Little Butterflies

Making butterflies out of Sulky thread was sometimes an exercise in frustration.  Trying to get six stitch rings to close nearly made me nuts -- my fingernails kept getting in the way!  I've got three butterflies done that I'm going to use on an ornament.  The rest of the space on the ornament will be filed in with smaller butterflies of one sort or another.

This one is "Celine" from Tatted Butterflies by Adelheid Dangela.  It needs to be blocked to get the body to be straight and the lower wings the right shape.  It wouldn't hurt to get the antennae straightened out either.  They're clipped at the end because I wrapped the thread around the picot two more times on one than the other, that meant to make them even I had to trim the ends.  It measures 1.25 inches (about 4.5 cm) wide wingtip to wingtip, and one inch (about 2.5 cm) tall without measuring the antennae.

"Jade" is from Sherry Pence's The Exquisite collection of Tatted Butterflies II.  It would have been prettier if I'd followed the pattern.  There would have been a more defined point at the bottom of the wings and a nice picot there, too.  I was talking while tatting and didn't count twice -- close once.  As a matter of fact, I didn't count or look at the pattern until after I'd closed.  After looking at it for a dismayed minute or two, I decided there was no way I was even going to attempt to open that little tiny split ring!  I just made the other wing to match.  This one measures 1.25 inches (4.5 cm) wide and 1.5 inches (just under 4 cm) at its tallest point.

Finally, I made "Curly Q" -- another little treasure from Sherry Pence's book.  All those tiny rings in this fine thread gave me a lot of "aaaarrrrrgghhhhh" moments.  It's such a pretty little butterfly, though, so I kept at it.  It measures about 1-3/8 inch (3.6 cm) at it's widest point and about 7/8 inch (2.3 cm) tall  It also needs some blocking.  I'll take care of all that before I stick them on the ornament.
 
Depending on how it looks once I get them placed,  I might even make one more larger butterfly -- probably "Lily" from Sherry's book.  If I do that, I'm going to consider placement of magic threads very carefully.  This Sulky is too fine for me to weave the threads in with a needle.  I don't own a needle thin enough

Nervous Butterflies

I get those at hospitals.  Good thing I had Adelheid Dangela's Tatted Butterflies with me.  Now I have a bunch of Flame butterflies.  All of these were made with the thread my sister dyed for me on a size 30 Cebalia thread.  They ALL need to be blocked.  Six of these are from Tatted Butterflies.  The one in the upper left corner is supposed to have two wings, but I got it all messed up -- even the first wing isn't right -- so it turned into a butterfly in profile.  Now that I know how to do the first six, I think I'll make them in more butterfly-ish colors in finer thread.  I've got a friend who loves butterflies.  They'd look good on a Christmas ornament -- wouldn't they?

The one in the lower left corner is an adaptation of Jane Eborall's wonderful beaded butterfly (but I didn't have any beads, and used thread ends, so there aren't any split rings on the wings either).  The tiny profile butterfly above that is Jon Yusoff's profile butterfly -- except I couldn't remember the stitch counts, so I guessed, based on how much thread I had left to finger tat with.

I didn't do a nervous scribble or just tangle the thread, because my niece was having her tonsils out.  Not a horrifying thing (except for her -- this was her first IV).  It was easier to concentrate after we finally got something to eat (I mean my sister and I got something to eat -- my niece had to go into surgery without).  They kept us waiting what seemed forever.  We got there at 12:30 in the afternoon and they finally took her into the operating room just after 3:00.  They released her much later and we got home at 7:00 in the evening.  She's recovering and we're spoiling her while she does it.  :)

Progress Report

I have to report not much progress.  I've nearly replaced the round I cut off -- only another 7 repeats to do.  The green snowflakes (from the last post) interrupted progress, but so did the book I've had my nose stuck in lately, and work.  I even worked on Saturday. Bleah.

You can see what a mood I'm in -- Laziness Prevails!  I dropped this on the scanner.  The first scan was a really blurry mess.  Did that inspire me to take a nice photo?  Nope, it inspired me to put a piece of cardboard on top of the blue paper then a stack of disks on top of that so the lid would press down on the doily without trying to flatten the shuttles.  Yes, I could have just pulled the shuttles out of the lid, but I was too lazy. *snicker*

Click on the photo if you want to see it bigger -- lots bigger.

Seasonal Flakes

Ariel from The Tatter's Treasure Chest - 6 repeats only

Green makes them appropriate for Spring -- the flakes are also appropriate to the kind of Spring we've been having. *sigh*  Snow in May is weird (not today, but a week ago).

These are made with DMC size 80 tatting thread hand-dyed by my sister in "Desert Green."  The beads are just little red glass seed beads.

The green snowflakes are going onto a white ornament.  I'll have to show that off when it's done.

