Berrylicious bracelet and ethereal necklace

Well it's been a busy weekend! First of all, hubby pulled a muscle in his back so this was the perfect excuse to get my rather forlorn massage table out of the cupboard. And since I'm due to spend a whole weekend giving indian head massages at a trade show in just a fortnight, I can really use the training!

Secondly, I taught myself to knit in the round using the magic loop technique. Don't get me wrong, I really like working on double pointed pins, especially when it comes to knitting socks, but I have this mittens project I want to make and I felt that the magic loop method would lend itself to it better. I won't describe the magic loop method in details here, there's enough YouTube videos about it out there. I'll just say that because of its name, it always sounded really mysterious to me and so I'd assumed it was pretty complicated. Well it's not! It's a bit like cables (as in knitting cables, not the electric kind of which I know very little!), it looks fancy and sophisticated but when you break it down, it's actually pretty simple. A bit of a let down challenge wise if I'm honest... Never mind, I am now fairly proficient at magic loop knitting so I can finally start my mittens project. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Finally, it's been a jewellery making weekend. I have lots of beads and findings in my stock - along with a pile of crafting books, a huge stash of yarns, a good stash of roving wool and a growing stash of fabrics... Craftaholics Anonymous may soon be in order! I've decided I want to de-stash, especially as we are considering moving to Bristol towards the end of the year. But I don't want to just sell the stuff on Ebay, that would be heart breaking (and no hubby darling, the books are never going to go!), I want to use up my stash making loads of stuff I could sell at a craft fair or christmas market. So I've made a start. First I made this lovely ethereal necklace with just a handful of perspex beads and a bit of chain.

Then I made this adorable berrylicious jangly bracelet with wooden beads. It's packed with beads and yet it's super light, I love it!

So here we go, along with my wire and bead experiment from a previous post and a few other bits and pieces I made last year, these are now officially stored in the "for sale at a craft/christmas market" box. I figure that if I make a few pieces a month, come the end of the year, I should have a decent enough stock for a stall. Let's see how that pans out!