Designing Course Anyone?

Lest you think I've given up on square motifs, here are some of my latest trials that have been done in size 20 thread. I posted a challenge in January based on a rose motif and since I don't like to ask people to design something when I haven't given it a try myself, I did this one and since I also am on a "make it square" kick I just had to turn the rose into a square motif. None of these have been finished or blocked, mostly because there are mistakes that need to be cut off and re-worked.Gina posted a picture of a crocheted rose and I had to give it a try in tatting. It needs work, but I'm on a roll so it will have to wait until I can re-visit it. The rose shape would look better if the layers were done in different colours possibly with another layer on top. Notice the extra ring in the middle of one side. I started out with one idea and forgot by the time I was on the second side. By the time I noticed, I was on the last side so I just finished it. The white round is going to get cut off anyway, so I'm not too worried about it. I think it would be easier to see the 3D effect if it were in a lighter colour, and if anyone would like to do it and send me a picture, I'll send you the pattern. without the mistakes of course :-)

The next rose is surrounded with clunies which took forever to do, and now that it's done I'm not sure if it's something I want to repeat or not. I kind of like the way it looks although the corners need to be re-done. I think it might make a very pretty x4 to see what the intersecting corners look like. I'd do it, but I'm on a roll and I don't want to stop just yet

Same basic idea, but all very different. I have been kicking around the idea of doing an on-line course on designing tatting, except that, it sounds rather conceited, because what, after all do I have to teach? Maybe a zillion ways of not doing things.

Sometimes a design comes by trial and error. If you do a thing often enough you have to eventually get it right. Sometimes it's sheer dumb luck. You make a mistake and see that your mistake actually looks good, so you repeat the mistake. Then sometimes you design with purpose setting out a sketch or a mental idea and you follow the plan until you come out the other side.

I'm not sure if there would be any interest in a designing course, or if anyone thinks I have anything of value to teach, but if there is, let me know and I'll pull my ideas into a more coherent form.

A golden thank you

Another surprise in the mail today. You may have seen this gold beauty on Jeff's blog. I'm the lucky recipient of this treasure. Trust me, the picture really doesn't do this snowflake justice. It looks flat and lifeless in the picture whereas in reality it sparkles and shines from every angle, with the picots at the tips flashing golden sparks. The Oren Bayan Metallic gold thread seems so much finer and more golden that the DMC gold thread that I am used to, and the work is exquisite. I am truly blessed with such unexpected treasures as the snowflake received last week from Maria and this one from Jeff. Both snowflakes were received with thank you notes for arranging the round robins.

Jeff was one of the participants in the recent snowflake round robin and was actually the group leader who kept things in the group moving forward collected the pictures and information on the snowflakes and posted it to the round robin blog. One of the difficulties with organizing tatting related things like the 25 Motif Challenge, The Tatting Round Robins and more recently the Tatting Books blog, is that I don't have a lot of spare time to participate in exchanges and round robins myself. That's why I really like being able to enjoy them vicariously, only this time, I have some snowflakes of my own to cherish.

What'll I do?

I have just had a rummage through my tatting stuff and realized that I have a bunch of tatting I don't quite know what to do with. I'm a designer and almost everything that comes off my shuttles is an original one of a kind something or other. Sometimes I design things because I'm making a gift for someone. Sometimes I'm just trying ideas out to see how they'd look. After looking at the crocheted tablecloth whose pattern reminded me of rings I tried to duplicate part of the design in tatting and produced a doily which was given to my sister in law. I had to re-tat this one in order to create the pattern for the newsletter.

This Gothic choker just kind of made itself. Unfortunately I don't know anyone with Gothic tastes to gift it to.

Then there was this 38 inch edging of hearts that I thought I'd add on to a pillowcase, but it needed a foundation row to make it straight along the top edge. I got bored with it and never made the second edging.

I had this bag of bright sparkly red beads that turned into this romantic necklace, but I don't know anyone who would wear it.

Then there was the time I was playing with celtic tatting and did this interwoven design for any eye glass case. I wear glasses, but being nearsighted, I never take them off and have no use for an eye glasses case.

This necklace is an excuse to play with bugle beads.

I don't like the way the op of the heart pattern worked out so I re-designed it.

Then there is my recent experiment with sequins.

