Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween, its always fun to dress up. Sadly, I don't have children so Halloween has been a bit hit and miss the last few years. This is the first Halloween in my very own house and I'm excited about giving out candy. I hope to give out most of the candy I bought. I'm not a big candy eater and I don't want to start a new habit. On the other hand, I'm terrified of running out of candy- I don't want my house egged.

On a completely different note, my sister picked up this bag of thread for me for $5 dollars in August. I think there were over 30 rolls of thread in the bag. Some of the thread was damaged and broken due to rubber bands being used to hold the thread and it smelled. At a suggestion from someone in the threads of a tatting goddess group I put fabric softener sheets in the bag. This really worked well to get rid of the smell. The thread is pearl cotton in size 8 and 12 which isn't perfect tatting thread but works for me. I learned how to tat using mostly pearl cotton so I'm familiar its little quirks. Its very soft compared to regular tatting thread. Its great for everyday use. I made of couple of these thimble holders (left) one day at a seminar. The picture doesn't really show it but I really looks like an egg. I thought at Easter I could make a bunch for an Easter tree.

The pattern is basically a rosette made by increasing by 1 ds each section in each row and this forms a tube. I was in the middle of making a pink one when my friend started to giggle- she thought looked like a different sort of pink tube. She said if I was resorting to making pink lace penises then it wasn't healthy for me to be single anymore. I told her it was going to be a cosy (yeah like a tea cosy) for sex toys. Keep in mind that the bag is meant to hold something small like a thimble. This is how much was done on the pink thimble holder at the time. The thread I was using at the time was a variegated pink. My poor innocent thimble holder...

Black hats

Inspired by the onset of Halloween I picked up some black thread, orange beads and tatted. Any ideas what to do with these? I was thinking maybe bookmarks or sewing them onto something? I tried tatting a moon to sit behind the hat but I'm not sure that I like how it looks. I'm not sure its clear that its supposed to be the moon. I think there's a bat pattern around on the Internet that would look much better on the moon than my hat.As you can probably guess by the number of hats made, the hat is very simple to make. The only tricky part is that I used Martha Ess's folded rings to make the peak on the hat. If you are not aware of this technique she generously shares it on her website Tat's Amore. I've also used her method of notating the folded ring.


Beaded Witch's Hat Pattern

The hat is made of a fold ring followed by a series of chains. Sting 10 beads and wind about 6-8 inches on shuttle, CTM. All the beads will be used on the ring. All joins are ball thread joins.

R 3- (3 beads on picot) 1 vsp seta 6 setb vsp 1- (3 beads on picot) 1 vsp seta 6 setb vsp 1 - (3 beads on picot) 3 close ring with one bead still on the ring thread to get captured at the base of the ring.

Ch 4 + (between 1st and 2nd bead of 1st picot of ring) 6 lock stitch 6 + (to previous join) 6 + (at center in the space between chain and ring) 4 + (between 2nd and 3rd bead on 3 rd picot of ring) 6 lock stitch 6 + (to previous join) 6 + (to center) cut and tie.

Whew! Just remembered why I never write out patterns. So difficult to communicate something as simple as the hat.
For me, witches hats and pumpkins symbolize Halloween the best. I made one more hat but I think it looks more like a wizard's hat than a witch's. I think it would look better in purple with silver beads. What do you think? If I turn the picture around, it kinda looks like a monkey's face.
Sorry, one more question. Do you think that black hats are like black socks- they never get dirty?

Tatter's best friend

When I first started tatting I used a metal shuttle with the hook on the end and for many years I wouldn't change. Why you ask? 2 reasons, the first is that I'm embarrassed to say I didn't immediately grasp how you got the thread on the post style shuttles. Please keep in mind that I was using a bobbin style shuttle where you removed the bobbin to wind it. The second reason I wouldn't change was that I was not entirely convinced that a crochet hook would be easier to use than the hook on the shuttle. It just seemed like it would take too long and was one more thing to carry around.
I can't remember why I finally started to use the post style bobbin but now I wouldn't change from my clover tatting shuttles. It seemed onerous at first to use that crochet hook- you have to drop the shuttle and find the hook and it seemed to take so long to do. Now, I don't notice at all and in a very unhygienic manner I keep the hook in a place I won't forget, my mouth. I know, it's gross- can you say orally fixated?
Why am I thinking about this? Because I'm filling in time tatting with my shuttle and hook thinking how much harder this would be if I just had the pick to do joins. Now, I'm sure that there are other tools some tatters use more but I would argue that some sort of hook is an essential tool for tatting. What do you think?

