The crafter’s kit

I’ve posted in the past about portable crafts, but I’ve never really posted about the art of making your crafts mobile.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are many crafts that are easily portable. It’s also not a bad idea to keep a general kit so you can craft whenever the inspiration strikes you. About.com’s Family Crafts section offers some suggestions for how to stock a crafter kit, but I recommend that you stock your kit to your own needs.

For example, my own kit includes some pliers, wire, beads in small compartmentalized boxes, a sketch pad, some colored pencils, and a few small needlepoint projects. I’m currently focused on jewelry and needlepoint, so this works well for me. If my focus were to shift to include quilling or temari, I would restock the kit accordingly.

Creativity is a spontaneous act. Inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere. It’s always best to make sure you can respond when the mood strikes!

Learning viking knit

Over two years ago, I bought a book to learn viking knit…except the back half of the book covered jump ring techniques and I ended up becoming distracted.

This weekend, I got a Knobby. I got home and pulled out some 26-gauge wire and a knitting ruler I’ve had for well over a year.

The good news is, it was much easier to attempt viking knitting with a Knobby than it would have been trying to follow the book’s directions. The not-really-bad news is that I need more practice. You can easily see every spot where I changed the tension on the wire or changed my approach to craeting the viking knit.

The biggest challenge came when it was time to run the knit section through the holes on the knitting ruler. There are several holes to allow knitters to check the size of their knitting needles if they are’t certain, but it makes a great multi-purpose tool for jewelry making, too. I used the holes as a draw plate to pull the chain through. I got it all compressed down to 3.25 by the time I was finished, but moving to each smaller hole was definitely a challenge, and the tail of the wire snapped at one point as I was starting it through a hole.

All in all, I think I could really get to enjoy creating viking knit once I learn more about how to control my tension.

Introducing…Amethyst!

I’d been meaning to start these sooner, but I thought it would be fun to share what little I know about the stones I like to work with. I’ve often been accused of being overly brainy and a symbologist. I’m not sure either really fits me well, but it’s fun to pretend they both are sometimes.

So…amethyst is a rather lovely variant of quartz whose color varies from white through light purple to dark purple. It’s a semi-precious stone generally native to the warmer climates of North America, although they have been found in Europe and Africa as well.

Amethyst has been thought to promote meditative thought, creativity, and relaxation for centuries. It is also thought to promote success in business matters and through changes.

Finally, Amethyst is the traditional birthstone for those born in the month of February.

Look for more stone introductions over the next few months!