Monday, September 30, 2013

Taking Time For Tiny

...threads, that is. I used Ninetta's pre-wound shuttles for this. She had the shuttles filled with DMC #80, and also had loaded some nice beads, so I tatted till one shuttle was empty:


One other thing to show and that is from Sherry's T.I.A.S. Day Three. I believe Day Four is up, so I had better have a look.


The Mystery Doily is progressing nicely - still! 

Tonight will be a test as I am going to finish Row Too - and you know 
that means a final join..... : O

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Time Off From Trouble

Sharon Briggs has designed some lovely square patterns. These two are tatted with the last of the Karey Solomon HDT #30.

I thought I had already posted about this but apparently I have not, as I cannot find the post anywhere... I am a bit mystified by this - maybe I erased them?

Anyway, here they are, a welcome diversion from the Mystery Doily - which, I am pleased to report, is coming along quite splendidly!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

With A Lot Of Help From My Friends

Thank you Jon and Ninetta!!!

ROUND ONE COMPLETED! 
No Mistakes!


It took a week and a lot of hours and over 6 tries, 
a lot of wasted thread, and my teeth are sore from grinding!
Never dismiss dyslexia as some form of excuse.
 It is a real naughty problem for some of us! 
Right Ms. S.W.?

Anyway, there is a great tatting story around this doily. 

I have been following Ninetta Caruso’s photos on Flickr. Here tatting is wonderful, (Her kissing minnows border that appears today on Umintsuru’s blog) and she uses very skinny thread and colourful  plastic shuttles that I have never seen anywhere.

So, I emailed her to tell her I love her tatting and quipped something about needing her magic shuttles to get through the Mystery Doily. I asked her what they were and where she got them as they were new to me. Just little kidding around I thought....

Well, next thing, in the mail:


This amazing woman sent me some of her shuttles - her own shuttles with thread on them - because the store she gets them in was out of shuttles when she went to find some for me! Can you believe it!

And look at the tatting - the little beaded tree and the metallic thread in the butterfly - gorgeous! Thank you so much Ninetta! 

After I opened her package, of course I had to try the shuttles right away. 

Strange not to have the hook, but I began the tatting trip with Clovers, and am used to holding a crochet hook, so I plunged ahead and tatted this right away, without even a pattern as I was so impatient!

Then:

The biggest test lay ahead... the question was to see if the magic shuttles could indeed do the trick.

Last night and this morning I worked slowly and with bated breath on the seventh try at the first round of the doilyand with Jon’s  picture blown up large, my magic shuttles shuttles and a long crochet hook. It worked! How I love magic!

Someone around here was not at all pleased with the you-know language and the final whoops of joy. Not at all impressed...


I had disturbed him from his own enjoyment...

Isn’t he cute though?

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Fraternizing WIth Frauberger


I have wanted to try this Tina Frauberger pattern for a while and this seemed a perfect time to do so, since I started the Mystery Doily again and so have little to show. 

The good news is that the new work is much improved, but I have not got to joining the round yet... we shall see.


In what seems another person’s life, I did a lot of knitting and crocheting. That was my job and my hobby; I taught, sold, stitched and designed. Now, I have absolutely no desire to be near any of it.

The knitting stuff is long gone - library, tools wool - everything. Same with the crochet tools, books and stash, EXCEPT for my beloved Profi hooks. They are rather expensive for a crochet hook and my absolute favourites, so I could not bear to part with them.  

Lucky I kept them, for I will be needing them and I will tell you why in the next post. 

In the meantime, here is a tiny sampling of my previous life, before I was soundly struck by the tatting cupid. : ))


Monday, September 23, 2013

Taking A Break? Not Bloody Likely....

I am here:


   I posted this on InTatters:

Re: Georgia Seitz's Mystery Doily

I love the pattern and am less than pleased with my run at it - particularly as I see I have now followed the 4-2-4 count but seemed to have somewhere changed the last bit from 2-4 to 4-4! I thought I was doing so well! 

I had had terrible problems joining in the first row, but managed to finish it.

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I am just beyond here:

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I notice, as I am working with Cebelia #30, the thing is floppy, and either I am lazy because I am concentrating on the pattern or I am just lazy period, the stitches are all too loose and the picots too big. I think I should finish this round and start again with a 6-ply...

Also, the suggestion to do the chains unflipped is brilliant, but my chains do not look very good done this way. Even with the practice, they are not very even so I should do them the regular way... means a lot of flipping about. : (

It is a wonderful pattern. The dense but fluffy effect without any picots at all except on the outside is very appealing to me.

Then, I started again and the result was really small! My tatting was much tighter and I cannot unfurl the elements to continue with sent ease. I am beyond frustrated with this.

Maybe I should switch threads? This is not the answer, as I think it was in the T.A.T. course I learned that a good tatter can make any thread look good. This is a depressing thought at the moment.

Maybe take up welding instead? Taxidermy?  Sorry Mr. G.....       : ((

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Friday, September 20, 2013

Downed by Dyslexia

I could spit I am so frustrated and should know better. There are just some things I cannot do.

