Busy, Busy, Busy

Doesn't look like I've been busy, since I haven't posted since September! I have been, though. Work (such an icky word, spit, spit) has been more work than usual, and I've been making Christmas gifts. Those I can't show -- don't want to let the cat out of the bag, you see. However, these two were birthday gifts for a friend who decorates her Christmas tree all in white. The first one is my lock-chain ornament cover with a different sort of bottom. Held up it looks a bit like a hot-air balloon. I was concerned about white on white, so I added gold beads. This one was made from 1 strand of Gutermann white cotton sewing thread and 1 strand of Signature polyester machine embroidery thread. After finishing I thought maybe it was too much color for her white tree. The second one is my first original ornament design. Wanting the design to stand out, I used size 20 Cebelia for the second one and added a very few silver beads. She likes them. I think they need COLOR!!

Lock-Chain Ornament Pattern

One person expressed an interest -- that's quite enough for me. Here's the pattern I created for the Design Challenge 2. Click on the image to get a larger size...or check the HBT file section or Etatters, because I'll post a .pdf file in those places.
[PS -- thanks, Jane Eborall for introducing me to lock chains. I'd never neard of them before your hippo TIAS]
Here goes (oh, and keep in mind, nobody's test-tatted this thing):

Materials:
2 colors size 80 thread
Two shuttles

Techniques:
Split Ring
Self-Closing Mock Ring
Lock Join

Abbreviations:
- or p = picot
— = double-length picot
—— = quadruple-length picot
lj = lock join
RW = reverse work
SCMR = self-closing mock ring
Sh = shuttle
SR = split ring
vsp = very small picot

Begin at SR A: [Sh 1] 4-4——4 / [Sh 2] vsp 5-5 (the vsp is used attach the final lock chain)

*Lock Chain : 4-3-3-3-3-3

Inner Ring B : [color 2] 6 (+) 6-6 (on subsequent Rings “B” join to free p of previous ring B, shared join with lock chain between Rings H and I)

Lock Chain : 3+3+3+3+3+4

SR C : 4+4-4 / 5 — 5 (to quad-length p of Ring A, after twisting the p 3 times)

Lock Chain: 6

SR D: 4-4-3 / 5

Chain: 6-6 RW

Ring E : 6+3-6 (to free p of Ring “C”) RW

Chain : 6-6 RW

SCMR F: 8+4 (Ring f 8-8) 8 (to free p of Ring “E”) RW

Chain : 6-6 RW

Ring G : 6+3-6 (to free p of Ring f – the ring thrown off the SCMR) RW

Chain : 2-2

Ring H : 6+8-4 (to free p of Ring G)

Chain : 2-2 lj to free p of Ring H

Lock Chain : 6 (lj to free p of Ring B) 6 (place size 30 thread or fine paperclip to create a joining space for Ring I) and continue with

Chain : 2+2 (join to free p on the Chain between Ring H and the Lock Chain) RW

Ring I : 4+8-6 (join to space created by thread or paperclip in previous chain) RW

Chain: 2+2 (to free p on Chain between Rings G and H) RW

Ring J : 6+3-6 (to free p of Ring I)

Chain : 6+6 (to free p of Chain between Rings F and G) RW

SCMR K: 8 (Ring k 8+8 [to free p of Ring J])4-8 RW

Chain : 6+6 (to free p of Chain between Rings E and F) RW

Ring L : 6+3—6 (to free p of Ring K) RW

Chain : 6+6 (to free p of chain between SR D and Ring E)

SR M : 3+4-4 / 5 (to free p of SR D)

Lock Chain: 6†

SR (A) : 4-4——4 / 5 (+) 5 (to free double-length p of Ring L)**

Repeat from * to ** 4 times and from * to † once; end with lj to vsp at beginning. Cut and tie ends, hide with magic threads

TIAS4

I have been working on Sherry Pence's TIAS while I've been fiddling with Sharon Briggs' Design Challenge. (Aren't they nice -- to give us such interesting things to do?).
I had to start over after day five, because I got the colors backward. I suppose I could have cut day five off and just redone that -- but I decided I didn't like the colors anyway, and I was having difficulty getting the rings fastened to the sides of the block tatting on element two. The first set were done using Jane Eborall's new method of block tatting (the one on the right in each picture). I don't think I've quite got that mastered, so I did the second set using the more traditional method shown in Iris Niebach's Fantasia. Hmmmm...I still need a lot of practice. The two colored element three looks more like one and a half color. I also noticed that the "traditional" ones were a lot shorter than the others. I hope they work anyway. Those threads sticking out of the second set are not unhidden thread ends -- they are the ends of the hidden threads I haven't trimmed yet. I trimmed the ones on the first set and drat if I didn't pull one completely out and have to hide it in one of the pink rings -- since it was less than a quarter inch long and was a bit frayed at the end, I didn't really think it would stay hidden.
I do know what we're making -- although I can't figure out how I'm going to use fancy-dressed caterpillars.