So I have these and other pieces languishing in my supply box and I'm wondering what to do with them. It seems a shame that no one gets to enjoy them. Maybe I ought to start an Etsy shop just to clear out my supply cabinet. What do you think? Are these pieces people would be interested in or would handling an Etsy shop just mean more work and time taken away from tatting?

Books, Design Challenge and Mail Call

Look what the mailman brought! It's a lovely card from Maria who is one of the participants in the 25 Motif Challenge and in the recently completed Snowflake Round Robin. The card shows sightseeing trolley in her home of Portugal. Included with the card is a beautiful snowflake she tatted and put in in a bright red bag. The pattern is based on a design in the Burda magazine. Isn't it wonderful?

I have been tatting but I haven't posted much recently because I've been tied up with some other projects. There are some new round robins about to start. I just need people to tell me what they would like to be making. If you haven't had a chance to look at the round robin blog, go look now, but make sure you take tissue with you so you can wipe the drool off your keyboard.

Another project that I'm trying to get under way is the Tatting Books blog for all of our wonderful tatting authors. It's a blog where they can post pictures of their books and information on where to get them. So many of our talented folks have started producing books and a lot of them are self published and not available in stores. Sometimes we just don't know what books there are or where to get them, so I am hoping that if each person enters their own book data that it will help them to be more visible and it will help tatters to find all these terrific publications. The blog is in it's infancy and the only way people can add their information is if I send out an invitation from the blog. So if anyone has a book and hasn't been sent an invitation, please email me so that I can get you added. If I missed anyone, I promise, it isn't intentional, I'm trying to reach as many book authors as I can find. I have been linking to the Tatting Books blog on all of the blogs I manage, but for some reason my personal blog here doesn't seem to have the same format.

On to the next project. I have uploaded an new entry for the Design Challenge. This challenge is to take a basic rose and make something with it. You have probably seen the rose centred snowflake collection by Denise Munoz and that's one thing you can do with a rose. You could make it the centre of a round motif or a square motif, or make it into a bookmark or a heart or whatever else you can dream up. So there's the challenge. So let's see what you can come up with that has a rose as it's base.

More Fun with Sequins

OK so if I'm working on designing a square motif that can be used to make a shawl, why am I still playing with sequins? I don't know, but if someone figures it out can you clue me in? I tatted the medallion again just because it looked like it would fit in a bangle. It does, sort of. I could add another row or change the last row to make it fit better, but I've already fallen out of love with this design. I might do it again adding matching beads to the outer round to make it more sparkly.
Maybe my lack of enthusiasm is because I've already done it a few times. I re-did it in red and black, which I thought might look really dramatic and it might have with different sequins. These particular red sequins are transparent and they don't have enough colour value to stand out against the deep dark black thread. I may try some other thread and sequin colour combinations some time because I think it might have possibilities. I suppose what puts me off a little is just the idea of lace mixed with plastic. I made the necklace in the last post and I don't know anyone who would wear it. It's too... chintzy.

Sequin Necklace

I was doodling with sequins and look what happened. Now that I've made this, I'm not sure what to do with it.

Mystery revealed

With square motifs I always want to do 4 so that I can see what the connecting corners look like, so is it any surprise that if I work on a six sided motif that I want to see what their connecting corners look like? The mystery bit that I was working on has evolved into this. Did you guess what it was? I'm not sure if I like it or not. I mean I like how it looks, but it needed some serious blocking to lay flat. I pulled it off the shuttles, cut off about 30 already hidden ends from adding in new thread, sewed in 14 finishing ends and dry pinned it to my blocking board at about 5 last night. Er... make that about 5 AM this morning. Once I got the last bit done I was determined to see how it looked finished and I just kept going until my curiosity was satisfied.
Now that it's done to this point I'm wondering if I should just leave it as is or add a finishing row. I'm not crazy about designs with rings on the outer edge. They may look good but the rings often twist and turn every time the lace is moved so my usual preference is to add a row to nail them in place, although the extra row may actually detract from the overall design on this one.

