Cinco de Mayo and Progress on the Shipwreck

[liralen]

We had a party for a lot of people on Sunday, half of which had been or were descended from Mexicans, and the food they brought was absolutely incredible.

I'm also amused that I completely glossed over the part of the Shipwreck pattern that said, "Approximately 5000 seed beads."

So, first, a progress picture of all the center lace, right before the beads.

5000. Right. Given that there are 540 stitches for the whole of the web section and 70 rows... that's... hm.... one bead every three or four ladders, and 5000 beads one has to string on each of the last two skeins of yarn. Probably 3000 on the first and 2000 on the second, actually, as it doesn't use all of the third skein...

That's not random.

I might be insane, but I'm not THAT insane. But I also didn't realize that my little tubes of beads I had planned for this shawl were more like 500 beads per tube, so I didn't have nearly enough. So I bought a bunch more, in a sapphire colorway and an emerald colorway, as the 'ocean' colorway was too uniformly light for me. I probably do have more than 5000 beads, now, but I also realized that the lace weight yarn wears a bit with that many beads sliding the whole length of the skein. I did it with just the tail end of the first skein, and the beads really did affect the texture of the yarn. So I'm going to probably just string what I can stand and if I need more beads, I'll just break the yarn and get more beads on.

The good things about lace that has a bad side and a good side is that one can get the ends worked in really well.

I am, however, finding that the beading itself is actually pretty straightforward. It's just pushing along all the beads and setting them every now and again. I nearly died laughing with one lady when she described the web/beading section as 'like giving birth with an epidural. It's relatively painless, but it takes forever.'

Very apt. It's only been a couple of weeks and I'm completely done with the interior lace. Now it's 'just' the beading. *laughs*

The Cinco de Mayo party went really well. A neighbor lent us a barrel smoker, and I used hickory and smoked two slabs of spareribs, and they came out fantastic. We had a cilantro lime coleslaw. John made margaritas with real key lime juice, and I made two pans of flan. Neighbors brought enchiladas, horchata for a kid drink, chips and bean dip, fruit salsas, taquitos, flautas with real guacamole, plenty of beers, and great appetites.

I never knew that flan was one can of sweetened condensed milk, one can evaporated milk, one tablespoon vanilla, and four eggs on top of caramelized sugar. The sugar melted so quickly, I was amazed, and it turned out rich and dense and just sweet enough... *happy sighs*

We started at 2, ate through most of the afternoon, sat out in the sunshine until it started to rain. Then everyone went inside and the kids ran around and around the basement, while the parents played poker. Jet played the last three hands with us and won one of them. *headdesks*. *laughs* The boy is good with numbers.

And everyone still got home or to bed by 8:30! That was great...

Comments

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

The shawl is gorgeous and I can't believe your patience at doing it.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grins* I'm glad that you find it gorgeous. It's been relatively fun, to this point. We'll see what I feel like when I have to push a thousand beads along the yarn, when I was grumpy at how a few hundred were slowing me down. *laughs*

[incandescens]

That shawl is looking gorgeous. I have great admiration for your patience. (I know the technical theory of putting beads on -- the knitting magazines do articles on it more frequently than you'd expect -- but have never actually tried it.)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thanks!! It wasn't something I'd ever done, either. The stringing them on first hadn't ever really appealed until I saw why one might do it that way with this one. With the Princess cowl, each bead is set in its place with a crochet hook, so all the knitting in between was standard.

I think I like the crochet hook method better in terms of efficiency; but I really do love how the beads look on all the lace ladders. *grins* Plus, when the pattern says "place randomly", I'm going to take a few liberties with that. *laughs*

[aruarian-dancer.livejournal.com]

*drools and then passes out and drowns in her own drool*

How breathtakingly beautiful it already is!

I was wondering about how the beads got on the shawl (I somehow thought some specialty yarns existed with them already on. XD Silly me!). I guess it only makes sense that somebody has to string them onto the yarn in the first place.

I once did a bead work on a brocade fabric for a ballet costume. I must have strung on 2,000~3,000 or so seed beads and clear sequins for the project. It took me days, and I remember feeling overwhelmed after only a first little section was done. XD

I'm overwhelmed for you. :hughughug:

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*hugs you happily back*

I suspect this will make it old hat before I'm done. *laughs*

And if I were to do this with handspun, I'd probably string all the beads on a commercial thread and ply the thread with the other plies of the yarn rather than do it this way. That's a great thought!

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

Simply gorgeous! But 5000 beads? I know there was a reason I'd never done bead work on my knitting. lol Typing that I just remembered that I did, in fact, do that kind of bead work on 2 sweaters. :P But rather less than 5000 ;)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hee. I seriously doubt that I'm going to put 5000 on it; but I'll likely get a couple thousand on, just from sheer stubbornness. *laughs*

[nosferatu-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that's so amazing. You have much more patience than I for that sort of thing. Patience and skill to get it right!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's fun.

*grins* I loved how you wrote Badou having those capabilities... *grins*