d20 chainmail pendant

I have seen something similar to these online, and I definitely wanted to learn how to make them.
My first attempt didn't go so well. My rings were too small, so the dice didn't fit inside. I got some bigger ones now, and it came out really well!

Since I'm using a different connector with these, I may be able to get away with the smaller rings, so I'm going to try that one more time, as the smaller size is my main size, so I have a lot of it available.

Here is what my first try looks like.

I have some lanyard-type clasps to hook onto the top to make the dice removable. I can't find where I put them, though, so I just have the lobster clasp for now (and it doesn't even fully close). 

I also have made a bracelet using my hot pink special rings. The color in the picture doesn't quite give it justice.

Saturday project; Mario - Day 7.2

This past weekend, I had another craft fair, so my whole Saturday was taken up with that. Because of this, I decided to work on Mario on Sunday this weekend. I have another craft fair coming up next weekend, and I'll probably do the same thing again.

 All that I have had left to do is the blue sky since last weekend, and I'm getting tired of the color.

Here is where I left off last (after my cheating time):

Here is where I am now:

I got a headache yesterday, so I didn't work on it as much as I wanted to. It looks like this will take me another 2 or 3 weeks.

Lots of Luminaro

After saying goodbye to San Francisco, I ended up picking Luminaro right back up to work on. I just got busy with it, and before I knew it, I had a bunch done!

Here is where I left off when I switched to San Francisco for a day:

Here is where I am, now:  

Yes, I have my glitter bees grime guard on it at this time. The jelly beans needed to be washed.

Also!  A couple days ago I got accepted to have a table at the convention I was wanting to go to. I ended up getting it, after all! I'm so excited! I'm going to switch back to making more chainmail stuff to gear up for it. I'll still do cross stitch occasionally, but won't have as much progress. 

So excited!

Saturday project: Mario - Day 6.2

Another Saturday down, and another Saturday worked on Mario. This has been stitching up so quick! I suspect I have only 2, maybe 3, more Saturdays for this to be completed! This project has been so much fun to work on, that I'll be sad to see it go.

This weekend I was able to finish all the brown in the ground blocks, completing them.

Here is where I was last week:

Here is where I am now:

I realized that I seem to have developed a pattern to my blog posts. I have been posting on Monday and Friday every week. This is because of my Mario posts every week, but I realize that I really like it. I'm going to just keep with that, twice a week, instead of every 4 days.

PS: I cheated a little bit with Mario. I  didn't charge up my tablet, so early Sunday evening, it died. I have been working on Luminaro lately, so this brought me to a halt. I picked the closest project that I had a paper pattern for, and since I had just worked on Mario the day before, it was right there. Hence day 6.2.
I got several rows of blue sky done.
Here is where I left off.

Goodbye San Francisco

When I first picked up cross stitch again big-time, I had only done a few projects, and still didn't know all that much (even after finishing my Monopoly board). Now that I have picked up up and joined a few groups and done the research, I have grown so much with this hobby!

One of my first projects I decided on when I picked it back up was my San Francisco project. Here is what it would look like:

I do still love it! When I put Luminaro aside, I used my spinner app to pick what I worked on next, and it picked this one. I was actually hoping that it would, anyway!

I pulled it out, and immediately was irritated. When I started this project, the only fabric I had ever used was Aida, so that's what I bought for this one. I also bought whatever count I could find for fabric this large (I think it is 14). I started San Francisco, but I didn't even get one page finished.

Now that I have experienced different fabrics and counts, etc, I can't go back to this one. I tried. I added a little more to that first page, but I can't stand the coverage, and the aida is so huge. I didn't get much done on it.
Here is where I ended up.

I have given it some thought, and I have decided not to continue with this.
Whenever I hear of someone giving up on a project, I always feel like I would never do that, and my time getting as far as I had is precious. I couldn't even imagine giving up on one of my "babies". Now that it is me making the choice, though, I feel amazingly at peace with it.
I still love this pattern, don't get me wrong! I may buy some different fabric for it later and start again later. In the mean time, I will probably cut up this large fabric into smaller pieces for other projects. I already have a few in mind.

Saturday Project: Mario - Day 5

I finally finished all the black, so you can see the outline of Mario's foot, fully! I was about to start filling in the brown, but I suddenly got the urge to do some blue. I figured, since there is so much blue on this one, I might as well work on it while the urge is there. I will be tired of it by the end of this project, I'm sure!

Here is where I left off last week:

And here is where I am now:

Some progress on Luminaro

My stitchy bug has been missing a lot lately. Things have been building into a perfect storm over here.
First, I got a not-quite-demotion at work. I was moved to a completely different team, which I am not happy about. Then, on the crafty business side, I just found out in a backhand mention online that the convention I was hoping to have a booth in this year is completely full. I was never officially notified, they just left me hanging for weeks. Seems a little unprofessional to me. Then, on the family side of life, my niece has just turned 18, so she has decided to move in with her boyfriend and transfer schools to where he is.  This is about 2 months before she graduates, which is stressing out the family, as well, hoping that she doesn't just drop out so close.

With all the stress coming from all sides, I have been in a major funk lately, and I haven't wanted to do much of anything. Things could be worse, I know. Just having everything hit all at once is not so great.

I realize that I haven't posted recently on Luminaro.
Here is where Luminaro was with my last update (this was just after my page finish):

Here is where I am now:

I have decided to pick up another project to work on for a while. My momentum and enthusiasm on this one has waned a bit.

Saturday project: Mario - Day 4

I got some more progress done on Mario this past Saturday. As you can see, I got most of the black done for the ground. Just a little bit of it left, then on to fill it in with brown.

I have to say, having designed cross stitch patterns from sprites myself, the design on this one irritates me a lot. There are obvious issues with the design that don't match the actual sprites at all. I decided to go ahead and stitch it according to the pattern, but every time I come across an area that doesn't match up, I twitch.
The main errors are with the ? blocks, Mario, the goomba, and there is a stripe of ground blocks in the leg that don't match up (they are one stitch too short).  I keep fighting the urge to correct the pattern!

Here is where I left off last week:

And here is where I am after four Saturdays of progress:

New bracelet - kinged vipera berus

I have made a new chainmail bracelet! This particular weave is called kinged vipera berus. I had tried this weave once before, but it ended up so tight, that I made it into a keychain. The rings I was using were just a  tad too small.

I did, however, discover the perfect size ring for this weave. I was planning ordering some of this size with my next ring order, as it isn't one that I normally have readily available, but I found that I did have enough silver rings in this size to make the bracelet. I immediately went to work!

Here is the finished product (click on the picture to get a closer view):