Category: earrings

Christmas Gifts

It’s almost Christmas, and boy, have I been busy!

I attended our church ladies’ Bible study group Christmas dinner and gift exchange a couple of weeks ago. Each of us was to bring a gift for a random gift exchange. I tatted a cross bookmark that I put in a book of devotions. And I forgot to take a picture of it! It was my August SR Cross, made in Lizbeth thread HH20-181 Cranberry Bush. It looked good, and the lady who received it was happy with it.

The dinner was good, the company was terrific, and the gifts were fun to see. We all were given three gifts: one from the gift exchange, and two from the hosts. The gift I got from the exchange was a beautiful quilted centerpiece. One of the gifts from the hosts was a cute Christmas tree ornament; the other was a machine-embroidered tea towel.

Gifts from the dinner on wandasknottythoughts
Gifts from the dinner

The Bible study group wasn’t the only gift exchange I’ve had this year. This last Sunday my side of the family had our Christmas dinner and gift exchange. We play a form of the White Elephant game, with all of us interacting and having a good time. A few of us also give gifts outside of the game, which isn’t required but is a lot of fun. My sister gave all of the ladies hand-embroidered tea towels.

Little red truck tea towel on wandasknottythoughts
Little red truck tea towel

Last year I started decorating with Christmas decorations in the little red truck theme. She knew this and did my tea towel with the theme. It is so cute!

My birthday is coming up so she also gave me another embroidered gift. Previously, she had given me the runner – which I am supposed to put an edging on – and now she gave me the pillowcases. One day I’ll get to the edging, maybe for both the pillowcases and the runner.

Matching runner and pillow cases on wandasknottythoughts
Matching runner and pillowcases

In the previous post, I shared my new pattern, September Angel. This is the 2022 ornament that I am giving to close friends and family. While I’ve been making them I’ve noticed that it wouldn’t take much to make a tree with the pattern. So I tried it.

Christmas Tree 2022 on wandasknottythought s
Christmas Tree 2022

While coming up with the stitch count for this little tree I could see how the angels and the trees might make cute earrings, so I made some of those, too.

Christmas Tree earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Christmas Tree earrings
September Angel earrings on wandasknottythoughts
September Angel earrings

I gave these earrings to my daughter. And, again, I was in such a hurry I forgot to take pictures of them. My daughter was very sweet and did a photo shoot with them. They were such cool pictures I had an awful time choosing between them for which ones to use. The earrings came out as well as I hoped they would.

I’ve posted the pattern on the My Patterns page. Unfortunately, when I did that I seem to have broken the links to all the other patterns. This pattern is the only one currently that works. I’m working on the others but won’t get them all fixed tonight. If you’re interested in another pattern but it won’t come up for you, please email me and I’ll get it for you, or try again a bit later.

Here in Kansas, we are expecting an Arctic cold front in a couple of days, along with some snow. How much snow depends are where you are located, anywhere from one to six inches. Listening to the weatherman, it sounds like we won’t have it as bad as a lot of the country. Here, mostly very cold with a few hours of blowing snow. We might even have a white Christmas! We don’t have that every year. I think for the next few days I’ll sit back, tat, and try to stay warm without going outside.

Snowman cup and tatting on wandasknottythoughts
I think I’ll stay in and keep warm while I tat

My husbands’ side of the family is not having the family Christmas until after the 25th. There are some family members that will be gone until after that. The day isn’t as important for gatherings as is the family that will be there. Having it after Christmas is okay by me, it gives me a bit more time to get ready for it.

What are you busy with?

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” — Burton Hills

Autumn Earrings

While working with all the threads in autumn shades, I thought it would be great to make some earrings. I have some really cute owl beads I wanted to use, so I tried a few different things in an attempt at earrings I like. Most didn’t work out as I envisioned but what I ended with looks okay.

Owl bead earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Owl bead earrings

The split rings have a tendency to twist, but that’s the nature of split rings. They are fun to wear.

When you think of fall, Halloween, or Thanksgiving, pumpkins come to mind. I came up with these earrings.

Orange pumpkin earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Orange pumpkin earrings

I think I’ve seen patterns for pumpkins similar to these, but this is my take on them. I gave them to one of my daughters, who was thrilled to get them. She has a sweater that they look great with. Sometimes I get things right!