So, I have to ask tatters out there if you can see what I am doing wrong.  You know how I like to figure things out for myself. Well, this one I cannot. It has been HOURS and I am so stuck.

The pattern says to complete 8 rows, joining the last round where appropriate. That is not a lot of help for someone like me!

Here is where I have cut back to, after many goes at it:


Time to take a break. Grrrrrr.  : ((

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Turtle Trudging......


Pattern from: A New Approach to Tatting 
by Yusai Shokoin. 
The Mystery Doily has slowed all tatting to a snail’s pace...  (So what! It is just a mixed metaphor - nothing to call in the tatting police about....)

This is all I have managed to do in the past two days. It’s all try and try again, I’m afraid, and that is using a plain, old, ivory #30 Cébélia! 

Should be a while before I will be able to show you anything. Thanks to the tatters at InTatters, I have good instructions that Frivole addresses here.        

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Charmed By The Challenge

I am so inspired by Jon's tatting of the Mystery Doily. It seems a to be a wonderful and  quite challenging piece and I have the original thread I bought for the Trellis Doily, 
- a #30 Cèbèlia, in ivory.

This innocuous-looking beginning took me hours to do. Now, however, I see what is happening in the pattern and it has become a bit easier. It is not for the faint of heart though!
Then, I figured out a Japanese pattern that confounded me last year - it was not difficult last night at midnight! Go figure. 

The dark beads are actually a lovely dark lilac, but look quite ghastly in this photo. 

This will entertain me briefly as I begin the Myster Doily. : ))’

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Monday, September 16, 2013

Minimalist Madness

You all know by now how I do not like having "stuff" about that I will not use. Makes me crazy! So, here is my new dilemma.

I will never use all the Perfect Quilter I so cavalierly ordered. Not in this lifetime. Never. 

So, I would like to exchange some of it for Lizbeth #40 or #80 or another comparable thread.

Here are the colours I am interested in swapping. This is also posted on InTatters.


If any of these appeal to you send me an email (bottom of blog). First come first serve, should  there  be more than one reply.


ALL GONE! 
Thanks Tatters!  

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Courting The Collar


Remember I spoke about the tatting on Justice Bader Ginsberg's robes? Well I was inspired and this is be result. 

This was a relaxing tat, except for a minor inconvenience caused by the #10 Cèbèlia that I used. 

Should you try this pattern, count the repeats carefully and make sure that you pay attention to the end chains. I had to fake it for I had counted the wrong number of repeats initially and also the number of picots on the chains around the corners. Easy to do, especially with my particular spatial interpretations!

Therefore, I had to ...ummm... fake it, to get the right result.

Wendy (who by chance is tatting the same pattern!) suggested that I did not have to follow the pattern and could change the size of the thread. Well, I often do make adjustments, but in this case, I wanted the collar to look exactly the same as the one in Jan Stawasz's pattern, so I bought a ball of  #10 thread.

Thread??  
More like hemp! 
Rubbed the skin right off my finger!

Friday, September 13, 2013

Shameless!

Diane left a comment the other day...

... I really think I need to choose a small motif for trying
out all my threads, and I don't want to be a copy cat. ...

Well, I don’t feel bad about being a copycat at all! In fact, I am one a lot of the time.  

Case in point: Frivole tatted this the other day and I really liked it. I had one colour remaining of the Perfect Quilter to tat and could not stomach the thought of tatting the same motif yet again, so I pulled out the Mary Konior and without guilt tatted up the same pattern!

Though it does look better in one solid colour as Frivole has shown, I have to say I am pretty pleased with the result with the Perfect Quilter.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Last of the Lot

I am running out of steam on these. There are now 12 of them with one remaining green colour-way that I have not tatted into the motif. So, I am shamelessly (told you, Diane!) copying Frivole, tatting that last colour using a Mary Konior pattern she just used. Then, I am moving on!

Still the tension with #80 elude me. The new hand position is working all right but the tension is definitely not consistent yet. Maybe jumping from the #10 to #80 is not conducive to good tension, but I figure it is a good workout. One of these days I am hoping I will surprise myself with flawless tension... HA!

Things have to improve as I have such a stash of Perfect Quilter! 

It was impulsive to get all those spools of thread, but I really am not enjoying the threads I have left much - mainly Lizbeth  - which has never been a favourite. Also, shipping is so costly from the US that buying thread has become problematic. Offered less than half-price, these threads were a steal, but if I don’t get the hang of using them, they will not have been such a great.   : O

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Fundamentally Fixated

Oh, yes. There are more...

I LOVE this one. The greens are lovely.

So far:


Also, I have begun something...


Unfortunately for my digits, which feel as though they are tatting with hemp, I am using #10 thread. But that is what the pattern calls for, right Wendy??

On the plus side, I am over half way done with the first round and there are only three rows... So, hopefully, my fingers will not become too raw!

Monday, September 9, 2013

Homecoming



On April 1, 2010, these comments appeared in tat-ology, 
when I offered to send the book out to Tat-Land:

49 comments...
                  Gina Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 1:09:00 PM EDT
                 I would LOVE to see it! Very generous of you

                 
                  Tatskool Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 1:12:00 PM EDT
                  Oh wow what a cool idea, I would love that.
                
