WHAT’S NEW

• Spotlight On New Work:   Unusual Inspirational Materials
Uni I and Uni II

  

I’m often asked about where the inspiration for my creations comes from. My feeling is that inspiration is everywhere and often where least expected. I have to confess, however, that my inspiration often comes from unusual materials like those seen in the two new one-of-a-kind necklaces seen here. The top photo is Uni I, the bottom photo is Uni II. The “spikey,” multicolor pieces are actually the calcified spines of sea urchins! I loved them so much that I had to use them in two different pieces. A few friends have told me that they both have a sort of tribal feel. I guess that’s true, but what you can’t tell from the pictures is that they also make a lovely sound effect when they move around – a sort of tinkling, almost musical sound that I find very soothing. Unexpected and delightful.

There are a few more new pieces in the Necklace Gallery that I haven’t turned the Gallery Spotlight on here in the What’s New section, so as time permits, please click on over and take a peek. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts about this new work.



• Making a Difference. Something We Can ALL Do.
In this season of giving and all year round…

It is the season of giving and I’m hoping some of you may have something left over after your holiday shopping to help support Halos of Hope, a truly deserving organization that was founded by cancer survivor Pam Haschke, who is doing amazing work with an all volunteer staff. These are people we can all admire.

You can read more about Halos HERE, but the short story is that they collect hand knitted and crocheted chemo hats and caps to send to cancer patients around the country. Folks continue to be truly generous in making and donating hats but the organization still must bear the not insignificant expense of shipping out the hats to over 180 centers around the country. So fundraising is CRUCIAL! They’re always happy to receive cash donations but also sell lots of wonderful hat patterns on their website for folks to use to make these much needed, much loved creations.
  

Here’s where I come in. :-) Several years ago Vogue Knitting sponsored a contest to help promote breast cancer awareness, asking knitters to design scarves towards that end. I submitted my first original bead knitted design, a cashmere scarf covered in pink beaded logo ribbons and was thrilled to win the grand prize in the Mixed Media category. For years I made the pattern available as a free download on my website. I have now decided to put the pattern to more productive use and have donated it to Halos of Hope, where 100% of the proceeds will go to support their work.

If you want to read a bit more about the story behind the scarf, my good friend Benjamin Levisay, who sits on Halos Board, kindly wrote a blog entry about it. You can read it HERE. If you would like to purchase a pattern to make the scarf or any of Halos’ wonderful hat designs, you can look at and buy them HERE.
 
 

I hope that some of you will consider supporting Halos of Hope in whatever way you can. Knitting a single hat makes a difference. Buying a pattern makes a difference. A donation of any amount makes a difference. Bottom line? We can all make a difference.

Thank you and happy holidays to all! <3      



• Stitches South 2014 – Exciting New Location and Classes are Still Available!
Join me in Atlanta from 4/10 – 4/13/2014

It always makes me happy when my classes sell out when I teach around the country. Apparently not everyone feels the same way… More and more, I have students telling me how UNhappy they are because they have been unable to enroll in my Stitches classes because they sell out so quickly. Sorry! Kind of… I guess… ;-)

But for awhile at least, as of today (12/9/2013), there are still places available in all four of my classes at Stitches South this coming April 2014. Are you a Bead Knitting newbie? Check out my “Bead Knitting Sampler Class”. Want to learn my new ABACUS bead knitting technique and make a bracelet in class? Then “Get Hooked on ABACUS Bead Knitting!” is the class for you. Are you the kind of knitter who wants not only to make a bead knitted jewelry project but wants to know all of the design secrets as well? Spend the whole day with me in the “Betsy’s Beaded Bracelet” class. Or take your bead knitting to the next level by joining me for “Be a Bead Knitting Show Off” and learn how to analyze and work beads into your favorite mixed-stitch patterns.

This year Stitches South is being held at a brand new venue that we are all really excited about. Get all of the Stitches South 2014 details HERE and I hope to see you in April. Don’t get closed out this time!
Tick tock, tick tock…



• The STUDIO B KNITS online store is OPEN!!
Patterns and Kits and Jewelry for Sale. OH MY!!


