Little Doily

Have you got any books from which you've never made a thing?  I do.  Lots of them.  The other day (okay -- a couple of weeks ago) I dug out my copy of the DMC Book of Charted Tatting Designs and made this little doily.  It's made with Lizbeth size 40 thread and measures 8.25 inches (21 cm) at it's widest point. I can't tell you which design it is, because now I can't find the book.  I think it's either at my dad's house or in the back of my car -- maybe.  All the rings and chains are made with picots separated with three ds.  Really.  So, it's a hairy doily.  I was going to make it without all those picots -- but I have to find the book first.

 
In the meantime, I've been working on an entry for the Shuttlebirds Workshop "Go Wild" contest.  I'm beginning to wonder if it will get done before I wear out the thread unpicking, unpicking, unpicking.  The rules allow up to 8 entries (one in each category -- or is it two?).  I'll be lucky to get ONE finished!

In Memoriam

Gina Brummett, The Tatting Goddess, has moved on to a more ethereal tatting world.  Those of us left behind in this earthly one will miss her clarity of expression, her humor and her talent.  Heaven must be a comfortable chair, good light, beautiful shuttles, non-tangling thread and plenty of time to use them.

Gina gave so much to the tatting community through her blog and all those many encouraging comments she left sprinkled all over the 'net.  Reading her blog has been a regular habit and such a delight, especially seeing her progress in re-interpreting old patterns using new techniques.

You will be missed, Gina.

I ♥ Goats

Have you all been participating in Jane's TIAS?  Again this year, she fooled me.  Of course, that's not too difficult.  I was convinced at one point that I was making a blue kiwi.  Funny thing, mine looks like a goat -- just like everyone else's!  Between the pieces of the TIAS I made hearts.  After all, it is getting close to Valentine's day.  I could send some old goat a heart, couldn't I?
All but one of these items are made with Lizbeth size 20 thread.  The one exception is the little pink and red heart in the upper right, which is made with size 50 Omega thread.  That was torture, let me tell you.  I don't like this Omega thread:  it twists, it's fuzzy, it's got bumps and slubs, it doesn't slide, and it breaks very easily.  I can crochet with it, but this is the third time I've tried it for tatting and it just makes me grumpy.
The goat pattern is, of course, Jane Eborall's latest TIAS.  The whole pattern, with the nanny goat as well, it available on her website.
The six hearts that are the same pattern as the blue heart came from somewhere on the web.  I know I must have seen a picture somewhere while I was a work, because the only pattern I have is a scribbled pencil drawing on the back of my business card.  I wish I knew where it came from so I could give somebody credit!
The spiky-looking heart with glass beads is an adaptation of Iris Niebach's doily Cornelia.  I adapted that one two years ago, but didn't write down the stitch counts or anything.  I was going to put it into a bangle, but using size 20 thread, it's just too big. I've made another one in size 40 Lizbeth Red Burst which I am going to put into a bangle.  I didn't scan it with these because I've left the woven in ends long until I've got it stretched into the bangle.  I wouldn't want them pulling out and coming apart.  I'll trim the ends when it's done.
The other heart is an unblocked version of Irene Woo's Butterfly Heart.  I got the pattern from Le Blog de Frivole and didn't have enough integrity to throw it out after she removed it from her blog as a possible copyright violation.  I've only made this one, though.

Remaining Elegance

Finally, finally, they're all finished.  These are the last of Jon Yusoff's Elegant Tatting Gems -- well, the last for me, at least.  They are elegant:  "Elegance is a synonym for beauty that has come to acquire the additional connotations of unusual effectiveness and simplicity."  Exactly so, I couldn't say it better so I borrowed that bit from Wikipedia.   All of the patterns in this remarkable book are made with the most basic tatting elements -- the simplicity.  But, they are put together is such a way as to create little bits of deceptive complexity.  Effective, indeed.

You may note that "Nilam" is all pointed instead of nicely rounded as Jon intended it.  The pointy version fits on the ornament easier than a rounded version. I'm using these snowflakes to make ornaments to complete my (two- or is it three-year-old?)  25 Motif Challenge.  Some of them are completed, I just need photographs.  Others are partially completed, but need some tiny fill-in motifs of some sort.  I'm working on that. 

Jon's Elegant Tatting Gems and Tatted Snowflake Collection are joining my Iris Niebach pattern books in my "most favored" stack.  They're fun to tat but challenging enough to be interesting.

More Elegant Tatting Gems

Yup -- been tatting, just not posting.  The computer has been in use -- it's school science fair season.  Wanna know how to clean a penny?  Never mind.

