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).

Unsettling

As in not being able to settle down and figure out what I really want to tat.  I've been doing Jane's Tat-it-and-See, but it only keeps me entertained for little bits of time. Other than that, I've been doing a bit of this and a bit more of this and some of that. Lots of little pieces and lots of hearts and butterflies using left over thread have gone into my heart tin and butterfly box.  I haven't been interested in blocking things either. 

I'd show some of what I've been doing, but Blogger doesn't want to let me post any pictures.  It was okay earlier this month, but now it has decided to not play nice. How good is your imagination?

Imagine this:  Four snowflakes in bangles, some hearts like the ones at the top of the picture in this post; an angel I've never done before, and some really beady earrings.  Oh, and a Rainbow Splash TIAS piece.  *sigh* 

Okay, it apparently IS my computer, not Blogger (sorry!).  There's no problem adding the picture from work (but it doesn't show the earrings):

First of the Year

Marilee Rockley (Yarnplayer) has a new tatted jewelry book finished. (Hooray, hooray!) It's available as an e-book and in print. I couldn't wait for the printed version. These "Time & Again" earrings are the first things I've finished from the book. Of course, they're more interesting in the book -- Marilee designed them in two colors. I couldn't resist the silver and clear beads though. The way the large beads are put into the center of the ring is the easiest, cleverest way I've ever used. 

These are made with Oren Bayan silver thread, clear size 11 seed beads and two sizes of faceted glass beads.  The earwires are nylon instead of wire. I think the clear hooks look good with the silver. I can actually see covering these with lots more beads -- but it would change the delicate look.  These already have beads on the joining picots that weren't in the design -- really I'm almost as bad as Fox when it comes to beads!

Trees and some more trees

Trees from Jane Eborall's patterns: Christmas Tree on a Button and Christmas Tree - No Button.  The two green trees and the white one are all size 20 with nice big shirt buttons and decorative top buttons (I like the star buttons, but had a hard time finding any.)  The metallic trees are all made from Oren Bayan gold thread.  The red buttonless tree suffers from inattention to the pattern, but it still looks okay.  
The size 20 trees will probably join a few others as gifts for friends next year.  The smaller metallic trees are for my dad's little Christmas tree.  It's only about 2.5 feet tall so it needs little ornaments.  This is part of what I was doing during December.  
The rest of December's tatting is done and gone with no photos!  I made three pair of earrings for my bosses, one pair of earrings for my great aunt; two pair of earrings for my sister's co-workers and one pendant for my sister's co-worker who doesn't have pierced ears.  I didn't get a picture of any of those -- they were all too quickly wrapped and gone.
I also made a bunch of little hearts and butterflies to add to my give-away box.  One of these days I should dump some on the scanner and show off what a nice collection I have for the next fair.

Holiday Greetings!

Happy Holidays!

We did our inside decorations today. We always wait until after my niece's birthday before we decorate -- one celebration at a time! This year we have a new fake tree. It's tall and slim so we put it in front of the fireplace so we didn't have to move any furniture. I love that! The chair in which I usually tat (the large overstuffed rocker you can see in the picture) is one of the pieces that gets moved and I get all discombobulated. We have a lot of ornaments that are sentimental and lots from trips (we buy fridge magnets and ornaments when we travel!). The rest are tatted. The earliest ones are from sometime in the late 1970s. They are really plain little gray stars. I don't think one is visible in the picture. In fact, I think there might be only one still around. Don't ask whatever possessed me to make gray stars. Maybe I thought they looked silver. If I was going to make them now I'd use metallic thread and make them silver. The thread choices were much more limited in "the olden days."
Tomorrow we are going to tackle the outside lights. We are not supposed to have snow, and the temperature is predicted to be 21ºF (-6ºC).  That's better than the 9ºF (-12ºC) it was last week, so I hope we don't freeze getting it done.