Plain and simple loveliness

You know the other day when I was wanging on about how lovely spacer beads can be? I took the photo above to kind of prove my point. These ones are Effetre Dark Ivory 276 and Effetre Ivory Lapis Dark 293 and although they're only little 8.5mm spacers beads, they're an excellent example of how glass is a very lovely thing in its own right.

This streaky ivory and lapis blue mix is so pretty. Every single bead is unique and they remind me of planets, oceans and the sky.

A customer who purchased some of the dark ivory spacers asked for half of them to be tumble-etched and again, I took a photo of them to show how nice plain and simple beads can be.

Spacer beads can be purchased in my shop.

In crochet news...

Thanks for all the lovely comments about Stig. He's such a bright and cheery fella, isn't he?

I'm currently working on a second Starlite blanket. I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the previous one so I took that as a sign to make another.

I may well put the blanket in my shop when it's done, if a friend or family member doesn't claim it in the meantime, that is.

Talking of crochet in my shop, I've reduced the price of all of my shawls.

Almost all of my shawls double up as scarves and although they're mostly cotton mixes and therefore not overly-cosy, they're just right for this time of year when there's a bit of a chill in the air but you don't want to be getting too hot. Do you know what I mean? You sort of go "It looks chilly out there - I'll put my coat on" but within five minutes of walking you're clammy in the armpits and undertits areas and regretting your wardrobe choice, wishing you'd just opted for a jumper and lightweight scarf instead. That's the level of warmth my shawls-that-double-as-scarves are good for.

That's all for now. I'm heading shedwards to make more spacers. See you soon!

O, woe is me

I haven't had much to report because I've been working my way through Ditsybead orders.

I don't know if I'm gradually getting worse at beadmaking or if I'm struggling in some other way (my absolute pillock of a fussy brain) but I've found the past couple of weeks' lampworking to be extremely difficult and stressful. I've closed orders for the flower beads now and I don't think it'd be wise for me to do the taking bead orders thing again. I have a couple of orders outstanding which I will get done, but not today. Today is a day off after yesterday when I attempted one single flower bead eighteen times before calling it a day. There's no point in me sitting there wasting glass, electricity and gas so I decided to take a breather.

If I'm to carry on lampworking, from this point forward it's going to have to be one hundred percent me making what I feel like making.

This is totally about me, not people who want to buy my work.

For years I've prattled on about how my pickiness and perfectionism can be an utter pain and in the past I've always embraced it but it's honestly got to the point where it's debilitating. And not just with beads. At the foodbank warehouse the other day I wrote a box label that said 'BEANS 2026' four times because I wasn't happy with how it looked. That's mental. It's a label in a warehouse and I was irked because it wasn't centred and the '6' was squished etc. This past Christmas I bought sixty cards as I knew I'd end up rejecting loads for similar reasons and sure enough, I sent twenty-four and had just five left over. That's not right.

Anyway, enough of my self-obsessed whining. Pull yourself together, Laura!

In crochet news

The pattern for my 'Joan' shawl is finally totally done. Hurrah!

Originally I toyed with the idea of making this a free pattern but a nagging little voice kept asking "You get annoyed when glass publications want your tutorials for free and you turn them down, so why is this any different?" and in the end I listened. When I sat and thought about the hours that went into making the shawl pattern, the drawing of the charts (it was like the beans label and Christmas cards multiplied by three), the liasing with testers, and the pattern edits, let alone me making the shawl five times in various yarns, I just couldn't give it away for nothing.

So yes, the PDF pattern is available on Etsy for £2.50 plus any VAT applicable in your part of the world.

About the pattern

Named after my late grandma, Joan is a lacy triangular crochet shawl that is worked from the top down. The seven row pattern repeat is straightforward but not too tedious and the pattern would be good for an adventurous beginner or for anyone wanting a relaxing project that uses non-fancy stitches.

The finished and blocked white-to-black gradient shawl pictured measures approximately 170cm along its top edge (the wingspan) and about 83cm from the centre of that edge down to its point.

