Quick Post: Sine Wave Bookmark Pattern Corrections

As I said in the title, this will be a quick post. I hope to do a longer post in a day or two, depending on when I finish the tatting I am working on.

I shared the Sine Wave Bookmark on InTatters as well as on my blog here and for some reason, it took a while for the post to show up in InTatters. When it did, a couple of errors in the written pattern were brought to my attention. The diagram is correct though. I have corrected the pattern, and changed the usage terms while I was at it. I do apologize if the errors confused anyone. I have replaced the file I have on Keep & Share, so I highly recommend everyone downloading a new copy of the pattern.

Till next time.

Sine Wave Star Pattern

Since it's Tuesday and was tatting, I thought about calling this post Tatting Beer Tuesday since I don't really like tea and happened to be drinking a beer while tatting, but a) it doesn't have the same ring as Tatting Tea Tuesday and b) might be a bit disrespectful to the people who participate in TTT (??) so I won't. I haven't done much this past week, so I will get to the point of this post.

I have finally finished the pattern for the star in my previous post. I am glad so many people liked it. You can find the pattern here. I also have the link posted on the top of the right sidebar. I've changed my usage policies starting with this star (it also applies to the bookmark, but I can't change the files everyone has downloaded). You can tat as many stars (or bookmarks) as you want for gifts or to sell. If you choose to sell the tatted items, please credit me as the designer. You may not, however, sell or reproduce the pattern I am providing to you. Email me if you want to use the pattern for teaching or classroom purposes. Hopefully this is fair for everyone. If you have any problems with the PDF files, or with the pattern itself, feel free to contact me at jwh4000ATgmailDOTcom. Remove the AT and the DOT and replace with the appropriate symbols. And as always, I'd love to see any completed stars, so feel free to blog about them.

That's it for now. I am working on another design that came about due to the bookmark. But, it's morphed quite a bit from my original diagram. In a good way. I may put this one aside and tat something else. I am getting a bit tired with the sine wave pattern. But don't worry, I won't abandon the ideas I still have. I think they will be pretty cool once done. Till next time.

I'm Seeing Stars (But in a Good Way)

I spent another week not tatting as much as I wanted. While two of the custom requests through Etsy still haven't gone anywhere, I did get another one that I spent working on most of the week. I also finished the other custom request that I was waiting for colour choices. So the week wasn't a total loss. And I made a little cash that will go towards some tatting supplies. I have been wanting to order some of the new Lizbeth colours as well as some size 10 Lizbeth (still unsure of the colour-probably black, will have to spend a few minutes deciding). A book or two may be in my future as well. I have been wanting a few of Martha Ess' block tatting books; especially the new on that just came out.

I did manage a little bit of tatting this week. I was working on one of three little motifs that kinda happened while designing my Sine Wave Bookmark (if you haven't downloaded it yet, there is a link to the pattern in the top right sidebar). May I present the Star motif:


So, what do you think? Both stars were tatted with size 20 thread, Lizbeth in colour #113 Jewels on the left and Flora in colour #743 Yellow on the right. Each measures about 1 3/4 inches (about 4 cm, give or take a few mm) wide. I need to retat the star so I can write out the pattern. I will hopefully have the pattern available to download by my next post. I hope to have one of the other two motifs at least tatted, if not written up. I have both motifs diagrammed. I just need to tat them and figure out the stitch count. And to see if they actually can be tatted the way I envision.

That's all for now. I am hoping to make this a tatting week. I would also like to try another motif or two from Marilee's new book. Till next time.

A Tatted Pendant and Some Chainmaille Too

This will be a short post. I haven't done much tatting over the last week. I've been making chainmaille related stuff lately. My Showcase spot on Etsy last week brought in a few sales, which was nice (one of which was a Sterling Silver bracelet). I also had a couple custom requests through Etsy as well that I'm waiting on. I think only one could be considered guaranteed, since I'm just waiting on a colour choice. The second one was probably scared off by the price (I think, and I was being generous too; it's happened before). I've been waiting on a third custom request for over two weeks now; I don't know if it will happen either. I was actually looking forward to this one; the item requested was intriguing (at least to me). C'est la vie!

