Making Tatting Go Faster, Reading While Tatting

This is the December Motif by Frivole.  She has many excellent snowflake patterns, some for sale and some for free.  This is probably the simplest one.  Sorry it's such a poor scan.

I needed to make a lot of snowflakes for gifts, so I looked for strategies to make the work go quickly.

First, I chose a pattern pretty enough to be interesting, but simple enough it wouldn't take too long.  

Next, I used a bead spinner to add a lot of beads to my ball of thread.  For each individual snowflake, I only had to count out the number of beads I needed and wind the shuttles, pushing the extra beads further up on the ball.  I measured the amount of thread on each shuttle for the first snowflake, and then knew just how much to wind on for each of the rest.

And then to make the working feel like it was going by quickly, I used my new favorite activity, reading while tatting.  Well, not exactly reading, but listening to audiobooks.  It's a lovely way to do 2 things at once.  Don't audiobooks cost a lot, you may ask? Not necessarily!  I discovered that I can borrow them with free downloads from the library without even leaving home.  I use the North Carolina Digital Library.  Check with your local public library to see if you can get them too.

Bjorn Snowflake

Here is another one for the challenge.  This is "5th Day of December" by Lene Bjorn from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting.  It worked up quickly and easily, using just one shuttle.  Sorry the beads aren't showing up well in the picture.

This book is one of the series of tatting books from Akacia.  I recommend them highly for anyone who likes diagrammed tatting patterns.

Christmas Snowflakes

Where does the time go? The to-do list gets longer and longer, with things not done, much less blogged about.

At least, I've got my Christmas snowflakes all given out to friends at work. For a mass-production snowflake, I need something that doesn't take too long, easy enough to memorize the pattern, able to be carried on the go, hopefully will fit in a bangle bracelet, and still have enough pizzazz to look impressive. Tall order, huh? This year's choice was Minuet, by La Cossette. Here are a few of them.

 She has some other really nice snowflakes in her Etsy shop too.  Maybe I can try some of them later.

?New? Snowflake

There are so many snowflake patterns available now, I cannot keep track. This was very easy to design, but is it too similar to anything already published? If this looks too familiar to anyone please let me know. On the points, I have Mrs Mee pearl rings, but if someone else has already published something the same shape with regular rings, I wouldn't think that would make it enough different for me to proceed.

A few people had questions about the "pearl" technique last time. With this technique, rings or chains are made entirely of half stitches instead of the usual double stitch. Sort of like Josephine rings with picots, but the picots come between every two half stitches. Picots with just a single half stitch in between would not be stable enough and could easily get pulled out of shape in my experience.

Meditative Tatting

When you feel all tensed up, with too much to do, or too much on your mind, sometimes the best thing to do is let it all go, and pick up a piece of simple tatting. Working easy repetitions lets you empty your mind and find a quiet place to get away from it all for a little while. Just when I needed something like this, I was lucky to have such a pattern appear in my inbox, courtesy of Nancy Tracy's Bestitched newsletter. You can see her pattern here, and while you are there, you can look around her site for many more nice patterns, or shop for supplies.

She saw this medallion as a spring flower, but since it had six petals, I worked it in white to use for the new Palmetto fundraiser. Yes, there is to be another group project quilt. This time, instead of quilt blocks, they are asking for white snowflakes in all sizes. See Georgia's site here for all the details.

I Won!

I was so lucky to win a giveaway from Miranda at the Tatting Fool blog. This package arrived very quickly, and my first thought was why was, it so big and heavy? It turned out there was an extra surprise inside--a package of Biscochitos, the official cookie of New Mexico, flavored with cinnamon and anise. I do love cinnamon. I had enough will power to wait until I charged the camera battery and took the picture. But since then, I've been eating quite a lot of them. Will power only goes so far, you know ;)

There were three thread samples, and not just any thread, but HDT by Lady Shuttlemaker and Yarnplayer. Plus, a snowflake made with each thread so I can see how they work up. The snowflakes are all Miranda's designs, and I especially like the one in the middle. My picture is pretty poor, but I can tell you these are very nicely done.

There are Delica beads and Gingher scissors with a leather point protector in a little tin. Three crochet hooks, two of them the tiny sizes great for pulling beads onto picots, and one with a comfort handle. And everything in a pretty re-usable fabric bag.

Thank you Miranda, for being so generous!

A Gift and a New Challenge

My friend Ridgewoman recently surprised me with a gift of this book, Spitzen Ideen by Susanne Schwenke. Since many of the patterns have block tatting, she said it made her think of me. It is is a delightful little book and I am very grateful to have it.

It is a German book, but it is very easy to understand. There are clear diagrams for each pattern, and there is a German/English glossary of tatting terms used in the patterns, which are written short hand style. It has edgings and insertions, snowflakes, and Easter eggs.

This is my favorite pattern, which came out around 5 inches diameter in size 30 thread.

I made this snowflake next, chosen for the pretty block tatting in the design. I an sure I will be making more designs from this book in the future.

On another note, most of you are probably aware of the 25 Motif Challenge. Sharon began this a few years ago as a way to encourage tatters to see if they could finish 25 pieces in a year. She and her team post pictures of everyone's progress. Viewing that blog is always interesting, and has led me to meeting new people and learning of patterns, threads, and books that I "must" have. The basic guidelines are here. She lets each person define what a motif may be, which has ranged from a single earring to a large doily. Some participants choose to further refine their own challenge, for example, to make 25 animals or snowflakes. I am ready to begin again, and for this time around I will count only motifs made from books. I have some new books and some old ones that have been neglected too long. Don't worry, I'll still be making fun stuff from online patterns, and designing some of my own, but only patterns from books will count toward my challenge, to make it more, er, challenging. So these will be the first two for the new challenge.

Snowflake Bangles--Motif 12

Just a quick post to show I'm still here.

I've been working on snowflake bangles for small Christmas gifts. Most of these are Mike's excellent "Playing in the Snow-flake". I love the swirls and the fact it is quick and easy. Check out his blog for plenty of tatting-on-glass-balls eye candy.

In the center is the Layered Tatted Snowflake from Nancy at Be-Stitched. On her website you can find her online store for tatting supplies and a generous array of free tatting patterns.

I will claim Nancy's snowflake as motif twelve. I used Mike's snowflake in a previous challenge, so it doesn't count this time.

When I went to make the scan, I found my missing bookmark in the scanner. Now, if only I could find my missing free time as well....