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.

Jelly Bean Earrings

Nothing new to report since my last post. It snowed again. But that's not really new here. So, I guess we'll get on to the tatting.

After I got my Aerlit shuttles, I tatted three pairs of earrings for my mom. Some of you may have seen these, but I haven't heard anyone mention them before.

These are Jill Hanna's Jelly Bean Earrings. Anyone who has purchased an Aerlit shuttle will have the pattern. It's printed on the back of the package. The bobbins have a different pattern on the back of their packages. I don't think anyone has mentioned the fact that there is a patten on the back of the packages. I don't know why, I just find it surprising. Anyway, the pair on the left was tatted according to the pattern, with lots of picots. I used Lizbeth 20 colour #122 Caribbean for this pair. For the blue pair, I got a bit adventurous and added some beads to the outer picots, which added some weight to the earrings. For these, I used Lizbeth 20 colour #658 Lt Ocean Turquoise. For the black pair, I went a bit bead crazy, and added beads between the rings as well as to the chains. I used Lizbeth 20 #604 thread. I will probably stiffen them then add the findings. I will probably make another pair of a different design.

That's it for now. As I mentioned last time, I test tatted a couple of snowflakes for Frivole. Once I got one of her techniques down pat, I find the snowflakes kinda addictive. It probably doesn't help that I can manage to tat a snowflake in a single evening. That usually doesn't happen. I'm currently on a crochet kick right now making a couple quick scarves to use as Christmas gifts. Till next time.

Trendy Teardrops and a Plant Update

Well, here it is, over a week since my last post and don't have much to show for it. Craft-wise anyway. I have done some tatting; will get to it soon. I did a little chainmaille, but not much. I am offering free shipping in my shop, but from the looks of it, that may be useless right now. Apparently, Canada Post may go on strike Thursday, just before midnight. I may put my shop in vacation mode if there is a strike (just in case), but we'll have to see. I am, however concerned about a shipment of plants I have en route as we speak. The guy shipping them to me has been watching the Canada Post situation closely (as have I) and they should arrive before the deadline, but I'm still concerned.

As I mentioned, I did do some tatting this past week. I think I mentioned working on them in my last post. And here they are:

These are Yarnplayer's Trendy Teardrop earrings. I only made the earrings since I didn't have any matching size 10 thread to make a pendant. It's an interesting pattern (available in Yarnplayer's Etsy shop) that uses a new technique. Well, new to me anyway. That technique would be the Catherine Wheel Join. I tried the CWJ in a "practice" piece-so named a "practice" piece because I broke the thread during the outer round and didn't feel like reattaching the thread (didn't like the colour I used anyway). I decided, however, to not use the CWJ in the above earrings, I found it too, um, time consuming. It took me several minutes per join to do. I opted instead to do a Slope and Roll join. Much faster, albeit not as nice looking. I'll try the Catherine Wheel join again. Thread stats: for these earrings I used Krystledawne's Vineyard at Dusk HDT in size 20 with Amethyst beads. I really love this colourway! As I've mentioned before, I'm not fond of pinks and purples, but this thread is different. The purple is there, but it's not really noticeable (to me, anyway). I do regret only buying one skein. Although, she does have more in her shop........but, I think I'll wait until I know what Canada Post is doing.

Finally, I thought I do a plant update. I posted a photo of my (at the time) one and only Tropical Pitcher plant (Nepenthes x Ventrata). Here is a fairly recent photo of the plant:

Well, one of it's pitchers anyway. I wanted to show how much bigger the pitchers are now. If you look at the photo I posted earlier (located here), you'll see that the one pictured was only about 1 cm long (probably about 1.5 cm when opened). Well, the pitcher above is about 3.5 inches long. And I'm hoping they'll get even bigger. I've started feeding it ants that I found around the house (hey, they're entering the house at their own risk!). I've added a few more pitcher plants to my collection:

I'm really glad I finally found the high plastic dome for growing trays. I've had a heck of a time finding them. I could mail order one, but it just seemed like the wrong type of thing to mail order. These ones (I bought a couple of them) are better than the ones I've seen in the seed catalogs, as they have two air vents on top that can be opened to let in fresh air, and reduce the humidity (although most Nepenthes like high humidity). I'm hoping they don't outgrow the dome too fast, but I'll adapt as they grow.

That's about it for now. I started another Windmills motif, in the size 10 Cebelia. Since I do like making the motifs (I just get sick of making them after awhile), I thought it might get me in the mood to do some serious tatting. We'll see. Till next time.

Tatted Earrings, and a Bit of Maille

Sorry for disappearing, again. I just don't know what the problem is lately. Well, actually, I have a few theories. The main one is that I have too many things I want to make in numerous mediums that I can't get started on any of them. I made another wheel of Cheddar cheese yesterday and finished it today; the one I made back in March is just about ready to taste. I've been working on some chainmaille lately. The main piece will be shown later in this post. I'm still getting beads and stuff for several chainmaille jewelry pieces. These are pretty cool; hopefully they sell well. I'm not even gong to say anything about my sales on Etsy. I think I may offer free shipping again for a week or two. I should have done that a few weeks before Mother's Day. Anyway, onward to the tatting!

