Eye infatuation

In a previous post, I showed a book, Super-Cute Crochet by Nicki Trench, that my friend gave me.  In the book, the author uses black safety eyes.  The eyes looked cute, so after a little idle googling, I found a saplanet originals and put in a small order.

First I remade my friend's kitty, with plastic eyes and a plastic heart nose.  The nose was a free sample from saplanet originals; a clever tactic, since now I've used it, I feel compelled to become a repeat customer.  The little lady calls this the 'Dancing Kitty', probably because of the twirly skirt.

Next is this Grim Reaper from the Creepy Cute Crochet book.  This one  joins the little guy's collection of gruesome amigurumi.

Finally, I made this little fish for my sweet nephew, also from the Nicki Trench book.

The eyes are really, really easy to use and I am completely infatuated. Some purposeful googling produced glasseyesonline.com with the magic words 'Free Worldwide Shipping'.  Now I am the somewhat sheepish owner of a small stash of plastic eyes.

I'm putting the stash to good use.  Here's the proof!  Look into my eyes!

I don't think I'll stop making amigurumi any time soon.  Everyone seems to want a toy to squish and squeeze and play pretend with.  So I thought I'd use my creepy eyes to join WIP Wednesdays on Tami's Amis.  Hopefully the WIPs will lead to FOs on Friday!

Motif 2-3: Bracelet and heart

The little lady's bracelet is finished.  Here it is with the treasure box we made to hold it.  The box is from the Canon website.  We worked on it together; I cut, she glued.

The bracelet is just tatted split rings with enough stitches and picots to snug up to the beads.  It's just the right size for the little lady, but I wish I'd added a few repeats.  Then I could share with her!  Is it OK for a 30+ woman to wear blue plastic beads?

CindyK left a suggestion to make some tatted hearts.  I like the idea very much.  So here is Martha Ess's Two Hearts in One.  I like the serendipity of online tatting.  Here's another version from Val's Simple Passions. 

Round 2 really is the toughest.  These days, the thought of wasted paper bothers me, so I try not to print patterns, instead working off the computer or the iPhone.  For this pattern, I had to give in.  I printed it out, found 2 quiet hours, and glued my eyes to the paper.

It also helped that I don't reverse my work.  It reduced confusion.  I learned this technique from Teri Dusenbury's website, although I can't find the exact link right now.  I'll keep looking.  Basically, the rings are worked with flip stitches.  The chains are unflipped (encapsulated).  I just switch shuttles between rings and chains.  It also saves having to wind up the long thread after making rings.

Three crochet kitties

It all started with this machine.  The machine takes an exorbitant amount of money, then forces you to use a tiny joystick to manouver a claw to try to pick up the plush toy of your dreams.  They recently installed this at the local shopping complex.

In it they put Hello Kitty dolls.  The first Hello Kitty (not in the picture) was the best.  It had a sparkly tiara, fairy wings and a pink princess dress.  The little lady fell in love with it.

After some discussion, the little lady and I agreed to make ONE attempt at snagging the Hello Kitty.  Now, I can stitch a pretty seam, but I can barely walk across a field without falling.  So, needless to say, I was no match for the ultra-fast buzzer and the sticky joystick.

At that point, the tears were brimming in the little lady's eyes, so after some more rapid discussion, we agreed that I would make her a Hello Kitty doll.  Thankfully she's still young enough to think her mother can make anything.

After a bit of googling, I found a cute pattern on  Armina's ami-mals blog.  The result is the little Hello Kitty on the left.  The little lady loves it, and shows it to everyone she meets.

Craft projects are like potato chips to me.  I can never stop at just one.  So, I found more patterns, and made the one on the right.

A friend of mine saw the little dolls and, because she is a generous lady, she gave me a book; Super-Cute Crochet by Nicki Trench.  As a thank you, I made her the little kitty on the cover.  It's living with her now, and I fogot to take a picture, so here's the picture from the author's website.

So there you have it, three crochet kitties.

Drowning in deadlines

I think I will make that title a recurring theme.  Being a free lancer is a great way to have time with your kids, but it can be feast or famine.  Right now, I'm festing on work, starving for crafty time.

Before the deadlines got me, I was happily following along with Jane Eborall's latest TIAS.  I only just finished it last week and got the ends woven in yesterday.

