Various states of tatting

I have too many tatting projects, all of them at various stages of completion.  Here's the only completed piece.  It's Jane Eborall's 2014 TIAS.  I finished it weeks ago, but took forever to get a picture.  I really enjoyed the clever way the mast is worked.

Here are the unfinished projects.  That messy pile contains 2 doilies and an edging.  I think the only way to reduce the pile is to focus and practice project monogamy.  Unfortunately, I keep getting distracted by every shiny bracelet pattern that comes my way.

Micro-macrame repeated

I can get a bit obsessive when I'm trying to learn something new.  I saw a picture of a macrame bracelet by Pandora and wanted to try making one of my own.

From left to right, the first one I tried was from a free pattern on friendship-bracelets.net.  Then I modified it a bit, to make the orange one with gold beads.  I didn't like how chunky it was, so I bought a pattern from RaquelsBeaDesign, and learned how to add a clasp neatly.

Finally, I made the eye-strain inducing pink one out of teeny-tiny micro bead cord.  Hopefully that'll get this bracelet fully out of my system, and I won't be compelled to make any more of them.

Tatting Mysteries

I've missed the first part of Jane Eborall's mystery TIAS 2014, but this weekend, the excitement got to me and I spent some time getting all caught up.  The HDT is from fellow Malaysian Zarina.  Isn't it pretty?

Tatting continues slowly on the Mystery doily by Vickie Reynolds.  Here it is at Round 5.

This pattern has ever so many tiny rings to pull closed.  I think that's why this happened:

Oh well, I guess that's a sign to go shuttle shopping.

Sewing

I've been sewing lately; a skirt for me and tops for the kids. The skirt reuses an old pair of jeans.

I've been reading Natalie Chanin's books, so I decided to make some hand sewn tops for my kids.  The only knit fabric I can get locally is a lycra blend, so the result isn't quite the same.  Still the kids are happy to'wear them, and that's the important part.

Here are my favourite parts on the shirt.

Rosebud embroidery on the collar for my sweet little lady.

Free-style embroidered lines as embellishment.  It reminds me of circuit boards, which is quite appropriate for my little tech-loving guy.

Amigurumis are addictive

I have many other projects I'd love to finish by year end, but I've ended up making amigurumi instead.

My kids got a new bunk bed, and requested some BIG soft toys to go with the bed. These two are then my head.  The white one is the little guy's.  It's the Snowy Owl pattern from Purl Bee.  The other is the little lady's.  It's modified from the Totoro pattern from Robins' Yarn.

This one is Jiggly Puff from a pattern by Wolf Dreamer.

Cute cat

Tatting on the mystery doily proceeds slowly but surely, but I got distracted by this cat.  The pattern is from Sue Pendleton.  She recently retired and generously made her patterns available for free download.  This is the Tabitha Toy Cat although in my version, I used sport weight yarn (with a 3.0mm crochet hook) for the can and pearl 8 cotton (with a 1.6mm hook) hook for the dress.  The result is not quite proportional and the dress is a bit too small.

This cat went to live with a friend of mine.  The little lady has already requested one for herself, in white, pink and purple.

Sewing

I've been making Halloween costumes.  I'm normally not keen on Halloween.  Malaysia has many, many festivals, and I don't see the need to import any more.  Still, my son's music school had a Halloween themed concert and I didn't want him to miss out on the fun.  So, I decided to make costumes that had some chance of being used afterwards.  For the little guy, I made overalls (from a Burda pattern) and a hat (from fleetingthing.com) so he could go as Mario.

The little lady wanted to be Princess Peach, so I made her a dress (from a McCall's pattern) and a crown (inspired by a tutorial from craftyc0rn3r).

This was my first time using downloadable patterns and I have to admit, I'm very pleased with the results.  Cutting, trimming and assembling the patters wasn't exactly a party, but it was not as fiddly or frustrating as I thought it would be.  The results are more precise than anything I'd attempt to draft by myself.

I started the mystery doily for the third time.  This time, I'm using Cebelia 20, a thread that I have in large quantities.  Here it is at round three.  Hopefully third time's the charm and I'll actually make it to the final round with this one.