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*