Onion rings, I vanquish thee! 25 motif challenge #5!

Here is my cute little butterfly! I just joined in the 25 motif challenge, so I'm counting the previous posts as numbers 1-4, as they were all finished this past week. Butterfly makes 5! I sought him out to learn and perfect the onion rings, and I'm almost there. I got all but one of them to cross threads the way I wanted them too, two colors made it kind of confusing, but it makes sense now. I had to try a few times to get it right. My two year old daughter is ok with that though, every time mommy makes a tatting oops, she has an excuse to play her new favorite game, which is putting "tash" in the trash can :-) I never have to pick up end clippings any more, however I'm sure that will only last untill her next new game comes along.

The butterfly pattern hails from the Online Tatting Class, 2002 or something like that.

Too much surfing, not enough tatting.

I went to leave this morning to head to the midwife's office, and found that my poor husband had taken my purse with him instead of the diaper bag! He had my phone so I had no way to contact him. He also had my tatting.....grrrr! Anyway, it was a good thing my keys had been left out that day, or I would have had to pay a 40 dollar missed appointment fee, and then I wouldn't have been able to afford any new thread! Can't have that can we! :-) I have been drooling on etsy lately, at all the pretty colors of hand dyed thread---I now see skiens of brightly colored thread dancing in my head at night, forget about sugar plums!

So anyway I need to stay away from the blogs and groups and online shops today to get some housework done, and practice my "onion ring" tatting. I found some info online and I tried one of the practice patterns and discovered that I also need to learn how to join the last picot without twisting apparently. How is it that learning one thing leads to needing to learn another thing? I suspect that it will go on and on.....and on.....and on like this for the whole of my tatting career. Alas, I really want to get started on a project, I hate tatting things just for practice....it's more fun when you get to see something wonderful develop along the way, instead of little bits and pieces I guess.

Iris, I'm in over my head!

Oh how quickly the proud fall......




I was all excited about finishing a few small things well......magick thread trick and all (!), so off I went and dove in over my head. I was making an attempt at Iris Niebach's "Delia" doily from her book, it's so beautiful with all these long flowy chains, sigh. I started out trying to keep it all "right side" by tatting the chains in reverse, but I quickly gave up on that after finding the chains switch direction and flop all over the place. It makes me think that Iris has access to part of her brain that no mere tatting humans does :-) I couldn't even find the right side after awhile. Also, I tried to do it with shuttle and ball instead of two shuttles, not having noticed that I'd need to throw off rings all over, so I tried to SCMR them instead (which I've never tried before) and made a big mess. and in my effort to keep from tucking in ends, I filled a second shuttle with the thread before starting to work off the ball to have it ready to go. So now I have a mushy, inconsistent, incorrectly done thing, I'd love to just make everything perfectly in the first try, you know :-) I guess it was valuable, for I learned the following lessons:

1. Study a new pattern in depth - had I looked closely I could have planned ahead and had two shuttles going and seen theirection changes better from the photo. And I would have noticed that i need to learn how to make and onion. Who knew?
2. Practice said new pattern in cheap throwaway thread - I now have two shuttles full of my favorite flora, and half as much on the ball, and I'll have to hide the ends next project instead of being able to work off the ball. feels like a waste :-) glad I learned that lesson before I started buying hand dyed thread
3. Don't attempt Iris Niebach patterns at 1am! - Hmmm perhaps that is the key to my folly. It's just that with baby #2 on the way, I know I have limited time to tat before life turns upside down again! Unless of course I can learn to breastfeed and tat at the same time........
4. Apply the wisdom of proverbs in tatting - Do not think thyself too big for thine britches and learn to live peacefully a while longer in the land of bookmarks :-)

Finally! Something I'm happy with :-)

I've recently taken a year or more away from tatting, and trying to get back into the rhythm of it was getting frustrating......I was inconsistent with the shuttle, and I for some reason wasn't happy with my needle tatting results either. So, I attempted a doily by Iris Niebach, and made several fatal flaws, it didn't get finished. I tried a Celtic doily and something horribly wrong, it turned out all ruffled so I didn't bother with the final round. So I pulled out a few bookmark patterns and decided to start small and uncomplicated. This pattern is from "Tatted Bookmarks" put out by Handy Hands, the pattern is by Sandy Scales. It's the first piece that I'm really proud of since I picked it up again. Shuttle tatted with Flora size 20, I lost the tag so I'm not sure about the color. I don't think I like the flora thread in size 10, but the 20 is great. I need more colors! In my endeavor to be thrifty, I got a few colors of crochet cotton from Joann, and it's actually doing better than I thought. Perhaps it's me just being more patient! I really think I just needed some success. After the online tatting class on Monday I tried some new techniques too, the little dragon below is for practicing split rings and Single Shuttle Split Rings. He was fun and encouraging. Georgia even put him up on the website! It's so helpful to connect with other tatters and feel the comraderie!

This second bookmark is one I just finished, in fact it's still a little damp from the spray starch. It also needs a tassle I think. It is described as "Two colored bookmark adapted from edging in Tatting Doilies & Edgings, edited by Rita Weiss. Edging #1 on page 23." I need to see if I can't go back and find the person who posted it, I can't figure out how to get to her page again, so if it's yours or you know whose it is, let me know! Anyway, I love it too, and I think I'm feeling more confident. I got a new Iris Niebach book in the mail today, "tatted doilies" and I'm just mesmerised! I might just give one a try. New shuttles too! They are the "sew mate" clear ones from Handy Hands. I love that they are clear and you can see the amount of thread left. They are a bit bigger than my clovers. I've decided to pretty much chuck my bobbin shuttles, never had good luck with them. If anyone wants them, there are 3 of the white susan bates "aero" type with black bobbins, if you'd like to trade something let me know! I have two metal ones I'll never use either.

Happy tatting!

UPDATE!-----I found her! the pattern for the spiral bookmark belongs to-Regina A. Brummett. here is her lovely blog! http://threadsofatattinggoddess.blogspot.com/ Thank you
regina!

Hello fellow tatters!

Hi everyone! I'm newer to the online tatting community, and it seems that everyone is blogging and sharing and spreading the tatting love, so I just couldn't help but join in! Here are a few of the little things I've done lately, both as a part of the online tatting class at http://www.georgiaseitz.com/. I'm very interested in making sure that this wonderful art gets passed on to the next generation (aka-me!) so I'm always on the lookout for younger tatters. I hope to make my blog more interesting as time goes by and provide inspiration and information, and gain some of each as well.