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

Baby bonnet with tatting

Now that the gift has been given I can post a better picture...

The edging round the front of the bonnet is a pattern from Mary Konior's Tatting with visual patterns book.
The butterflies (one on each side) are from a Japanese book.

The baby is only about 3 weeks old and this bonnet is for 3-6 months so it'll be a while before I see it modeled properly.

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 :( 

1 year 1 and half months after starting tatting!

It's been just over a year since I started tatting...

Here's this week's little bits

three little things using Lizbeth Scottish Thistle size 20 and a few more inches added to my length of trim.

the tatting around the key is something I made up as I went along - it ended up being entirely chains of 8ds.

The two-layered flower is from the patterns page at www.cariad-tatting.co.uk.

Last weekend I went to the Makit Fenland Lace & Textile Craft Supplier Fair 2013 in St Ives and bought 2 more small books and quite a lot of thread - mostly Valdani - and a nice little wooden picot gauge.  I also had a really nice chat about tatting with the lady on the stall with the picot gauge - but I'm useless at names so I've forgotten what she trades as :(

An entire year of tatting over - and a new project

This week I realised that I have now been tatting for a year (plus a week or two).  To "celebrate" I'm thinking of digging out all the tatting I've done that I still have and taking a picture of it all together in one place.
Until I get that done, here is a pic from 11 months and 14 days ago which would be about a month after I started tatting...

I've started a new project today - but what it is going to be is a secret for now so that the friends for whom its a present don't find out too soon...
But at the moment you can't tell what it is yet so I'm safe for now :)

The motif on the left will become the middle and will have another 5 copies of the motif on the right.  I'm going to have a little think now about whether to follow the original instructions and cut and tie each one or to see if I can be clever with split rings and climbing out because I really don't like sewing in ends :)
Looking at this picture reminds me that I still struggle with larger rings ;)  With this piece I have the extra difficulty in that I'm trying to keep the tension lighter than normal because I want the finished item to be fairly soft so I'm going to have to be a lot more careful about how tightly I draw up the rings when I close them so that I can keep them a consistent size.  Not tatting too late into the evening will also help as my tension definitely gets worse the later I tat.

This is alongside the current TIAS and working on a long length of some simple tatted trimming.

I'm still here...

I'm not very good at keeping up with blogging it seems!

But I am still tatting and I've joined in with this autumn's Tat it and See (TIAS) which is hosted by Lady Shuttlemaker on her blog with a shared blog with  the results at http://tiaspence.blogspot.co.uk/.  Here's my latest TIAS post.

Last weekend was a long weekend with no tatting because I had this to distract me:

  and this:

and a LOT of this:

Yes I spent a long weekend dog-sitting so that my brothers could take Dad out for a big weekend treat.
Now that I'm back I need to get on with tatting more white trimmings for an Edwardian outfit.

(update) I just looked at the dates of my posts and I've realised my rate of posting drops off suddenly in May so I can blame most of it on getting distracted by the shiny new tablet I bought that month. I've never owned a smart phone so having a gadget like that is quite distracting...  but very handy for the TIAS.

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 :)