Another UFO Completed

Variation on Jane Eborall's Large Seahorse

 #3 in 25 Motif Challenge of 2017

This lovely seahorse is testimony that you can make lots of mistakes in a pattern and still have a nice outcome. Do follow the link to view Jane's wonderful pattern as it should have been tatted. Rings and beads are missing from mine, but I really enjoyed completing it. 

The Old and the New

It's been ages, too, since I've posted on my blog so I thought I'd update you with the last of the old and the start of the new. 

The OLD: I promised you more pictures of the burlap ornaments I made using the snowflakes I tatted from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn. While you can't see all of them plainly in this picture, you've seen all of the snowflakes before if you followed my blog last year. There were seven ornaments in all and my daughter loved each one. If you'd like more details about how I made the ornaments, please see my December post.

The NEW: I didn't get any tatting done for several weeks which actually left me struggling to find the motivation to pick up my shuttles again. I'm sure it was partly the winter blahs and partly that it is a very busy time of year for me so that finding time to tat is a real challenge. However, Jane Eborall's TIAS 2017 is perfect for getting back in the groove. I've enjoyed the switch to tatting with Lizbeth Jelly Bean after so many white snowflakes, too. Still no clue, though, as to what we are tatting, but that's a big part of the fun. It isn't too late to pick up your shuttles or tatting needles and join the fun.

I was rocking along quite well with the Craftree Snowflake challenge last year until November. I finished the year with both the Nineteenth of December and the Twentieth of December in progress. The challenge was lots of fun and I'm committed to finishing the remaining snowflakes in this book as well as the Renulek doily I started last year. Then there are all of the great ideas that keep popping up in your blogs! Obviously, I have plenty to tat in 2017.

Til later,

Eliz aka Tatknot

TIAS completed and Tat Along 2 Progress

TIAS complete! I managed to finish my TIAS goat Sunday afternoon. Here he is! Thank you, Jane.

Tat Along Progress:  I also started another set of leaves with less tension in the chains and the additional 2-2 on that final round. The first leaf did come out longer than those in my first Tat Along. I'm just now nearing the end of leaf #2 so it is too soon to tell how it is going to turn out. I'll keep you posted.

The triangle Tat Along went with me to work today and has a place on my office desk. I keep a clear insulated cup on my desk to encourage me to drink lots of water and the Tat Along is now its official coaster. Since the cup doesn't sweat, I don't really need a coaster. My desk just NEEDED the tatting. You tatters will understand completely, I know.

Have a great week, everyone.

TIAS Day 5

I seem to have misplaced the shuttles I began the TIAS with, so I started over. Here is my Day 5. I think the part we just finished must be an arm or a snout. Jane has already made an elephant pattern, so that is unlikely to be it. How about an anteater?

Day 1:  What can it be?

TIAS Day 1

I've joined Jane Eborall's latest Tat-It-And-See-It event. I just grabbed a couple of shuttles with thread already on them so I could jump right in. One thread turned out to be a perle cotton and the other a cordonette cotton, but who cares. The Day 1 picture is on its way to the blog from my phone.  Thanks so much, Jane!

Jane Eborall's latest cross patterns

Here they are. It has been fun to take a break from the doily designs to try the three cross patterns that Jane Eborall has released in the last few days. All three threads are by Manuela. The Flowery Cross is done in a size 10 variegated. The Celtic Cross and the Iona Cross are both in size 20. I tatted them in the reverse order to the way Jane released them. I started with Flowery Cross. If you look closely, you'll see that my rings are not very smooth looking. I found that I tended to tat my rings too tightly. I relaxed the tatting in the next two and I think they look much better. I also made the lock join chains longer. This is the first time I've made lock join chains and I really like the way they look as well as how easy they are to tat. Thank you very much, Jane, for sharing these patterns. They were lots of fun to tat.

The patterns are on Jane's website here or you can read about them and then follow the links in Jane's blog.

