Baby Blossom Dress

Pattern : Blossom, by Melissa Wastney (published by Magknits)
Yarn : Sirdar Pure Cotton 4 Ply in Cream
Needle : 3.5mm

This turned out really cute and it was such a fast & simple knit too. I started it on a Tues evening and probably had it done by Friday. I find that if I just cast on without worrying too much about fit and gauge and wearability, I can actually start and finish a knit pretty quickly. Shows the paralysing effect of overthinking...plus the fact that the recipient's mommy was gonna be induced that very evening of course!

The original pattern had embroidered flowers, but being totally useless with that, I opted to personalise the dress with my latest passion. I had several tatted motifs that were made when emptying the shuttles, and was pretty excited about just sewing those motifs on with 'invisible thread' aka monofilament or beading thread, so that nobody could spot my lousy sewing skills.

Lesson No. 1 - Invisible thread is invisible not only to others, but also to the sewer.
Lesson No. 2 - It's in-VI-sible; not in-VIN-sible - tugging too hard breaks the thread and it takes the patience of a saint to locate the break point and redo.

It took me nearly 2 hours to sew on those motifs. Will take clearer pictures when my eyes stop crossing and my hands stop shaking....

Surfing eBay in the wee hours

Well folks, this is what happens when I can't get to sleep cos the little one is inventing some new form of kick-gymnastics in my tummy. Started randomly surfing eBay and found a store selling the Turkish tatting threads that I love so much. And because I have to blame someone / something, I blame the wonderful seller of Demi's & Julie's Crochet Heaven for being so responsive and nice, and uhhh.... I blame the pregnancy hormones.

Here are the results of my insanity - all 27 balls of them. They are gorgeous & I'm torn between leaving them intact in the ziploc bags and never ever using them, or immediately tatting something of each color... arggh.

Peaches

Blues

Pinks

Purples

Yellows & Black

Greens

More tatting

Remember when I said I had a new addiction? Well....

More floral bookmarks (from left) : Altin Basak Size 50 thread, Yarnplayer "Snocone" Size 20, Flora Size 20, Altin Basak Size 50. I love the smoothness of the Altin Basak thread but it is a little soft if you prefer the sturdy bookmarks. The size 20 threads seem to hold up to bookmark abuse better. I spent about 2 hours at Spotlight picking out the perfect shade of ribbons to match these thread colors... talk about obsession. These are gonna be for gifts for some old school friends of mine.

My first tatted cross. I used relatively fine thread and a basic cross pattern from "The Complete Book of Tatting" by Rebecca Jones .

Some motifs, and a little experimenting with bead tatting. I found these beautiful Japanese seed beads that were green lined with pink (leftmost motif), but somehow the beads are kinda lost in the motif. The centre motif seems to showcase the pearl beads much better.

The tricky thing about motifs - what in the world do I do with them? Tatting books tell us to use them as notecards or greeting cards, though the idea is sweet and beautiful, but since I'm one of those who tend to throw cards in the bin (yes, sorry, shame on me), I can't expect others not to do the same. Maybe keychains...? Ideas are welcome.. in the meantime, I'll just keep tatting 'em!