Design Challenge 2 Revisited

I just couldn't leave this one alone. I was not satisfied with the green and yellow one (it might have been the colors). This pink and purple one is more like what I wanted -- that larger gap between the large rings and the attached small rings on the outer edge. It's made from DMC Cebelia size 30. I even wrote down what I did! It needs a diagram and the instructions transcribed from the pencil scribbles, but then I can share it if anyone is interested. It does make a peachy Christmas ornament. I made this red and green variegated one from DMC size 80 tatting thread. Right now it's just pinned on my testing ornament for pictures. I'm thinking it might look better sitting on the ornament sides instead of top and bottom.

Design Challenge 2

Sharon's second image from the Design Challenge proved to be quite a challenge for me. The first one I made is just over 1/6 done -- with weird threads sticking out here and there. I was trying to use extra long picots by wrapping specified numbers of times around my one little picot-gauge-dowel. Talk about stringy -- besides it was yellow. Yeah. I pulled that off my Aero-style shuttles with a satisfying zzzzinnnng. I was running out of thread on the shuttles anyway. It's sitting on the arm of the chair looking forlorn -- and I don't care.
Starting over with DMC size 80 with plain red on one shuttle and a red variegated on the other shuttle, I thought maybe beads would cover the deficiencies in those long picots. Not quite, the yarn stitch holders I used were way too big and left too much bare thread. At that point, I lost track of the challenge image and wandered off somewhere into the ozone layer. Oh, well. This one would no way make a 6-sided snowflake anyway. It's not even an attractive 5-sided star. Poor limp thing didn't even want to settle into any proper shape on the blocking board. But here it is in all it's ...er... oddness.
Stubborn (me or the motif? -- could be either or both), I started again with green and yellow size 30 DMC Cebelia. Instead of regular chains I made lock chains to separate the repeats so they wouldn't try to curve. A few other minor changes in ds counts and picot size resulted in what I'm calling my (ta-da!) finished design. Those knobbies around the edge are an ...ummm... embellishment (yeah, that's what) to the challenge image. The large rings at the top of the lock chains need to have a bigger picot for joining so they're not so stressed when blocked, but it's done. The only really nifty thing is that it's all done in one pass so there's only one set of threads to hide at the end. It bears a passing resemblance to the challenge image ... doesn't it?

Now I have to go dig out my threads and extra shuttles for TIAS 4 -- thanks Sherry!

Rhubarb Crisp Milena

This is Iris Niebach's "Milena" from the book Tatted Doilies made in Yarnplayer's size 80 "Rhubarb Crisp".

Whew! This bit got dragged from pillar to post in the last few weeks, but finally got done. It only took me another week ...or was that two?... to get it blocked. The blocking was actually a damp cloth, the iron, and a bit of finger manipulation. It behaved well, didn't it? The first time I made this pattern (about 4 years ago), in size 30 white thread, I made an extra pair of rings at the outside of one repeat. I never noticed it until I tried to block it. It's sitting in a box somewhere. I tried it again while I was on vacation in blue variegated size 80 thread. However, I didn't carry the book with me, just kept looking at what was done -- and repeating the same mistake over and over after the second repeat. If I'd made the same mistake from the beginning, I would have finished it to see if it would work. It looked too weird though, so I threw it out in disgust. Determined to get through it at least once, this one has seen a lot of unpicking and redoing. This just isn't an autopilot pattern for me.

As for this beautiful thread, I think there might be enough left to make a pair of small earrings...maybe.

BlogRolling

I've added this new element but don't have time tonight to add in everything I read or scan or to which I refer on a regular or irregular basis. I've got to pack to leave town again!

Giving and getting

Sue, the amazing list-mom from Here-Be-Tatters organized a "Christmas in July" exchange. It had to have been a huge amount of work because there were so many participants. All those lovely things in the first picture are what I received from Irma from Chile. New things to hang on my tree this December, a towel which just matches my bathroom, the prettiest cut-work mat I've ever seen, and thread to make an edging for that mat or make more snowflakes or use for jewelry...such possibilities...a neck or vest ornament with a wooden holder, and, finally, a pretty blue satin bag covered with tatting in which to keep all my special things. Right now, it's holding all those tatted bits I don't have homes for yet.
The giving was just as fun as the getting, but after the loot I got, I feel like a piker! Maria, my exchange partner from Portugal, received those things in the second picture. (You'll note the absence of anything so large and pretty as the hand-towel and the mat).
Hey! When's the next exchange? I've got to get started!

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!

Round Tuit

Michelle over at HBT very kindly send me A Round Tuit. Wow! Thanks! (hmpf -- there go my excuses!)
Instead of actually doing those things for which I needed to get A Round Tuit, I've been admiring the nifty item and considering ways to embellish it for tatting purposes. Maybe like this: