Avoiding tatting gaposis (with left-handed pix only)

Here’s a nice little trick—snug up your rings and chains to avoid small gaps.  The picture of the doily I’m making has noticeable (though very small) spaces between the rings, but I’ve got a couple of tricks to minimize that space.

On ring #2 of your set, wrap the thread as usual but OVER ring 1 as pictured at left. Make that first stitch, and you will see that stitch overlaps ring 1 just a touch (at right).  

With 3 stitches complete, that first stitch still overlaps the prior ring just a teeny bit.

 After you've finished all your stitches for the ring, secure the ends of the ring before pulling closed, as pictured at left and right.  Pinch firmly and pull closed.

Tip: I add a second half of double stitch just before I close each ring.  It helps them to lie flat and not pull under.  Learned from Joelle Paulson.

Finish ring grouping as per your pattern.  There are three rings in my grouping.  

Now, to minimize gaposis with the chains, fold the ring grouping toward you as below:

Begin your chain, making sure your first stitch is as snug as possible.  

When you've done maybe 3 stitches, fold up your already completed chain and check the spacing/gap.

So these are my tips!  Hope you have success with them!  Happy tatting.  (Pattern by Iris Niebach)

2016 Challenge Numbers 1 through 6

 Christmas presents for my sister and her daughter.  Rose is tatted in Master 30 color rossa, silver glass beads, silver bail on a ribbon necklace (purchased).  The earrings are from Edda Guastalla's Poyel pattern available on her Etsy shop.  Thread is Range Multicolor and aqua is Altin Balsak polyester.  Gold plated wires and crystal beads.

 This is the Poyel angel from the same pattern as the aqua earrings.  Master thread in turchese.

 Two versions of the Flowery Crinoline Angel, designed by Erin Hollway Moseley, available on the 2015 Palmetto Tatters CD.  Left:  size 20 Lizbeth thread.  Right:  Master thread in rosso, modified skirt with an extra row of the crinoline and no roses.

Pendant design Ewa M, Sunlight size 60 rame/black, crystal drop and satin ribbon necklace.

UFOs tatting only

We all have them, Unfinished Objects.  WIPs- work in progress.  PIGs- project in grocery sack.

My tatting objects:

Starting top left:  Ribbon Christmas tree by Jane Eborall, little black thing is the first bit
of a Celtic doily by Totus Mel that I decided I had to use needles for because I was going
to lose my mind trying to work it with shuttles, Renulek 2015 doily, purple Hearts and Flowers
cross  (Julie Patterson) just needs a tassel, blue cross needs only one ray, Amusement Doily
 almost finished (pattern by Celtess), Star Doily from Workbasket only needs 4 more rows to
 finish last point, then a super easy border,and of course Jane's tat along is the light blue bit up
 there by the cat shuttle.  Ecru doily with yellow rings around the border is from free-tatting.com
Doily #13.

Jan Stawasz' giant doily in Polish magazine from 2008.  Just touching it today
made me want to get back to this project.  It is so beautiful!

Motifs 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46

 

Collection of earrings above were a Halloween present.  I looked at a few patterns and came up with the pumpkin, size 20 Lizbeth.  I think the stems are Leafy Greens.

The snowflake earrings are from Decoromana's snowflake pattern on Etsy.  Done in white size 10 Aunt Lydia's with iridescent twist.  The red ones are in the thread I featured a couple of posts ago, size 10 with a metallic twist, Garden Metallic.

Light blue wreath is Posy from Mary Konoir's book Tatting with Visual Patterns.  It's reversed because I'm left-handed.  Hehe.





This is Nell Angel from the 2015 Palmetto Tatters Guild CD.  I love this!  After making one in straight red, I saw a holly motif in the center.  I used a short piece of red thread, encapsulating it to make the center berry.  The red is the size 10 Garden Metallic and the green is Lizbeth 167.

My husband commissioned me to make a collection of five angels for his boss's Christmas present.  Four of them are new to me, so counting 4 of them in my motif count.  If I counted ALL the tatting I've done this year and not just new to me motifs, I would have gone well over 50, perhaps 75.  Wow.  I tat entirely too much, and I'm not going to stop!

Below left, Donata Jones Angel in an Hour.  Pattern not available at large.  I asked her personally for it.  Below left is Lenore English's Dimpled Ring Angel.  Rather than all the shoelace tricks (SLT) I used 2 shuttles.  Collection entirely white size 20 Lizbeth.

Left to right, Gladys Angel by Sharren Sarver Morgan (2012 Palmetto CD),
Recumbent Angel by Donata Jones, Dimpled Ring Angel
by Lenore English, Angel in an Hour by Donata Jones,
Ice Angel by Anitra Stone (also on 2015 Palmetto CD).

Displayed in beautiful light up box my husband made.
He also made the angel statue for them another year for their gift.

There are a few more things I made in 2015, but I'm counting everything after 12/15/15 in the new year as I joined a Facebook 25 motif challenge too and that's where they are starting their count.  I may count mine differently this year, counting everything just to keep track and see how much of my time I truly spend on this beautiful art!

