Charming things

The green phone charm that Wendy won in my giveaway has gone astray. It's my own fault. I didn't send it with any kind of delivery confirmation. Actually, I did worse than that, I sent it first class with stamps on it (after weighing it at work). Well, duh. There was no customs form attached. It's probably being probed by some government official who suspects it of being something nefarious. Perhaps it's been taken out and blown up in some preemptive strike. Who can know? That was pretty shabby of me.

Wendy told me her favorite colors were red and pink. Hey! I have red. I made up two more charms, both with red Oren Bayan metallic threads -- one with silver beads and one with red beads. Both are pretty (f I do say so m'self), but the silver bead one was more striking. I sent it off properly custom-formed and all. Well, fat lot of good that did. Who knows when it will get there? Some volcano seems to have gotten in the way. As I frequently say, "If it ain't one darn thing, it's another!"


PS: Wendy received both the green and the red charms. Nice! I think the green one was slow because I am slow (couldn't seem to remember to get a padded envelope at the store!). The volcano didn't slow the red one down much, either. Good. I'm glad to know they didn't go wandering off into the ozone and that she has two to enjoy or share, as she chooses. :)

Rings 'n' things

I've been tatting -- really I have. I just didn't seem to have anything I could show. My InTatters exchange partner has informed me that she received the pendant I sent, though. I thought sure the poor thing had disappeared behind some monster machine in the Post office or something. Nope, it made it safely. It's made with Oren Bayan silver thread and purple mini-seed beads (a whole pot-load of 'em). The necklace part is a twisted metal cable inside a purple protective casing. Really, it matches better than this picture makes it appear.
The other things I've been doing I'll trot out when they're finished. I'm still emptying bobbins, too. I've been making more butterflies -- the little four ring ones. But, I've also made a couple of Jane Eborall's Butterfly Bookmarks without the bookmark tails, and one tiny one with a tail for really tiny books! I've got a few more bobbins with enough thread to make Butterfly Bookmarks, if I mix the colors. That should be interesting. I might very well end up with a Christmas Butterfly, because I've got a bobbin each of red and green that are about evenly matched in amounts.

As for the ornament challenge...it has foundered. *sigh* It will get back on track pretty soon though. I ordered covered styrofoam ornaments and they've been received! I think the plastic ones are going to end up with my nieces. They can decorate them by gluing or sticking things on 'em. My patience with them (the ornaments, not the nieces -- hmmmmm, wait, some days it's them too!) has been exhausted.

Success!

Disneyland is still there -- so are large portions of my feet. I'm certain I came home with barely-there soles and at least one charming blister. My feet pieces are not all that got left behind, somewhere in the world are at least a dozen butterflies that have found new homes via the lines at Disneyland. Hey, if someone asked what I was doing, in addition to explaining it, I snipped 'em off a butterfly. A lot more people looked, whispered (not too quietly -- Disneyland is noisy!) or talked behind my back. My shuttle and a selection of bobbins with left-over thread went into the park everyday. I came home with 19 empty bobbins and this collection of butterflies and a few flowers (Well, I didn't tat every minute, you know!):

As for my teaching my sister -- that's another reason I'm claiming success. :) I took two colors of size ten thread, plain cream and rainbow (that Bonnie dyed for me). I asked her how she wanted to learn -- right hand holding the shuttle or left hand. She chose right hand, because she tried to learn to crochet doing the mirror-image thing and just couldn't figure it out. She did very well -- she knits right handed, too. She says it's because both hands are doing something, they just have to be trained to do the correct thing. She started with a BUK (big ugly knot) and made a chain, then a ring, then a chain and a joined ring, then a chain and a couple of joined rings and a chain, and ... Well, you get the idea. Then she used just the cream color and made butterflies. She only had enough thread for two and 3/4, though. I think she did just peachy wonderful for a first-timer -- especially for someone that learned to tat standing in line. What do you think?

VACATION!!

Yup, I'm taking one. I know it looks like I've been on vacation for a while, but I've just been busy getting things done at work so I could leave. I'm off to Disneyland with my sister and my two nieces. :) I'm taking a nice little supply of tatting threads, shuttles, and lots and lots of patterns. The patterns are all stored in my Nook, so that's how I can have lots and lots. I'm also taking two colors of size 10 thread because Bonnie said teaching her would give us something to do while waiting in lines. I hope it works, because she's a lefty and I'm a righty. I'm not much of a teacher either...we'll see. I'll report on our success (or lack thereof) when I come back. Maybe I need to learn left-handed (I did that to teach her to crochet many year ago -- and I can't do it anymore).
As for tatting -- I've been doing some! I've got some UFO's (one of which I'm taking with me) and I've been emptying shuttle bobbins by making lots of little butterflies. Some of the bobbins have quite a bit of thread on them, so I tried making something a bit bigger. This is Jane Eborall's newest butterfly bookmark -- with some oops things. I didn't load any beads first, and miscounted the ones I did add. Duh. It's made of one strand of variegated quilting thread and one strand of yellow Cebelia wound together. I also didn't have enough thread to make much of a tail...it's for marking tiny books, maybe.

