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October 07, 2005
Making a Spoolie Bracelet or Necklace
Making
a Spoolie Bracelet or
Necklace
by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)
www.crone-findlay.com
People often ask me:
"What triggers your creativity and imagination?"
and the answer is:
Asking myself the question:
"What if?"
I am endlessly intrigued
by
the amazing things that unfold
when I ask myself that question......
by Noreen Crone-Findlay (c)
www.crone-findlay.com
People often ask me:
"What triggers your creativity and imagination?"
and the answer is:
Asking myself the question:
"What if?"
by
the amazing things that unfold
when I ask myself that question......
AND!
It's great when other people ask me questions, too!
About
a week or so ago,
Mary wrote a note and asked me if
I had ever made a yarn necklace of spool knitted beads.
Now, I have used beads in spool knitting
and I have crocheted many a bead,
but I hadn't ~spoolknitted~ a beady necklace.
Piece of cake
I thought.
Ha!
Not so!
I thought....
I'll spoolie up a tube and pop beads inside it as I go,
and stitch between 'em and that'll be slick as a whistle.
Um.
nope.
My first attempt at least had the good effect of making me laugh!
Gleeyach!
Other than that....... not so much!
It was so blech that I didn't even take a picture!
The beads just flooped right through the spoolie cord.
Incontinent cord.
Not good.
Okay, I thought:
Use bigger beads.
Euwwwwwe!
Next?
Thicker yarn.
Fingers pinching nose in disgust.
Time for radical action.
Conversation with self:
I obviously want ~more~ pegs.
Try with a six peg spool knitter:
Better!
But...
Still having the lamentable launching of the incontinent cord.
Floop! Ting!
Beads spewing from cord.... ahem.
See in the pic?
beads leaving the confines of the cord with impunity.
Larger wooden beads......? Nah.........
Alrighty.
Radical Action:
8 pegs~!
Close together!
Yes!
Cries heard from the studio:
Jim! Can you make me an 8 peg spoolie?
Silence.
Peering 'round the corner.
My partner in spoolie construction (and love of my life) had gone to bed.
Being an impatient sort,
and not wanting to wait till the Lathemeister had put in his 8 hours,
I trundled out to the workshop.
I snitched one of the smaller spoolies that Jim had finished turning
but hadn't pegged yet.
A few minutes cutting pegs
and then a little drilling
and a gluing
and a whole bunch of sanding
and
VOILA!
I had my 8 peg spoolie.
(I was terribly pleased,
but then I rolled into bed at 2 am,
and scared the bejabbers out of the small dog,
who retaliated
by going ballistic
and jolting Jim into heart pounding,
'WHAT!?!?! WHAT - what are you ~doing?!?!?~',
.... oops......
You think he'd be used to it after almost 3 decades!)
And on to
the morning after
the making of the 8 pegger:
Time to take it for a test drive:
First attempt:
Thick yarn:
Oops...... this is going to be like plumbing tubing!
Nyet!
Second attempt:
Sock yarn.
I LOVE sock yarn!
Sock yarn is great!
It should be great in the necklaces...
Um.
It looks like someone tried
(and failed)
to make a necklace out of sock yarn......
I really do not like being the object of pity.
zippppppp........ another one frogged.
Third time:
LUCKY :
(Back story:
This summer,
I gave myself a whale of a case of tendonitis crocheting with wire,
and ended up with my arm in 2 braces. Phooey.)
I had been thinking:
Making these necklaces ~in wire~ would be a piece of cake.
I've done this with wire.....
But, I am not going to mess up my arm again
(Whacking side of head)
DUH!
My perfect solution to ~not~ working with wire:
Lame'
(no, that's not "lame", as in 'halt and ' that's 'lamay' as in Lame'
with the accent in the right place, which I don't know how to do).
Anyhow, I LOVE Lame' yarn,
and it's the perfect substitute for wire.
So, I got out a tube of it, and started leaping for joy!
It works up a fair dream!
(I had to stop and take a little break to burn dancing ladies onto the spoolie....
I was doing the happy dance, and so the spoolie needed to have a happy dance, too!)
Here's the scoop on making
the Lame' necklace with beads in the middle:
I cast on and spooled until the cord was about an inch or so past the spoolie.
