Making [A] Bail

... a bail for a stone donut, to be precise. My stitching is a little wonky, the seed bead colours in the photo are absolutely not true and appear to not match the donut colours, and I ran out of thread before I could add the embellishment, but in spite of that, I'll declare this a success.

It's the concept.

My original idea was to use the same thingy, more or less, but twisted ninety degrees, as a bail for a teardrop-shaped pendant, secured with nifty wirework, but the shape of the bail didn't hug the curves of the pendant well enough - at all, in fact - so that was declared something of a dead end while I continued doodling on the same little piece, ending up with a very ugly something (what was I thinking when I chose those colours?) which actually did give me some very interesting ideas for a chain, even at the same time as the above idea bailed me out.

Groan, yes. Not entirely sorry: I'm a sucker for indulging in bad puns.

So this necklace and the above bail make two more class samples for spring.

On the knitting front (no pictures) I have a double waistband casing which might require a different final joining/finishing than the one currently in place, which is a little bulky.

What I did was to work around in stocking stitch, making the first casing by knitting a round together with the round about six below by working the stitch together with the purl loops on the wrong side. For the second casing, I worked a couple more rounds and then joined in the same way to a couple more rounds below the last joining round, casting off at the same time. A three-needle bind-off.

Great idea, but too bulky and not quite stable enough, as it wants to roll to the right side, though a smidge of elastic (planned for anyway) may alleviate some badness. I hate to think that the HOURS (yes, hours) I spent picking up the loops and casting them off together could be undone (in a matter of minutes) and then joined by sewing - what a concept! (in a matter of some more minutes) - yielding a better finish. 

There's something plain wrong with that.

I also have the beginnings of the bottom edging in place (stitches picked up and one garter ridge), so I guess I won't have to break my promise to the Wednesday knitters: I will wear the skirt next Wednesday (no, not the day after tomorrow, the following week). It had better fit properly this time, and no, I haven't tried it on. It has to fit, otherwise my daughter gets it, and she'll probably toss it in the machine and full it and then I'll have to make it into a laptop sleeve, one of which I've been meaning to make anyway, but I hate the thought of all that energy going into a skirt which turns out not to be one, since I'm sure I already have some old failed knitting which would do quite well.

So it had better fit.