Merry Christmas & Happy Tatting :)

Just popping by to wish you all a Merry Christmas, or whatever you may celebrate :) Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

Don't have much tatting to show right now, because I've been crocheting a lot lately, making Christmas presents for most of the family. I did manage to squeeze in a little tatting, though, I made this little bookmark for one of my boyfriend's sisters:

The pattern is one of the flower fragments from Mary Konior's A Pattern Book of Tatting (which, by the way, was my grandmother's Christmas present for me that I bought earlier this fall). The thread is Lizbeth 20 in Dark Boysenberry and Medium Leaf Green. The tassel is the variegated Leafy Greens. Also I made the "Grand Aura" pendant from Yarnplayer's book in black Lizbeth 40 with red beads:

The stitch count didn't exactly match the beads I used, so I had to improvise a little. Fewer picots around the center and I changed the top rings of the pendant. This was a last minute gift for a cousin. I haven't heard any reactions yet, but I hope she likes it! I sure do :)

My boyfriend's mother and I gave some tatting stuff to another of my bf's sisters (this is getting complicated!), and I've spent the evening tonight trying to teach her tatting. She got the flip fairly quickly and made a few rings and chains, and even a join! Despite the bad teacher... *ehum* Tomorrow we will try some simple patterns, and there will possibly be pictures :) Another tatter in the world, yay!

Enjoy the rest of the holiday :)

Christmas came early this year!

I'm sure many you know about the fabulous give-away at Yarnplayer's blog a while ago, which I won! With so many entries (well over a hundred!) I never expected to win, because my luck abandoned me several years ago. When I was little I always won something at lotteries, but not anymore... Well, I certainly won't complain again! :)

I was barely awake this morning when the doorbell rang, so I didn't bother to get up. My mother-in-law answered the door, and shortly after my boyfriend came in carrying a big box. That got me up in a hurry! I sat on the bed and unpacked all the things and squeaked like a child at Christmas! I've been doing the happy dance all week since last Friday :)

Here's what was in the package:

Marilee's latest book Up and Tat 'Em. I've been drooling over this for a long time and can't wait to try the patterns in it, especially the Atom pendant. Ooh, and the book is signed, too! I love it when my craft books are signed, it makes them extra special :)

A toy dump truck! I'm giving it away to a couple who are expecting a baby boy in March, even though he probably won't play with it for a while yet :)

Thread! Lots and lots :) Ten 50 yard skeins of her hand dyed thread: "Bluegreen Pastel"(40 yard skein) size 10, "Corsage" sizes 10 & 20, "Pizazz" size 20, "Summer Trail" sizes 20 & 80 (eek!), "Nectarine" size 30, "Peace" size 20 + corresponding solids in Light Pink and Light Yellow. A most awsome collection of colors! :)

Two new Clover shuttles and two steel crochet hooks, sizes 0.4mm and 1mm (12). The largest hook will be part of a Christmas present for someone who wants to learn tatting. I won't mention any names, in case people should read this blog by accident :)

And she even sent a Christmas card! With camels! My favorite animals in the world (after hedgehogs, of course!) :) Thank you so much for this wonderful gift, Marilee, I love it!

Now I only need to find something to tat with all this lovely thread! It has to be something special. What can you make with 50 yards of size 20 thread? Does the thread last longer in the smaller sizes? I'd hate to start something that I couldn't finish... Any suggestions? :)

Two Christmas presents :)

Wow! Can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post on this blog! November just flew by... I haven't really tatted much during that time, because I've been busy crocheting and making some patterns for the holidays that I wanted done before the beginning of December:

Well, life calmed down a bit when these Dudes were finished, and I've had time to make a few Christmas presents :) First I made a cell phone bling for my mother. She loves pink and purple, so I made a butterfly with Lizbeth 20 "Sea Shell" (#114) and added some pink beads for sparkle:

Haven't quite figured out what's the best way to attach the butterfly to the phone yet, so I have left the antennae uncut in case that works best. I'll have to see what I can find in the craft store tomorrow... The pattern is "Birte" from Adelheid Dangela's Tatted Butterflies.

