"A Very Useful Engine"

My dear daughter's obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine has given me the perfect sentiment to begin the new year of blogging. For you see, on the Island of Sodor, it is every train's ambition to be bestowed with the title of a Very Useful Engine.

You see, in the coming year, I'd like this to become a Very useful Blog. Over this past year, I've gained so much friendship and inspiration, and I'd like to "give back" to the tatting community at large in any way I can. So, I've come up with a few ideas or ways that I can truly serve in tat land and be very useful indeed.

1. I'm going to go back and properly tag my posts, so they will be easier to search and find topics or patterns etc.
2. I'll be doing some tatting book reviews. You know, when I go to order a tatting book I always wonder until it arrives whether it is what I was expecting. So, I will go do some nice thourough review posts on my favorite books this year.
3. My own Patterns, tutorials, etc. I think that at this point I have some ideas to offer in the way of technique, new things I've developed, and also sharing some jewelry patterns.
4. More giveaways! I plan to perpetuate giveaways by doing a Pay It Forward giveaway each time I dye a new batch of thread. So keep your eyes peeled for the next time Dr. Vonthreadmore gets let out of her pen. Yes. I keep her in a pen. She really would run amok if I didn't. Don't worry though, she gets a steady supply of red licorice and chocolate coffee smoothies.
5. More linked text and pictures. I am going to better plan my posts and put more time into clickable things, so that you have somewhere to go if you come across something you like here on this blog, like a pattern I've done if it's available online, or a link to the information I used to achieve a certain technique....etc.

There you have it! My first post was last year, January 28th. I'm almost to my one year bloggerversary, and I think it's time the blog grew a little, it's important to be a contributing member of society don't you think?

So, thank you for spending your precious time laughing and crying with me here in my little corner of Tat land. I look forward to the new year ahead!

The Catalyst.

The following definition hails from dictionary.com -"something that causes an important event to happen"

Enter the Catalyst:

Our story begins on a dark and stormy night. The weather had subsided to a minor rainy drizzle as the family arrived home from a long and harrowing thanksgiving visit. The small ones had skipped their naps, and many people were milling about the house they had visited, resulting in an entire container of Vicks Vaporub having been emptied onto the two year old's feet. The weary parental units were unloading the various baby happiness maintaining devices they had brought along, and as Mother was removing the screaming infant from her carseat in the house, they heard a much feared CRASH! Mother dared not look outside to see if her greatest fears had been realized, but it was true. Father had dumped Mother's entire tatting basket in the dark and muddy driveway. (gasp!) Holding back her tears, and the terror that she intended to rain down upon father, she dutifully tended to the small ones as Father chased numerous balls of Lizbeth thread, skeins of HDT, shuttles, bottles of beads, and every other bit of tatting paraphanelia that had inadvertently been strewn about.

He felt bad, poor fellow.

Mother tucked the little ones in bed before surveying the damage. Amazingly, all was not lost. In his fear of wrath-to-come, Father had quickly and nimbly collected the treasured goods resulting in only minor dampness and a general disorder of the tatting basket's contents. He would live to see another day! A great sense of relief came over both.

Three days later,

Mother was reaching into her re-sorted basket, when her hand touched something cold and wet. Hmmm. What could this be? Upon closer inspection she had found a soaking wet, and thoroughly squashed ball of Lizbeth size 20 thread in Western Sunset. Where did this come from? Wondering how she could have overlooked this precious comodity's absence in her initial inventory of the scattered stash, she raised the poor forlorn ball of thread in Father's direction to inquire as to the circumstances of it's appearance. Looking conspiciously unaware at first, Father broke like a cracker having seen the look in mother's eye. Yes, he had found it at the end of the driveway, soggy and run-over, squished almost beyond recognition. The thread was dried and re-wound on the misshapen ball, and Father again escaped unscathed as Mother pardoned the pitiful attempt at returning the thread unnoticed.

And what was the important event that followed the catalyst?

