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.