Tatting and Teneriffe Lace, But Not Together

I figured I should post about what I've been tatting lately. I don't want anyone to think that I have given up tatting or something. I know a few of you are eyeing my Mary Konior books. You know who you are. I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

I'll start with the Teneriffe Lace first. I haven't done it in a while and figured I should give it another go. To make things interesting, I decided to use some hand dyed Linen thread (henceforth known as HDLT in this and possible future posts). Probably not the best idea, but linen thread would have been commonly used many years ago. Anyway, as Mica mentioned last year, the book I'm using, The Technique of Teneriffe Lace is now in the public domain with permission of the author Alexandra Stillwell. You can find the book here. Here's the motif:

Yeah, the linen thread wasn't a good idea. It was fine until I got to the final round of knotting. Then, as you can see, the thread snapped regularly. Mind you, I was watching Avatar (good movie, but too long for what it was trying accomplish; just bought the Blu-ray version, so I have to watch it again!!) while I was working on this motif, so I wasn't giving the motif my undivided attention. I'm not sure what to do with all those ends, and I don't like putting glue on the knots like the book suggests. I have some matching cotton HDT so I will probably add some tatting to the edge to give me a place to bury the ends. I'll post an update when I do this. Thread stats: Linen HDT (or HDLT, if you prefer) size 30/2 in the Summer Trail colourway by Yarnplayer.

The next motif is the edging I mentioned in my last post. It is from Mary Konior's A Pattern Book of Tatting.

This is Queen's Garter. It's a really nice pattern. I was thinking it would make a good bookmark, but I would join the chains together to make it a bit more stable. I'll have to try that with a heavier thread. Thread stats: Superior Threads Perfect Quilter thread. It is a 17 weight quilting thread that is equivalent to a size 80 tatting thread. The length of tatting is about 6 1/2 inches long and an inch wide.

The final motif is from the same book as the edging above.


This is No, Nay, Never by Mary Konior. I'll admit it, I made a couple mistakes on this one. I forgot to join a couple picots during the first two repeats, but I was using HDT and wasn't cutting anything out to correct it. I'll make it again sometime. Thread stats: HDT size 30 in Cobalt solid by Yarnplayer. I don't remember which colourway this is from. If anyone remembers, I'd love to know.

That's it for now. I am working on some more tatting. I'll post as soon as I can. You probably noticed a difference in my scans above. That is because I bought a new All-in-One printer recently. There was nothing wrong with my old one, besides the $80+ cost for ink cartridges (one black and one colour). Cartridges for my new printer, a Kodak ESP 5250, cost $25 for both black and colour. My new printer also prints borderless photos, which my old HP didn't do very well. I've read mixed reviews on these printers, but so far I'm having no problems (knock on wood). The only thing I don't like about it is the scanner. The scanning technology (CIS, or contact image sensor) used isn't designed for scanning 3D objects. The sensor can only be a few mm away from the object being scanned. However, I've been wanting a stand alone scanner for awhile, for traveling and such, so I probably be buying one in the near future. Hopefully, anyway. Till next time.