Happy Kat | Finding time to do things that make me happy.

Elephants On Parade

By Kathleen On July 12, 2020 0 finished, handmade, how to, tatting

Finished! I’ll show you how I stiffen, block, and frame the piece.

You’ll need white glue, water, an old bowl, stirring device, pins, blocking surface (more on that later), and a small towel.

Mix up some glue in the water. I used about a tablespoon? There should be much more water than glue. It’s not an exact science, go with your gut.

Here’s my finished elephant! It’s pretty wavy/wrinkly. Make sure your piece will fit on your towel.

Fold gently and give it a bath! Be gentle, this is lace after all. Let is soak for a few minutes and smoosh it a bit with your spoon/device/tiny-whisk-you-got-at-a-wedding.

Remove it from the water (you’re done with that now) and carefully lay it flat on the towel. It helps a lot to kind of tug it into the shape you want.

Carefully fold the towel over the piece, be sure to keep the piece flat so it doesn’t fold over on itself. The roll up the towel and squeeeeeze it! I sit on it or kneel on it. You’re trying to get excess water out of it.

This next part takes a while and patience so get comfy!

Lay your piece where you want it. Grab your pins tin and have a seat. Place your piece where you want it and start sliding pins under the lace. I went in at an angle, usually in a picot. Use a flat, rigid whatever to push them in all the way. I used a multi-tool. It will save your fingers from getting sore/hurt.

a screwdriver or butter knife would work great too

Once it’s in place (use all! the! pins! there is no shortage of pins!) assemble your shadow box and display it proudly!

OK, yes, I said I’d add a howdah/saddle but I had too much trouble with it! I forgot to attach picots in a couple places and then the dang thread broke. Nope! No howdah!

The little elephant is from my uncle. He got it in Tibet. It’s hard to see from here but it is carve in one piece, with a tiny elephant inside the mesh.

Whelp. Cross one off the WIP list! More to come! I have a plan to get more finished up this year…

Pam Palmer’s Festival Elephant

By Kathleen On June 5, 2020 0 handmade, tatting, WIP

When I started tatting, I found pictures of this elephant online. I couldn’t (still can’t) get over it! I looked and looked over the last couple years and finally got a copy of it. I decided to treat myself this week, and bought the rest of the thread I need to make it. My LYS now carries tatting stuff! Be still, my heart! I even bought extra bobbins for my Aerlit shuttle. I’ll put the colors on those first, so it’s easier to switch back and forth.

(Edit: found this post in the depths of my Drafts. This was over a year ago, maybe 2)

I’m making so much progress on the elephant! Here are some old pics of it.

TBH this part was the hardest. Once I got done with this it went faster.

I didn’t get many pictures of the head in progress but these are from last night:

The gold part of the headpiece was so fussy.

I had to switch shuttles because the Aerlit wouldn’t hold a bobbin anymore. I can gently “squish” a metal shuttle to make it tighter but not the plastic one. The Moonlit is my favorite shuttle anyway! Winding the colors on bobbins ahead of time worked out very well. I’ll do that again with my Boye shuttle sometime.

I hope to finish the trunk today, then the front and legs! All that’s left after that is the howdah (saddle)!

I’m going to get a shadow box to hold it when I finish. I’ll block it in the shadow box. I may need some shorter pins if I can find them.

More soon!

Well. Here we are.

By Kathleen On April 10, 2020 0 kids, life at home, WIP

Yeah.

Shelter in place and kids won’t be going back to school this year. So we’ve all become homeschoolers! Luckily the school system is helping a lot. Love to all the teachers that keep sending me ideas and stuff.

Let’s talk about crafts shall we? Now that I know I have more time to stitch, I’m working on a sock yarn blanket made with scraps and extras from my friends! It’s easy but not boring and the different colors will look great!

Here’s what I have from the last week and a half.

The container of more sock yarn, guarded by the ever-present Pusheen.

I love it! It’s going quickly. I think I’ll have more yarn than required, but I’ll just add it to the border.

Spoilers. That first triangle? Came out too long? Not equal sides. Oh well. I’m winging it now to see if I can get it to work out. 😉

I’ve been coloring a lot. Mostly coloring. I bought Color Quest Cityscapes (color by number) literally a couple hours before the stay-in-place orders. I’m so glad I did! Some of these look better from afar, they’re like pixels. I’m using some nice brush pens/markers.

Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janero, Brazil

I dug out some cross stitch and even the tatted elephant! I’ll post more on those soon.

I’m baaaaack

By Kathleen On February 16, 2020 0 cross stitch, handmade, life at home, WIP

Oof. Life can hit hard, huh? But I’m back now.

I frogged a lot of projects I didn’t feel super excited about, cleaned up my stashes, and started stuff I really like. I have so many things I can do but I won’t live long enough to get them all done you know? Cross stitch is the hardest to cut down. I’m trying so hard to work on one thing at a time. I’m 49.998% done with the puppy but I’m losing my grip on it. I decided to start a bigger pattern I’ve been excited about out! I can go back and forth. The puppy is more challenging so it’s nice to have a break.

I started “Fabulous Women in History” by CloudsFactory. I changed a few (more like a third) of the people to ones that inspire me more.

First up is Eleanor Roosevelt! I don’t have much to show yet.

I wound all of my leftover sock yarn into a bunch of balls. I want to make something awesome with all of it! I chose Atlanticus because it’s pretty and I can add as much as I want to the border!