#3 for 25 motif challenge

Wow, some many comments on my 100th post give away. This is great.

I'm in the process of testing various patterns to determine the ornament drape for this year's Christmas presents.
below is Lenore English's Snowflake #1 from 1999 It was published in the book Tatting Online edited by Georgia Seitz. It was done in size 20 lizbeth thread in the colorway Springtime. ( the label is missing so don't know the color number)


It would work for me with a few modifications, and I may end up with this as my starting point, but in the mean time, I am trying another pattern to see what strikes my fancy.

I like doing ornament drapes versus ornament covers, because they are easier (I am essentially lazy) and if one of the kids drops the ornament and it breaks, all you have to do is put the drape on another one. (I'm thrifty too)

This is #3 for my 3rd 25 Motif Challenge. It turns out I do about 2 challenges a year.

This past weekend was so nice. Almost felt like Indian Summer. I was at my daughters 95 miles away. They are re-doing their basement so they have a couple more bedrooms. They have a small house with only 2 bedrooms originally but 3 kids.
I am so blessed in my kids and their spouses. They rally around each other and between 2 weekends nearly all the family showed up at one time or another to help out. This spirit of cooperation has worked before. The sons in law trade work at one another's places, go hunting together, enjoy getting together at family events. None of them knew each other before marrying my daughters. All good people. one daughter and her fiance drove 3+hours to come help. Another is expecting a baby any day, but came an hour & a half along with her husband. Our son came both weekends to help. I had a wonderful visit and helped with the grandkids. there were 7 grandkids between the ages of 9 mos and 8 yrs for a while. Took them all on a walk to 2 different parks to play and keep them out of the guys way.

DH would have been there too, but is trying to get the wheat combined.

100th post

Here is my 100th post. As I mentioned previously, I have something for you because it is a milestone. But first, I want to show you the shrug that I mentioned I was working on.

I found the pattern on Etsy.com from Rensfiberart and received it by email which was really great as I didn't have to wait for it to arrive.

The yarn is from yarnmarket.com it is a cotton blend of 50% cotton, 45% viscose and 5% silk in a very pretty sage combination. I can't call this a ombre colorway or a varigated colorway either as 2 strands are a lighter sage and 2 strands are more of a silver sage. the 4 strands are twisted together to give a heather appearance when worked.

The shrug pattern worked up very easily but of course, I couldn't just leave it alone. I made the sleeves longer and so had to adjust the body area as well. I have been wearing it at work for the last several days and it has helped with the when the air conditioner is on.


Some time ago, I bought a shuttle on ebay. from a gentleman located in eastern europe. I like to support new artists and since I prefer bobbin shuttles I thought I would give this a try.

It is very nicely constructed and came in it's own handmade box,


It is too big to be comfortable in my hand. I have tatted with it, but keep running into my left hand. So I am going to give this away to a random commenter to this post.

You will receive everything you see here. The shuttle, with hook protector, the handmade box, a small screwdriver and a bobbin winder ( the small dowel).
I will draw for the winner after the 15th of September 2009.
Simply leave a comment to this post. Only 1 comment per reader please.
Thanks

3rd and final edit

Today is my 99th post.

Here is the finish of the Beatrice Doily by Iris Niebach. Heather Johnston of Tarnished Tatter fame had a bit of Melamine in size 30 left and was kind enough to send me some. Please see this post for links to the book with the pattern and a link to Heather's blog.
This doily is now going to Heather to be used in a fund raiser for a gal with breast cancer.
Now my motif #2 for my 3rd challenge is officially done.

I have posted the Alternate Color Daisy Picot Flower to my patterns and techniques blog, the link is in the side bar. (the name is almost as long as the pattern)


I received these in the mail yesterday.
Jeff Hamilton of Bridge City Tatting fame also does Chainmaille and has a etsy.com shop where he sells his creations. I bought the earings and then asked Jeff if he could make me a cross pendant. If very willing obliged and the result is above. I took it to church with me and Father was very interested in it. I asked Father to bless it and he did. I will now wear this one when I want a change from the one that I wear every day. Thank you Jeff, your work is amazing.

I also received in yesterday's mail, some more of Heather Johnston's Melamine thread in size 30. Heather had a bit left and graciously sent it my way. Now I can finish the doily. Thank you Heather.

