"Growing Up" in Tatting

One of the things I love about tatting is the progression I see in what I can do, and what I will try to do. It's like growing up, tatting-style. 

It has been just over a year since I started shuttle tatting and I can really see the difference in what I can achieve now--my picots are more uniform, my tension troubles have eased, and I no longer am intimidated by small thread sizes, adding thread to a shuttle that has run "dry", or Jan Stawasz patterns. 

Well, ok, maybe the Stawasz patterns still make my heart go thump, but more in a "Let's do this!" way, rather than a, "Yeah, right" manner. 

Not that his patterns aren't incredibly challenging, because they totally are. And not that I have mastered his technique, because I totally haven't. But, I did successfully complete my first Stawasz pattern and am on my way to my second:

The first Stawasz pattern: Christmas decoration from "Tatting Theory and Patterns". 

A messy work in progress: "Doily" also from "Tatting Theory and Patterns". Four rows to go!

I find his patterns so satisfying to work. They are so...solid, but so delicate at the same time. I have his second book on order and can't wait to add it to my ever-growing collection. 

Oh, and speaking of my ever-growing tatting book collection, I got another book in the mail today that I am pretty psyched about...I have a bunch of Russian tatting books (because, you know, I live in Russia) and someone offered to swap one of my books for a Japanese book:

Hoorah!! A new language to tat in!!!!!!!

This was such a satisfying experience, if anybody out there has tatting books they want to swap, just let me know! :)

In the meantime, I'm goin back to Stawasz-land! :)

Happy Fourth of July! (Motifs 21 and 22!)

Happy Fourth of July!

In honor of the big holiday (and the relative "ease" of two-color tatting with the shuttle) I decided to make a pattern I've been avoiding for a while, Dee Powell's "American Flag" bookmark from Tatted Bookmarks.

  I'm not sure if it's because I used the shuttle, or what, but this pattern was not as easy as it looks! It was rated "intermediate-experienced" and I agree! You can tell especially at the top that I had tension troubles, and if you look more closely at the blue part, you can see the picot problems. Le sigh.

(Patriotic) Motif #21!

 Here is a somewhat closer view:

Still. All shuttle tatted.

I have also been craving buttercream frosting recently, and decided to use some buttercream colored thread to make the other bookmark on the page of Tatted Bookmarks, "Candle", also by Dee Powell.

Motif 22

It could do with some blocking, but the picots are relatively even (and all eyeballed).

 I'm still not sold on the shuttle, but I'm working on it.

More Messy Motifs (#s 16-18) + a MOBILE (and Motifs 19-20)

Well, I've kept on with the shuttle the last couple days and made a few more messy motifs. I'm still working from Easy Tatting:

Motif 16--ick

Motif 17--slightly less ick

Next I decided to take it up a notch and make a multi-level motif:

Level 1

Level 2--What's with the paperclip you ask? I can't quite figure out what to do with the first strings, so I put the paperclip in the knot so that it can become strings so they can be hidden...(yes? Is this what I'm actually supposed to do?)

Level 3--Motif 18

I'm clearly still having picot problems (see level 2 for a hideous example) so when I started tatting the third level I decided to use Fox's suggestion of marking my finger (which Margaret reminded me of, thanks!) to try to work on this issue...

I don't think it 100% worked, but I do think the final level is slightly better in picot uniformity...

So we'll see.

Anyway, I also forgot I had some other needle tatting motifs laying around from sometime last week:

Motif #19--Valerie Square from Eliz Davis' website

Motif #20--Tatting Box' adorable cross pattern

These two were made specifically to finish a project I hinted at WAY back in August of 2012 when I decided to play "What is It" and then never actually told you what it is...

 I also asked people to guess what I was making based on a recent purchase, and Margaret and God's Kid both took a guess...and God's Kid was right! (And since you both waited so patiently I will send you BOTH something fun from Russia, although I might wait until I get back to the States to mail it...sometimes things sent from Russia take longer than necessary to get to where they want to go...)

