Just One More...

I stayed up late last night stringing beads onto thread.  Usually this is a task that I give to the Bead Team to do, but they were tucked snugly in bed dreaming the night away.  I should have turned in, but you know how it is when you have a project on your mind ... just one more stitch, ok another, and another...  I was the same way with the beads last night.  Just one more bead, ok, another, and another...  And, as it turned out beading the hundreds of beads onto the thread wasn't that difficult after all because I did end up having some help:

Usually when I drive the 1.5 hours to go to Webs (the largest yarn store I've ever been in) I also stop at Beaders Paradise.  In Beaders Paradise they have a bead spinner made of wood that sells for about $70 -- I'm not ready for that kind of commitment, so I went to ebay and bought a plastic one for about $10 (including shipping).  Although that purchase was many, many months ago, I finally tried it out last night.

At first I totally sucked at getting the beads and the needle to cooperate together.  It was awkward to hold the beading needle and spin the doodad at the same time.  So I went back to my normal method of "stabbing" at the beads.  While this method does work, it's just slower (but still, let me add, stabbing at the beads is a quicker method than stringing them onto the thread one bead at a time!).

Then I decided to try something.  Risking a huge mess, I sat back on the couch and placed the doodad on my leg.  I tilted it slightly which gave me the ability to spin it slightly.  And sure enough, it started to work.  The beads started to climb up the needle!  This is going to make crocheting with beads a much more pleasurable experience!!

If you want to play around with one of these bead spinning doodads too, give ebay a visit and do a search for "Bead Spinner" -- presently someone has two listed for auction.  Just be sure to give yourself enough time to figure out how to operate the doodad!  :)