Pop-a-Bobbin Shuttle, Tatted Filet, and Hope Butterfly

Here we go, another Sunday night. I'm amazed at how fast the year seems to be going by. I was playing around in my home automation software this afternoon (I was looking for its calculated sunrise time), and discovered that spring (the Vernal Equinox) is only 13 days away. I just hope we actually get spring this year. Though, so far I'm not complaining; we reached a high of 5 degrees C today. That's right PLUS 5. Actually, it's been above zero for most of the past week. I had a window open all afternoon, letting in some fresh air. I should probably go close it now.

On the tatting front, I am the proud owner of a Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle made by Sally's husband. Here it is, made out of Cherry wood:


These are really awesome shuttles. I am really glad that someone came up with an Aero-like wooden shuttle. These shuttles even use Aero bobbins, so it's easy to move the shuttle from project to project. Which is nice, since I only have one, right now anyway. I've already informed Jane (Sally's, um, distributor, and sister) that I am interested in getting an ebony one and one made of cocobola rosewood. Of course, Sally keeps showing off new kinds of wood on her blog; she recently mentioned getting some cedar (with a really interesting story behind it), that I may want a shuttle from as well. I really enjoy using this shuttle, which is about the same size as an Aero, only a bit thicker. The only thing I'm not sure about is the hook. Sally and her husband couldn't find any hooks to use without cutting up crochet hooks, so Sally's husband (not sure what his name is; Sally? Jane? Anybody?) made some himself. From my somewhat limited testing (I've only made one motif using the shuttle, another one is in progress) I have come to the conclusions that for normal to large size picots, the hook works quite well. However for small to very small picots, the hook is less than ideal. I'm going to keep using it though; maybe there's a special technique that needs to be used for optimum performance. If I can't get the hang of it, I may have to replace it though (I do that to my regular Aeros as well). And I think any additional shuttles I (may) get will have to be hookless, but with a hole for a hook. However, all in all, I have to say Bravo to the Kerson's for making a super wooden Aero facsimile.

This brings me to the first motif I tatted using my new shuttle.

This is a part of Mary Konior's Filet Panel from Tatting With Visual Patterns. You may not notice, but towards the end I was playing around with the rings inside the block to see if I could make them fit a bit better. I reduced the stitch count a bit for the last few rings. I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #656 Dark Wedgewood to make the motif. It measures about 2 1/4 inches square (well, it's almost square). I think I'm going to free tat an edging onto it and then I'll count it as part of my Challenge.

Finally, as the title mentions, I tatted Sherry's Hope Butterfly:

Personally, I think I did a terrible job at tatting this beautiful butterfly. The pattern isn't hard, but I still had issues. The problem I found is that Sherry has a different notation/diagram style than I'm used to. I discovered this problem when I was test tatting for Sherry. I guess that means I'll have to tat more of Sherry's design so I learn her pattern writing methods. Thread stats: I used Lizbeth size 20 colour #656 Dark Wedgewood and #663 Dark Bright Turquoise. I think I tatted Hope last weekend, but didn't show it. This is motif #21 of my Third Challenge.

That's it for now. I really have to get back to movie watching and tatting. Till next time.