I'm Still Tatting!

Honest! Just not Windmills right now. I'm working on something else right now, and I'm pretty excited about it. I just can't share yet. Bummer, I know. Not much else new otherwise. I have to wait until next week to see if my workplace goes on strike or not. There's a strike going on in Alberta that's related to my workplace. I've never faced a strike before so I'm a little concerned. I'm sure it will turn out fine. Anyway, onwards to the tatting. Kinda.

Yeah, I still can't share. I can share the small pile of rejects from the design process however; the finished item changed dramatically from these, so I don't think anyone can guess what it might be. Oh, and I won't confirm or deny any guesses either.

I'm happy to say, that it only took about a week for me to get a working pattern created. Yup, I designed and properly tatted a new design in about a week! I'm very excited about it. Granted, I think having a deadline really helped, I am such a procrastinator. I only have three weeks or so to work on the special project. I did the final tweaks and tatted the in-colour, proper item Sunday while watching a Doctor Who marathon on TV. I still have a ton of photos to take and edit, and I do need to tat a green version of the item too. I gotta incorporate the item into the theme of the project you know. You guys only have to wait a couple weeks.

That's about it for now. Next Monday is Thanksgiving here so hopefully I can get some other tatting done too. Till next time.

Frivole's Snow Crystal Snowflakes

I think I mentioned in my previous post that I did some test tatting for Frivole. I've finally gotten around to posting about them. Not really much else going on here. It's been cold. It snowed once or twice since my last post. I've been working like a dog at work, and I absolutely hate working in a retail store at Christmas time. Which sucks, 'cause I like Christmas, but it gets to a point when I can't stand hearing the music anymore. But it'll be all over soon. Well, you know, unless the world ends, again. Then it'll be over sooner.

Anyway, here are the snowflakes that I test tatted for Frivole:

The snowflakes in the top row are Crystal 1 and the ones in the bottom row are Crystal 2. Unless Frivole changed the names since I test tatted them. These are all done in size 10 thread. I found the size 10 the easiest to practice her 1 stitch SCMR. Now that I can get the chains nice and pointy, I'm sure I could easily make the snowflake in size 20 or finer. The Crystal 2 snowflakes are a bit easier, but they do require the use of a picot gauge in order to make it look nice. That makes them a little slower to make, for me, anyway. They're both really nice patterns and are available in Frivole's shop. You get both patterns in one PDF file. The white snowflakes used Cebelia size 10 (which I hated using!) and the other two are Lizbeth 10, #149 Peacock Blues and #611 Gold. They are about 2 3/8 inches (6 cm) across.

That's it for now. I'll probably only manage one more post before Christmas. I'll leaving to go to my parents either next Friday or Saturday. If I can get a shift at work Friday, then I'll definitely leave Saturday. I don't have much tatting to share, but I got my two newest Pop-a-Bobbin shuttles in the mail this week which I have to share. I've also gotten some more HDT from Jesse during her Thanksgiving sale. That's it for now.

Windmills Doily, Take Two

I'm still here. I've just been quiet. I have been tatting, in case you are wondering. I just haven't had anything to show you until now. And it's not technically finished yet, but I couldn't wait any longer. You also may have noticed that I haven't posted any chainmaille in a while too. That's because sales have come to a standstill. I think there are just too many people selling chainmaille on Etsy now. I have thought about moving to another site, but I don't think that will help. Some people are selling their jewelry way too cheaply-some are slightly over my calculated materials costs. So as items expire, I am removing items that have never sold before. I won't shut down the shop entirely, it doesn't take much effort if nothing sells. No pity sales, please. I've been working a lot of extra hours at my real job lately, so I'm not really losing anything here.

You may remember that I started another doily using Mary Konior's Windmills motif (from the NOT out of print book Tatting With Visual Patterns), made out of size 10 DMC Cebelia thread. Yeah, I don't remember either-I mentioned it here. Well a year plus later here is the result:

Currently it is about 9 inches (22.8 cm) in diameter. Since this is the one for me I am going to make it oval shaped. I am also going to add the edging that most of you didn't think it needed. Hopefully this won't take that long. I started working on this after my last post and made five of the seven motifs pictured. I haven't done as much tatting this week as I would have liked. I was preparing supper last Saturday, and was a little careless and ended up cutting one of my fingers. I didn't think it would affect my tatting as much as it did-it was my left middle finger. But since I hold my tatting a little different, it made a big difference. It is healing quite nicely and I have been tatting over the past couple days. Not a lot, but still, I was tatting. I have to finish tatting the seventh motif, then I have three more to go. I will post again when I have completed them.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I will post again sooner rather than later. I am hoping to get this done fairly quickly. Then I can decide if I will make the other Windmills doily oval too or leave it round. I can also determine if the edging round is the way to go too. Till next time.

