Anniversary Present

Lest you think that I haven't really been tatting recently, I thought I'd show you this little heart which measures not quite 2 inches across. I thought it would work well for an anniversary project but I wanted to do it in gold thread.


When I did it in DMC gold it came out 1.25 inches across which was just a bit small. So I had to re-do it again larger.


Here is the larger version entwined with a second heart and some gold embroidery on a satin backing and mounted in a 5x7 frame. We had a 40th wedding celebration for my sister Flo and her husband Allan, yesterday. I wasn't present when it was unwrapped so I have not idea whether they liked it or not. They probably did. My siblings are all wonderfully supportive.

In case the reflective thread makes it hard to read, across the top it says Faith Hope Love



with their names across the bottom Allan Florrie

DMC gold embroidery thread is the pits to work with especially on slippery satin. I tried working with 6 strands which just threatened to pull holes through the fabric so I switched to 3 strands. That still didn't work so I resorted to the spooled metallic gold that I used for the tatting. It worked better but I could only do 4 or 5 letters before the thread unwound and became impossible to work with.

In comparison, Gale Marshall at Tat's All carries a gold thread that's a dream to work with for many applications.

Catching up

Judging by the lack of posting here you'd think that my life has been utterly boring with nothing at all blog worthy for months and months, but you'd be mistaken. In March I launched into an online design course for the 4 or 5 people who might have thought I had something useful to teach. It turns out lots of people want some coaching on how to make their own designs. Who knew? I spent quite a bit of time creating a tutorial on using drawing software for producing tatting patterns. Then I spent even more time helping people refine the designs they created. Helping people be creative is harder than I thought. It's one thing to invent a design yourself, but quite another thing to help someone else do it.

I started several more rounds of round robins with group leaders so that I could manage insane amounts of hand holding and group nudging. 2 of my group leaders ran into lots of LIFE happening so I had to fill in where I could. Turns out I don't do well at "fill in". I'm still playing catch up and the round robins are done, I think, but I could be wrong.

The 25 Motif Challenge is still attracting a lot of attention and keeping tatters motivated. Thank God for volunteers who keep it moving. It has gone far beyond my ability to keep it current. Thank you again to Clyde, Laura, Aileen, Jeff, and Clyde, and Clyde who has almost single handedly kept things going. I received an email recently telling me he isn't well and I hope all the extra work he's put in keeping things up to date hasn't been responsible for his ill health.

We have been in and out of court this year. First as a result of an incident last summer where my hubby was assaulted. His assailant was one of our neighbours who had been drinking to much and wasn't thinking clearly. We didn't want to see him charged but when the police became aware of the bruising hubby sustained, it was out of our hands and we ended up in court as witnesses. He got a wake up call, and we were pleased that he didn't end up with a criminal conviction for one stupid action.

Then there are the ice cream trucks. I'm all for free enterprise and kiddies enjoying the delights of summer, but when you live in a neighbourhood full of young families you are a magnet for ice cream trucks. According to the city by-laws they are not permitted in residential areas but that doesn't stop them. All summer long truck after truck parades down the street stopping every few houses to peddle their wares playing their Pied Piper music until you are ready to pull your hair out and run into the street yelling stop, stop, no more, I can't take it. Of course it doesn't help that we work from home and get to hear it all. day. long.

Turns out that the offending trucks aren't licenced so they aren't afraid of being stopped by the by-laws officers. You can't pull a licence if they don't have one and apparently the province has liens on the trucks so you can't impound them..... By-laws can charge them with infractions but usually the fine is only $500. For that they don't even appear in court, they just pay the fine and keep on going. Unless of course you do all the paperwork and take the time to go to court and make the fines stick.

