads - mostly dark grey, with pinkish highlights. Here he is being cut into triangles:

Peter Capaldi in the Radio Times being cut into triangles

Then I rolled them up, glued them and left them to dry, then varnished them. If you put them on cocktail sticks this is much easier to do. Mr T came up with this great idea for a stand, scrumpled up tinfoil:

Beads drying on cocktail sticks

Once varnished (two coats) and dry, they look like this:

Finished varnished paper beads

I strang them with grey seed beads in between, and a few silver-coloured metal ones at the front. They're from an African stall at Portobello Road market in London:

The finished necklace

For my other aunt, I used normal white paper and coloured it with permanent marker. You only need to colour the edges of the paper where it'll show when it's rolled, not the whole triangle. Then I did the same as with the Capaldi ones:

Beads drying

And I strang these ones with blue and red seed beads, and chips of malachite for super-bright contrast:

The finished paper bead and malachite necklace

Kit necklace and earring set

This set is from a kit I've had for years, from France. The instructions were in French so I learnt something from it too.

Items for sale on Folksy!

I went to Leeds at the weekend and bought lots of beads for making Xmas presents, but those will not appear on this blog till after Xmas. However, I also got some other things too, among which these nice bumpy beads. I made links by putting each on an eye pin and linked them together, then attached a length of Byzantine chain maille at each end, then a length of pale pink ribbon and fastened it with a toggle clasp. I've listed it for sale on my new shop on Folksy too.

And I listed this one - made with my jump ring maker out of turquoise and silver-plated wire linked in pairs with seed beads on alternate links.

Leftovers

I've been using up odds and ends of the things I've bought recently. Here's a necklace with heart shaped beads I've had for ages in the centre of those green shell rings - they're just the right size. I didn't have enough clear crackly ones to make exactly matching earrings so I made nearly-matching earrings with green ones.

Here, I combined more green rings with blue veined jasper squares, strung little seed beads in the centre and added dark blue, light blue and clear fire-polished faceted beads at each end to tie the colours together. The tiger tail is royal blue in this one (it was light green in the one above).

And the last ring left, turned into the centrepiece of a three-strand necklace. I'm not totally sure about this one actually, I'm yet to make up my mind about it. Anyway, there are random selections of green beads on each of the three strands, including leaves.

More blue swirly cube beads, strung with smaller beads between that aren't fixed so they slide about:

And the last of the blue jasper, mixed with some of those swirly round beads on a toggle-clasp bracelet. I've still got some swirly ones left actually, though only three.

Bicones two ways

This one is lovely - in real life it's totally sparkly and fab. I like the red and black thing, very smart. It's on red tigertail, and very simple. I made the dangles by making wrapped loops from eyepins, as the hole in the hearts was too wide to use any jump ring. It was fiddly, but I think it actually looks really good. The matching earrings I debated for ages whether to make them with red or black bicones. I might do the opposite colourway too, and get some more of these beads. The hearts are 30p each (from Beads Unlimited) but that's pretty good compared to Swarovski.

And here are some super-sized bicones, lampwork ones. Pretty.

Copper, suger and charms (as Hawkwind never sang)

This is a charm bracelet, my first experiments with chain. It's easier than I thought, and looks cool, I think. The charms are all ones I had from something I took apart ages ago, and I think they look much better on the bracelet. It's fiddly, mind.

These beads I bought because they look like they're covered in sugar, which can only be a good thing in my opinion. the design is similar to one I did a few years ago, made by twisting the beads onto strands of wire and twisting the strands together. The seed beads are loose so they move freely.

And another one I love and didn't want to give away. Copper lined pale blue beads, on memory wire with blue and copper seed beads, and little stars. I haven't got any more stars left now so I can't make another just like it.

Sweeties!

They look a bit like sweets. To me, anyway. It's not that clear in the photo but they're strung on two colours of tigertail, blue and black. Here's a similar one with purple and pink where you can see the colours. The bumpy ones make me think of the everlasting gobstoppers in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (yes, the 1971 film, in which they for some reason made the gobstoppers which you suck forever in a shape which would be most uncomfortable to suck).

Spotty glass bead bracelet

These beads are from Yum Yums too - I did quite well out of that one visit. It's a bit hard to tell in the photo, but the spots have a sort of metallic, petrolly effect which looks very cool on the clear glass. It's just strung on silver tigertail with small blue cuboids in between. I tried it with blue tigertail, but it stood out too much.

Works in progress

I need inspiration. These beads look better on the ends than the sides, which means they won't look good just strung, so I need some creative kind of stringing that shows them off.
And this is a bracelet that I made and don't like. The balance is wrong. So I need to remake it, either as a bracelet or something else, but I'm not sure how exactly.

My grandma's birthday

It's grandma's birthday so she has been made a necklace very similar to the one I made my other grandma, but they don't know each other so it's OK, there will be no potential for necklace-duplication-related embarrassment.