Tag: lace

Tatted snowflakes in action

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What with the actual snow, I got a bit behind in sending out my tatted snowflakes. This is good and bad. Mainly good – it means I have a few for my own tree!

in action

I must admit, I took a step back and was really very pleasantly surprised by how nice they look. I’m not claiming to be the world’s greatest tatter or anything – but they really are pretty. Tatting works so well for snowflakes. If you were going to invent a snowflakey art, you’d probably invent tatting.

in action 2

I loved Jon’s book of patterns. Having said that, I got really fixated on this one design (above) as once I had it memorised it was the ideal commuter-flake! (I tat most on the train). Once the Christmas rush is over, I’ll try a few more. I love the fact lots of them use split rings etc – techniques I’d sort of learnt but had yet to use. There’s so much work that’s been put into the design and writing of the book, it’s really fantastic to be able to buy it and support/say thanks to someone who contributes so much to the community. If you’re in the mood for some new patterns I’d strongly recommend it.

A tatted flurry

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So, I’m back from my travels, and very nice they were too. I took some tatting with me – for the journey, and incase I had the odd spare moment. Actually the days were so full I barely had a moment to think. In the end i just made three and a half snowflakes:

tatted snowflakes

I bought Jon’s book of tatted snowflakes and took the whole book in my suitcase, but just one page for the flight. This is the reason for the snowflake at the bottom being slightly wrong! I read the pattern a bit wrong (instructions for reading it where in the case, of course) but manageed to work out a way to carry on, just with extra picots in the middle.

The one at the top centre I made half on the flight back, and finished on the train to work. I kept having to ‘retro tatt’ that one – found it really difficult getting back into the swing of tatting on a packed commuter train. (I’m sort of back on track now, I started the on the bottom right this week).

Close up

I love this design – really pretty but very snowflakey too. The plan was to put these in with Christmas cards, as decorations or whatever. At the moment I’m in two minds as to what to do about a hanging loop. I bought that ribbon yesterday, as they didn’t have any white but… I dunno. Feels a bit thick, even though it’s the thinnest they have. I’ve got half a mind to tatt a length of split rings as a chain-loop thing instead. What do you think? I’ll see how the time goes.

For now, I’ve almost finished the broomstick lace scarf and I must sew a monkey together, before his intended recipient grows up and gets old!

A wandering mind tats no joins

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Lots going on at the moment. My brain feels like a ball of thread too tightly wound – but pull one end and the whole lot will unravel in a heap on the floor. Lazy analogy, but you know what I mean.

I was tatting around a plastic ring and screwed it up, so with a full shuttle and no ball attached I thought it might be nice to try Mary Konior’s Posy pattern. It’s just made of rings, so a total joy to tat on the train. Also – it’s really pretty! I’ve been meaning to make it for ages.

Only bad thing is that I wasn’t really concentrating on the last group of 5 petals. I missed the joins – and so now I have a quite neatly tatted (even if I do say so myself) crescent of tatted flowers.

Were I a human of pocket-sized proportions, I’d probably be quite pleased. Would look quite nice as a miniature collar.

There are several upsides though. The first – I’ve found out l like tatting this pattern. It’s nice n’ easy for the train and it’s a good one for those times you find yourself with a shuttle full of thread and nothing to do with it. (I have a habit of winding on too much thread). Also, I’ve made my mistake now on thread I’m not that bothered about – which means this is the perfect project for some HDT I’ve just ordered from Yarnplayer, as hopefully I wont make the same mistake again. We shall see…

Pub and train tatting

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I was hoping to get home in daylight to photograph these, but no such luck! So a speedy shot for now of two versions of a Mary Konior pattern – one blocked of course, and the other not.