Then, I threaded the end into a darning needle,
and gathered the end stitches and stitched the end closed.
Then, I got out my tub of cheap and cheerful largish glass beads,
and as I spooled,
I kept dropping and popping beads into the tube.
I even milked them back out when I had made a bad choice.
I took out the icky one and
popped the good 'uns back in
and pushed and
cajoled them back down into their lovely silver casing.
Very gratifying.
Keep on spool knitting (and popping in beads)
until you have spoolied a cord that is just slightly shorter than the finished length
if you want a bracelet or necklace with a clasp.
If you want a longish necklace,
then make it the length you would like
and don't worry about the findings.
Leave a little extra room at the end,
and don't fill the spoolie cord too full of beads.
The spaces between the beads are going to take up some of the cord.
Cut the yarn, leaving about a yard (1 m) of yarn/thread for stitching.
Take the end through a darning needle
and stitch through all the loops on the spoolie a couple of times
and stitch in place to anchor it.
Stitch the clasp to one end
Making the spacing between the beads:
*Take the needle inside the spoolie cord
and out past the bead,
and wrap around the cord several times,
stitch over the wraps a few times to anchor it. *
Repeat from * to *
until all the beads are separated.
If you find that you've put in too many beads,
sqwooch one or two of them out between the stitches.
You need to gently 'nurse' them out...
When I was 'releasing' one of the extra beads,
it popped out in the most satisfying way,
and, I thought:
Oh! just like having a baby!
Except that it's not at all like having a baby.
If you have had one, you'll agree.
If you haven't, try stuffing a frozen turkey
down the sleeve of a sweater.
While you're sitting on it.
With your foot in your ear....
I am very glad that I had two babies.
They are two of the most wonderful people
I have ever been blessed to know.
But, really, the whole thing about giving birth
makes me think that someone should approach the
Cosmic Committee on Reproduction,
and mention that now that velcro is so readily available,
how about keying in a 'velcro gene' to
the reproduction process?
I digress.
back to the bracelet or necklace...
when you have all the beads spaced and stitched,
Stitch the ring to the other end.
Stitch over and over in place,
and then take the thread down through
the bracelet or necklace.
If you are opting for a necklace that is
long enough to just go over your head,
then don't bother with the fastener
- just stitch the ends together.
And
you
now
have
a glorious
Spoolie Bracelet!
hugs all round!
Noreen
www.crone-findlay.com
Mary wrote a note and asked me if
I had ever made a yarn necklace of spool knitted beads.
Now, I have used beads in spool knitting
and I have crocheted many a bead,
but I hadn't ~spoolknitted~ a beady necklace.
Piece of cake
I thought.
Ha!
Not so!
I thought....
I'll spoolie up a tube and pop beads inside it as I go,
and stitch between 'em and that'll be slick as a whistle.
Um.
nope.
My first attempt at least had the good effect of making me laugh!
Gleeyach!
Other than that....... not so much!
It was so blech that I didn't even take a picture!
The beads just flooped right through the spoolie cord.
Incontinent cord.
Not good.
Okay, I thought:
Use bigger beads.
Euwwwwwe!
Next?
Thicker yarn.
Fingers pinching nose in disgust.
Time for radical action.
Conversation with self:
I obviously want ~more~ pegs.
Try with a six peg spool knitter:
Better!
But...
Still having the lamentable launching of the incontinent cord.
Floop! Ting!
Beads spewing from cord.... ahem.
See in the pic?
beads leaving the confines of the cord with impunity.
Larger wooden beads......? Nah.........
Alrighty.
Radical Action:
8 pegs~!
Close together!
Yes!
Cries heard from the studio:
Jim! Can you make me an 8 peg spoolie?
Silence.
Peering 'round the corner.
My partner in spoolie construction (and love of my life) had gone to bed.
Being an impatient sort,
and not wanting to wait till the Lathemeister had put in his 8 hours,
I trundled out to the workshop.
I snitched one of the smaller spoolies that Jim had finished turning
but hadn't pegged yet.
A few minutes cutting pegs
and then a little drilling
and a gluing
and a whole bunch of sanding
and
VOILA!
I had my 8 peg spoolie.