One of my aunts said she wanted a beaded angel to hang in the window of their new cabin, but I couldn't find a pattern that made an angel large enough (and for which I didn't have to buy loads of expensive new beads), so I decided to tat one and add as many beads as possible:

I need to weave in the ends, but it is done. I may need to stiffen it with some glue to make it hang straight, because it's quite heavy with all those beads.  The pattern is Marjorie's Angel by Martha Ess, and the thread is Puppets Eldorado (size 10-20) in white. I strung the clear beads on the thread and tatted them in, while all the blue beads were added for the joins.  I decided to make some changes to the head and halo to avoid doing split rings. A couple more ends fo hide, but worth it! I'm quite pleased with how it came out, and I hope my aunt will like it too :)

Emptying shuttles

All my shuttles (all forty or fifty of them!) have thread on them from some project - I'm just useless at calculating how much thread I need and I always end up with way too much left on the shuttle. I needed some empty shuttles, so I sat down and made a few things from the little thread leftovers. I didn't want to join more thread from a ball, so I made up these things as I went, using rings only:

The black one is made with some Perle Cotton size 20 and green transparent seed beads. The blue & white is made with Flora 20, color #55. The tiny black & purple one is made with Valdani variegated (size 70/80) in "Black & Indigo". This is one of my favorite color combinations, and I really wish this thread would be thicker so I could tat with it more easily, I'm still not used to tatting with such thin thread. I don't know if many people have heard of this thread before, but I get it from Roseground. Check it out if you want :) The white pendant with green beads is made with size 40 thread, don't know the brand. The reason it's asymmetrical is simply that I ran out of thread and had to skip the final ring. I managed to open the last ring, but picking up the stitches proved far more difficult, so I gave up and decided to leave it as it is. Works well enough for a test design, right? :) It didn't come out well on the light background, so here's a better view of it:

The green pendant was an attempt to redo the design of the white one, but I ran out of thread even sooner, and it became a totally different shape. The thread is Coats Opera I think, size 20. I really like the designs of the two pendants, and I'm considering making them into earrings or something. That should solve some Christmas present problems :)

Some shiny new things, a tatted heart and a contest

The other day I got my first Tatsy shuttles. I ordered them from Snowgoose. I have seen on InTatters that some people have had some trouble with this store, but apart from one small issue, I had no problems with the man. The issue was that the store has listed this shuttle, which I really really wanted (and it was the main reason why I made the order in the first place), but I got an e-mail saying they are no longer available. Boo hoo :( Does anyone know where to get one or two of these? 

(Picture borrowed from the site) 

I've seen them around on people's blogs and wanted one for a long time...

Anyway, along with the unavailable Inox I ordered some Tatsys (Tatsies?) because I decided it was time I tried them out. I opened my package (a really cute little box that was just barely big enough), and my mouth just fell open... I have seen the size of these things on pictures, but when I held one in my hand I could only laugh! 

Seriously, how can anyone tat with these monsters? I think perhaps they can be good for tatting with rope or something :p Though I must admit, I bought them because I figured they would be good to use as ball shuttles, especially when the pattern requires the use of two shuttles only for small portions.

Also in the package was this little plain shuttle:

I had this in my shopping cart at one point, but I was so sure I had changed my mind and removed it before placing the order. Apparently I didn't :p On the site it's named "Perlac", but I think I've seen it labeled as something else on other sites. Who knows? Many different producers make the same shuttles in different countries, so...

And I've finished tatting something! A heart from Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns:

It has taken me a long time to do this, because I found it a bit confusing and frustrating. Why can't she put in the pattern when you need two shuttles? I started this when I was waiting at the doctor's office, and I only had one shuttle with me, so I had to do the shoelace thing to change directions of the chains, which made the chains all wonky and twisty :/ It just will not lay flat... The thread is Puppets Eldorado, size 20-ish in dark red.

