"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! :)

Small Somethings and the Iowa State Fair

Oh, hello:

After the "Ferns" I decided to slow down a bit and give my brain a rest. I kind of putzed around with a couple of patterns that didn't amount to anything, then remembered I needed to make a couple small gifts:

Today was my boss' last day at work, and she is quite a reader, so I decided to make her the small flag above (the larger one below was one of the first things I shuttle tatted when I taught myself last summer--it's fun to see how far I've come in a year!) The large one was done in Perle 8, the small in size 30 Cebelia and the pattern is from "Tatted Bookmarks". 

I also made this little motif, which is the first two rounds of a doily with the word Summer in the title from the booklet Doily Delights. I made it for the nice lady who picked my tatting up from the Southern Iowa Fair when my mom wasn't able to. 

Speaking of fairs, I am very pleased with how I did at the Iowa State Fair this year, and I hope you won't think I'm bragging if I share...

I entered seven things and got 3 blues (First Place)

1 red (Second Place)

 

Two whites (3rd Place)

And 1 pink (4th Place)

This was the first year that I have entered all categories and the first year I have gotten a ribbon for everything I entered! And, I was only one of two tatters who got blue ribbons--the woman who won Best of Show won four of the categories and I won three...so as Chris says, I was the first loser at the. Fair this year! :)

Anyway, thanks for your patience with all that...I love entering in the Fairs, the ribbons are just icing on the cake. :)

Fikkert's Ferns-Updated

If you are part of the Tatting group on Facebook you might have seen that a couple of us are working on (read: struggling with) Ben Fikkert's pattern "Ferns" from his book "A Tatting Adventure". 

"Ferns" is the pattern shown on the front of the book and includes quite a few Josephine chains and is deceptively hard and incredibly inclined to pucker, curl and do everything but lay down and play nice!

Here is the doily 2/3 of the way finished:

And here is where I am now, not much further along (but still quite curly):

I am working on the final round of the doily (eight identical leafy inserts connecting the eight fern fronds) and having a bit of trouble. The other lady who is working this pattern has been having tension troubles  with the Josephine chains in the first stages of the doily (her theory is that is has to do with Mr. Fikkert tatting more loosely than she does). I didn't have that kind of problem in the early rounds, but I am definitely struggling with these final inserts! 

Those "rings" on the lower part of the insert aren't rings, they're part of the chain that is apparently too long for the space it is in. And before you ask, yes, I did actually follow he pattern. I checked. Twice. 

So I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm going to shorten the chain a bit and see if that fixes the issue...

And hopefully it does because, frankly, I'm ready to move on from the Ferns! :)

UPDATE!

Check out the insert on the far left... Hel-lo success! :)

The Traveling Tatter is at Rest (for now)

And, breathe.

After circumnavigating the world in 46 days (and making many side trips during stopovers in both the US and UK) I am back in Vlad and ready to be still, for a little while at least. :)

You can, of course, read about the travel part on the travel blog (www.teguciwhat.com), but here is the tatting part:

When you last heard from me, I was tatting on the train somewhere between London and Edinburgh.

That was, of course, not the first tatting I did while on vacation (see here, here and here)

Here is the finished pillowcase with the Annie Orr edging:

I entered this pillowcase in our local fair and got a blue ribbon, so I am happy with that...we'll see how the State Fair goes next month!

 Also for the fair, my mom and I mounted the sunburst doily on a piece of white foam board, with a note explaining that it was mounted for display purposes only...

Another blue ribbon...actually I ended up with 6 blues at the fair, so that is exciting. :)

 Last summer I taught my sister-in-law how to tat, and when I visited her and my brother in TN this summer I whipped out this little motif to remind her how easy tatting is!

Speaking of showing people how to tat, while I was working on the edging my two-year-old niece climbed into my lap and asked me what I was doing, then sat there and watched me work for quite a while...I promised I'd teach her when she gets just a little older, but she has such fine motor skills already that I think she will be able to pick it up very soon!

So, then I took off to the UK and tatting on trains. Besides the Arches doily I didn't really complete a whole lot besides this funny little flower:

 It actually started out as a small Annie Orr motif that cupped after the first two rounds and became this flower after I apparently skipped a whole bunch of rings in the final round. Whoops!

I made this doily-turned-flower for a nice Chinese lady we met on the train back from Edinburgh. She was visiting her son on her first trip out of China, and within 30 seconds of our sitting across the table form them on the train had already moved her baggage to make room for ours, and within 15 minutes of pulling out of the station was sharing her blueberries and raspberries with us, as well as some snacks she had brought from China. (Also, she had never had raspberries before...can you imagine that?!)

She showed interest in tatting when I started working on the Arches doily, so of course I made her something...it ended up 3d instead of flat, but she still really seemed to like it:

 The day after we arrived back in London we were back on the train again, this time for Stratford-Upon-Avon to see the birthplace of the Bard (kind of) and to meet Jane Eborall (the real reason).

Awesome! Jane gave us tea in her garden, an excellent and historical walking tour of the city, directed us to a great place to eat lunch (and two wonderful ice cream places--yes Jane, I did have ice cream at both places, so good!) and she showed me how to do a couple of tatting things I have been wondering about for a long time...it was great!!

Thanks again, Jane! We really enjoyed ourselves! :)

Train Tatting and Tea

Tatting on the train is by far my favorite way to travel with tatting!

I started Marilee Rockley's "Arches" on the train to Bath last week and made great strides on the way to Edinburgh today. 

Also, I flipping love the UK. Seriously, can somebody find us jobs here so we can live here forever?! 

It has been an amazing trip, but since it is Tatting Tea Tuesday I will share one of my favorite new discoveries of the trip...Cream Tea.

Ohhhhhhhh, YUM!

Seriously. Amazing.

 Then again, maybe I shouldn't move here...between the Cream Tea and the Galaxy Chocolate, I would probably weigh 100 more pounds than I do right now. But they would be happily added, I tell you. :)

Pillowcase Conundrums

Just a small note from Nashville and a couple of questions, too...

Here is my progress in the pillowcase...

As I have been tatting this I have been asked two questions more than once, and unfortunately I haven't known how to  answer them...so I will ask all of you fine people if you know!

1) When adding an edging to a pillowcase, should the tatting be on just one side or all the way around?

2) Should the tatting be attached to the fabric via all the picots on the edging, or just all the bottom picots?

We have had a nice time here so far, seeing by brother and his wife and helping them move to their new apartment. We took a little time away from moving and cleaning today to visit their offices and classrooms at Vanderbilt University and to tour the Tennessee State Capitol Building--and later today I think we will go to the science center to entertain my nephew...good times!

An Annie Orr Edging

Hello. Another small update, from Missouri this time!

Our family has a house at the Lake of the Ozarks and it is the best place to tat! So relaxing and uncomplicated! (Although Ihave  taken a few breaks to go shopping!!)

So, with "nothing" else to do, I have made great strides in this Annie Orr edging pattern (from the red Annie Orr book and probably available for free online):

It is over a foot long, (15 repeats) and I am guessing I need 20-25 more before I can attach it to the pillowcase I'm making if for.

(The thread is size 40 Lizbeth)

It's a process, and the first time I've made a continuous edging pattern, beleve it or not! :)

We're off to TN for a few days later this week, and then back to Iowa for the 4th...and then Chris and I are meeting up in LONDON to spend 2 weeks in the UK!! I am so excited!!!!! :) This will be my first time there since 2004 and my first time since I leaned how to tat. 

Do any of you UK tatters have any must-go places for tatting books, swag etc? :-D

A Little Tatting at Home (but not much!)

So, I'm home!!!!

I've had a really wonderful week and a half at home so far, with 3 or so weeks to come!

Mostly I've been busy with these cool kids:

Yay nieces and nephews!! They are all sooooo fun!

I have managed to tat a little in-between snuggles and play:

This is another Nina Libin necklace (http://www.georgiaseitz.com/classes2/libin.html) with a pair of earrings that I made using the first few rounds of the pattern.

I'm interested if anyone else put there has made this pattern...if so, how did you finish it? The pattern really doesn't say exactly how to finish it, but it seems that you are supposed to just attach the final chain to the first ring?? But if you do that the necklace won't fit over your head!! So, I made the last chain into a ring and attached a jump ring and clasp instead, to make it easy to put on and off. 

I also made another bell, this one a Jane Eborall pattern (http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/Bell20043D.pdf):

I'm not sure why, but this looks MUCH better on Jane's site! :)

Oh well. :)