Atomic Tatting and more Chainmaille

Look! I'm posting again, and it hasn't been a week since my last post. I actually planned on posting on Sunday, but it was late when I finished tatting, and didn't deal with the ends in time to get a decent photo. I've also been working on my tie, and am just about ready to start the next page of diagrams. I also realized I am getting close to running out of thread. I am close to running out of thread on one of the shuttles, so I divided up the remaining thread on the ball between two Ez-bobs (for any Canadians wanting Ez-bobs, BeadFX carries them though they call them "No Tangle Bobbins") and counted 28 yards left. I may need to order another ball, though I'll have to try and remember who I bought the thread from. There is a Lot # on the back of the circular card from the ball and I should see if I can get it matched. I knew I should have bought two balls. C'est la vie. On to the tatting!

Hopefully from the title you can tell what I've been tatting. If you can't, then a picture should help:

This is the Tatted Atom from Yarnplayer's book Up and Tat 'Em. This pattern is the reason I wanted the book. There are plenty of other pretty patterns in the book, but this was the one I knew about. It also has some guy friendly potential, if the beads used were plain, which is plus for me. This one was made with my mom in mind so I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #633 Dark Purple with a clear faceted Swarovski crystal bead in the centre (the nucleus) and simple silver toned beads for the electrons. The actual tatting was pretty easy. What made it a bit difficult was that at the midpoint of the pattern, six shuttles were in use, and they all tangle. You also have to weave the chains (the "orbits") over and under each other in a certain way, which I hope I did right. All in all, it was a pretty quick motif to tat, and it kept my attention (another plus). I do plan on tatting it again.

Now I have a few chainmaille pieces I want to show you. I showed you the sample of dragonscale in my last post, and Gina mentioned how the sample would look as a pendant. I've been thinking about that all weekend, and yesterday I sat down and made another sample. A sample with a purpose; I give you my Dragonscale pendant:

As you can see, I've added some smaller rings to the sides to help the weave hold together. I found during my testing-I wore the pendant for a while instead of my regular chain-that the large rings at the top and bottom tended to separate enough for the smaller rings come out of alignment. But the rings I added to the sides seem to help, at least my further testing shows they stay in place. In case you are wondering, the pendant is made out of bright aluminum and bronze. Hopefully I'll get it in my shop soon, but no promises.

I think that's going to be it for tonight. I do have another chainmaille piece to show, but it's getting late, and I'm tired. Even if I don't get any tatting done for the rest of the week, I can still write another post. Till next time.

A Little Bit of Tatting

Sorry for the delay in posting. Life kinda got in the way. I wasn't feeling good for a few days, and then I had an "issue" at work yesterday that has me questioning if I want to continue working at that store. I had planned on posting yesterday but instead opted to write a letter to the store manager and my supervisors. But it not worth talking about here. Onward to the tatting!

I didn't get as much tatting as I had hoped, though the motif was quite large. Anyway here it is:

This is Fan Coaster from Rosemarie Peel's book Tatting With Colour. I bought this book off of eBay a couple of years ago, but haven't tatted anything from it till now. There are a number of cool looking motifs in the book that I will have to get around to tat. For this motif, I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #s 656 Dark Wedgewood and 611 Gold. The finished mat is about 4 3/4 inches in diameter. I really like this pattern and I think I did a pretty good job tatting it. Until the end. It was going good. I had to open three rings due to me joining to the wrong picot, and I did so successfully. I have opened rings in the past, but not three successfully in a row. However, when I got to the last ring, I missed making one picot and three double stitches. I probably should have opened it and fixed my error, but I wanted it done and decided to leave it. It's not that noticable, the ring in particular is just a little smaller than the others. This motif is #25 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge. I don't think I'm going to do the challenge again. At least not right now. I really want to work on some of my WIPs (or rather (WISPs). And I want to work on my tatted tie idea. Thanks to some inspiration from Sharon, I have an idea on how it may work. I'll share later. I need to try it out first. The idea is currently just theory.

