I decided to give the twisted tubular Herringbone another try this week, having bought a pair of seed bead packets specifically for the project last week. I wanted to use a pair of colors that contrasted better than the colors I used last time, and I chose better quality seed beads so they would fit together more evenly.
I selected silver lined dark teal and silver-lined ice-blue (I really like the extra sparkle and richness of silver-lined colors). The ice-blue looks more silver than blue in the bracelet, though, but overall I'm happy with it. As with the other of this pattern, I stitched the ends together to form a clasp-less bangle. The colors remind me of the different shades sea ice can be.
Name: Twisted Ice
Price: $15 (reason: time and effort)
Length: about 8 inches
Five episodes of Planet Earth plus the "making of" diaries after each later...
I got the twisted tubular herringbone bangle done! I couldn't finish it the way the book said because I couldn't seem to get the bottom two rows (the starter rows) unwoven from the piece, so I had to make do with a slightly uneven connection. Good news is, if you don't know exactly where it is, you can't see it. The piece as a whole took me longer than I thought...I watched the entire Planet Earth season and all the diaries; each episode is an hour or so long, plus a fifteen minute or so diary. There are 11 episodes. Now that I've got the hang of it, however, it shouldn't take that long again.
Frustration: I was sewing the ends together and was nearly done when I dropped the piece and it yanked the needle. I instinctively locked my fingers, which bent the needle too far and broke it. That was my last needle. Now I absolutely have to order a new card of them, unless there's one in the bag of leftover floss and pattern for the cross stitch sampler I made Mom for Christmas...
Name: Twisted herringbone bracelet
Price: $15 to $20 (it would depend on number of colors used, size, bead type)
Length: about 8" circumference
I've learned a new technique over the last couple of days out of the book my boyfriend Dan bought me: the tubular twisted herringbone stitch. The book was a little vague at step 4, which is where the tube starts working upwards, so I had to experiment a few times. I finally got it to work, and intended to finish it for a dinner Dan and I had last night (this is going to be a bangle bracelet that ties into itself so no clasp), but then I broke my last needle. I had been running low on needles before the show in November and had bought more from my usual source, but broke all but one in a matter of hours. This needle was the last one of those--hadn't been used before yesterday. It snapped within two hours. I've never gotten a bad batch before. Fortunately, I found the last of the previous card of needles this morning, so hopefully by the end of the day I'll have the bangle done.
