Getting Crafty With Pinned It! Made It!

Just when I thought my crafty skills had disappeared under my childhood bed, dusty and abandoned like the boxes of beads and other craft supplies I had pushed under there as well, they were suddenly resurrected when I made this sock monkey.

Then, when blogger/fashionista/entrepreneur-extraordinaire Plum (of Plumdiddlyumcious, amongst other things) mentioned that Pinned It! Made It! were organizing an evening of statement necklace making at The Book Club in Shoreditch, I quickly nabbed two tickets for me and a friend to go along. After all, what could be more appealing than learning how to make a statement necklace (hello, new spring accessory!), as taught by Lotts and Lots, having a drink and meeting new people? (Well, actually, scratch the meeting new people part, because I'm so awkward and antisocial that I tend to make super awkward non-conversation and then quietly slip away these days.)

After a fabulous demonstration, we got to work ourselves: choosing the beads (hardest part - I basically spent the whole evening pining after everyone else's color combinations and cursing my own, unoriginal, Gap-inspired neon creation), cutting wire, and trying to make our necklaces look not homemade.

As we struggled along, I thought about how much I missed making crafts - it was the same feeling I got when I was slowly hand-stitching my sock monkey's crotch closed (well, that came out weirder than I meant it to). There's something about the process that's so relaxing and satisfying. As one of the girls at our table remarked, "It's like using a part of your brain that hardly ever gets used" (though technically, for that, I have my CIMA coursebooks that remain untouched, but ... you know).

So here's my finished product:

I wanted something nice and bright, since I wear so much black, gray, and navy blue (even in the summer, believe it or not). The ribbon is fully adjustable, so you can wear the necklace high or low like a pendant. If you look closely, you'll see how crooked it is and the fact that the beads don't lay completely flat due to my underestimation of how many links I needed to leave empty, but hey - it kind of works.

And when someone complimented me on the necklace today, I was able to say brightly, "Thanks! I made it!"