The Bead Spot

For the past several weeks, I've been working on a flat bracelet, using size 11 Delicas in a gourd stitch. I should've finished it within one week, however, I've had to undo my work three times now. Why? Because it's awfully difficult to see a mistake when both the dominant bead color and color of the string are black. In one instance, I had completed about 15 rows before I noticed that I didn't pull the thread tight enough, causing some looping. Really, even with all of the unraveling and redoing, I should've completed this bracelet a couple of weeks ago, but I have a tendency to put something down for a while if I start to get frustrated. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of February, though, and maybe a couple more. I've seen some magnifiers at Fire Mountain that I'd like to get. I think they'd really cut down on the need to redo. I'm just having trouble deciding which would best suit me.

Thank you for stopping by Amlou's Bead Spot. In future posts, I plan to include photos of my work and comments and concerns about projects I'm working on, but for now, I'm just going to introduce myself by tossing out five random facts about me and/or my beading hobby: • When I was about 9 years old, my great-aunt gave me my first loom, which she made herself with two nails and three pieces of scrap wood, two of which had notches cut across the top to hold the thread. I wish I could say that I've been beading ever since, but the truth is, I was kind of a lazy child. I learned how to work the loom when I got it, but then I put it away. A couple of decades passed before I dug it out of the closet, dusted it off and took an interest in beadwork again. The loom has since fallen apart, and I have purchased others that work just as well, but every time I use them, I feel a little nostalgic for my old wooden loom. • I don't consider myself an expert ... yet. :) When I ...