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’ )

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)

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

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 

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

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)

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

The desk lives on in all manner of ways!

I have made bag handles and a heap of bracelets from the bottoms of the drawers.

And, today, I made myself another ‘Lady Hoare’ (I pronounce it Lady Harr, as the other possible pronounciations are slightly ‘ahem’-ish) tatting shuttle:

The Lady Hoare style of tatting shuttle is a very old version of shuttle and I absolutely love it. It’s my favorite style of tatting shuttle.

Why? Because it allows me to load it up with a ton of thread, so I don’t have a bunch of little joining knots.

AND… I can tat with thicker yarns, including handspun when tatting with the Lady Hoare shuttle.

At first, it felt a little clumsy, but I have gotten so used to them, that it is quite speedy now.

Here’s how I make them:

First of all, I like to have a template, .so I drew out the pattern on a sticky label. I stuck it to some thin brass that my son pulled out of an old amp before it went to the eco station for recycling:

Here’s the template cut out:

I have a big old pair of scissors that I paid a dollar for at a garage sale. I use it to do things like cut templates out of brass sheet!

Then, I traced the template onto the bits of old drawer. It’s hardwood, but I don’t know what kind of wood:

I traced out 2 of them, because the fiddly bits can be notoriously unstable.

Next posting: Out to the workshop!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay

Post from: Hankering for Yarn