Tat It And See day 10

Day 10 of this year's first TIAS. So far we have 2 pieces but still no idea what it might be.

If you don't know what I'm talking about,  the Tat it and See blog is here: tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk

New year of tatting

It's a new year, and for me just a few months into my second year of tatting.
I'm also going to try to blog a little more often :)

December/January I was working on some tatting for a baby bonnet. I need to take a better picture before giving it to the proud new parents next weekend.

Just as I was finishing the bonnet they announced the birth of their baby girl so I started making some pink butterflies and bits as well.  And then the start of the first T.I.A.S. of the year so here is a picture of both:

Today saw part 3 of the T.I.A.S. I've also started some trimming for a victorian style bob-cap

This picture also has my first attempt at Tattered Heart by Mary Konior but I had problems with the larger rings so it hasn't worked out very well :( 

TIAS 2013 day 8 and still guessing

We're now on TIAS day 8.
On day 6 I thought it was going to be an old-fashioned pram and came up with this:

Day 7 it changed shape so I decided it wasn't going to be a pram after all but then after today's part - day 8 - now it's a pram again but facing the other way! What was the handle on day 6 is now the back part of the hood.

In other tatting news I've finished the edging for my very small tablecloth, now I need to make the cloth itself.

TIAS day 6 all split rings

Here is my T.I.A.S day 6 - today it is all split rings... and my first photo in daylight :)

So far in this year's TIAS I have learned:

• Front-side Back-side tatting
• Split Chains
• Split Rings
• Catherine Wheel joins
• Lock Chains

My current guesses are Viking ship (but looking less likely) or old-fashioned baby's pram.

T.I.A.S Day 5

Day 5 of the Tat It And See.   Maybe it's a Viking Ship?

The edging for the tablecloth for my little table is now about 1m long which is just over halfway.

TIAS day 4

Today brought day 5 of the TIAS - and this time I didn't have to wait until evening to do it!  Since I was working from home today due to the snow I did most of it in my lunch break and the last two chains in my afternoon short break. Today's part is the chain along the bottom edge and up the left-hand edge.Since I've been intrepidly learning new things with this TIAS I went for the Catherine Wheel join option for most of the joins except for the first 2 which are plain old lock joins. I've decided I like Catherine Wheel joins.

The TIAS is not the only tatting I'm doing at the moment - I've started on my first piece of tatting for reenactment.   This is going to be the edging for the table cloth on my little table in my tent.  It's a pattern published by Mlle Riego and was also included by Mary Konior in "Tatting in Lace".  The picture shows my "working" box which holds the screwdriver for the silent tatter shuttle, a spare bobbin - sometimes I wind 2 at a time - and a bit of paper with the instructions written in modern short notation.  The red thread is my measure for this piece - it's the length of 2 sides of the cloth with a knot marking the corner.

Forgot to mention that I added that book to my Mary Konior book collection last week - don't think it was on ebay for very long before I pounced on it.   If someone's looking for a good book to add to their collection I've just spotted a copy of "The Craft of Tatting By Bessie M. Attenborough" for under £2 (paperback). I've already got a copy and its a nice little book - it's also mentioned in the bibliography section in "Tatting in Lace".

There was a full 3 inches of snow outside this morning. People reading this from some countries won't think this is much! 
I made a Snow Mouse.

When we went to the bank at lunchtime I couldn't believe the number of drivers who hadn't bothered removing any of the snow from their roof - or even from their bonnet. I really dislike driving behind people who have their own personal snowstorm trailing behind them which is one of the reasons I chose to work from home today.  We did notice that one of the minority of snow-free cars passing by had a number plate for Poland where like most of northern-ish Europe they're a bit more used to snow than we are here.

TIAS day 2 and my first split ring and split chain

Here is my try at day 2 of Jane Eborall's TIAS 2013  I still don't know what it's going to be.
And then after emailing it to Jane I realised I'd done too many rings so I'm about to un-tat the last one. Looking at Jane's TIAS blog there are a couple of others have made the same mistake ;)

This is the first time I have done a split chain or a split ring. The split chain took 2 attempts but then I manage the split ring first time :D  I found the split ring to be much easier than the split chain.

I've also had a go at styling up my blog a bit.

First post of the year

Quick catchup of the year so far at least as far as tatting is concerned.

I've been trying out some vintage patterns - all dating to 1916 or earlier.  This little motif is from 1896 and is tatted using Lizbeth size 20 thread. I think the colour is called Falling Leaves. 

And here is a portion of a medallion from a book from 1916

They are for an exchange so I'm going to hold off on the rest of the pictures until after I've sent them.

"That guy" left it really late to buy his mum a christmas present so last week we put together a Beginning Tatting kit for her.  On thursday evening I had a go at quickly tatting up some small bits to send to her to show her some actual tatting. Since I did 2 of the 3 in a hurry there are rather a lot of mistakes but at least you can see how the number of picots can make the tatting look lacier.

The bottom motif is supposed to be Mary Konior's posy. I made the join between 2nd and 3rd sets in the wrong place and then did a rather clumsy finish.
The top right one is supposed to be a Mary Konior bud fragment but went a little wrong near the bottom plus I was running out of thread so I just improvised.  The top half came out ok apart from the stray extra picot at the top left.
The round motif at the top I can't find the pattern for at the moment - I just copied a motif I already did a couple of months ago.

Finally I've decided to join this year's Tat It And See or TIAS at http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/
This is my go at Day 1.

As you can see I rather like the brown/cream variegated thread.