Knot Wrong

As in not right.  "Whew," I was thinking, "finally, ready for the next row!"  That was so not true.  It turns out in trying to split these individual motifs so I could work the doily in rounds (the one I was working on for Tatting Day) I got the stitch counts backwards on the split rings.  Fiddle.  Out came the scissors, forty-eight little snip-and-rips later this is what I've got -- a pile of knot wrong.

I'm about half way around putting this row back on -- but it's not wrong this time it's Knot Right!

Speaking of Bookmarks...

Exchanges are so much fun.  I like getting things from other tatters -- they're always inspiring.  These are the bookmarks I received this year:
The top one (with the card and pretty tatted strawberry and bee) is from Tattabugg.  It's Mary Konior's Black Magic made in size 80 black and a lovely bluish turquoise (yummy!).  It's very delicate looking, and beautifully blocked.

The flower lattice bookmark in variegated pink, green and brown is from Anika.  I got a little note with it that has single-ring picot flowers on it in matching colors (and one little blue flower).  It reminds me of the climbing rose trellis in our backyard when I was little.

The last one is from Catriona (it even came with a huge "Royal Mail" stamp -- Queen Elizabeth II is looking quite young on it).  The bookmark is  a stretched out "Stumpy" from a pattern by Kersti.  She made it in size 10 Lizbeth Caribbean -- that's one of my favorite variegates from Lizbeth!  For someone who says she hasn't been tatting very long, the stitches are certainly even and well tensioned.

My books will be happy to have such lovely bits marking 'em.

Since this was an exchange, I made bookmarks for other people and sent them on their way.  I did that about 10 days ago, so I hope they've all arrived.  The turquoise butterfly string is made from Lizbeth 20 "dark sea green" and "wildflower" from my own pattern.  I made it without buttons -- which don't do well inside books.  But I like it a lot, so I made another with the little tiny buttons in size 80.  I made a really, really long tail so none of the buttons have to actually be inside the book.  The last one is also size 80 made of "Midnight Escape" variegated thread my sister dyed for me.  It's from Edging Pattern No. 8902 in "The Tatter's Treasure Chest" edited by Mary Carolyn Waldrep.  The tassel and it's hanger were added on with separate threads at the end.

I was very tempted to add a second bookmark to each package to divest myself of all those "Made in Hawaii" but they were a ONE bookmark exchange, so I practiced restraint.  Perhaps they'll find their way into a Holiday Exchange package this year.

Made in Hawaii

 It surprised me to find that I had very little time to tat in Hawaii.  We were busy, busy, busy.  Even on the ship there were things to do.  My tatting went with me wherever we went (well, okay, I didn't take it snorkeling!), but I did small things.  In fact I did all the same small things.  I even did the same small things in the same colors.  *sigh* 

All these bookmarks (but the obvious one) are made from a modification of Jane Eborall's Butterfly Bookmark.  Her butterfly has long beaded picots and beads on picot joins which make it nice and shiny (I like shiny!).  Working with beads while standing in line or riding in the car or on a boat or walking up a trail is just not within my ability.  I left out the beads and the long picots.  I couldn't carry a picot gauge doing any of those things either. 

The odd-one-out is a modification of xstchntat's Flower Bookmark.  It's a modification because I didn't take the pattern with me and lost track of where I was.  It's got that really big flower on the end because I miscounted.  Ah, well, I like that one too. 

The tails are mostly perle (pearl, purl??) tatted.  There's just one that's a long Josephine spiral.  I used xstchntat's tassel technique for those with tassels.  The rainbow thread is size 30 Cebelià that my sister dyed for me.  Everything else is Lizbeth 20.  The length of the tail just depended on how much thread I had left on the shuttles.

There -- these are my haphazard vacation tattings!

Marking Time

Bookmarks are good things to have.  Many, many are required -- unless you only have one book.  They don't work very well for a Nook, but not everything is electronic.  They work really well for marking places in tatting books.

The pair of bookmarks to the left are "Flower" by xstchntat.  The first one was made with size 30 Cebelia thread that my sister dyed for me, and size 40 white Lizbeth.  That was weird.  I thought I had picked up a bobbin of size 20 white.  I had to make more stitches in the chains than the pattern called for because of the difference in thread size.  When I made the second one, in size 20 that too-many-chain-stitches carried over.  These aren't quite according to pattern, but it is a really fun and simple pattern.  I played with the tails and managed my first real tassels using the technique xstchntat showed in this video.  Works great!

The bookmark on the right is made in size 20 Lizbeth.  It is my own pattern and is supposed to represent a string of butterflies.  The one at the bottom is also size 20 and is made from my pattern for a button shirt decoration.  I figured as the button part would stick out of the book, it would be okay and not make a lump in the book.  (click on images to enlarge)

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!