Jingle, Jingle, Jingle

I picked up some tiny bells the other day because I thought they were cute and could probably be used with tatting. I should have included something for size reference in the picture. They're smaller than a quarter of an inch across or about 7 mm.

I sat down with some black Opera size 20 and some size 20 Lizbeth Turquoise and tatted a row of edging adding in the tiny bells as I was going. I had an idea that tinkling little bells around the ankle might be kind of cute. After the first row I had intended on just making a chain across the top, but I could tell that would be too skinny so I thought of making a mirror row along the top and replaced the bells with tiny gold beads. I didn't like the space that left between the large rings top and bottom, so I added in some iridescent black dagger beads to fill the gap.
Overall, I like the effect and the bells do make a nice little jingle when you walk. I'm not the kind of person to wear ankle jewellery. Actually I don't wear much of any kind of bling. I have a diamond engagement ring, but I don't wear it. My ears were pierced and I used to occasionally wear earrings, but I'd gotten away from it for so long that the last time I tried to put them on I had to poke a new hole because it had grown over. I've decided though that I like this one. I think it might even make a nice choker.
That brings me to an interesting question. Do you wear one anklet or two? Earrings are generally worn in pairs, but you don't often wear bracelets on both wrists. So what about anklets? Ankle bracelets are usually only worn on one leg, but I've seen designs for ankle wear done in pairs and I've seen singles. Of course maybe I'm only seeing one displayed but there are actually two. Does it matter? Does it depend on the design? I was all ready to whip out a second anklet when I decided that I only want to wear one. What do you think?

Bridal Tatting by Meme

I received an email this morning from Meme. She has been too busy for much tatting recently but she finally updated her blog with some bridal tatting she did a while ago. Go check out her blog for the full size pictures of this gorgeous dress back. The motifs are joined together in a diamond shape and three more motifs connect the lace back to the sides of the dress. The matching earrings were tatted in silver and white.
I not only find the tatting wonderful, but also the creative way in which it was incorporated into the dress. It isn't embellishment, it's an integral part of the dress itself. I find myself wishing I could be creative like this.

Meme sent me this additional information. The bride asked her to do the tatting and she was provided with a mold of the area where the tatting was to go. She tatted motifs in the general shape of a diamond ending with 2 motifs where it joined to the neck. At the sides for the underarm the motifs were elongated to join up with the front of the dress and a silver edge was added. It was tatted in Mercer Crochet thread, light ecru color (like butter), No. 20.

Random, Scatterbrained and Flustered

That's how I've been feeling recently and I'm blaming it on the heat. The air conditioning is working, but the extra warm weather means that it doesn't get all that cool upstairs where my office is unless the ceiling fan is also on. The constant draft is drying out my eyes and making me feel too tired to work and just plain cranky. I sit at the computer and something that should take 5 minutes seems to take hours. I'm at snowflake 25 of the 30 plus snowflakes and I can't seem to whip up enough enthusiasm to just get the last bit done. It's taking so long to pull things together that I'm starting to feel like I'm describing things differently from what I did at the beginning and I hate feeling like I'm cutting corners just because I want it DONE.

I've hardly held a shuttle in weeks other than to re-do several snowflakes in colour and there's this little bit. I was intrigued by the anklets I've seem on several blogs and thought I'd do one of my own. I thought it would be a good way to showcase tatting, but once I had it finished I remembered that I mostly wear socks and running shoes so that for me it's kind of a waste of time. The 25 Motif Challenge is beginning to take more time than I want to spare. Quite a few of the new participants don't blog in English so it's added another step having to translate the blogs. The translations sometimes don't make sense on key words so it requires getting creative. The heat has zapped my creativity so that adds to my frustration.

We're missing the bird and strangely, hubby is missing her more than I. Of course I'm not missing the hours of cleaning cages and caring for her, so maybe that's part of it.

We've had the Wii for about 3 weeks and I've lost 6 pounds which is good. Of course working up a sweat and then sitting in a draft from the fans has resulted in back aches, So I go around the house turning off fans and hubby goes around turning them on because it's hot and I think that brings me back to where I started.