Finally I have started a new project (surprise!). There is a contest on IsDihara's blog, where you are to decorate a chocolate box with tatting. The prize is 25 balls of Lizbeth of your own choice from Handy Hands, and the shipping is free! That is just too good to pass up, so I've decided to give it a go. I have found a suitable box and covered it with decoupage, now I just need to figure out what to tat. More about my entry later... By the way, HERE is the original post about the contest. Good luck, if you should choose to enter :)

Good news!

1 - I had my Biology exam today, and it went great! I got a B :D I'm quite pleased with that, even though I think I could've got an A if I hadn't hesitated on a few of the questions, the answers of which aren't even in my book (I have checked!). Since this was just a final exam and not following a course, the students are free to choose between two or three different books with the same basic contents and varying detail information. All I could say was that what they were asking for was not in my book, but still all my answers were correct... That sort of bugs me a little, but most of all I'm just relieved that it's over. I really don't like oral exams :/ But, afterwards my boyfriend surprised me with a bottle of wine! So tonight I've been enjoying a glass of red and tatting happily away on the snail from Tatted Animals :) Trying out the Lizbeth "Razzle Dazzle" for the shell. Looks promising so far!

2 - When I notified Roseground that two of the Lizbeth balls I got were the wrong size, they apologized and shipped the balls in the right size, and I got to keep the wrong ones! Bonus :) So now I have "Christmas Green Mix" and "Country Grape Swirl" in both size 20 and 40. Sweet!

Happy tatting to you all! Hope I'll have more new tatting to show you soon :)

Something old

I have a biology exam on Wednesday, and since I've been sick for a while I've had lots of reading to catch up on the last few days. Which also means less time for tatting :( After a long day at the library I don't really have the energy to do much when I get home, so I don't work fast enough to finish an item in one evening. Naturally this has led to be starting a new project every day, because I get bored easily plus I really want to see how the new colors look, hehe. I think I need to catch a touch of Finishitis soon, or I'll be totally swamped with UFOs! I'm sort of running out of available shuttles here - they are either filled with too much thread to simply unwind, or they are attached to a work in progress... Guess that hadn't been a problem if I did needle tatting :)

That's why I've deciced to post about a few things that I made a while ago. This is "Wind Mills" from Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns, made in Flora size 20, color #56:

Here is a simple little bracelet I made from a border I found in Christmas Angels and Other Tatting Patterns by Monica Hahn. I dropped the picots on the chains and added some green beads:

I made this on a bus, so I didn't have any proper metal clasps handy. Instead I made a ring on one end and an onion ring thing on the other. I think it works (but please don't look at my hairy arms!) :) If I remember correctly it's made in Gjestal Maxi.

And finally here's a teeny tiny snowflake-looking thing with lots of beads on. I think it's very cute, even though it's so small I don't really know what to do with it... Don't have the name of the thread, but I think it's size 40.

Huh. While writing this post I've dug out all my UFOs, and there are quite a few of them. Among other things I've started both Anne B's Dragon Wing Doily and her Seahorse Dragon, the snail from Inga Madsen's Tatted Animals and a celtic knot pumpkin. I've realized (like I do every year) that I started too late for Halloween, and I won't have anything finished in time. Maybe next year :)

Get well shopping #2 :)

In case you're wondering why I've been so quiet lately (both here, on InTatters and The Tatting Forums) and not answering to all your lovely comments, it's because I haven't been feeling very well the last couple of weeks. I won't bore you with the long story (you can read about it on my other blog if you want), so I'll just say that I've been having problems with a very painful infection that has been very hard to kill. Things are looking up now, though, and I should be back to tatting soon :)

When I can't do anything useful (like homework and housework), I usually sit in my rocking chair wrapped in a big blanket with my laptop and surf the web until I've looked at the same sites a million times. And since I've been out of it pretty much constantly lately, I've spent a lot of time online looking for new shiny things. I've got a lot of packages in the mail last week and I thought I'd show you some of it :)

