I just made up this Daisy Stitch beaded bracelet project for a group of Junior Girl Scouts I am teaching next month. I remember learning the Daisy Stitch from Paz in 5th grade and decided a sweet bracelet in this stitch might be just perfect for a group of girls. I selected the beads and then began stitching only to realize that I couldn't remember how to do the stitch. It was like realizing I had forgotten to ride a bicycle. My needle kept getting tangled, the flowers looked like odd balls of beads. I did what all reasonable adults do when confronted with a problem. I Googled Daisy Stitch. Reassured, I started stitching again and got one, two flowers just right and then, oops! Tangled again.
I was so frustrated. I called an expert on the phone. She murmured reassuring but incomprehensible words about linking thru the third bead, going around again, whatever. I was still confused. I consulted Google a second time, looked up the stitch in a few books, drank some coffee. After a good ten minutes of regrouping I started the whole bracelet over again and boom, I had it. Oh! That's it! I was going the wrong way...
Does this ever happen to you? do you ever try to do stitch or technique you have known for years but haven't used only to find that you don't really know everything you think you know? It is quite humbling to fall off that bicycle. It is also a good thing. Now when I have those Junior Girl Scouts around my table I will be better able explain this stitch. I will remember the problems I had with the needle and the third bead and going backwards.
(And yes, of course I was a Girl Scout. Can't you tell? Since I was a Scout in the 70s I have a very full badge sash, a pocket knife scar on one hand and a strong aversion to olive green polyester. Oh, and some great memories.)
this daisy chain was the first thing I ever beaded. My grandmother showed me how to do it. We have a strand she had done from the turn of the century. It's over 100 years old. Will have to bring in the magazine I have which my great, great aunt was the editor of which has all kinds of beaded purses from around 1900. Things like rose-petal beads, miser purses. It's amazing. But the daisy chain I have is in blue beads with a yellow center. Unfortunately, it's with my mother in Texas or I would bring it in.
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