Crocheted Torchon Lace, and Some Tatting

Where does the time go? I can't believe it's almost July. I keep meaning to post but never seemed to find the time. Fortunately I have been working on a some projects, surprisingly mainly tatting. As the title indicates, one of these projects is crocheted. I've even been working on some chainmaille.

I came across a pattern for a crocheted Torchon Lace edging in the May/June 2015 issue of Piecework Magazine, The Lace Issue, and had to try it. Torchon Lace is often made using bobbin lace techniques but can be made using other techniques, including crochet.

The pattern called for size 80 thread and a size 13 hook. There was no way I was going to try to crochet using size 80 thread. I'm sure it would look more like traditional Torchon Lace if I used that fine of thread. I used some size 20 Omega thread in colour #252. It measures about 2 inches wide. I would like to try the pattern again using a size 40 or 50 thread. Perhaps one day I'll try it in size 80 thread, but who knows if that will happen.

I finished the Japanese Doily at least a month ago. I worked on it quite regularly since my last post. It need some significant blocking, which I haven't done yet. I figured I'll share it anyway.

I haven't measured it and even if I did right now it probably won't be accurate. Technically there is supposed to be another round of interwoven chains and clovers, but since I found them painfully slow to tat, I don't want to tat that round. I actually like it this way. To me it looks finished, but I would love to know what other people think. Does it look finished or does it look like it's missing a round? The thread is Lizbeth 20, colour #602 Natural. I should point out that I almost ran out of thread by the end of the round. I have about a bobbins worth left. I bought another ball of this thread colour but they look significantly different. I'm not sure if it's because of a large dye lot difference or that the thread colour isn't #602 Natural. I lost the label from the ball.

Finally I'm going to give you guys a quick peek at what I'm currently working on, tatting wise.

This particular motif is part of the pattern I'm working on. I'll have to make 18 of them in total. Some (six) will be joined together, the rest used elsewhere in the patterns. And while it doesn't look it here, the colour is a pale baby blue.

That's about it for now. Since I doubt I'll post again for a few weeks, I'd like to wish my fellow Canadians a happy Canada Day tomorrow. And a happy Independence Day for my US followers. Till next time.

First Post of The Year. And With Tatting!

Hello 2015! Yeah I know the year started for most of us almost three weeks ago. I actually can't believe that 2014 is already over. Its probably just as well; it was definitely a weird year. I'm not sure what 2015 is going to bring but we'll find out whether we are ready or not. As always I didn't make any resolutions this year.You can't break'em if you don't make'em! All joking aside, if something's worth changing in your life, any time is a good time to start. I am actually planning on getting one thing in my life fixed. A problem I never really thought I may have. Between a few things happening at work recently and paying closer attention to my own feelings/emotions, I have concluded that I may be suffering from depression or something related. I think I have been for a number of years. I intend on seeing my doctor soon. I'm keeping track of my thoughts and emotions first so I can better talk to him about it. I guess I hope 2015 will be a year of change for me.

Now that that's out of the way we can get to the tatting. I have been tatting quite a bit lately. I don't know if it has been the wonky shifts at work again or what, but I managed to fit some in nearly every day. The main project I have been working on has been the doily from the Japanese book Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. It's taking way too long to do, and it's not even that big. I guess it hasn't been a year yet since I started it, but it's still not done.

Here it is after four rounds. It measures about 7 1/2 inches in diameter. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue the pattern and make the final two rounds. I was thinking of just doing the next round only and not having the final round of intertwined chains with clovers. I really don't like having that round as the final one on the doily. I'll see after the next round. I case you forgot, 'cause I did, the thread is Lizbeth 20, colour #602 Natural. I probably should buy another ball of this thread if I don't have another one already.

The next bit of tatting I did was a pair of earrings tatted before Christmas. These were inspired by a pair Frivole tatted. The pattern is by Elizabeth Zipay and is available in her Etsy shop here.

The pattern is Tiny Tatted Snowflakes. There were very quick to tat-even for me! I made two pairs, one with beads and one without. I never took a photo of the one with beads. Elizabeth included a photo showing a number of bead related variation one can do with the pattern. I'm not sure if I used Lizbeth thread in white or DMC Cordonnet in white, the size was #20 though.

I also made a pendant pattern from Totusmel before Christmas as well.

This is Star Flower, available in Totusmel's Etsy shop, here. The inner green section was shuttle tatted in Lizbeth size 10, Christmas Green thread. The outer red section was needle tatted with Lizbeth size 20, Christmas Red thread. The thread sizes are correct. In order for the motif to look right when both shuttle and needle tatted I had to use two different sizes of thread. For me anyway, a shuttle tatted item comes out smaller than the same item that is needle tatted when using the same size thread. My tension is fairly tight with shuttle tatting. Since I don't needle tat often, my tension is fairly loose. Your mileage may vary.

Finally a quick photo of a new book I bought.

I thought the "quilts" looked cool, though I don't know if I will ever tat anything from the book. There are five patterns in the book, but as you can probably tell from the photo, there will be a lot of ends to deal with. For now, the book is mainly just for looking at; it wasn't really expensive so I don't feel too bad. I might try one of the simple patterns one day.

I think that's it for now. I started tatting a pattern from one of Martha Ess's books yesterday afternoon and miraculously finished it this afternoon. I amazed myself as I consider myself a pretty slow tatter with the attention span of a three year old. No foolin' there. But that will have to wait, as well as a new thread purchase. I have some thing for a new post without even trying! Now to find the time to write it...

Till next time.

