Thread Ends

Very rarely do I have just the exact amount of thread on my shuttles that I need for a project. I like to wind my shuttles continuous thread method and full. That could be wasteful, you know. All those thread ends have to end up somewhere. Some I just toss away (that's the wasteful part). Some I scatter all over the house (not intentionally -- it just happens -- more waste).  Some I make into bugs and flowers and hearts (hooray! useful!).  


What gets made depends on how much thread is left on the shuttle. Lots of thread gets turned into big butterflies or hearts, medium sized left-overs get turned into small butterflies or dragonflies, small bits of thread end up as caterpillars, spiders, flies or flowers.  Right now I have a box of bugs and flowers and a tin of hearts.

 What do you do with your thread ends?
(I take all these things to the tatting demonstration at the fair and give them away.)

I won! Wow, did I win!

Jess from Tat-ilicious did a giveaway for a skein of her hand-dyed thread just for selecting colors for a variegate and giving it a name.  I like thread.  I really like hand-dyed thread.  I offered up Susnrise (pale pinks, yellows and oranges).  Oh, my goodness!  Sacrificing a shuttle to the Random Number gods must have worked (I don't think they tat, so they didn't know it was just a Susan Bates aero knockoff).  Anyway, I won!  Jess is very generous, though.  I didn't just win one skein of thread, I got all this stuff:

I could hardly believe it!  There's a skein of Sunrise (size 40) and a little doily center dyed to match.  One skein each of Esmeralda (size 80), and Harvest (size 40), and one sample skein each of Purple Pansy and Queen Anthias (both size 40).  THEN there were little purple beads with two holes, two green rings and two pearly-white ones and two really great square buttons.
I'm rich!  If you'd like some of this thread hop on over to Jess's Etsy shop.

Oh, I didn't get a picture, but both of the girls want the tin it all came it -- Hello Kitty!  I told them when they learn to tat then they could, maybe, have a tatter's-tin.  Until then it's mine, mine, all mine!

Thank You!

I just got the best thank you card ever. The card was hand-made, the thank-you sincere and the photo included was totally adorable. The best part was the other treasure included. Hand-dyed silk thread. Isn't that great?! The scan doesn't do it justice but the colors are blue tones -- my favorites.

Thanks for the thank-you!

25 Motif Challenge - Number 3

Ta-da! I'm now caught up to the second week of February. Unfortunately, it's the second week of March. *sigh* No matter, I'm plugging away at it. I tend to get obsessive about deadlines and keep reminding myself I need to relax. If I fuss about this challenge I'm not going to enjoy my tatting, nor am I going to take time to tat other things.

This one is made of really inexpensive size 30 crochet thread that used to be dirty white (we found it in a box in the basement). My sister was trying out new dye colors, so I let her use some of the thread. (Yeah, I'm nice like that!) This is what she calls "Flame" in shades from deep scarlet to bright yellow. I love the color, I extremely dislike the thread. It's got odd little slubs in it here and there which made some rings very nearly impossible to close. Perseverance was the key -- okay, it was really, fuss, cuss, pick, pinch, pull, cuss, and slide one stitch at a time!

The pattern is my own snowflake -- the one I designed for Sharon Briggs' Design-Tat class. I made two then laced them to this matte-gold ornament with a single strand of gold thread. The beads are inexpensive clear glass. I don't know how Christmas-y this is, so maybe it's a Halloween ornament. :)

Ladyshuttlemaker Random Monday Mondo Giveaway

She's at it again! You'll want to hop on over there and make a nice comment. She's got a lovely tin of violet mints (with the tin, you know), and some beautiful size 50 Himalayan Poppy hand-dyed thread.

Thread Exchange

Way back in December (you know, last year) I participated in a thread exchange in one of the tatting groups. I had five partners, but only showed off the lovely thread I got from Dorcas. I made that into a bookmark for a friend. But just look at what else I got from Leah, Maria, Jeanne, and Lily:

These are generous women! I have not made anything with these threads yet -- they are just a bit like my HDT stash. Ooooo, if I use it then I won't have it any more. Talk about cake and eating and that sort of thing.

