Cluny Compensation

...for all the time and energy not to mention metres of wasted thread!  I had to put down that Sunflower pattern as it was twisting all over the place. Maybe I should use another type of thread. I am still working away at it, but sometimes it works to put it down for a few days...

In the meantime, I finished the cluny piece. Clunies used to be my tatting boogeyman, before the Blomqvist Blues took over! They do not seem to be so confronting now that there is something way more difficult for me to kvetch about.

#8/100      Pattern: “Rose de Noel" by Elisadusud    

#40 HDT ‘Garden Afternoon’ by Yarnplayer

Well, they are not perfect by any means, but these clunies - and there are a lot of them - are a lot better looking than most of the ones I tatted a few months ago. Maybe they are a mite misshapen, but after all there are 24 of them!

I suppose the trick is to bite off more than you can chew and then go back and see what was so difficult about the precious Mount Everest.

♯♯♯♭♭♯♯♯♯♯♭♭♯♯♯♭♭♯♯♯♯♯♭♭♯♯

Needles

I have referred to needles a lot it seems in recent posts, so I thought I would post a photo  of what I usually use to sew in the ends.  For me, sewing them in rather than tatting over them is much less obvious.  

Nocturnal Ninja Nonsense

I am a tatting warrior.  I have been at this for about 12 hours!  

I sent two emergency S.O.S. messages last night, but kept trudging along with the true Taurean steadfastness of a stubborn Bull, et voilà!  By George, I think I’ve got it!  Well, for now anyway.

This is the ‘Sunflower’ pattern from the Blomqvist, Tatting Patterns and Designs book.  Wow.  Confusing.

Went yesterday on a hunt for white kiddie-socks for Maeve:

I am not sure if I will use the invisible thread that Jane uses (it is a real pain) or #50 DMC thread in white to sew the edging on.  It is so pretty!

I had to take my mind off that wretched doily for a bit so I started something... Nothing like a couple of clunies that I have not tatted in ages to keep the mind from wandering.

This HDT is Garden Afternoon #40, by Yarnplayer, a gift from my good pal Suneeti.  Seems I have loved this colourway, since 2009, when I first saw it on Yarnplayer’s blog and had to have it! I love it!

Wander, it did, however, when I sewed in the ends with my mind 

still meandering around the Blomqvist pattern:

No sympathy from this quarter:

Can We Talk?

I have been thinking lately - usually a prelude to some misadventure!

Before I ask your opinion I wanted to show you this, because the question concerns this motif and its construction...

#7/100      Cebelia #20      Free Pattern: Mark Myers: Tatman 

It was difficult to photograph this well because it is white, which I had a real yen to use because of all the beautiful white and ecru pieces I always admire on Carla’s blog.  She tatted one similar to this here and I loved it.

Here’s the thing. I recently had an interesting conversation about frontside/backside tatting with another tatter.  I wanted to know if she used this technique, as I have employed it since the first few months of picking up a shuttle.

It was my impression, as a newbie tatter that if you were a committed tatter, striving for perfection (and who among us isn’t one or either of these?) you would use the fs/bs technique.  Otherwise your work would not be considered “up to par.”

Even after the T.A.T. course, where they referred to both - I do not remember any emphasis on one or the other, nor any judgmental attitude -  I came away thinking I had best stick with this route.

So, here I am almost four years later, and I decided I would tat a motif using ‘regular’ tatting, have a look at it and also monitor how I felt when I was tatting.

It was so relaxing and I found I was not half as anxious or tight-fisted as I can be when I tat fs/bs.

Also I realize that a lot of my un-tatting has been to correct a stitch or two wayyy back there that was tatted on the wrong side.  A LOT of un-tatting....

So, now you see my dilemma.

This tatting topic has been around for years, I know, but I thought I would re-visit the conversation as some of you out there might not have been involved in the last go-around.

What do you do?  Why?  Thoughts?

Tischband Terminus

This is as good as it gets.  I am putting this book back on the shelf, as I have given it a hearty workout, completing two Tischbands.  Not my favourite kind of tatting, though I love the little flower.

HDT #40, Fancy Fields, by Jess   

Pattern: OCCI, Schiffchenspitze Frivolité  

 #6/100

Actually, I really like the leaves as well on their own; the last two were easy to tat and looked just fine.

It was the tatting together with the flower motif that I did not like doing, as it always felt like such an awkward squeeze.

Maybe the leaves on their own with another motif...  Ah, we’ll see!