A little goal set

Let's admit something right here and now. I despise acrylic yarn. Over the years, the industry has improved the texture from what was similar to knitting with fuzzy Marlin fishing line, to a relatively softer fuzzy Salmon fishing line.

Sure the baby stuff is nice, and one does have to consider baby's sensitive skin, but isn't that what cotton is for? Bamboo? Linen? All the wonder of natural fibers has taken quite a hold of me. I put a LOT of time and effort into a project, and an acrylic will just eventually end up at the St. Vincent De Paul's, with the probable future purpose as a fancy dog bed or protecting your grandmother's mirror when you move to Ohio. A hand knit cotton blanket might just improve it's odds to making it to the heirloom box, or lovingly passed to the next expected bundle of joy in the family or circle of friends.

So, as of today, I promised myself: NO MORE Acrylic. I am using up the stash, and moving on to natural fibers only. Wool. Cotton. Linen. Alpaca. Etcetera. I am aching to buy some Yak or Quiviut or whatever it's called. I petted some cashmere blend at the LYS a few weeks ago and actually thought that's what Heaven might feel like if it were knitted.

Of course, it will cost more money. Acrylic is cheap. But my hands are not as young as they used to be. I decided they are worth more than what Acrylic feels like. My hands want the other stuff. I will pamper them, love them and oblige them because they are worth every penny.

My hands also want to learn to spin and weave. I need to keep them happy with the natural idea before I take that far of a jump.

So here's the latest attack on the Acrylic stash. I named this project Jezebel. The colors are great!

I sold one of my necklaces to a good friend of mine, Amy. She and I have been friends for almost a decade, when we worked for the Government. She's like a younger version of me, or the me I wish I was when I was her age. (did that make sense?..)

Amy is one of a kind. If it hadn't been for her, I might not have made it through some of the darkest times of my life.

The necklace looks wonderful on her.

Reb likes the attention. Amy is like, "He's so big!"..

Other good things are happening..I started in earnest with my Etsy site. Three necklaces are on there now. I even learned how to link Etsy to my Facebook page. That way friends can find my blog, Etsy, and order or reccommend my creations to others. Love it!

my Etsy site: www.etsy.com/shop/indianpaintbrush

 I want to pursue the idea of teaching knittng on Youtube. I think it would be fun and effective, since several of the knitting 101 videos that are being offered are still way over the top for absolute beginners. I'm talking, "this is yarn. these are knitting needles." Ab.so.lute. beginning knitting. I think it will be a lot of fun. Just gotta find a good webcam..

Keep creating!

In which I practice photography

I went to Eastern Oregon this weekend. My first cousin, Casey and his new bride-to-be, Cara, asked me to take photos of them for their engagement. I was flattered that they thought of me as someone who was good enough for that, then excited about the opportunity to really show off some talent, then freaked out when I thought .."what if they don't like them?".. silly things I suppose.

I took over a hundred fifty pics. We had soo much fun! I think we got some great shots, mostly because they were relaxed, and just being themselves, and I just snapped pictures as fast as my cameras would let me. Here are a few of my favorites. The 35mm's haven't been picked up yet..

Great Sunset! Look at that sky!

So romantic. Great kids!

We were getting eaten alive by monster mosquitoes about this time..

The necklaces needed a better background as well. The old Buckboard wagon is always a great backdrop for a rustic feeling. I wish I had more of them made for this session.

I keep thinking this would look just as good hanging from a rear-view mirror.

The shell pendant really gets set off by those beads.

I made two of these. This one has more uniform shaped pearls. The other one is for sale on Etsy.

This is a really good shot.

I really like the offset of the small beads with the large pendant.

I just love the colors of those beads. Such great colors!

This is my good friend, Sherrie. I found out her birthday was coming up. She admired the blue necklace. Happy Birthday!

Even a western blouse will look good with this setup!

After visiting Sherrie and her family, I set out across the High Desert, headed west back to my little home here in Marcola. I was too focused on staying awake to stop and take picures. As many times as I have made that drive, I never get tired of the Big Sky, seemingly endless sagebrush, lava rock formations, and long lonely highways. Of course, after I get to Bend, the world jumps back in, and it's back to 'normal'.. at the top of Santiam pass, it really was like driving into a steam bath. The humidity hit, and the deep green undergrowth in the forest erupted.

 Driving by Sweet Home, The Foster lake was peppered with water skiers, late afternoon sun reflecting off the water, and lots of kids to be seen in shorts and flip-flops at the Dairy Queen.

As I pulled into the driveway, the smell of fresh-cut hay, happy dogs barking and wagging, Mom puttering around the yard reminded me that remembering these kinds of things are what make life very, very good.

Beeaaddddsss!!

Stuff I have been working on:

1: Freshwater pearl necklace with lampworked glass pendant. So far, my favorite.

My next Favorite:

Seed beads, large accent beads, and GORGEOUS copper/black pendant! oooh this was fun to design!

This is all glass beads and such. I re-string the seed beads to make sure the necklace lasts a long time.

Haven't quite decided how to put this together yet, but the colors are fan.tas.tic!

Such a sweet combination of purple and green. Some young lady will love this when it's done!

This is dyed agate. It resembles Larimar, or Dolphin Stone as it's more comonly known. One of the rarest stones in the world. You can only get it in the Dominican Republic. I have some real larimar, but it's very expensive. up to 20$ a gram in some places. I'm still playing with the idea of multi-strands to go with it, not to over take the beautiful colors.

The Pendant is a shell, dyed and features a gold overlay with a clear gloss finish. I really liked the big gold beads at first, but after taking the pics, I'm thinking about just using the smaller fire-polished Czech beads, so as to not overtake the pendant.

I have quite a few more ready to put together, but wanted to share with you, the reader, some of what I've been doing. It's so much fun, and very rewarding. I enjoy the challenge of changing gears by switching from knitting to beads, to sewing and crochet.. it's my therapy, I suppose.

This might be a good time to plug the "it's okay to have a huge stash of in- progress projects..".. it keeps your mind busy as well as your hands, and I rarely ever watch TV, therefore being blissfully igorant of the world falling apart around me. Ha!

Never be afraid to try new things.

I'm on Etsy!

www.etsy.com/indianpaintbrush

More to come!

Happy Independence Day!