We're in the process of changing our domain name which will change all of our web site, email addresses, and PayPal set ups so this should be fun. I may suddenly look like I've dropped off the face of the earth, but trust me, I'll be back.

Wheeee!!!....Wii?

A while ago my sister brought over her Wii system so that we could try it out. The idea that you could play a video game and get some exercise at the same time always struck me as a really smart idea. I have no objection to work. Lifting, carrying, and moving are all fine, but exercise for the purpose of exercise just doesn't make it in my book. I can run track, but running on a treadmill just isn't going to happen. Haul roof tile up a ladder? Sure. Stand around repeatedly lifting weights? Nope. I know me, I'm not going to do it.

Since the car accident I've gotten more and more out of shape. It took several months before I could walk again under my own steam and even when I could hubby didn't want me going anywhere unless he could come too. The problem is that he often can't leave the house because he's too dizzy. Consequently, I'm getting more and more flab and less and less muscle.

The other day I bought a Wii system with the balance board. Hubby thought I was joking when I said I wanted one. He insisted it was only for kids. Then we got it home and started using it. There's a lot of "anything you can do I can do better" going on right now, and all the while, we're both getting in better shape without having to leave the comfort of our own living room.

It's time

I've had Dusty for almost 25 years. When I got her she was young enough that she had to be bottle fed. She's been a pet and a family member for a very long time and she could potentially live another 75 years.

She sits with me outside when I tat. She sits with hubby when he waters the lawn. She goes on bike rides with us. She sits with us at lunch time and plays with hubby.
However circumstances change and I know that I'm not giving her the care she ought to have. So, with great sadness the time has come to say good bye. The vet has found a client whose son is interested in having her. He's been over to see her with his Dad and a couple of days later he was here with his girlfriend and Mom. Saturday he's coming over so that my hubby can help him making a free standing play area for the bird. Something that she can climb on and off of from her cage like she does now climbing from her cage to the 6 foot swinging branch we have hung from the basement ceiling. Something that she can climb around, but not climb down from. Her cage is too small, but she isn't locked inside it, except to sleep. He's decided that it's better to make a stand than to buy a really big cage and have her locked up all day. I agree.

I've been on and off weepy for days knowing that she's going. I know it's the right thing to do. I can't give her the time and attention she needs. Hubby can't handle the sound of her screams when she doesn't get the attention. Meniere's can make him fall over if he hears loud noises and her screams ARE loud.

It's the best thing to do, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about this heart breaking change.

Bye Dusty.

Threads and Pop-A-Bobbin Shuttles

I thought I'd tat something with the Lizbeth Summer Fun paired up with a matching solid. It turns out that the only matching solid I had was Light Turquoise. In this sample the colour changes are a little more gradual because the change is only happening on one shuttle, not 2 like the other motif where it looks like a dog's breakfast. The motif isn't lying flat because I took a look at the pattern and then went out to run some errands. I memorized the pattern incorrectly and missed chain 3 on either side of the dimpled rings, so it cups horribly and of course I also miscalculated how much thread I'd need so I had to add more.
You may have noticed in the picture above my wonderful new Pop-A-Bobbin Shuttle. I love it! This is the first hand made wooden shuttle that I actually LIKE.

Just so you know hubby has all the tools to make these things in the garage. He has a background in quality control and when he builds something in wood, the pieces are so perfectly matched that they hold together without glue. He's a perfectionist and I'm used to things VERY
precisely and perfectly made. He doesn't make a lot these days just because his health won't permit it. So if you think any of my comments are overly critical you'll know why.

