A head full of stars...

I have a large noggin - it's 23" in circumference and that's before you add in the baby dreadlocks. Increasingly I've been finding hats just don't fit me any more, but being handy with knitting needles and a crochet hook means I can get round that problem.

This is my Nebulae Hat. The yarn was a gift a few years back, and while I love it, I’d never quite figured out what to do with it. I tried knitting with it once but decided fairly quickly that crochet was the best way to show off the yarn. It reminded me of photos from space of nebulae and star clusters - the black moving through to grey like cloudscapes, and the myriad colours of the threads like stars.

I found this infrared photo of the Lagoon Nebula on Wikipedia...

The hat itself is based off part of a crochet block pattern. I took the central circular section and used it as a springboard for the rest of the hat.

It features triple crochet and cluster stitches, and is deep enough to contain unruly dreadlocks. Snug, slouchy and warm.

Many small things create a greater whole...

Some time back I started investigating peyote stitch beads. They're fiddly, but not too difficult to make, and are really eye-catching.

 The beauty of them for me is that the simple ones look just as effective as the more complex designs.

 Geometric patterns work well, especially with bold colours, but delicate flower patterns can be subtle and pretty too.

Celtic fretwork patterns are a great inspiration, and part of the fun of designing the bead is figuring out how to match the size you want to the pattern you have in your head. The huge range of seed beads on offer from craft shops and online these days allow you to make stunning beads that work well as focal pieces on a simple choker or bracelet...

...and they really pop when used as a decoration in dreadlocks...

They're addictive to make - a whole world of patterns is out there as inspiration, and you're only limited by the materials you have to hand.

Get knotted... a different class of row counter.

Row-counter bracelets - great for keeping track of your knitting or crochet - hand-knotted with cotton pearle embroidery thread, featuring 8mm Czech glass or semi-precious beads with a button closure and seed bead counting loops. Standard length is 20cm but can be custom ordered for an alternative fit.

This works in a similar way to the simple row-counter bracelets. You still have a cord featuring nine 'unit' beads and another with ten 'ten' beads, but with this bracelet there is a counting loop for each cord that you slide down as you go.

Blue & white Czech glass bead mix, cream knotting with a metal button.

Mother of pearl button with oatmeal knotting and a soft purple & white Czech glass bead mix.

Purple & red bead mix with black cotton knotting.

Green & purple Dragon Vein Agate beads, black knotting with a vintage plastic 'English Make' button.

Blue & green Czech glass bead mix, sage knotting with a sage green plastic button.

Black knotting, red, white & black Czech glass bead mix.

'English Make' vintage plastic button, unearthed in my local sewing shop.

There's currently a selection of the bracelets on offer at The Knit Studio in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Easy peasey lemon squeezy...

Simple bead row-counter bracelet - a small abacus for the wrist.

This version has two cords with beads separated by a small rubber ring that easily allows one bead at at time to pass through.

One cord has nine beads as 'units', the other cord has ten beads as 'tens'. At the beginning of your count the ring should be slid to one end.

As you count 1-9, the unit beads should be slid through the ring...

until you reach 10 when you slide your first ten bead through the ring.

Now slide your unit beads back through the ring and start again.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy...

Every time you go past your ninth row, just slide another ten bead down and start again.

Simple yet effective

Sometimes it's the simplest pieces that are the ones that pop out at you. I generally create pieces that I would wear myself and my preferences are geared towards natural stones and fibres, though I do love the jewel colours of glass beads too.

This was one of the first pieces I ever designed - labradorite with deep brown and blue beads and silver accents. There's a necklace that matches it, and enough materials left to make earrings.

Cord necklace with a large hand-felted purple bead & black thread accent, and smaller purple and black glass beads.

 100% Merino wool crocheted chain with purple and black glass seed beads. Designed to be wrapped round the neck and tied in a bow, leaving the ends to dangle.

Carnelian and labradorite bracelet with natural seed bead loops, knotted cotton thread to hold it together with a ceramic bead to fasten - one of the original test pieces for the row-counter bracelets.

Chunky glass and lustre bead bracelet with glass seed bead loops - a silk and wool fibre yarn was used as a threading material and closes with a shell button. I love the juicy colours of the green beads against the more subtle lustre beads.

Of felt & bead...

Wool fleece is a great fibre. Insulating and waterproof on a sheep, once washed and carded it can be dyed all the colours of the rainbow and in between, or left to take advantage of the natural hues. I've used it most recently to create brooches, some tiny, some larger, all felted in one way or another to create one of a kind objects. These ones were needle felted and hand-beaded. There's also a couple of small felt oddities that make nifty little pin cushions.

