IGKT-NAB Meeting, 2007, Orlando, FL

There are so many things I could write about, but I guess I'll leave the past behind and just catch everyone up with the things I haven't posted about on the lists. The next trip I took that I haven't posted about was to the IGKT-NAB meeting in Orange City, Florida. It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone again, and meet new people, too. Conspicuous in his absence was Steve Coats. I missed you, Steve -- but I'm sure you're having fun...

Okay, most people know that I've become obsessed with making jewelry out of snake knots. I have a lot of pictures of them in my Flickr album, so I won't duplicate them here. Suffice it to say that I've made quite a few, so I donated a couple of the more special ones for raffle prizes. I can't remember who won the black one with the ceramic beads that look like Turk's Head Knots, but I do remember that the other one was won by our Dear Barbara Sessions.

I did learn one thing (well, besides the fact that I should not go shopping when I need to get everything back into my suitcases to fly back home)! Jeff Wyatt showed me how to make the braided grommet. It's a lot of fun and I think it turned out great. It does fit on my wrist, too! Imagine that...

When I got home, I knew I would have trouble making this again, because Jeff did a lot of it to 'show me' how to do it. I 'sort of' followed him, but I truly needed a refresher. So I got out my The Complete Book of Decorative Knots (Budworth) and followed Geoffrey's instructions. Here's what I came up with from there:

I will eventually be brave enough to tackle a one-color braided grommet on my own...

Before I went to Florida, I discovered the Instructables Tutorial for Stormdrane's Snake Knot Lanyard (well, I didn't actually discover it -- it was sent to the list) and I've had a bit of fun with that:

The first one I made is the one attached to this knife. The knife is very special, too. My brother, Bill, got it for me as a birthday gift. He knew I wanted one and found it on ebay for me. It's the Boy Scouts of America 75th Anniversary knife.

Well, two can play the knife gift game. I found two of these on ebay and Camillus is Bill's favorite brand (they also made the knife above), so I got each of us one of these knives, with a 'spike' on it, for when we go to Marlinspike Skills weekends together. Gary, please do let us know if you get MS-III set up!

Here's another one I made to hold a very special spike. This was a raffle prize from the IGKT-PAB Tenth Anniversary AGM, donated by our Dear Bud Brewer! It's the only one I have with a ring on the end of it, for attaching to a lanyard, and it's WONDERFUL!