I'm not sure how much tatting I'll get done this weekend. I probably will work on some chainmaille. I decided to try Etsy's Showcase feature to promote my shop. I'll be in the Jewelry - Bracelets section beginning midnight June 11. I don't know if it will help, but Etsy claims that all shops that use the feature get more traffic and have more people favoriteing them. That could mean more sales in the long term. I guess we'll see. Till next time.

Easter Tatting, New Maille Earrings

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I didn't get as much tatting done as I would have liked. I ended up working on some chainmaille projects for a majority of the weekend. I did, however, manage to make something with tatting on it for Easter.

What I managed to tat is this, a tatted Easter egg:

Or rather, a satin covered Styrofoam egg (purchased from Handy Hands several years ago), with a couple of tatted snowflakes pinned to it. Here is a top view:

This is Snowflake 2 from Festive Snowflakes & Ornaments. And now a bottom view:

This is Snowflake 1, also from Festive Snowflakes & Ornaments. Both snowflakes were tatted using Lizbeth size 20 thread, in colour #129 Purple Splendor. I was hoping to get a second egg done, but I haven't finished it yet. I am going to count this as Motif #23 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

Most of my weekend was spent working on some chainmaille projects. I remade my wallet chain using stainless steel. I also remade a few bracelets that had sold. Though, the highlight of my weekend of mailleing are these:

The earrings on the left and bottom right were made using a new anodized (coloured) aluminum colour called "Black Ice". Black Ice is a dark grey colour with a purple tinge to it. It has a very shiny luster. One pair of earrings has a Sterling Silver ring at the base of each earring, and Sterling Silver earwires. The other pair has a Gold Filled ring at the base of each earring with gold plated earwires. The earrings on top right are made of Sterling silver with a Gold filled ring on the base. They also have Sterling silver earwires. All three pairs of earrings are in my Shop, along with the Jens Pind bright aluminum bracelet.

That's all for now. I will be going away for a few days, starting on Wednesday afternoon. There may be a regular post Sunday or Monday, but that will depend on how much tatting I manage to complete while away. Till next time.

A Wee Bit of Tatting, Digital Tatting, and More Maille

I'll begin this post by saying that I didn't get the crocheted sock done. I know, I thought I'd be done by now, but something else came up. But we'll get to that later. Hopefully I'll get to the other sock soon.

I may have missed St. Patrick's Day by a few days (OK, four days), but I did manage to tat a shamrock:

The is the shamrock that Betsy Evans shared on Here-Be-Tatters. I think it is really pretty, and very generous of Betsy for sharing the pattern. Of course, I think any and every tatter who shares their patterns with the rest of us are very generous. Someday I hope to be one of them. Thread stats: Flora size 20 in colour #230. This will be motif #22 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge. As you can see, I made the stem by encapsulating the thread ends, however, I'm not sure how to finish it. Can the ends be hidden somehow? Any suggestions?

Speaking of sharing patterns, I have been working on diagramming some of my own designs. Back in December, I bought a newer copy of the DrawPlus software that we were using for the Design-Tat course that Sharon was running. I hadn't really done much with it until now. The first design I am currently working on is my Male Betta. If you are new to my blog, you can see the Betta here. While I like (well, really, really like) the way it looks with the block tatted fins, I had an idea that I could simplify the pattern a bit. I figure that I could replace the block tatting with small rings and chains and make the pattern easier to tat for advanced beginners, and still look good. This will take time to accomplish. I have a few of the new style fins diagramed, but I will need to tat it and work out the stitch count. Hopefully I will make progress on this.

Finally, I have been working on some more chainmaille. This is the reason I haven't been working on my socks. I finally figured out a weave that I have been wanting to try this one for a while, but I couldn't get the hang of it till recently.

