Still doing Snowflakes in Bangles

Still doing Jon Yusoff's snowflakes in bangles. These two are "Radiance" and "Spring Blossom" from her Tatted Snowflake Collection. The thread is Oren Bayan silver metallic thread. I think it's bigger than size 80, but a bit smaller than size 40. 

When I put "Radiance" in the bangle, I found it was a bit too small, so I added rings as I covered the bangle. That was awkward; the bangle kept getting in the way. The holder-rings are obvious and a little twisted. I applied a person-using-thread-that-frays-horribly-when-you-try-to-unpick-it standard: a man on a galloping horse will never notice, so I left 'em. As the thread is fine, instead of the lock chain I usually make for hanging loops, I wrapped a second thread around the bangle at the end and made a pearle-tatted loop. 

These are the latest, but I've got another on the shuttles. I think the stack is about a dozen high now.  It's rather like being stuck in third gear! There are another 40 or 50 bangles in my supply box. Maybe I should save some for another year.

Radiance

Spring Blossom

Starting Over

This blog has been sorely neglected, so has my tatting. The doctor decided I needed exercise more than I needed to sit on my butt and tat. She's right, but it really didn't need to be an either or proposition.

Recently, I took up a Facebook challenge offered by a friend. She will send something to the first five people to comment, sometime during the year -- however, these people have to agree to post, and do the same. So, I'll be getting something from her and will be sending something to three other people (only 3 brave people signed up with me -- either I know people with no inclination to share or nobody wants anything I make). I decided it would be a good time to get out my shuttles and threads and make new things to send. The problem I've been having is that none of my tatting supplies are where I thought they were. Since I haven't finished anything for about a year, I put stuff away safely, and have forgotten the location of "safely." Yes, they should be in the hobby cabinet, or the four dedicated drawers, or the fabric bin, or on the bookshelf, or in the boxes under the bed, or in my tatting tote. Some things are there, some have run off. I can't find my rubber needle pullers anywhere. Trying to sew in the ends and use a rubber band to pull on the needle results in a bent needle. *sigh*

Since it's cold and generally nasty, I'm working on Winter stuff. These are snowflakes inside wrist bangles. Both are designs by Jon Yusoff from her snowflake pattern books. I did have to make the top rings on each point on the red one a bit larger to fit into my bangle. For the green one, I left off the decorative picots on the arching chains. It just worked better for me (it's a counting problem). The bangles are completely covered with tatting, using Jon's method for covering rings.

Yes, the picture appears blurry. It's really just the bad shadows from poor lighting (not that the excuse makes the picture better). 

Hanging by a Hook

I've been making earrings for my brother. No, he doesn't wear them, he's going to give them away. I don't mind making them for him because I like him and it gives me an excuse to play with little beads and finish something comparatively quickly (compared to a doily, for example). I made three different pair for him. 

The first ones are a pair of butterflies. With as many butterflies as I've made over the years, this is the first time I've turned them into earrings. The third pair use gold thread and yellow beads and the covered-ring technique. The middle ones are from the Online Tatting Class which has been making earrings. I looked through the available patterns and found "Earrings '2015-V' © 2015 by Nina Libin" on Georgia Seitz's website and thought those would be nice. I'm certain they would be if I did them right or used the right stuff -- or something. The one I made was limp as a noodle and buckled. (I'd show you what it looked like, but it somehow got all cut up before I found the camera). I still really like the pattern, but decided I'd have to make it smaller if I was going to use a single strand of the Oren Bayan metallic thread and size 15 seed beads I own. I used only one of the rings and just did two chains around it. The center earrings are the result. Since I was making them anyway, I decided to make some for my sisters. These are obviously green beads on variegated metallic thread:

They are about the size of a US dime. I've got lots of other bead colors picked out to use. They are fairly quick to make -- once all the beads are threaded (it takes 58 beads for each earring). I can make a pair in a couple of hours and for me that is quick. Well, they are quick provided I don't lose the beading needle, the needle threader, the earwires, and above-all -- spill the beads all over myself.

One more from December

Christmas set for a friend. White size 20 Lizbeth, big red and white beads and smaller red, white and green beads. There's just not much to say about this one. The motif is very like the one I made for my aunt's earrings (I may have changed the stitch counts a bit). This would have been easily adapted to a bracelet as well, but my friend doesn't wear them.

Purposeful Tatting

I am just starting to learn tatting and I have a question...Off subject I am afraid but..... I see all the pretty things you make and wonder what do you do with them? I understand doilies and jewelry but what about the other things?

I make lots of things just to see if I can. I make things so I have an excuse to buy more thread, extra shuttles, beads, buttons, findings, and do-dads. I make things to create beauty in the world, even if the world doesn't know it.