One company was a repeat offender and was under probation from 2007 when the by-law officer asked them for their licence. Instead of giving the officer the information the driver got into the truck and took off at a high rate of speed. The officer, not having a siren in the car was unwilling to pursue them in a high speed car chase through traffic. This information along with a picture taken of this same employee blocking our driveway while dispensing ice cream with the shot of the no parking fire route sign, right behind it, didn't hurt our case any. Pictures and documentation with all of the details right down to the minute the offenses took place were irrefutable. The judge wanted to send a clear message, so the driver was fined $10,000.00 and the business was fined $60,000.00. Score one for the good guys.

The next court case for a different vendor, didn't get that far. They met with the city prosecutor and agreed to whatever terms the city wanted to impose. All last summer the guy kept taunting us "Take me to court." So we did. Score 2 for the good guys. Of course all of this paper work, and preparation has taken a chunk of our time over and above the days we have spent in court.

During this time hubby's brother lost his wife to cancer. She had been suffering for quite some time and it was devastating to him to be planning her funeral while she was still alive. He's feeling lost and totally alone. He spent years being a loner alienating himself from people and only now realizes that he really does need other people. It's heartbreaking to know what he's going through and it's difficult to help him when he's 350 kilometers away.

Just for a change of pace, the brakes went on the car the other day. Hubby went out to the bank and when he stopped at the light he nearly slammed into the car ahead. Quick thinking and quicker reflexes let him grab the emergency brake and avert an accident. Fortunately traffic was light and he wasn't far from home. He limped back and put the car in the garage. It turned out to be a leak in the brake line which he was determined to fix himself. OK honey, I'll stand in front of the car here and direct you up onto the ramps, just give her a bit of gas... Not a good idea when you don't have brakes. They don't call him Mr Fix It for nothing. It's all repaired and working again.

Meanwhile back at the ranch work has been going ahead on beta testing the new software, creating the help manual with all of the attendant screen shots and setting up dummy files to show how it might be used in a number of scenarios. This part took about 7 tries to get it done mostly because hubby and I see things differently. I did the whole thing as a PDF file with full size pictures. Hubby wanted it done in HTML, then he wanted it in hlp, which I have never done before. I'm not too keen on HTML either mostly because while I can speak geek, I don't DO geek. It got done again. In HTML. Then it got re-written again and compiled in both .hlp and .chm. Then it got done again just for fun....please can we stop this merry go round so that I can get off?

Other stuff has been happening too. The garden is growing including several new vines I put in last year. I wasn't too sure about this scrawny thing I put in last summer the flowers were scarce and just a smidgen bigger than the Jackmanii that covers our front wall with small deep purple flowers. This new pink clematis is called Dr Rupple. For perspective, that large piece of timber is a to the right of the flower is almost 5 inches across which is about the same size as a fully opened flower. This itty bitty vine currently has 2 large clumps of flowers like this. I can't wait to see what it will look like when it's had a few years to grow. The other vine is an orange honeysuckle that makes up for in colour what it lacks in scent. Sadly the Chicago Pink Peace rose that I planted last year, didn't take and what came up in it's place is a wild rose bush that bloomed this year in tiny, lightly scented flowers. It's getting dug up later today to make way for a real rose bush.

We've had a visitor take up residence on our wall recently. He must like the location because he hasn't moved from this spot for days. Yesterday he was joined by a friend. Is there romance in the air? These guys are kind of pretty so I'm tolerating them, but if their offspring think they are going to munch on my garden, be warned I have bug spray and I'm not afraid to use it.

Lest you think that there has been a tatting drought here are a couple of things I have been playing around with. I am working on some designs for a book and a lot of tatting is going on that I can't talk about just yet.

Cluny surround

Would you believe it's a cluny leaf gone mad? Two evenings of tatting a record length cluny, just to discover what doesn't work. I thought it might be an interesting way to frame a piece, specifically this heart. I ran out of thread half way around and had to start again. I can't make up my mind whether to finish it to see how it looks, to do it over again all in red, or just cut it off and forget about it. So here it sits, incomplete until I can make up my mind. I need more hours in my day.