Maltese Rings

The doily is fixed and moving in the right direction again. The butterfly looks much better. He is finished with only two wings and I owe Jane Eborall an apology for posting such a poor representation of her pattern. I think my outer picots are smaller and I may have added too many stitches in the chains between the wings. What led to me give Jane's butterfly a try was that she seemed to combine some techniques. One of the things I dislike about the look of my Maltese Ring Pinwheel Flake is that the Maltese rings seem to get a sloppy start because of a gap caused by the inner threads. I realize you can't tell this in the picture. It is probably one of those tiny things that just drives the creator mad--that would be me! Jane's diagram made me think that she starts differently. I haven't consulted with Jane, but it looked to me like she might be tatting the first and last ds in each Maltese ring with both shuttles, thereby giving the inner picots a nice clean start inside the ring. It works! I also noticed a combination of techniques around the outward facing ring of the top wing segment. (You may want to review Miranda's notes on the differences and similarities between Daisy Picots and Maltese Rings.) Jane takes a break from the usual production of Maltese ring double stitches to produce a Daisy Picot double stitch on either side of that little ring which makes it much easier to coax it to sit nicely to the outside. I enjoyed playing with with pattern and encourage all of you to follow the link to admire Jane's tatted version. BTW, Fox, did you notice the beads? I'm practicing.

2 Doilies Finished

I've finished two of Jon Yusoff's Merriment Doilies in white, size 20. Some of you may remember that I'm working on some small white doilies for wedding presents. I'm a little over half finished with another white one using Anne Bruvold's Dragonwing Doily pattern.

I've also found some time to play with this week's online tatting lesson (Jeanne Lugert's instructions on alternating colors in Daisy picots), review Miranda's notes comparing the Maltese ring and Daisy picots, and play around with the two techniques. I missed the classroom session, but worked with Jeanne's instructions. While it didn't look to me like it could possibly work, I followed her instructions carefully and there it was--a flower with the daisy picots in alternating colors! Many thanks to Jeanne and Georgia for sharing the technique with us. It's fun to try new things.

I'm currently working on one of Jane Eborall's butterflies in which one seems to use some of both techniques (Maltese rings & Daisy picots). I've emailed Jane to see if I'm working it correctly. Once I finish the tatting and make sure I've correctly interpreted the instructions, I'll show it to you.

Happy tatting!

New Threads & Snowman Progress

Hello, my friends. I found lots of wonderful goodies in the mail this week thanks to the Thread Exchange. The first is from crazymomtats; the second image is from Paige Marie. Both ladies were very generous. Crazymomtats sent me some extra thread (the last of her favorite Anchor size 40), and Paige sent me some lovely beads and buttons to play with and a 'spool' to load thread on. I've tatted with those, Paige. They make great emergency shuttles.

I forgot to tell you about the exchange I received last week from umintsuru. All of the threads are on little flower shapes. I would love to show you how they unfold, but I just couldn't get a decent picture.

Lastly, here is my progress on Jane Eborall's Snowman. Let me say that all of the problems I've had with this pattern are entirely of my own making and have nothing to do with Jane's design or pattern-writing skills. My tatting has been done when I'm tired and in very short spurts. You might be able to see that I missed a couple of joins under the head. I failed to read Jane's instructions and just glanced at the diagram before surging forward. I think it will still work out fine though.

I want to thank all of you who blog or participate at InTatters or The Tatting Forums. I've really enjoyed keeping up with what the rest of you are doing when I'm just too tired to work on my own projects. Keep them coming!

The Weekend Check-In

The first full week of fall classes has ended and I survived! I'm taking the evening for family time and then tomorrow it is back to the books. I'd at least like to start class Tuesday feeling organized.

I did a little tatting therapy this week. It's just a good thing that I'm more process oriented than product oriented! I decided to tat Jane Eborall's Snowman in size 3 perle cotton. Effort #1 is on the right side. I was almost half done with his body when I realized I had no place to join the next row! I had started the body in the wrong place! I could have salvaged his head, but family opinion was that I had used beads which were too small for this thread. So I cut out the beads to save for another project, dug out some bigger beads and started again. As I was completing this 2nd head with fingertatting (running out of thread on the shuttle), I suddenly realized I had omitted a picot from the last ring. While this would not normally be a big issue, I don't think I have enough thread to go back, add those double stitches, and still finish without having to add in some additional thread. And I'm soooo close to the end! Ah well. I will do what needs to be done, but probably not today.

The other picture is my gift to self which finally arrived in the mail. The 'finally' is more an indication of my impatience for its arrival than a comment on slow delivery. I've thoroughly enjoyed browsing its pages and look forward to tatting up some of Lyn's patterns. It is a beautiful book. I'm thrilled with the quality of the publication as well as the many lovely patterns.

Well, gotta run. My daughters will be showing up any minute for our little party.