Motif 2: 26 Magic Thread tricks

Here's a tatted collar (the rose collar) from Tatting Ideas, made in DMC perle #12, ecru. There are 13 little medallions in there, two ends per medallion, so 26 magic thread tricks.

I shouldn't have worried about running out of thread. Thread-wise, tatting is very economical. There was even enough left over for a little butterfly.


I've been practicing cluny leaves. So far, I've gotten to the point where I no longer need COMPLETE AND UTTER SILENCE to make a leaf, but I still can't string together more than 2-3 without making a mess and needing to cut off. Oh, well, more practice needed. At least the tangled strips are getting longer.

Enough?

I'm adding the last outer edge to this collar. I'm only 1/3 of the way through, and the only thread I have left is that little pile and whatever's on the shuttles. Augh! Why do I do this to myself. If there are any friendly tatters reading, send me some good luck... send me some good will... send me some DMC perl 12 :)

Thimble rings

I posted some pictures for Chloe Patricia's 'Share Your Thimbles'. I'm taking a group photo before my kids put them through too much wear and tear. The blue and white one's my favourite. I like the colours and I like the thread. It's DMC rayon floss. It's slippery and tangly, but my local needle work store caries a huge range of colours at a pretty low price. That makes it a winner in my book.

Josephine knots

I write about posting regularly, then I go offline for two weeks. I was holed up in a traning room without internet access; excellent training, but not good for craft blogging. I check my blog and I find all these lovely comments from these wonderful people. Now I'm really encouraged to keep going.

I did manage to get some tatting done during breaks. The pink motif is a medallion from this lovely Japanese tatting book, done with DMC cebelia, size 30.



This is my first attempt at Josephine knots. There are 10 in the motif, so it was good practice. The one on the right is the first, on the left is the last. Keeping the tension loose was quite a challenge.



I want to get comfortable tatting with beads, so I made these with the chunky silk I had from making thimble rings.

I'm also trying to teach myself InkScape, so I diagrammed them for practice. Here's the blue one.



Here's the purple one.


I followed Jane Eborall's excellent tutorial for beads in split rings. It worked, but I think when the split rings come one after the other, perhaps it would make more sense to have them on a third thread, then use alligator joins between the split rings. If I get around to trying it, I'll post a picture.

Next, perhaps I'll take a stab at cluny leaves. I forsee some tangled, mangled threads. Five threads, all at once? I think I'll wait until the kids are asleep before I try it.

Motif 1: New Year

January 1st is a good time for resolutions. One of mine this year is to blog more regularly. I have certificates, source code and papers; all kinds of things to document my professional and academic life. I'd love to have something to document my crafting life.

I think part of it is to lose the feeling that blogging is difficult. I just need to take a picture, write some notes and post an entry. I don't have to worry about the dirty laundry showing in the picture or the typos in the text. In my work, when my inner perfectionist threatens my deadlines, I tell myself 'Done is better than perfect'. I have to develop the same feeling for blogging.

In order to help me to post more (and also since I'm going through a tatting phase) I thought I'd try the 25 motif challenge. If I can manage to figure out how to sign up, this is motif #1.



This is Jon Yusoff's elegant 'Magic Moment Snowflake', done in cheap Venus crochet cotton from my local craft shop. It's fresh off the shuttles, unblocked, ends showing. However, the tatting is done. So is this blog entry.

Done is better than perfect.