 Next up is a brooch I was commissioned to make a little while ago. The leaf shape is knitted then felted, the outside edge tidied up with thread in a supporting blanket stitch before decorating the surface with beads. The yarn used was allowed to follow it's own course before being stitched down.

On the back the clasp was securely stitched down and the year embroidered on.

This one was made to complement the colours of a local women's choir I sing with. Again the base was knitted then felted, 100% wool yarn was needle felted on to create the surface pattern before sewing on the tiny seed beads.

Next is a brooch which was commissioned to commemorate a Ruby Wedding Anniversary. It's a knitted then felted base, with swirls of coloured fleece needle felted on, and juicy ruby glass beads as focal points.

This little one was designed by my daughter - a small round brooch with a bright heart. She dug through my bag of fibre to pick what was to her the perfect colour combination. All needle felted with a small clasp on the back.

Another purple leaf brooch - I loved the way the colours came together for this design...

This last one was designed around a knitted flower, the internal colours needle felted onto the cotton base. Bright and cheerful, and really pops against a dark jacket.

It's the combination of the yarn and fleece with the tiny beads that make for something unique and heartfelt.

A beginning...

Inspiration has to start somewhere - colours in the landscape after rain, the outline of a gnarled and twisted tree against the sky, a piece of sea glass glinting in the sand, or a magpie at the side of a road with bright, beady eyes and iridescent plumage. It's often the smallest, most innocuous thing that sets the gears turning, and sometime later after much fiddling and scratching of the head, a treasure emerges.

One inspiration came in the form of a tiny tin box that I picked up in a Texas yarn store several years ago. Contained inside was a delicate hand-made glass bead bracelet, designed for counting off rows of knitting.

Small, functional and handy for travelling - it's lived in a small bag with my current sock project ever since, and although it's a bit fiddly to put on it's become one of my most useful knitting tools.

Another inspiration was a burgeoning stash of buttons, beads, yarn and threads that I'd slowly been acquiring over the years but never actually got round to using for anything other than the odd project. Now and again they'd be rifled through, toyed with and even have tentative plans made about them, but usually they'd be returned to storage for another time.

Of course occasionally there'd be something that I was particularly drawn to - a labradorite bead with flecks of intense blue flashing in the grey stone, tiny circular pieces of shell washed up on a beach, or a particularly juicy colour in a Czech glass bead that just made you want to pop it into your mouth. They would end up being turned into something - a matching necklace and bracelet accented with tiny silver beads, or a simple pendant on a black cord.

A major source of inspiration of a different kind has fuelled my design choices of late. As someone who suffers from an allergy to base metals of the kind normally found in buttons, belt buckles and most costume jewellery found in high street shops, it's lead me to experiment with alternative methods of creating wearable pieces that don't irritate the skin. Leftover sock yarn and a handful of small bright beads can create a glistening choker when crocheted into a long lace and simply wrapped around the neck and tied in a bow. Cotton embroidery thread can be hand knotted and beaded to make a bracelet. Coloured fleece and yarn can be knitted, stabbed and moulded into brooches and other things.

Lastly the motivation to do something has to be there for inspiration to really take hold, and the opening of The Knit Studio in Newcastle upon Tyne last year was the catalyst for me. An oasis from the noise of the city centre a stone's throw away, and a welcome retreat in the grounds of the old Blackfriars monestary which creates it's own sense of peace. I love sitting in the quadrangle watching the birds, and on match days you can hear the roar of the crowd from St James' Park when Newcastle scores a goal. The shop features hard to find yarns, fibre, fabric, books, notions and locally produced handicrafts. I like it for the friendly atmosphere, the ability to pull up a chair, get the knitting out and have a cuppa and pleasant conversation.

This blog is in fact the end result of this. After carefully scanning The Knit Studio for several months I discovered a tiny niche yet to be filled... there were no row counters. My thoughts flew back to the contents of the tiny tin I'd acquired back in Texas all those years ago and set to work on designing my own version - something simple and functional yet something that could also be worn for the joy of it, as a piece of jewellery in it's own right. Something customisable, that could be made personal, unique to the wearer if they so wished.

There are several of my row counter bracelets now on display at The Knit Studio and I'm also perfectly happy to take custom orders if specific colours are desired or a particular length needed. Meanwhile I continue to be inspired by fibre, bead and thread and am currently working on knit and needle felted brooches.