The blocked one was started in a pub and finished on a train. The unblocked one was train journeys all the way.
It has to be said this pattern is ideal for a commuter – one shuttle, no ball – it’s just rings on repeat. You can tatt this sitting on a train, or as I ended up doing for a while, standing on a platform waiting for a train. (You have to do a bit of magic with the hook, if you’re not a built-in hooker, so to speak.)
It’s also the ideal ‘end-of-shuttle buster’. I emptied three shuttles making just the first one!*
Amusingly, each motif has a mistake caused by its surroundings. The one tatted in a pub has one ring too small – a friend arrived and I lost count of my stitches. The one on the train has seven rings where there should be six. The train was dividing, and I wasn’t 100% sure I was in the right bit. (You know that feeling?) In the end I decided to make two sections with seven rings and pretend it’s a feature. (I work with web developers, there’s a nice little saying: ‘That’s not a bug, it’s a feature!’ Works for them, it can work for me).
They might not be perfect, but I’m rather pleased with them, really. They were so enjoyable to make.

blocked and unblocked

*why do I have three shuttles of the same thread? Well… it’s the only thread I have of this size, and I’ve decided it’s my favourite. But I’ve refused to buy any more nice thread until I get through some of what I have, and more to the point – finally decide on a bigger project. Also, I’m not sure what size it is… so I thought I should figure that out too. More of that soon.

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.

The problem with lace

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The fact is, I’m not really a ‘doily’ or ‘lacy’ kind of person. Most of the surfaces in this house are full of books or computer kit, so there’s not really the room to start draping lace artfully across tables or seductively over armchairs.

But, I quite like making lace in various forms. Not your bog standard on-a-lacemaking-cushion lace, with card patterns, pins and ten thousand bobbins, but tatted lace, or as of yesterday, Irish Crocheted Lace. (While I like the look of more standard lace, I’m a huge fan of ‘portable craft’, and bobbin lace never looks that portable.)

I took up tatted lace for a few different reasons

  • I don’t know anyone else who does it and I like to be obtuse
  • I’d recently taken up crochet and was worried I’d get crochet RSI / cramp so thought an alternative ‘thing’ would be sensible – different hand positions etc
  • It’s difficult enough to keep me interested, and easy enough to feel I’m making progress
  • Lots of patterns are repetitive enough to remember off by heart as you go, so you don’t have to keep referring back to the pattern (good when in transit)
  • It’s small – so you can do it on the train (longer story for another time, but I do all my tatting on the train, in the 15 mins I get between getting on and off again).

Here’s an example of my first proper train-made, tatted motif:

Recently, I was given a ball of DMC perle cotton, size 8. Someone I know had some left over and thought it might be good for tatting. Actually, it’s a bit thick, but I bought a 1.25mm crochet hook, and lo and behold, it’s actually pretty good to crochet with – if a wee bit fluffy.

I’m still in the process of experimenting with the threads I like to crochet with – hence the previous post on monkey making. But now seemed like a good time to try Irish Crochet, or as it’s often called, Irish Crocheted Lace.

As it goes, I quite like crocheting at this size – it’s not as hard as you think. The size of the hook corresponds with the size of the thread, so in some ways  it doesn’t feel more fiddly, as it’s all in proportion.

Irish Crochet

I quite like the look of it. It’s often described as ‘three dimensional’ because the flowers are raised from the background. This is actually from a free pin cushion pattern, and anyone who is really bothered will spot that I’ve gone a bit wrong. I was watching ’24’ at the same time and dreaming of being a secret agent, which distracted me a bit. It’s not a disaster though, but I might make a round pin cushion, rather  than a square one. (I’ve also noticed a lot of other people have made the same mistake – the pattern isn’t *that* clear at times. You’d only spot the mistake if you read the pattern).

So pretty soon I’ll have a lace pincushion.. You know,to go with my tatted lace motifs I’ve been making on the train. And now I quite fancy having a go at some more Irish crochet, so who knows, I could make, a… doily? Or a slightly worrying see-through dress… (There’s a lot of it about. Very popular in Russia, for some reason. Beautiful work – seriously, and a flowery see through dress at the end of it all).

So therein lies the problem with lace. Tatted, crocheted, and lets face it, bobbin lace would have the same problem. More fun to make than a knitted jumper (for me) but you end up with a bunch of stuff you have no idea what to do with at the end of it.

I know I could give it away – I do, but pretty soon I’m going to be that relative you hate getting gifts from at Christmas or birthdays.

Having said all this, there are actually worse things to worry about in the world than what the hell you do with the evil offspring resulting from the marriage of a wet weekend and a crafty hobby.