Japanese Doily, Take Two

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on a motif/doily from Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. I made this motif earlier, back in November, 2012. You can see the post here.When I made it then, I was having trouble with the overlapping chains. I think I figured out how to make it, without unwinding bobbins and/or shuttles. Here's the centre or glass mat if you will:

It's not blocked yet, so it's a bit ruffly. This is the first two rounds of the doily. In order to get the shuttle to go through the interwoven chains, I used a narrower shuttle. Specifically, a Celtic shuttle. It works much better, apart from winding the thing seemingly all the time. The one I bought, a Lacis metal one, only holds about half as much as an Aero/Aerlit. I'm faily pleased with the result, and decided to continue tatting and make the next size doily. Oh, the thread is Lizbeth 20, colour #602 Natural.

And, like magic (and procrastination from blogging!) we have the third round finished:

It's still ruffled somewhat, but I think it will flatten out once blocked. This round was quick to tat. Probably because I was using a Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle for it. I am currently working the fourth round. It's an interwoven chain round, like the second round. It's slow going because I have to add thread every four or five clovers. Hopefully, I'll have it done by next weekend and I could do a quick post. I plan on making the largest version on the doily since rounds five and six are similar to three and four.

That's it for now. I have been making steady progress on round four, so I hope it won't take long to share it. I hope the weather is cooperating for everyone. We started warming up since my last post, and have had many days above freezing. Our high was 6 C today.  The snow is definitely melting, which is awesome to see. I just hope it keeps melting and doesn't snow anymore. It's been a long and cold winter. I'm looking forward to spring and summer. I have a lemon tree inside that has been flowering for the past few weeks. I've been pollinating the flowers as they open, so I'm hoping I may get a few lemons this year. Till next time.

The Next Japanese Motif and New Shuttles

No, I haven't disappeared, again. I don't know how some of you can post daily. Nothing really interesting happening. I have been tatting. I've done a little bit of chainmaille. It snowed, again. Yeah, we'll move on to the tatting.

I actually finished the following motif at least a week ago, but hadn't got around to posting it till now.

This is from the same Japanese book as the last motif. That book would be of course, Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. Again since I don't know if it has a name, it's on page 55. I like the way this motif looks. However, despite my best attempts I realized that I missed a join about halfway through, and didn't notice it until the final repeat. I only noticed it 'cause something didn't seem right. To finish the motif (I wasn't cutting out over half the round) I had to repeat the mistake and skip a join. So I am missing one repeat, and I think it makes the motif a bit oval shaped instead of round. I'm definitely redoing this pattern soon. Also, the centre two rounds are used in other patterns, so I may have to try them too. The above motif is about 4.75 inches in diameter and tatted using Lizbeth size 20 thread, colour #163 Blue Ice.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I ordered several of those new Aerlit tatting shuttles. But not from Handy Hands. As much as I'd like to spend $100+ on tatting stuff to make their shipping charges worthwhile and trust me, I'd like to (maybe after Christmas), I opted to purchase from one of the other tatting suppliers. I believe all the major online suppliers have the new shuttles for anyone interested. Anyway, I bought 4 of them, in three colours:

I'm sure you guys knew I would have to get a couple of blue ones. These were the colours that appealed to me the most. And among the least, um, feminine. I also bought some additional bobbins to go with these:

You had to know that was coming, right?? So far, I'm quite impressed with them, the shuttles, of course. I've been using one since they arrived. It started off somewhat stiff, but it loosened a bit and work great now. Though time will tell about how long the ratcheting action will last and we have a loose bobbin. I have to admit, I'm not used to how thin they are. I use mostly my Pop-a-Bobbin shuttles which are rather thick. I should (perhaps again) mention that I almost never use post style shuttles. I almost always use bobbin shuttles. I know this came up a couple posts ago about the Japanese motif with the overlapping (Celtic style?) chain. The bobbins wouldn't fit through the space. I had to unwind the bobbins.

I think that's all for now. I have other stuff to share, but I'm going try to split my posts up and post less, more often. I commented on Jane's blog this morning on her post about the Blogger/Picasa image storage issue that some people are having. I'm using a whopping 4% of my storage limits. Instead of resizing my images, I probably should post more often. So, I'll try. I've been working on some tatted earrings for my mom and I've been test tatting for Frivole, so I'm going to make them each a separate post, probably scheduling them to post every few days. Anyway, till next time.

Motif From Japanese Book

I'm still here. I was in pain for most of last weekend, though I was feeling better by Monday. I was also happy (I know, I shouldn't be) to hear that I wasn't the only one who slipped going in to work that day. I guess our store manager slipped and fell too, among others. Anyway, it snowed again Friday night and during Saturday. So we got anther 6-8 inches of snow. It's supposed to warm up again by the end of the week. Anyway I want to make this short.

I managed to tat a motif from the new Japanese book I recently bought. And, I tatted it with the new HDT I got from Jess.

I assume it has a name but I can't read it. I guess it's pattern 7 from page 53 from the book Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. It's tatted with Jess' Blue Ridge HDT in size 20. It measures about 3.5 inches is diameter. I guess this is more of a glass mat/coaster. This is also the centre of two other doilies in the book. Though I don't know if I'm going to continue in that direction. I'm sure if I could read the book, I could figure out a better way of doing it, but I had to unwind both shuttles in order to overlap the chains in the second round. I did that 12 times. Not fun. I forgot to mention it earlier, but I was using bobbin shuttles to tat this. The bobbins didn't fit through the space.

That's about it for now. I am working on another motif from the same book, which I hope to share soon. It's going MUCH faster than the above motif. I'm also crocheting a shawl for my mom. It'll probably be part of her Christmas gift this year. I also received my Palmetto's Tat Days Pattern CD-I ordered it as soon as they became available. And I've also ordered a few of those new Aerlit shuttles. You'll have to guess which colour(s) I ordered. Till next time.