Whew!

Just spent about 3 hours listing new items in my shop! 14 new tatted items including Christmas ornaments, pendants, and even a brooch! Take a sec and check it out!

Things to make when you're short on supplies and patience . . .

So, someone broke into our storage room a week ago and until they fix the door and we have time to get back over there, I'm cut off from the rest of my craft supplies. Trying to make do, I've decided to revisit an old favorite project. I'm knitting barrettes!

My beads supply and yarn scraps supply are both rather sparse at the moment, so it's getting difficult not to do the same thing more than once, but I really hate doing that. I like to maintain a uniqueness (is that a word?) in my "art." They aren't done yet, because there are still some supplies I need to pop out and get when I can, but here's a sneak peek at a couple in an almost complete state:

I came up with the idea to do these about a year and a half ago. I'll share how I make them, but I better not see any up on etsy before I get a chance to post these ;) Anyway, I knit a little tube on dpn (about 7-10 sts on each of two needles). Usually I make one side completely stockinette stitch to glue the barrette back onto and do a 5 st cable with beads or buttons in it on the side that's for show. Well, I got that part working pretty quickly when I first did this. That's where I ran into a problem. I needed the tube to hold its shape and be a bit sturdier. At first, I thought of wooden shapes from the craft store, but then I remembered the curve of the barrette back. Finally, I figured out the answer. Are you ready for my secret ingredient?

Plastic canvas! I cut a piece of plastic canvas the same size as the tube, stuff it in and sew the end together. It's flexible, but still holds its shape! Sometimes I'm so smart, I scare myself. Just kidding. This is one of the first ones I made:

The scans don't show it very well, but you can see that the knitted piece follows the curve of the barrette back and it maintains its shape. It's held up for over 18 months so far! This is a great quick little project to use up quick yarn. You can do it as one flat piece, fold in half, and stitch along three sides if you aren't comfortable with dpns, but I'd rather struggle a little in the beginning and save a lot of time overall. Maybe that's just me.

Stash Finds and Happy Times!

Hooray! I finally made a sale on etsy! I feel validated at last!

Anyway, I found the cutest little beads tucked away in a box of craft supplies the other day. I've had them for about 10 years (wow, now I feel old). They're precious little glass hearts with various hues of pink kind of swirled together in them. Okay, I really don't like pink, but I just had to find something to do with these beads since I don't know if I'll ever find any like them again (and won't be looking particularly hard). Voila!

I called them Princess earrings because they kind of remind me of jewels in a fairy princess crown. (Yes, I realize how cheesy that is. I've come to terms with it. Deal with it and move on.)

The pictures don't do them justice! The big beads in the drop are the little hearts. I love these earrings and I don't even like pink!

Oh, I also love these:

I made them because I wanted to find a use for some fuchsia bugle beads I have lying around. I think I'm going to have to make them in another color or two. I just love how the pattern turned out. The scan turned out better than the picture. You can see it in my shop. Sorry, takes waaaay too long to deal with pictures on dial-up.

Calluses and Stitches

Wow! So I have neglected this blog forever, huh?!

Well, I've been working like crazy on several projects. Unfortunately a lot of supplies and works in progress are packed up in the storage room and unreachable at the moment. So, my focus has been forcibly shifted from the embroidery I was working on, so I've been tatting until my calluses have formed calluses!

I have realized that one of my problems in life as well as crafting is that I'm too symmetrically-minded. I decided to do something about that. I have a huge pile of beads that I had rejected from one project or another because they were uneven or chipped or whatever. Well, I finally figured out what to do with the reject beads! I have made them the focal point of tatted pendants! Suddenly the reject beads are my new favorites!

This one was an uneven triangular shape with the most beautiful amber color. I used black DMC tatting thread and brownish-amber seed beads around the outside. I love this one. This clumsy bead has now become a delicate and delightful piece, if I do say so myself!

Of course, working each pendant around a particular bead means that each one, though the pattern may end up being simple, leads to a huge pile of wasted thread and work as one attempt after another doesn't work or just does look right.

If there's one thing I love more than the reject beads, it's buttons. I think it goes back to spending slow days in the Costume Shop sorting buttons, but I just love playing with buttons. Where the reject bead pendants are a matter of taking something odd or clumsy and making something delicate, the button pendants I've made are about taking something simple and commonplace and making in extraordinary. So, here's my favorite button pendant so far:

I call it Peaches and Cream. I know, not that creative a name, but after you spend several hours working on something, you don't always have my creativity left. Anyway, the picture doesn't really do it justice, but I love this pendant. I might have to make another for myself, but I put this one up in my shop along with all the others. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5252351

I was also finally smart enough to start a tatting journal so that I can remember all my patterns when I try to go back and repeat them. Sometimes I do organized things, I swear! Maybe some day I'll be able to publish my own pattern book instead of just buying everyone else's. Lol.