I finally have the pattern for the 3 Color Edging done! I had a bit of trouble with my drawing program, it kept shutting down in the middle of things. But I persevered! Check out My Patterns page for the pattern.
Category: pattern
To change or not to change
While writing out the 3 Color Edging pattern I was trying to decide if I liked the stitch count or not. Did I like the way the chains looked or would they be better a little different? Hmm.
To test out the written pattern and sample different chain lengths, I tatted another edging. It looks good enough on this container but to the well-trained eye, every few repeats is a little different.
After all this work, I’m leaving the stitch count in the pattern the way I tatted it originally. Anyone working it can change it up however they would like 🙂 Look for the pattern on My Patterns page soon!
I have been tatting more recently than I had for a while. Besides this edging, I made a cross for a gift that I am extremely happy with, but haven’t taken any pictures yet. I’ve even jotted down the pattern – on paper – which is surprising for me. One step closer to writing it up to share.
We have had a lot of things going on here, unexpected and expected, which has kept me busy. I keep telling myself I need to post more and keep finding reasons that I ‘m too busy to. I think some of it is habit – I’ve gotten out of it. Here’s to changing my habit!
“Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change.” Barbara Januszkiewicz brainythoughts.com
Another Simple Easter Cross
I’ve made another Simple Easter Cross with a slight modification. I put a finding in the middle instead of making a ring. I used Lizbeth #187 Green Ice in size 20 for this one.
The finding in the center is a bit larger than the tatted ring so there are a few stitch count changes. There was a bit of trial and error to get the right dimensions, which I expected. If you happen to be using thread already on the shuttles that are not wound continuously this is much easier. The large Self-Closing Mock Ring (SCMR) at the bottom can be a bit of a pain, but certainly better than a regular ring!
It came out well. After a few issues!
This isn’t harder than the cross with the tatted ring center. It’s almost exactly the same, you just start with the rings attaching to the center instead of making one and climbing out. But it helps to pay attention to what you are doing. Things go much better that way.
I started this several times. I retro tatted several times because of mistakes, and several times found that I hadn’t made a mistake after all. I also cut it off once or twice because I did make mistakes. I didn’t have this much trouble with the original in the several times I made it.
I like how quickly this tats up – when paying attention! I plan to put ends on the several I’ve made to make them bookmarks. They will be wonderful to have for gifts to be put in cards, for sympathy or congratulations.
I’ve added the pattern for the Simple Easter Cross on my patterns page. This is for the tatted center, not the finding. To use a finding for the center the SCMRs need a few extra stitches.
“Determination will get you through this.” From a fortune cookie.
Larissa Ice Drop Pattern
The pattern is posted on my Patterns page. It hasn’t been test-tatted by anyone but me, so of beware mistakes.
Lanyard 2016
I’ve had several people ask how I made the Lanyard from last week.
I hadn’t planned on writing it out but changed my mind. This is my version of a simple idea that tats up quickly.
I’ve added the drawing with text to my Patterns page.
It has been a busy week. We’ve had a lot going on around the house as well as putting in a lot of overtime at work. The only tatting I’ve done is not worth sharing; it’s not pretty. I’ve been practicing cluny tatting. One of the classes I’m taking at Tat Days in September is a cluny pattern. Yes, I’ve made them before but only enough to say I know how to do them. Now I would like them to look good as well. I can’t say they look good yet but it doesn’t take me as long now to make them.
I have a lot of ideas of things I would like to tat. Now I’m trying to make the time to do them. Hopefully when I have the energy to do them and not just think about them.
“A woman’s mind is cleaner than a man’s: She changes it more often.”
Oliver Herford
www.brainyquote.com
Bunny Face
I’ve decided I like the bunny face. I’ve made a few more, playing around with it a little, mostly with the ears. I think the bottom one looks a little more like a dog than a bunny, but still has potential. I don’t think this will become an edging, at least not without a lot more work, but it looks pretty good as a bunny face.
I’ve been trying to find out if there is another bunny that is made like this. I’ve found several really cute bunnies:
Tatman has a couple of cute bunnies here and here. I also hear he has a pattern for a bunny in an egg, but I don’t know where to find the pattern. I saw it on Steph’s Stuff; very cute!
Bella OnLine has several bunny patterns, including a few edgings, found here.
[the first link on the page, Brenda’s Bunnies, does not contain tatting. It looks to have been hacked]
[the first link on the page, Brenda’s Bunnies, does not contain tatting. It looks to have been hacked]
Nancy has a cute one on her be-stitched site, here.
I checked Dianna Steven’s book ‘Animal Bookmarks, a Tatted Zoo’, which has a really cute bunny bookmark, but it doesn’t look like this either.
So, if anybody is interested, I have put the pattern up on my sidebar. The pattern has the rounded ears like the top two in the picture. I made the bottom one today while I was sipping my Tatting Tea Tuesday tea, after I had the pattern ‘finished’. I might make an addendum for changing up the ears later.
This time of year thinking of bunnies makes me think of Easter, so I’ll leave you with another Easter poem.
Sky Bunnies
The sky is full of bunny clouds
So soft and fat and white,
I wonder if they’re hiding eggs
For stars to find at night.
Because it’s Easter Eve, you know,
And there’s no reason why
There shouldn’t be an Easter hunt
In meadows in the sky.
TIAS Day 3
Jane’s TIAS has started. This is mine up to day 3. It actually looked better but it curled a little and I tried to flatten it out which deformed the SCMR a little bit. I can live with it. I have no guesses as to what it might be. Last year she had us flying in an airplane and the year before crowing with a rooster, so this could be anything! If you haven’t started the TIAS it’s never to late to start. She is going to post day four tomorrow (January 19).
If you don’t want to participate you might still go over and check out all the different shuttles people are using on this. A lot of participants have taken this opportunity to show off some pretty nice looking shuttles. I haven’t shown mine – I chose to do this in Lizbeth Victorian Red #670 in size 20 using Clover shuttles in green and orange. The green doesn’t look too bad but the orange clashes badly. Hey, they were the two shuttles that I found that didn’t have any thread on them. Most of my other shuttles either have projects on them or little bits of thread that I would have to do something with before I could start. None I found had enough for this project – Jane said you will need two shuttles filled with thread.
Anyone remember this post? Trayna asked for that pattern awhile back and posted about it on her blog recently. As I have been working on updated and sharing some of my older patterns I thought this one would be the next one up. My previous post showed it with the arms joined at the picots and with beads but the pattern doesn’t reflect that. I don’t think it will be hard to figure out how that was done, but if you have questions please feel free to contact me. My contact information is on my profile page. The pattern is up on the sidebar.
Has anyone noticed that I missed Tatting Tea Tuesday? I’ve been working some different and very long hours this last week so was just too pooped to post. But it’s only late by a day – not too bad. Back to normal today, so I have a bit more enthusiasm.
“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.” Bo Bennent
January is National Hot Tea Month
Did you know that January is National Hot Tea Month? This article is from 2009 but the link is still posted on the front page of TEAUSA.com. It has a few things that are nice to know, especially if you like tea 🙂
Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m drinking a cup of Strawberry Misaki from Teavana, a gift from Tabatha. It’s a blooming tea, which means it comes in a ball that when steeped in hot water blooms into a flower. Pretty cool! I was going to take a picture of my bloom (I’ve heard of this before and always wanted to know what the bloom looked like) but I forgot and drank the tea before I got the camera out. Mmmm, strawberry tea. It’s a very light flavored tea, but I like it.
Have you read Trayna’s blog post from Sunday? She was so nice as to tat one of my snowflakes 🙂 She had seen it in one of my posts and asked me for the pattern. She did a lovely job on it, too. It’s part of her 100 snowflake challenge – to make 100 snowflakes in a year(!). Knowing she was making snowflakes I sent her the pattern of another snowflake, which she was so sweet as to test tat for me (good thing that she did!). It is the snowflake I had decided would be my Christmas snowflake one year, which I posted about in December 2010.
This one.
If you like it and would like to give it a try, I’m adding the pattern to the sidebar. I’m touching up the pattern for the one that Trayna made and hope to add that pattern soon as well.
Don’t forget, Jane’s TIAS starts today!
“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart may desire.”
Irish blessing
A hot Tatting Tea Tuesday
This morning I enjoyed a lovely glass if sweet iced tea, Black Cherry Berry flavored – very yummy! I hadn’t been sure I’d like it iced but I’m very sure I like it now! Yes, the picture shows a cup of tea not a glass but I wanted to show the pretty cup:-) The doily is one I made quite a few years ago, and sad to say I have only a vague idea where I got the pattern.The little book “Get Well Tea” I picked up on my vacation in Branson, Missouri. I found it in the back room of an antique/flea market that my sister and I visited on our way out of town. The author is J.C. McCracken, the owner/innkeeper of the Inn at Fall Creek, Branson, Mo., at least as of 1996 when the book was published. This little book has a brief history of tea, a little about the hummingbird and a few recipes for “Get Well Tea..” I’m really going to have to try a few of these, they sound very yummy, though I’m not sure they would all taste good if your tummy wasn’t feeling to well. But being unwell doesn’t always involve the tummy, does it?
I’ve done some tatting this week, I just don’t have any I’m quite ready to share yet. I’ve also spent a lot of time on the computer (not surfing, though), working on diagramming patterns. I’ve noticed lately looking at the stats of my blog that a lot of people are looking at the pattern I posted for the Christmas bell ornament from this post, so I diagrammed it and have it in the right sidebar. I spent my day Saturday doing this instead of all the cleaning I should have been doing, isn’t that sad? And, yes, it took more hours than I planned; I have a ways to go before I’ll be quick at it.
As you might guess from the title of this post it’s been rather hot here in Kansas. It was mentioned on a local TV station that the average high temperature for this July was 103 deg. F (39 deg. C), which makes it a pretty hot month. The average temperature is 90 deg. F but we haven’t had a day under 93 deg all month. And August is usually pretty hot as well. Today is a good example of how hot it is here: at 7:00 PM CDT it was 110 deg. F (43 deg. C). There have been several records set for the heat this year – these are records I would prefer not have broken! I’m ready for cooler weather.
“Whether the weather be fine,
Whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather,
Whatever the whether,
Whether we like it or not.”
Heart’s Honor posted
Check the side on the right. The pattern for Heart’s Honor has been added.