I’ve been working on several other tatted things, but I’m not quite ready to share them yet. So I’ll share a few pictures of our most recent vacation.

We spent the last week of September in Colorado with another couple. We rented a house together in Grand Lake, an area we’ve been to several times, but the first time in town. It was a terrific house with beautiful views.

The view south from the deck on wandasknottythoughts
The view south from the deck

This is the view south from the deck of the house, overlooking Shadow Mountain Lake. The colors were wonderful! I took pictures from this vantage every day so I can look back and see the changes in the trees. We loved the time we spent on the deck.

A magpie on the post on wandasknottythoughts
A magpie on the post

We had several magpies that came around the house daily and entertained us with their antics. Between the cost of gas and eating out, we spent a lot of time at the house instead of traveling around the area as we usually do. This was not a hardship. We took turns cooking which somehow is not so much of a burden when shared with friends. We also enjoy playing cards together, something we do every year on vacation with them. This year we just played a lot more.

I didn’t get much chance to tat while we were at the house but I took advantage of the chances I did have.

Tatting with a view on wandasknottythoughts
Tatting with a view

I sat by the big picture window to tat so I could enjoy the view and the light. It did rain a few times while we were there as you can see by the drops on the window.

Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park on wandasknottythoughts
Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park on wandasknottythoughts

One of the reasons we like the area around Grand Lake is how close it is to Rocky Mountain National Park. This gives us a chance to go into the park to see the wildlife, mostly the elk. We go in the fall so we can hear the elk bugle during the rut. It is exciting to hear!

On our way home from Grand Lake, we caught sight of a herd of bighorn sheep. Amazingly, they were on the outskirts of the Colorado town of Empire. They were obviously used to traffic, just keeping an eye on us but not running away.

Big horn sheep in Colorado on wandasknottythoughts
Big horn sheep in Colorado

FYI, we do not approach too close to wildlife. We keep a safe distance from the animals to take pictures, usually staying in the vehicle. These sheep were very close, but we never got out of the truck.

We’ve had a hot and dry summer here, and most of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. This morning we awoke to rain! It was not heavy and not much of it, but the right kind. If it had been much heavier it would have just run off instead of sinking into the ground. We’re hoping for more, but we will take what we can get. Sunday we had high winds with a lot of blowing dust and temperatures in the upper 80’s. Today the highs are supposed to be about 55° F with much less wind. Maybe autumn is finally here!

“Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.” Anthony J. D’Angelo

Tatting in Autumn Colors

Since the craft show, I’ve continued making sunflowers, because they are fun to make. I have also wanted to tat in oranges and browns — you know, fall colors. These aren’t usually colors I tat in except for around Halloween, but I’ve been inspired by the (finally) cooler weather and the sunflowers. Not that I have anything particular to tat in these colors…

I finally just loaded a shuttle with Lizbeth #694 Harvest Orange Med and tatted around a button. I even added beads! This made a lovely earring, so I made another one for pair of earrings. This color works with one shirt that I have, so I wore the shirt and earrings to church this last Sunday. I did grab the wrong size button for the second earring so I had to make a third medallion to get the set.

A set of earrings in Harvest Orange on wandasknottythoughts
A set of earrings in Harvest Orange

I usually tat while watching TV, which I did Sunday afternoon watching the football game. I have several things I need to work on but they need my full attention, so I started – something – with Lizbeth #136, Autumn Spice. I like where this is going, but with the button center, it’s not really a good doily. But it could be hung up as a decoration.

Autumn decoration in process on wandasknottythoughts
Autumn decoration in process
Autumn decoration finished on wandasknottythoughts
Autumn decoration finished

The finished piece is more true to the actual thread color. It came out nice, don’t you think?

Do you ever wonder what to do with the pieces you finish? I do sometimes. While decorating the house for the season I had this idea for a sunflower.

Sunflower decorated bottle on wandasknottythoughts
Sunflower decorated bottle

This is a beer bottle with a string of lights in it. The sunflower is on a string around the bottleneck so it can be removed if I want. The green bottle makes a nice back drop for the sunflower.

Sunflower on lighted bottle on wandasknottythoughts
Sunflower on a lighted bottle

The sunflower looks good on the bottle even with the lights on. The light string is pretty cool, the battery is in the cork. I’m thinking of doing a few more bottles like this. It will give the house quite a lovely ambiance, don’t you think?

“Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.” William Allingham

Practice Points

I’ve been busy with many things other than tatting over the last few months as you can probably tell by my lack of blogging. I’ve thought about trying to post more often, then something else comes up. Then I lost the habit. So let’s see if I can find it again.

I had planned to go to the zone meeting of our LWML and was working on the earrings of the logo. I didn’t get to go to the meeting but I still like the earrings. Marie, from West Pine Creations, was so sweet and sent me earring wires that are easy to change out so I can wear them.

LWML logo with changeable earring wires on wandasknottythoughts
LWML logo with changeable earring wires

You might notice that the two earrings are not quite the same. I had a pair with the gold wires Marie sent me, which I wore, then put in a safe place. So safe I don’t remember where I put them. I know they didn’t go far. These two are my practice pieces, working out what stitch count I liked best. I would have made me another pair but ran into a bit of a setback.

Tangled purple thread on wandasknottythoughts
A bit of a setback

The ball of Lizbeth #HH20641 Lilac Dk thread somehow got tangled badly. It might have something to do with being put in my purse and it getting out of the bag it was in… I wasn’t about to cut off and toss if I could untangle it, but that did put me off of working with it for a bit. So I started something else.

I still can’t get the points of the hearts to look the same every time so thought I would practice the SSSCh (suspended chain). You have to have a chain to practice it, so I made something with chains.

12-point SSSCh practice on wandasknottythoughts
12-point SSSCh practice

I had a shuttle with Lizbeth Twirlz HH20403 Winter Ice that was left over from something or other so I used it. I came to the conclusion this wasn’t the best choice for this type of practice. It isn’t always easy to see the stitch count with this type of thread. But once I started I finished it. I do see an improvement.

When this was finished I liked the look so much I thought I’d do it again. It reminds me of a flower so the next one was made to look more like one.

12-pt SSSCh flower on wandasknottythoughts
12-pt SSSCh flower

As you might notice, I did get the Lilac Dark untangled. I didn’t spend a lot of time blocking this, just enough to have it lay flat. The petals are a bit uneven-looking that might be alleviated with better blocking though it looks good the way it is. The yellow thread is Lizbeth #HH20616 Daffodil Med.

(Has anyone else noted that Lizbeth thread numbers now indicated the size? The balls of thread I have don’t have the HHxx before the color number but I like how it is in the catalog. Makes it easy to know you have the size you want.)

Our life has maybe slowed back down a bit but I can’t say it’s back to normal. My husband has just changed shifts at work. We used to be able to drive together and see each other a lot. Now, it’s just in passing most days. This is a temporary change, at least for now. We’ll see how things go. And I’ll see if I get more or less things done with more personal time on my hands, LOL.

‘Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.‘ Anton Chekhov on brainyquote.com

A Touch of Green

Can you believe we are halfway through March already? The temperatures are mild, the grass is green, and some trees have leaf buds, ready to open and welcome spring.

I’ve done a little tatting in green also.

Clovers in metallic green on wandasknottythoughts
Clovers in metallic green

In my last thread order, I bought Liz Metallic #343 Christmas Green. I thought this was an opportunity to try it out. I’ll add a safety pin or something to these so they can be worn on St. Patrick’s Day this week. All you need to celebrate is just a touch of green, right?

Something I noticed using this green was the color came off on my hands. Maybe I didn’t notice the other colors of Liz Metallic I’ve used recently because they are a lot paler, the color not as deep. You can see the green left a trail of color on my finger.

Leaving a trail on my finger on wandasknottythoughts
Leaving a trail on my finger

A week or so ago I emptied a shuttle of Lizbeth Twirlz #404 Mermaid Lagoon. There aren’t that many Twirlz colors, so it wasn’t hard to know what the thread was for once. I was rushed when finishing these earrings as I wanted to wear them and we needed to leave. I got a bit sloppy sewing in the ends, which is why the tails show a bit.

11 Clover earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Twirlz Clover earrings

I’m happy enough with the earrings that I’m wearing them anyway. There was just enough thread on the shuttle to get these two clovers done. How lucky is that?

I’ve been seeing a lot of Easter-themed tatting recently, mostly Easter eggs. The eggs I’ve seen are very inspiring, but I don’t know that I’ll get much done in that regard. Other than around buttons like I’ve done recently here and here. But it isn’t Easter for another couple of weeks, so, who knows?

Are you tatting anything for March or the Easter season? 

One rainy day in the spring  
A tatter made ring after ring  
The thread 'round her finger  
She found it to linger  
A colorful mark from the string

For the lady who asked for the pattern.

Split rings and beads

One of my daughters had a birthday recently. We took her and her family as well as our other daughter and her family out to lunch to celebrate. The day before her birthday I thought about tatting her something (I always leave it to the last minute.) Earrings can be quick and easy – relatively speaking – so I decided to make her a pair.

Split ring and bead earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Split ring dragonfly earrings

The dragonfly wing beads I bought last year from JoAnn’s, the same time I bought the beads for these earrings. I used Lizbeth metallic thread #311 for the finished earrings, but, I didn’t start with that thread. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to make them so I practiced with cotton thread first.

Three tries for dragonflies on wandasknottythoughts
Trial and error for the dragonfly earrings

My first try was with cotton thread and single shuttle split rings. I was not happy with them at all. They might be good after a bit more refresher practice, but there was a time limit for getting them made. I like the look of the split rings in the middle one, but they looked a bit too big. So I made the split rings a bit smaller, which resulted in a happy tatter and a pretty set of earrings.

I used a few other beads bought at the same time for my Christmas gift ornaments this last year. They were made almost the same way as the earrings but with different stitch counts.

Beaded split ring Christmas ornaments on wandasknottythoughts
Beaded split ring Christmas ornaments

The biggest issue I had with these ornaments was I couldn’t put them in my Christmas cards to send them! Which in a way was good, as I didn’t have enough beads to make as many ornaments as I usually do. But those that received them were thrilled with them.

I don’t tat with beads often, usually because I make messes with them. I tat a lot in the car, so beads end up on the floor, between the seats, or lost. Okay, I’m also impatient with how much slower I tat with beads than tatting without. But once in a while beads are fun to work with, and usually turn out pretty good.

“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” Denis Waitley

Patriotic Earrings

Patriotic earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Red, white, and blue earrings made for Independence Day 2020

One of the things I enjoy about tatting is making something on the spur of the moment and it comes out just as I envisioned it. Or maybe even better! Once in a while it all just comes together and, bingo!, there it is.

These earrings are like that. For the 4th of July, we were going to our daughter’s to enjoy family, food, and fireworks in the evening. In the morning I finished a little piece in red, white, and blue, something I try to do every year when I noticed how much of those threads I still had on my shuttles. I wanted to free those shuttles up, but what to make? Earrings for the evening sounded like a great idea.

Patriotic earrings for the 4th on wandasknottythoughts
Patriotic earrings for the 4th

For all that they came out well, they still had their moments. Hiding the ends and finishing off all three colors on such small pieces was interesting. And why I decided to use a picot that had to be joined with a twist (the second side of the ring to a facing ring) I’m not sure. I mostly try to avoid those if possible. And adding the jewelry findings, for me, is problematic. Sometimes everything goes smoothly, sometimes not so much. These went relatively smoothly.

Every time I tat with red, white, and blue thread together I notice how hard it is to find a good background to take pictures. Most of my background choices wash out one color or the other. I tried eight or nine backgrounds to get a decent picture or two of these earrings. So even if the picture doesn’t come out as well as I hope, I am happy with the subject of it.

I happily wore my new patriotic earrings that evening. We had a wonderful time! And now I have a cute pair of earrings to wear, to be patriotic whenever I want to be.

“Alfred Hitchcock once told me, when I was analyzing a lot of things about his pictures, ‘Clint, you must remember, it’s only a movie.'” Clint Eastwood

Little trees

I am working on the ornaments that I put in Christmas cards to close family and friends. I also get side-tracked a lot.

I found a cute little tatted tree in a box I was looking through the other day and then saw another one in the Facebook group Tatters of Lace that was almost the same thing. While trying to empty a few shuttles I found one with green thread on it and thought that little tree would fit the bill to empty the shuttle. But of course, I couldn’t find where I had put the tree I had previously found OR the pattern on FB. So I did what I usually do and made one up myself. It is not quite the tree on FB, and I’m not sure just how close it is to the one I found and lost.