The blue is Altin Basak metallic polyester as recommended by Jane Eborall.  It's just as nice as she claims.  Unfortunately,  I've beeen told by a Turkish supplier that the thread is now discontinued.  The silver is another brand of metallic polyester.  It isn't nearly as nice. I have some Oren Bayan that feels about the same as the Altin Basak although I haven't managed to tat with it yet.  Unfortunately, it's about twice as expensive.  Sigh, why do cheap, good things get discontinued?

There was still some thread on the shuttles, and I had some beads from a bracelet the little lady broke. So I'm working on this little split ring bracelet.  I'm not sure I like the effect.  The thread's a bit too skinny to balance the beads, and stiffness of the thread makes the picots look spiky instead of loopy.  Still, the little lady is small enough that it will only take a few more repeats to fit her.  I think I'll just finish it off for her to wear.

25 motif challenge, 2nd round

After a bit of thought I think I'll try the 25 motif challenge again this year.  There are so many more tatting designs I want to try, and the challenge is a great motivator.   I'll start simply with these 3 white snowflakes done in DMC Cordonette Cordonet Cordonnet 40.  I have a box full of different weights of the stuff, and yet when I try to type the word, I have to look up the spelling... every... single... time...  Sigh, spelling is not my strong point.

Oh well, back to the snowflakes.  These are 'Spring Blossom', 'Sunburst' and 'Pirouette' from Jon Yusoff's snowflake book.  Sue, one of the nices commentors around, left a note saying that she liked the 'Astral' snowflake.  I agree with her, so far, 'Astral' and 'Pirouette' are my favourites.

Three more snowflakes and I'll have worked my way through the book.  I find these snowflakes so restful, yet satisfying.  What will I do when they're all gone?

Motif 22-25: A day late

It's been a year and a day since I started my 25 motif challenge, and I've only just finished my last 4 motifs. It seems I haven't changed much since I was a freshman; slacking off for a whole semester, spending the last few days cramming, then asking for an extension :)

Still, it's been a lovely experience. I've come into contact with many kind, helpful and talented people. Perhaps, if I can manage to grow up a bit, I can try again this year.

Motif 22: Suncatcher 3 (this one's a garden)

This is the third and final window picture from the Burda tatting book. The original is all white (a winter garden). Mine is a spring garden, made in DMC Cebelia 20.

Like any garden, it required some pruning (cutting thread ends) and watering (wet blocking) to look presentable. Here's how it looked before the pruning.

Motif 23: Choker 2

I made another choker using Jon Yusoff's wrapped rings. This one is the Kejora motif (DMC 80, 1.5cm rings, size 11 delica beads). I'm auditioning ribbons again. I think I'm leaning toward the black this time.

 

Motif 24: Approachable lace

This edging is from Tatting Lace (by Sumi Fujishige). It's done in DMC Cebelia 30. It's approachable for a few reasons. First, it's a pretty straightforward pattern. It only uses rings and chains, and with a slight change in working order, it's possible to do a motif in one pass, no cutting.

It's also approachable for non-tatters. I tat in public and I'm often asked 'What are you going to do with it?'. This edging looks like a normal bit of lace, so instead of asking 'What are you going to do with it?', people would make suggestions like 'Oh, this would look pretty on a sleeve! You could put this on a scarf.'

It's made up of little motifs, so most of it sits in a ziplock bag while I work on the latest piece. People would pick it up and model it, wrapping it around a wrist or laying it along a hem.  So it is indeed an approachable bit of lace.

Motif 25: Beaded necklace

This is Nina Libin's Kaethe necklace. It's done with DMC metallic embroidery thread. I don't hate this thread. I don't like it either. There are a multitude of errors in this because I find beaded tatting VERY VERY DIFFICULT. Thankfully, the sparkly beads do a good job of hiding the mistakes.

Motif 21: Plain sized snowflakes

I have chunky snowflakes and tiny snowflakes, so these are just plain medium sized snowflakes.

These are from Jon Yusoff's snowflake book. The first is Oasis in Anchor perle 8. The second is Floret in the DMC perle 8. The last is Astral done with 3 strands of metallic embroidery thread, 2 blue one silver. Next time I use the metallics, I won't mix colours. The effect is more heathered instead of sparkly.