Now I am going to see if I can post my rainbow test
hhmmm didn't work, let see if I can figure out how to do this.

Your rainbow is shaded green and brown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a deep thinking person. You feel strong ties to nature and your mood changes with its cycles. You feel closer to people when you understand their imperfections. Those around you admire your fresh outlook and vitality.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

yup, had to click on the edit Html tab to do it. found that hint on Jon's blog, well, found out 1 thing, if you edit your post, the colors go away. and you need to get the correct html from spacefem.com again for the colors to show up again. I have no idea why my rainbow background is black, it was white before. I have kept a copy of the html code from spacefem.com so I can repost it after I edit this again. because I will be editing it.

I have finished the Beatrice doily. It has been blocked and as soon as it is cool and dry - I pinned it out and steamed it - I will clip all the thread ends, scan it and add it to this post later this evening.

Now back to my shrug. Not sure if I will get it done yet this evening, more likely the next couple of nights.

Oh, since it is my 99th post, I have something in mind for my 100th.

another how you hold your thread story

On the Here-Be-Tatters group and on the tatting groups I was part of previously, we have often had discussions on about how to hold the thread around the left hand and the pinch, thumb and first finger - tatting hold

(this picture found on the website)

or thumb and middle finger - crochet hold.

(This photo found here)

Whichever way works for you is just fine as some have said that they find it difficult to transition from the crochet hold to the tatting hold.

well, here is my story.

I have tatted on and off for 50 years, the past 10 years more tatting the anything else. I have also crocheted for almost that long, many afghans, sweaters, scarves, rugs ..... you name it, I have probably done it.

I use the crochet hold for crocheting and the tatting hold for tatting and never had a problem with either. When wrapping my hand with yarn for crocheting, I don't go around my little finger as you would for tatting with thread, I simply weave in and out around my fingers as that gives me the right tension for yarn.

Well, I decided that I need a shrug to keep me warmer at work when the Air Conditioner blows on me.

I found a nice pattern and got the yarn and started Monday evening.

tonight I was having trouble getting a good rhythm going, couldn't figure out what was wrong until I took a good look at my left hand. I had wrapped my left hand as I would for a tatted chain and was holding the pinch in my thumb and first finger.

(this picture found on this website)

Goes to show where my mind was at.

The website with where I got the tatting pictures is a good one for tatting instructions. I have used them for teaching tatting.

Jeanne (ladytats) NATA #39
in tatting the knots make sense

UPDATED #2 of third 25 motif Challenge and other things

UPDATE: This is the Beatrice Doily by Iris Niebach from her book Tatted Doilies. You can find the book at Handy Hands and other tatting suppliers. The thread is Melamine by Heather Johnston in size 30. Links for Handy Hands and Heather can be found in a previous post about this doily.

yeah, I know it isn't completely done, but it would have been done the other day if I hadn't run out of thread. the additional thread needed is now on it's way to me, so I will get it done as soon as it gets here and then it will be on i't way to the fund raiser.
I am putting my shuttle down for a few days and picking up a crochet hook.
I get so cold at work with the air conditioner blowing in my office since the thermostat is out in the receptionists office. Yet a full sweater is too much so I found an quick, good looking shrug pattern for $5.00 on Etsy and some really nice yarn from yarnmarket.com, so I have started the shrug. The yarn is a blend of cotton, viscose (rayon), and silk in a pretty silver and lt. sage varigated.
I crochet fast so it won't take me very long to get it done. I have only spent about 1.5 hrs on it so far and have a good chunk done. I will show it to you when it is finished.

#2 on my 25 motif challenge

While not entirely finished, I am counting this doily as #2 on my challenge list.

I am working on another UFO at the moment. we will see how that one goes as it is an HDT too.

Exactly What I Feared

I have almost finished the doily that I posted about the other day. The pattern is from Tatted Doilies by Iris Niebach. It is the pattern called Beatrice. This book is available from Handy Hands as well as other places I expect. The thread is Heather Johnston's Melamine in size 30.

As you can see it is not finished and may never be unless I can find some more thread. I have placed arrows at points of interest

1. spot where I am stopped

2. is the shuttle thread - only 14" left

3. is the ball thread - only 13" left.

not enough to finish, so close and yet so far.

