Tatting homework and shuttles and sad dogs

Recently, I signed up for a very neat online class about tatting and design. I’ve been really remiss and haven’t done a single snippet of homework for the class.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

I’ve been focused on finishing up the designs and projects for a new book, and have been totally immersed in it.  Oops…. the homework  for the tatting class got  pushed to the back burner.

I decided today that I would play catchup, and get going on the homework.

I filled a tatting shuttle with rainbow colored hemp cord and tatted up the first exercise.

I decided that it would make a great bookmark….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

so…… I tatted up the side of the first section, and added a dragonfly at the top of the bookmark.

I quite like tatting with unusual yarns  like hemp cord, but, you have to make allowances for it’s idiosincratic nature.

The thickness of the cord tends to change, and sometimes you get little tussocky bits.

It makes it somewhat challenging to tat, but it’s still fun, and I do recommend it.

I then switched to silk thread that I had left over from tatting butterflies for my daughter’s wedding dress a couple of years ago.

The silk thread is very fine and soft, and when I was making the butterflies I found that a single strand made incredibly tiny butterflies.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

Because of this, I doubled it up and worked with 2 strands.  It’s lovely thread and tats up beautifully.

And so, then,  I finished up the homework for the second lesson  of the course.

I had intended to move straight on to the homework for the third lesson,  but I got distracted.

I was giving our dog a bone to chew on, when I noticed that one of the bones that the dogs had already chewed clean was really straight and hollow.

I had an ‘upcycling’ moment, and  thought…

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

I could make tatting shuttles from this!

Earlier in the weekend, I had joined the Trashion upcycling/recycling team on etsy, so I was definitely ‘pre-programmed’ to be thinking about alternative uses of materials!

(I took a pic of the bone, but when I was photoshopping it, the program hung royally. Arghhh.

Anyhow, trust me…. it was a big old, cleaned bare bone that the dogs had had a lovely time with.)

I scrubbed it off, and traced my templates onto it.

My husband called out to me to wear the heavy duty dust mask as I was trotting out to the workshop.  You bet… I didn’t fancy inhaling the sand off the bone!

I was a little concerned about what it would be like to saw and file and sand.

all photos by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

It definitely has grain…. and it does splinter if you catch it the wrong way with the files.

But…. I really like the way the bone polishes up.

I decided to take a chance and see if I could use my wood burner on the bone. Yes! and it didn’t even smell! I thought that it might…..

The finished tatting shuttles feel really nice. They are light and smooth and pleasing to the touch.

So, it was really worthwhile to take a chance and follow my inclination about experimenting with the dog’s old chewie bones.

Although they keep coming up to me and looking very, very sad about their Mum snitching their treat……

And, oh yes…. I really ought to get back to that homework.  If this class was in the ‘real’ world, I’d probably be relegated to the back of the class!  Ahem.