I've done some more of the beautiful snowflakes from Jon Yusoff's book Elegant Tatting Gems. I'm still making them all in red and green DMC size 80 tatting thread, but they're no longer in order.  I goofed on "Nilam" (joined a picot that shouldn't have been joined) and had to remake it -- goofed that one too (all the internal picots are too long) and now am going to have to find more red thread before I can finish any more at all. *sigh* 
Not that all these others were perfect right out of the gate:

As you can see, I had some problems with Lazuardi.  First, I wanted all of the round one loose threads out of my way -- I kept catching them in the rings I was making on the second round.  Second, I didn't put in magic threads, so I sewed in the ends.  Rather, I attempted to sew in the ends.  What I really did was break the thread on the first round.  I started over, but used the wrong size picot gauge and the long picots were just too long.  The last one looks pretty good, though.  When I was doing Kencana I made too many picots on the first red chain, so I did the same for all the others and then joined the bottom ones.  It makes the snowflake a lot rounder.  I did that one over too, and like the less rounded look of the original pattern much better.  Not too many problems with the other four on this page, but I'm not telling how many times I unpicked some of the rings!

Drum Roll, Please!

I've wondered from time to time if drum rolls are anything like cinnamon rolls -- maybe, but not so fattening, eh?  Anyway, I found all thirty-two comments and asked the Random Number Generator at random.org to pick me a number.  Wheeeee, the first and winning number was 9

Oh, dear -- she didn't want it!  Not hook-ish enough.  Yeah, that's why I'm giving it away.  :)

Okay, back to the random number generator (I was tempted to just draw a number out of a hat -- that's pretty random, isn't it?).  But -- I randomed a new winning number -- it's number 10, {Huh?  That doesn't seem very random to me -- it's right after 9.  I was tempted to keep pushing the button to see if it would give me 11 then 12 then 13 then 14...but I didn't think I could handle the stress.}

 Congratulation, 10 -- who is:

 






Padded package with gift of no value coming up (they don't charge you import duty for something with no value do they??).

Happy Holidays!

I hope you're all having a holiday.  I'm going to enjoy mine because I don't have to work for six days.  To celebrate and I'm giving away this shuttle.  It's a white Clover shuttle covered with a bit of a fractal with glitter decoupage.  If you like this shuttle, leave me a comment.  Since I'm not working for six days, I'll get a random number picker to pick a random number long about the 28th of December.  Happy Holidays!

Commenting for a chance to get this shuttle is closed -- commenting for any other reason is welcome!

And then there was October

I totally forgot about October.  I didn't do ANY tatting.  Nope, none --- well, maybe some standing in lines.  I crocheted most of October.  The building engineer where I work came out to my dad's house and put up his new carport.  It came in a box with a zillion parts.  We helped, but he brought the know-how and the tools.  Dad's old carport got blown upside down into the neighbor's backyard in a really bad windstorm (it was held down with a rail road rail -- not a wooden tie -- a steel rail!).  That won't happen to the new one, unless it takes the driveway with it -- there are bolts about ten inches long and as big around as my thumb holding the thing down.

As a thank you, I crocheted an afghan for our engineer (who says he's always cold).  This is my favorite full-size afghan pattern, it's easy to do and doesn't need fringe (which drives me nuts).  It's made of worsted-weight polyester yarn so it can be tossed into the washer and the dryer.

For those who asked:  This is "Lacy Chevron" from Leisure Arts Afghan Parade which is Leaflet 335.  It's copyrighted 1984, so I don't know if it's still available.

Really Elegant Tatting Gems

These are the snowflakes I've been making from Jon Yusoff's book Elegant Tatting Gems.  I'm making them all in red and green DMC size 80 tatting thread.  I'm also doing them in order.  I've got seven and a half done.  This is just the first seven, not the half.

Oh, one of them is NOT in DMC size 80 red and green threads.  One of them is a Lizbeth size 20 pink and blue variegate.  I suppose which one is rather obvious.

These are really great little snowflakes.  They're all pretty and they are all done with basic techniques -- but when they're done they look so complex.  Amazing, right?

Challenge 17

Yeah, yeah, I know -- it was supposed to be DONE in one year not two or even ...ahem... three.  Finally made it to Seventeen though.

Last May (yes, May), I made these green snowflakes from the Ariel pattern in The Tatter's Treasure Chest.  They've been waiting until this week for the center bit and for getting stuck onto the Styrofoam ornament.  My dad's been visiting us so it was a golden opportunity to tat and chat -- I tatted and chatted; dad just chatted.  I made up the middle, and it didn't work quite like I envisioned, but I like it well enough not to take it off and start over!