Sticky Fingers

At it again.  Sad, isn't it? 
All of these use glitter ModPodge® for one or two layers.  Shiny -- gimmie shiny, shiny with sparkles is even better!

This is what I've been doing when my fingers need a rest.  Tat one night, glue, color, cut the next.  :)   After the marathon they've been doing with the blue and brown doily, getting sticky was good for them.

I don't know about all you other tatters, but the threads cut into my fingers, sometimes.  I have an almost permanent line across the middle finger on my left hand and the crease on the side of the top knuckle of my right little finger is deeper than it used to be.  Most of the time I remember to tape up. (Oooo, sounds so athletic!)  I use fabric bandages and just cut off the sticky part.  That nifty little gauze pad just gets chucked out.  I can cover the three most worn places with one bandage.  I've got a favorite brand and they are hard to find.  When I do find them I buy all available and hoard them (No, no, no!  I'm not telling what they are then somebody else would go buy them and how could I hoard then?).  Oh, okay -- they're Curad brand.  They're thinner than most and the adhesive doesn't come through the tape to get on the tatting.  I've made do with others, but it really is just making do.

Oh, yes, I got carried away there for a bit.  These shuttles are all covered in bits of fractals I found in various places on the net.  There are some really artistic mathematicians out there! I colored some of the pieces of the Aero shuttles that don't get covered in paper with Sharpie® markers in matching colors.  I decided to try some without folding the paper around the sides.  I never fold the paper under on the Clover shuttles, so figured it should work for the Aeros as well.  The gray is only visible on the inside of the shuttle.  Believe it or not, I've still got more shuttles to play with.  Ahhhh, anticipation and mud pies...makes you feel like a kid again.

Oh, and thanks, Diane -- these shuttle flowers are much prettier than rows and rows.  :)

Finished...finally!

This is what has made my tatting blog a non-tatting blog for so long.  It has taken up most of my tatting time since last November.   I made it for someone special in colors she likes.  I love the blue, but the brown rounds were really difficult for me to get through (that's why they're smaller!).  I can't tell you why I don't care for brown, but I don't -- maybe I just got a surfeit of it in college.  I wore a lot of brown then.  I finally decided colors, the brighter the better, gave me a better outlook on life.  Maybe.  Of course, it could be I had more trouble with the brown rows because the thread is darker and it's harder to see.  The colors are medium blue and chocolate brown, both from Lizbeth, in size 40. [Actually they are Blue-Med. #651 and Mocha Brown Dk. #692]  It got packed up right after I took these pictures -- and I forgot to measure it.  I did go measure the chair I used, though.  It's probably something like 15 inches in diameter, more or less (the doily, not the chair).

The pattern is one by Jan Stawasz.  It's a very pretty pattern, but as written, makes me tear out my hair.  Most of the rounds (the central brown and the two outer blue areas) are done with dozens and dozens of individual motifs.  I just don't have that much thread-winding or thread-hiding patience!  I used split rings everywhere so I could work the whole thing in rounds instead of motifs.  The central brown area is two rows and that large inner blue area is done in three rows.  However, I did do all the wheels individually.  The pictures are clickable so they can be seen larger.

It's not perfect, but I liked it anyway.  As a matter of fact, I liked it so much, I've been recreating it without all the frilly picots. Those really are little monsters when it comes to blocking.  I gave most of these a pat and a promise.  I promised I wouldn't take the scissors to 'em if they'd shape up!  They cooperated for the most part.  I packed it up in a mailing tube and shipped it off -- insured, because I figured, if there was a chance they might have to pay out, the USPS would take better care of it.  Ta-da!  It got where it was supposed to go -- and she liked it!