Enter "The Monstrosity".

I've included a picture with the almost-three-year-old for scale.

The finest Craft organizer box that Jo-ann has to offer, the Monstrosity now houses my tools and beads, and the pull out sorting sections hold most......ok some..... of my thread stash. Sorted by type and color thank you very much.

The open top diaper basket has been retired in favor of this latching case.

It is estimated that Father's lifespan has increased by several years following the purchase of this piece of organizational equipment.

Hello and Happy Christmas to all of you in tattingland!

Our celebrating has begun with reading the nativity story this morning, and opening presents of course. Dr. Von threadmore had her way and I received a lovely handmade skein winder from Dear Husband.

Anyway, I leave you this Christmas Greeting, and a link to a great idea I saw on ETSY. Check out this vintage needle case! It's a great old piece in and of itself, but I bet it would be fun to make one as well.

I wish you all the best this holiday season.

-Krystle

Of this I am truly fond.....

Ah the joy of a bit of vintage crystal chain. Add to it the joy of Yarnplayers hand dyed thread, and you have the following-

This method of adding to the chain has the particular charm of displaying the HDT (hand dyed thread) in it's finest glory :-) [this is Yarnplayers garden afternoon, not one of my hdts]

Here is the back of the chain when finished.

And a picture of the clasp to satisfy an earlier commenter. I use a small magnetic clasp on these bracelets. It holds well and makes it easy to put on. This is the way I have devised to attach it to sections of chain. I have done some that are bracelets with a clasp attached, but it's easier to find more unique chain in sections or pieces of yardage. This chain is salvaged from a long vintage necklace so it has that vintage charm and quality that I adore.

I think I adore it enough that I shall have to keep this one and make another for the ETSY shop instead.......

Busy busy busy!

Sigh, poor ol' Dr. Von Threadmore is getting restless. I told her that the dye could come out again after the move, but it looks like our closing date for the house will be bumped out to February. So I may have to indulge her before then.

Christmas is on the way apparently, however I'm still swimming in a certain river in Egypt if you know what I mean..... DENIAL! This time of year is so crazy. Our anniversary was at the beginning of the month. We took the kids to the Olive Garden restaurant and called it good. The bigtime Christmas production is this weekend, so we have set up and rehearsals on top of regularly scheduled events, and I think I'll even miss the Lace Guild's Christmas shindig. Pooh. I feel sorry for my little darling two year old. With all the fuss over the house and work and a funeral we did last week, Hubby and I are so unmotivated about the holiday. We didn't want to dig out all of the christmas decorations so we got a little houseplant type tree and put some lights on it, but I don't think the presents are even wrapped. I still have a week right lol?

Not very many posts lately because I haven't gotten much tatting done. I did finish the bracelet you see at the top of the post, and I'm doing some bookmarks that a friend requested. Other than that my little brain is fried :-)

I have but one thing to say....

Mwahahahaaaaaahahahaaaa!

I got my shipment of swarovski pretties today.

Here is the first of the magical creations:

And since I haven't posted a pic of the little darling baby of mine in awhile:

And one with big sis:

Houston, we have some bling.

I always thought that since I've never been involved in heavy drinking or drugs, I must not have an addictive personality type.

And then I met tatting. Lol!

After a weeks worth of scouring the local antique and thrift shops, I have yet to find more than a handful of material to harvest for more lacy rhinestone designs. So I succumbed to both Ebay and a sale at Joann to find some rhinestone chain to work with.

The first is a black rhinestone bracelet that I found for two bucks, the second is the last of the original vintage rhinestone necklace that got me started on this, and the third is some by the yard stuff from Joann.

Above is a small pair of earrings that I finished to pair with the necklace below (which finally got it's chain attached).

Most of the rhinestone jewelry available at the antique shops is too nice to cut apart, not to mention too expensive. I'd love to get some vintage necklaces in good shape to ad tatting to as they are, but not at thirty dollars a pop. So I'll just have to keep my eyes open for good deals on ebay-- Like the fuschia rhinestone chain you see in the scan below, I got ten feet (!) for like 8 bucks. It's new stock so it is missing that gorgeous vintage feeling that I adore though.