For the stats, it's worked in size 8 perle cotton and it took less that 2 balls of thread and it's produced a doily about 10 inches across. There are 7-three row motifs in it and a motif can be completed in a single evening. So one week's worth of tatting can produce a respectable size doily with lots of interest. I joined only the larger central ring at the points, but now that it's completed I am wondering if it would look as good, or better if the smaller side rings were joined too, or would that make it pucker. I suppose I'll never know because now that the mystery of how it looks is solved I'm done with this design. I've done the same thing nearly 9 times once as the first trial, once to see if a slight adjustment to the central ring was sufficient to straighten it out and 7 more to see what it looks like. Now it's time to move on to something else.

....unless I add a row...

So now I am at that place I hate to be. In between design ideas. Once I start an idea I can happily march on tatting furiously day after day as I search for the finished design. Often new designs are at work in my head as my hands are working so that I can't wait for this project to be finished so that I can start the next. But sometimes I finish a project and there is a complete blank. Oh there are things I could do, just nothing that really intrigues me, nothing that grabs my attention and says "Create me!"

Maybe I need to doodle with adding a row and see if in the middle inspiration hits. Then again maybe I need to play with some of the images in my drawing file and see about turning them into something interesting. Maybe I should go back to square motifs and see what I can come up with that works well for a shawl. Maybe take a break from bigger stuff and work on earrings and necklaces for a bit. Maybe I should play around with some button designs. Maybe I should work on a tatted bag design. Maybe a pillow would be nice. Maybe a baby outfit. Maybe.........

I wonder what it is

Well we finally found a deadlock that would fit the door. The lock has been replaced and the door and frame touched up where the repairs damaged it. Yesterday was spent travelling around with hubby while we tried to get parts for some other repair job. It never ceases to amaze me that little jobs the other half is doing always seem to require my time. Not that I'm useful for doing any of the actual repair work, but I always seem to be needed to just hold stuff. You know the kind of thing I mean, "Honey can you hold the light." or "Could you get my screwdriver?" or "Hold these pieces for me." or "Hold this part steady while I work on it." Not that I'm complaining. Some of the escapades of other people that I have read recently leave me everlastingly grateful that I have a talented hubby that can fix almost anything. My only objection is that while I am standing around holding things, I'm not tatting.

This little snippet is a piece that I'm working on which should take another 3 or 4 days to finish. I have been planing a lot of "quick" designs but they keep taking longer than anticipated because I keep making them bigger. It's like the square motifs. One is nice but questions like, "how does it look as a grouping?" keeps me busy on designs that are basically finished.

Any guesses as to what this one is?

Time for a new tatting community challenge

We started the 25 Motif Challenge in August 2006 when Gina and Wally were talking about tatting a whole bunch of motifs in a set period of time. Then the discussion crossed over to several other lists and a lot of people expressed interest. Some people have a lot of tatting time and others only have an hour or so a day so after kicking the idea around for a while we decided on 25 motifs in a year. Almost 3 years later people are still joining the challenge.

Of course some people joined, finished and that was the end of it. Those people need a new challenge, something different, that like the 25 Motif Challenge people can work on their own projects at their own pace. So I've been pondering what new challenge everyone would like to be involved in. Something fun, something a little challenging, something that most tatters can do. There's no point in having a project that only designers can participate in because that excludes a big chunk of the tatting community.

Since a lot of people had tatted 25 somethings I thought of maybe a multi motif project like a tatted mat, or a teddy bear jacket or something that would incorporate a couple dozen motifs. Of course I realize that the motifs that some people had done were things like earrings so they couldn't be incorporated into anything else.

Then I thought maybe a group project like tatted bits to go on a quilt that could be auctioned off and the proceeds sent to some universal charitable organization like the Red Cross.

Or tatted hearts or something to be sent to a local women's shelter along the lines of the comfort dolls.

Or a challenge to create something extraordinary in tatting like a model space ship, Eiffel tower, bikini, or whatever your imagination can come up with.

Or a quarterly competition to make the most interesting, bracelet or necklace, or bookmark or, pincushion decorated with tatting or hair comb or other types of things.

How about some other ideas? Is there something you can think of that a lot of other people would like to try too? Suggestions anyone?

Oops!

What happened? It isn't square.

Amended to add: Motif stats, 4 inches from point to point using size 20 thread. Seven repeats of the drawing look like it will make a pretty doily. By the way, notice anything familiar about it?

Square Trial 4

Here's the next one. I don't like it at all. I knew I wouldn't even before I tatted it because I could tell from the drawing that it would leave too much space between motifs. The only way to join this one is at the corners, which will leave a large empty diamond shape between motifs. For that reason I'm discarding this one as a potential candidate. Besides, it's only 3.5 inches across which isn't big enough for what I want.

