Easy Stuff

Well, this will be very a boring post (aren't they all?).  I decided to finally take out the wooden ornaments that I bought last year on vacation and paint them.  I have no idea what I'll do with them aside from throwing them back in the box from whence they came, but at least they're not plain anymore. :-)

 Ugh.  You can't tell, but the snowflake is shiny, too. 

There is also a gift tag almost done.  I couldn't make up my mind about the background color, so I just might be taking out the paints again tomorrow.  You can't tell in the scan, but he's all pearly and shiny, as are the snowflakes (which also have bits of blue). 

Well, that's it for me tonight.  I hope you've all had a wonderful week!

♥,
Stephanie Grace

Wednesday was Crochet Day, I guess

I am sorry that I haven't updated.  Not only am I horrible about blogging, but I've just been trying to sort things out in life (nothing major or anything; just readjusting and catching up). 

My mom called me on Sunday and made a request for a crocheted pouch for her phone.  She wanted something that would hang from her neck and just hold her phone, possibly snug, and it didn't need a flap.  I went over yesterday and made a chain to get the width right, then went around the chain with single crochet stitches to get the depth right.  I measured the height/length of the phone and did the rest in my own dwelling, so I hope it's right.  I'll find out later today. 

 

It's much more blue than shown, but I couldn't get a good picture.  Go figure.  The pouch is (hopefully) sized for her phone (which is huge, by the way) and the strap is fifty inches long.  I measured her and where she wanted it.  Hopefully, it works for her.  I really don't know when I became brave enough to make something without a pattern. 

While I was at my parents' house, my niece made a request of her own: mittens for her daughter.  I have never made mittens.  I've made myself a lovely pair of fingerless gloves, but never mittens.  I made one last night/this morning, though. :-)

 

I used this  pattern.  My wrist hates me and I'm pretty sure it's too big, but it's done.  I'll wait to see how it fits before making a second --and/or a smaller pair.  At least it's done, though. :-)  

Well, that's about it.  Sorry for the lack of content. 

♥,

Stephanie Grace

Brave Little Toaster, I am Not

I decided to make a seahorse today.  The pattern is the The Amazing Jane Eborall's Medium Seahorse.  

 It's tatted in Salmon and Navy blue as that will be the basic color scheme for this nautical set.  I didn't read through the pattern before starting so I didn't take the shuttle switch into account.  Thus, the five beads on Shuttle 2 were on Shuttle 1 at that point and rendered useless. >.<  I learned two things, though: 
     1. Put the beads on Starting Shuttle 1. 
     2. Approx. 2-1/4 yard on Starting Shuttle Two means finger tatting the first half of the last three split rings and leaves a 10" tail at the end (I used a Sunlit Shuttle so the thread came off faster than with a Clover.).  The same amount on Starting Shuttle 1 leaves about 3/8 of a yard on the shuttle.

Good to know, right?  I think so.  I'm kind of obsessed with knowing how much thread to load.  

Oh! I should also mention that I used the un-amended pattern which I printed out years ago.  I was too lazy to make notes last night to see where it was changed, but the only problem I actually ran into was just me putting the beads on the wrong shuttle and ending up with the colors backward from what was wanted. ;-)

My first failed attempt at Sunbonnet Sue left a lot of thread on a shuttle and I've been too lazy to unwind it, so I decided to use it.

 This is one of Nancy Tracy's tatted musical notes.  It was a quick little tat, but I forgot that I downloaded the pattern to decorate paperclips.  I'll try it next time since there's still plenty of thread on the shuttle.  

Well, that's all for now.  Hope you all had a great day! 

♥,
Stephanie Grace

Quick Question

I'll probably end up asking at intatters, but just wondering: Does anyone know of an anchor pattern?  I made something anchor-esque a few years ago, but I didn't write down the patter or anything and I don't think it would be big enough anyway.  I have nothing with which to bribe The Amazing Jane Eborall, and she doesn't currently have one on her website, so I'd hate to bother a tatting celebrity and legend with my measly request, so I hope someone knows of a pattern that exists...  

♥,
Stephanie Grace
(P.S. If The Amazing Jane Eborall reads this, I swear I'm not putting you on the spot; I'm just used to your patterns as my go-to and I know that you have plenty of things that are not of the norm, so I was a bit shocked that a friend asked for a whole nautical theme with your patterns, but neither of us saw an anchor.)  :-* 

Sunbonnet Sue Number Two

Since yesterday's Sunbonnet Sue ended up with a ring wrong-side forward, I knew that I had to do another just to prove that I really could tat her.  I'm still not in love with the pattern, but it tats up so easily (i.e. no natural stopping point so I don't really feel the need to put it down) that I might make a few more.  I guess that depends on if anyone on my Christmas card list voices a fondness for Sunbonnet Sues.  I'm a tad old-fashioned or something, so I'm used to people not agreeing with things that I like.  *shrugs* It happens.

She's done in Lizbeth size 20, Harvest Gold (699) and Victorian Red (670).  I think that I might try silver and blue for the next one again, but with the silver on the outside and blue for the chains.  I'm trying to keep her Christmas-y so I'm avoiding the flowery threads that seem like they'd be a good fit. 

I started a very scary (to me) pattern today, too.  Hopefully, it will work out okay, but thus far it's only confirmed that I *hate* super large rings. (Is there any way to make a ring of 36 stitches look neat?  I haven't mastered that skill yet.)  

Hope you're all having a lovely day.  The Giants are getting slaughtered, so it's probably about to become a cruddy night in my household. :-/

♥,
Stephanie Grace

Christmas is Coming...

I realized that Christmas will be here before I know it, so I've been trying to focus on the little trinkets that I'll include in the cards I send out.  I bought Christmas cards on Halloween ... I'm as bad as the stores when it comes to rushing the holidays.  (Note: I'm generally miserable from now until all this holiday stuff if over.  I don't observe Thanksgiving and I hate Christmas.)

My plan is to mainly make snowflake ornaments, but I also want to do some other ornaments and, hopefully, some bookmarks if I can find a few patterns that I like and can tat quickly.  I just bought Tat's Where I Stopped by Nancy Tracy, but I'm a bit iffy on some of the patterns.  Does anyone have the book?  How do you handle patterns like the leaves bookmark?  I never trust just knotting and cutting, but I also wouldn't want to use glue on a bookmark.  I iz confoozed. 

I have had this pattern printed for literally years.  I've never been brave enough to try it for some reason.  It's a lot easier than I imagined, but I found the directions to be wrong in several places. 

Sunbonnet Sue; Big Book of Tatting, pg. 19

I used Lizbeth size 20 in Sky Blue Medium and Silver.  It's not a bad pattern, but I should have paid more attention.  My initial ring has the wrong side facing forward because I flat-out didn't realize there was no RW before adding the ball thread.  *rolls eyes*  It was my third time starting, though, so I just went with it.  

This is another "December Motif" by Joelle Paulson from leblogdefriole.blogspot.com.  All of the beads are pink, but none of them look like it in the scan --and the seed beads, in life, look white if you don't look closely.  They annoy me.  They're so pink together, but turn white on thread.  >.<  The thread is Turquoise Light --Lizbeth, Size 20, of course. 

Well, that's it for now, but at least it's something. 

♥,
Stephanie Grace