How to make my Cat Shawl Pin

Rebranding myself is a lot of work

Hi everyone, if you're a follower... wow! Thanks for hanging in with me. I've had a lot of life changes in the past few years since I've been here. I kind of lost my mojo there for a while, still creating a little but not exploring my creativity like I used to. Some recent changes on etsy have made me get my marketing plans on the road to change.
Over the past couple weeks, I've created a youtube channel, you can find a link over on the side. I also created my own website, updated my profiles on facebook, instagram, twitter. It's been crazy!
Website isn't quite live yet... I'll keep you posted on that.

I've been trying to learn how to shoot video tutorials and edit them... So very much to learn. This is going to take me a while...
Keep watching... oh and like and subscribe!

Steam Punk Sally Art Doll

WOW, it's been a looong time!

Looks like it's been a long time... I guess when I changed opened a new etsy shop using just my name and closed my LittleBitWired shop I've forgotten all about posting here.
Not sure I'll get back into blogging, but if you want to find me look here: www.nancyperennec.etsy.com

Big To Do List

I had a pretty ambitious to do list going into this weekend, and althought I got through some of the items.. pretty much none of it was housework. Maybe I'll make up for that today or maybe not. It's been a beautiful last weekend of summer.

I've been stocking up my shops for the Christmas rush, making some more bead knitted cuffs that have been selling like crazy at work. I hope they'll be the thing everyone wants this Christmas but I just never know. I do know I love making them, choosing bead varieties and colours and finally knitting it all together watching the texture come alive. I just want to eat it's so yummy looking at the end. So here's a pic of some of the new stuff I added to my Jewelry and Accessories Shop.

I've also been playing with Kumihimo, it's a Japanese Braiding technique. I started right in with the beads of course, I never seem begin at the beginning. As a result I definitely need more practice. I have one piece that I turned into a necklace for myself, (see the piece on the bottom right of the picture). I hope to play some more with this in the coming weeks. I've seen some wonderful work at craftshows over the summer and I am intrigued.

I have also been playing with some paper clay this weekend and going a little batty! I had birds and bats on the brain I guess. So here's where I'm at with them. I like the way the birds are turning out so will likely make some more of those. The bats were fun but the wings were a pain. My paper clay was kind of hard, I had to really condition it to bring it back to a workable state.

I had also hoped to work on my Evil Queen Sculpt but my apartment is still to warm to work with Polymer clay.
So left on the to do list? So many things, some shop admin stuff, cleaning, laundry, ironing, and working on a new cloth doll pattern. As long as I don't look at my book or out the window I should be fine! LOL

Exciting News!

My patterns are now available on DollMakers Journey. I've been buying my doll making supplies and patterns there for years and I'm so very excited to tell you that they have picked up my doll patterns. Today is the first day and I've already had a sale. I couldn't be happier! YAY!

Thank you so much to Mary Ann at DollmakersJourney for the encouragement and faith in me and my work! It's such a thrill! I must say I think my mom is my little angel looking out for me!

My long weekend project a Knitted Beaded Cuff

I was looking for a small project to try this weekend and I came across a beaded cuff that someone had made. I used to knit these with wire years and years ago and sold a few but it's now become very popular. I guess I was just way ahead of my time. I started playing with some beads and thread at work on my lunch break, loading up the thread with beads and then crocheting it. I found the needle too small for the work and didn't really like the effect. A friend stopped by to see what I was doing in my little crafty corner and wanted me to do one for her in oranges.
I stopped by the bead store on my way home and decided to knit it this time. My progress photos follow with a little description.

My supplies, a variety of beads, large hole beading needle, embroidery floss and size 0 knitting needles. (mine are a little overworked... not too straight are they?) I thread the beads onto the floss in a somewhat random pattern. You need to have about 45 inches of beads strung before you begin knitting. This is tedious to say the least.

Then I cast on 10 stitches. I wanted a wider cuff but you can use as many as you like. I used the pearl stitch only. This causes all the beads to stay on one side. I pearl three or four rows before I add the beads.

I begin sliding beads on every pearl stitch for the next row, sometimes in twos or threes. The bigger beads just one per stitch. Push them up against the work so you don't have them wandering around to the back of the piece. The pattern is basically pearl one row with beads, then pearl the next without beads.

You can see I'm making some progress. The above pictures show the work from and back as I progress.

As I moved further along, I wrapped the string of beads and thread around a paper towel tube to keep this manageable. I noticed I was running out of floss and thought my bead supply wouldn't be enough to finish. So I decided to transfer the beads to a new piece of floss and add some more beads.

I use a long big hole beading needle for this. I threaded the old end of the floss through the needle and the new piece of floss on the other end of the needle. Then I started transferring beads to the new thread. I also added a few more beads.

Transferring the beads to the new floss string along the beading needle.

Once that was done, I removed the beading needle and started the next new row with my new floss string.

When the cuff reached five inches I ended with three rows with no beads and tied off.

I sewed on the clasp and wove the loose ends in.

and voila!

 If my friend doesn't like it I'll keep this beauty for myself!!