Today I got two packages from Roseground. Here are the contents of the first one:

Five balls of Lizbeth 20 :) The colors (from left to right) are #105 Confetti, #114 Sea Shell, #120 Denim Whisper, #133 Razzle Dazzle and #138 Leafy Greens. This is what was in the second package:

Two balls of Lizbeth 20 (that should have been 40!) in #140 Country Grape Swirl and #152 Christmas Green Mix, a set of mini crochet hooks, and a free sample of Lizbeth 40. Not sure about the color, but I think it might be #123 Grape Pizzaz. Another surprise was an extra crochet hook! The three original hooks in the set are size 6, 10 and 12. I have no idea if the sizes are British or American, but they look like they are 1.5mm, 1mm and 0.75mm respectively. The bonus hook (the one with the plastic cover) is 0.5mm. So tiny - now I can make my picots as small as I want :)

Now, this package has a long story to it... I actually made this order early in September (it was shipped on the 13th), but Roseground printed out the wrong address label and the package was sent to my mother's address (that's where I stayed when I made my first order from Roseground this summer). I suspected this had happened when the package didn't show up after about ten days, because my last order had been sent to my mother's a couple of weeks earlier. This was not really a problem, as it doesn't cost that much for my mother to forward my mail. However, I had just officially changed my address to the one I'm staying at most of the year, and it turned out that my package had probably arrived at the post office at my mother's place, where it had been forwarded to my current address. The problem was that some moron (or bad scanner, I don't know) couldn't read the address right, and it was finally returned to Roseground marked with "incomplete address". I can clearly see that it has the correct zip code! Sigh. Anyway, Roseground have been nothing but professional and helpful the whole time, and they now have my address right :) BUT, then there was another problem, when the threads I'd ordered came in the wrong size... I didn't really want to bother them again since it been so much back and forth with this package already (don't want to be the grumpy customer that's never satisfied), but friendly Twitterers advised me to let them know, so I've sent an e-mail. We'll see what happens...

Yesterday I got a package from Lacis :) This turned out be a bit silly, since the only reason I made the order was to get one of those really tiny crochet hooks (0.4mm) because the ones in the set from Roseground would be a bit bigger, and I hadn't expected the bonus hook... Oh, well, at least I got three new colors of the Lacis shuttles :) From top to bottom the colors are Oyster, Silver and Green:

 

Some more threads I got a while ago:

Two balls of Lizbeth 20 in #695 Bright Orange and #130 Island Breeze. You might understand from the orange that I plan to make pumpkins for Halloween? :)

Lizbeth 40 in #100 Falling Leaves, #604 Black, #115 Springtime and #147 Red Burst.

And a set of tatting needles in sizes 3, 5, 7 and a free bonus needle size 8:

I've also done some book shopping lately :) The first to arrive was this treasure:

A Pattern Book of Tatting by Mary Konior. It was fairly expensive (though not really by Norwegian standards - it's just my budget that can't allow it), so I asked my grandmother  if she would want to give me this as an early Christmas present, and she agreed :) I bought the book used on Amazon, and it came with a little surprise inside! 

I'm guessing the previous owner (possibly "Jean Mortimer"?) tatted this and forgot she put it in there before selling the book. The pattern is "Wild Rose", the last pattern in the book. Also I finally got Rozella Linden's Celtic Tatting Knots and Patterns and Tatted Animals by Inga Madsen:

All three of these books have so many things I want to make, I don't know when I'll ever find the time! Now I just have to take my medicine and get well, and hopefully I'll have more tatting to show soon :)

Oops! Just realized that this has become a really long post! But it has lots of pictures, and you all like to look at pretty pictures - right? *grin*

Small cross

This cross measures 15cm from top to bottom, so it's not really small at all... But it is the smallest of the two crosses in Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns :)