I did put a picture together of 4 of them as you can see here. Notice the large gap between the motifs? I think it would need a small fill in motif to make it use able for my purpose. The idea of having to tat more pieces and have more ends to hide isn't something I want in a project that is already likely to be large enoughI knew there was something wrong with it because even though it's unblocked it should have looked more square than this. Then I noticed that I joined one of the cloverleafs to the top instead of the side of the ring adjacent. That's what has it looking rather skewed where the left and right sides meet. The gap should look like the one between the top and bottom pair.

This design does have one thing in it's favour. You can make a diagonal motif and still be able to tat it. I started the design along one side, but I could have started it at the point. If the pattern were cut in half you could either leave the small inner rings off or use them as connection points for an outer edging or for some other part of a garment. If I were making a triangular shawl, I'd probably create and edging that would join to those unattached rings. A lot of the time when a triangular piece is needed, it's because it has to fit at armholes or necklines of a vest or jacket so those extra rings would come in handy for fitting to the required shape.

I have another drawing I need to tat up to see how it will look, then it's back to the drawing board to work on some other designs.

By the way, all of these square designs, they weren't originally square. I have some interesting ideas I'm playing around with. Stay tuned for more fun stuff.

Third Trial

Another square motif. This one was done in size 8 perle cotton just because I had to test out the thread and see if it was any good to tat with. I came across some 10 gram balls of size 8 perle crochet cotton in my local dollar store, and at 50 cents a ball I couldn't resist. Having bought it, I had to try it out to make sure it tats. It does, and so far the colour hasn't bled on my fingers, which bodes well for it not bleeding when it's washed.

I'm not impressed with this motif either. It was a quick rendition of a snowflake design adjusted to have only 4 sides. It will be too open and flimsy in size 10 thread and it isn't very big. The bigger the motif the fewer repeats I have to do. Here's a quick photo of what 4 might look like together. It will definitely make a pretty corner join, but I'm not going to tat more just to prove it, as the design is too small for my needs. It's 2 inches across in size 8 perle and that works out to roughly 4 inches in size 10 thread, but look how open and flimsy it is. Those open spaces would be enormous in size 10 thread.

I really think a nice 12 inch square would make a nice motif. Before you say anything, I know that a 12 inch motif constitutes a doily, but think how much faster it would work up and how many fewer ends there would be to deal with. I can easily do a 12 inch doily continuously climbing from row to row. Actually if I design 2 different but similar 12 inch motifs, with matching picots on the last round, I could alternate them for a very interesting effect.

Does anyone else get bored with tatting the same thing over and over again? I tatted a vest using a simple one round motif and there were so many of them that I barely got it to the wearable stage. So much repetition nearly drove me bonkers.

Of course, I could also design the shawl as one long rectangle. Imagine a whole shawl with only 2 ends to hide!!!!

Motifs X 4

I always like to know what a motif will look like when joined to others of it's kind. The pictures kind of give an idea, but photgraphs don't behave the same way that thread does. I am trying out designs for a possible shawl so I want some good all over coverage for some warmth. I want something that draws the eye to the whole motif and not just a tiny repeated central focal point.

I'm working in size 10 thread of some kind. It doesn't have a label, but it feels like South Maid. Here are all the ends from adding in new thread. This is what I cut off before I hid the 2 final ends for each motif. One of the things I've realized is that I'm going to need to use a larger shuttle so that I don't have to add in thread quite so often.

The first design does have a central focal point, but the corners are solid enough that they draw the eye too and the vision dances between both the centres and the corners. You can see each motif, but when you see it as a whole cloth might look, you don't instantly see where the motif begins. For one moment you think the centre might actually be where the corners meet. I joined the centremost rings and the side rings to one another. This would make a good design for any large project like a border on a square neckline or around a cuff, or as an edging on a guest towel.

The second design doesn't appear quite so square. It almost looks as if there are large round motifs joined together at the corners by a smaller motif of joined cloverleafs. It carries the same pattern segment throughout and is more like a whole piece of cloth than individual motifs. I joined it at the corners only by the central ring as I wasn't sure if joining the side rings would pull it out of shape. Now that I've done the 4 I can see it too could have been joined at the side rings. It looks like another motif that would work well for any large project, but it gives me the impression of a more solid and formal design.

