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

I have been in love with lace since I was a child. I began making lace when I was a little girl. One of my grandmother’s friends taught me how to make holes (on purpose!) in your knitting, and that was it for me….. addicted!

I’ve been making lace ever since. I started crocheting lace when I was a teenager, then learned how to tat in my 20’s. And, I’ve been knitting lace ever since I learned to put those holes where I wanted them!

But, that was lace making in the 20th C, and the title of this posting is about the 19th C!

When I was trying to find an article about a lacemaker in the 19th C, I was disappointed to see that the link I had bookmarked had disappeared. So, I did a little googling, and found some fascinating stuff…..

Emily Clare, lacemaker

I was enchanted by the liveliness and animation in Emily Clare’s face…. I bet she was a charmer!

Being a lacemaker in the 19th C was not an easy life. I’m glad that the internet can help us to remember those lacemakers of long ago! Bless ‘em!

I love teaching workshops at the Knit and crochet shows….. workshops

I love to bring together lots of different fiber arts in my workshops: mask making, doll making, crochet, tatting, spool knitting, freeforming and all manner of other things unfold in workshops.

It’s always a ton of fun!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I LOVE Celtic interlaces, so was delighted to see this neat website:

Celtic Interlace

Celtic Interlaces translate so beautifully to needlework of all descriptions…. knitting, crochet, tatting, embroidery…. you name it!

The dragonflies have been dancing and flitting about lately, and seeing them has finally made something click for me….

I’ve been playing around with designing a tatted dragonfly for years, and have never been satisfied with what I have come up with.

BUT… when we were walking the dogs this morning, it struck me that I have been trying to do an accurate representation (in tatting) of still photographs of dragonflies.

What really clicked for me was that I realized that I wanted a simple image of the dragonflies in motion. I thought about what we see when a dragonfly zooms past us:

The oversize head, the streamline zip of the body and flashing  wings.

Ah! I’ve been putting waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much into the dragonflies for them to be workable as earrings. So, I simplified the design right down to match my ‘aha’ moment!

Since I have been test tatting my new Little Bird tatting shuttles, I decided to try my new dragonfly design with the new shuttles…….

And, here’s the result:

I am still testing the  pattern and fine tuning it. But, it’s close to what I had hoped for.

And, I am going to give this pair of earrings away!

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright 

Amy and Donna over at Crochetville have started a fun challenge.

It’s the 2008 Crochet Games of Ancient Greece Challenge.  It’s an invitation to challenge yourself to create a work of crochet that will be a challenge for you to complete from the opening to closing of the Olympic games in Bejing.

At first, I thought…. there is NO way on earth that I can do this… I am working to deadline on my new book, AND have projects to complete for SEVEN workshops that I am teaching in September at the Knit and Crochet Show in Portland OR.

Then… it hit me…. oho! I have a concept for a new butterfly shawl that has been stuck on my design wall for months! I want to get this done for Portland, so maybe this is the time to do it….

What the heck…. I think I’ll sign up for the challenge! Wish me luck!

I’ll let you know how it goes!

:o)

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright 

Yesterday, I posted a note about the tatted cord that I have just designed. It’s for a Lady Hoare tatting shuttle that I made and broke… rats… so it became a necklace.

Here’s how I tatted the cord:

With a dental floss threader, thread a heap of ‘e’ beads onto the cone of Lion Brand Lamé yarn.

The cord is a sequence of *5 double knots (dk), slip a bead down the thread to the last dk, 1 dk, 1 picot, 1 dk, slip a bead down to the dk* repeated from * to *

The pic above shows the bead slipped down to the last of the 5 dk.

And the pic below shows the dk that holds the 1st bead in place.

Here’s the picot and the next dk:

So, I repeated the * to * for 30 inches (75 cm) and then took the thread through the eye of the jewelry clasp, and headed back up the cord:

For the 2nd half of the cord, I did 5 dk, then joined the shuttle thread to the picot, and repeated this process for the entire length of the cord.

At the end, I worked a ring of 9 dk, closed it, cut the threads, tied knots, trimmed the ends and did a little happy dance!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay

I just posted about the friendship bracelets that I tatted while I was in the design process for

this tatted cord:

I am really pleased with the cord. I wanted it to be simple and not too frou frou.

It’s light and really pleasant to wear.

I am going to make it up in other threads to see how it looks in other colors and textures.

I loved the process of coming up with this design, and now, I am super inspired about designing all kinds of other tatted jewelry!

Fun!

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

Yesterday, I posted about carving a Lady Hoare tatting shuttle from recycled wood.

I broke one of the tatting shuttles

sigh.

I tossed it into the sawdust bucket for burning next winter.

Tammy suggested that I reclaim it and use it as an inkle shuttle.

I like my inkle shuttles to have straight sides, so it wouldn’t work for that…. But…

I had been thinking that the Lady Hoare shuttles look like little dancing people….. so…..

I raced out to the workshop, grabbed the broken shuttle, and drilled a tiny hole.

I put a wire through it and a bead onto it (for the head) and

Voila!

I decided to burn embellishments on it:

and dip it into the varnish:

And, now, I am just delighted with it!

So, there you have it - a bit of an old desk drawer is recycled into a tatting shuttle, which is recycled into a necklace.

Recycling squared!

What have you reclaimed or recycled lately?

And…. do you have a favorite shuttle, tatting or otherwise?

Also, thank you so much for posting comments.

You inspire me! Yay for creativity!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay

In my previous posting, I showed how I got started making the Lady Hoare tatting shuttle.

I took the bits of recycled wood back out to the workshop, and cut the 2 shuttles out on the bandsaw:

Then finished up the openings with a smaller saw:

Next, time to make some sawdust:

You can see how it’s looking more ’shuttle -y’:

Time to switch to files:

OH RATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I snapped one prong off! THIS is why I always cut out TWO!

(I didn’t waste the broken one- see what I did with it)

So, start all over and be a WHOLE lot more careful!

HURRAH! I actually finished it without breaking it!

Finishing touch time:

I burned a little interlacing heart on it.

Voila! my new tatting shuttle from an old desk drawer!

They are a monster load of work to make, so I wouldn’t be making them for sale.

Besides, people can order beautiful Lady Hoare tatting shuttles from Lacis in Oakland, CA.

(no profit in saying so, but I dearly love their shop and the people who created and run it)

I LOVE making my own tools, and especially love it when I am reclaiming the stuff I am using in making the new treasure !

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay