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.