The Grass is Greener...

One For The Kid

Gray will be three next month, and I have been looking for the right T-shirt to do justice to the goat.  Perfect!

The G-man looks wonderful in shades of orange and he loved the goat. When I asked if he would like to have it if  I were to sew it sewn on a shirt, his response was very animated - so to speak!  It will be fun to give it to him on his day.

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Mail today! 

A sweet gift from Livi and 

wonderful new colours from Jess.  

Oooh, those threads are pretty! 

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Angeline Update: 

The book is winging her way 

to Miranda.  : ))

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Sneak Peek:

Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

Okay - so I am crazy unhinged tremendously a wee bit obsessed.  How's that for an oxymoron! I just had to finish it...

From Iris Niebach's book, Tatting Together Square Motifs,    #96

design by Ulla Bendtsen 

Thread Lizbeth #40

It is not very good: I had trouble getting those arms to lie properly and also had the same problems that Tatting Fool had with the design - it's ALL her fault.

It's is a tough one. But it is finished.  So there.

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The blue thread from Tattin'Kat is so pretty.  I had it wound on the shuttles and raring to go before I had even sewn in the threads of the motif above.

Armed with my newest, favourite LaCossette shuttle, 

I started something completely new.  

I'm not telling yet!

Tortured Tatting

You know I will finish just about anything, but I am drawing the line on this one.

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This is from an Iris Niebach book. The pattern is gorgeous, but for me, impossible to tat well, even though I figured out quite easily HOW to tat it.

I find the patterns in this book ( Tatting Together Square Motifs) very fiddly and though the designs are so lovely, the finished shapes have been so manipulated that I find the process not very pleasurable. Challenging? Yes. But for me, not satisfying.

After 812 days of tatting I felt I  could admit that!  Yes, 812 days, give or take a day or so.  That is how long I have been at it and I do not think I have missed many days along the way.  I think I am going to stick with it.  : ))

A satisfying tat over the weekend that 

was also a perfect challenge:

#95                                       Lizbeth #40

This is Calendula,  by Iris Niebach, from her Tatting Fantasia book #1.  I tatted it with these colours, because I had a lot of lilac on a shuttle and I am obsessive about using up thread before I wind more.

I do not think I would normally have chosen the combination, but I rather like it.

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As with most of the Iris Niebach designs, I had to un-tat a gazillion times, and I am so thankful that I have this tool:

What do you tatters out there in Tat-Land use, you who tat with a bobbin shuttle as I usually do, when you need to un-tat?  I found a pin just did not do the trick.

I had two of the Tat-Pics and lost the Holly - or so I thought - so I orderd another from David. (God forbid I should end up without a spare!)

Then my son found my grandson wandering about the house with a "deadly weapon." ( my son's description - ah, young parents!) So, now I have three.  I feel secure and at peace knowing I have an abundance. Doesn't take much!

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Today, a surprise in the post:

Goodies from Tattin'Kat:

Thank you so much!   Enclosed was a sweet little tatting bag with the pockets inside and a drawstring.  Very useful, and there is a lovely note (kind words, indeed!) on a huge red heart the Tattin'Kat and her little daughter made for me. 

I love the colours of the vintage thread so much that I am going to load up my shuttles tonight, now that I have decided not to finish that motif!

First, though, I might have to get rid of someone's excesive energy... This is for Margaret...

No Yolk

#94

Tatted in #80 Lizbeth

from here:

Pretty isn't it?

Delicious Dalia

Of course, as with any Iris Niebach design, I have to start a few times.  This one took three beginnings and a couple of very big un-tatting sessions.

'Dalia'  from Tatting Fantasia by Iris Nieback                                           #93

However, I learned a lot about block tatting, because Iris explains it so well.

I learned to complete a ds before turning the work, where you are to join to the picot of the last row; and also to tat the small picot at the beginning of the next chain of the block.  These are the best blocks I have ever tatted.

It was impossible for me to tat this without my own markings and colourings.  The written part is multi- circled and colour codded.   Works for me.  If not for my printer, my books would be a mess!

Heart Nouveau - A New Fave

I absolutely LOVE this pattern.  
This is the second attempt, the successful one:

Design by Karey Solomon                Lizbeth #40,  Delica beads         #92

I wanted to tat this, which I think is the prettiest heart I have ever seem, and I had some new Lizbeth thread in a gorgeous purple. 

With no thought to embellishing the motif when I began, I kept thinking of my box of colourful beads and just knew the perfect shade of purple was in there... waiting....  There was!  

The first attempt:

Wonky pattern.  I was so disappointed, but liked the motif so much, I continued anyway, as if it were without errors and completed the pattern.  I could not - for the first time ever- destroy this defective piece of tatting.  I still have it. Ends sewn in and everything.

Did I say I love this pattern? Almost as much as the other heart I tatted of Karey's here.  I had so much trouble with that one, but in the end  had lots of help from kind-hearted tatters.

Yesterday, in the mail, I got even more help, a lovely panda card and a tatted heart to boot from Martha!  What a lovely surprise!

Thank you so much Martha.  I will use your tips the next time I tat this and I will be tatting it again for sure.  I like it almost as much as Heart Nouveau above.