May I introduce Jens Pind Linkage or Jens Pind. The Jens is pronounced as Yens, in case your wondering. It is a type of spiral chain, and if you look you can kinda see the spiral. I'm not sure why I had so much difficulty with this weave. It's not that difficult once learned, but it needs a very specific range of ring sizes in order to keep its shape. Outside that range, and the spiral falls apart, so to speak. As you can see, I created two bracelets once I learned the weave. The silver one on the left is Bright Aluminum, and the one on the right is Nickel Silver. The aluminum bracelet will be going into my shop in the near future. I haven't used Nickel Silver much, but I decided to try it here. Nickel Silver is another copper alloy, and as it's name suggests, it contains a fairly large percentage (about 20%, give or take) of nickel. It doesn't contain any silver however. I'm not sure if it has the same problems as the other copper alloys I've tried, so I'm going to test on my self (I'm my own guinea pig!) for a few days to see. After the bracelets, I wanted to try something bigger with the new weave. This is the result:

It's a wallet chain for myself. I used Bright Aluminum here since its the only metal I have (besides the Nickel Silver) that works for Jens Pind Linkage. Once I got going, I was able to complete the chain in a single evening, and wore it to work the next day. I really like the way it looks, however, I would prefer it in stainless steel since that is what I have used for all the stuff I make for myself. I hope to get some rings in the right size in stainless steel, but it will probably be a couple of weeks before I will order. I have been thinking of buying some Sterling Silver rings and offering a few of my bracelets and earrings in this material. But we'll see. I also have an idea for a pendant with yet another weave and a Swarovski crystal button. Though I haven't gone past the initial idea with that one. I'm also considering making a necklace out of Jens Pind as well. So many ideas, so little time, and only one pair of hands.

That about wraps up another week. Hopefully I can get a few of the ideas and projects done and can get back to tatting full time. I am really looking forward to see the new and improved Male Betta. Till next time.

Pop-a-Bobbin Shuttle, Tatted Filet, and Hope Butterfly

Here we go, another Sunday night. I'm amazed at how fast the year seems to be going by. I was playing around in my home automation software this afternoon (I was looking for its calculated sunrise time), and discovered that spring (the Vernal Equinox) is only 13 days away. I just hope we actually get spring this year. Though, so far I'm not complaining; we reached a high of 5 degrees C today. That's right PLUS 5. Actually, it's been above zero for most of the past week. I had a window open all afternoon, letting in some fresh air. I should probably go close it now.

On the tatting front, I am the proud owner of a Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle made by Sally's husband. Here it is, made out of Cherry wood:


These are really awesome shuttles. I am really glad that someone came up with an Aero-like wooden shuttle. These shuttles even use Aero bobbins, so it's easy to move the shuttle from project to project. Which is nice, since I only have one, right now anyway. I've already informed Jane (Sally's, um, distributor, and sister) that I am interested in getting an ebony one and one made of cocobola rosewood. Of course, Sally keeps showing off new kinds of wood on her blog; she recently mentioned getting some cedar (with a really interesting story behind it), that I may want a shuttle from as well. I really enjoy using this shuttle, which is about the same size as an Aero, only a bit thicker. The only thing I'm not sure about is the hook. Sally and her husband couldn't find any hooks to use without cutting up crochet hooks, so Sally's husband (not sure what his name is; Sally? Jane? Anybody?) made some himself. From my somewhat limited testing (I've only made one motif using the shuttle, another one is in progress) I have come to the conclusions that for normal to large size picots, the hook works quite well. However for small to very small picots, the hook is less than ideal. I'm going to keep using it though; maybe there's a special technique that needs to be used for optimum performance. If I can't get the hang of it, I may have to replace it though (I do that to my regular Aeros as well). And I think any additional shuttles I (may) get will have to be hookless, but with a hole for a hook. However, all in all, I have to say Bravo to the Kerson's for making a super wooden Aero facsimile.

This brings me to the first motif I tatted using my new shuttle.

This is a part of Mary Konior's Filet Panel from Tatting With Visual Patterns. You may not notice, but towards the end I was playing around with the rings inside the block to see if I could make them fit a bit better. I reduced the stitch count a bit for the last few rings. I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #656 Dark Wedgewood to make the motif. It measures about 2 1/4 inches square (well, it's almost square). I think I'm going to free tat an edging onto it and then I'll count it as part of my Challenge.