New Design in The Works

Let me say one thing before I begin. I better not get sick again till, well, for awhile anyway. I was feeling better last Sunday. However I work up early (and I mean early) Monday morning with one heck of a sore back. I guess I must have done something to it while at work the previous week. So I haven't done much until a few days ago. My back is feeling better, its a little stiff right now. Anyway, I started work on a new tatted design.

But first, I wanted to provide a little information about the conductive thread I used last week. The thread is in fact thread. Specifically, it is silver plated nylon thread (apparently; I don't know how you plate nylon). It is about the same weight as sewing thread, maybe about a size 100. I used two threads together to tat the sample in the video. I also used four strands as a test, but I haven't compared it to see what size it is yet. Being a thread, it tatted quite well, not stiff like wire. More info can be found here. This project will probably be put on the back burner for a while;  I've got Hallowe'en and then Christmas tatting to start thinking about. This brings me to my newest design.

With Hallowe'en just around the corner, I figured I'd better get my next design finished. Without any further ado, here is (tentatively) Ripley the Ghost:

I say tentatively since I may change his name in the final draft. He began as a variant of my Sine Wave bookmark. However, I didn't like how the Sine Wave pattern worked with Ripley-so I really can't call him Sine Wave Ghost. I'm almost happy with how the design has turned out. I'm not happy with his ectoplasmic trail (not sure what else to call it; its the bottom thingy). I'll be refining the pattern over the next day or two. Then I have to write out the pattern. A few people volunteered to test tat my pattern on inTatters, so I should take them up on the offer, if they still want to. With any luck I'll have the pattern available for download early next week.

That's it for now. I plan on going to my parents house this weekend. So I probably won't post until I get back. Till next time.

Catching Up, Or What I Still Haven't Done

I know, I didn't post before I left for the weekend. I think I have a good excuse; I didn't really do anything since my last post. Really. I hardly touched my crochet project. My tie is at a standstill due to thread testing that is underway-kinda. However, I think I accidentally designed a new bookmark while testing a thread. More on that soon. I have also been busy exchanging threads, thanks to Fox's Thread Exchange. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it. I don't believe you have to be an author on the blog to swap threads (correct me if I'm wrong Fox). Just comment on a post that has the thread that you want to try, and let the person know what you have to offer. A way of contacting you is also a good idea.

Now I mentioned that I accidentally designed a new bookmark. It started late last week, before I went away for the weekend. I picked up a ball of Cebelia size 10 thread (in white) from Michaels either early in the week, or late in the previous week. I wound a couple shuttles, and began tatting. It wasn't anything special, just rings and chains. I got bored with that really quickly, and tried something different. Here is the result:

I think it looks pretty cool. Though there is a lot of switching shuttles in order to get it to work. Practitioners of frontside/backside tatting will probably be horrified to look at it. I can't say I've seen anything like this before, but could be wrong. I know, it does happen. Though, it may not matter, since I joined two strips of this together, well actually one strip joined onto itself. I experimented with a couple of ways of working the top and bottom of the bookmark-to-be. I quickly diagrammed it last night, and came up with another way to work the top and bottom that I like better. I am currently tatting a second prototype and will post about it later. I've actually done a lot of the bookmark already, so I may be able to post about it again soon.

I like tatting with the Cebelia size 10 thread, so it may be the thread I will use for my tie. But, I've been using Fox's Thread Exchange to get samples of other size 10 threads. So my choice might change. Of course, not all the thread I'm getting is size 10. Here is a couple of photos of my recent thread acquisitions:


I don't know if you can read the writing on the cards, but there is some Lizbeth size 10, Cebelia size 20, Sulky Blendables 30 wt (~ size 80-100), Omega size 30 (I've used Omega before, but I liked the colour), some silk thread (pretty fine thread), and some Flora size 10. The second photo shows an unknown Cordonnet thread. You may also notice that I wrote who I got the thread from on the card. I'm trying not to mix them up, but it may still be futile.

Finally, I will show you a photo of my newest Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle from Sally and Nick:

This one is Cocobolo Rosewood. It is much darker in real life. It's absolutely gorgeous, and well worth the wait to get. Of course, I love all my Pop-a-Bobbin shuttles. All four of them. That number could change if Nick and Sally get a hold of some more really cool woods. I wonder if there is a tree that produces a blue coloured wood ...... . A guy can dream.

That's it for now. Hopefully, I'll have the bookmark done in the next day or so. I'll share the pattern too, unless it is too similar to one already done. Please let me know if you've seen something like it before (I know, I haven't posted the full bookmark, but I still want to know). Thanks. Till next time, which I hope will be sooner rather than later.