Some Tatting, Finally!

Don't get too excited, I don't have much tatting to show. I'm not sure what it is lately, I just can't get into tatting. I want to tat something, I just don't know what. I have been working on my tie; I have 14 rows of 4-Ring squares left to go. I'm over half way there. I might start working on my mom's Windmills doily. I think for now, I will make it oval in shape. I don't want to make it round, but I may try Jane E's method of tricking myself into making the doily larger. Once it's oval, I might be inclined to continue making motifs until it's round. We'll see.

Anyway, here's the one piece of tatting that I managed to tat while away last week:

This is Ruth Perry's Celtic Maple Leaf. I've made it before, but this time I used some of Yarnplayer's Sugar Maple HDT in size 30 to make it. I like it in this colourway. Nothing really else to say about the leaf.

I think that's it for now. I'm kinda distracted right now; I'm catching up on the new season of Doctor Who. I've got a few new chainmaille earrings to share, but I'll make another post later. I may even get some more tatting done. Quick question before I go, any crocheters out there have a favourite (preferably online) shawl pattern? 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

Snowflakes, BEANILE Lace, and Invisible Tatting

I had a pretty good time at my parents last weekend, though I didn't get much tatting done. Did some crocheting though. Unfortunately, I didn't see my aunt. So more lessons will have to wait until Christmas. Now on to the tatting. The first motif is Ruth Perry's Celtic Snowflake 2008:

I love Ruth's Celtic designs. For this snowflake I used DMC Cordonnet thread in size 20. Size 20 made a large snowflake. This one is approximately 5 inches from point to point. I will have to make this snowflake again in smaller thread, probably a HDT. For those of you interested, the pattern is available from Ruth's Celtic Tatting group. The actual tatting is easy with only a couple split rings. I used approximately 5.5 yards of thread on shuttle 1 and 7-8 yards of thread on shuttle 2. This is motif #6 for my Second 25 Motif Challenge.

My next motif is a BEANILE Lace pendant designed by Nina Libin:

The pendant is called BNL-162b and is from Nina's newest Lace of Beads book called "#15 Translating Ideas Into Lace". I love Nina's BEANILE (which stands for Beadwork by Nina Libin) lace designs, but threading on all the beads can take a loooooooooooong time. However, with this pendant, and some beads I purchased at Wal*Mart, I discovered a trick to load large amounts of beads. The beads I purchased were prestrung (which is important here). Basically, to transfer the beads from the temporary strand that the beads came on to your tatting thread, you simply tie the two threads together and slide the beads from one thread to the other. Now the beads need to be large enough to pass over the knot (which the beads I tried this with were; some of them were a size 11). Once enough beads are transferred , you can untie or cut the knot and wind your shuttles. Now that I know this, I have to buy more beads that are prestrung. This pendant is motif #7. The pendant was given to my Mom as part of her birthday gift. She loved it.

Finally, I finally tried tatting with Invisible thread. It was, interesting. Here's a picture:

Like I said, the results were interesting. Kind of ethereal looking. This is the centre of Nancy Tracy's Layered Tatted Snowflake, available here. I only wound enough thread to make the centre of the snowflake. Since the invisible thread is really fine, I used four strands together. If I decide to continue, I will probably need to get several more spools of the thread for ease of winding large amounts of thread. You probably don't want to know how I managed to get four strands of thread off of one spool, without dropping them. It wasn't that bad, but I don't think I could explain it. I still need to do some experimenting with the thread. I would like to make a sample to compare the size to other threads. I also had a thought of adding a single strand of metallic filament thread to the invisible thread. And if I could match the thread to a size 20 or 30 thread, the thread might look cool as the fins on my Betta. Now look at what you started Jane! Hopefully I will get some more tatting done. I got some of Pamela's Rainbow thread, so expect to see something made out of it. That's all for now.

I've Been Tatting

First off, I want to show a design that I have been thinking about making for awhile now. I won't tell you what it is for a few days yet (I need to make a few more). I'm pretty sure there isn't a tatted version yet.


Hopefully it isn't too obvious what it is. But you're welcome to make guesses it you want (I won't tell what it is but it would be fun to see if anyone can guess). I also have a couple new tatting books. I received Sharon's book "Transitions In Tatting" and Rozella Linden's (AKA Ruth Perry) newest Celtic tatting book "Celtic Tatting: A Design Journey on an Ancient Theme". I have lots of things picked out to make. Now, if only I could find more time (unfortunately I have to work over the upcoming long weekend, so it may be next week before I get more serious tatting done).

I also have Motif # 18 for the 25 Motif Challenge finished.

This is Ruth Perry's Celtic Daffodil. This flower has a total of nine Celtic knots, consisting of two different types. If you are interested in the flower, you can contact Ruth directly (her blog may have contact info, otherwise leave me a comment and I'll send you her email address). I tatted the daffodil in size 20 Flora in colour # 204 (I think). This was given to my Mom for Mother's Day (I remembered to take a picture!).

Oh, I also have an update on "It". I remade It and I am more pleased with how It turned out. I still have more work on it before I will reveal more information about It.

It is still pretty unrecognizable at this point, but once I add some features to It, it will be much easier to identify It. I think that's all for now. Hopefully I will post again in a few days.

What I Have Been Tatting AKA Motifs #15 & 16

I have completed two more motifs for my challenge. The first motif, motif #15 is called Spinning Wheel Glass Mat by Mary Konior. Here it is:

This pattern is from Mary's book "Tatting With Visual Patterns". I love this book! I'm so glad Sue H ( moderator of the Here-Be-Tatters group) told us that the book is not out of print, and actually quite easy to find at many tatting suppliers. For the glass mat, I used Altin Basak size 50 thread in colour number 3005. This was my first time using Altin Basak thread. As long as you don't retro-tat very often, the thread holds up reasonably well. I did find the thread a little soft as well, but it is nice to work with.

My next motif is one by Ruth Perry. It is her Celtic Angel. I also test tatted it for Ruth.

The pattern is available from Ruth's Celtic Tatting Yahoo group. Or you could email Ruth directly. I used DMC Cordonnet size 20 in white. This was an interesting item to tat. It used a variation on the double stitch called the "Balanced Double Stitch" (BDS). The Celtic knot is a BDS chain or a "BChain" as Ruth calls it. If you want more information about the BDS you can check out the following PDF file at Georgia Seitz's site. The BDS is larger than a regular DS, so you may have to adjust the number of stitches in the chains of the knot. And, as Riet said, you don't have to hide the ends when you are done. Here, I tied them together to make a hanger. Until next time.

Motif #13 - A Touch of The Irish

OK, I know, I'm a day late for St. Patrick's Day. I was going to post this yesterday, but I got hit with a severe migraine, and posting (well, practically anything) is difficult to do in the dark. Anyway, here is my motif # 13 (this and the heart from the previous post):

This is Ruth Perry's Celtic 4 Leaf Clover from the Tatting Calender. I used DMC Cebelia size 30 in colour number 699. Being 1/4 Irish, I felt obligated to make at least one clover/shamrock in honour of the day.

I was hoping to have another flower completed, but I'm not quite finished. I still have one petal to tat. Then I have to attach wires to all the parts. Then I have to assemble the flower. I hope I get it done for this weekend. I'll post a picture when it is done.

Finally, I have to show you my new orchid:
This orchid is a Doritaenopsis, which is a hybrid between a Doritis and a Phalaenopsis orchid. It is called Doritaenopsis (Minho Pink x Taisuco Firebird) 'DeLeon'. This is my first Intergeneric (between different related genera) Phalaenopsis hybrid, so I am looking forward to seeing if it is easier/harder to grow than my other Phalaenopsis orchids.