Motifs 14, 15, and 16

For my sister's birthday in March, I usually do something Irish.  A longstanding tradition, maybe a little corny, but I still do it every year.

Here we have this year's gift, the Clover Bookmark by Kelly Luljak in size 10 Lizbeth Christmas Green.  Supposed to be a graduated/tapered point on the bottom as well, but I ran out of thread.  :(  Looks fine with a square bottom, though, I think.

The matching earrings are a simple clover design in size 80 Lizbeth Christmas Green.  I tried them first in the size 10, (see below) but they were a bit BIG.

 Here's another set of the little earrings, my mom's Mother's Day gift, and a bookmark I made based on the pattern in the Handy Hands newsletter.  Horrible picture due to using a low contrast between the bookmark and background, but it's too late to take another picture. Already gifted it.  :)  It was done in Perle Cotton.

I made a pair of earrings based on the bookmark as well.  Maybe I'll have a photo ready for my next post.

Motifs 11, 12 and 13

I love Anne Brunvold's blog!  Here's another selection from her collection of patterns, Christmas Hearts.  She also has some amazing dragons to tat.

I have tatted this in both size 10 Aunt Lydia's and size 10 Lizbeth.  Of course, Lizbeth is much more satisfying and pleasant to use.  The result is a bit smaller than the crochet thread and is far more even.

This is Emma Crew's 34 Hearts available through use of the Wayback Machine internet archive.  She calls it 34 hearts because the pattern is comprised of 33 hearts, and the large heart is the 34th.  

And my nephew's flannel burp cloth, crocheted around the edge in single stitch, then chains and picots in Lizbeth Cream size 10.  I would not do that again--too stiff for a baby.  I think I'd use Perle Cotton.

Motifs 9 and 10

It's been a while, and I've been dropped from the 25 Motif Challenge, but hopefully if I post a bunch, they'll pick me up again. I have been tatting, but it's been one of those years where you just hang onto the knot in your rope for dear life.

At our right, another heart from Learn to Tat by Janette Baker.  This was one of my first attempts at tatting and I didn't know too much about thread.  Aunt Lydia's and DMC Perle Cotton mixed together, but  it turned out all right.

And below, do you recognize this as the Tardis from Dr. Who?  I made this for my daughter while she was in the hospital in February.  (Yes, this is why I dropped out of the 25 challenge--life just plain got in my way.)  I took it to her on visiting day and it was quite a hit!

Completed in size 10 Lizbeth, I believe in Royal Blue.  I did a practice one initially (see the light blue edition).  Pattern is by Anne Brunvold.

Motifs 6, 7, and 8

This delicate little heart is from Birgit Phelps' blog. Gorgeous. I was a bit disappointed as it turned out a bit lopsided, and it wasn't until I did another one a week later--and several more motifs under my belt--that I realized my mistake. As I went around to finish the heart, I acquired an extra ring instead of linking up the chains to the first ring I made. Ah well, c'est la vie.

The lavender one is Lizbeth Country Grape Light in size 40, and the cream one is in DMC Perle Cotton size 8.

The next motif is another from Jon Yusoff's blog. Heart o' Daisies has a lot of split rings in it. I practiced up, and I got pretty good at them before I started, but this was a real challenge. And though I had the technique for the flowers and rings down, the join of the first petal to the last was messy. Really messy. Thankfully, this is the point at which I found a local lace group, and Marie was kind enough to help me with the joins. Yay! Practice makes perfect, and I got plenty of practice with this design. And now Tuesdays are lace days. Coincidentally, that's my day off work.

This beauty is Chinese Coins, also from Jon's blog. It includes multiple split rings as well. Who knew you could get calluses from thread?

Motifs 3, 4, and 5

On the left we have the heart pattern in Learn to Tat by Janette Baker. It's done in size 10 variegated Aunt Lydia's crochet thread with cream Lizbeth in size 10. On the right is a pattern from The Gentle Art of Tatted Hearts (Rizzo). I used size 10 Lizbeth in Lollipop and cream for this one. The pattern is beautiful, but the notations are hard to follow in this book. They are equally hard to follow in the other book of hers I purchased, The Gentle Art of Tatting. Here's the heart from the cover of that book.

It is also in Aunt Lydia's crochet thread size 10. And the point didn't come out right, so I improvised. I like the result, but I wish the bottom were more pointed. I will be trying it again.

New craft to learn--tatting

This is one of my grandmother's tatting shuttles. Mom gave it to me for Christmas, because I had been talking about taking a tatting class. So I have one shuttle, and I have this burning desire to start tatting immediately. I don't want to wait for the class to start, plus it's $100. I could buy a lot of shuttles and patterns and thread for $100, I rationalize. I placed an order to Handy Hands, and then I sat back and waited. The time passed so slowly. Amazingly slowly. Here's some of the first stuff I tatted.

The lavender thread is vintage size 80 thread, about as thick as sewing thread. I could barely see it while I was working it. Here we have hens and chicks that I got from Learn To Tat by Janette Baker. The ecru thread is also vintage and was still wrapped around Grandma Christine's shuttle. The little lavender thing that is shaped like Mickey's head is the first real project I tried to do. It looked easy, right? Just a bunch of rings. It is Jon's Heart from Jon Yusoff's tatting blog, Tat-a-Renda. The bottom two rings on the pattern, though, are a single shuttle split ring with a floating ring dropped off it to create the point of the heart. Try as I might, charts, pictures and videos, I couldn't achieve that. So I just did a regular ring at the bottom and then left off the floater. Ta-da! Mickey's head. F A I L. But never fear! I didn't give up.

Sweater ornament

I knitted this cute little sweater as a tree ornament for my friend, Denise Patrick. It was my first time doing cables, and this sweater and stitches are so small, I had to use a modified paperclip as my cable needle. :D Ha. The coolest little pattern from KnitPicks.