Happy Halloween!!!!!!

As the title says, I hope everyone is having a Happy Halloween. I had to work today, but my workplace allows us to dress up. There wasn't very many of us who dressed up, but it was fun anyway. At least I didn't have to wear my uniform! Anyway, I do have a small amount of tatting to share.

I decided to tat my own Ripley the Ghost, though not in white:

The thread I used is Lizbeth size 20 in colour #149 Peacock Blues. Who said ghosts have to be white? I had a heck of a time following the pattern. I wonder if there are errors in it that were missed? I know one ring, R8 should be a SR. And the SR9 should be R9. R13 should also be SR13.

Finally, here is a picture of me, wearing my costume:

Happy Halloween!!!

First Snowflake of the Season

Well, howdy. It's been a while, hasn't it. I haven't done much tatting since my last post. I have been pretty busy with chainmaille lately. A number of orders have trickled in over the past few weeks which have been keeping me busy. I also worked on a birthday gift for my mom; which was mostly chainmaille. I'll show you later; the photos aren't edited yet. I'm also working on my Hallowe'en costume this year; that'll come later as well if it works out. I have done a little tatting, which I will get to soon.

Before I get to the tatting, I want to mention a quick Etsy related thing. Recently, Etsy has allowed shop owners to change the name of their shops if they wished. When I joined Etsy, I didn't plan on selling, so I used a username I use regularly. I have changed my shop name to something a bit better. For anyone who hasn't noticed, my shop is now called Bridge City Maille. I am offering free shipping for a few more days for anyone interested.

As I said, I managed to get a little bit of tatting done. The motif I made is one of Jon Yusoff's newest  snowflake patterns from her book Elegant Tatting Gems: A Collection of Snowflake Designs.

This is Baiduri, tatted in Lizbeth size 40 thread colour #163 Blue Ice. The colour isn't really this dark. I should have used a dark background, instead of white. I had to darken the colours in order for it to stand out. This is one of Lizbeth's newest colours. I really like it. Actually, I like several of the new colours, and couldn't resist ordering some no matter how hard I tried. Thanks Isdihara. See what happens when you post pretty pictures of new thread on your blog. Where do I sign up to be an Unrepentant Thread Junkie?

I'll be honest, I don't know why I bought the Pink Cocoa (bottom right). I don't like pink, but I like the combination. Must be the cocoa part. You know, the chocolate connection. Going back to the snowflake, I didn't have problems tatting it. Well, except for the centre rings. I guess I looked at the wrong ring on the diagram. Surprisingly it still worked with some minor blocking. I also had no problems with the thread breaking. I believe it was also Isdihara who mentioned that having slightly damp hands (like right after washing them) while tatting could weaken the thread enough to make it break when closing rings. I made sure my hands were nice and dry before tatting. I also tested this theory with the leftover thread once the snowflake was done and did find the thread snapped quite reliably when my hands were damp. It's something to think about for anyone who's having trouble with thread snapping regularly. Not just Lizbeth.

Finally before I go I wanted to pass on some information I got from a recent comment. Apparently, the tatted filet John and I had tatted is a pattern by Christel Wutzmer and Agnes Focke from Doppelknoten Nr. 7. I can't confirm it until I get a copy, but I thought I'd mention it. I am seriously thinking about getting a copy if possible. Anyway, I hope to do some tatting yet this evening, and perhaps over the weekend. I am planning to do a quick post Monday, but we'll see. Till next time.

Tatted Filet And an Alligator

I bet you'll never guess what I have been up to lately? Go ahead, guess. Give up? I've been tatting! I know, right. I got into tatting a pattern from one of my new tatted bookmark books. I'll get to it and the other tatting soon. I'm not sure when I'll get back to tatting. I am currently working on a custom chainmaille piece right now. I will probably run out of rings (this was mentioned to the customer) and they won't be in until Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm also planning on redoing my packaging options. Since Christmas is going to be here before we know it, I'd like to offer gift boxes for all items. I discovered several Canadian companies offering packaging options, so I may order from one of them. I'll share more on this later if I go through with it. I am also offering free standard shipping for the next week or two for anyone interested.

As I said I managed to do some tatting since my last post. The first being a bookmark from Animal Bookmarks: A Tatted Zoo by Diane Stevens. Lots of pretty patterns in this book. However, there was one that I really wanted to try. That one is, of course, the alligator. Here she is:

Yes, she. This is Gertrude the 'Gator. See her eyelashes. That's where the pattern starts and ends. I didn't really want to deal with the ends, so I just trimmed them. I do plan on making another one soon. For anyone wondering, I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour # 152 Christmas Green Mix and #684 Medium Leaf Green. I discovered while tatting this that I really need more green thread, in different shades.

The second major tatting project for me was one you may have seen recently. John shared a vintage tatted edging with a really cool tatted filet pattern. I was fascinated with it as well. A commenter, Erin, provided a pattern for the filet section after reviewing the photos. I had to try it. Here is the result:

I decided to turn my piece into a bookmark. It is 6 inches long and about 2 1/4 inches wide. I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #663 Bright Turquoise Dark. I really enjoyed tatting this pattern. It was completely relaxing and once the pattern was established after a couple of rows, you really don't need to refer to the pattern again. The starting point needs some work though. I'm curious to know where the original pattern is from. It's NOT the Mary Konior Filet pattern, unless there is more than one and I missed it. That pattern looks like this:

If anyone knows the original source of the top filet pattern, please let me know. It really looks familiar. Whatever the source, I would like to tat another bookmark, maybe slightly narrower, in a different colour.

That's it for now. As you may have heard, it's Thanksgiving this weekend here in Canada. We'll see what happens over next week. I do want to do more tatting, but the chainmaille project comes first. Till next time.