Little tatted trees on wandasknottythoughts
Little tatted trees

As I was cleaning and preparing the house for our Thanksgiving guests I had a thought about the tree pattern. Wouldn’t it be cute in fall colors as earrings?

Little tatted tree earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Little tatted tree earrings

I thought they came out well. I could have tried matching up the variegations a bit to make the match a bit better, but I was in a hurry to get them done.

Fall tatted tree earrings on wandasknottythoughts
Fall tatted tree earrings

And I didn’t get them done in time to wear. Not for our Thursday dinner, nor for the other dinner we had Saturday. I did get them done by the end of the weekend and wore them Sunday around the house.

I wore them around the house on Sunday because we didn’t go anywhere at all. We had planned on taking our daughter and grandkids home that day but we had blizzard-like conditions, with several inches of snow blowing sideways, cold temperatures, and extremely bad driving conditions.

We were able to take the family back home on Monday with minimal road issues. We did have to take another day of vacation, but it was a better choice than trying to go through the weather on Sunday.  On the way out the roads were still ice covered in areas, making driving a bit problematic still. The roads were much better coming home later in the day.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Now it’s time to get ready for Christmas.

Are you ready yet?

“Holidays – any holiday – are such a great opportunity to focus on bringing the family together.” Lidia Bastianich                                                                                         https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lidia_bastianich

 

Little Horse Earrings

Our neighbor asked me a few months ago if I would make a pair of earrings for his granddaughter.  She likes horses and the color turquoise. Oh, and a halter on the horse would be nice.

I immediately thought of Debbie Arnold‘s Seahorse pattern. I’ve made it before as a horse head bookmark and thought it would work well for the earrings as well. I also wanted to make it in a small thread, as they are for a little girl. Oh, and get the right color turquoise!

Horsehead earrings in size 80 made from DS9 seahorse pattern on wandasknottythoughts
Horsehead earrings in size 80

I tat front-side/back-side, so I also had to make sure that I made them facing opposite directions. Between this and the small thread, I had some troubles making these. And then making the harnesses! I spent a lot of time dreaming of how I was going to do this.

My neighbor likes these, but the reins not so much. (I thought this was an excellent way to not have to hide ends of the black thread!) I’m thinking to knot the thread at the ring on the bottom with maybe a touch of glue.

The color was acceptable but I put the ball away and can’t find it to say what it is. I know that it’s Lizbeth size 80.

I’m happy with these earrings, even if I have to get rid of the reins. Maybe I’ll make me a pair…

“What if the blue I see is not the color blue you see?” Neo Shamon

Practice and the fair

Tatted earrings based on Lanyard pattern on wandasknottythoughts
Earrings based on Lanyard pattern

I have been enjoying the Lanyard pattern so much I tried making earrings with it. I know there are other earring patterns that are very similar to this but I made these the same as the ends on the lanyard.  Each of these have a couple of mistakes but I will wear them any way.  The next pair will be better.  Unlike with the bigger beads and bigger thread I had to use a floss threader to get the beads on the picots.  It takes so much longer than using a crochet hook!  These were made with Lizbeth #646 Purple Iris Lt in size 20, which is a very similar color to the DMC I used for the lanyard and the bracelet.

Speaking of which, I entered the bracelet in the county fair.

Tatted bracelet made with Lanyard 2016 pattern on wandasknottythoughts
Bracelet made with Lanyard 2016 pattern

My bracelet was the only entry in its class.  It’s great to see a blue ribbon on it as they do not have to give ribbons or top place to any entries even if they have no competition.

Doily with 'Harper' tatted edging at the fair on wandasknottythoughts
Doily with ‘Harper’ tatted edging at the fair

Doilies have to be mounted on cardboard to enter the fair.  My ‘Harper’ Edging looks good on the black background, doesn’t it?   It, too, was the only item in its class.  I’m glad I decided to enter both bracelet and doily so they don’t eliminate the classes.

Now I’m back to practicing cluny tatting.  I am taking one of Mimi Dillman’s classes at Tat Days in September and need to be a bit more comfortable with them.  I’m not trying to be perfect yet, just able to do them well enough that I can understand and learn any tips she teaches in the class.  Then I’ll practice what I learned 🙂

“To practice any art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” Kurt Vonnegut