Thread Again!

My sister has been dying things again. She did a set of tie-dyed sheets to enter in the Fair (which won a blue ribbon). While she had all those dyes out and mixed, I ...um... let her use some on thread for me. Just because I'm nice, you know. I've ended up with a wonderful mix of marine blues and greens she calls "mermaid" and another dark rainbow in size 80 thread. The other two are pinks and reds on a size 30 Cebelia base. I didn't have anything but a tiny little plastic core (same thing the size 80 came on) to wind the reds on. So -- I have ended up with a Bermuda Onion. I've been unable to make myself use it -- don't want to mess up my onion! I have used the mermaid, though. I made a t-shirt decoration and sewed it on a white t-shirt to enter in the State Fair. OH! That reminds me, I've gotta run -- I've taken the day off work to demonstrate tatting at the fair -- not sit here and rattle on like a pea in a boxcar!

Fairly Tatted

I've shown these ornaments on the blog before. The first one -- with the second place ribbon -- is being donated to the "Festival of Trees" tree being decorated by the Bonneville Tatters. The pattern is my own and I quite like it (but never did like the color). The comment card said it needed more sparkle. I think they liked all the beads on the other set -- because those got a first place ribbon. These are the ornaments I made from an adaptation of Iris Niebach's "Cornelia" from Tatted Doilies.

The dragon, from a pattern by Anne Bruvold, has also appeared on the blog before -- I made it as a gift for my sister and she made me a loan of it for entering in the fair. The butterfly is new, but is the same pattern I made up for the InTatters butterfly exchange (oops -- with the addition of a couple of extra rings on the top of the wings). The comment cards for both of these mentioned the wonderful use of color -- I have to say thanks to my sister, because they were both made of threads she dyed for me (the dragon a size 10 and the butterfly a size 30). One of the comment cards for the butterfly also expressed delight with the beads. I think some judge out there was as much a crow as I am -- gimmie the shiny stuff!

Even More Color!

More thread! Bonnie had her dyes out again this weekend. I unwound thread like mad so she could make it more interesting than ecru and white. This is the result. I know it looks tangled, but it winds up very nicely. These skeins were wound off the ball on the the arms of my office chair. That worked much better than anything else I've tried. Unfortunately, once they'd been through the dye process, got washed, and dried, they shrunk so I couldn't get the skeins back on the arms of the chair. Bonnie is also my thread swift. Nice of her, eh? From bottom to top, these are Singing the Blues, Oh-Baby, Midnight Escape, and Purple Potion. Bonnie named them while we were winding them back into balls.

Singing the Blues is rather obvious -- it's all my favorite shades of blue (well, all the ones she had in little bottles, at least). It used to be size 30 DMC Cebelia ecru.

Purple Potion which is also a size 30 Cebelia, was named because all the dye color names sound like this:

Double, double, toil and trouble
Raspberry, plum,
wisteria, bubble gum,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Sometimes I do wonder what she's cooking up in all those little bottles.
Oh-Baby is all soft pastel baby-shades, baby blue, bubblegum, seafoam, and wisteria. It looks like baby lace to me, especially as it is a size 80 DMC tatting cotton.

Midnight Escape is the darker side of the baby pastels, caribbean, raspberry, caman island, and imperial purple, also on a size 80 DMC tatting cotton. It reminded Bonnie of the baby-escape in the movie "Baby Geniuses".

Colorful Weekend

Look how lucky I am! My sister had her dyes out this weekend and did three balls of thread for me. These first two are 20 gram weight DMC size 80 that used to be white. Now they are shades of pink, purple, red and blue in one ball and a whole bunch of different greens in the other ball. I told her she had to name them. Uh-huh. Her names were redishpurplelbluepink and Irish Spring (because it looked like the bath soap of the same name). Those just aren't romantic enough, so the first is Sunset (yes, we have those with pink and purple and flaming red). The second is Desert Green, because it's not a bright spring green -- there's even something that looks a bit like fresh sagebrush to me. According to my sister, the green has kilt, new-emerald, bright green, Kelly green, and better-blue-green (thank you Dharma Trading for the dye names). They are all on the blue end of green, not the yellow, so I like them very much.
This second ball of thread is a DMC size 20 that used to be cream colored. It's now "Day and Night Rainbow". Okay, that will work. There are dark and light colors in it: from the dark end are lemon yellow, tangerine, fire red, imperial purple, Caribbean blue, and Kelly green, on the lighter end are paler versions of the orange and green, hot pink, wisteria and robin egg. It's very cheerful.