Finally, as the title mentions, I tatted Sherry's Hope Butterfly:

Personally, I think I did a terrible job at tatting this beautiful butterfly. The pattern isn't hard, but I still had issues. The problem I found is that Sherry has a different notation/diagram style than I'm used to. I discovered this problem when I was test tatting for Sherry. I guess that means I'll have to tat more of Sherry's design so I learn her pattern writing methods. Thread stats: I used Lizbeth size 20 colour #656 Dark Wedgewood and #663 Dark Bright Turquoise. I think I tatted Hope last weekend, but didn't show it. This is motif #21 of my Third Challenge.

That's it for now. I really have to get back to movie watching and tatting. Till next time.

Test Tatting for Sherry, Mary Konior's Rose Garden, and a Wee Bit More Maille

About a month and a half ago, I answered Sherry's (AKA LadyShuttleMaker's) call for test tatters for her new butterfly book. I enjoy testing other tatters new patterns, and was pleased when Sherry accepted my offer. I got to test two patterns, though the second one came a few weeks after I finished the first one.

This is Amberlynn. She was tatted with Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #129 Purple Splendor (I think!). This is a really cool butterfly, and easy to tat.

This little guy (yup, I'm calling this one a guy) is called Swirls (see, it could be a guy butterfly...) was also tatted in Lizbeth thread. For this one, I used Lizbeth size 20, in colour #125 Seascape. I love this colorway as well; you will see it again. I really like these side profile butterflies, but my fingers were not as appreciative; all those joins in the top section of the wing were a pain in the but, er, fingers. As a side note, the slope and roll join was used in the top section of the wing. This was the first time I used the join, but I couldn't talk about it. Both butterflies, and many more, can be found in Sherry's new book "The Exquisite Collection of Tatted Butterflies II", available now in her Etsy shop. I'm thinking of buying it, and I'm not a huge butterfly person.

I took a small break from working on my Windmills doily to try a motif from my new Mary Konior book.

This motif is Rose Garden, by Mary Konior, from her book "Tatting in Lace". This is a very pretty motif. I think it would look even better in more than one colour, perhaps with the outer "leaf" round in a variegated green colourway. The scan doesn't do the motif justice. The centre rose is 3-dimensional. Some of you (I hope) will notice that the motif's outer round shares a striking resemblance to Mary's Masquerade motif. Thread Stats: DMC Cordonnet size 20 thread in white. The above three motifs will be motifs 18,19, and 20 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

Finally, I have a few samples of Vertebrae to show you. I mentioned last time that I thought that the weave would look good with another metal as the medium sized rings. Here is the result:

The sample on the left has brass as the medium rings and the right one has bronze as the medium rings. I like the way they both came out, though the brass rings are a little too big. How did that happen, you might ask? Well, apparently, someone (not mentioning names here, but he knows who he is) made a mistake, and ordered the rings in the wrong wire gauge. This mistake means that the rings are about 0.4 mm too big. That doesn't sound like much, but it is. Fortunately they do work, just barely. To be honest, the bronze rings aren't the right size either, but I figured they would be close enough. I'm currently testing a bracelet using these samples. I joined them together, and added more rings to make a bracelet with 6 bronze, 6 brass, 6 bronze and 6 brass vertebra. I will be testing this bracelet to see if my wrist will turn green. If all goes well, a bracelet using one or both of these metals (with stainless steel) will go into my shop, along with the other two. I have the new, larger clasps now, however, I need to wait for a sunny day (that I'm home for) in order to get some decent photos for my shop.

That's all for now. Hopefully, I'll have my Windmills doily completed for my next post (I only have a couple motifs to complete. Till next time.

All Systems Go! Plus a Little Tatting

Well, the new motherboard, processor, and memory arrived safely yesterday. After letting them warm up for a while (man, I really hate winter!), I tested, then installed them into my case. After a bit of tweaking, and a few setting changes, my system is up and running. As I expected, the upgrade caused Windows to lose Activation. Since the motherboard contains a large portion of a computers devices, Windows thought it was in a new computer. A quick call fixed the problem. As for an increase in performance, it does seem a little faster (which is expected), however I don't know if having a multi-core processor will make a difference. Though time will tell; I will have to check into some of my installed programs to see if they can take advantage of the dual cores.

