Bloggy giveaway carnival time is over…..

The other day, I posted about the Hedgehog Tatting Shuttles that I have just designed and am now making.

Well……

I  offered one of my  Hedgehog Tatting Shuttles (one of a kind, handmade by me) as a prize in the bloggy giveaway carnival!

ANd the winner is #60, Nicole - congratulations! Hope you will enjoy it!

and make sure you leave a valid email address. 

The Contest  is now closed.

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Please note: I am no longer writing hankering for yarn. You can catch up with me at www.tottietalkscrafts.com

I have always found hedgehogs to be charming.

But, we have a greyhound, so we could never have a pet hedgehog. (’Mmmm, tasty’, I can imagine him saying….)

So, recently, when one of my readers asked me if I would make a teardrop shaped tatting shuttle, I did some sketches, and played with it, and came up with:

I am VERY pleased with it!

It tats like a dream, not at all spikey like it’s real life inspiration.

I love it when fun things evolve out of conversations with my hankering for yarn buddies!

Image  Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

While we were driving to the West coast at the beginning of Sept 08, I finally finished crocheting the background for a freeform butterfly shawl that I’ve been working on for ages.

The shawl is a combination of tatting and crochet and is a small semi-circular shoulder shawl. It is super comfortable to wear as it stays in place without tugging.

I love putting crochet together with tatting as they are  harmonious  partners.

I went through a fair amount of frustration with making the shawl, as I had to frog it many times to find the perfect combination of threads.

But, now I love it, and wear it a lot!

Here is a list of the links that show the shawl being constructed:

Tatted and crocheted shawl

Some different color backgrounds for the shawl

Working on the larger butterflies

Small tatted butterflies

My kitty wearing tatted butterflies on her forehead

 The Pattern for the tiny tatted butterflies

Tatting Chic won the Lady Hoare tatting shuttle that I gave away recently on my blog.

She wrote about it: Tatting Chic and the new Lady Hoare shuttle

She was disappointed to find it slow and difficult to work with.

The Lady Hoare tatting shuttles are slower to work with, but you can move along with them at a fair clip, once you get used to them.

AND, there is a secret to working with them comfortably.

Pinch lightly on one of the openings, and have the rest of the tatting shuttle ‘float’ out in front of your fingers.   A closed shuttle will sit mostly inside your hand, so adjusting to the ‘floating hold’ does make the Lady Hoare easier to use.  It’ll seem odd at first, but it will click for you, and it’ll work beautifully.

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay  copyright

People have been asking me if the Little Bird Tatting Shuttle is available for purchasing.

Yes indeed.

I’ve been trying to upload them to my website, but we are in the middle of real fratzzsnags with our computer, so phooey…. no website page.

Just send me an email if you’re interested!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright 

I just did a quick google search about tatting shuttles and other needlework tools.

One of the neatest things that came up was a site that has a copy of a book called:

‘Old Time Tools and Toys of Needlework’ 

It’s such a charming read that I found myself getting totally absorbed in it!

I loved reading about the Lady Hoare shuttles.  The quotation about the joys and pleasures of needlework is just lovely. I don’t want to break copyright, so I won’t quote it, but definitely recommend a quick browse (or leisurely schmooz ).

Interesting that the poet Chaucer wrote about ladies doing something he called ‘pearling’ or ‘purling’, but it sounds like tatting, not knitting…..  hmmmm…..

intriguing…..

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay 

Tatted butterflies make wonderful earrings.

I fell in love with Kreinik’s Metallic 1/8″ ribbon thread and wanted to tat some butterflies with it:

There’s 5 meters on the spool, but I didn’t know if that would be enough to tat 2 butterflies.

So, I decided to do an experiment.

I wound 5 m of Rainbow Hemp Beading Twine from Jolly store  onto my tatting shuttle and tatted these Rainbow Butterflies:

Poifeck!

You can get a pair of earrings with less than 5 m!

So, I went ahead and wrapped my shuttle with the spool of

Kreinik Metallics #209C 1/8″ Ribbon yarn  

and it tatted up BEAUTIFULLY!

I am delighted with them.

I tatted them while blissing out to the music in the bistro where my husband’s jazz trio was playing.

People kept coming up to me to ask what I was doing and to admire the thread.

Don’t tat in public if you are shy!

People are intrigued by it and want to know what on earth you are doing.

I am still waiting for the little Flip video camera to arrive (it’s almost TWO months now that I have been waiting for it!).

When it gets here, I’ll do a video tutorial on how to tat these incredibly easy, but oh so gorgeous, earrings.

And, perhaps, I should make a pair to give away in a series of ‘Yay, I’ve been writing Hankering for Yarn for more than 2 years now’ celebratory give aways next week….

Whaddya think?

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright 

I have had a life long love affair with lace making.

I started making lace when I was a little girl, when one of my grandmother’s friends taught me how to knit lace. She showed me that wrapping the needle with the yarn made holes and that I could figure out how to make wonderful things by putting those holes together.

I got addicted to crocheting lace in my teens and then in my 20’s, when I discovered tatting, I felt like I had come home!

Tatting and crochet really are ‘peas and carrots’ :o)

There are endless possibilities when you put them together. This is just one of the many many lacey things I have  made by combining the two techniques:

Bliss. Pure and simple bliss.

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay(copyright)

I am working non stop on my new book, and it’s going great.

While it is still in the pre-publication stage, I really can’t talk about it in detail. But… oh boy…. once my publisher releases details, I’ll be happily yakking about it!

Can’t talk about the book, ‘cept to say that I am busting my chops on it, but I CAN tell you about the red butterfly shawl that I am tatting and crocheting.

I am just about finished tatting the small flowers that are filling in lots of spaces between the butterflies…..

And, soon I’ll be connecting the dots…. well, no, not the dots… the flowers and the butterflies!

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay 

Last week, I carved a couple of tatting shuttles. One of them broke, and I turned it into a necklace

Over the weekend, I took my tatting shuttle and cone of thread, and beads with me- everywhere!

I ended up tatting 2 friendship bracelets before I arrived at the cord for the necklace.

I’ve designed lots of tatted friendship bracelets over the years. I love making them, because they are so portable. Besides, it’s so much fun to give them to friends!

These two have already found their way onto friend’s wrists!

I need to make more.

If you’d like the pattern, I can upload it.

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)