Years ago quite a few people on the tatting lists raved about the custom made David Reed Smith shuttles, so when I had some spare cash I ordered one. At the time, between the exchange rate and the shipping costs, it came to around $40 Canadian. I ordered a large shuttle because I figured it would be useful in tatting larger projects to have a shuttle that held a lot of thread. I think I've used this shuttle about 3 times. It's a post style shuttle and I hate it. That's no reflection on the maker, I just don't like post shuttles. As for workmanship, there are some edges that aren't as round as they should be and the wood finish is rather grainy like it needed a little more polishing. That may be due to the nature of the wood I selected. At any rate, the shuttle was a disappointment and after a trial run with a small motif it got stuck in a drawer. It's the top one in this picture.

The next shuttle is a double bobbin Silent Tatter. I needed a double bobbin shuttle and since I was going to be paying shipping costs anyway, I figured I'd order both single and double at the same time. The single is the 3rd one pictured above. The pair of them including overseas shipping from the UK were about $64.00 Canadian They're bobbin shuttles so I expected to like them. Unlike the post shuttle they are usable although just barely so. I have 2 complaints about them. First of all, there are all these little pieces. I often tat while sitting on the couch. When using an Aero shuttle, the bobbin comes out of the shuttle and gets stuck on the back for winding. When I need to put thread on the Silent Tatter I have to juggle 6 little bits which you can see on the left in the picture below. Actually it`s only 5, because the bobbin doesn't fit securely on the piece of dowel supplied, so it's just a useless bit of junk. The bobbin is secured inside the shuttle by a metal sleeve that fits over a tiny screw. In order to undo this screw to put thread on the shuttle you need a screwdriver, or this supplied T. So while you are trying to fill the bobbin there are a whole lot of pieces that can get lost down the side of the couch. Loose any one of those 5 little pieces and the shuttle is useless. They both appear to be reasonably well made although the finish on the single bobbin shuttle is a little grainy looking.

The other complaint that I have, is that unlike the Aero which has the same tension each time I load it, the Silent Tatter needs to have the tension minutely adjusted using the T. I find I load the shuttle adjust it to what I think will work and find that it's either too tight or too loose, but I have already put the T away so that I don't lose it and I end up using an improperly tensioned shuttle which frustrates me. So these shuttles too have been put in a drawer and I only pull out the double bobbin shuttle when I have too, because it is the only double bobbin shuttle I own. I don't know what woods either of these shuttles are because when I ordered them the wood I requested was unavailable and I told them to just send what they had, and they came without labels.

The shuttle on the right in the picture above is the new Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle It's Purple heart and I know what it is, because that's what I ordered and, well, it's purple. This one cost me about $32 including overseas shipping. The Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle as you can see has 4 pieces. The popping tool has a tapered end at one side for popping the little cork out of the shuttle and one side which actually fits the bobbin. Unlike the Silent Tatter, the bobbin on this shuttle can be removed without using the special tool. I can pop the cork with my baby finger so I don't need to use the special tool. That means that while I'm winding the bobbin I only have to really pay attention to the little cork. That's one little piece instead of 3 to put the bobbin back in. Not only that, but once the bobbin is back in I can just start tatting. No fussing trying to screw together little pieces, no problems with tensioning, just delightfully smooth tatting.
I can't use the Silent Tatter without this screwdriver tool and even with it getting perfect tension is a stinker. The Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle really only needs the shuttle because even if my baby finger can't pop the cork, any small blunt object can be used. The workmanship on it is superb also and the finish is perfect, unlike the other 3. This one isn't going in the drawer. I've already tatted 3 motifs with it and if it weren't for the fact that the large 3D snowflake is in process with 2 fully loaded Aeros, it would be more.

The Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle gets 2 thumbs up. I hope "I'm in the garage" has a comfortable stool and a kettle for a hot cup of tea in the garage. I don't think tatters are going to let him come out of it any time soon.

Sometimes Snowflakes are Bookmarks

One of the snowflakes from the new book tatted in size 80 thread to be used as a bookmark. All but one has been drawn and almost half of them have been pulled into the publication. If things go the way I want it should be a book by the end of the week. I suppose I ought to think up a name for it, something a little more memorable that "Snowflakes". Any ideas?

