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 :)
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This snowflake book has really nice patterns and I am sure you are going to enjoy making them. I have made some, but am not good in splitrings, so some of them are too hard for me. You will certainly do a good job and we look forward to seeing your results!
ReplyDeleteI bought Lene Bjorn's book last month..it has lovely patterns....
ReplyDeleteWhy of course it's a snowflake, silly man.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing your December blog posts full of them.
When I first began tatting I used a lot of Flora. But Lisbeth wasn't invented then (LOL). I don't use it any longer. I do like Anchor which is hard to find now; and, Lisbeth. I like Perfect quilter which is a smooth, strong thread. I like Sulky but it is a bit too fine (about like sewing thread) for me to use because I need new glasses. LOL
ReplyDeleteI'd use coats if I could find it easily; and, one reason I really like Tatskool's HDT (besides the lovely colors). I like a 6 ply, hard twist. Since I often dangle my shuttle and make sure threads aren't twisted, I haven't had any problems with Lisbeth twisting.
Thread colors are always different from the color charts because of the photo quality…never gets it quite right. I'm not much of an orange person, myself…but do like apricot and peach.
It is always fun to get new threads. I DO share, so if you e-mail me your address, I might find some in my stash to share This offer is for you, not the public. LOL …bj
I like your snowflakes! And I can't wait to get that same book and that's an awesome idea to use it for an advent calendar! :)
ReplyDeleteThose are nice! I like the thread and the motifs are lovely! I have that book both in Danish and English! Do you know I have started Snowflakes out of that book a jillion times and never finished...so bad of me, LOL!
ReplyDeleteYou did a nice job! I bloghopped on over from the 25 motif Challenge blog!
~TattingChic ♥
I have now looked more closely at the snowflakes in the book, and I've realized that I probably won't be able to make all of them in just one day each. But many of them will probably show up here in December :) Some are pretty complex, and yes, split rings intimidate me too. Hope I'll get better at them, though :)
ReplyDeleteBJ: Ooh, that offer is very hard to resist! I just might take you up on it if you are willing to send stuff all the way to Norway... I'll send you a PM on InTatters :) I suspected that the colors in the chart was a little off, because they always are, but the Flora chart was worse than the rest, plus the photos were really grainy. I had just hoped for some red in the orange one...
TattingChic: You should finish some of the snowflakes, I'd love to see them! :)