As a refresher, here's what I asked way back when:

And now it's time to play a game: WHAT IS IT?!
I took a trip to a local craft chain store this weekend and picked up the supplies I need to make something out of all those ecru motifs I made earlier...

I bought:
-Clear thread
-Flower wire
-Measuring Tape
-Needle-nose wire cutters

 And the answer is...It's a mobile! :)

 It was in taking this picture that I realized a few more motifs were needed to make this mobile truly "awesome", so the cross went under the big motif on the top, and the square went in the middle/under the four motifs in the second row.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that currently, but give me a month and a half and I should have one...

So, there you go, a little shuttle, a little needle.

Tatting is so fun!
KF

Struggling With the Shuttle...Day 3 (Also Motif #15)

In case you are wondering, no, this blogging thing is not really going to become a daily occurrence...my husband has been out of the country all week at a training for his job, and I've had a lot of time on my hands. I don't sleep very well when he's gone, but he comes back tomorrow, so hopefully I won't be doing any more late night blogging!

During a random Internet troll other day I found a blog whose author says she tries to do a little practice tatting every day...I doubt I get to do it every day, but it seems like a good idea so I'm going to try it out.

It will also be fun to switch back and forth between the needle and the shuttle, see how long it takes me to make motifs using each style, see how similar or different they are, etc...

Anyway, today I started out just practicing the ring and chain, ring and chain until I ran out of shuttle thread.

Maureen gave me a great tip about starting each chain with the second half of a stitch which has really helped me get rid of those pesky holes from yesterday. I initially was a little worried what that would do to the stitch count on the pattern, but then realized that doing that was basically the same thing as when I "tie down" the ends after reverse-working when I needle tat, and didn't worry about it anymore.

 After reloading the shuttle I decided I might as well try to make an actual motif. I had a few fits and starts with it (I got about halfway through one try when my shuttle thread ran out again) but I finally managed to make my second-ever shuttle tatted motif, the "Small Rosette" from Easy Tatting by Rozella F. Linden (chosen purposefully for the "easy" in the title).

Motif #15! Halfway to 30!

It's not pretty, but it's better than my first ever shuttle tatted motif, this gem from last summer:

Either way, I still seem to be having picot problems. When I needle tat, I can see the picots on the needle, so I can usually tell by sight if they're not the same size.

With the shuttle, the picots are hidden under your thumb when you're making them, so it's impossible to see if they are the right size (unless you are Superman, which I am not). If I keep up with this shuttle tatting thing, I can tell I'm going to need this:

I bought this in Honduras, of all places, and never have actually used it.

While I was going through my tub-o-tatting stuff (my way of trying to keep my various tatting paraphernalia from taking over our apartment) to get out the measuring gauge I realized that, for an until-now all-needle-all-the-time tatter, I have a remarkably decent shuttle collection. 

Of course, you should see how many needles I have! I'd guesstimate I have at least 6 needles for every shuttle...there are many different sized needles, you know, for size 80 thread all the way up to heavy yarns.

Believe it or not, the progression below (front to back) is how I obtained the shuttles, which might be another clue why the shuttle hasn't caught on with me until now...

White bobbin bought in Des Moines, silver "lanzadera" from Honduras, and the green Clover was from last years' Iowa State Fair...I need to find a челнок (pron. chel-nook) before I move away from Russia!

 From what I've been reading, using a shuttle with a bobbin isn't the easiest way to start, although in my left to right switch it would have been nice to have just been able to pop out and reverse the bobbin instead of having to completely unload the plastic Clovers (the blue one with the scotch tape is still wrapped for a leftie so I can remember how not to do it--I'm a visual learner).

So with another motif under my belt, now my main problems seem to be the picot sizing and how to hide the ends. With the needle, hiding the ends is easy, you just run the needle back under the thread and you're done. I think I'm going to use an embroidery needle (big eye) with my shuttled motifs...unless someone out there has a better suggestion?? :)

KF