Eeek! I just wrote a lengthy blog entry and lost it! My new mantra is "Must Save As Draft," "Must Save As Draft."

Anyhow, I wanted to share with you my in-progress photos of the bracelet I am making.

As you can see, the bracelet is being worked on a simple bead loom in beige, off-white, and gold E beads make the base layer.

The next layer consists of seed beads and one E bead woven into every other base E bead in a loop effect. I am going to use either a lobster or toggle clasp to finish it. I also mentioned earlier that I have a matching ring, however, the camera I use doesn't pick up detail and the ring is small. I will see if I can borrow a camera and get a nice clean shot of it. I think that bracelets are the easiest and quickest type of jewelry to make.

And, as promised, here are the jump rings I mentioned.

Let's talk books. I was driving through my hometown yesterday and noticed that the library was having a book sale. Of course I had to stop. I loaded up on really great knitting and crocheting books for $1. A really great find was John Allen's Treasury of Machine Knitting Stitches. I have a Bond knitting machine and my mom has a Singer knitting machine, and we are always looking for good stitching books. I am sure I will be talking more about my knitting machine projects once the cold weather hits. Another really great find was Kaffee Fassett's Glorious Knits.

The library will be having another sale in Sept or Oct, so I will make sure I go. I am trying to find Time-Life's The Art of Sewing, a 14-volume set that was recommended by the sewers on craftster.org. If you haven't visited craftster.org, I urge you to. The forums are very active and you can find people working on every sort of crafty project out there (including making your own shoes). There are also craftalongs where a group of people work on the same pattern and share the results.

Well, I have posted this pretty early. It isn't even midnight yet! I have plenty of time to begin my next bracelet before I embark on a frenzy of sewing.