Made with Lizbeth 20 in "Vineyard Harvest" and Puppets/Eldorado (still not sure which is the brand name and which is the thread) in black. The cross has not been blocked/pressed yet, so the ends of the arms curl up a little. That's probably because I changed the stitch count on the last round because the black thread doesn't match the Lizbeth 100%... I did the final chain round in black because I thought it would look sort of like a stained glass window, which I am a big fan of. When I grow up and build my own house, I want lots of those windows :)

Flora thread & two small snowflakes

Last week I got these three balls of Flora 20 that I ordered from Tatting & Design:

From left to right the colors are #55, #56 and #58. I was a bit disappointed when I got them because the two orange ones are a lot more similar than I'd expected. I thought perhaps I'd picked the wrong numbers when ordering, but I found out that it's more a case of the colors in the chart being photographed poorly. I thought that the middle ball would have more yellow in it (and possibly some red), but it's really just orange and white. The right ball is a pinkish peach (apricot?) and white. Plus the actual color numbers were hard to make out on the chart - I almost ordered 66 instead of 56... Too bad. I enjoy working with this thread, though it feels a little stiffer and coarser than the Lizbeth. However, I think it doesn't twist as much :) I had to test the thread right away, and I made the little blue and white snowflake:

The pattern is "Pinwheel Snowflake" from Vida Sunderman's book Tatted Snowflakes. I had hoped that the blue would make the snowflake look sort of frosty, but it came out too blue because I had to change shuttles more often than I was supposed to. My boyfriend didn't even see that it was a snowflake :/

The white snowflake one that I made a while ago to test some thin thread I found at my mother's. It's Mölnlycke Virkgarn size 50 (eek!), the pattern is "Whirlaway Snowflake" from the same book as the other one. I didn't like working with that thread, because it twisted so bad that I had huge problems closing up the rings :/ It's probably quite old...

Speaking of snowflakes - I have Lene Bjørn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting, and I intend to use it as my Advent calendar this year. One snowflake every day in December until Christmas :)

Spinning Wheel FAIL - sort of...

 

Some of you might recognize this pattern as Mary Konior's "Spinning Wheel glass mat", from her book Tatting with Visual Patterns. I got that book about two weeks ago, and I immediately wanted to make everything in it! Which of course has resulted in a lot of UFOs :p

The thread is Idena Dixi (somewhere between 10 and 20). I stuffed a Sew Mate and hoped it would be enough, but I had to refill the shuttle just for the final repetition... Fortunately I didn't have to cut the ball thread, instead I just unwound enough for the last few chains :) Now, if I'd only had a Tatsy shuttle this wouldn't have happened... *grin*

I was so pleased with myself for getting this pattern right, only to discover that I'd done it all wrong just minutes after it was finished last night :( The rows of six rings should be joined together, and the rows of three rings should not. I thought none of the rings should be joined, so my glass mat is a bit loose and possibly also a little larger than it would've been with joined rings. On the bright side, my mistake runs through the whole thing, so you won't notice it unless you know how the pattern is supposed to look. Heh... Well, here's a photo of the picture in the book:

I am still happy with my Spinning Wheel, even though it's too big for a coaster and too small for a doily. I plan to give it to my grandmother for Christmas (her favorite color is green), and maybe she can put it underneath a candle or a vase or something :)

As expected, I am now totally in love with Konior's patterns! They are just so streamlined and simple, yet they look amazing and complicated :) I am really really happy that I bought this book, and I'm kicking myself because I had her Tatting Patterns within reach (for a reasonable price) a few days before I got the other one, but I let it go because I decided I'd done enough shopping for a while. Then I received the Visual Patterns book, and I knew I should have got the second book while I had the chance... Now I'm so happy that I have ordered her Pattern Book of Tatting as a Christmas/birthday present in advance from my grandmother! Hope it arrives soon :D

Get well shopping :)

I haven't been feeling too well lately. About three weeks ago I had the flu, or possibly just a common cold but with some flu-like symptoms. I got better, but then I had the almost tendonitis in my wrists from crocheting too much, and I felt a bit unwell again. I went to the doctor a few days later to see if there was anything to do about it, and while I was waiting at the doctor's office my mother-in-law called my boyfriend, and she freaked out a bit when she heard where I was, all worried and stuff. But when I later told her it was nothing serious she was very relieved and sent some money for me to go out and treat myself to something nice. The choice was very easy. Can you guess? *tamtamtam* Thread! 

