Monday, December 28, 2009

Size matters!

It is often said that size doesn't matter...however I have a problem here. My collar, made from the pattern Eunice in Lyn Morton's book "Tatting Patterns", is very pretty but it would probably be rather tight on a baby! It just fits around the base of a wine glass. I guess the silk thread is rather finer than the size 20 Altin Basak thread that she suggests. I have no idea how one might adjust a pattern like that to make it bigger...I will have to try a different pattern.

This motif come from Myra Piper's book and is called "Forget-me-not". Here I was using a fine silk thread, perhaps 100? Anyway although I had previously made this pattern in a larger thread with no problem, in this size the outer round just didn't fit.
Luckily this is not a problem nowadays, for Sherry takes all tatting scraps, willingly, to use for her pottery, so nothing is actually wasted. :)
P.S. look TattingChic, for once I actually sewed in those ends on the collar!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Some silk fragments, and more pictures from Melbourne

This was a typical lacy building in the city.

I love how they have decorated these trees, using vintage bits of doilies, and it gives me ideas of how I could use my box of tatted bits...


This is a rather poor scan of some of the silk tatted into stuff. I am also working on a white collar, but it keeps twisting into a spiral, I will have to see how it works when I add in the second row.
I am guessing the silk works out at around 40 or 50 size. The multi coloured bookmark is in 100 cotton from Gütermann, Rosie said it looked as if it had been commissioned by Google!
Sorry for the mess of ends, especially as I have new needles and some excellent needle threaders, so no excuse not to get it all perfect!

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Tatting in Melbourne

This beautiful tatting was displayed in a shop in Melbourne. I went in there to buy a pack of clover shuttles, not because I needed them, but because if I see shuttles anywhere I collect them. The girl working in the shop, (?Jones? in Collins Street) was very friendly and I was able to show her my tatting, because she is taking lessons with the lady who did this work.



I also found a shop selling silks, and I went in to look at the different materials. There were some reels of thread, in bright colours, and as I have enjoyed tatting with LadyShuttleMaker's silk I decided to risk buying a reel and see if it would work. It isn't the easiest thread to use, but I love the result. My computer is downstairs so I can't scan the motifs that I have done so far, but I will as soon as I can.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

I have finished Cornelia


I am so pleased, I finished Cornelia this morning. I had just enough thread.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Time isn't the only thing that is running out!

I am due to go to Australia on the 8th November, to spend some time with my eldest daughter. The travelling time is 36 + hours from when I leave home on Sunday lunchtime to arriving on Tuesday morning in Melbourne, and obviously much of my awake time I would like to be tatting, while I listen to my Mp3 player. But which pattern, which thread? I haven't made my mind up at all yet.


Cornelia is making slow progress, and I would really like to finish it before I leave, as there isn't enough work to last for a whole journey. I am a tad worried that I won't have enough thread to finish, again. I had thought two skeins would be plenty, after the business with Beatrice, but of course Cornelia is a bigger doily. I would recommend the David Reed Smith shuttles for work like this, my one holds the most thread of any of my shuttles while at the same time being light and maniable.


This is another of the Myra Piper designs in black. Not finished or blocked, but quite pretty, nonetheless. Perhaps I should stick with several small designs during the voyage, but then I would need a book of patterns....

Thursday, September 24, 2009

I haven't done much tatting all through the summer, just a few motifs from the Myra Piper book kindly sent by Diane. This is the only one I can find at the moment, and it was made with some thread that was given after David came back from his mother's funeral. She had been a keen lacemaker, and tatter, but I think this wasn't tatting thread, it wasn't six ply.

Then I decided to make Cornelia, from Iris Niebach's book of doilies, in Sherry's lovely silk thread. This colour is Vickie's Lilacs. It has taken me a week to do the first quarter...it may not be finished as speedily as I would like, so I am showing the work in progress.