Anyway, here is the only tatting that I managed to get finished this past week:

This is the Five Petal Pendant from Marilee's new book Up and Tat 'em. I have to say, I love this book! It's full of cool and mostly smallish items suitable for gifts. I have to admit, I did learn something while working on this motif. What did I learn? Bead sizes don't change as much as I thought when changing thread sizes. The pattern called for size 20 thread and 4 mm beads. I used size 10 thread and figured 6 mm beads would be suitable. 5 mm beads might have worked. However, I made the 6 mm beads work; I added an extra stitch here and there as needed. I bet you're wondering about the thread. This is Lizbeth size 10 colour #129 Purple Splendor that I got from Typstatting in the Thread Exchange. I have to say, I didn't know what to expect with this thread. I know a number of people didn't like the size 10 Lizbeth. But I, um, LOVE it! No, really, I do. It tats beautifully and it is strong (a big plus for me, I regularly snap threads when closing rings, and ending off). I'm, of course, now not sure what thread I want to use for my tie. I think it will come down to what colour I will use. I am thinking black may be the way to go, but I'll have to have a better look in my closet some time (soon).

Finally, I will show you a chainmaille pendant I finished yesterday.


I took three of my stainless steel Celtic Star pendants, and joined them together. I have them on a cotton cord, but I think I will look into a matching metal chain to make it more complete. And adjustable. I can make adjustable necklaces using a single strand of cord, but I'm not sure about double strands. I'll have to look into this. Hopefully I'll get this in my Etsy shop in the next day or two.

That's about it for now. If some of these custom request go through, I'll be busy with chainmaille for most of the week. If not, I'll try to get some more tatting done. Including those little motifs I mentioned last week, but haven't worked on since. Till next time.

Temari Balls and Saskatchewan Day

First of all, Happy Saskatchewan Day!!!!! Or Civic Holiday. Or, well, whatever you want to call it. Yup, we have another stat holiday here; we can't agree what to call it, however. It's called something different in nearly every province or territory. Or at least in those that observe it. I ended up cleaning most of the day. I know, the horror! But it had to be done, plus I wanted to rearrange some furniture. I get that from my mom; she used to rearrange the furniture on a regular basis. It would drive my dad nuts! Not sure if I like the result, but I can always change it again in a week or two. Besides that I haven't done much. I spent the weekend relaxing (which was needed). I did some digital tatting yesterday. I worked on diagramming another pattern of mine, and created another two. Still have to tat the two new ones to see if they work. More about them another time.

I don't want to mention my etsy shop more that I need to, but I decided to try the Showcase feature again (I was in the Jewelry section). Seemed to work. Mind you, offering free shipping (two days only, ending tomorrow midnight CST, buy now before it's gone!!!!) probably didn't hurt. This gives me a chance to get accurate shipping rates to other countries, so shipping rates overseas could change. That is all. We will now return to our regularly scheduled blog post.

Since I don't have any tatting to show you tonight, I will show you the new art form I'm learning. A few of you correctly identified it, and a few of you weren't as correct(fortunately, I can't stand clowns; I don't know why). Anyway, what I am working on are Temari Balls, or Japanese Thread Balls. Which are pretty much exactly that. A ball of some sort, traditionally from scraps of silk fabric leftover from making kimonos, though other materials can be used including Styrofoam balls which I'm using. The ball is then wrapping in fine yarn, and finally sewing thread. The thread forms a cloth like surface to do the decorative embroidery on. I won't go in much more detail. Here are a few photos of my first Temari balls:















This Temari is called Fireworks, for obvious reasons. I hope. They kinda look like fireworks. Technically, I don't know how traditional this one is, but it looks kinda cool. You need to see it in real life to appreciate it. The next one looks better, well I think so, anyway:















This one is called "Autumn Moon". This one is more traditional since it is divided up and the embroidery is stitched symmetrically. I think I did a pretty good job with this one. The only thing I'm not happy with is that the metallic gold thread that I used to divide the ball, and used for some decorative embroidery blends in pretty well with the gold sewing thread. Oh well.

That's all for now. Hopefully the next post will be tatting related. I got Marilee's new book in the mail (last week, I think). Finally, the secret to the tatted atom is mine!!!! Sorry, I don't know where that came from. Till next time.