She dyes the thread just like she dyes everything else, so it goes from a cold rinse in the sink into a wash bag and into the washer for both a cold rinse and a hot dye-setting wash in Synthropol. After the wash it goes into the dryer. This is how it come out. Scary, huh? But it winds up really well for all the curls and squiggles. Isn't she clever and aren't I lucky?

Better Thread

There. Yes, it does look better in a solid color. It might be okay in a multi-colored thread, but the thread would have to be very carefully selected. This is back to the rest of my DMC Cébélia size 30 stash for a nice plain purple. I like the spot where the motif's join, even though it is very dense (sometimes I am too, so that's okay). Next step is writing out the pattern for this one. I didn't do that. I like working off a made piece -- must be something I got from my Gramma. She crocheted beautiful things, but couldn't read a pattern. She just used made pieces and duplicated them. Still, if I'm going to share, I'll have to write it down. I just don't have time to make everyone a pattern piece to work from (as if "everyone" wants to make the same thing!). I thought about making this bigger, so I've left the joining picots on all the edges, and this is just lightly pressed, not really blocked or starched.
At any rate -- this was really a good lesson in being careful of the colors I pick!
I've been asked to share the pattern. I'm happy to do that, as soon as I get some time to actually make a pattern. Right now it's just the original motif that I keep following.

Thread Selection

This is my second homework motif worked into a little mat. It is 4 inches (about 10 cm) square. The thread is size 20 Lizbeth "Desert Bloom". I think the motif turned out really well and makes a very nice decorative mat. However...

The thread was a severe mistake -- especially for this piece. The colors are wrong and change in odd places worked in this pattern. Purple, orange, and gray-white might make something really pretty, but I can't think what. I do believe this thread was a mistake, for me, and I won't be buying any more of it. Of course, if I had picked a different pattern to make with it, I might be feeling better about the thread.

I need to try this motif in a nice solid color and see how the mat looks.

Cornelia and C-lon

"Cornelia" from Tatted Doilies by Iris Niebach. This is such a pretty pattern! As it is all worked in a single round, it's also a fun pattern to watch develop. Of course, you have to pay attention. There were too many places that I had to unpick (retro-tat is way too nice for what I was doing). There's one chain with 12 too many ds and an extra picot that I didn't notice until I was 8 rings and 4 chains further along. Nope, not unpicking that! This one will probably end up hidden on a shelf.
I tried out a new thread. After reading Teri "TATBiT" Dusenbury's blog and her statements about C-lon Microbeading cord, I went looking. I found some of that and ordered it. However, I also found C-lon beading thread, so I got some of that -- it came first, so I used it. When it first comes off the tiny spool it is flat and shiny. It doesn't work up that way, but it is very crisp to work with -- as long as you don't make goofies you have to pick out. It really is picking-out with this thread; it's unforgiving. The thread separates into micro-fine threads if it is worked too much. Then one of those tiny threads might decide to fray and wrap itself around any thread close by. Okay, so this little doily was the wrong thing to make with it. I do believe this stuff will be absolutely wonderful for earrings! I'm really, really going to have to make some with it, because I got some very pretty colors -- but no more of this teal color because it took the entire spool to make the doily.

Heather's Hand-Dyed Thread!

