A DIY learning experience

I made my list, checked it twice, was gonna make myself something both knotty and nice... the bouncy-ball necklace from my P.S. I Made This book!

Went to Dollarama for the supplies:

Brightly-colored bouncy balls... check.
Black nylons... check.

Came home, Lena and I got out the scissors and flipped to the page. Then we realized that in addition to the small bouncy balls we bought, we also needed at least four LARGER balls for the bottom strand. Darn it! So downstairs we ran, to the boys' box of ministicks and balls. The only balls we could find in the right size were white and fluorescent orange golf balls! But oh well, we thought, we would just have to make do.

So back to the project... With all our supplies ready, we started once again. Only to realize a few more things...

1. Instead of buying full-length nylons, apparently I'd picked up knee-length. DOH!! So then I had to raid my sock drawer for a pair of black nylons that weren't full of runs. Aha! Found the only pair. Back to the kitchen.

2. The project calls for SHEER black nylons. Because you want the colors to show through, and also sheer nylons are a thinner texture, which makes the knotting easier and also they're much stretchier. The nylons from my sock drawer were thick black. THICK. Zero color showed through, the knots were thick and clumsy, and because of the no-stretch factor, there wasn't enough material left over on the sides to provide a nice finished length. As a result, my necklace turned out more like a choker. An ugly, awkward choker.

3. The author uses four large balls on the bottom strand and four small ones on the top. In the picture, it shows she even used a fifth ball on the bottom strand, but its a smaller ball which kind of balances it out in a weird way. I, in my wisdom, decided I would use another large ball for the fifth. But when my lovely CHOKER necklace was finished and I looked in the mirror, here the bottom strand with its five giant balls and the top strand with four little balls, looked weird and didn't hang right.

We ended up using the knee-length nylons and a few of the leftover small balls to make a smaller-sized necklace for Lena. And because those nylons were sheer, you could actually see the vibrant colors. So her necklace is actually pretty darn cute and she is going to wear it for her first day back at school on Thursday.

Looks like I, however, am shit-out-of-luck. Guess I'll be heading back to Dollarama to get the PROPER supplies. Will let y'all know how it goes.