What happens to all the stuff I make?

I use some of it. I have two lanyards that are used for either my name tag, or with a findings change, as a keeper for my sunglasses when I go on vacation. I like to have them available and I don't like to carry the case around. I have a beaded string (just like the lanyards) attached to my phone which is also attached to a stylus. My ears can be decorated for days and days using just tatted earrings. A couple of edgings and a motif with a button center decorate some of my t-shirts. We decorate our Christmas tree in tatting (and ornaments of sentimental value). I am considering making a bit of tatting in a covered bangle to hang in my car. That's just in the thinking stage, though.

  

Lots of my tatting ends up in a drawer in an antique dresser that belonged to my grandmother. That drawer is full of prototypes and series of pieces which were tweaked, redone, tweaked, done again, and finally ended up as final patterns. It has pieces which ARE my patterns until I can get them diagrammed or written down on paper (some of them probably never will). It also has all the stuff I've made that hasn't been given away -- yet. Some of it might never go anywhere but the drawer until after my time. 

Some of it gets given away as gifts. I'm not interested in selling my stuff because I make it for entertainment. I have a job and I don't want another one. Turning a hobby into a job is a good way to ruin its entertainment value for me. That said, I have, occasionally, sold some of my work -- when I could find someone willing to pay for my time.

I have to laugh because you understand doilies and jewelry. I understand jewelry. However, even though I make them and enjoy them, I don't understand doilies. They are the queens of my tatting drawer.

So -- what do the rest of you do with all that stuff you tat?

Time Keeps Slipping Away

Where does it go? I think time must be like escalator steps: there's an unused pile of it in someone's basement, and I would like to have it. It's not that I've not been tatting, and crocheting, and any number of other things; I have. Time to sit at the computer? Then there should be time to clean off my desk. No, no, don't have time for that, so I must not have time to sit at the computer. There. (Yes, that's just where the mess sits -- there.) Time to take pictures of tatting? Then there should be time to put away all my thread, string and yarn. As if. That's a little too drastic.

However, I did enter all my stuff in the State Fair as well as the County Fair. (If you want to see what it was, look at the previous post.) Brag Moment: I got blue ribbons (first place) on everything and the little crocheted animals were considered for sweepstakes. I got enough prize money to buy a nice meal -- or more thread. I got thread. I don't have anywhere to put more thread.

Since last August I've been stuck on making little crocheted animals. I made some with size 20 thread, some with size 10 and most with size 3. I'm still making them. I gave away about a dozen and a half for Christmas, I think there are about that many still left in the drawer, and I'm spending recent evenings making legs for a purple and white zebra. My tatting has been reduced to mere minutes -- just enough time to take part in this year's TIAS (thanks, Jane!)

I do have some tatting to show.  My dad needed a gift for my aunt for their annual Christmas party.  In addition to some really useful stretchy fit-anything lids we got at the fair, I wrapped up a necklace and two pair of earrings.  My aunt doesn't have pierced ears, and didn't know I could make tatted ones with clip-on findings.  She was glad to get them and liked 'em too.  I used white size 20 Lizbeth thread and white-and-red-striped beads for the necklace and one pair of earrings.  The other pair of earrings uses large white-and-red striped beads and smaller white-green-red striped beads.  The necklace pattern is Patti Duff's lanyard; except that I did it with SCMR so I didn't have to load all the beads on the thread (I've misplaced both of my Tatsy shuttles!).  The earrings I just made up as I went along.

County Fair

The County Fair was different this year -- like it was only half there. Fewer entries, fewer vendors, fewer animals...you get the idea. The database with previous exhibitor names and addresses was either lost or ignored, so nobody got a postcard reminder of the fair dates and entry times. The Fair was also held earlier than usual, by about a week. Apparently, the people in charge of the exhibitor areas (not animal exhibits) are not the people who have been in charge for the last fifteen years. Those people decided to retire. They apparently either didn't train the new bunch, or the newbies decided they had better ideas. (Nah, I don't think they were really better ideas.) There were no comment cards this year, either. I miss those! It's always good to know where someone thinks your work needs improvement.

Anyway, I entered ten items and received three second place red ribbons:

Konoir edging, Original pattern ornament, Morgan Mouse Bookmarks

and seven first place blue ribbons. 

Renulek's Spring Doily, Original Pattern Doily, Halloween Card, Flowergirl Headband, Time & Again Earrings

Baby Afghan

The little crocheted stuffed animals I made from  the book Edward's Menagerie (#edwardsmenagerie) also got a Judge's Choice ribbon.

Edward's Menagerie Elephant, Zebra, Rhino, and Hippo

Bit of Lace

Yes, a bit of lace from "Tatting With Visual Patterns" by Mary Konior. I made a mistake, so there's a picot missing. I was going to put this on a pillowcase. After making the mistake I decided it was a good thing. This is size 20 thread. I've remade the edging in size 40, which is much better for the purpose. I finished it and joined it together last night. Now I have to wash it. No matter how many times I wash my hands when I use white thread it just looks grubby to me. Once it's washed and dried I'll sew it on the pillowcase. This is a first for me. I don't actually know why anyone would want to put lace on a pillowcase. However, it's one of the categories for entry in the State Fair and one I've not entered before. This piece might be re-purposed into a headband for a flower girl, because "wedding item" is one of the categories in the County Fair. If I use the picots as attachment points and put little beads there, nobody is going to know there's one picot missing -- there will be a bead after all.

For those of you on galloping horses, okay, those who don't have the inclination to stare at every picot on this bit, here's the error:

Bugs

Yes. Bugs. I made some. Jeanie Schekel, the chair of the Ogden Bonneville Tatters group, held a class on Riet Surtel-Smeulders Daisy Picot Butterfly last month. I didn't finish in class, so my attempt at hiding the wire was not as easy as it probably should have been. There's wire in the wings so they can be shaped and hold the shape without stiffening. I did not choose the threads wisely either -- really should have selected three plain colors to get a proper contrast. Still, I do like these and I like this pattern. The top butterfly is size 20 and the bottom is size 40. Now I need to try it with size 80.
The other bug is a dragonfly designed by Leesa Kramer, the Bonneville Tatters chair this year. It only takes about two yards of size 20 thread, four dagger beads and two big eye beads. I want to make more of these!  Of course, before I make more, I should sew in the ends of this one. 

Moving on!

Renulek's Spring Doily has been all over the 'net -- here included. I started on March 18th and finished tatting (YES!) on May 1. It took me until the 5th to get all the ends sewn in, and last Thursday I blocked the piece on my large board. So, it took me less than 3 months, but not much less.

It amazes me every time I finish something like this. It is a very simple pattern, rings and chains in ordinary configurations. It's how those ordinary configurations are organized that gives the pattern it's beauty, and once it's all put together, it looks complex. There are other renditions that look even more complex than this one, simply because of the color choices. It's so interesting how each piece worked looks just slightly different from the others. 

Here's another difference in each piece -- blocking. Not everyone likes to spread things out as much as I do! Mine is done is size 20 thread, so it's large. As completed it measured 18 inches across, but, after blocking it is almost 20 inches. 

This one is destined for the Fair this year. I don't know what the judges will make of it -- but I like it.

I still have to make a list of colors (I'll add that in later just in case anyone is interested), but I do like my rainbow:

Missing Fox?

Have you lost Fox at Tat-ology?  Yesterday all I could get was a 404 error. Her web host apparently was not nice and a BAD company, so she's moved to blogspot. If you follow Fox (and who doesn't?) you'll need to update your bookmarks or clickable lists or whatever you use to:

http://www.tat-ology.blogspot.ca

TIP for International Tatting Day

In the waiting room at the clinic in an almost comfortable chair, I did my tatting in public. Too bad International Tatting Day, April Fool's Day, and my least favorite day of the year all fell on the same day this year. Of course April Fool's day and International Tatting Day are fixed in time, but my annual physical floats around. There's nothing dignified about a visit to the doctor, and my tatting covers more than the gown and sheet! Why is it doctors talk to you when you're starkers? They should get all that poking around business out of the way then let you get dressed for the discussion. Oh, I'm getting carried away. I did TIP. I finished the rest of round 8 of my Renulek Spring doily and started on round 9. The ends for round 8 still need to be hidden and the back is looking generally thready -- lots of ends need to be clipped when this is finished!

Cascade

Sometime in February I started working on "Cascade" from  Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs. It has been finished for almost a month, but really needed blocking. I could tell it was going to be a torture block -- the doily needed to go on the rack. Here it is all stretched, and I do mean stretched. If you don't look close, it looks pretty good.  A critical eye would notice the stressed bits, and those places where somebody couldn't seem to count.  Oh, well.  It actually is a very pretty pattern, but I have to wonder how it would look with fewer picots and larger rings right there in the center.

Tag -- That's Me!

Last month at our regular meeting of Bonneville Tatters, we made name tags. I made one with my name and one with my real name (no, it's not Bizzilwix - it's also not a big secret). 

Mine is made from white Lizbeth size 20 thread. What? Oh, you've noticed that it doesn't look very white. No, it's not from dirty hands. My sister dyed that thread for me and I like using it (check out my pram, heart, and decoration) — rainbows are happy things. Besides, it will match everything. Yes, it will, even patterns — everything! 