I don't think I want a shawl done out of either of these designs though, so I will have to try something else.

Is anyone interested in playing along with me?

Second Trial

I started making the first square motif in sewing thread but gave up. The first motif was done in size 10 and changing the thread size so drastically takes a while to adjust. My favorite Aero shuttles were already tied up on another project and I was too lazy to go get another set, so I was working with a pair that had worn out bobbins and using them was driving me nuts so the motif in the smaller size has to wait until I got some proper tools for working.

Just so that I could see what the corners would look like hubby, who can do this sort of thing on the computer faster than I, put 4 of them together so that I could see what they look like. Not bad. They will definitely join at the points and maybe at the middle picot on each chain.

However, one small ring in the middle of the outer chains might pull it all together better like the graphically enhanced version shown below in the lower left. That would mean putting the rings on alternate chains, which would look odd for an individual motif, but when they are all joined together it will look good. Right now there is a big bare space that might be OK in size 80 but not in size 10 where it's a 3 inch motif joined only at the corners, like the upper right.

Then I needed to try out another variation of the first motif while the idea was still fresh in my mind. Here's the second trial. again not what I was looking for, but it has possibilities. It's square, although it doesn't look as square as the first trial and the mistake I made on the lower right corner certainly doesn't help!

I accidentally omitted picot, chain 3 and didn't notice it until I was at the next corner. and I wasn't about to retro-tat 6 rings and 2 chains in order to fix it. I had enough of that on the large doily, where on several occasions I ran out of thread and needed to retro-tat several rings and chains in order to have a neat place for adding in new thread.
This one has a nice balance of open and solid spaces and I think four of them will join together well without any adjustment and I can't tell from the picture, but I think the corner where they meet will look interesting, and the sides should make an interesting join as well. Some motifs when they are joined together, just look like a bunch of joined pieces. Some motifs blend in together and make an interesting overall pattern. I think this is one of the latter designs. It's still not what I had in mind, but getting closer. I think I may tat 4 of each of these and then do a matching border to finish them up. They'd look OK just joined but a border will give them a more finished look. By the way, for those interested in stats, both motifs were done in South Maid size 10 and unblocked the first is 3 inches across and the second is 3.25 inches across. Both motifs are 3 rounds of tatting.

One of the other things that occurred to me was that if I make a very large motif, like 12 inches across, that I would only need to do about ten of them in order to make a long narrow shawl. Fewer motifs mean fewer ends to hide. The 15 inch doily that just kept growing was done continuous from beginning to end so the only ends to hide were the final 2. The other ends were all from adding in new thread, and they were hidden as I added the thread using the method shown in my tutorial.

I can imagine tatting 10 doily size motifs in order to make a shawl, or 12 to make a 3 foot by 4 foot table cover. Somehow making the individual pieces bigger makes it easier to make. Small motifs work up quickly, but then you have to make so many of them and you have so many ends to deal with. Can you imagine making a tatted shawl 2 feet by 5 feet long and only having to hide 20 ends? I like that idea.

Wow Tatting

Have you ever seen a piece of tatting that's just breathtaking? NO? Then take a look at the wonderful pictures sent to me this morning. Patricia Estrugo sent me these photos of a wedding veil she tatted, that was so glamorous it took part in a fashion show.That picture is a tease, because as we all know, tatters want to see the lace not the model.

Better? No, I didn't think you'd like this view either.

How about this one? Isn't it Gorgeous!?

Here's the view with the front of the dress. Spectacular aren't they? Finally a picture of Patricia taken at the show with the designer of the piece.

Patricia speaks Spanish and her note to me in Spanish doesn't include much more information than that the pictures were taken at the fashion show and that she had tatted the veil. For those of you who do speak Spanish, this is the entire email.

VELO DE NOVIA TEJIDO POR MI

LES MANDO UNA FITIS DEL DESFILE DE VERONICA ZAPATA PARA QUIEN TEJI EN FRIVOLITE EL VELO DE NOVIA QUE LES PARECA, AL FINAL ESTOY YO CON LA DISEÑADORANO SABEN LA EMOCION QUE SENTI AL VER ALGO HECHO POR MI DESFILAR DELANTE DE LA GENTE Y LAS CAMARAS DE LA PRENSA ESPERO LES GUSTE

I have written to her asking for more information, but with the language barrier I'm not sure how much more information I'll get.