• Written pattern with step-by-step photographs
• Charts
• Printer friendly written version
• You will receive versions in both UK and US crochet terms

Materials

Approximately 1000m of fingering weight or 4ply yarn. For the white-to-black gradient shawl pictured I used a 1000m cotton and acrylic mix 4ply 'Stratford' yarn cake from Crochet UK. The plain blue one took five skeins of Drops Flora in shade 10. I've also made this shawl with YarnArt Flowers and Hobbii Twister yarn cakes. I've crocheted it with DK yarn too so pretty much anything goes. You'll also need your chosen hook and a needle for sewing in your ends, plus blocking mats and pins

The pattern has been fully tested.

Available on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1741126096/joan-crochet-shawl-pdf-pattern-digital

That'll do won't do

When did I last make Ditsybeads? I think it was about a year ago. (I've just checked and yes it was. I wanged on about them for a whole blog post.) When I've not made a certain design for a while it's like I have to retrain my hands and brain in how to execute it. I spent Thursday doing just that and ended up with five Ditsybeads that made it to the kiln. Of those five, two are not quite right, one is just about passable and two I'm happy with. This photo shows the latter three.

Today will be about properly getting back into the swing of making Ditsybeads, good ones that I'm totally happy with (you know me when it comes to beads – "That'll do" simply won't do) and then I expect I'll make them until I get bored of doing so and no doubt I'll repeat this whole process in about August 2025.

While I make Ditsybeads I'll be listening to a podcast that I discovered a couple of weeks ago called Imagined Life.

It's a Wondery podcast (I love Wondery podcasts) and each episode tells the life story of a world-famous person and you're given clues to their identity along the way but you only find out right at the end who the subject is. Sometimes you'll guess before that point but I've been really surprised by some of them. Great stuff. Imagined Life is available on Wondery, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.

Will the weather please make up its mind? On Friday I wore sunglasses and a sun hat for my walk to and from the foodbank warehouse and today it's been raining for hours and I'm dressed like it's early October. As I'm typing these words the sun is putting in an appearance. Sort your mind out, weather!

This harlequin ladybird was loving the lavender in the sunshine last week, though.

I know some people don't like harlequin ladybirds because they pose a threat to our native ladybirds but they're here and living their little lives and if they want to feast on the aphids in my garden they can fill their boots. Munch on, you glossy spotty funbugs!

In crochet news...

Guess what? It's another shawl.

I have got to stop making shawls. I need to. I think I've got one more upstairs that needs blocking (but I made it for me so it doesn't count) and I still have the lacy black one on the go but I must put an end to this shawl madness after that one is complete.

This magma-y, fiery, sort-of-maybe Halloweeny one is listed in my Etsy shop and my webshop. The pattern is the Sis Shawl by Joanna Grzelak of Sis Homemade and the yarn is YarnArt Flowers in colour 259.

I'm nearing the end of sunflower production. I've almost got the amount I need for the the blanket. The next stage will be turning them into squares.

Right, it's time for me to make a brew and get down to the shed. See you later!

Not a lot

I've had a few days off from the shed so I have no beads to show you. Instead, behold my third octopus!

My nephew, Dylan, requested one and he chose these two yarn colours for him which I think are fab. Dylan received his octopus yesterday and he's named him Jaquarius. Fancy!

That's it for octopi (unless anyone else asks me for one) but I'm still going with the shawls. It's a proper addiction. I think I'm going to have to brave getting a craft stall somewhere around Christmas time because I've got so many now. I mean, I could stop making them but I don't want to because I enjoy it.

I made this lavender purple one a few weeks back but I only got round to blocking it last week.

It's on my on my website and in my my Etsy shop along with the twenty-odd others.

Pattern: Honey by Bernadette Ambergen / Berniolie

Yarn: YarnArt Flowers Unicolour in colour 748

I'm back down the shed today and I've no idea what beads to make so I shall whack on some music and just see what happens.

Lots of Lonelies

I've cleaned and sorted my Lonelies this morning. I'm always surprised at how they mount up. A lot of them are duplicates from other sets where I'll have made three of one style because initially I wasn't happy with a dot placement or it ended up a millimetre smaller or larger than it should be. Then next morning when I take them out of the kiln I can't see the dot placement issue and the size difference is barely visible so I end up with more beads than I need for a strand so into the Lonelies pot the extras go.

I've divided this batch of Lonelies into two strands and each one contains five pairs.

These are for sale in my shop at the time of typing.