Join in the How to Design discussion

Have you ever wanted a tatting pattern and just couldn't find one that suited your needs? Do you like tatting, but you'd like to take it to another level? Have you tried to create something on your own but just gave up in disgust and threw it away? Do you ever feel like tatting designers must have some special ability that you just don't have?

Well it looks like you're not the only one because a few people are interested in a designing course so I'm pulling together some ideas for some 2 way conversation and I have set up the Yahoo Group Design-Tat for discussion. The Group has been set up for access by invitation only so if you are interested let me know so that you can join.

Edited to add:

If you want to join, send an email to sharon#gagechek.com replacing the # with @ as I can't invite you without your email address.

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.

My Etsy Shop

I finally came to a decision to add some of the finished pieces I have to an Etsy shop and I'll add more things as they are completed. The gothic choker that everyone seemed to like is in the shop. As are these other items.

Gothic Choker


The choker is about 15 inches in length with a barrel clasp closure but it could easily be made shorter by changing it to a lobster claw closure.


Celtic Braid Bracelet

Some time ago I experimented with a celtic design that I call a celtic braid. It makes a really nice design although it isn't lacy looking. I added beads to this one. It's dark burgundy red thread with light pink beads and light pink thread with dark red beads. It's hard to see the difference in the thread colour once it's tatted. I was going to add either a heart or a flower to the bracelet, but adding them to it didn't improve the bracelet, so I've just left it. It measures about 7.5 inches and has a lobster claw closure. The design has a bit of stretch to it so that it can be slipped over the hand.


Valentine Earrings


These Valentine hearts are about one inch across and have fish hook earrings.


Amulet Bag


This black and turquoise amulet bag necklace is just over 1.5 inches square with an inch of beaded trim and a 24 inch strap matching beaded strap. The folded opening is held down with a transparent dome fastener. It's just the right size to wear as an accessory or hold your favourite tiny treasure.

Here's the link to the Etsy Shop so that you can go check it out for yourself.
It suddenly occurred to me that although I'm in Canada, Etsy is American and I ought to have adjusted prices to reflect that. Well I have done now, so the priices have been lowered to something more sensible.

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?

Locked IN

We had just finished supper tonight when hubby went to check outside. The problem was, he couldn't get the door to unlock. The knob turned but the latch didn't move. There are worse things that can happen, we could have been locked OUT by a broken lock, but it's definitely one of those things that's in the "need to fix immediately" category.

Now some guys are at a loss as to what to do in this kind of a situation, but I'm fortunate to be married to my own Mr Fix It. He's not the Tim Allen kind of guy who immediately looks for an excuse to get out the power tools and sends saner people running for cover. He's the genuine article. If it's broke and he can't fix it, it can't be fixed, or it just isn't worth the man hours involved.

So how do you get to a lock that's broken inside the door? You hacksaw through the deadbolt using the blade of a hacksaw without the frame. The blade would pass between the door and the frame, but nothing else would. Now remember, the door is closed and on the other side of the deadbolt is the framing for the door that stops drafts and deadbolts are meant to keep people out so they are made of hardened steel. So after removing the blade from the saw, he proceeded in tiny motions to cut through the deadbolt. Forward half an inch, hit the frame and back half an inch. Little by little the steel bolt was cut through and the door opened.

The joy of freedom at last, was soon replaced by the knowledge that now we needed to replace the hacksawed deadbolt. The lock when it was removed revealed a sheered off section which pulled on the bolt to retract it into the door. The part had broken and fallen down inside the mechanism in such a way that the only way to get it out was to turn it upside down. Easy to do with it removed from the door, but impossible while still installed.

We made an emergency run to Home Depot and got a replacement lock. Unfortunately, the new round deadbolt doesn't fit in the old rectangular hole. He can make the hole round, but we're thinking that maybe there is a model available that won't require alterations to the door to fit. So tomorrow we'll be on the hunt for a new lock.

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.