Category: tatting

I tat for process

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I read a piece on Make and Meaning a little while ago, talking about crafters making things because they enjoy the process, or making things because they want the product. It’s popped into my head quite a bit since I read it, and I have to say, with crochet it’s probably 50/50 – I like the process, but I like having the finished product so I can give it to people.

With tatting, I think it’s all about the process. It’s so great learning something new – I taught myself split rings last year on the train on the way to work and was so excited I almost had to tell the stranger sitting next to me. Last weekend I finally took a look at ‘onion rings‘ (really easy – as it goes) but it’s such a joy when you get it all to work. I love the action of tatting, and the size of it. I love that you can chuck it in your bag and take it anywhere, you can tat at the busstop or fill a shuttle even when you don’t get a seat on a commuter train.

The thing with being all process is that once you understand the process you don’t mind if you don’t finish the product. I’ve got a pile of small tatted things (bad light at the moment – will take a photo at some point) that could be made into a bigger more finished ‘thing’ but it’s feels done now, I know it did or didn’t work so I’ve moved on to the next thing.

tatting

This is a Mary Konior pattern I tried at the weekend, after I’d been looking into ‘onion rings’. It doesn’t actually call for them, but you can use rings for the first two in each motif and finish it off with a chain around the outside. Because I’m an idiot I messed up the third motif, in all kinds of ways. I kind of tatted it backwards, which gave me a twisted picot when i joined two rings and then in a fit of madness I created a whole other ring I didn’t even need. I’ve managed to open closed rings in the past but i couldn’t open this one and decided to quit while I was ahead. But what now? Should i remake, or move on to something new. For once, I’m torn with this. I kind of feel like I should remake it actually. It’s really fun to tat, partly because it’s such a pain in the bum. Process, see. I didn’t even like the pattern that much when I started.

Tatting for giants

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Just for the hell of it, I thought I’d try tatting with some cotton I originally bought to crochet with. It’s very smooth and looked like it would slide easily enough (something you need for tatting), so seemed worth a little experiment. I’ve always liked the idea of tatting with other threads – in the past I’ve tatted with different types of sock yarn, but the picots can end up looking a bit messy as the strands of thread come apart.

This is 4 ply Rowan cotton, and actually it tats up pretty well. In this photo you can see a full motif in fine Finca thread, which I made some time ago, and half of the same motif in cotton. So far, the half motif has taken up two shuttles, and I stopped as I needed to wind on a third. (For the non-tatters out there, the smaller motif was created with the thread from one shuttle).

It’s a Mary Konior pattern, which I really like, and part of the experiment was to see if it would be suitable to make into a scarf. The answer…? Well, sort of. It’s actually a little big – if you hold it up to your neck, it’ll reach from your collar bone to your chin. It’s a bit too large, really – and is quite thick so I’m not sure how comfortable it would be to wear, it wouldn’t drape that well. More than that though – the THIRD SHUTTLE and it’s only part way through! It’s great practise for joining in new threads, but just as you think you’re getting somewhere, you’ve run out of thread again.

I don’t think I’ll finish it, which I feel a bit bad about, but it’s such nice thread I don’t really want to waste it. It was worth the experiment though. Maybe I’ll look around for a smaller motif…

Christmas tatting

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After making lots of odds and ends of tatting this year, while I practised things like split rings and mock rings, xmas has given me the excuse to finally make a few things from start to finish. Tatting is easy to slip in an envelope with a card, and snowflake patterns exist in abundance. They can be used as ornaments for the tree, or to hang up with the xmas cards (or something… I hope).

Anyway. I did have plans to make a few different styles, but sadly work has been too busy to remember to print out any other patterns. At the end of each day I keep realising I’ve worked though lunch and completely forgotten. On the plus side, as I tatt on the train, making the same pattern each time means you remember it easily and don’t need to keep digging in your bag for what to do next. I’ve been making this pattern, ‘Quantiesque‘ by Jon, a prolific tatter based in Malaysia.

The first one I made was in dark red. I got the threads from the Stiching/Knitting show at Alexandra Palace (London), but they only had a limited range of colours. Originally I’d planned to make the inner rings in dark red and the outer in lighter red, but the more I tatted, the more I decided that would actually look crap with the colours I had available. This is the dark red one unblocked:

unblocked tatted snowflake

and this is it’s companion, the light red one, blocked:

Red tatted snowflake

After this, I ended up with too much thread left on my shuttle – which tatters will appreciate is *really* annoying,  so I tried to pay attention to how much thread I was using a bit more closely. Too closely in fact. I wound on too little and so made a 5 point version of the snowflake instead 🙂

The colour of this is really odd. If you get it in exactly the right light, it’s really pretty. A lovely, icey, delicate blue. If you look at it in the wrong light it looks like it’s meant to be white and has got really dirty. Aside from that, the lighter colour makes the centre stand out more, making it look more 3d. I’m now in the middle of making one in an ecru thread, which is looking like it should be nice. The thread for all of these is a DMC perlé, size 12.

While at the same show I also picked up a DMC size 80. I like the thickness (or thinness), but it does have a habit of twisting back on itself:

This is a first go at a Mary Konior pattern, and the smaller rings were often tricky to close, as the thread kept twisting. Got there in the end – it’s not the neatest tatting, (and it’s not been blocked), but it’s ok. I’ll remake it another time, when my commuting time isn’t full of snowflakes.