So many distractions...

I've been distracted by a lot of things over the last couple of months.  I did tat some lace for a new Edwardian-style blouse but the blouse itself went a bit wrong so no pictures of that until I have time to make a replacement blouse - serves me right for making the tatting for it before I actually made the blouse!
Next weekend I will be part of the WWI weekend at Lincoln Castle, mostly as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing assistant. Only 4 buttons left to sew onto my VAD uniform!
The weekend after that I will be part of the Edwardian themed weekend at Papplewick Pumping Station where I probably will be doing some tatting as long as I remember to fill up the right kind of shuttles (Edwardians did not have bobbin shuttles with plastic bobbins).
Then 1 free weekend before its The Asylum at Lincoln.  1 weekend to recover then its off for a weekend of dog-sitting where I definitely won't get any tatting done :)

Victorian edging patterns

I realised at the last Victorian weekend that I needed more samples using Victorian tatting patterns.

 Top two are really simple off the top of my head patterns and probably really similar to ones I've read somewhere in the various old tatting books.  They're using ecru thread not yellow - that's just my photo :)

The bottom one is from the Mlle Riego Royal Tatting book and is called "Lilly of the Valley pattern". This is my first attempt at this pattern and it even features the first bit of crochet I've done in years!  I felt my crochet was a bit too wobbly so on the right half of the top edging I've gone for a tatted chain instead.  It will hopefully look less wobbly if I press it.

In the mood for tatting this week

After yesterday's homage to women's suffrage here's some more tatting I did this evening.

At the top is a variant on yesterday's pattern only this time done the normal way with just one thread. It's a bit wriggly at the moment because it hasn't been damped and flattened yet.

At the bottom is and the right : a 2-layer flower pattern from cariad-tatting.co.uk, and on the left is a variant on Rose and Leaf from This 'n' Tat - it's supposed to have chains but I left bare thread instead so that I could do it with one shuttle.

All these are thread that arrived today - Carnivale and Purple Twist both Lizbeth.

Yesterday one of my friends pointed out that Green White Violet for Give Women Votes is a bit of a myth. She says

From 1908 the WSPU adopted the colour scheme of purple, white and green: purple symbolised dignity, white purity, and green hope. These three colours were used for banners, flags, rosettes and badges, and appeared in newspaper cartoons and postcards. Mappin & Webb, the London jewellers, issued a catalogue of suffragette jewellery for Christmas 1908.
In 1909 the WSPU presented specially commissioned pieces of jewellery to leading suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst and Louise Eates. Some Arts and Crafts jewellery of the period incorporated the colours purple, white and green using enamel and semi-precious stones such as amethysts, pearls, and peridots. However jewellery that incorporated these stones was already quite common in women's jewellery during the late 19th century, before 1903 and could not be connected with the suffragettes, before the WSPU adopted the colours.

However in my piece of tatting the colours do stand for Give Women Votes :) 
(WSPU stands for Womens Social and Political Union)

I'm fighting the urge to order yet more thread already - I hadn't noticed the Scottish Thistle variegated lizbeth thread which should be much easier to use for purple/white/green tatting than trying to juggle three separate threads. Postage costs have gone up lately now so placing a small order is too expensive so it'll have to wait until I succumb to more colours.

In memory of Womens Suffrage

Just over a week ago I was acting the role of a suffragette so I decided it would be nice to do some tatting in suffrage colours - Green White and Violet which stand for Give Women Votes.
(and before I forget - a link to some photos of that weekend courtesy of Lincoln's local newspaper)

I got the threads yesterday and after a lot of thinking yesterday evening this is what I came up with this evening:

It's 3 cm wide. The threads are all lizbeth 20 and are Leaf Green, Natural and Antique Violet light. Three threads, three shuttles, 6 ends to sew in :(
The green isn't as bright in real life as in this picture.

Now I've got this out of the way I can get on with what I should have been doing!

Recent tatting

I said I had done some tatting and here it is...

At the top is some Etruscan braid from a Mlle Riego book - it's also in a Mary Konior book where she gives the directions for the corner.  This is going to be the edging for a tray cloth for Victorian/Edwardian re-enactment.  It's in size 16 Puppets Eldorado thread.

In the middle is more Etruscan braid, this time in size 40 Anchor mercer. This is the piece I was tatting in public over last weekend (a bank holiday weekend) during the Victorian Weekend at Lincoln Castle.  This will probably become trimming for the cuffs of my next Edwardian-style blouse.

At the bottom is Curds and Whey from one of Mary Konior's books, again in size 40 Anchor mercer.  After the first few repeats I switched to front-side/back-side tatting and that is making it lie much flatter than the first portion.

quiet month for blogging

This blog has been rather quiet this month...

I have done some tatting.  I took part in the Victorian Weekend at Lincoln Castle this bank holiday weekend just past. I don't have any pictures myself but I have managed to find this picture on flickr where if you look carefully you can see some tatting in my hand (I'm seated second from left). I spent a fair part of the weekend tatting and succeeded in getting people interested enough to ask about it - I was quite impressed by how many knew it was Tatting.  I'm hoping that some other photos will turn up outside of facebook so that I can link to them.

Because of the lack of pictures in this post here are some links to some useful videos that I came across today

First from yarnplayer's blog: Tatting video: reverse work, join, chain, and ring. This is a nice clear video showing how to do a chain.

Then via Le blog de Frivole: Marie Smith's Method for split chains

First piece of tatting trim that I've actually attached to clothing!

I've been rather quiet on this blog lately but that's because I've been busy making things...

I've made a pair of bloomers as part of a Victorian/Edwardian style swim suit and decided to do some tatting to trim the legs. Here is one leg of the bloomers with the tatting sewn in place and the tatting for the other leg lying on top. I've used a size 16 thread because of the time constraints and also because the tatting is below my knees and going to be dunked in a swimming pool!

I chose this pattern because I wanted one where I could thread through a thin ribbon if necessary - I sketched out some ideas then went hunting through my books to see if I could find something similar and found this design from a  book in Japanese by "Sumie" so I don't know what the name of the pattern is! The book uses diagrams for the actual pattern so being able to read Japanese isn't necessary.  The book's title translates as "Japanese craft book "First tatting lace"#2153 (Lady boutique series 3215)"

I've also made a mob cap which I was going to trim with tatting but it didn't work with that particular style of mob cap so I'm going to make a second one and trim that.

The final part of the outfit is actually a very cheap blue and white striped dress from Primark!

In other news I've just bought my first pop a bobbin shuttle made by "im in the garage" via Jane Eborall's etsy shop. I think about 35 went up - by the time I got there 45 minutes later there were 9 left!