Snowflakes completed for June and July (Motifs 4, 5, & 6 for 25 Motif Challenge)

My plan was two a month and I got behind by two in June. Now I'm caught up through July. (Join us in the Craftree tatting forum as we tat Lene Bjorn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting before the year ends.) You'll notice that I skipped a flake this time. I will come back to it later when I have time to practice that frustrating split chain some more. :)

Motif #4 for 25 Motif Challenge

Twelfth Day of December 

White, Size 30 DMC, approx. 10cm in diameter

It isn't missing a chain. I didn't notice that one of the chains had folded over behind the ring when I took the photograph. I really like this one.

Motif #5 for 25 Motif Challenge

Fourteenth Day of December

White, Size 30 DMC, approx. 10cm in diameter

I like the way this one looks, but it isn't without mistakes. The small chains in that outer round that are side by side are not identical, at least they aren't supposed to be. I made a mistake with the very first pair and didn't notice until a couple of repeats later. I didn't cut it out, but, determined not to have any more of those mistakes in the piece, I found myself untatting several times. 

Motif #6 for 25 Motif Challenge

Fifteenth Day of December

White, Size 30 DMC, approx. 10cm in diameter

This one is a mess. It looked like a bowl as I finished the tatting.  My rings should have had larger picots. I struggled to keep those chains looking smooth, but I also was running short of thread on my shuttles as I neared the end. I was tatting with the bobbins and changing shuttles to avoid having to add in new thread so close to the end. Can you see where I did the shoelace trick in that top left chain? Note the breaks in the curve. The ends of this one had to be knotted and cut as one of them was less than an inch long. That was close! I hope my own failure with this one won't keep others from trying it. I think the design is a lovely one. Just remember to use the picture as a guide to picot size. Most of them must be fairly long.

The children and grandchildren were all out of town yesterday so I found some time to work on learning something new. I'll be sharing more about my explorations later. 

Happy tatting!

Tenth of December

Motif #20 for 25 Motif Challenge

Craftree Challenge

The Tenth Day of December

from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

DMC Size 80, Color #67 (Variegated Baby Blue)

Finished size 6.5 cm

This one tatted up quickly. To keep on target for the Craftree challenge, my goal has been to complete two from this book each month. Having met my personal goal for May, I'll devote my tatting time to trying a few new things. I've printed Ninetta's butterfly pattern that uses the Ikuta picots so I can practice them a bit before I forget how to do them. I also saw that Renulek posted the next round of the Spring 2016 WIOSNA doily. I think I've settled on my colors for this round, but it was tough. I'm eager to get some more yellow into the doily, but the rounds haven't seemed right for it yet. If my first choice for colors doesn't seem to be working like I wish, I'll cut it off and go with my second choice which picks the yellow up again. I would still like to do another Morfo butterfly, too. 

Happy tatting!

Ninth Day of December instead of Morfo #2

With two mangled tattings of the Morfo back in my trashcan, I decided that it's time to tat something else for a change. Was it the thread I chose? Was I too tense and it was transferring to my tatting tension? Who knows! Solution: Tat something else for a while. 

So I've returned to the snowflakes I want to tat this month to keep up with the Craftree Challenge to tat all of the snowflakes in Lene Bjorn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting by the end of the year. The Ninth Day of December contains lots of block tatting. I tatted the Eighth Day of December using Lene's instructions for block tatting with ball and shuttle. Being determined to give her instructions for block tatting with two shuttles a fair chance, I decided to use two colors for the Ninth. That way I couldn't change techniques mid-flake. Charity921 tatted an impressive Ninth Day of December in navy and white which really inspired me. Having started a collection of my own red and white snowflakes that I call candycane snowflakes, I opted for red and white.

Motif #19 for the 25 Motif Challenge

Manuela #052 (red) size 20 

Cecelia (white) size 20

Finished size: 10.5 cm

I love Lene's instructions for block tatting, but I have a definite preference for her ball and shuttle method. I don't think I'll use the two-shuttle method again unless I need it for color changes as in this one. The two-shuttle method is just so much slower. You never move the ball thread from your left hand in the ball and shuttle method. As you can imagine, that let me move along rather quickly. I will concede that the edges of the two-shuttle method are a little more 'finished' looking, but while this might be a consideration with a large thread, I don't think it would be noticeable in a small thread such as size 80.

Bjorn 8th of December is Finished

This was a fun snowflake to tat. I really like Lene's ball and shuttle method for block tatting. The ball thread never has to change position in your hand. She recommends an unflipped 1st half stitch followed by a normal 2nd half stitch. It was very quick. This method could be used in place of the shoelace trick for changing shuttle position in any pattern.

Motif #15 for 25 Motif Challenge

Eighth of December from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting 

DMC Size 80, Color #67 (Variegated Baby Blue)

Craftree Forum Challenge

I was very conscientious in pulling the first double stitch of the chain up snugly against each clover in this final round. That turned out to be a mistake. It made the clovers want to angle so that the snowflake looked more like a pinwheel than a snowflake. It took some careful blocking of the wet flake to convince those clovers to sit at a more appropriate angle.

I'm definitely behind on the latest Renulek doily, but I hope to do some catching up today. It's been an extremely busy week, so I'm resting today with plans to do very little that isn't related to tatting. It took me a couple of hours this morning just to catch up with the reading of your blogs and the forum, but it has been a wonderfully lazy two hours.