Cluny Flower Snowflake

Since Fox has already let the cat out of the bag, here's the original Cluny Flower. The inner flower part was created about a year ago I did it in white and then re-did it with apricot coloured clunies. Both made pretty one inch flowers in size 20 thread. They've been kicking around the house getting moved from desk to desk. It's what happens to a lot of smaller pieces that I think look good but need to be part of something else.

The something else happened when I was working on snowflakes for the book. Here's the original cluny flower snowflake.
If I can get my act in gear it will be in a book by the end of the week. If you haven't already guessed, the white tatting on navy blue backgrounds are all different snowflakes from the book. Nothing like teasing people with tantalizing bits of lace.

32 of 30?

I have 32 of 30 designs tatted and diagrammed. Anyone see anything wrong with that number? I've already started pulling them into publication and doing the usual checking it twice routine and adding the step by step instructions and it's about 20% done. Or not. That 32 out of 30 number is to blame.

Last night the guys were here again. You know, those tech guys who are supposed to make my Air go. When they put in the new furnace we asked specifically if the air conditioning would work with the new furnace and we were assured that it would. When they installed it we asked them to check and make sure that both heat and air would work. It's hard to make the A/C come on when the outdoor temp is -0. It didn't so they tried again rewiring it so the both heat and air could come on. Then they replaced the thermostat. After which they replaced the circuit board which threw out all of the original wiring. When we hit record high temperatures earlier this week we tried the central A/C and although the unit came on no air was circulating. So we called our friendly guys to come and take a look at it.

The fan, which should come on with heat or air or by itself; only comes on with heat. They were sure that it was wired right and that the problem was the circuit board so they ordered a new board and a couple of days later they came back and installed it. It wasn't the circuit board. so then they thought it was the fan and ordered a new one. Yesterday they came back to install the fan. It wasn't the fan. They don't know what it is.

While they were taking the furnace apart to install the new fan I had uninterrupted tatting time and I decided to re-do some of the snowflakes in colour so that I can applique them onto a shirt. In size 20 thread several of them are 3 to 5 inches across. The plan is to attach 3 in a group add either a tatted or embroidered stem although I guess I could use ribbon which would be faster and I'd have a bouquet of flowers on my shirt. The blue snowflake is the first one so I was looking for compatible colours to go with it so I thought I'd try out Lizbeth Summer Fun.

Here it is unblocked. Yuck! The colours are pretty but the colour change is too short. It may work better when matched with a solid. I kind of knew that as soon as I had it wound on the shuttle, but I was hoping it would work. Anyone besides me keep going when you already know it's a mistake?

That left me no no alternative. I re-did it in Raspberry and now I'm on to my 3rd snowflake. I love the way this design works. the upside down dimpled rings with the join in the middle are a bit tricky.

I also want to do a couple of the snowflakes in size 80 so see how they do as bookmarks.

I have more projects on the go than hours in the day. I guess that explains why I haven't done a 25 Motif Challenge update in a while.

Done

If you visit this blog regularly you will remember that earlier this year we had a new furnace installed, which promptly quit on the coldest day of the year. After 5 or 6 service calls they finally got it working. This week in Toronto we are having record breaking heat, and guess what?


The fan in the new furnace won't come on with the air conditioning. So now on the hottest day of the year, we have no cold.
While trying to stay cool in my upstairs office, I did manage to finish my sister's birthday present. It's a couple of days late, but since she's gone out of town and doesn't know I'm giving her anything anyway, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. The picture doesn't do it justice because it's a shadowbox frame which isn't apparent from the picture. but between the poor lighting and the reflection from the glass, this was the best I could do and I wanted to make sure I remembered to actually take a picture before it's gone.


Edited to add new picture. The sunlight might have helped but you still don't get the 3D quality that's there in real life. Maybe it would work better if I threw the picture down on the scanner.


Anyway, here are the stats. The flower in the centre is the Irish Rose from my Marvelous Motifs book done in Lizbeth Violet/Pink Dark. The smaller bud is similar using just the base flower with 6 repeats instead of 8, and one less row. Then it was folded and shuttle joined at the edge to hold it in place. The bud at the tip was a half size centre ring with one pattern repeat zigzagged back and forth and again folded and shuttle joined at the tip.


The Pink flower is some no name perle cotton done with a row of ring and chain for the first row and a vertical row of smaller ring and chain joined to the rings of the first row. Three rings joined to each other make the little ball in the middle which was just knotted onto the central rings and the ends pulled to the back of the flower. The smaller pink flower is a basic daisy.

The blue flowers were tatted in Lizbeth Bright Turquoise Dark. They are basically 5 onion ring joined around a central ring.


The thread ends were taken to the back of the flowers and then tatted over to make the green stems. I think doing the stems took longer than the flowers and at one point I considered just wrapping the green thread around the ends. The leaf is just graduated ring and chain up one side and down the other.


I cut card stock to fit the frame and glued the flowers down with white school glue. Before anyone thinks I ruined some perfectly good tatting with glue, you'll be happy to know that I glued the pearl, not the lace and I glued the stems, not the flowers. The whole thing was formed in place and just glued in a couple of spots, which even if it yellows will be underneath and not show.

Work in progress

I'm working on a framed picture of 3D flowers for my sister for her birthday. I'm using the Irish rose from my Marvelous Motifs book as a focal point. I am thinking about how I can do a profile version of it as a bud.

The frame I have selected isn't very deep so I don't want anything with a deep profile. I've been playing around with some other flowers. I'll keep the blue one, but I'm going to replace the pink one with a plain daisy Add in a spray of one ring flowers to look like baby's breath and some greenery and it should work. As you can see, none of the ends have been sewn in yet. To save time I may just knot and glue because they'll be stuck down anyway.

I'm thinking of tatted stems and leaves but I haven't anything suitable to use as a vase so I think I'll just stick a bow on the stems.

Skype

Earlier this year we downloaded SKYPE which is a free program so that we could talk to family that aren't local. If you don't have a high speed connection, it isn't all that successful, but if you do have high speed, Skype is a great way to stay in touch especially since you can not only do audio, you can also do video. We can now talk to family out of town as easily as we can to folks around the corner. As a bonus we can actually see how big the kids are getting or we can pick up the web cam and focus in on a circuit board or computer wiring connection to show how it's done.

Lately, several people on tatting lists have lamented the fact that when they have problems with their tatting that they don't live closer to someone who can show them the ropes. It occurred to me that this might be a useful way to coach tatting online. Of course before any of that can happen you need to have people with high speed connections, Skype on the computer and a web cam. The laptop comes with a basic web cam but we also have a Microsoft HD Life Cam so it has good resolution. Clear enough that I can show stitches on screen. It has possibilities. What do you think?

Bummer

I've just realized that with very little modification 2 of the snowflake designs can be made into 3D snowflakes. That's a good thing, but in order to show you how it looks I have to actually tat them. One is small and won't take that long but the other is nearly 5 inches across. I already need to re-tat all or part of one of the other 3D flakes because I joined one of the arms at a point where I shouldn't have. Just cutting the join will fix it, but to do it properly I really ought to re-tat it.

What's not so good, is that I want to re-make several of the snowflakes which are pinned to my board to make colourful flowers that I can add onto some T-shirts. That's why one of the snowflakes is blue. I need to tat 2 more in colour for what I have planned and then sew down every blessed picot for easy wash and wear care.

What's also on the agenda is to tat some semi 3D flowers to mount in a frame as a birthday present for my sister. Her birthday is the 25th of May.

I also need to tat the designs from the folks in the Design-Tat class. Enough of them have been posted now that I can just sit down and tat them.

I'd like to do all of these things and start pulling the diagrams for the snowflakes into the software for publishing and I'd like to do it all this weekend. Good thing it's a long weekend.

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed this number. It's that close that I want this baby done!