Edited to add:

I got the bsic information on what Patricia was saying by using the internet translator. HJ added the full translation in the comments.

First Trial

I decided that I want to work on a project that uses a square motif so I sat down tonight and did this one. I want something that is sort of uniformly dense with even amounts of semi solid tatting. I want the focal point to be both the centre of the motif and the corners where 4 motifs meet.

This one has some semi dense bits in the centre and at the corners, but 4 together doesn't make for an interesting join. I'll have to scrap this one and try another design. By the time I find a design that I like, I should have enough pretty designs that don't quite fit my plans, to fill a book. This one is done in size 10 thread and I think it's about 3 inches across. I should re-do it in 80 to see what it would look like as a bookmark especially if I do the rings in a solid colour and the chains in a variegated colour.

I mentioned some ideas for tatting books on one of the tatting lists and one of the members wrote to me off list and remarked that I shouldn't share my thoughts because someone else would take the ideas and use them to create their own book. The thought that someone else would take my idea and run with it doesn't really bother me, although I do think about it from time to time when I mention an plan for a book. I suppose anyone could take the idea, but they aren't me, and they won't come up with my designs. Does that sound conceited? I don't mean to be. If I do provide an idea that someone can springboard off of, then the tatting world is all the richer for it.

There are several books of snowflake patterns available. Does that mean that the possibilities for snowflake patterns have been exhausted? Seems to me that I read somewhere that the could be millions of real snowflakes and no 2 would be alike. So it seems like there could also be lots of different snowflake patterns.

What about hearts, or butterflies or bookmarks, do we have enough of those? And doilies, there are lots of patterns for those too. Does that mean that we shouldn't expect any more patterns for those either?

There are lots of designs for dresses and shirts and pants, but we keep seeing new variations of those things. They change around the designs for those things 4 times a year and there is always something new, so why shouldn't it be the same for tatting patterns.

Some people buy tatting patterns because they are collectors. Some people buy them because they want to make that one special item. Some people buy them because they find that a particular designer sets out patterns in a way that is easy for them to follow. Some people don't buy many books, choosing rather to make the things they like over and over again. Should a designer stop producing books because there already are some publications on the market with those things in it? I don't think so. I think there is room for old and new books, old techniques and new techniques. It's all good and it all has it's place.

Me? I'm going to whip up a bookmark, then I'll try another idea for a square motif. Happy tatting all.

Doilies: Love 'em or Hate 'em

I'm not really a "frilly" sort of person, so I suppose that it's silly that I spend every free moment making lots and lots of lovely laces that I rarely use. I have made a lot of tatted doilies, but most of them I have given away to various deserving people. I am fortunate to come from a very loving family who appreciate all of the hand made articles I have given them. I DO make extra effort to create things worthy of appreciation and I believe that most of what I make fits into the art rather than craft category. Although I know that in the hands of a skilled person pasta stuck on a styrofoam base and spray painted in gold, could be very artistic, my hands are not that skilled. So I stay with the fibre arts where I know what I bring to the table is a modicum of skill and a large dose of patience which usually produces artful results.

I have seen recently an abundance of comments about doilies being old fashioned and out of keeping with today's modern decorating trends, which may very well be true. When you consider the Victorian era where decorative flair enjoyed it's heyday, you also had an assortment of beautiful and irreplaceable wooden tables, desks, sideboards and hutches which were easily marked with water or the placement of heavy, rough objects on their shiny surfaces. It was much better to protect these delicate surfaces with ornate laces that to suffer scratches on a tabletop or water stains on a piano.