                  Jane Eborall Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 1:26:00 PM EDT
                  What a splendid idea. Will you eventually get it back?
                  Do hope it doesn't get lost in the post.
                  
Fox Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 1:34:00 PM EDT
YESSS!!! I am so pleased you three responded so quickly! 
I was hoping for this exact thing to happen.

...
The List:
~beginning April 2010~

Gina
Tatskool
Jane
Sally
Trayna
Paula
Dale Marie
sewmuchfun 

tatting-marie
Diane 
Arty Lady
 Wendy
Suneeti
Margaretha
Liyarra  
Karen
Miranda
Bree
Martha
Bev
Bonnie
Krystle
Michelle 
Jeanne 
Leah
Joëlle
LAST STOP
AUGUST 2013
with...
Margaret
********** 

Well, here it is a few years later, and I am pleased to say Angeline has returned safely home, looking to be in pretty good shape too!

Thank you to all Tatters out in Tat-Land who visited with the book and took such care.

It is poignant to see that the first person to respond to the post and the first to receive Angeline was Gina. In retrospect, that is most fitting.

Jane, I am glad that your worries did not come to fruition! There was never a problem that could not be solved or any mishap along the journey; it all went smoothly.

All went well except that poor Margaret, last on the list, had to pay the awful postage charge for the voyage home! Thank you, Margaret, and thank you for the tatting, thread and pretty card enclosed.
And Bob’s yer uncle.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Obviously Obsessed


And another two ... that makes it seven. Actually I have tatted eight, but one of those was a wash because I missed a ring.

I could not get this last one right and must have un-tatted and cut it at least six times, which is a lot on such a tiny project! 

I think this occurred because this particular Perfect Quilter is very thin ( because of the the dye??)  - it seems much thinner than the others. 

Also, it seems especially tiny to me as I am using a #10 on another project that I have begun, but more about that another time.

Now, the Ellen Stafford pattern: I am not going to continue this doily. I got halfway through the next round and realized I was not liking it much. The last round was removed.



Tatting this did inform me about how the Perfect Quilter tats up and also how I do with#80 thread, so the exercise was fruitful, but finished it now is. Maybe it will make its way to The Boss. 

NOW... THE NEWS!

Terri’s First Project!

Terri is someone I met a while ago when buying some needles at a local craft store. We got to talking about tatting, which she had never done before and I directed her to tat-ology. She seemed pretty enthusiastic, but you can never tell.

Well! A few days ago I was in that shop again and lo and behold there was Terri and though she was shy at first in front of the camera, she became braver as she saw I was obviously so very delighted with her first project! Isn’t it just great? And she loves to tat!!!


Shy no more, Terri!

One last thing...

I had some thread on the shuttles, so tried out a pattern in the Occhi Peacock book - all chains.  I rather like it.

Friday, September 6, 2013

GottagetalifeGottagetalifeGottagetalifeGottagetalife..


Yes, yet another Blomqvist & Presson motif tatted in #80 Perfect Quilter.

Liyarra, you have created a perfectly mad tatter.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

More...

This pattern is addictive... Here is another colourway. The pattern is also deceptively difficult! One must pay attention to stitch counts, so as not to miss picots. 

I kept making counting errors and un-tatting beyond what any sane person would do. However, it is done and I am going to tat a few more. I think.

These motifs measure just over 2 inches, for those who wondered.

This is the second one I tatted( first shown in yesterday’s post) 
in this palette; I missed a ring on the first go-around. 

Yes, I am a bit obsessive, yes, yes, I know....

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Shuttle Chic


I love how my shuttle matches the thread in this motif. 

Progress as of a few days ago 
on this Ellen Stafford pattern:


Naughty Knots

These occurred regularly in my new Perfect Quilter, but only in the orangey thread in the second photo. 

The other two colourways were wonderful. The first one, with lilac, that I have posted before was the sample from Liyarra that got me hooked on this thread:
This next one was the motif that was difficult to tat, because the thread clung to itself and was impossible to un-tat.  

I think it is because the black dye is so different than the others and was also fuzzy. You can actually see the difference in smoothness in the thread as it changes colour. I love the result tatted up, but this one is really a nightmare to use when mistakes occur. And they did! Nasty to un-tat this #80--ish thread.
Next is a fun palette, and I just saw as I posted the photo where I erred! I could not figure out why the shape of the motif was wonky! But, you can see the colours and that is what the experiment is about. I have lots more to try out. Love the Perfect Quilter . : )


This motif is a pattern by Blomqvist and Presson.

I am amazed at how I have taken to tatting with this tiny thread. Though I started four years ago with sewing thread, (silly me!) I see that a lot has changed in the final product since then when I tat with #80. I do like it very much. : )

p.s. Thanks to Snowy who said this was her go-to pattern. I had tatted it before but had forgotten about it. It is one of my favourite small motifs.

Have a look at Snowy’s work. She is so talented and tats so beautifully in such teensy threads.