In crochet news...

I've put a couple more shawls in my Etsy shop and webshop.

This purple and yellow one reminds me of irises.

The pattern is Sunset Boulevard by LisasAttik and the yarn is YarnArt Flowers in colour 307.

The second one is bright orange and very summery. This tangerine colour is super zesty. 

The pattern for this one is V For Vintage by Mijo Crochet and the yarn is Hobbii Twister Solid in colour 151.

Both of these shawls are on the larger side. I seem to be averaging about 1200 metres of yarn per shawl. Gradient cakes are normally 1000 metres but I find the extra couple of hundred metres makes quite a difference in the coverage and swoosh departments.

Good old polka dots

I'm going to ignore the crazy long gap between this post and the previous one and just launch into writing this post.

I recently got a new oxygen concentrator. The old one was only just hanging on, puffing out next-to-no oxygen, and one day I realised that my bead making had slowed to my Hot Head torch days speed. I mean, I know I work slowly but this had become utterly ridiculous and making something as simple as a spacer bead was driving me mad. Encasing anything had become an almost impossible mission.

The new (well, reconditioned) oxygen concentrator is a beast. It's like having a new torch and it took me a while to get used to it. The flame is actually hot!

Last week I made some of my favourite beads - red with white polka dots.

These have cores of CiM Foam which I encased with a thin layer of Effetre red 076 and the polka dots are Effetre white 204.

I made a few of my 'classic' sets too. 

These green ones are CiM Peat Moss over CiM Foam with decoration in Effetre white...

...these ones are Effetre steel grey 088 over CiM Foam, again decorated with Effetre white...

...these lilac ones are CiM Yours Truly over CiM Gelly's Sty with decoration in, you guessed it, Effetre white (it's a favourite of mine)...

...and to mix it up, these have Effetre black 064 cores enacsed with Effetre light blue 052 with Effetre light periwinkle 360 decoration.

Some of the above beads are still available in my shop.

In crochet news...

I'm fully addicted to making shawls now. I crocheted my first one just over a year ago and I've not stopped since.

I like the way that a shawl can double up as a scarf but the best bit is how they make you feel all period drama when you drape one over your shoulders. They make you want to say "A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!" in your best Mrs Bennet voice.

All of the shawls pictured here are currently available in my Etsy shop and in the crochet section of my website shop. In both cases I'm set up to ship within the UK only but if you are outside the UK and you'd like to buy one, do let me know and I can give you a postage cost.

Why have one shop when you can have two?

I'm not a huge fan of Etsy. Its fees are too high and I have issues with some of their policies and biases. However, I'm at a point where I'm selling very little and I need to get my work seen. Instagram algorithms don't help with this unless you're willing to become a videographer who spends seventeen hours a day creating Instagram content and I refuse to do that. Also, PayPal seems to be playing silly buggers with my website checkout for some of my customers, and Etsy has many alternative payment options, so I've reluctantly reopened my Etsy shop. However, I'm keeping it to just UK sales at the moment. I'm keeping my website shop open too so right now I'm Laura Twoshops.

I'll add new items to both platforms for the foreseeable and I shall just see how it goes for the next few months.

Newly added items include this 'Sweetness' bracelet:

I made some matching earrings for it. I have two pairs of these.

There's also this very groovy 'Retro' tassel necklace.

All of these can be found in my web shop and my Etsy shop.

In crochet news...

In the previous post I mentioned that I was crocheting a shawl as a pattern test for another crocheter. The shawl is all done and is currently blocking.  I'll post a photo of the finished item when the pattern is released, which I think will be towards the end of the month. In the meantime, here's an in-progress shot of the shawl.

The yarn is Scheepjes Stone Washed in the shade Coral. The yarn reminds me of when I stir salad cream into Heinz spaghetti hoops. (Yes, I do actually do that and I've done it since I was a child and yes it sounds vile but no, in actual fact it's a taste sensation.)

I'm currently working on the border of another blanket which is made up of fifty-four of these mosaic crochet squares.

The pattern is the Terrazzo Afghan by Tinna Thórudóttir Thorvaldsdóttir. I bloody love Tinna's work. She's an absolute genius.

I'll post a photo of the blanket when it's done.

See you later!