I’m thrilled to announce that the new Studio B Knits Shop is open for business. We’ve turned on the lights, unlocked the door and I hope you’ll come on over and take a look around. You can simply click on the “STORE” Navigation Link on the left side of this page or click here: Studio B Knits Shop.
What will you find there, you ask?

Patterns and Materials Kits to create my new line of ABACUS bead knit jewelry, like the “Sine Curve” Bracelet on the left and the “Cat’s Eye” Necklace on the right:

 

 

 

 

 

And Limited Edition Jewelry like these Slider Bracelets and Bead Balls for necklaces:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the store is open 24/7. Just so you can shop in your pajamas. Doesn’t everyone? ;-)



• Creativity Matters… At Any Age!
Some Thoughts on Aging and A Blog Interview to Share

 

I was recently interviewed by a woman named Judith Zausner who writes a blog about creativity, explored within the context of aging. The subtitle of the blog is “Topics that address creativity in the landscape of our lives today and as we age.” This is a bit of a mouthful but an accurate reflection of her POV (as they say on every reality competition show – Point Of View) and I am enjoying reading what she is bringing to her audience. It also has me thinking about my own POV with regard to aging and how in truth I have never felt limited by my age in whatever I have chosen to pursue. Except maybe just a little when I shop for clothing… Thankfully, I have a VERY honest daughter who keeps me from embarrassing myself. But I digress. I have to say that most likely I owe my ability to not feel limited by age issues to familial role models. My maternal grandparents were married for 75 years. That’s not a typo. Married for 75 years! My grandmother was still painting and swimming at the YMCA well into her 90’s and my grandfather decided that 92 was a great age to start learning to speak Russian. My amazing mother is now 87 and still searching out additional places to volunteer, taking an 8-week mindfulness meditation workshop and is the star of her Silver Sneakers fitness class. So I guess that compared to them, at age 63 I’m a spring chicken and just getting started. Good to know, don’t you think?

Start reading the Creativity Matters blog by clicking here: Creativity Matters



• Getting From “Before” to “After”…
Staying Open to New Ideas Can Make All the Difference

These “Before” and “After” photos show one way that the gorgeous materials pictured here – some of my favorites: Just Our Yarn Almaza tencel, Kreinik Silk Serica, beautifully variegated, small, round jasper beads and larger, shiny brown, oval shell pearls, along with some teeny tiny needles (Size 0000 DPN’s!) and 26 gauge copper wire – could be worked together to create a new necklace. It’s named for my friend, fellow teacher and inspirational designer Myra Wood.

But the wonderful materials are not the only “Before” and “After” story here.

 
 

By the time I begin work on a new piece, I’ve usually engaged in several rounds of play with my chosen materials and have at least some idea of what I think the finished piece might look like. It started out the same way this time. But then, and I don’t know why, I found myself knitting most of the colorful wrappers for the variously sized beads without even graphing the patterns. Let me repeat…WITHOUT graphing the patterns! SO not like me. But SO much fun! Maybe Myra’s right-brained, organic way of working has inspired me? But then a snag. After several attempts, my original idea for what I was going to do with the completed beads didn’t pan out and I began to feel as though I might have hit a brick wall. Then I saw a random picture of a very simple necklace in a magazine and whammo! Although very different from my finished design for this piece, something about its construction got me un-stuck and started me working with the same components but in a new direction. It required making lots more beads (the small, plain knit beads that form the “chain” of the necklace) but that’s fun for me. And before I knew it, I found the joy of the piece that I thought I had lost.

So many lessons brought home in the making of “Myra.” Staying open is what it’s about. I love what I do.

 



• On the Road Again…
Atlanta and Seattle are next in line

Heading off next week to another wonderful Stitches South Expo in Atlanta, GA. Teaching classes, doing some book signings and demos in the Marketplace and meeting lots of friends, old and new. Going down south in the Spring! What could be better?