(I was terribly pleased,
but then I rolled into bed at 2 am,
and scared the bejabbers out of the small dog,
who retaliated
by going ballistic
and jolting Jim into heart pounding,
'WHAT!?!?! WHAT - what are you ~doing?!?!?~',
.... oops......
You think he'd be used to it after almost 3 decades!)
And on to
the morning after
the making of the 8 pegger:
Time to take it for a test drive:
First attempt:
Thick yarn:
Oops...... this is going to be like plumbing tubing!
Nyet!
Second attempt:
Sock yarn.
I LOVE sock yarn!
Sock yarn is great!
It should be great in the necklaces...
Um.
It looks like someone tried
(and failed)
to make a necklace out of sock yarn......
I really do not like being the object of pity.
zippppppp........ another one frogged.
Third time:
LUCKY :
(Back story:
This summer,
I gave myself a whale of a case of tendonitis crocheting with wire,
and ended up with my arm in 2 braces. Phooey.)
I had been thinking:
Making these necklaces ~in wire~ would be a piece of cake.
I've done this with wire.....
But, I am not going to mess up my arm again
(Whacking side of head)
DUH!
My perfect solution to ~not~ working with wire:
Lame'
(no, that's not "lame", as in 'halt and ' that's 'lamay' as in Lame'
with the accent in the right place, which I don't know how to do).
Anyhow, I LOVE Lame' yarn,
and it's the perfect substitute for wire.
So, I got out a tube of it, and started leaping for joy!
It works up a fair dream!
(I had to stop and take a little break to burn dancing ladies onto the spoolie....
I was doing the happy dance, and so the spoolie needed to have a happy dance, too!)
Here's the scoop on making
the Lame' necklace with beads in the middle:
I cast on and spooled until the cord was about an inch or so past the spoolie.
Then, I threaded the end into a darning needle,
and gathered the end stitches and stitched the end closed.
Then, I got out my tub of cheap and cheerful largish glass beads,
and as I spooled,
I kept dropping and popping beads into the tube.
I even milked them back out when I had made a bad choice.
I took out the icky one and
popped the good 'uns back in
and pushed and
cajoled them back down into their lovely silver casing.
Very gratifying.
Keep on spool knitting (and popping in beads)
until you have spoolied a cord that is just slightly shorter than the finished length
if you want a bracelet or necklace with a clasp.
If you want a longish necklace,
then make it the length you would like
and don't worry about the findings.
Leave a little extra room at the end,
and don't fill the spoolie cord too full of beads.
The spaces between the beads are going to take up some of the cord.
Cut the yarn, leaving about a yard (1 m) of yarn/thread for stitching.
Take the end through a darning needle
and stitch through all the loops on the spoolie a couple of times
and stitch in place to anchor it.
Stitch the clasp to one end
Making the spacing between the beads:
*Take the needle inside the spoolie cord
and out past the bead,
and wrap around the cord several times,
stitch over the wraps a few times to anchor it. *
Repeat from * to *
until all the beads are separated.
If you find that you've put in too many beads,
sqwooch one or two of them out between the stitches.
You need to gently 'nurse' them out...
When I was 'releasing' one of the extra beads,
it popped out in the most satisfying way,
and, I thought:
Oh! just like having a baby!
Except that it's not at all like having a baby.
If you have had one, you'll agree.
If you haven't, try stuffing a frozen turkey
down the sleeve of a sweater.
While you're sitting on it.
With your foot in your ear....
I am very glad that I had two babies.
They are two of the most wonderful people
I have ever been blessed to know.
But, really, the whole thing about giving birth
makes me think that someone should approach the
Cosmic Committee on Reproduction,
and mention that now that velcro is so readily available,
how about keying in a 'velcro gene' to
the reproduction process?
I digress.
back to the bracelet or necklace...
when you have all the beads spaced and stitched,
Stitch the ring to the other end.
Stitch over and over in place,
and then take the thread down through
the bracelet or necklace.
If you are opting for a necklace that is
long enough to just go over your head,
then don't bother with the fastener
- just stitch the ends together.
And
you
now
have
a glorious
Spoolie Bracelet!
hugs all round!
Noreen
www.crone-findlay.com