Cro-Tatting

I'm still around. Time gets away from me at times. I've been doing lots of knitting and tatting, just not photographing much of anything.

This past week a Facebook Friend posted a video of her Cro-Tatting. This is tatting with a long crochet hook. I have tried this in the past, and been frustrated and unsuccessful. I decided to dig out the books and hooks and give it another try.

I think I have finally got the hang of it.

Larger flowers were done with Annie's size 6 hook and Lizbeth size 3 thread.  Smaller flower was done with Annie's size 10 hook and Artiste size 10 thread.

 As you can see I did a lot of practicing. Top left is Lizbeth size 3 using Annie's size 6 hook. Top right is Aunt Lydia size 10 using the Annie's size 6 hook. I think it's a bit loose and floppy.  Bottom left is the same size 10 thread using the Annie's size 10 hook. I think it looks much better. Bottom right is Artiste 10 with the size 10 Cro-tat hook. 

I made a few snowflakes. These are made using the "strings" technique from Rainbow Valley shown here.  Larger flake was made with Red Heart size 3 and Annie's size 6 hook. Smaller flakes were made with the Annie's size 10 hook and an unknown  (probably Aunt Lydia's) size 10 thread. I want to try snowflakes with another ring on the arms.

Why am I determined to conquer this craft? I like the idea of using a continuous thread. I'd love to combine crochet and tatting for a shawl. Hmmm.... I have some Luster Sheen in my yarn stash, I wonder how that cro- tats????

Palmetto Tat Days

I had a wonderful time at Palmetto Tat Days. I get so busy having fun and talking with people that I take very few photographs. I did however manage to take a couple of pictures of projects in progress.

 This is the decorative sleeve designed and taught by Phyllis Schmidt of Phyl's handwork. It's an easy pattern, rings and lock chains. My brain was on overload and there were many distractions. Several times I found myself making lock stitch rings. There is no such tatting element as a lock stitch ring. It becomes the ring everyone made as a beginning tatter, where one pesky stitch did not flip (or unflipped itself) and then the ring will not close. Thankfully I was using size 3 thread and the Starlit shuttles I was using had picks on them, so the lock stitch ring was easily retro-tatted.

This is my completed Decorative Sleeve displayed on my water bottle.

Betsy Snowflake

This afternoon I helped a Facebook Friend with a snowflake Pattern. The Betsy Snowflake can be found here.  I find it helpful to work the pattern along with the student, so I loaded 2 shuttles with size 10 Lizbeth in my favorite snowflake color Blue Ice.

This shows the center, 5 regular rings and then a split ring.

The split ring is followed by a smaller split ring and then a chain. The pattern did not say, but this join is a lock join. 

This shows the clover on top of the snowflake arm. It is important to switch shuttles before and after the clover.

After  an enjoyable tat and chat, I completed my size 10 snowflake. I immediately loaded shuttles and made another in size 20 Lizbeth thread. A 25 cent coin is shown  for size comparison. 

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Celtic Snowflake

Time to update my neglected blog. I have been tatting, just not scanning or photographing or blogging.  It is so much easier to snap and share on Facebook, but I have not been doing a lot of that either.  

A Facebook Tatting Friend shared that she was going to make this snowflake. I remember back in 2008 when Ruth Perry shared this pattern with the On Line Tatting Class. I attempted to make it, made one heck of a mess and went back to tatting other things.   

Time passes. I've now attended Palmetto Tat Days 8 times (#9 is just a month away and I can hardly wait.) I've been to Fingerlakes 4 times, Fringe Elements Tatting twice. I spent 2 weekends in Indiana in classes with The Shuttle Brothers. I've had tatting classes with many talented tatters. I even spent a weekend at Ruth Perry's house tatting and chatting in January 2016.

I printed the pattern and loaded shuttles with size 20 thread. First attempt I got most way through arm 4 and realized that arm  3 was not twisted correctly, attempts to fix it resulted in a  major mess. Twisted, tangled and frustrated, scissors were brought out.  

 I briefly considered tatting this with size 10 thread. The arms were 2.5 inches from center to tip, and I still had the outer round to complete, and I did not want a humongous snowflake so I continued in size 20 thread.  Above is the second attempt when  I stopped for the night.

Here is the finished snowflake after a quick press. This will be going on my tree at home. I don't see myself making multiples of this snowflake. I am proud that I completed it!

Wave Earrings

I have not had a chance to work on the Renulek doily. I decided that I needed some green earrings for St Patrick's Day. I used The Wave pattern by Corina Mayfeldt   which can be found on her blog. This was a one  shuttle pattern and easy to follow. I used a 5x8 mm crystal (all I had on hand) on the green earrings and it came out OK. Now to wait for the Pearls I ordered to arrive before making more of these lovely earrings.

Busy Weekend

I did not get the chance to work on the Renulek doily over the weekend. Saturday was taken up by knitting group and grocery shopping and the usual housekeeping tasks and laundry. I was asked for more tatted earrings (which I love making) so that is how I spent my limited tatting time.

This is Eileen Stafford's Blue doily. I did it in Cream Lizbeth size 20. It measures 4.75 inches or 12 cm across. I think the center round would make a pretty earring with some beads added.  There was something on my ironing board which left a few dark spots when I blocked this. I will have to wash it and block it again after I wash the ironing board cover.

Moving right along

Round 3 of the Renulek 2017 doily is completed. The fourth round is now available and that will be my project for the weekend. I love the DMC cordonet  threads. Sadly it is only available in white and ecru.

Round 2

This is another cell phone photo. Round 2 of the 2017 Spring doily. It has not been blocked. After being wet and arranged, the center lies flat. Round 3 is now done and drying and awaiting a visit to the scanner. The diagram for round 4 was posted today and can be found here.

Spring 2017

I have neglected my blog. I have been tatting. I have not been photographing or  documenting my tatting. shame on me. I do so enjoy reading the blogs of other tatters, and admiring all the pretties on Facebook.  I have not finished the previous Renulek doilies, and I tried to talk myself out of making the Spring 2017 doily that was started a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I gave in. I got out several balls of DMC size 30 cordonet in ecru and loaded shuttles.

I had to refresh my memory on how to do onion rings. I practiced, and silly me, tried to do the outer ring as a chain. Needless to say, that did not work well. I then looked up the technique at the On Line Tatting Class and finally to you tube. Thanks Tamie for clearly showing how to do the onion rings as rings.

This photo was done with my phone and is not the clearest.