more tatting

I have a dear friend who has moved away and just lately sent me a friendship present.  I am "retaliating" with a pair or earrings.

The thread is a LadyShuttleMaker HDT in size 50 Wildflowers.  The seed beads are unknown.  The drop beads and the findings (doodads) are from FireMountainGems. 

I have been working on the turquoise doily again today. Another row, is nearly finished.  I need to concentrate on that so it gets finished soon.

I have another project that I have started.  Many of you may have figured out that I am Catholic.  Many of you may remember way back yonder when the Catholic women wore a veil or hat to Mass.  I have been feeling called to wear a hat or veil for quite some time now, and resisted for a long time.  I occasionally wore a straw summer hat off and on over the years, but was never comfortable. About a year ago, I started to wear a small black hat I inherited from my Grandmother.

It felt right to wear something on my head in respect.  But I started feeling like I wanted to return to wearing a veil. So I started looking for one I could add Tatting to.
There are many websites online offering Chapel Veils, but they are basically allover lace, no plain net.  I finally found one on Etsy at LizzieLovesVintage  It was perfect.

about 40" along the wide end and about 20" deep to the point.  It is mostly a nice net with some lace along the edge.

perfect for adding tatting.  I am going to replace the edging over time, but for now am wearing it as is.  I will be appliqueing tatting to the net ground. 
The first item to be added is this cross.  It is the pattern Camilla by Lene Bjorn from her book of Cross shaped Bookmarks.

It is tatted in Jess's Grackle Mess size 80.  It is a bit hard to see how pretty the thread is in this picture, so I took a closer one.

If you click on it and make it bigger, you should be able see the different colors in the thread, purple, green indigo...

I will also be doing a bunch of VicTats's Roses are Red.  Her patterns are available on her blog along the right side.  or Click here to go directly to the Rose pattern on Keep and Share.

It rained about .7" by the time it was done today, so was able to spend most of the afternoon tatting. 

Have a great week everyone.

School colors

I have finished another Cross Bookmark for a high school graduate from our Church.

The threads are size 20.  The blue thread is Lizbeth Royal Blue and the white is DMC Cebelia.  The Cebelia is a slight bit larger then the Lizbeth but they worked out o.k.   I am positive I have a ball of  white Lizbeth in size 20, but do you think I can find it?  Oh, well, the ball of Cebelia has been in the drawer for a loooooonnnnnngggg time and really needs to get used up.



When I held the PIF several weeks ago, there was one gal who left me no way to get  in touch with her.  She finally contacted me just after holding the 2nd chance drawing.  I have decided to send her a set of earrings in her choice of thread. 

The thread is HDT size 40 RainForest, the beads and doodads are from FireMountainGems and the hooks are from eebeads

A neat trick I discovered tonight while trying to scan the earrings,  There is often a focus problem when scanning an item that includes beads, but there is no good light tonight, so inspiration struck and I dug out a piece of fake fur. It cushioned the scanner lid and filled in the spaces around the beads and I think it worked pretty well.  I will have to remember this.

The garden is all planted, Yeah, in between all the rain.  We have had a lot of rain the past 10 days or so.  And the crops are all in except a very wet spot or 2 where the tractor would have gotten stuck if farmguy had tried it.

catch up post 1

I haven't shown much tatting lately.  And I have been tatting.

This is tatting that I did last year for Christmas.  I have not posted it before, it is one of the things I will be posting as catchup posts.  I did mention these snowflakes last fall.  These are the first 3 posts if you click on Doodad in my label cloud.

These are tatted in Lizbeth size 40 with a silver blending filament.

I actually haven't finished tatting all of last years snowflakes yet.  A very kind lady ordered 12 snowflakes from me, but was willing to wait until this year for the last 6 of them.  As long as I get them done before Christmas, I should be good.  I did about 36 snowflakes.  these represent most of the patterns that I used.

Here are a few hanging on a Charlie Brown style Christmas Tree

The walls behind the tree are nearly white and they flakes didn't show up well, I grabbed a flannel sheet out of the laundry basket and didn't realize that the wrinkles would show so badly... opps.

There will be more catch up as time goes by. 

Filament comparison

I had mentioned in my previous post that I likely wouldn't post much until after Christmas, but realized that I hadn't shown a comparison of all the different filaments that I had gotten for the snowflakes.

I have now tatted the same snowflake pattern in each of the 3 styles of metallic and want to show you the differences.  I used Lizbeth white in size 40 for each of these.

I thought the scan would show the differences a bit more, but if they are laid one on top of the other, the smallest is the #4 Very Fine Braid and the largest is the #8 Fine Braid.  The size of the snowflake made with the DMC is between the 2.
If I figured correctly before, using  the #4 with the Lizbeth is about a size 20, and I thought the #8 worked up as about a size 15, the DMC is somewhere between.

The color is different too as you can see in the scan above.

I pulled small snips off each so you can see the differences a bit more.

left to right......         #4                     ........DMC                            ...........#8

I like the way the Kreinick tats up, it is more like thread.  The DMC is stiffer and composed of 3 twisted strands, that want to separate at the cut end.   I think I will be ordering more of the #4, and maybe another spool of the DMC but not the #8 it is too large.

The snowflake made with the #8 isn't finished because I ran out of the filament.  There are only 10meters of braid on the small spools.  This was the amount left after tatting the snowflake in the post below.  With the #4, I made the snowflake in the post below and the 1 here.  So I got 2 out of the 11 meter spool.  There are 40 meters on the spool of DMC.

Happy Tatting.

2 & 3 and things I learned

Here are 2 more Snowflakes I was able to tat today.

and there are several things I learned doing it too.

Both of these snowflakes are made from the same pattern, they have the same stitch counts.  The pattern is Glittery Snowflake by Vida Sunderman from her pattern book, Tatted Snowflakes.

1. The same thread as yesterday's flake,  Lizbeth size 40 white and Kreinik Very Fine Braid size 4 in silver.  but I didn't follow the pattern exactly as I turned the chains the wrong way,  the stitches face out instead of in. What can I say? I was watching the Vikings win again, my attention was a bit distracted.  I didn't realize I had turned the chains inside out until several points had been done, so decided to finish it the way it was.  This was the end of the spool of size 4 Kreinik Very Fine Braid.

2. The white thread is the same, but the silver is Kreinik Fine Braid size 8 also in Silver.  It is a larger braid then the size 4. Combined with the Lizbeth they come closer to about a size 15 thread I think.  This Snowflake is larger, but I did get the pattern turned correctly so the points are more defined.

I like the size 4 braid better of the two.  I will have to get more of that. But it will take a lot to do all the snowflakes I was planning on with I can only get 2 out of each spool.   I do have some DMC metallic thread that is 3stranded and will be using that to compare as well before I decide exactly what I want.  I will have to do that soon as I ordered the Kreinik from Handy Hands. and will want to order more just as soon as the Aerlite shuttles are ready.

as far as the pattern goes, I think I like both of them.

Hope you had a great tatting weekend.
nearly midnight, time for bed.

first one

This is the first of many, possibly 3 dozen, we will see.

This is a doodad snowflake, the pattern is one of Diane's at  Lace Lovin Librarian. 

I blended Lizbeth size 40 white with Kreinik Metallics Very fine Braid size #4 in silver. The 2 threads together are about a size 20.
The doodad is from Fire Mountain Gems #H20-4335FX it is a small crystal in the center for added sparkle.

I hope you are having a very good weekend.

My Beginning with Later Update

Tonight I was able to start my Tat-A-Long.

If you haven't caught any other posts about it around the blogosphere, Jon at Tat-a-Renda  was able to get permission to update some long ago patterns by Norma Benporath.  She has been tatting them from the original notations and then is going to post graphic versions.

She posted the first graphic called Lace Mat  and has continued to post some hints and tips in several more posts.

When she posted the graphic pattern, she suggested having a Tat-A-Long.  Many tatters have taken up the challenge.

I finally got caught up on promised items and have been able to start my version.

The thread is hand dyed by Zarina  in Anchor size 50 called Orchid Garden. This thread is so pretty.

I have a solid coordinating thread that I will be adding during some of the rounds. I don't know what the solid color thread is, the label is long gone, but I did the wrap test to check for size and it is close enough that it should work.

If you haven't thought about joining the Tat-A-Long, give it a thought, it isn't too late to start.

Happy Tatting everyone.

Later
This is what I wanted to finish tatting before I could start the above Tat-A-Long.
I was testing the Duchess pattern for Fox.   She has not yet released the pattern, so watch her blog for the release date.

The varigated thread is Lizbeth size 40 in Scottish Thistle # 175
The center is a tatted ring instead of a jewelry finding (doodad or tatament).  It is tatted in DMC Metallic Pearl Size 5 color silver.  I left the tails so I can use them as a hanger.  This may have 8 arms instead of a snowflakes normal 6, but I think it makes a very nice ornament.

Square Elegance

I have finished Square Elegance by Frivole.
The thread is Lizbeth size 20 in Pink Cocoa