Now, I feel kinda bad about not posting anything tatting related last week. I know it was beyond my control, but still. Since I am a fan of Doctor Who, I had to give Anne's TARDIS bookmark a go.

I found it very enjoyable to tat; probably since it is almost entirely rings and split rings. As you may know, I'm working on a doily using a Mary Konior motif that is almost entirely chains. I really like this pattern, though I have a small issue with it. It's size. Done is size 20 thread, my bookmark came out to be a little under 3 inches long and 1 1/4 inches wide. It would be easy to lengthen it by repeating a couple of the rows, but that will ruin the proportions. A tassel or fringe could work, but it may not look right. I had also thought of joining two at the base, kinda like a mirror image. But again it might not look right. Anyway, it's a lovely pattern, and I plan on tatting it again. Thread stats: Lizbeth size 20 in colour #656 Dark Wedgewood. This will be motif #17 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

That's all for now. I plan on posting again towards the end of the week, but I figured I'd give y'all a quick update. Till next time.

Windmills Doily, Completed TIAS, And Another Orchid Photo

I know, I know. I said I could post last week, and I didn't. I would have, but I forgot my camera here in the city, and couldn't take any photos of my completed work. Also, I seem to have caught a cold (AGAIN!) or my first one came back. I'm not quite sure, so I haven't done much tatting this week. I'm kinda bummed out, but then again I didn't get a cold last year.

I'm sure everyone by now is aware of the passing of beloved tatter and designer Mary Konior. I too am a big fan of her and her tatting designs. While I never met her, or had the opportunity to see her tatting in real life (the latter is still possible since HBT's founder Sue Hanson was given the honour of caring for the lace, and brings it to tatting events for all to see), I am proud to own two of her tatting books, Tatting Patterns and Tatting With Visual Patterns. Since hearing of her passing, I have made it a goal of mine to find the other two books. Hopefully I can manage this without spending a large amount of money (what are those people on eBay and Amazon thinking!!!!!!!!). Anyway, Rest In Peace Mary. Hopefully you are tatting with the other tatting legends that left the Earth before you did.

As you all know, I have been tatting Mary's Windmills motif lately. I also mentioned that I wanted to make a small doily using that motif. As a tribute to Mary Konior, here is the completed doily:


As you can see, the reason Mary called the pattern "Windmills" really shows once you have several joined together. A windmill is very evident in the centre of the doily. While I said the doily is complete, that isn't technically the case. As pictured above, the doily is about 6 1/4 inches in diameter. That's too small for my purpose, so I'm going to add another round of motifs. That will be another 12 motifs to make. Of course, once that round is done, I may decide to add another. I show you how it looks once I'm done the next round. I am using DMC Cordonnet size 20 thread to make this doily.

I have also completed Jane TIAS 2010. I'm terrible with the daily progress so we will go straight to the finished motif.

As you can see, our mystery motif turned into a rooster. I was beginning to wonder partway through, but it began to look kinda bird like towards the end. For this motif, I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour numbers 656 (Dark Wedgewood Blue) and 142 (Turquoise Twist), along with DMC Cordonnet size 20 (White). I'm actually quite pleased with my colour choices (especially since I didn't plan ahead and just picked a colour when they were needed). This will be Motif # 16 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

Finally, I have another orchid photo to share with you. This is a relatively new addition to my collection. First, the whole spray:

Next, just a single flower:

This particular orchid is a Cymbidium. More specifically, the plant is called Cymbidium [(Via Ireland 'Delightful' x (Pendragon x Camelia 'Yellow Sunset')] 'Shamrock'. Whew. That's quite a name. I find the green colour of the flowers quite nice. While this is only my second one, I'm getting quite fond of this genre of orchid. I think it's their large size, and their relatively easy care that probably has something to do with it. I may have to get another one.