Saturday, July 18, 2009

Holidays and Hobbies

This is just a thought...but I was listening to a radio programme about the way people like to take holidays that link with their hobby, and I thought that it would be fun if there were tatting holidays. I don't know if anyone would be interested, but I asked David if he would allow some tatters to come and stay a week in the gites, and he said that anytime between September and June would be ok. I wonder if anyone would be interested? Leave a comment or e-mail me if it sounds an interesting idea to you. (I know this bit of France isn't exactly lace-making territory, but if we all got together it could be fun?)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Hommage to Pamela and Jane


I was very impressed by this pattern from the first time I saw it...but felt it was much too complicated for me to attempt. If anyone else has been put off, then I encourage them to give it a try. I did not try to do two colours or add beads down the back, and I still managed to have the eye beads on the wrong shuttle but despite that I think he looks cute. The thread is an vintage reel, probably about a 60, as my little fellow measures 4 inches long. The beads were a couple of those little seed ones from my daughter's beading box. The pattern is from Jane's site, (not the naughty one!) and is called Pamela's gecko. On Pamela's page you can see her collection of geckos, which are truly brilliant, but if like me you were afraid to try then don't be. You do have to follow the pattern step by step, at no point can you just "wing it", or you'll find yourself unpicking, but otherwise it's quite easy.

Monday, June 15, 2009

lace and kittens


This is a picture of my first attempt at Honiton Lace. I bought 36 bobbins on ebay..(oh, what a tempting place that is...I have just bought myself Mary Konior's Tatting in Lace for £5.52) and so I attempted the first two practice strips from Suzanne Thompson's Introduction to Honiton Lace. The threads are very fine, 120 perhaps, and I pulled the first strip to bits as I pulled the pins out. :(

For the link...it's now in my blog list under "life, death and what not to wear..." but I'm afraid the kittens still haven't opened their eyes yet, they obviously haven't read my particular cat care manual which suggests a week as the correct time.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Missing link

I took down the link to my live journal a while back, because I didn't think it was very useful, but if anyone was interested in my other life please let me know and I will put it back. Todays entry for example, contains kittens! (Yes, not that exciting, really)

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Comfort tatting

I should have included this motif in the last post, I did it to try Yarnplayer's Ocean deep HDT. It is always difficult to find the right motif to show the changing colours to their best advantage. This is Masquerade from Mary Konior's book "Tatting with Visual Patterns".
Then I returned to my comfort zone of size 80 thread, and did a snowflake from Jon's book. This one is Astral, done in Tatskool's indigo and Rainbow Bright. Yes, I do need to spend some time finishing the ends, I will, I promise!



My final offering is Heart's Desire by Susan Fuller which I had seen on Mike's blog and Pamela's, but I couldn't find the pattern. I at last found it on a side link chez Tatting Chic. Again Rainbow Bright, this time paired with another favourite thread, Rainforest, by LadyShuttleMaker.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Slow progress





















It is a strange thing how hard it can be to tat, and in all the time since my last post I have only done a third round on "Flowery meadow" and had a go at the spinning wheel pattern. I don't think my tatting abilities are flattered by the thicker thread, but it has been interesting to see the difference. The HDT is Yarnplayer's Fern, and it is lovely...it is just that my work is not very good when you can see the details!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Trying the new thread


New thread, new shuttle...old pattern. I thought I would have another go at Flowery Meadow from Blomqvist and Perrson only this time I have managed the second row without a mistake.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Extreme Tatting


Once I had received my goodies I was keen to finish this square from the Iris Niebach book and start trying out the new threads and shuttles.
So I tatted this despite loads of interruptions and distractions; from the dogs, who are both on heat, and Raphaël who is on holiday and therefore rather more demanding than usual, the cats, one of whom has tummy trouble, plus various visitors and phone calls. I am amazed, it's not top quality but I don't think I've actually made a mistake, and goodness knows it's quite a complex pattern.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Amazing surprise