Stitches South 2013 Info

 

Many of you already know that I am a huge fan of the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat held each February in Tacoma, Washington. The founder of this retreat, Suzanne Pedersen is an ardent supporter of the fiber world and a true nurturer of all of us who work in and love this world. She is always looking for ways to help us along our path, asking thought provoking questions, providing platforms so that we may share our ideas and creativity and making us feel valued in oh so many ways. I could not be more excited to share that I will be leading a Madrona Fiber Arts Spring Workshop: Adventures in Bead Knitting Design , a three day Design and Creativity workshop at Suzanne’s home this May.

From what I have been told by others who have taught or attended Suzanne’s workshops, you WANT to be there. In addition to the ample time we’ll have to work (and play!) together, know that classes are held at Suzanne’s beautiful lodge style home in the Cascade Foothills just 30 minutes from downtown Seattle. If commuting is not possible for you, there is limited space to stay FOR FREE (!) at Suzanne’s and other accommodations are close by. And I hear the food is amazing! Can’t beat that!

For full class descriptions, costs and to register for the workshop: Contact Suzanne at Suzanne@madronafiberarts.com or 425-222-3554. Remember the class size is limited. Would love to see some of you there!

Madrona Fiber Arts



• I’m Often Asked, “How DID you make that???”
Take a Peek Here at One “Before” and “After”

When my students express concern that some of the projects in my book feel intimidating, I respond by telling them that the knitting techniques I use are almost always those with which they are already familiar, requiring just two sticks and a string. It is often in what I DO with the finished pieces of knitting where the magic lives. I like to call it KNITTING MADE CLEVER. There’s an expression that says “No one wants to see the sausage made,” implying that the process is often less attractive than the finished product. But in the case of this bib-style necklace, “Meander II,” I thought it might be fun to show my fellow knitters the “innards” of this “sausage” before it became a finished necklace. The jumble of knitting you see in the “Before” photo is a VERY long, multi-color, knitted tubular strap with beads knitted in on both edges. This strap is then stitched together in a meandering switchback, like a road down a very steep mountain, with some wonderful turquoise beads stitched into some of the spaces. So you see? It’s all in the manipulation of the fabric: Knitting Made Clever! I’d love to hear what you think of it.

 
 



• Who Knows What the New Year Will Bring?
Here’s something! (Watch for more in the days ahead…)

One thing I know for sure is that I will be in California for Stitches West from February 21-24. And see those little “ETC” dates, Feb 25-26 on the image above? I’ve been invited to stay after the regular Stitches event to teach a two day workshop entitled “Adventures in Bead Knitting Land.” So while all of my regular Stitches classes are already sold out, (thanks students!!) there is still room in the ETC workshop. Here are some photos of the things we’ll be working on. Trust me –
it’s SO much fun!!

Click on this link Stitches West ETC for more information.



• Now I’m “In the Zone,” Way “Down Under”!
Read my interview in a great Australian Arts Blog

Do any of you remember the old military recruiting slogan that said “Join the Navy! See the world!”? Today I’m feeling like the slogan should read, “Become a knitter! Make friends around the world!” Over the last few months, mostly due to the release of my book, and my class on Craftsy.com, I have discovered that I have a lot of new friends all around the world. I’ve gotten wonderful emails from Denmark. I read lovely posts to my Betsy Beads Ravelry Group from London. I even discovered a picture of the cover of Betsy Beads in the middle of a Russian blog written all in Cyrillic! And now I can share a new interview I was asked to do for an Arts organization in Melbourne, Australia! Deborah Blakeley, the head of Zone One Arts in Melbourne was a treat to work with and her blog is interesting, informative and inspirational. Check out my interview from the link below and then spend some time wandering around the site, getting to know some truly unique and exciting artists. Thank you Deborah! I’m honored to have my work showcased on your site. Now all I need is someone to invite me “down-under” to teach…

Betsy’s Interview on Zone One Arts