Indulgence

Not that there aren't things to be taken care of, but sometimes you just have to set everything aside and indulge yourself.

My indulgence was a long, very hot, fragranced bath with a book and a cold, crisp apple. Simple. Luxurious. Rare. Precious.

It felt like a lateral detour off the stream of time. Away and insulated, if only for an hour or so, and then of course, back to Real Life.

Remember the Groucho disguise? The Johnny-Five lookalike?

I think I fixed it.

Actually, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, and perhaps someday I'll make one for myself in colours that make me weak at the knees, but this one is up for grabs, so to speak, in my Etsy shop.

Speaking of which, I took the plunge (sort of) and realised the idea with which I've been toying since SOAR: an Earring Kit of the Month Club - actually four versions of the same for different periods.

One immediate response was "How about a bracelet of the month club?", which is of course a great idea, except that I don't have twelve bracelet designs which I have neither sold as a kit nor a pattern, so that starting in January could prove problematic, so I'm leaving that one for another time. (Yes, I do have patterns for twelve earrings which I have not sold).

Last week (or perhaps the week before; I don't take notes) I strung up some beads for kumihimo, mostly for measurement purposes (How many inches of beads result in how many inches of braid? How many inches of thread are required for how many inches of beads? and so on), and started braiding.

When it was long enough, I tied off and beaded end caps, which is still so far the best way I have found to end off beaded kumihimo.

The bead holes are parallel to the length of the rope, and so it's a simple step to ladder together the last four beads added, and then to add single beads between each pair to set up for peyote. Of course this means that the end caps are attached to the beadwork, rather than being accessories that are strung on the necklace - so far I have been less than satisfied with add-ons, but perhaps more experimentation is called for.

There were more beads after I tied off, so I braided some more.

Not quite enough for a full necklace and too much for a bracelet, so I added some vintage beads and some copper and brass, and now I have two necklaces.

Next experiment is to mimic Turkish crochet, which looks good so far (an inch) but is a little awkward.