When Diane began her bobbin lace I offered to send her some pattern plastic, and she offered to send me some different threads, which was really kind. I didn't expect this incredibly generous parcel of goodies! but I am really pleased to receive them. There are three skeins of Yarnplayer's beautiful HDT, which is a nouveauté for me, and I am looking forward to trying them. There are two, yes two, new lacis shuttles and a whole ball of Lizbeth thread, plus whole balls of Coats and Clark's in my favourite size 80, plus a ball of DMC special dentelles in an Easter shade of yellow. The tatting book is by Myra Piper, and is full of pretty snowflake patterns. I count myself very lucky to have such a kind and generous friend! Big thank you, Diane.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

New shuttle and an edging




This edging has taken me ages because I have been caught up with work and studying, but I am showing it, plus my latest shuttle, because TattingChic asked me to. Yes, I too was wooed by the beauty of this delightful shuttle from Shuttle Shop. It is wound with Tatskool's Rainbow Bright HDT in size 80 and I plan to continue with another pattern from a previously unused book. The edging is from "Tatted Handkerchiefs" by Kirstine and Inge Lise Nikolajsen and I cheated by making it just big enough to decorate a photo frame or a greetings card. A whole handkerchief would have taken me too long....lol!
Sharon has asked me what makes me inspired about a pattern and what turns me off.
I have given quite a bit of thought to this...
1, I like it to look "lacy"
2, I like symmetry and repeats.
3, I am not so keen on figurative stuff, not for me butterflies or animals.
4, I like a challenge...yes Hen and Chicks is pretty, but I do want something that makes me have to think, a bit anyway!

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Celtic motif



This is from Rosemarie Peel's book "Tatting for Pleasure" and is done in King Tut quilting thread lapis lazuli.

By the way, I am not pleased with the way my scanner scans tatting...I turn the brightness down and increase the resolution, but it still seems to come out all shiny. Any suggestions?

Monday, January 19, 2009

Rehab tatting and Affluenza

I have been exercising my wrist with a few oddments. Firstly I had a go at clunies or point d'espirit. It had been difficult with bobbins to get them even and the same size...and my tatted ones are no better!
I finished off a couple of shuttles with Mary Konior's "curds and whey" in 100 gutermann and 80 DMC.
I used Pamela's Coral Reef for this motif based on triangles and split rings from the Ring of Tatters magazine.




I had been listening to a programme about "Affluenza" the disease of the Western World, where we want more than we need, and we buy stuff and it makes us unhappy...and I got to thinking about tatting books I have bought, but never done a pattern from. I decided that 2009 would see a change, and so this is a motif from a book I haven't used before. Frivolité by Bernadette Baldelli.
Don't buy it! It's not much good, the patterns aren't very inspiring and the instructions aren't very illuminating either. This was patterned to be worked in 4 rounds, but with a split ring and my first ever split chain I managed it in one go.
I hope the next book is better!



Thursday, January 15, 2009

Pink Lace


I have decided to give up on my pink lace sample...I needed to undo quite a bit of it because I had a pair in the wrong place, and as I return to work on Monday I knew it wasn't going to happen!
I am quite pleased to have got this far, and I have learnt how to do footside much better, and roseground.
The thread was Valdani 50 colour precious pansies.
Now I have to relearn how to use my right hand, and it is painful, LOL!
My challenge for 2009 is to do Elisadusud's point d'esprit . These video lessons make it look quite simple!

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Wrist advice

I wonder if any of you who has already broken their wrist may be able to offer some advice. My boss rang on Tuesday to ask if I could go back to work 10 days early, but I don't think I can legally as my sick note has the date marked on it. So I will have to make up from the first day back and work the first ten days non-stop. The thing is my wrist is still painful, so when the splint comes off how good will it be? Does the pain and stiffness wear off fairly quickly? When I look at the timetable they've set out for me I quail somewhat.

Having said that I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year, and look forward to seeing more of your beautiful tatting. (And thank you for all the comments and good wishes, which have been much appreciated.)