Before I forget, I would like to thank everyone who has commented over the past few weeks. I haven't had a chance to comment lately. In particular, I would like to thank Miranda for her suggestion on eliminating the little dots of colour on my colorized Windmills motif I posted about earlier. Miranda suggested using a "Slope and Roll" join. See this page: (http://www.ds9designs.com/patterns_free.shtml). Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the link. I tried it out on another pattern and it seems to work well. I'll try it out on another Windmills motif and post my results.

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll post again soon. Till next time.

More Christmas Tatting, New Years, and Other Stuff

I think the title covers everything I'm going to talk about. First of all, Happy New Years! I hope the start of 2010 is being good to everyone. I would have posted earlier, but I haven't been feeling good since New Year's Eve. Right now, I'm in the middle of a full blown cold, which has left me pretty much drained of energy for the past few days. Lately, my daily routine seems to be go to work, come home, sleep. But enough about me, let's move on to the tatting.

I think I mentioned in my last post that I had one motif left to show you from the tatting I did over Christmas. However, I forgot about one, so I actually have two motifs. The first motif is a "snowflake". I put the word snowflake in quotation marks because I don't think Mary Konior intended the motif to be used that way. The motif in question is Mary's Windmills motif:


I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour number 128 (March Breeze). Before anyone says anything about my colour choice, let me explain. I though it would look good. OK, I'm now ready to hear your comments. Honestly, I don't hate the way it turned out, but I'm not sure I'm lovin' it either. It kinda grows on you after a while. Except for the six rings in the middle, the patterns consists of all chains. I will be making this again-in white. This is motif 13 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge. And before I forget, the pattern is from MK's Tatting with Visual Patterns.

The next motif is also from Tatting with Visual Patterns. It is the Masquerade Motif.

This was tatted with Lizbeth size 40 colour number 100 (Falling Leaves). I like the way this motif turned out. This is another of Mary's motifs that would make an awesome bookmark when several are joined together in a strip. Which I plan to do sometime. This will be motif 14 of my 25 Motif Challenge.

Recently (ie: last weekend) I began to tat from my newest tatting book. That book would be Ruth Perry's Celtic Tatted Leaves and Flowers. There are a number of really interesting designs in this book. Some pretty easy, to a few that are substantially harder. All beautiful. I have tatted three different leaf patterns for your (and my) enjoyment.

The first leaf that I tatted is an Arrowhead or heart shaped leaf. This is probably the simplest design in the book. Ruth has a picture in the book showing several leaves and a couple curly tendrils attached to a stem. I think this is a really cool way of using this pattern. One could tat several long (and short) lengths of leaves and stems and display them in a decorative pot.

The next leaf that I tatted is the Elm or Rose leaf. It is slightly more difficult design than the previous one, but not by much. As you can see, Ruth used what she calls the Celtic Twist to make the centre of the leaf. She uses this type of Celtic knot in a number of her designs, most notably the Celtic Snowflake that she shared with us last year, and the Celtic Maple Leaf that many of you probably have seen before. And speaking of the Celtic Maple Leaf:

You knew I had to tat this pattern, didn't you? Like many, I have been waiting for the pattern to be available. Despite its looks, it isn't terribly hard. There is one small section that uses the same technique as split chains, and I'm sure you can use a regular chain if you want to instead. I really like this leaf and I plan of making it again. In case you are wondering I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour # 684 (Light Medium Green) for all three leaves. I am also going to count all three motifs as Motif #15 for my 25 Motif Challenge.

There, I'm finally done writing this post. Its taken me almost three days to write it due to my cold. Right now, my heads all stuffed up and I am contantly getting a sensation that I am going to sneeze, but I don't, which is getting really annoying. I'm not sure if I will get much tatting done this weekend. I did a little bit this afternoon, and I'm also tatting Jane's TIAS (which I need to scan before moving on to the next part). I received a request for a chainmaille necklace through Etsy, which I plan on working on tomorrow. I'll show you pictures once I'm done. Well, that's all for now. Till next time.



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Now playing: The BBC National Orchestra of Wales - All the Strange Strange Creatures (The Trailer Music)
via FoxyTunes

Christmas Tatting & Other Stuff

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate). My Christmas was really great. I went to my parents, where we had a pretty quiet Christmas. I did get some tatting done, which I will now show you.