Interestingly enough, I received a shuttle I had ordered from LaCossette in the same delivery and look how that foxglove (I HAD to have it!) shuttle matches Martha's thread. Makes me happy! So does Martha's tatting, which is beautiful 'in the flesh.'  I have another hero!

With ends of threads, I have been practicing the SSSR, as I have not used it in a pattern in ages. It is such fun to match the thread and the shuttles.  Simple pleasures!

Now, A Big Rant.

What is the deal with Blogger and the verification code?  I cannot stand it!  It takes me so long to duplicate that damned thing and type it in the little box.  

This chore challenges my dyslexia big time, for I cannot type without looking at the letters or it all comes out backwards! So, I have to watch every letter and it takes a long time .

So, I will not be leaving any comments until they stop this new thing that makes me crazy! I am going to complain to them right after I post this.

I do not have verification turned on in tat-ology and I have not had a problem with spam.  Well, there is one related problem:  Crazy Mom's comments get sent to spam every time!  Other than that - no probs.

Successful Scallops

#91

Martha left a helpful comment about the edging: "Make the picots smaller," she said, and I did.

The result is a much more shapely edge.  I was attempting to achieve the scalloped effect that the book displays.

I do not crochet for a reason.  After years with the hook in my hand, I became supremely bored with it, and also tended to get a mightily sore wrist - which made trucker-mouth arrive promptly on cue!

It was time to move on. Fortunately, in timely fashion, tatting made its appearance.

Now, my wrists are fine.  Unfortunately, trucker-mouth just moved camp...

#1 was the first one I tatted - pretty but no distinct border.

#2 is the same centre, but I cut off the original border and crocheted it with crossed stitches at the beginning of the curved chains, hoping the scalloped edge would emerge.  It did not. Also, I sliced through picots while removing the edge, and had to re-tat the whole thing. Bahh.

#3 is the last motif before I added the crocheted edging.  The picots are just about half the size.

I dare you to tat this without a picot gauge!

p.s.  This is my 700th post!  

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Bit Edgy and an Angeline Update

Pattern by Karey Solomon          Thread#40  Lizbeth Pattern          #90

This came out so much better than the last one!

The pattern is strange at the end, so I tatted the last few chains visually and the result was, for once, pretty good. LOVE this pattern. : ))

Now the edge issue.

This is the motif after I ripped out the crocheted edge, because I realized it did not look lovely and scalloped like the one on the book jacket.

See? The one in the lower righr-hand corner... 

So, I tried something... can anyone figure out what I did? 

My method did not fix the problem. In fact, I ruined the edging, as I also missed crocheting one picot and in a full blown fury I simply cut it off.  Occam's Razor - bah humbug. 

There is no scalloped edge.  It looks bad.  I have to tat the thing again.

This is the first one.  

I should have left well enough alone!

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Angeline Update

The book has visited 15 people, (the first being our Gina!) has crossed the pond, been down under and to lands of the East, and is now in Western USA with Karen! 

She says Angeline is faring well and looks to be in great condition.  Thank you, Everyone, for keeping her safe and unharmed.  

Now she will be entering the third year of travel, as the journey began on International Tatting Day, 2009 - April 1.

There are still 22 more stops along the way, so I will not be seeing the book for a while yet! 

Please, at this time, do not ask to be put on the list.  Thanks!

If you click on the Angeline picture, in the sidebar, you will be taken to the list, here, which I keep updated.

One last thing.  It would be great if everyone kept the book for no longer than three weeks, give or take a day or so.  That should keep things moving along a bit better...

Thanks again for your co-operation.

Egg-zactly!

#86

Exactly  - tatted with a crocheted edge! 

I loved this design and have been inspired by the eggs that JB has been tatting.

Using this book, I found the design I liked.  Of course it just had to have those very LONG picots:

I had to cut a picot gauge to the right size, as the gauge I use sometimes( not often) is the wrong one.

Until now, I did not understand the difference between the two. That dyslexia thing again.  I could read the words, but the concept eluded me...  Why could I not measure a picot with either gauge? Well, let me explain!


That will not work because the long strip will measure the exact length I need and the picot gauge that you use horizontally will only measure one half of the required height!

You have to double the measurement you choose in the horizontal method, for  the tatter has to consider BOTH sides of the picot to measure off the thread needed to tat the picot. Good Fox!

This gives you an ideas as to how small that motif is.  It looks larger in the top of the post, but all the eggs in this bppk if tatted in #40 will be quite small.

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Then, are you ready? Sigh.... more of these...

#87 

TA DA!!!

#88

And just one more thing...

#89

Design by Karey Solomon
Thread #40 Lizbeth.  

Roger, Copy That.

Or, more accurately, I copied Frivole's motif, designed by Roger aka Freedman, which is free online.  I wanted to see how it would look with the centres in another colour.

#85-100 Motif Challenge

Then, another of Karey Solomon's designs...
from 'Tatting Times Two.'
I really love this shape.

I played around with some ideas:

... and ended up attaching the motif to 

something S. sent me last year.  

I use it all the time on my desk as a paperweight, 

though I think its intended purpose is as a bookmark.