My First Year Present ...To Me!

From The Shuttle Shop , to celebrate my first year in Tat-land, I gave myself a lovely gift! There it is, under the blog name, all wooden, carved, engraved and special!

I could think of no better way to commemorate the year mark of the beginning of the wonderful new aspect of my life, than to celebrate it with the addition of this hand crafted shuttle. It is not only lovely to look at and to hold; but it is also a grand shuttle to tat with.

To the wonderful woman- whoever and wherever you are - who gave a total stranger a peach-coloured, Clover shuttle, and told her to go and learn how to tat, I say a big thank you.

It has been a great year for tatting, for making new on-line friends, for sharing information, reading books and patterns, learning many new skills, and, of course, reveling in the fabulous HDT from Ladyshuttlemaker, Tatskool and Yarnplayer. You are THE BEST!

I am sending this to all of you who helped me so much; I can say it best this way:

For You


With Thanks

The pattern is from Tatting Adventures with beads, shuttle & needle by Judith Connors. The yarn is Yarnplayer's Scarlet, #40.
Anon,

My New Very Best Friend....

Very sharp and to the point. Dependable. Strong. Trustworthy. Wouldn't want to get stuck doing an #80 thread project without it.

The hankie border is a real challenge. I suppose it is the boredom that sets in; if I find I have made yet another error about four rings back....... Out comes THE PIN - another dollar store, can't tat-without tool.

It came in handy for this:



I have been intrigued by this pattern for a while. Because I am concentrating on the border, I did not want to do a large piece, so, the solution, of course: use Impossibly Small Thread!

Sulky thread . From Bev. Dollar store blue beads. Lots of intervention from my new, very best friend.

Tired eyes and grumpy disposition complete!

Anon,

Playing Hanky Panky with the Edge.....

Well - it all started out when I was clearing out Mom's apartment and I found a collection of old hankies. We are talking about sixty year old pieces of fabric. I kept a few of them that look like they will lend themselves to tatted edgings.

There was a green one with an "A" on it, that old "penicillin" green colour. The initial pleased me, as my Mom's and my granddaughter's names begin with this letter. I could give the hanky to my grand-baby, as a keepsake and reminder of her great-grandmother!

I happened to find the perfect thread for the crochet border in my sewing box, which I promptly crocheted to the edge of the hanky in preparation for tatting.

Then I found the tatting thread - or thought I did - Cebelia #20, in that same dated minty green.

Next, the pattern. After careful consideration of about seven hundred thousand, I picked my favourite and was ready to proceed. The fates were not with me, however, for the Cebelia was way too clunky and the pattern was tedious and not quite right for the cloth.

~

Needing a break, I went for a walk and took a few pictures. Upon returning, I looked at them, and the pink flower amidst the sea of green gave me an idea; I sought out my stash ...

There it was. DMC #80 variegated and dark green #80 Majestic. Excited, I began the border .




I LOVE this little border and I cannot do it! I cannot believe how many times I have started this and ended up in complete frustration and BLIND RAGE! I CANNOT do this pattern in this thread. It is not to be! SOB!

So, finally, when I realized it was not going to happen, no matter how I tried, I went looking for a new pattern, tried a few out, and came up with my last choice.

Voilà! It is the last one, looking a little like a bunch of grapes....

Now I have to figure out how to turn the corner. This task may produce another night saddled with that frequent interloper: AM Insomnia.


Anon,

Sock It To 'Em.....

There have been a lot of gifts for little girls lately:




It is lucky that I lurk around the dollar store and buy up all those one dollar batches of beads; there is always lots of choice!



Really, it is outrageous that I have such a collection, for I can never use all these up! (But it is nice to HAVE them, I must admit!)

The last item on my list of blogging bits today is a brag. Right - a big boast! Here it comes:

I HAVE CONQUERED THE TWISTED PICOT!

It is official. I studied the books, sat for hours doing one little motif after another and here is the result.

The first one represents the end of the process. The second one - well, you can see that little twist just sitting there daring me to try to banish it from my repertoire of tatting tricks! Well, I have.

Funny. This was so difficult for me to learn. I kept thinking I had it down pat and then another twisted picot would appear suddenly in the finished work.

What was most helpful were the line drawings in Tatting, by Cathy Bryant. I forget where I saw this book on one of the blogs, but I was so impressed with the discussion that I mailed away for it. I am so pleased that I did, for it is a super tatting reference - especially for beginners.

There is another item - I almost forgot: Gina had mentioned something about how much thread she uses to wrap around her hand when tatting a ring - that got me thinking. Here is the amount of space I need:



Does it differ from yours all that much? I'll bet there is a whole continuum of thread lengths out there around your ring-tatting hands!

Anon,