Last three months

I've let this fall by the wayside :|

So, TMY happened...months ago now, but here's our table: 

There were SO MANY PEOPLE! We even got 2 new members out of this weekend. Showing that you can make jewelry really helps intrigue fellow young ladies.

Then last month the Lacy Ladies of Phoenix, AZ had their annual Lace Days. I randomly found out about it somewhere online, otherwise we wouldn't even have known about it! We got there a little late, but they started with a little history of bobbin lace. They had lots of old lace and bobbin pillows (of course, I didn't take pictures...) We took a class to learn bobbin lace, and once I realized it's just weaving without a loom, it was really easy! My first two pieces:

On the left is just practicing the three basic stitches: Cloth(Linen), Whole, and Half. If you start by yourself, it's better to leave the half stitch for last, 'cause it will look like you're doing something wrong. On the left is my second piece, a snake bookmark. It's twisted in this picture b/c I haven't ironed it yet. I'm currently doing a third bookmark that will be all just half stitch. Don't know what I'll do with them, I prefer to use paper as bookmarks b/c I can write on them.

Also at Lace Days were plenty of things to buy...wish I had gotten some 40/80 Lizbeth, but I FINALLY got two books I've been wanting forEVer -

I immediately started in on the Spinning Wheel that I've been seeing everyone else make -

First time, the thread kept breaking :(

 

And then I ran out of thread on the shuttle :(

So I've had to set that aside for the time being. Especially with the Norwegian Fair coming up (happened this last Saturday). Judith Lind, the founder of our local tatting group, was Norwegian so the group has always sold tatting at this fair. It was a little weird b/c tatting is so old, no one country can really claim it as "theirs", and Mrs. Lind was the only one in the group whose ancestors hailed from there. I made a number of earrings and sold all but three pairs! I might have sold them all if I'd not gotten there 2 hours late (trying to finish the earrings). They had some delicious food though!

And with that over, I can get back to other projects. I've start in on this other Konior pattern, Rosa Frivola.

This book is ridiculous, I want to be making every single thing in here right now. Impossible!

Non-tatting news: Our bougainvillea finally put out "blooms" again! (The bright pink in the photo are actually specialized leaves, only the little white things are the true flowers)

And they've since moved on, but back in October we had our annual butterfly mating days (I've only just gone through the photos)

This years butterflies seemed extra antsy, it was really difficult to get close enough to get a good pic.

I will never let this go this long again :) So much to post!

Backlog & giveaway

I have so many things to blog about, just haven't sat down to do so...need to get on that. Heather over at Tatted Treasures is doing a giveaway of one of David Reed Smith's beautiful handcrafted wooden shuttles. Head on over and enter!

Getting ready

The Judith Lind Tatting Club participates in Meet Yourself Tucson - spend a weekend letting everyone know we're there, show off our tatting skills and even teach a few people how to do it. We're going to have business cards to hand out, each with a little piece of tatting on them, so we're all tatting up little motifs. I don't want to do the same little motif for every single one (boring!) so I've been scouring my patterns for things that I could do.

LadyShuttleMaker had put up a pattern for a little treble clef a while ago but I had never gotten around to trying it out. I don't want to have to learn a new technique(folded ring) to do this, because I want this to be quick and easy. I thought if I change the pattern so I'm using the same technique Ruth Perry uses in her tatted Celtic snail, it could work out really well and I wouldn't have to worry about keeping to any stitch counts. I would also have more control over the look of the clef - I began learning to play the piano when I was in 3rd grade and picked up a few other instruments over the years. I've always thought the treble clef was beautiful, so I guess I'm a bit picky about the look.

 

The next ones will be even better. I suppose I'm not saving any time by not learning to do a folded ring, but I tried to understand the directions and my brain is just not getting it tonight. This Celtic way is easier to tat though - practically one long chain book-ended by two small rings. I think in the next one I'm going to make the top ring into a mock ring (a chain joined to itself)...might allow it to lay flatter.

LOVE my mom

Mom went to The West today - it's a 501c3 that sells many things including many goodies for needlework. This is what she brought home to me:

I've been wanting to learn needle tatting for a while...to the point where I just picked up a regular (pointy sharp) needle and started:

 

It was slow going...b/c I poked my finger a lot, but now I can needle tat properly!

WIPs

The Delusional Knitter is trying to finish her works-in-progress and has invited everyone to join her. My problem is that I only knit if I've found a pattern I really really want to do. Knitting is really too painful for my hands to do on any sort of regular basis. So I won't be participating...because I don't have any WIPs :) I do have a crochet project that isn't finished yet - a cowl necked top from Mission Falls - but that was put away for the move and hasn't been unpacked due to the heat.

The last two weeks she's had an Optional Side Quest to organize your needle stash, which means I win because I already completed that when I joined ravelry !_!

Hanky!

WAY back in May Diane was giving away many many hankies. The minute I saw the first picture I knew which one I wanted - didn't even need to look at any of the others (though, of course I did). Before I even received it, I knew which thread I wanted to use - Lizbeth Leaf Green Lt. I have never made a hanky edging before, didn't even have any patterns, so I decided to go searching through the ol' DMC library till one caught my eye. The Tatting Goddess was also tatting up this pattern. I had to cut and restart twice b/f I got the picot lengths right.

 

This project will probably be in the 'not finished' state for a while...I'll probably only work a tiny bit at a time while I have these three other LARGE projects going. I promise Diane, it'll get done eventually!

Tatted Treasures Give-away

Fasttatter is giving a begining tatters toolkit away over here. There are many ways to enter! Ends midnight August 31st.

Test Tatting for Bree

Bree wanted some input/test tatters for her new motif. I found her diagram to be straight forward - the only big problem ended up being the thread I chose :( The blue variagated is the only Lizbeth that I've had trouble tatting with...don't know why. It took three days because the rings wouldn't close. It's a lovely pattern to tat up, and I'll be making more of these - just with different thread :)

Finally Finished!

Finished and flattened.So happy this is done; I enjoy tatting but sometimes a project just becomes a chore :(





Annika over at Tatting It Up was giving away some handmade shuttles; Got it a while ago, along with some of her lovely hand dyed thread but had no ideas on what to start working on. Luckily our local tatting group, the Judith Lind Tatting Club, meets once a month and during this summer there are technique demonstrations. For July, we learned front-side/back-side tatting:


I'm excited to incorporate this technique into more projects! Now I must plan for August's meeting: I'm teaching the split chain! The first time I was introduced to the split chain was this geekalicious bookmark by Anne Bruvold. That bookmark ended up leading to a slightly larger geeky project, but I think I'll save that for a future post.

Almost Finished!

I started a doily pattern from a '78 workbasket. It takes a while because none of these patterns use split rings/chains, so in order to not have to constantly c+t I have to essentially re-write the pattern. Just 2 more repeats on the last row to go! ...and then *lots* of blocking.

Ma bebés have grown so much!

My succulents have grown so much in the last 1.5 years! Pics of Euphorbia gorgonis, Euphorbia suzannae when they were little, and both today together in pic 3.

From Fox

Fellow tatter Fox wished to pare down her thread collection, and asked if anyone was interested in helping her do that.  This is what I received in the mail after the strike finished!

The tatting is lovely! The color choices make it especially so. I have no idea what to do with the metal findings (I mean, I've seen what Fox has done, but I don't think I've been tatting long enough to start designing with findings). No idea what I'll use the thread for...so many projects going on...

Delusional Knitter give-away

The Delusional Knitter is having a give-away to celebrate the opening of her etsy store! You can check it out here.

Learning Puncetto

I was browsing the tatting vids on youtube when this came up. "I must lean this!" I thought. Many months and hours on google later, I came across a short tutorial that was actually in English. Not all the steps were listed, but enough to get the gist of it. Here is my progress so far:

Progress is from L-R. I had followed the written directions to the letter, which meant a lot of space b/w knots (which looked nothing like what I saw in the vid).

So I decided to ignore the directions a bit and that got to something that looked more like what's in the vid!









I think I'm going to go back to tatting for now, I spent 3 straight days with just Puncetto :)

Beginnings and an Awesome Acquisition

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a bit now, flip-flopping around "should I"? "shouldn't I"? but it's time. And while I'd like to promise to keep this strictly to my fiber arts hobbies, I don't think I'll be able to keep my other geeky interests away. :) While living in Seattle over a year ago a friend of mine headed up her church's knitting group. A lady donated some items to the group, and my friend immediately called me up and asked if she could come over. I said, "Of course"! She brought me these! (not the shuttle or finished tatting) 6 boxes of DMC sz 40 thread! 10 balls in each box! That's (carry the five) 14,940 yds of thread! Also a little book of angel patterns, but that's packed away in a box somewhere. So, what to do with all this thread? I mean, I have to go for something huge, something that will take years. And then I found Jon's pattern here. It's perfect! I am going to change the small motif on the two ends, just so there's more of a line. And when I'm finished, I'll have a huge piece of tatting to hang on a wall, or as curtains, cover a couch or small bed.... It was a little frustrating starting this piece...I do wish there was an easy way to not have to c + t so much between all the motif, but that's not something I can change. It helped a lot when I figured out how to properly hold the huge shuttle :) The shuttle I won from Diane here. It's the perfect thing for this long project. I've got about 1' x ~4" of the piece done.