Masochism In Miniature

 #7 Motif Challenge

The blue thread thread is Sweet Shop Forget-Me Not.  Tatskool's threads are wonderful. This one is a great blue, but #60 feels like #100 to me - especially after all that Cebelia #20!

I realized something about the Clunies.  I ENJOY making them!  What I do not enjoy is the constant experiment to wrap the thread in the beginning of the process.

§ Thank you, yet again, elisa, for your dynamite patterns!



 The tauter the wrap, the more nicely shaped the tally.  I realized I was not securing it properly (It has only been TWO years, after all!) So, I have had to re-think the wrap.

It is working more to my liking, but I do not have it down pat yet.

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The Fourth Finnish Motif 

 #8 Motif Challenge

Again, the picots got scrunched.  I think that Maureen was right: it is the beads that are messing up the original stitch count.  It is a pretty pattern though.

 The variegated thread is another of the Altin Basik #50 samples that I received last week  from Margaret and it is quite pale and delicate, so I matched it with some purple AB that I had in my stash.

I like this pattern, which is from the Finnish book that I downloaded and printed.  There are a lot of lovely motifs at the back of the book, but I have to scan them and blow them up as they are printed very small to get them all in the original book. 

It is tiresome to try and read the Finnish, but I did not realize that all the pattern diagrams are located on the last three pages of the book! I am going to take the time to get those copied - one of these days...  : )

My New Very Best Friend Basik

 #6 Motif Challenge

Oh, la-la!  Pretty Altin B!  This is yet another of the patterns in the Myra Piper book - they are such fun to tat; just demanding enough to be challenging, yet not so difficult as to frustrate.

I am not sure what happened here.  I was careful with the picots, trying to make them larger than joining picots so that you could see them in the cloverleaf joins as in  Wendy's work,   but the chains seem longer in the pattern picture than in my tatting and the short chains pulled everything tighter than the book photo.  

Although this is pretty and the tatting is an example of improved Fox Fingers, I am puzzled as to why the finished piece is so cramped. Both threads were A.B.#50.  ?????

This is another sample that came in the mail from Margaret.  I have one more sample  colour-way to tat, but have not picked a pattern yet.

I'm off to recuperate from the Royal Wedding watch...

Snivelling Over Stash - Again

#5 Motif Challenge

Pattern by Myra Piper

Thread: Altin Basak  pink and Cébélia beige

Oh, the stash of Cébélia.  I have been complaining about this thread  for about  as long as I have been tatting, though I kind of like the #30, of which I have two balls: white and ecru. 

But the #20 Cébélia  is so... sort of  thickly soft and fuzzy.  However, I have lots of colours. And I admit the balls have diminished quite nicely, but, there is still a lot of it.  I would love to be able to get rid of it all and replace it with my new favourite thread: Altin Basak!

Than you , Margaret,  for reminding me how lovely this thread is.  It is smooth and easy to work with and the saturated colour and the slight shine are very pleasing. I am working on one of your samples now and it is going to be a sweet piece.

Suneeti had sent me some in pink, which is the chain colour in the motif.  The variegated is a  sample from Margaret.

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This pattern looks fairly straightforward, right? Well, not to me! It elicited "alter-English-trucker-talk" throughout the tatting process.

The old dyslexia grabbed on and held tight as I re-tatted my way through this.  But, you will notice, please, the lack of beads or metallic or indeed anything but regular vanilla tatting!

I am practising 'quality' stitching, keeping my promise, and by Jove,  I do see results!. Even after almost shredding whole sections of thread, it still looks pretty good!

Next on the agenda: rout out Georgia's gauges and pretty-up the picots.

**An afterthought:  Oh, ya -  I ran out of thread and had to add some - can you see where?  I think I have perfected the surgeon's knot! : ))

Pink? Ya Think?

  #4 Motif Challenge

Sue Hanson's  'Simply Flake' Pattern

from the Ring of Tatters' 30th Anniversary Book of Patterns

 Yarnplayers 'Peace' HDT

&

Suneeti's Metallic Pink gift thread 

Isn't this a great pattern?  And, I love it in pink. This is the second or third attempt.  

One of the aforementioned ended up with the wrong number of rings in the centre and morphed into an okay heart - if a bit of design-something-or-other were to be applied:

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Next, in the mail to-day, from Margaret:

Lovely samples of Altin Basak variegated and white.  Such smooth, silky thread.

I also got a card from my daughter, who lives in New York. I just happened to notice the two envelopes on the table , one from Margaret and one from Jo, sitting so close to one another, and had to laugh:

  Tee hee!

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Lastly, in yesterday's mail:

I think I first noticed this publications on Diane's blog here:  It's a lovely, little book.  At any rate, after a bit of searching around, I found a copy of this old-timer on eBay for $1.54 US. Plus postage of $12.00!  Never mind.