It's Superman, it's a plane, it's a Bird...

This seems to be rather in the line of: "I never saw a Purple Cow...I never hope to see one." Before you ask whatever possessed me to create such an oddly colored being, let me quickly say it's Jane Eborall's fault. Yup, hers.

This is my rendition of the latest "Tat it and See," (and the first of 2010 -- may there be more!), through Day 10. When doing a TIAS there's not much color direction -- just pick some stuff that goes together pretty well and pick three colors of it. Then, bits of the pattern are released every few days. That gives everyone plenty of time to ponder what in the world they might be making, and to catch up if life gets in the way.

At first, I thought we might be making aliens. But, then -- I always think we're making aliens. ;) There's just one more day to finish this lovely creature, which I now suspect is a rooster (unless Jane is going to throw us a curve ball right at the last minute and it really is an alien), because that variegated bit has to connect to the rest of the gizmo and it doesn't look like a hat!

In Honor of Mary Konior

Mary Konior passed away last week, leaving a hole in the tatting world. Her books were an inspiration to those of us lucky enough to own them. Imagine how lucky are those who knew her personally!

In honor of Mary Konior, I am posting these earrings I made for my mother years ago. The pattern is Mary's rose doodle from "Tatting with Visual Patterns." I've got other earrings made from other doodles, but these mean the most to me.

Not tatting -- but Important

A month ago my 8-year-0ld niece, Nicole, was diagnosed with Amblyopia. She is required to patch her right eye for six out of seven days -- every waking hour. Turns out she's allergic to the adhesive they use for stick-on occlusion eye-patches, and paper tape, and every other adhesive (though I admit we didn't try cellophane tape, it was a near-run thing).

My sister, Bonnie, made her a Pirate Patch with felt and polar fleece and a narrow elastic strap. That was cool for about 10 minutes -- then she peeked.

Bonnie found some felt patches that fit around and over her glasses, but they allowed light in around the edges. Then she cut a foam cosmetic applicator pad to put in the felt patch which kept Nicole's eye shut, but it was bulky and uncomfortable because it got too warm. She kept peeking or sticking her fingers under the patch.

These are her new patches. I am in no way related to or affiliated with
Anissa’s Fun Eye Patches
but, I do think anyone who has a child needing an occlusive eye patch should invest in these! Anissa's Fun Eye Patches have a lot of other patterns available, good for boys or girls. She likes these patches, and was excited to wear them. That was such a relief after the earlier patch problems. Nicole chose a pink and purple leopard print, a rainbow, some ladybugs, the flip-flops she's wearing in the picture, and a yellow blank one she can decorate. She's asked me to make a tatted eye for it. Fortunately, Jane Eborall has the perfect pattern. When it's done, I'll get Nicole to pose for you again.

LadyShuttleMaker Random Monday Mondo Giveaway

Click it! Quick, click it! Sherry's at it again -- Workbaskets, dontcha know!!

Among Other Things...

My dad has a really little Christmas tree with built in fiber-optic lights which he puts up on a drum table in front of the window. I made this little ornament for it out of a bit of left over thread. This is some of the thread my sister dyed for me.
I happened to have this ring in my tote bag, too. I wanted to try Jon Yusoff's idea of putting a small flower inside the ring, as well as decorating the outside. Hey! It worked...but I ran out of thread before I got to the fifth picot of the inner flower. I'd left a nice long tail (which was part of the problem) when I started, so I had to finger-tat it back to the picot and finger-tat the other end up to the picot. All the thread that was left was enough to tie a thread loop. Dad liked it, though, and we hung it on his little tree. It might still be there -- he made a wooden box to store the tree in and just puts it away decorated. Clever, huh?

Whhooooose There?

Owls are night creatures, so they show up best against a black sky. Of course, the evergreen branch he's perched on doesn't show up so well. Once again, this is from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo.

This is my second attempt at making this pattern. It really isn't difficult, it just requires that you pay attention. I did something weird on the first one: it's horned tufts were turned upside down and one eye was bigger than the other. My sister said it looked crazy. I think she insulted it, because it's flown the coop (I can't find it anywhere or I'd show you how weird it looks).

This second one turned out rather nice. It's made of Lizbeth size 20 Ecru and medium Harvest Orange (you'd think I was trying to use up the entire ball of that stuff) with Christmas Green for the branch. Isn't it interesting how many animals look good in brown?

AH-HA! I found the crazy owl! Those weird threads at his shoulders are where the pattern finished and didn't hide the ends. I don't know that I will ever hide the ends. I think this will go in my drawer full of what-can-I-possibly-do-with-this-? stuff.

Happy New Year!!

Wishing everyone a year that sparkles, shines, flips and doesn't tangle!

Swan

Swan on the water. Pretty, eh? This one is also from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. I like the idea that the bookmark tail is water. I made this one from size 30 Cebelia, white and "Singing the Blues." I had some problem with the scanning, because the blue doesn't show up really well on black, but the swan didn't show up at all on white. All the other colors just looked weird, so black it is.

Tabby Cat

You know why this cat looks so grumpy? I cut the whiskers off one side of the scan. Oops. They really are all still there on the bookmark. This one is for a friend who owns a tabby cat, so I thought she might like it. Like the snail, it is made from Lizbeth size 20 medium Harvest Orange, and a size 20 Omega orange variegate. It has a really long tassel tail. It can tease the cat while it hangs out the bottom of a book, right?

This is another from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. There's a lion in there too, but I don't think I'm going to make it. Too many picots! I think it would prob'ly shed.

Snail Trail

Look at that speedy little beast go! He's going to get away -- in about a month. This is the Snail bookmark from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo. This is the only kind of snail I like. The snail is made from Lizbeth size 20 medium Harvest Orange, and a size 20 Omega (which seemed larger) orange variegate I got from Aileen (Wickedtats) as a runner-up in her Halloween give away. It was perfect for this little snail. The tail is done in pearl tatting with encapsulated threads to simulate a snail trail on grass (with Lizbeth size 30 Christmas Green grass). The pattern didn't call for that weird ring cluster at the end. I was just getting...uh...fancy, yeah, fancy.