Mice!

HA! That got you all worried and stuff, right? No? Oh, well, not everyone is that concerned about mice. These are really too cute to be concerned about, anyway. They are Wanda Salmans' "Morgan Mouse" pattern. I added some little round ears (because my niece insisted!) but I don't know that they improve the look of the mouse. Morgan Mouse is made around an eight petaled flower doodad, but I did them on a button because I wanted to add color. I'm giving these to someone who's doing a fundraiser and wanted them to be Christmas mice. 

The first one is a bit of a stretch as a mouse -- it's green. How many green mice have you seen? I accidentally picked up the ball of size 40 thread to make this one, and it's a bit wimpy around that big button. Besides that, the eyes want to slide down over the stitches. It was only after I was about halfway around thinking, "what is wrong with this thread?" that I realized it was not the size 20. The tail is made of double double-stitches (or balanced double stitches), then tied in a knot with a little frayed end.  That avoids having to sew in any ends (always a plus).

The next two mice are little white mice. The thread is size 20 and works better with both the buttons and the beads. I changed where I joined the rings in the button on these two. They look more balanced and the tails join in the right place for Morgan Mouse. Their tails are pearl tatted very tightly without making long side loops. The no-ends-to-sew in was too attractive, so these also end with little frayed brushes. I took the option of cutting open the whisker picots because I didn't use a gauge and they were so terribly uneven. The one on the green button has blue eyes because I couldn't find two more of those big black beads. There are in the house somewhere, but at 1:30 in the morning, who wants to hunt for beads?  {update: Now I've realized that so late at night I'm much less clever than I think I am. The pattern numbers the rings. The nose is ring 8. Yup. I used 8 as the stitch count instead of 3. I guess this is Morgan Mouse's cousin Reginald Rat.}

TIAS Day 10

The bicycle crash was more serious than first imagined. As you can see I not only bent the frame and the wheel spokes, the poor thing is completely mangled. It's amazing I don't have a broken leg or something. I am beginning to suspect it is a transformer instead of a regular bicycle. I hope it doesn't transform into a monster that bites my fingers while I tat!

TIAS Day 9

What can I say -- you can see this is a special bicycle, right? Perhaps a bicycle built for two, because there are two onion-ring pedals and that other little thing might be a chain guard or a mud flap. Hmmmm...maybe it's an alien bicycle.

TIAS Day 8

Here's my still a bicycle after day 8. I can see I had it turned all wrong before. Interesting handlebars, and now we've added a onion-ring pedal. Of course, I don't think I did a real onion ring. I did a ring with a chain around it. That seems to stay flat better for me. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a big mistake. Getting this last piece on seems to have misaligned some of my wheel picots.
OH NO! I have bent my spokes!