26 of 30

Some things just aren't meant to be. I decided to throw in a cluny leaf for no reason other than the design was just too simple. It serves no purpose here. It doesn't add to the design to make it prettier. There isn't such a long chain that it needs to be broken up, I just added it to make the design a little more complex. So this one isn't going into the collection. Bye Bye snowflake.

What's your favourite patttern?

That's a trick question. You don't think so? Then let me ask you this:
Think of all of the motif patterns that you like. Now imagine having to tat it in a hurry because it has to be done by a deadline. Is it still your favourite pattern? If you had to tat something in a rush, would you rather tat a complex design with a lot of cluny leaves, or something simpler? See what I mean? You might find one design more aesthetically pleasing to look at, but it might require a lot more work to tat. On the other hand, some designs might be a favourite to tat, but they might not be a favourite to look at.
Some people tat because they just like tatting. Some people want to see the finished product. Some people want a challenge. Some people want variety. Some people want different things at different times. Some times I like to just vegetate with my tatting. I want to work on auto pilot and get up from my tatting with a finished piece of lace that I didn't have to think about too much. Some times I have an idea in mind and I want to create something new so it's a little more mentally challenging, like upside down dimpled rings.
Other times I'm tatting to create something that will be a gift and if I have the time to plan things in advance, I want it to be exquisite, original, unique and beautiful.

Of course I'm one of those people, you know, the ones that procrastinate, thinking that they can do a week's worth of work in a couple of days. So I often get to the first week of December and I haven't even started my Christmas tatting. If that isn't crazy enough I start adding in friends and neighbours that I think would like a little bit of tatting in their Christmas stocking. Or the week before a wedding I'm wondering if I have time to do edgings for a set of place mats or some other equally impossible task. So I have patterns that are my favourite to tat because they're fast to work up. And I have patterns that are my favourite because they are pretty when they are done. And I have patterns that are my favourite because they're a little of both. I've hit another milestone, as I've designed, tatted, blocked and diagrammed 25 of the planned 30 snowflakes for the new book and I was just thinking that this collection has a little of everything. Some mindless tatting, some mind bending tatting, some simple and some complex. I know a lot of people like to start doing their Christmas tatting early in the year, because, unlike me they don't procrastinate. By Christmas time they have lots of lovelies finished and ready to go. With this collection there will be enough snowflakes for everyone to have a favourite.

More Snow

This is a picture of one of the tatted snowflakes in the upcoming book. It's 3D and it has a star suspended in the middle. It's in the finished and blocked but not drawn state. I was going to put a crystal heart in the middle, but when all was said and done the heart looked too big for the centre space and so did the butterfly, but the star is just the right size.
It was hard to get a picture of it where you can see the 3D snowflake and the star in the middle with the wind blowing the way it was, but you get the idea. There's another 3D design done, but it's not blocked yet.

20 of 30

No, it's not a reference to the Borg collective. It's this number pinned to my board here:

These are the completed bits.

These are blocked and waiting to be written out.

These are finished. 20 of them, or at least 20 that I'm going to use. There are more than 20 on the board. I started writing the number on the board when I got tired of counting them repeatedly. Number 20 was a stinker to draw. I'm hoping some of the others in this box will be easier so that I can get this job finished sooner.

Why 30? I had plans for 1 a day for a month. They're done, I just need to get my butt in gear and get the rest of them onto the finished board so that number can be increased to 30 or more.

In their natural state they come in white, but I have plans to do some in colour for some other projects I have in mind.

I need to get these done and off my blocking board because I'm getting tired of working in white and I want to play but I need to keep at it or I'll just let it fall by the wayside. I was making progress adding one a day to my board but then stuff happened that needed my attention elsewhere. I am determined to get these into a book soon. Of course I was determined to do that before Christmas when I started designing these and now that I have more than 30 done, I'm looking at weeding some of them out.