So now I leave you with a sentiment from Dr. VonThreadmore. We were discussing the need for storage containers for all of this rhinestone fun, when I mentioned that maybe I ordered too much rhinestone chain, to which she firmly replied

"there is no such thing as too much rhinestone darling!".



I think I agree :-)

"Lacy"

Admittedly, I have a love for vintage things. Especially jewelry and rinestones. So you can imagine my delight when on of the kids' Grandmas brought me a broken thinestone necklace wondering if I could do something with it.

Oh yes I can!

I cut it apart for the good bits, and I made a bracelet, and I repurposed the center of the necklace as well. It needs some silver chain to be complete.

So this of course sent me off on another tangent....scouring antique shops, ebay, and even etsy for rhinestone things I can use to make new jewelry for the shop. I'm too fond of these to let them go, but I found a great sale on etsy and bought a load of sworovski components to play with.

Anyway, to explain the post title, these pieces came out more "lacy" looking than most of my Jewelry designs. Sometimes I forget that tatting is actually making lace lol! I do tend to lean toward more modern shapes and colors, but this new direction is intriguing! I need some ecru thread now....(never thought I'd say that!).

Tatting tea tuesday!

Ok, not really. As I stated before, I don't do tea.

But alas, I have a little tin of wannabe coffee!

So what have I been doing on this TTT? Here is a picture of tat corner (which seems to have experienced some sort of seismic event of late). In the picture you can see my Hand dyed thread stash. Isdihara posted a challenge a few says back to post your HDT..... And I am more of a user than a stasher. I admire the thread in skein form for a few days, but most often I immediately wind them onto floss cards, and then they all go on this big ring so they all stay together.

Also in the pic, you can see the bracelet I was working on this morning as I sipped my coffee. Below is one of the finished pics that went on etsy.

I also found a little time to get some new listings up. I had done some resin pieces last week, but I waited until after the little craft show I did to get them pic'd and listed. below is something new, I've done some rings. They are really cute, I have four colors right now. It's a great way to wear tatting and not have to worry about it being fragile. Feel free to peek around the etsy shop and see the other things I've been working on lately.

Here is a bracelet. Believe it or not, the thread is actually Tatskool's Rainbow Brite! It looks so different in the resin.

So I've been enjoying this tatting tea Tuesday. Right now I need to go fold some laundry, feed some kids, and decipher some loan documents. So have a great day!

I guess it's official...

We are buying a house.

Yes. It is true.


Some of you might remember my lamentations over the several house deals gone bad that we have dealt with this summer. Well, I'm pleased to announce that we have "mutual acceptance" on our contract, which makes it officially official, as opposed to unofficially official like the last few deals we got hammered on. Our closing date is set for Jan, 12th. The loan docs are rolling, the appraisals are going forward.... but somehow I'm less enthused than I expected myself to be. Perhaps it's a conditioned response to all the heartache from this summer. And all that heartache is actually a testimony, because God is bigger than the real estate market, and he knew that we needed to sit on our hands all summer on these other houses, until this one was ready to hit the market. It's cheaper, and needs less repair than any of the others. There is a beautiful play toy in the back for the girls, enough bedrooms and whatnot, and there is a "family room" in back for the desk and toys and craft stuff. We went back today to look around and see if there were any glaring issues that needed dealing with before we went forward, so we got to measure and poke around and dream. It still doesn't feel real yet somehow lol.

Anyway, it will be a busy week for us as we are visiting multiple families this year for the holiday. I'm thinking of running a special in the etsy shop this weekend for black friday, but I don't really have any great ideas yet, so if you have a suggestion let me know! I did take my things to a friends house this weekend and sold a few pieces, so hopefully I can get some more jewelry made. which reminds me, I need to go order some supplies! Ta ta y'all!