As the title suggests, I manage to tat a pair of earrings during this past week. It's a pattern I make quite frequently:

These are, of course,  Yarnplayer's Carnival Earrings. These aren't quite finished, obviously. In case you're wondering, I don't usually hide the ends on earrings. A knot and a dab of glue initially, and once dry, they get stiffened with more glue. Since I have to remake the earrings regularly, this works quite well. And since you only see one side of the earrings (usually) the knot isn't noticeable. Thread stats: Lizbeth size 20, colour #149 Peacock Blues. The beads are Reconstituted Turquoise for the large beads, and light blue seed beads.  I am working on another pair of earrings, using a different pattern. And before I forget, have a look at this Temari ball with tatting on it.

Finally, I'll show you the main focus of my creative energy:

I'm not thrilled with the above photo. The camera didn't want to/couldn't focus properly on the metal fabric. The nature of the chainmaille fabric make me look fat. Though that could be the snacks-I think I hear snickering from my tatted seahorse from that comment. Anyway, my chainmaille shirt, more properly called a Hauberk, is almost done. It currently weighs about 21 pounds (9.5 kg). Here is a closeup shot of the overlapping "Horseman Slits" that I put in on the front and back of my Hauberk:

The slits make it easier to walk and ride horses in. I think they look kinda cool too. I still have to make the sleeves, lengthen it some more (I reckon it should come down to about the top of the side pockets on the shorts I am wearing in the photo), and add an edging of bronze rings to the bottom edge, around the neck, and maybe on the sleeves too. I'm probably going to put this aside for awhile. I do want to get some other projects done.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I'll get more accomplished this week. I prepared a ball for a Temari this afternoon, so hopefully I'll get to stitching that soon. And I really want to get more tatting in; I'm having a hard time finding a pattern I want to tat. There's also more chainmaille I want to make. So we'll see how I make out. Till next time.

Tatted Earrings and Dragonscale

I'll try and make this a short post. I did a little tatting this past week. I made a little bit of progress on my tie. On the Etsy front, I've had several sales since my last post. Which is good as I've been holding off ordering more rings until some sales have come. And, I've been included in two Etsy Treasuries, which is pretty cool too. I've never been in a Treasury before. The first one (which actually happened more than a week ago) can be seen here, and the other (which is from today) can be seen here. I don't know how long the Treasuries last, so if you'd like to take a look, sooner is probably better than later. Anyway here is the tatting.

I wanted to tat something fairly quick so I took a look at Yarnplayer's newest book Up and Tat 'Em to see what I can find. Here is what I chose:

These are the earrings from the "Beguile Set". These were made using Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #611 Gold. Yeah. It's the same thread from the previous motif. It wasn't just because I hadn't put it away. It matched the antiqued brass rings I used for the centre. There are also size 11 gold coloured beads. It's a nice pattern, and quick to tat. I did find I had to add an extra ring and chain to go completely around. I didn't know why, since the rings I used were only 1 mm bigger than what was called for, until I noticed that Yarnplayer made her chains a little bit longer in the photo than what was written in the pattern. It's not a big deal and I'll have to remember this when I make them again.

Finally I will finish this post by showing a recently learned chainmaille weave. It's called Dragonscale:

I wonder why. The photo above shows the weave stretched out. Here it is when scrunched up:

You can see where the weave gets its name. It bears a striking resemblance to rows of scales. I assume the dragon part comes from chainmaille's medieval history. It's a cool weave and looks awesome in two colours. You can't tell that here since I should have used two colours that contrasted better. I used bright aluminum and white anodized aluminum. The white rings are new from my supplier. I don't know if I'll actually make anything using this weave. It is pretty dense and has a high rings per inch count. The sample above is about two inches (5 cm) long when fully stretched.

That's about it for now. I'm not sure what I will work on this week. Hopefully I will make some significant progress on my tie. I also got my Palmetto's 2010 Tat Day CD this week, so I've got lots more patterns to drool over. Till next time.

Tatted Snowflakes, Mostly

First of all, I want to thank all of you who commented on my last post. Your comments were just what I needed to hear. And for those of you who mentioned it, don't worry. If I get up one morning in the next few weeks and something doesn't feel right, I will definitely go see a doctor. Now I just have to wait to see what will happen to the truck. I hope its fixable, but I'm not expecting it. But enough of this. I've got some tatting to show!

The first is three sets of earrings I was working on before going away.

These were made using Yarnplayer's Carnival Earring pattern, found here. I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in Red Burst #147, Black #604, and Silver #605, coordinating size 11 seed beads, and natural coloured glass pearls. I have been toying with the idea of purchasing some other colours of glass pearls.

Next, I finished the unfinished Ring A Ring O' Roses snowflake from an earlier post. Here it is:

I was able to get more thread from Umintsuru to complete this snowflake. In case you forgot, the snowflake was made using Coron size 40 variegated blues. I like the way this snowflake came out. Though it's still boring to tat.

The next two snowflakes were tatted using a fairly recent pattern. Miranda should recognize it.

It is her Angels In The Snow snowflake that she is offering for sale with the proceeds going to a charity. I love that idea, and was more than happy to purchase the pattern. For this snowflake I used Lizbeth size 40 thread in Denim Whisper #120. I love this colourway but still don't know why there is pink in it. I love this snowflake as well, so I tatted it again this past Saturday and Sunday:

This time, I used my favourite Lizbeth colourway (for this time of year, anyway). That would be Lizbeth size 40 Christmas Delight #116. I started another snowflake this afternoon. You'll have to wait to see that one; it's not done yet.

That's about it for now. Hopefully this week will be less interesting than the last. Till next time.