I lost my marbles

Literally! I was working on Stargazer last night, when I bumped the bowl that contained the beads (petite beads at that!) and all of it went on the floor in my bedroom. At this point I completely lost my mind :(

I spent the next 30 minutes crawling on my hands and knees with my cell phone as a flashlight trying to find all of them. I think I got all of them but you can never be sure. The beads were so small, ToT why couldn't this happen with something that was a little bigger.

After that happened I didn't have the heart to work on it. Here's what I have so far.

Stargazer Beading Start

Over the weekend I started the beading on Stargazer. I removed Castle in the Air from the frame and replaced it with Stargazer. I figure it would be easier to work on it like that than on a frame.

I placed approximately 586 beads. It went by very fast, I loved working with the Nymo thread. I think next time I'll order the bigger spool, it will become my go to thread for beading :)

I've already moved on to the next mill hill bead, but I'm going slower. I'll try to post a more recent picture soon.

Castle in the Air Part 15

I finally ordered the metallic thread I was missing on eBay. It took me 2 month to do! I found a seller who lives in British Columbia who has a very good listing. The shipping cost was very low and delivery was fast. I ended up ordering way more than I needed (obviously!).

So I got my threads within a week and I went to work on filling in what was missing. I decided to use gold metallic thread on the gate instead of silver. It just looks nicer that way. By the way, the gold thread was a JOY to use. I hate working with the silver metallic thread, the gold thread is much softer and easier to handle.

This is part 14, with the silver thread in the flowers and the Blackwork trellis in gold.

Here is part 15 with the black gate and gold trellis.

Part 14 and 15 had a lot of Blackwork in them. I always wanted to try Blackwork and this was a good opportunity to try. Not sure if I really enjoyed it or not. I'll have to try a Blackwork project next time.

Here is an overview of all the parts so far. It felt nice to take it off the frame. As I was holding it out I kept thinking how nice it looks hanging like a scroll. I might just finish it like that.

Oval Pineapple Doily Completed

My second doily :) I was actually pretty happy while crocheting this one, because I didn't get as much puckering as my first doily. Also, my mom liked it so much she mentioned wanting it for the center table in the living room... until she saw how small it came out when it was completed. I think I used the wrong hook size with the thread I picked (which was Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet size 10), that or I pulled on the thread too much (again!)

All the complaints aside, I really love the final result. But I will probably redo this pattern later in the future to see if I can get the size right.

More pictures are available on my Ravelry page.

February TUSAL

My February TUSAL. It's mostly black and green from the gate in part 15 of Castle in the Air. The long white thread is crochet thread from my oval doily.