I've got a plastic thingy with a magnet attachment that is supposed to go on the back of it, but I don't know the proper way to put it there yet. We are supposed to learn that next month. *sigh* I won't be at the meeting next month, so I will need remedial help in May, I suppose. 

It was such fun putting these little beads in the middle of split rings. I used Jane Eborall's method and it worked slicker than ...ummm... slick things. I tried doing it another way, using the thread from the second half of the split ring, but kept getting a weird lump and loose looking thread on top of the tatting, so I had to give that up. I know it works (because other people used it) but it had me baffled. However, Jane's method was so successful, I now want to put beads in the center of lots more split rings. I need to find a pattern with lots of them and put beads in — just because I can. ☺

Round 7

Still working on Renulek's Spring doily. I'm out to round 7, but I left off the decorative picots in round 8. Can't say why, except laziness, probably. The next round will be like the green row, but in red and pink. I've got it worked out so it will end in the dark and light purple. Unless I discover a goofy bit when I get around to blocking it, I'll probably keep it to enter in the Fair this year. They need color, Color, COLOR!

On the Bandwagon

All over the 'net -- in the blogs, in the tatting group on Facebook, at InTatters -- people are doing Renulek's latest doily:  Spring Napkin 2014. I have to play, too!  

I started Tuesday night, so I don't have much completed yet -- I'm just at the beginning of round 3. I was going to work it in size 40, but couldn't find all the colors I wanted to use in my stash. My stash did contain all the colors I wanted in Lizbeth 20 (except the red, that's Manuela because I couldn't find any Lizbeth red in my stash -- gotta go shopping!). 

For the first center I did, I worked the joins so the color blips didn't show, but I didn't like it. It was too tight and the chains didn't have enough curve. Having the little pink color blips looks better to me and so does the chain shape in this one. I'll have to block the other one and add it to this post so they can be compared. That was its other problem -- it really needs blocking.

In case it's not obvious to everyone, this is going to be a rainbow-- "roygbiv" (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), but with the addition of the pink, and I don't really have blue and indigo -- I have blue and darker blue. I don't know how it will look when it's completed, but it will certainly be cheerful! All those loose threads are woven-in ends or tatted-over tails. I never cut them off until after the piece is blocked. There's less chance of something coming un-woven or completely undone that way. Sometimes the hairy ends get in the way, but if they're snipped to about three inches long, they're not too bad to deal with.   

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.)

Tat it and See Finished...

Thank you, Jane Eborall, for this year's TIAS. I love these things -- especially when people ask me what I'm making and I get to say, "I don't know. I'll find out when I'm finished." It just tickles me that they look so confused. If they don't ask for further information, I don't tell them about the TIAS and how it works. 

My sailboat is rather bright -- it must be running two spinnakers instead of real sails (due to be dumped in the drink). Keeping that mast painted turquoise must keep the crew busy full time, ya think? 

It's all Lizbeth size 20 thread, the sails are Rainbow Splash and the rest of the boat is ...um... not. I can't remember the name of the thread color but it was the remains of a ball of thread I got when Lizbeth first came out. Wow! That thread has improved.  This ball wanted to split, and twist and it had a little knot in one  ply that was miserable to get pulled through the ring. I was determined not to cut the thread as I was working on the mast by then.

Not just 2014 TIAS, but 2013 TIAS, as well:

Yup, I finally found my pram and the thread that matched the wheels at the same time and finished it, too. As you can see, I like to use bright colors for the TIAS! This is Lizbeth size 20 that my sister dyed in rainbow colors. It looks a lot different than the Rainbow Splash, doesn't it? The wheels and handle are a Manuela size 20 that I thought was red, but it certainly looks more hot pink than red!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day -- here ya go:

Got all of my threads in a row,

      Just doin' my thing

      By tanglin' up string.

A heart for my favorite beau!

Work in Progress

 Look, look, quick -- it might get away! Well maybe not, but I think they are the big Blob and a little Blob and the big one now has a skateboard! Can't you just see them oozing out of a movie theatre's projection loft? Hmmmm. No, that's probably not right either. Jane has me totally stumped with this year's TIAS. That's not unusual, though -- she has me stumped every year (like the year I was making a blue kiwi, and it turned out looking just like everyone else's goat).

The other thing I've been working on is "Cascade" from Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs. Someone in the Tatting group on Facebook asked about where it starts and in which direction it flows, so I thought I'd see if I could figure it out. What I figured out is that one of the first six chains is actually a ring. What I haven't figured out is how to count. There's a chain in there with too many rings, and the piece that runs out of the picture is a chain I have to retrotat because I forgot to join it. The thread is Lizbeth size 20 -- it happened to be sitting right there in my tatting bag. It's the same thread that happened to be sitting there when Jane said we needed a contrasting color for the skateboard (er...she didn't actually say skateboard).