Wanda's Knotty Thoughts: Barefoot Sandals

For the last several weeks I've been working on a birthday present for my daughter. I've seen barefoot sandals on several blogs, including Nancy's over at "New to Me", and knew both my daughter's would like them so I thought I'd give them a try. I did it! I even finished them before her birthday(even more surprising!).

These are made with DMC thread, size 10 in dark blue with lots of pink and clear glass beads. I started with the center of one of my snowflakes (this one) and actually, made the center like I was trying to make the heart - with a few more additions. Then I added the toe loop and the ties.

I don't usually use all that many beads when I tat so this was quite a change for me. It took almost the entire tube of beads to make up these sandals. And now I see that, in small letters on the tube, "color not permanent". Great - not! Well, she's my guinea pig, on orders to let me know her likes and dis-likes with these, or any suggestions she has to make the sandals better. I'll know next time to choose my beads more carefully. So far she likes them a lot - I gave then to her Sunday afternoon and she wore them the rest of the day *grin*. I'm calling this #1 of my next 25 Motif Challenge.

I've done the next pattern in Sherry's book Branching Encapsulation, the "Wisteria Necklace". I didn't have the kind of bead stringing wire that she used for the necklace, so I used some wire I had on hand - not the same thing at all.

It came out pretty well, though maybe not to wear. It's made with #684 Leaf Green Med size 20 and Cebelia size 30 pink #3326, as I still had those colors on the shuttles.

It came out pretty well, though maybe not to wear. It's made with #684 Leaf Green Med in size 20 and Cebelia size 30 pink #3326, as I still had those colors on the shuttles.

I'm now ready to start the next pattern, "Grapevine Edging". This pattern takes five shuttles. As most (all?) of my shuttles seem to have thread on them I thought I'd just use what I have already wound, which will help empty them. It will, of course, make the grapes look a bit strange, though. Sorry, Sherry, I need to get to the end of the book, and need to empty a few shuttles to use for my next project (Trees!). Still have to do the "Bleeding Heart" pattern after the grapes before I get there. Each pattern has been fun, and I can see me using these techniques in the future. I'm definitely going to use Sherry's tip of using a small ziplock baggy to keep the shuttles from tangling while making the grapes!

My next project is for a wedding but after that is a birthday present for my other daughter. She has indicated that barefoot sandals would be quite acceptable. I wonder if one of the techniques I'm learning from Sherry's book would work on those? Hmm... I'll think on this as I sip a little tea today for Tatting Tea Tuesday.