Queen of Clunny

If you ever wondered why learn to clunny tat you should check out http://elisadusud.canalblog.com/ by Elisa Dusud. Elisa must be the Queen of Clunny because I've never seen anyone use them so much and with such ease. Personally, I've never really been all that thrilled about clunnies but Elisa brings them to a whole new level. If you don't read french don't worry, just look at the pictures! Its definitely worth your time. One the same note, do you think the plural of clunny is clunnies or clunnys?

lost but not forgotten

I am just about to re-send my Summertime exchange package. It did not make it to Singapore so I'm trying again. I rarely have issues when tatting anymore but every once in awhile things go really wrong. Trying to remake this project was one of those times...what I ended up doing is not what I started doing. Here is the what I originally created and tried to reproduce but was waylaid by my overactive hands.

So the amulet bag is out and something else is in...thank GOD it worked out. In fact, I think what I ended up with is quite lovely. I can't share a picture here until my very patient partner receives her package but I will later. I can tell you that the theme is very similar just that my hands decided to follow a different pattern then my brain. I have a habit of tatting and reading which maybe the cause of the detour.

As a point of interest the major thing wrong with the bag above was that it tipped forward due to the daisy. IF I do the pattern again I will add something or change the handle placement to even out the weight distribution or maybe not...

Something a little different

We were cleaning out the junk that tends to pile up in the clinic. One of the things we found is a bag that Salima (other Chiropractor in the clinic) was going to take home and never did. It had been in a drawer since Christmas. When she opened the bag it had what I made her for Christmas-Tasbih (Muslim prayer beads) . She's Muslim so you may find it strange that I give her a Christmas gift but we don't think about it that way. I had forgotten about them but I'm happy to say that seeing them again I was impressed. The Tasbih have 99 beads with every 33 beads separated by a different bead and a bottom bead and tassel. Ideally the top bead has a certain shape to it but often people use a larger bead or series of beads.

The red and green Tasbih is made out of red fossil and green quartz. The tassel is green and gold. I choose those color because they are important colors for a big holiday. Semi-precious stones tend to be heavy and have smaller holes so they tend to break the thread holding the Tasbih together. This is meant for special occasions.

I'm not sure if it shows up but the next one has green glass beads. I used goldstone beads as the separators and put a red tassel on the top. These beads have larger holes and are lighter. This Tasbih could take a lot of abuse and not break.

I used smaller beads here to make a smaller Tasbih. Again the beads are glass so its lighter. You can't see it but the separator beads are polygons (does that work in 3-d?) and there is a band of gold on them. Green and White are the colors of the Aga Khan who is the the Ismaili's religious leader.

Anyways, I thought I would share this with you. I can't share any pictures of what I'm working on right now. Unfortunately, the summertime exchange package I sent never arrived at its destination. I'm trying to remake what I sent but it's not going well. It's taking forever.

paradigm shift

Definition: a fundamental change in approach or assumptions

I think that I just experienced a paradigm shift in the way that I approach my tatting. It was my opinion that tatting has neither a front side nor a back side so I never bother with front sided/back sided techniques. Most people that I give my tatting to would have no idea which side was up or down so really front/back sided techniques don't apply. In fact, one of the charms about tatting is that there is no obvious front or back unlike say...knitting. Sure, tatters may notice the difference, but the average person won't. I also like the fact that I can just flip a doily if it gets a fleck on it.
However, today I voluntarily changed to front side/back side tatting for a pattern. Why? Well, some things by their nature have fronts and backs. Oh say...an amulet bag. You have an inside and outside portion of the bag and you can't just turn it inside out and have the same thing. Another example is the rosette which by the nature of the joins looks different on the front than on the back. So, I have decided in these cases to use front sided/back sided techniques. This is a major change for me since it changes how I look at patterns and the double stitch. It also makes things a little more complicated. Crap!