Lynn posted a comment saying that she uses  a pasta drying rack for drying her lace bobbins.

I thought that this was a great idea, and filed it away in the- hmmmm… ‘clever… file’….

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

When we dropped in on a garage sale,

I spotted a wire basket

that gave me an aha moment…..

I thought…

it’s not a pasta dryer

but ….

this will work

BEAUTIFULLY

for drying  the tatting shuttles.

So, that’s my ‘yay’ for the day.

And, now, there’s another totally excellent book that I want to give the thumbs up to….

copyright Mary Konior and Lacis publications

‘Tatting with Visual Patterns’

by  Mary Konior

published by

Lacis Publications,

Berkeley, CA,

is a real keeper.

The projects are

presented with

precise text instructions,

as well as clear

and meticulous charts,

AND are photographed

beautifully in full color.

The book is full of excellent hints, tips and guidance for tatters of all skill levels.

I highly recommend ‘Tatting With Visual Patterns’, as it’s a storehouse of information and is timeless in it’s approach.

Very good stuff, indeed. Gold star for this one!

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Here be dragons!  The other day, a member of the Tatta Tat Tatting group on Ravelry began a conversation about tatting dragons.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

One thing lead to another, and before long,

I had invited the group members

to participate in a challenge, to make dragons.

The challenge is to make a

dragon in any medium

that includes tatting.

The first thing I always

do when working on

a new piece, is to get out

my sketchbook.

As I was sketching,

the thought popped up…

Could I make a dragon shaped

tatting shuttle?

Well, it took a heap of drawings and sketches, but finally I  twigged to making the dragon tatting shuttle be just the head of the dragon, and not the whole body.

The dragon head tatting shuttles were really a challenge to carve, but they were worth it. I am sooooooooo pleased with them!

Now, to tat some dragons with the dragon head shuttles.

Would you like a link to a super wonderful pattern for a tatted dragon?

Here are links to Anne Bruvold’s glorious tatted dragon designs:

RingtrimEng and MinidragerEng

If you would like to weave a dragon on the potholder loom, I designed one as part of my book:

Magical Creatures to Weave on the Potholder Loom

Back to tatting.

This weekend, I finished tatting the dress for Flora:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Finday copyright

I didn’t write out the pattern for the dress,  but may tat another one, and will write out the pattern at that point.

From dragons to doll clothes, tatting is so much fun!

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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

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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!

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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

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Celtic Interlace

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

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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 

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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!

)

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright 

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

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

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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)

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