Another Snowflake, Stone Discs, and a Naked Turtle

It's been a while since I last posted. I have been alternating between snowflakes for the Snowflake Round Robin (have a look at the gorgeous snowflakes that have arrived at their destinations, but remember to come back!), and working on Christmas gifts for various family members. These gifts are crocheted, but I will have pictures once they are done. Here is my next snowflake that I sent this past Friday:

This is "The Eighteenth Day of Christmas" by Lene Bjørn from her book "24 Snowflakes in Tatting". Again, for this snowflake I used DMC Cordonnet size 50 thread and Guttermann Metallic thread. I wanted to use this thread combination for all of the snowflakes I am making for the Round Robin, but I will probably run out of the size 50 thread before I am done, so I will have to use other threads as well. This snowflake is motif # 11 of my Second 25 Motif Challenge.

Like many people (I think, anyways), I am facinated by the tatted turtles that Teri Dusenbury makes. If you go to her blog (remember, come back when you are done!), and scroll down, you will see some of her turtles. She has the pattern available for a fairly simple version of her turtles. If you want it, go to her blog, and on the right side under Tatbits Tatting Patterns, select the Tatting: Turtles link. Once there, select the bottom pattern (Tatting Turtles Agile.......). I don't know if I should link directly there, so I won't. Anyway, for the turtle you need these small stone discs for the turtles shells. These discs look like this:

I know, discs are round and these are oval, but bear with me. The green discs are Jade and the others are Tiger's Eye. The small discs are the size that Teri calls for in the pattern, but I wanted to get a couple larger discs so I can try to scale up the pattern. I said try. I also ordered some of the thread that Teri calls for as well (I guess you could call four spools some).

While I am waiting for the thread to come, I decided to give the pattern a run through to see if I could even make the turtles. Here is where the naked turtle comes in! Presenting the naked turtle:

See? It has no shell; so it's naked! I guesstimated the thread size to be about a size 50, and I think that it is very close. Probably somewhere between a 40 and 50, but I may be able to add the shell. If you are unfamiliar with the pattern, the shell (ie: the stone discs or cabochons) are beaded onto the tatted turtle which encloses the disc in the process. I am planning on trying this real soon, though I don't know how well this will work. Teri waxes the thread heavily while working with it for both the tatting and bead work, and I don't have any "wax" (the product she uses isn't actually wax) to use so I will skip that step.

That is pretty much it for now. I'll try to post again soon. Until next time.