The men of that day liberally applied Macassar oil to their hair in the same way that people today would use mousse and hair gel. The oil often left stains on the woven fabric of upholstered chairs and sofas which, unlike our present furniture, was not easily cleaned. To avoid permanently stained fabric, lace pieces were created to fit over the back of the furniture. Additional lace pieces were created to protect upholstered arms from wear, so that you often see patterns for sets of anti-macassars. These lace pieces, although beautiful in their own right, were essentially rags (pretty "rags", but rags none the less) used to protect valuable pieces of delicate furniture.
Fast forward to today and take a look around your own living space. Most dinnerware is stored in a kitchen cupboard, not in a mahogany china cabinet, The tables are often covered by sheets of shatter proof glass negating the need for any other protection. The piano has been replaced by an entertainment centre made out of plastic which requires no protection from watermarks and scratches. Modern hair care products don't leave greasy splotches on upholstery and even the furniture itself is said to have a "life span"

So do doilies and the like serve a purpose in our modern environment? Most emphatically YES! Doilies give a splash of colour, an element of interest, and a feeling of hom-i-ness to a sterile environment. We don't use them with the same abandon of the Victorian era, but doilies still have a roll to play in decorating our homes. Since they are no longer just rags used to protect more valuable pieces, it is all the more important that the doilies we use be especially beautiful, and particularly well executed. An assortment of doilies lets you give a quick lift to the room just by changing the lace on display. You could hide them behind glass like the art they are, but how much better to lay them out on a table and change them with the seasons.

So which are you? Doily lover, or doily hater?

Loose Ends

I used to think that people who designed patterns whether they were tatting, knitting, crocheting or sewing, had some mystical ability whereby they just sat down and made things that were right the first time. When I started designing tatting, it came out of necessity. I needed flowers for my head piece and only had one pattern. One pattern, no decent book, craft, or yarn store in the neighborhood, and no time to order online and wait for delivery of books that may or may not have had suitable flower patterns in them. On a one month deadline I tatted furiously doing an assortment of variations of the one pattern I did have, and several little fill in bits to make up the rest of it. You can see the results here.

One year when we were out of town visiting family for Christmas I had my shuttles with some beads but no patterns. I had been making a lot of simple ring and chain motifs for a vest so I had that pattern memorized. It wasn't quite the right stitch count or the right shape, but it was good enough for me to make a small beaded snowflake for my mother in law. Since we were snowed in I had lots of time on my hands so I kept making snowflakes changing the stitch count and bead arrangement slightly on each one. As different family members showed up they went away with beaded snowflakes, all of them similar to this one.

Then Georgia needed a beading patterns for the online class and I used a similar pattern minus the outward rings and added lots of different coloured beads to make the rainbow earrings. A bag of assorted coloured beads had been sitting on my desk for a while tempting me to use them in something and all that came to mind was a rainbow. The need to use lots of different coloured beads and the need for a beaded pattern just fit together well.

The patterns for both of these and several other designs are on my web site here.

However, these designs are small. If you make a mistake with a snowflake, it's no big deal because you really haven't invested much time in it. If you make an earring pattern and it doesn't work, you can just scrap it and start again. Now, I know if you are a beginner, every ring you complete is a hard won battle, and just the idea of throwing away all that work is just incomprehensible, but trust me, tatting gets easier as you do it more and a single ring that takes you 20 minutes to make today will take you only 2 minutes a year from now.

When you get bored with snowflakes and want to move on to something a little larger, making a doily is just adding a row of edging to a snowflake. If you want a larger doily, you add another row. At this point, it starts to become more challenging for two very different reasons. First of all, each new row that you add becomes larger and you can just add edging after edging, but as you do minute adjustments to the stitch count have to be made because edgings are straight and doilies are round so the inner edge has to be smaller than the outer edge. If the outer edge isn't wide enough it will cup, but if it's too wide it will ruffle.

The second reason it becomes more difficult is that if you want the finished piece to look like a whole design instead of a bunch of rows slapped together, you have to do some planning and thinking ahead. If you have a pattern segment, an area where 2 rows together look really good, or an emerging shape that you want to see continued, you have to plan on how to create the shape or repeat the motif.

Very often doing this is a matter of trial and error. You make the best guess at how things ought to proceed and you try it. Sometimes you get it right the first try. Of course some times the first try looks awful. What is even worse, is when you are working on a motif that has several rows to it. That may mean that you won't know if your idea will work until after you have completed all of the rows. And what do you do if your idea doesn't work? You cut if off and start again.

