creativity flows?

One of the things I love most about knitting is that there is always something new to learn - a new technique, or some neat new gadget, or type of yarn - always something to get the creative juices flowing, spark my curiousity-

so in this spirit, I decided to try my hand at knitting with beads and wire - a necklace for a friend's birthday next week - first-ever attempt of anything this, well, small...

I found myself in the wonderful position of having a rare committment-free day, so I gave myself the morning, because, really, how long could this take? String some beads on a wire, knit the beaded wire into a tube, attach the clasp and bob's your uncle... This half a finger length of knitting represents the better part of my day, and between us? I'm not sure how much I like it anyways... sigh

and this was only supposed to take the morning, because the afternoon was to be dedicated to socks for my youngest son's birthday in about 10 days, which I cast on yesterday, and figured will go more quickly done simaltaneously toe-up on two circ's:

so what have I learned?

• Never underestimate the time needed for anything, because it will ALWAYS take longer (I know this from a lifetime of such experiences, but this ridiculous height-of-optimism attitude ALWAYS prevails).
• Small projects are very hard on middle-aged, "on the cusp of needing reading glasses" eyes.
• Small beads are easily dropped, thus providing dogs with hours of search-and-destroy activity time.
• Dropped beads are not easily retrieved, either by middle-aged, weak-eyed, starting-to-get-cranky women or aforementioned dogs.
• Barefoot children will eventually find the beads stuck between their toes, rendering them useless, but again, worthy of much amusement.

So, the flow of creativity? Oh, it's still there, and yes, I WILL finish this sucker - there may be a few less sparkles in the wire than in the original design, but oh, yes, it will be done...