The thread is Heather Johnston's Melamine in size 30, if anyone has some they are willing to part with I would be most grateful. I only need about 1.5 yards to be sure that I can add in and finish and hid the ends.

Worst case, I have to un-tat the last 2 repeats and see if I can get a 7 point doily to lay flat as opposed to the 8 point doily in the pattern. That is a chore better left for another day and as I said a last resort.

in my previous post I mentioned that I was going to post about the flower I tatted with petals that alternated color. I still plan to do that, but we have had to turn off the computer due to severe thunderstorms for part of the weekend and have had intermittent internet service when it was safe to have the computer on.

back on track

First up tonight is a pretty little shuttle I received in the mail today. It is from Noreen Crone-Findlay. The same gal who interview Sherry Pence - ladyshuttlemaker. She makes several different style of shuttles.
This little hedgehog shuttle is only 1.5" long. just what I was looking for.

While I was making the Daisy Picot Stars for my daughter's wedding, I was doing a lot of finger tatting with a long strand of thread. It was a bit tiring, so did some thinking and realized that I needed a small shuttle to use just for finger tatting. It didn't need to hold a lot of thread, but be easy to wind, and handle.

So I went looking for the right size shuttle. I talked to Noreen and she was very pleasant to work with and the upshot is this very smart good looking tiny shuttle. It came in the mail today, and as soon as I got home from work, I wound some of the thread on it that was left on another shuttle and tatted a flower using the daisy picot method. The shuttle worked great! Thanks Noreen. It made it so much easier to finger tat the flower. I do a fair amount of SCMR Butterflies as well, and this will work very well for them too.

The color changes on the picots really worked out nicely, although I hadn't originally planned them. They occurred because I alternated between direct tatting the daisy picots and flip tatting them. Something that I discovered while tatting the Daisy Picot Stars. I will post this on my patterns blog.

Now I will show you the doily I meant to the other day. Here is the Beatrice doily by Iris Niebach. I have been wanting to tat some of her work and this turned out to be a good time as any. I volunteered to tat an item for a charity auction for Heather of Tarnished Tatter fame. She had a friend who is dealing with breast cancer and wanted to help raise money.
The thread that I am using is Melamine in size 30 by Heather. She has some interesting colorways available in her etsy shop.



The box in this scan below shows how much of the doily I had to retro-tat but once that was finished and the stitches redone, I was off and running last night. only 2 & a half repeats to go.

Gotta get some supper quick then off to watch the Vikings play while tatting on this doily.

Sigh

I was going to show you the doily that I am working on even though it is only half done, but I discovered that I had joined to the wrong picot 4 rings and 4 chains back so am in the process of retro-tatting and decided not to post it in that condition.

so, you will just have to wait a little longer.

I might not have taken the time to un-do all those stitches since there is a bit of a time constraint to get this done for a fund raiser, but I am unsure if I will have enough thread. I think I will, but... and it is a HDT so not so easy to pick up more if needed.

Time will tell.

trial

I am trying out different headers and a signature, so please be patient.

The header font and these signatures are from GlowTxt.com

and these signature fonts are from Pookatoo.com

a new look for me too

inspired by Sy, Gina and others, I decided to spruce up my blog. my background was always dark and I like this light background better. There is a link to the background maker in the upper left corner and I have placed a button on my sidebar to her blog as well. She does very good work.

I have been tatting but still nothing to show. The cool damp weather the past couple of days has caused my arthritis to act up so I can do a lot of tatting at a time. I only have it in the one knuckle, but it is the one at the base of my right hand pointer finger, and it gets a lot of use no matter what you are doing.

Check it out

If you haven't already seen it, Noreen Crone-Findlay has an interview with Sherry Pence - LadyShuttleMaker on her blog - hankeringforyarn.

Sherry is one of the world's premier maker of Hand Dyed Threads and ceramic tatting shuttles.

Thanks Noreen for interviewing Sherry and posting it for all of us to read.

tatting but nothing to show

Just a quick update.
I have been tatting, doing a doily of Iris Niebach's for a charity auction ----and also test tatting a pattern for someone else. so no tatting to show yet.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

I am hopeing that the tropical islands above will inspire our local weather to warm up. This has been a very chilly summer. I think we can count on one hand the times it has been above 80.