A ball of Idena Dixi and four balls of Coats Puppets (or is it Eldorado? I've never seen this thread before). They are all somewhere between size 10 and 20, and I hope I can combine them with Lizbeth 20 :) I also got these lovely buttons:

I asked if the store had any of the plastic tubes they keep their buttons in, and I got a whole bunch of them! Thought perhaps I'd get one of the really thin ones to keep tatting needles in (yes, I have ordered some!), but this time they only had the fat ones. I can use them to sort out my button collection, but the biggest one is even large enough to keep shuttles in! I got them for free since the store just throws them away when they're empty :)

My mother wanted me to pop by a fairly expensive craft store I rarely visit to check out the quality of some yarn for her knitting. While I was in there I looked around for tatting stuff, and tada! I found these two shuttles:

Unfortunately none of the ladies at the store could tell me the brand of the shuttles :( The plain blue one has GERMANY printed on it, at exactly the same place as another shuttle I got on eBay, which was bought used and came in the package saying it was an Aero. 

When I saw the bobbin shuttle I just had to get it, because it's pretty and purple! It has the exact same shape as the normal Aero, but it has no print. But the best part is the bobbin, which is also purple! 

I don't think I'll ever get tired of collecting stuff in different colors! I'm still not feeling 100%, so I'm mostly staying at home to read biology and relax as much as possible. And of course I tat a lot :D

Playing with buttons

I love buttons! I have lots and lots, both plain and fancy buttons :) This is just a fraction of my collection, I have more stashed away somewhere where I can't find them right now... I have sorted them more or less by size, but from now on I will have to sort my collection by how many holes they have! I found surprisingly few with four holes... Need to go shopping, hehe. Hmm, I wonder if I can find buttons with three or six holes? They would be perfect for snowflakes!

A while ago I found this cute cross in someone's picture album on InTatters, and when I left a comment I got the link to the person's pattern. But now I can't for the life of me remember who it was! Anyone know her username?

I'm not entirely happy with the color combination of this one (don't really like yellow), but my boyfriend thought it was very fancy, and snatched it away from me as soon as the ends were secured. I think he uses it as a bookmark somewhere :) The thread is Maxi (size 10). Inspired by the button cross I made this a few days ago:

I wanted to make it square (with eight spikes), but I ran out of shuttle thread and decided to skip a few spikes and make a triangular pendant instead. I think it works :) However, here is how I meant it to look:

I'm considering writing out the patterns... Would you want them? :)

Finally I've spent a few days making up this neat little tree:

You can find the pattern HERE. The colors are very pale because I don't have a great color selection in my stash; most of my threads are different sizes and can't be used together... Made with beige/brown DMC perle cotton (I think - the label is missing) and green Opera from Coats, both size 20. The big button is 2cm across and the small buttons are 1cm. This is the most complicated thing I've made so far. I made an extra branch because I thought it would become weird if I didn't, but I guess I should have "trusted" the pattern :p From top to bottom the tree measures 10.5 centimeters.

I am a thief...

I'm almost afraid to say it, but I've stolen a pattern! About a week ago I was blog surfing and I found the celtic cross in this post. There are pictures of how the cross is made up, and I thought I'd try to make it for myself. I didn't count the stitches or anything, I just tried. What I made was this:

Not too bad for being made without a pattern, but I think I could have dropped a stitch or two on the chains in the middle... The cross perhaps is a little bulky for a bookmark, but made with a thinner thread (I used Gjestal Maxi, approx. size 10) this would make a lovely pendant! Anyway, I don't want to violate any copyrights, so I checked out the book where the pattern is from (Celtic Tatting Knots & Patterns, by Rozella Linden), and it's now in my shopping cart :)