All Done

OTomoko Morimoto Design from New Tatting

#40 Lizbeth thread

About 19 1/2"

In “real life,” the border is finer than it appears on the grey 

background,and more like the one above. 

Couldn’t get an accurate darker photo.

How large?

More Morimoto?

For sure! I am enjoying this pattern immensely, 

with the exception of this final row.

For each four stitches, it seems I have had to un-tat three. Silly, numb-minded mistakes. Unnecessary errors. Not certain why, but at the beginning of this round I simply could not keep the count correctly.

That said, now midway around this final lap. Relaxed. Only six more motifs to chain over; then 16 small joining clovers.

Still Not Finished, But Nearly!

To finish will be a quick damp pat-down, as it requires needs no real blocking. It holds its shape amazingly well, considering it is rather large.

Then it will get tissue-rolled into a paper towel tube for final wrapping and a ribbon. Can't wait! 

Finally, Fikkert will follow. : ))

The Floral Fifth

It has been so bitterly, record-breaking cold in Toronto that I haven’t been outside much. Missing my jogging and walks, but so thankful for indoor heating and hot water. Makes one feel very humble, those frigid lows. Our temperatures have been record breaking.

The upside is that I have been tatting up a storm!

Same motif: different background

Ta-da! 
Renulek’s Round 5. 

Tales of An Intrepid Tatter

恭喜发财

Wishing you a 

Happy  Chinese New Year 

Of The Goat!

Now for my adventure in Korea-Town:

There I was, standing in line with my store-made Kimchee at the Korean Supermarket, when I saw an unusual item beside of the check-out line.

The little plastic thing was too intriguing not to pick up. There were a multitude of them hanging, in a strip. I managed to free one and was baffled to see it was an earpick... hmmmm.

Well, for $2.00 I knew I couldn’t go far wrong; I was remembering the photo I stored in my tatting brain that promised possibilities. 

This photo from Jan Stawasz’s 

book and has always attracted me:

 

Did Jan use it as a pick or a hook? Anyway, I immediately remembered it when I saw the earpick.

When it was my turn to pay, the woman at the cash seemed puzzled and asked if I wanted the earpick. I suppose not many of my peeps customarily purchase these little lovelies.

With as much nonchalance as I could muster I assured her that I most certainly did. I smiled. She did not. Off I went, clutching my kimchee and a new potentially tatting toy.

Upon arriving home, I pulled out my trusty metal-cutting pliers, chopped off the “ear” part, then filed the end smooth.

It was the size I had envisioned. Crochet hooks are all to wide for using to standardize picots. I have imagined that might have been Jan’s use for his instrument.

I tried it out...

It worked reasonably well on this #40 to make all the picots pretty much the same size. It stretched them a tad too large for my liking. 

However, on a motif with a lot of picots it could work. Eyeballing many, many picots on a piece for me doesn’t produce the best uniformity. This could be a possible remedy. Not sure about #80 though. Might make the picots way to large.