Weekend Tatting Report

Two snowflakes and most of a third are completed for the Craftree Tat-along of 24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn before the year ends. I invite you to get a copy of the book and join in the fun.

I'm using Lene's snowflakes to practice some techniques I rarely use or haven't mastered yet. My split chains are still failures. I really wish I could find David's email instructions as it worked for me every time way back when. I shall persevere.

The Sixth Day of December

Motif #13 for the 25 Motif Challenge

Tatted in DMC size 80, it is just over 6 cm in diameter.

The Seventh Day of December 

Motif #14 for the 25 Motif Challenge

Also tatted in DMC size 80, it is 7.5 cm in diameter.

I started with a center ring so I could climb out with a split ring of 8/8 to tat the outer round. I practiced onion rings to form those layered circles.

Round 1 with the beginning of Round 2

The Eighth Day of December

Also in DMC size 80.

Lene provides instructions for block tatting with ball and shuttle as well as with two shuttles. Since the Eighth recommends ball and shuttle and the Ninth recommends two shuttles, I thought I'd enjoy trying both methods of block tatting to see if I prefer one method over the other. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog!

More Lene Bjorn Snowflakes and WIP progress

December 1 and 2 are done. I need to do a better job of blocking, but I plan to wash all of them before the final blocking. Join the Craftree challenge to tat all 24 snowflakes in 2016. I'm considering these to be motif #5 and #6 for the 25 Motif Challenge.

I'm starting over on the Norma Benporath Mystery Cake Doyley. While I love Finca size 16 perle cotton and it was looking wonderful, it was proving too fragile for me for this project. I'm beginning again with DMC size 80 in the closest color I have on hand.

Now I'm off to work on the crown this evening.

Happy tatting!

4 motifs to start the 25 Motif Challenge

I seem to be in the mood for challenges lately. I've been battling severe asthma for over a month and now have bronchitis. Sitting and tatting is one of the few things I really feel like doing. It is restful and productive at the same time--a wonderful combination.

Sharon's 25 Motif Challenge is one of my favorite blogs to follow. It helps me find the blogs and webpages of other tatters. Of course, I want to follow all of you! It has been years since I participated  in the challenge myself, but this seemed like a great year to jump back in.

My first 3 motifs for the 25 Motif Challenge are also my first 3 motifs in the Craftree challenge to tat all of the snowflakes in Lene Bjorn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting this year. I'm using white DMC Cecelia size 30. These are December 3, 4, and 5. Since the challenge started at the first of the year, most of the participants are working on December 5 or December 6. I decided to start with the #5 snowflake as that is the one I'd have been working on in the first half of March if I was on target. Then I started working backward to catch up as I have time. I'll get December 1 and 2 done as I get time, but I'll keep moving forward through the rest of the book on schedule. At least, that's the plan.

Lastly, I want to share another Ice Cream Cone as an example of working a mistake into the design. When I went to join the third ring of the outer round to the center square, I joined to the wrong picot. Rather than take out that ring, I just increased the number of rings and chains and made sure the 2nd side mirrored the first. Most likely only another tatter would notice that it differs from the original design. The pink thread is a Manuela size 20 I had on hand and the cone is more of the Altin Basak size 50.

More Bracelet Designs

Well, I got the next snowflake in the Crystal Collection listed in the shop. If you've tatted my Celtic Snowflakes, you will recognize this pattern. (The next in the series will be a new one.) I need to finish the counterpart for the Peppermint Collection and get it listed as well, but I've been distracted by more bracelet ideas.

Here are my latest bracelets. Several months ago, I made a bracelet using Carolyn Groves Two-fer Bookmark. It just didn't work as well as a bracelet as it did as a bookmark, but my youngest daughter still liked the basic idea of it. We've been playing around with some variations and settled on these two. Finding it difficult to decide which I like best and having my daughters each choose a different favorite, I'll probably use them both. The one with the button is mine. The one with the toggle will go in the shop. I've got a request for another like the one with the toggle, but for a smaller wrist and with a lobster clasp. I personally prefer the button clasp and I had this beautiful button (see the closeup).

The beaded braid bracelet never made it into the shop. It is off to a new home, still without a name. I need to get another done. Many thanks for the name suggestions. You've given me some nice ones to consider, but I haven't made a decision yet. I guess I have at least until I get another tatted to list.

What a week!

While I had big plans to show you my latest efforts in tatting last weekend, everything seemed to go wrong. Then I got one of those migraine headaches that lasts for days. Thankfully, they are very rare. While I managed to cope with life pretty much as usual in spite of it, I wasn't up to anything requiring intense concentration like tatting or image manipulation. Then I spent two days at the hospital with my dad, who is home and doing great now. So I hope the reveal is better late than never.

I mentioned some time back that I'm revamping many of my designs. My latests listings at Etsy begin with some changes to the Celtic Snowflake patterns that I shared through the Online Classes several years ago. I've been working with size 80 thread, tweaking the designs, adding beads, and expanding the number of designs. Each design will be offered in two collections. The Crystal Collection is white with iridescent clear glass beads to provide sparkle. The Peppermint Collection contrasts white thread with sparkling red glass beads.

My goal with all of the patterns in these collections is to produce designs that are stable enough to hang without stiffening. This will make them lower maintenance for their owners and will reduce the chemicals in the lace.

If you want a preview of a couple of the other flakes that will be listed in the collection, check out the photos I listed at Etsy.