Want to know how I developed my method of adding in new thread shown in the tutorial? Lots and lots of cut off mistakes. As a designer, I don't worry about carefully starting with pre-wound CTM shuttles. I begin with whatever half wound shuttle is handy. I pull out enough thread to get started and I add in a second half wound shuttle and keep going. Adding in new thread and hiding ends doesn't have to be something you avoid. When I add in new thread I leave the loose ends hanging until I have finished the piece. That way, if my pulling and tugging on it pulls the thread ends I'm not going to have anything pull out and if I've had to add the thread in at an awkward place and I'm concerned that the thread end will be too short and might pull out, I just sew it in and out between a few more stitches of the finished piece before cutting the ends off close to the work.

Sometimes when you like how a design is shaping up, but you're not sure if it's going to lay flat or if you're not sure what direction to take the design or where your next section needs to connect into it, blocking helps. I'm now on row 13 of this one and I'm still not sure about it other than I know it will take at least 2 more rows. It's about 7 inches across shown here, and I'm now at 10 inches across. The design will require 2 more rows which should add 1.5 inches but I was looking for a finished size of about 12 inches. If it works out it will be a happy accident since it seems to be one of those designed to fall off the shuttles without much forethought. If it doesn't, it will be about a week's worth of tatting down the drain.

Snowflake Suncatcher Pattern

This is a modification of a pattern that I designed as a thank you for Nell Corns. It starts with a central ring and a split ring to climb out into the first round of single shuttle rings and uses 3 seed beads as spacers on the bare thread. The whole design takes 204 beads so I found it easier to put the beads for the first round plus the 12 used in between the large and small rings of round 2 on one shuttle and the remainder on the second shuttle, that works out to 81 beads on shuttle 1 and 123 on shuttle 2. You can work with all but 15 beads on one shuttle, but then it becomes hard to manage. When I'm working with one colour or type of bead I always load a few extra on each shuttle. That way, if I miscount or find a misshapen bead I can break it off and not worry that I won't have enough to finish.




Complete round one with 3 beads from the second shuttle and end off with a split ring. Then begin the next round with a large split ring loaded with 5 beads. The picot on the split side of the ring will be used to hold the 2 sides of the points together.


There are 2 beads between the large and small split rings, one from each shuttle and 2 beads on the outer side of the small ring. After the first small ring, there are 3 beads that make the outer point of the motif. The second side of the point is a mirror image of the first side. The large rings are joined to one another on
the split side of the rings.


The join to the outward facing ring of the first round is not a shuttle join. Switch shuttles to make the join. Leave 3 beads in the middle of the chain and finish by joining to the next outward facing ring. Repeat until all of the points are completed.


This is a simple pattern and worked in size 20 thread is about 3 inches across from point to point. Made with silver lined beads, it's very sparkly and eye catching. Here is the pattern.

A little of this, and a little of that

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately and for the one or two who wondered, here's what's been going on. During most of August our front yard was dug up due to the burst water mains. Twice during that period the driveway was unusable and I had to use a bicycle to get around which meant that just doing things took much longer leaving me less time for other, more interesting things.


Then a number of local folks decided to get a craft group going for socializing and for teaching, so I have been showing some people how to tat. The ladies in this group are keen on finding ways to sell their finished goods and I have been coaching them on how to use the internet as a selling tool. This has resulted in some one on one hours spent showing them how to set up PayPal accounts, showing them how to use things like Ebay and Etsy, helping them to take pictures of their goods, explaining why it's important to crop out blank spaces and re size their images and showing them how to use software to accomplish this.


I mentioned that I was discontinuing the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection newsletter and a number of people have taken that to mean that I wasn't going to be designing any more. That is far from true. I have a small doily completed, in addition to the elephant flake seen in the disaster photo, 5 more motifs and part of a bookmark designed and recently I have been stuck in a rut doing these beaded snowflakes. For some reason, this design just makes me happy and I want to tat them in a whole rainbow of colours. The pink one is half done and the beads are already loaded for the yellow version and I have an idea for a necklace that I may or may not do.


Some of my time has been spent just being there. Hubby, who has been diagnosed with Meniere's was relatively okay during the summer but as soon as the colder weather hit, he started having drop attacks again. Let's just say life's not fun.


On another note, I sent out notice that another set of round robins would be starting and I've been trying to match people up and get mailing addresses to get them started. In the middle of this I was reminded that some of the tatting from the earlier round robins hadn't made it home yet, so I started chasing them down.


In the mean time the awesome volunteers on the 25 Motif Challenge blog have been keeping everyone up to date. It's a good thing too, because I certainly haven't had any time for it.