Chantilly and other tatting

Midnight violets is finished and in the process of being sewn onto it's new home.

Here is a photo of the tatting after row one.

It already looks great but have a look at what happens when the second row is tatted.

Very nice. I am extremely pleased with how this turned out.

I am beginning to think that all tatting looks better in person than it does on the internet.

This Chantilly pattern (see also Piecework) has some beautiful photos to its name banging around the internet. But, I wouldn't have tried it if I hadn't some thread left on the bobbin after finishing the violets. I was also in a funny sort of a mood where I didn't want to start a serious project. So I tatted a few repeats of this while watching Poirot. Each pattern repeat is just a little bit larger than the size of a dime.

When I look at my photo, I think, well, that's nice enough. But when I look at the lace in person, I think that if I ever got married, this is what I would have trimming my wedding dress. It would look totally awesome as a trim on a sleeve cuff.

French Elephant tea cozy

My elephant tea cozy pattern has been translated into French by a totally dedicated knitter.

The link is here and the pdf file is here.

The PDF file looks totally awesome and puts my armature pattern publishing to shame. I love it when that happens!

Tatting Tea Tuesday

I keep seeing people posting about tatting tea Tuesday. I wondered what it could possibly be. Well, I think I've found the source of it all on Ambitatterous's blog: Tatting Tea Tuesday.

The rules (as laied out by Ambitatterous):

• Set aside some time to tat.
• Put the kettle on for tea.
• Share your progress on your blog or your favorite tatting group list, with "Tatting Tea Tuesday" in the headline or email subject line.

Sounds like fun to me.

An aside for those of you who are wondering. Yes, I still knit, weave, spin and do other fun things with yarn. I'll get back to blogging about that soon.

This week I'm still working on Midnight Violets. I've tatted 16 inches of row one which means I'm almost half way there. I need 38 inches plus two pattern repeats for what I want to do with this. That's a lot of lace. Not to mention that I'll be sewing this onto the fabric by hand, and not onto the edge of the fabric either. I think I'm crazy.

Even crazier, I am wondering what would happen if I spun up some silk for tatting with. I have several one ounce packets of lovely silk... and I like spinning lace weight... hmm...

As for tea. It's just about impossible to find ginger tea without soy in it these days. I found some green tea with ginger and decided to give it a try. It's very nice, quite bitter and not very gingery. It actually tastes a bit like tea, tea. I think honey would be a good addition.

Perhaps I should just grate up some ginger, dry it and mix it with dried mint leaves from my garden.

Here's to more tatting Tuesdays with tea. Finally a good reason for it to be Tuesday.

Tatting and the AntiCraft

I was looking for something a bit more challenging than tatting bookmarks.

I do enjoy making the bookmarks. Even though I've been using the same basic pattern over and over again, it has kept my attention quite a long time. But I thought is was time to move on, try something a bit more complex to get my confidence up for tatting a TARDIS.

After bumming around the internet for a while, I found the free tatting pattern Midnight Violets on The AntiCraft. It looks slightly more challenging so I decided to do a couple of pattern repeats to see what it would be like to make.

I tell you, the photographs on the pattern page for Midnight Violets do no do it justice. I cannot get a good photo of it either. But let me say, it looks amazing in person!

It is also using basic tatting skills: rings and chains. Each of these elements are quite simple on their own, but once they are put together in this order, it looks amazing.

Have I told you yet that I'm amazed by this pattern?

I know it's a bit more lacy than I usually go in for, but I have a plan for this. Only, I have to make a whole lot more of it (about 4 feet total). But that's okay because I have a half a pound of 2/9 linen thread which should be enough to keep me tatting for years on end.

The only thing I'm missing now are more shuttles. I don't want to spend $20 on a shuttle and $35 on shipping and goodness knows how much on customs. I need a Canadian source with little or no shipping charges. If only I could find another shuttle at a yard sale... but that would require going to yard sales.

ducklings hatched today

I think tatting is here to stay.

Here's a bit more tatting for you. I saw this bookmark on Ravelry and I thought how lovely. I want it. But there was no pattern for it. So, I attempted to make one for myself.

I think it turned out quite well... except a little further on I made a mistake and have no idea how to un-close a loop. I might be making my knots too tight as the thread is hard enough to pull through in the first place and 'frogging' my tatting might just be impossible. Oh well.

I went down to Knotty by Nature and bought some more thread/yarn/linen for tatting with and informed them of my new obsession. I also let them know of my future need for tatting shuttles. Preferably pretty ones. I showed them some examples of hand made tatting shuttles on etsy and the good people at Knotty will see if any of their artisans would like to make some.

I'm very intrigued by flat shuttles. (see here, here and here - although some of the etsy links might be lost over time, the first one seem permanent.) I don't know if they would be easier to use than the regular tatting shuttle or not, but they are generally more aesthetically pleasing. It would be fun to wear one as a necklace.

Drat and Tat

It's been a pretty difficult few weeks. My health has set me back to about where I was this time last year. Hopefully it won't take me that long to get back on the right track again. But enough about that. If you are interested, you can read more on my other blog.

Because I'm trying very hard to be positive right now (despite everything being so blah) something good did come out being in hospital. My room mate taught me how to Tat.

And, because tatting is something I can do with yarn that does not bother my arthritis, I'v quickly become obsessed with it.

It's absolutely amazing. You make this knot, and then with a slight flick of the wrist, you make the knot jump from one thread to the other. In that way, you can make knots with your working yarn, send them jumping to the other yarn and pull the working yarn though the knots it made. Sounds complicated. But I tell you, it wasn't difficult for me to understand once I saw it done. The moment I saw that first knot jump from one thread to the other, I knew this is what I wanted to do.

It's funny when you think about it - I'm not a big fan of lace. But I love tatting.

After playing around with some of the patterns in Mrs Beeton's needlework book (which are really easy to understand, not like modern day patterns) I decided that I wanted to make this (pdf).

To acquire the skills I need to make a TARDIS, I've been working my way though these AMAZING tatting lessons. Once I've perfected the split ring, I'll have to head down to my local yarn/needle work shops in search of some dark blue cotton (or silk) and probably more tatting paraphernalia.