Bookmarks revisited

We recently had some discussion about bookmarks on the HBT list which was sparked by someone talking about doing a bookmark for her mother's Bible. Bookmarks are fun little bits of tatting that let you do all kinds of interesting designs without a huge commitment of time. If you can tat uninterrupted, you can often complete a bookmark in a single evening. They're also flat and light weight so they can be mailed in a card for a quick gift. (You understand "quick" here is a relative term.)

I think bookmarks intended for Bibles ought to be made in fine threads. People who read their Bible regularly will probably have a good quality leather bound Bible with very thin pages. They're so thin they're called onion skin. Bibles have lots of pages and in order to keep the books small the pages are very fine. They are so fine, that any but the thinnest bookmarks will leave an impression on the page. Bibles are meant to be read often and last for a long time so they are usually very well made. They are also usually quite expensive for a good one, often costing over $100.00, so when you invest that kind of money, you want to take care of it.

This one is an odd ball, free form design. Most things I don't mind giving away, but this isn't a design that I'm likely to repeat so I kept it and I used it in my Bible for a short time but it was made in size 12 perle cotton and it's a little thick. That's why I made the new one in size 80.

Beginners like to start with size 10 thread because it makes it easy to see the stitches, but size 10 thread isn't a good on the binding of a good book. When I mentioned tatting bookmarks in size 80 thread, there were several people commenting that they hadn't seen a lot of bookmarks intended to be made with fine thread. A nice size bookmark in size 20 thread will frequently look Lilliputian when it's done in size 80. This butterfly I designed to be made in size 10 but as it's mostly one long chain, it's not too bad if it's made long enough so that the butterfly and tassel are outside the book. There are several of this type of bookmark in my Transitions in Tatting from Flat to Floral book like the heart and red cross at the right. The pattern for the blue one is on my web site and it's been done in size 8 perle cotton.

The discussion about bookmarks prompted me to go through my archives looking for my bookmark designs. Most of mine have been done in size 80 thread. All of the cross bookmarks from my book Tatted Crosses where done in either size 80 thread or sewing thread which was even finer.

Then there were the bookmarks that I did over the 6 years that I produced the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection Newsletter. This one used dimple rings and long picots with a tiny row of split rings woven in between.

In 2005 I was hit by a car while riding my bike and the accident resulted in 5 breaks to my left leg and a chip off my right hip from the impact with the road. I had been creating new designs every few days, but the accident really took the wind out of my sails. I went months without inspiration. This rose bookmark was the first thing I created after I got out of the hospital and I did several as a thank you for various health care workers.

This one I designed for my sister in law when my brother passed away from cancer.

This one was just because I wanted a cross with a rose centre with simple arms. The one that's in the crosses book is prettier, but more complex to tat.

More recently I created a lot of square motifs for the Marvelous Motifs book and several of them worked well as bookmarks. I suppose most square motifs would. This one has another rose centre. I like roses. They make a nice base for a lot of different things. They work up fairly quickly but the problem that I have with doing a lot of them in size 80 is that I find I have to really wiggle the hook to make the lock join and I end up with a sore spot of my finger from stabbing it over and over again. This one was done in sewing thread.

This one done in variegated thread kind of looks like there's a flower in the middle of the motif. I only used 3 blocks to make a stubby bookmark. I suppose I could have made it longer, but I was in a hurry.

This one is a bit of a cheat because it was done in size 12 perle cotton and not size 80 which made it a bit thicker, but not by much. I would have done it in size 80, but at the time I didn't have enough of any compatible colours is size 80 to complete it and I didn't trust sewing thread to be strong enough to do the multiple split rings or cluny leaves required and not break. I think this is one of my favourite designs. It's really pretty, but definitely not a one evening bookmark.
Lots of bookmarks and none of them looking skinny mini even in size 80 thread. Just so you don't think I'm a bookmark snob, working only in fine threads, I found one I designed in size 20. It looked really skinny done in size 80. Dimpled rings are hard enough to close in fine thread. This pattern uses dimpled split rings. I tried it in sewing thread, which was all I had in green and it wouldn't take the strain. The thread broke on every ring so I gave up because it was going to be too skinny anyway.