It really pays to read tatting blogs -- really it does. Know why? Because so many of the blog writers are so generous. I know this is true because I was reading Heather's blog the day she put up a photograph and offered her hand-dyed thread to whoever guessed closest to what it was. I suggested frozen mud. That was close enough to get me these:
Isn't that great? Talk about generosity. I was thinking some little samples or one skein. I've got six (yeah -- 6!) full-sized skeins of thread here. I'm thinking pigs for the size 10 "cotton candy" pink and dragons for the size 10 "blue jay" and "blue raspberry" -- I just acquired Karey Solomon's "Here Be Dragons". The size 10 "licorice" is going to become fall leaves, I think. I might do a frilly decoration with the size 30 cammo to "girly" up my niece's cammo pants. Even though Heather says the last size 30 is "over the rainbow" I'm thinking Christmas red, green, gold and silver -- so that's destined for ornaments.

Decisions, decisions...

What to make with all this beautiful thread...no decision yet. I did use a little bit of the "Lazy Daisy" for a special project (but can't talk about that yet). This first picture is all cotton, and the second all silk. I left the silk picture really large. If you click on it, you can see how shiny and smooth they look. Both come from the Etsy shop of LadyShuttlemaker (Sherry Pence). I've got to get my hands softened up so I can touch the silk. Some of the silk will probably end up as jewelry, but I need to find some nicer and smaller beads for the really fine threads. That's all just in the thinking stage right now!

I also need to hunt up some more thread holders. I am considering rummaging in the basement (still with just a little bit of horror -- gotta get over that first) to find my embroidery thread winder and those little cards that fit in the sorting box. I should be able to act as the thread holder and convince one of my nieces she really, really wants to turn that little handle.

The collection of beautifully bright cotton thread, the Purple Punch and Rhubarb Pie are from Yarnplayer Arts on Etsy (Marilee Rockley). Isn't is pretty? I'm going to have to use those brights all together -- like a rainbow! But what sort of rainbow do I want to make??

I'll have two weeks to consider it, and a good place for inspiration. I'm leaving for Alaska on July 27 for a "land-tour cruise." I think that means "If it's Tuesday, this must be Talkeetna." There's just no way to see everything, but I want to try!

More Fantasia 2

The yellow stuff stood me in good stead as a test working. This is "Anemone Blanda," the little oval doily from Iris Niebach's Tatting Fantasia 2. It is made by joining two of the triangles from the beginning of the book and surrounding them with two additional rows of tatting.
Although this piece measures just 6 by 3.25 inches (15 x 8.5 cm), based on its intended use as a resting place for one of my sisters collection of dragons, this is, indeed, a doily. I suppose to some folks it would be a coaster, but I'm not letting my sister put a clammy glass on it -- just a dragon.
This is my first piece done with hand dyed thread ("HDT"). After hoarding my HDT stash for so long I started to wonder what I was hoarding it for? What use is beautiful thread if it never gets used? This one is Yarnplayer's size 80 "Forest" with so many subtle shades of restful green. There wasn't enough to do any more on the little doily, but not wanting to waste any of it, I also made this "Primula" motif from Iris's book. It's an interesting little triangle made in one continuous round, with the aid of a split ring. It measures 2.25 inches (6 cm) on a side. It would make an interesting doily if joined together. I didn't have enough thread to do that. Still, there was more thread and I couldn't imagine just leaving it sit or (heaven forbid) throwing it out. I used the last of it to make this little next piece. (Of course, because Blogger is more technologically advanced than I am -- it looks larger than the triangle). This is actually the "Hiding Thread ends" exercise at the end of Tatting Fantasia 2. (Only Iris could make an exercise in "magic threads" this beautiful!) I just did it twice and joined them together. My sister thought it would make an interesting brooch, if I could figure out how to hide the fittings. I think it would need some beads, too. Maybe lots of beads would hide the fittings. It's something to think about.

Signature Thread

Someone left a comment somewhere on here that I can't find. Google told me there was an error when I approved it for publishing, so maybe it just ate the thing.
Anyway, if it was you asking about the size of the Signature thread -- this is my answer. It's a very fine thread, because it is a machine embroidery thread. It's about the same thickness as regular sewing thread. It's trilobal polyester. I have no idea what that means, but it seems to be less inclined to fuzz than polyester covered cotton sewing thread. It does tend to stretch when trying to close rings (well, it does if you tat as tightly as I do). I buy it at a local shop. I don't know if it is available somewhere on line; I've never looked. Here's a picture of the thread labels: