Chapeau Extraordinaire!

 Best one yet, I think!  The edging turned out well.  

I was thinking it would junk up the crisp look, but, I think not!

Anon,

Stumpy and Border in Tatters!

 #11 Motif Challenge

Kersti's  pattern is fun and fast and I like the shape.  I think it would be a good motif to sew on a little vest or other small child's item. The thread is Coron, #40, received in a thread exchange  with umintsuru.  I love this thread! It is shiny and tightly wound  - a joy to  work with.  It help my tatting look good!

 Anne's Dragon Wing doily pattern, also in Coats, Floreetta, #20,  from umintsuru.  Oh, I do hope I don't run out here! This is a wonderful pattern.  Fun to tat.

 #12 Motif Challenge

Lastly,  violent behaviour erupted when I took down a border that had been on The Lamp.  It was looking sorry - dusty and very amateur, I might add, as I tatted it a year ago!  You can see it here.

You Know Who pounced as soon as it was within reach.  Its new life as an amusement for The Cat has been born.  Enjoy, Cat!

Mary Konior Border in Tatters!

Anon,

Turquoise for Mini Boss Maeve and A Blueberry

This is the pattern, thread and beads I will use to finish the trim - by default.  I wanted to use the same turquoise that is in the motif, but ran out.  So, I picked this colour, from the giveaway stash, as it is  the closest match.

I had planned to tat Ruth  Perry's edging,  but it is overwhelming for the little hat.  Nice pattern though.

 Motif Challenge #10

Once again, the coffee shop helped alleviate the tedium of the simple border.

 It was there that I began to think of this, while I was tatting the border:

A number of years ago, I took an Arscura art course about colour from a local Beach artist; it was illuminating.  Though I was not into an art, (except always photography) or craft-type endeavour, I was hoping the lessons would stimulate my writing as that is what I was immersed in at the time. It did.  I learned a lot about my craft, and about myself during this amazing course.

Lately, those lessons have been popping back into in my thoughts, and all the stuff that I learned in an unusual way - as this is Rudolph Steiner's methodology -  is becoming useful all these years later in a completely different medium.  

The blueberry was on the table and I kept looking at it, wondering what it was trying to say to me.  Then, I realized that the problems I have been having with purples and lilacs and mauves are all solved by that little berry.

I know when I add berries to my oatmeal and they heat up, the oatmeal around the berry turns blueish  till I further disturb the cereal with a spoon to reveal the pinky-lilac colour leaking out closer to the berry...

Aha!  BLUE + RED = PURPLE!

I realize that regular colour class will teach this as a rule, but I learned this experientially, and so I now know that when I mix the oatmeal, I actually see the blue and the red in the porridge. The infamous blue-purple and red-purple dilemma is now solved for me, as I never could figure why purple was a cold or a warm colour, a red tone or a blue one.!

It all makes sense and oatmeal is smart.

Anon,

The Boss WIll Be Beautiful

#8 Motif Challenge

It is certainty difficult to photograph the hat to look as cute as it actually does! I hope The Boss is pleased. This is definitely not one of my favourite things to create anymore - too much crochet, not enough tatting!

Once again, the tip from Jane, about the self-threading needles, makes my stitching look as if a grown-up did the sewing up!

I used 2 strands of the merino wool in that teeny tiny, needle, and it was so simple to attach the border.  I had tried it at first in the light brown thread; it just didn't look right, so on to the wool.  Those  needles are a fantastic.  Thanks, Jane!

However, there must be another - for Mini-Boss Maeve, and I need your input. I am getting tired of all the pink and white business and I like the look of this - with some edging at the bottom in lime or turquoise, I think, and white beads to tie in the rest of the hat....What do you think?

A friend of mine is in a leg cast and using crutches. I thought she could benefit from one of Vicki Clarke's Band-Aid Hearts:

#9 Motif Challenge

***Don't Forget about the FRINGE ELEMENT TATTERS “FALL INTO TATTING” in Cambridge, Ontario, next month. Here is some info on the event.

Anon,

Mini-Boss-Maeve Must Have One Too!

On the hook, but no tatting as yet....

 My First #-D flower!

 

Rushing to go to work, so the colours are wonky....
I have sewn it on the hat and hope it is stable enough.  I am not too handy with needle and thread, so I hope it survives the wash this winter!  Am still working on the border...

I have signed up for Sharon' design class.  This is a year of firsts, I must say.

You know, I said I would never use beads in my tatting and that I would never  tat 3-D flowers, as I thought both of these things unappealing and unattractive!  I also said to S.M. last year that I would probably  not take a design course, as I was simply a technician and not a designer.  Hmmm.

Well, yesterday, at lunch, this is what happened.  I was fooling around with some of the giveaway thread ...

#8 Motif Challenge

It may not be big, bold, or beautiful, but it's my baby!

Funny, but I really enjoyed taking the thread and beads out of my kit and without knowing where I was going produced something from nothing.

The design course is definitely something that will benefit this tatter!

Anon,

Confessions of Collections

First, SHOW:

  #7 Motif Challenge

NOT FINISHED!
This is a fun one. I think it is going to look amazing. 

The Boss is going to love it...

Then, TELL:

 Took a few photos while in the midst of an organizational frenzy.  I wanted to see what I have managed to collect since I began tatting.  This is the final result after some purging and giveaways of two short years of amassing.  Yah, I REALLY NEEDED all  of this.  Every little thread and bobbin! I KNOW anyone reading this knows exactly how I feel!  : ))

Those white stacked plastic containers are almost empty, and not particularly large, so they perch prettily on my table, very practically. I am well prepared for further developments of the acquisitional  kind. Is this not a good thing?  I think you will concur.

The orange-lidded container holds patterns I have scanned and used am am keeping for another tat.

The two bins are where I keep all the thread in my cupboard

.  The small pic shows the two bins, side by side.  There really isn't a WHOLE lot of thread , really...

The books and the beads....  a fine, hearty collection....

The paisley box (I thought of Sally!) holds all my tatted treasures.  

Still a modest sized box, but will need to be replaced this year I am certain.

Larger photo of all my pretties in their special place....

Ready for Autumn, or as they call it 

...the Fall...hmm...

Anon,

The Cat Approves Pink

 The Cat was interested in the thread for The Boss's new hat.

 I am tatting with two new facets to the technique.

Who knew that I was holding my Aero backwards!  Thanks, Marty, for mentioning somewhere, that you hold the shuttle with the hook facing right..  Religiously, I always hold it left, just as I always posted the shuttle. Tried it Marty's way and, voilà! Far better for me.  Everybody's different, but this works for moi!

After two years of determined enforcement,  I am having to un-learn two things at the same time!  My poor brain!

Whatever;  here is The Boss's hat in the making.  The crocheted part is done, thank goodness, as I don't like crocheting at all anymore! I am finally doing the vintage edging I have had on my desk for about a year;  it is so simple, but very pretty. 

The flower will be the corsage from Tatting Patterns by Lyn Morton.  Three kinds of pink and some beads.

The Lizbeth is splitting like CRAZY as usual.  What is it with me and Lizbeth?  And that is mostly what I have in my stash....

Anon

Post-Posting Pulchritude

Here is the result of the first non-posted thing I have tatted since the beginning of tatting times.

Jon's pattern 'Sweet Rose,'  from her Snowflake book.  

The thread is Tatskool's Vanilla Sky

I am impressed with the way it feels, as I never would have believed my tension would have been so affected by throwing that shuttle through the tatting, as the ds is performed.  Live and learn...

Anon,

Post No More

#5 Motif Challenge

All that talk about posting the shuttle before you close the ring.... Pshaw!  Suddenly, I realize that the ring is MUCH neater and more symmetrical if I do not do this! 

Example:  Jon's pattern 'Sweet Rose,'  from her Snowflake book.  This is the second one I tatted.  The thread is Tatskool's Vanilla Sky, which I have been saving for a long while.  It is wonderful.  There is no doubt about it; Coats threads are lovely and firm compared to Omega!

This is actually more purple than blue in real life.  I think this will be nice when completer and it is not floppy.  This motif feels SOLID! 

I kept those beads for the right thread and just knew they would be perfect with Vanilla Sky.   They are all uneven and lopsided, but the colour is spot on.

#6 Motif Challenge

The first one, of course, was all wrong, but the rings are done as I always do them and they are not flat.

I have been assiduously doing this from the start.  For some reason, I tried it again without this manoeuver and saw how much better the ring lies.  Very flat.  I am stunned.  Now, it takes all my concentration NOT to put the shuttle through before closing as the information is firmly entrenched in my memory. I will un-tat it.

The thread here was a variegated Omega in size #30, I think.  Pretty, but so very soft.

At work I spotted this thread that is remarkably like the Perlovka and I tried it.  Just as nice!  Soft and a bit fuzzy, but I like it for a change of pace.  And the colours are pretty.  About a size #30.

 Off to finish the snowflake...

I forgot to add that this all came about because I read  Jon's comment (it might have been someone else's!) in the Forum at InTatters that stated it seemed odd to post the shuttle in case of a mistake... then it would be easier to correct.  That is indeed a rather negative reason for adopting this method, if you think about it!  Everyone's different, but for me - no more posting!

Anon,

Not Guilty!

This is tatted with (Czech) Perlovka #8, a perle cotton I received from  Ice Princess, in Germany.  The thread is soft, a wee bit fuzzy and a 3-ply twist so, in spite of the great colours, I was sure I wouldn't like it, but I find it to be lovely to tat with.  Soft, yes, but there is something very nice about the way it feels both while on the shuttle and also in the finished product.  Thanks, Ice Princess! You were right.

If you want to try this thread you can visit The Thread Exchange and get in touch with Ice Princess yourself!

Here is another - I love the colours...

 #4 Motif Challenge

These patterns were from this book, which I am in the process of rediscovering.

Next:  Crazy Mom sent me wonderful, tiny Miyuki Rocaille #15 beads, and suggested I use #80 thread with them.  I have very little #80 and not good colours for the beads, so I tried them with some T.T.E. #50 Omega thread and this worked very well.  I used this book:

I found a pattern that I thought I would love, but I am learning that my taste does not run to the very intricate and very fiddly!

Not my cuppa !

 

I tatted enough to feel that I had given it a valiant attempt, but decided to be complete with this particular experiment that finished only about an eighth of the pattern . I am enjoying a new attitude of being honest about my preferences, even though it may be only to myself!

 

Crazy Mom also sent me a package of "threaders".  Using these things was the only way I could get those beads onto the motif , as my little hooks at size .05 were way too large!

I used one of these gum things, but pulled it all the way open first, so it was one long piece of plastic, and then threaded it through an individual picot and threaded it back on itself, pulling it through the picot  to make an opening into which I pulled the motif thread, using a crochet hook.  How's that for obfuscating dialogue!

Never did it that way before, because I did  not have teeny, tiny beads!

Now I do!  I will save those luscious beads for a worthy motif and use the threaders, and will probably tat with #40 or #50 thread, which works just fine!

Thanks to my tatting buddy, S.M.,  I was able to figure out a pattern that had absolutely flummoxed me.

With the puzzle solved, I proceeded to tat the motif and quickly ascertained that I did not like or enjoy it at all, so again, I said farewell, and jettisoned the project with absolutely NO GUILT!  This is indeed progress.  Would that I had learned how to do this DECADES ago!

Now to a crocheted piece for The Boss's Brother.

Cute and boyish, right?

This is a prototype for The Boss's new fall hat - her mom's request.  

Brown with a big, pink,  lacy flower on the side.

I think my DDL imagines a crocheted flower, but my creative path runs more to this sort of tatted beauty...

What do you think?  
How am I going to attach those three pink motifs?

At work, we have some three ply cotton - perle, in shades of pink.  I think it might be very like the Perlovka, so I am excited to see what different pinks I can find, and I might try it as it is also #8 - but an unknown brand....

 Last, but not least:

 This purchase, an absolute must-have, is entirely Elizabeth's fault!
It arrived this week from LaCossette.

Sweet!

Don't forget about Tat Days with Fringe Element Tatters, 

in September, in Cambridge, Ontario. Check it out!

 One last question...  Where are we with

?

Anon,

Cheers For The Tartan Cluny!

 Thread:  Watermelon from the Good Doctor (Von Threadmore)

Yessirree, 

that would be me, tooting my own horn,

which is far better than being hoisted on my own shuttle  petard!

(Thanks BJ - haven't heard that one in aeons!)

Though I have a long way to go to perfect this technique, I am now very comfortable with the weaving and am really - yes, I do mean it this time - ready to take a hiatus from tally tatting.  I do not want to get overly bored with the designs, so I will leave them for a bit.  Just for a little bit...   C'est  au revoir, mais pas adieu!
Anon,