2015 Motifs/doily #33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39

I'm counting this Round Doily from Russian free website as part of 2015 motifs.  I finished on my August trip but just sewed in the ends and photographed last night.  I made this as part of a tat-along challenge.  As with all things I've tried from that website, they don't work out perfectly.  You'll notice I missed a join on round 2 and the doily lies better for the overlap of the rings there.  I am part of a tat-along group again this year that has 2 more motifs from that site, and I'm not super looking forward to it--fiddly and messy but pretty patterns.

 In September I started with the snowflakes and angels.  Here are some closeups of snowflakes. Small white one at left is from Lindsay Rogers' book Tatting Collage.  The blue ones and gold one are from Lene Bjorn's book of snowflakes.  Soooo many snowflakes!  The little gold one is made of Sunlight size 60 color Oro from Edda Guastalla's shop.


The blue variegate pictured on its own (below left) is Master size 30 turchese also from Edda's shop.

The white/blue snowflake is from Joelle Paulson's blog, Le Flocon Frivole, near bottom of page linked above.  Made of size 20 Lizbeth Blue Ice.  This is a super fiddly tat until you get used to how it works.  I love Joelle's snowflakes.  She models them after photographs of real snowflakes.

The small flower shaped flakes at right are from Jennifer Williams' snowflake book.  Made of Range Multicolor also from Edda's shop, glass beads.  Wish the picture showed how beautiful this thread is!

I donated 8 snowflakes to our school for their fundraising auction.  The majority of the rest I made were for an order of blue and white, Frozen theme, a total of 8 pictured below.  I feel like I'm such a slow tatter, but that's a lot of snowflakes!!!!!

The Frozen themed order.  Silver and white
flakes with the distinct center ring are also
from Jennifer Williams' book.

I'm getting super frustrated with blogger.  The pictures won't go where I want them to!  I'll start over with another post--finish up 2015 once and for all.  :)

Motifs 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

Not the best pic, but this is a tea towel with a cross stitch band where I sewed on a teapot from Pam Palmer's book Tatting Treats 3 and Anne Bruvold's Square Star.  The thread is size 12 Sulky Blendables.  I have blogged about this thread before.  The variegation repeats are subtle and frequent enough for a beautiful effect on small pieces, such as the Square Star.  The towel was a gift for my sister-in-law on her birthday.

Another Square Star earring set I made this summer.
Thread is also Sulky Blendables size 12.

This lovely vintage star doily pattern is from a 50's Workbasket I bought on Etsy.  The magazine paper is so crumbly that I took pix so that I don't lose the pattern.  I am making it in Lizbeth size 40 Rainbow Taffy with coordinating green.  I nearly finished it while on our Virginia vacation in August.  There are 8 rays of the star and I think I only have one left, but I took a break from all my doilies to work on Christmas ornaments.  After the first of the year, I'll take a picture of all my doily WIPs.  My goal is to finish all of them next year.  I can do that, no sweat!

 I found this amazing blended thread, cotton with a metallic twist, that is smooth and gorgeous to work with.   For some reason, the red is the best quality for tatting.  It is size 10 Garden Metallic by Nazli Gelin.  In the picture with my green/white quilt, the left snowflake is from Lene Bjorn's book 24 Snowflakes and the star on the right is from Monica Hahn's book.

I have found that red is horrible to photograph (at least on my cell phone), hence the two different pix below to try to show the color on the left and the metallic sparkle on the right.  Still doesn't do the thread justice.

The Lene Bjorn snowflake is such a beautiful piece!  It is all split rings and thrown rings, and I will not be doing another one for a few months due to a repetitive motion injury.  It just hurts too much to do split rings, more than a couple at a time.  I gave away or sold nearly all my snowflakes and stars but this one is MINE and is hanging on my knick knack shelf in my bedroom.

Above left, both snowflakes are from Jennifer Williams' snowflake book.  The yellow/gold snowflake is in Aunt Lydia's size 10 gold with a metallic twist in it, and the blue one is the Garden Metallic with a silver twist.  Above right, pattern is from Lene Bjorn's snowflake book and the thread is size 60 Sunlight Oro from Edda Guastalla's shoppe in Italy.  This is a delicate little piece that I am also not giving away.  :)

I have fallen in love with several of Edda's threads and must curb my habit!  The shipping is pretty high to the US but not exorbitant.  Here's the website.  It's in Italian but she speaks English and you can message her if you need help.  Use Google translate button to negotiate the site.

For the 2015 challenge I decided to only count my motifs the first time I made them to make it harder, so no counting any of the Square Stars or the Monica Hahn star.  I've made gazillions of both!

Thread Zapper and MORE MOTIFS! #25, 26, 27

So here's the thread zapper:









Thread Zap II by the BeadSmith

I leave the battery loosened when not in use.  It's fantastic for using on polyester thread.  I've been using it a lot lately working with my gorgeous metallic threads for tree ornaments.

New favorite Lizbeth thread size 40 Rainbow Taffy
Pattern is from Kersti Anear's blog.

Classic edgings in Lizbeth size 20, colors 696 and 655. Gifts for my aunts on our Virginia trip this summer.



Virginia was amazing.  Look at the collar I found at the Museum of the Confederacy.  The women smuggled these North to sell because there was no money in the South.

This tatted collar is single shuttle, rings only.  Very cool to see it in person!

Still more tatting--this is only up to August--to catch up on.  I hope to do more blogging tonight.