Happy Blogoversary to TattingChic

You'll want to pop over to TattingChic's blog! She's having her Second Blogoversary and is celebrating by giving away a "Learn to Tat" book, a shuttle, and some thread. Doesn't matter if you know how to tat -- isn't there someone you want to teach?

25 Motif Challenge - Number 4

"Ice Crystal" by Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs is a beautiful piece worked in two continuous rounds (only one set of threads to hide if started continuous thread method). I modified it by using only six repeats of the pattern instead of eight. That made it cup nicely around the ornament. For the bottom I used the diamond motif made by the pattern, but used six repeats instead of four.

Lacing the top and the bottom on is just a trial and a pain. I thought I'd out smart this pair and just tat it right on the ball. Oh, yeah, that was clever. It worked, but it was worse than trying to lace the pieces together. It slipped all over and trying to get the final join done took me about 20 minutes. I was certain the thread was going to pop before I got the last ring to close. Finally!

I don't think I'm going to try that again. In fact, the next one is still in the thinking stage.

I've been working on a pendant for an exchange, and making some earrings for my niece's art night auction. I can't show the pendant, and the earrings are just same-old, same-old.

And the winner is...

I thought about Diane's comment that the kids have so much fun doing a drawing. Yes! That sounds right. I got the girls to participate. Allix offered to be the box holder (okay, I volunteered her), but I think it's just so she can show off her Highland Swimming sweatshirt! She looks very serious, doesn't she?
Nicole was happy to draw the winning name -- standing on the stairs meant she could actually reach into the box to pull out one of those little squares. I took the tiny piece of tape off and she opened it to reveal:
Congratulations, Wendy! Once we get the address squared away, I'll ship the charm and the big-eye needle off to you.

But, me, I can't ever leave well enough alone. Out of curiosity, I had Google find me a Random Number Generator. Cool. I just had to try it out. It was too funny!!! What's so funny is that No. 8 is Diane who thought the kids should have the fun of drawing a name! That gave me the giggles, but maybe you had to be there. Anyway, Diane, I've got another little charm that I'll send off to you. :)

Two Hundred!?

I'm not such a blabbermouth as I thought I was. It's taken me over three years to reach two hundred posts. I was going to claim that I promote quality over quantity. That might work until y'all read some of this stuff. Then somebody's going to wonder about the quality of the stuff I've been drinking (only the best tea, thanks).

It would be really fun to give away one thing for each post! Oh, yeah -- dream on. I don't have that much extraneous tatting stuff. I do have lots and lots of extraneous stuff, but I don't think anybody reading this wants my old shoes or the treasures in my ragbag.

There is a little something somebody might like, though. Oh, not my phone, but the charm. Well, not the charm that's attached to my phone (because it's attached to my phone). This nice dark green charm. It's made of size 20 Haklegarn worked over a plastic ring with a whole pile of clear seed beads built right in.

If you think you might like to have it, leave me a comment on this post, and a way to contact you. On Monday next (that would be the 22nd of March) I'll either get a random number generated, or have one of my nieces draw a name out of a box or a bag. Not only will I send you this spiffy charm, but I'll include a really nifty beading-threader-thread-weaver-inner-all-around-useful big-eye needle.

25 Motif Challenge - Number 3

Ta-da! I'm now caught up to the second week of February. Unfortunately, it's the second week of March. *sigh* No matter, I'm plugging away at it. I tend to get obsessive about deadlines and keep reminding myself I need to relax. If I fuss about this challenge I'm not going to enjoy my tatting, nor am I going to take time to tat other things.

This one is made of really inexpensive size 30 crochet thread that used to be dirty white (we found it in a box in the basement). My sister was trying out new dye colors, so I let her use some of the thread. (Yeah, I'm nice like that!) This is what she calls "Flame" in shades from deep scarlet to bright yellow. I love the color, I extremely dislike the thread. It's got odd little slubs in it here and there which made some rings very nearly impossible to close. Perseverance was the key -- okay, it was really, fuss, cuss, pick, pinch, pull, cuss, and slide one stitch at a time!

The pattern is my own snowflake -- the one I designed for Sharon Briggs' Design-Tat class. I made two then laced them to this matte-gold ornament with a single strand of gold thread. The beads are inexpensive clear glass. I don't know how Christmas-y this is, so maybe it's a Halloween ornament. :)

Jewelry Break

Very simple earrings on a ring and a pendant to match. The pendant would have matched better -- but I ran out of thread on both shuttles. The loop for the chain is a lock chain with a bead at every lock stitch. It looks quite nice up close and personal. I couldn't get a better picture (because I'm not a photographer).

These are made of a multi-colored metallic Oren Bayan thread and over 300 mini-seed beads. The beads are so tiny I couldn't even get my size 16 crochet hook through them so I could put them on the joining picots. That's right -- there are naked picots right there in that picture.

Just as soon as I get a padded envelope for the pasteboard jewelry box they're in, I'm shipping these off to a friend. She gifted me with a signed copy of her first novel and I'm doing my best to reciprocate!

Well -- back to the ornament covers. I've got another done, but am struggling with getting it on the ornament. After covering 25 of these slick plastic ornaments, I might be certifiable.