The first motif is the one I told you about in my last post that needed some stiffening and shaping before I could show you.

This is the Bell Ornament from Heirloom Treasures in Tatting, an Annie's Attic Publication. This is a really nice pattern to tat. It is made in 11 rounds, and thus has 11 cut and ties. Utilizing split rings and chains, I reduced the number of cut & ties down to four. I could have done it in three, but I need to add some thread before beginning the eighth round. For this motif, I used Lizbeth size 20 in silver, #605. The last round has some silver beads, and I added some ribbon. And a little jingle bell inside. This is motif #10 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

My next piece is from Lene Bjørn's book 24 Snowflakes in Tatting.

This is The Third Day of Christmas snowflake. This is a nice snowflake to make. It isn't hard, and tats up pretty rapidly. I think I tatted the centre a little too tightly. I noticed after I made it that the centre chains are supposed to lie above the previous row, not behind them as I tatted it. I still think it is a really nice snowflake. One of these days I will have to tat the snowflake in Pamela's Rainbow Brite HDT. Thread stats: I used Lizbeth size 20, #663 (Dark Turquoise) for the centre and Lizbeth size 20 in colour #142, Turquoise Twist for the outer round. This will be motif #11.

The next snowflake is another snowflake from Lene Bjørn's book.

This is The Second Day of Christmas snowflake. This is a really nice snowflake, however it needed A Lot of blocking in order to make it look presentable. If lace could scream, I'm sure the neighbours would have called the police. OK, I may be exaggerating a bit. Thread stats: for this snowflake, I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour # 611, Gold. This will be motif #12 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

I did tat another motif, but I haven't scanned it yet. I'll have it ready for the next post. That's all for now. I'm hoping to get a little bit of tatting done tonight yet. I bought myself a copy of The Complete Fourth Series of Doctor Who, which I am currently watching (though, when you read this, I probably won't be). This is probably my favourite series/season of the new Doctor Who, however I don't like the way this series ends. I found it very unfortunate that the Doctor has to wipe Donna's mind. But that's just my opinion. I'll stop talking now, and will get to my tatting. Oh, before I forget, Be-Stitched is currently having a sale right now. Use the coupon code SALE2009 to get 20% off your entire order until Midnight Dec. 31. And yeah, I ordered more Lizbeth thread. VBG! Later.

Snowflakes and Tatted Trees

I was kinda hoping to post a little earlier, but I guess I got a little busy. I have managed some tatting, which I will now show you. At least most of it. I have one piece that needs stiffening, and haven't done it yet. I will (hopefully) get pictures once it is finished.

The first tatted motif is a Jane Eborall original. It is, of course, Jane's Snowsettia,

This is a really cool pattern by our very own Jane Eborall. It isn't difficult, though there are a lot of split rings. And juggling four shuttles took some practice (and an extra arm or two would have been nice as well). I ended up placing the two unused shuttles in a small ziploc bag while tatting with the other two. I thought the colours I chose would look good, but the two "conjoined" snowflakes kinda blend together. I will be making this design again. I saw a really cool colour combo on another blog. This will be my 7th motif of my Third 25 Motif Challenge. Thread stats: I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour #116 (Christmas Delight) and DMC Cordonnet size 20 in white.

The next motif is one you should have seen on Pamela's blog. It is The Sixth Day of December from Lene Bjørn's book 24 Snowflakes in Tatting. I have had this book for a few years, but I have only made one snowflake from it. Like many others, Pamela has inspired me to try some of the patterns in the book. For this snowflake, I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour #656 Dark Wedgewood, one of the new colours of Lizbeth I recently bought. I love this colour! I bought it in both size 20 & 40. And its all mine! I'm not kidding. This is motif #8.

The last motif is another one that I'm quite certain you all have seen. It is Nancy Tracy's Tatted Tree:

I have made this pattern before, but I didn't get a decent photo of it. This is a really nice pattern to tat. It's not difficult, and easily deserves the beginner level Nancy has given it. I'm not sure you can tell, but I purposely made the picots somewhat uneven in length. Not dramatically, but enough that it should be noticeable. I thought the tree looks better with the picots uneven; its more realistic IMHO. For this motif, I used Flora size 20 thread in colour #230. This is motif #9 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

That's about all for now. I will be away from Dec. 23-26 for Christmas. I don't know if I will close my shop though. I think I will just put up an announcement on the front page. I will try to post again before I go. My parent don't have high speed yet. I hope to get a lot of tatting done, and I'll post about it when I get back. Till next time.

Mary Konior's Patchwork - Bookmark For TattingChic

Before I begin the tatting portion of this blog post, I want to make a quick shop announcement. I'll make it short. I have decided to offer free shipping to Canada and the United States for the month of December. Overseas shipping has been reduced by the US shipping amount. OK, enough of that. Time for the tatting.

My previous post was about the bookmark I received from TattingChic. This time I will show off the bookmark I made TattingChic. After scanning through websites and pattern books, I decided to use a motif from Mary Konior's Tatting With Visual Patterns. I chose "Patchwork".

The above motif was actually the third motif I made for Tattingchic's bookmark. However, on the third repeat, just before I was going to join it with the first two, I made a mistake-sorry, design variation. I made one of the large chains (at the top in the above photo) smaller than the other. I didn't want to retro-tat to fix the mistake-er, design variation, and I couldn't join it to the completed two motifs. So I just finished the motif. I'm sure I find some use for it.

You're probably wonder what the finished bookmark looks like. Well, here it is:

I really like how it came out. Please note: I don't remember if I blocked the bookmark before or after scanning. So it probably looks better than the above photo. Anyway, here are some stats for the bookmark. I used Lizbeth size 40 thread in colour #120 Denim Whisper. TattingChic likes pink and other "girly" colours, and this was as close I could get. I have to admit, I can't say I have ever owned anything denim with pink in it. I usually think of denim as shades of blue. But, its still a nice colourway. This will be #6 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

Finally I decided to treat myself to some more Lizbeth thread. I love this stuff! I wanted to get a few of the new colours that had been recently added to the growing list of colours. I would like to mention that Handy Hands isn't the only place to buy Lizbeth thread. Both DS9Designs and Be-Stitched carry Lizbeth. I ordered from DS9Designs since they also carry Superior Threads products such as King Tut and Perfect Quilter threads. But Be-Stitched has cheaper shipping options, which is nice when you only want a few balls of thread.

That's all for now. I was hoping to have the pattern by Jane finished, but I've spent the last few days working on chainmaille stuff for my shop. Hopefully I can do some tatting after work tomorrow. Later.

Gina's Gingerbread Boy

I love this pattern! Ever since I saw it, I wanted to tat it.

You'll probably want to click on the image to see it better. I'm not sure why, but I tend to get pretty funky scans when using a white background. I adjusted the image a bit to make it easier to see. The pattern is from our very own Gina B, The Tatting Goddess. There is a link on Gina's blog to get the pattern, you will need to click the esnips link at the top of Gina's "Patterns & Tutorials" list on her sidebar. The pattern isn't hard, but you do need to pay attention to it for the proper joins, and the outer round of chains and the frosting round are (kinda) free tatted (ie: Gina just gives approximate stitch counts, you will need to adjust them to your own tension). I should mention that I did make a few mistakes (I think, it still worked out). I joined the head to the wrong rings on the body. Gina mentioned that a join was needed on one beaded picot, but I didn't mark which one. This join caused the top beaded ring to become heart shaped. I also added the first eye between the wrong set of small and large rings, and my attempts at adding the second eye to match the first were wrong as well. However, I will be making this pattern again; I was going to give this one away, but I don't want to now. Some stats: I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #692 brown and DMC Cordonnet size 20 white for the frosting. This will be #5 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

This is actually an important day for me. Two years ago, I contacted Gina for the first time about this pattern. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me two years to finally tat the pattern. Though I only tried the pattern three times; the second time was right after I contacted Gina. Both previous attempts were not completed. I am glad I finally tatted the Gingerbread Boy. Thank you Gina for the pattern. Till next time.