Tatted Comb

One of my granddaughters was confirmed at church last Sunday. Confirmation is not a sacrament or a divine order but is a step on the confirmand’s faith journey with study and understanding. Each confirmand wears a white robe as a symbol of the Christian’s holiness and purity in the sight of their Creator. They may also wear a corsage or boutonniere from their families. Fancy hair accessories are optional. We got her a corsage, and I also gave her a decorated comb. Of course, I didn’t start it until a week before.

I had an idea of the tatting attached to a barrette to be worn in front of her ponytail. I had the opportunity to try it on her hair the Wednesday before the event. I temporarily attached the tatting to a short hair comb to see how it would look.

Temporary hair piece on wandasknottythoughts
Temporary hair piece

I thought a few tatted tails hanging down the back might look good.

Back of the hair piece on wandasknottythoughts
Back view of the comb

The idea didn’t make it past this test. I didn’t restart quite from scratch…

Changed my mind on wandasknottythoughts
Changed my mind

I didn’t know where I was going with this at the beginning, so I didn’t think about putting beads on, or where to put them, to begin with, so the beads at the center were sewn on after instead of being incorporated in the tatting from the start. I added the rest of the beads as I tatted.

The finished hair piece on wandasknottythoughts
The finished comb

My granddaughter and her mother both were happy with the finished comb. Instead of the short comb or a barrette, I sewed the tatting onto a larger, metal comb. I’m glad I did, as one of the first things my granddaughter said was there was one tooth poking her in the head. I bent up the offending tooth and the problem was solved.

Hair comb fallen forward on wandasknottythoughts
Hair comb fallen forward

I did not put anything in the tatting to hold it down on her hair in the back, not considering that she is twelve and doesn’t sit still all that much. Over the day the tatting fell forward frequently onto her head instead of staying nicely over her hair. If you didn’t know better, maybe you would think it was supposed to be that way.

I thought I had taken at least one good picture of her wearing the comb that showed her and it off, but I was wrong. Maybe she’ll wear it again soon and I’ll get a better picture. When there aren’t so many things going on.

A friend suggested it would make a beautiful part of a wedding veil someday. I think it would, but hopefully, that’s a few years in the future!

The pattern is not complicated, even with the beads on it. I’m hoping soon to write out the pattern. It has been added to the list of patterns I need to write out.

“Life is too short to have boring hair” found on Southern Living

If only my hair was longer…

The other day while searching for a box of craft items I found a whole lot more than I expected. 
 I came upon a box that has been in a cabinet for quite a while, so long ago I forgot what I put in it.  I had to laugh when I opened it.
 It was full of hair accessories that I had made (mostly tatted) back when my kids were much younger and I had long hair.   
There are a couple of head bands and a snood as well as a lot of decorated barrettes.  For some reason there were also several tatted pieces that have nothing to do with hair or even clothing accessories.  I have no idea why they were in this box.
All of these barrettes are made of a metallic thread, I think the brand name was Kreinik, or something like that. I remember these threads were a real pain to tat with but they were so pretty.  A lot of these are tatted over wire to give them their shapes.  I know that I was trying a lot of different ideas at the time, some working out better than others.  I think I wore more of these than the girls did 🙂
I guess I’ll put all of these back in the box for now.  Maybe my granddaughter will want to play dress-up or something with these some day.  
“I’m undaunted in my quest to amuse myself by constantly changing my hair.”
Hillary Clinton
brainyquotes.com

Center Bead Success

I have gotten a bit of tatting done this week, though not a lot.  I was successful in putting a bead in the center of a ring using split rings to make this hair decoration to put on these little gripper clips.  I had bought a package of these on the way to the wedding last month and now I’m looking for things to do with them. I’ve given this one to my daughter to try out and see what she thinks of it.  I haven’t heard back from her but I’m working on another one, whether to put on this type of clip or something else, but I like the look.  It looks better than the picture shows it.

I started this one thinking I had all the right colored beads but when I went to get the seed beads the colors didn’t match the thread at all!  So I’m using clear ones instead but I think they’ll work fine.
We’ll see if this goes anywhere.

Something I’ve been thinking of trying for quite awhile now I finally tried.  I have a lot of little doodles – butterflies, flowers, birds, etc – from emptying shuttles.  I do use them on cards and letters but I don’t send many of those.  So what else to do these doodles?  How about wine glass charms?

These are very quick to make up.  20 gauge wire, wood craft pieces, a little glue and a doodle.
I like to drink wine (I’m not a connoisseur by any means!) but we don’t have parties and I don’t know that many people that drink it.  So I don’t know what I’ll do with these, but I thought they came out well. 
I had a good laugh after I did these a couple of days ago. I’d been thinking about doing these charms for months but never had and finally got around to doing them.  Then I opened my email and read Nancy Tracy’s Be-Stitched newsletter. And what did I find?  Her tatting pattern of the month is a tatted “Goblet Charm”!  It’s quite different and much more elaborate than mine, but still!  Dare I say “great minds think alike?”

It’s hard to believe that it’s almost September, but I look around and see that the sunflowers are in full bloom, some even past their prime. This is a small patch of garden variety sunflowers that I drive by every day (wild sunflowers are much smaller and branch out a lot).  I had wanted to get a picture of these earlier but never thought about it when I had time and my camera.  I finally had both time and camera, but you can see that some of the heads are already finished blooming.  Time is getting away  from me!

Things have not gotten done this week like I had hoped.  I was planning to have the barefoot sandal pattern done by today but it’s not.  There are several things that I haven’t figured out how to diagram yet, and it’s taking more time than I estimated it would. And I’ve had a hard time making myself sit down and do it!


Tatting Tea Tuesday
I’m drinking green tea today, iced as the weather has decided to be hot again. Not has hot as we had it earlier this summer but still in the 90’s.  My tatting was done earlier today when I got together with my sister and my mother for a visit and all of us were working on projects.  My mom and sister were knitting some pretty cool looking scarves and I was working on my hair piece.  It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning.  We’re hoping to do it more often.
“How to Have A Lovely Day”

Smile at strangers
Slow down
Say thank you
Give lots of compliments
Dress nicely
Wear perfume
Observe and listen
Be charming
Laugh
Wish people a lovely day