Category: pattern

Another Simple Easter Cross

I’ve made another Simple Easter Cross with a slight modification. I put a finding in the middle instead of making a ring. I used Lizbeth #187 Green Ice in size 20 for this one.

Simple Easter Cross with a finding in the center on wandasknottythoughts
Simple Easter Cross with a finding in the center

The finding in the center is a bit larger than the tatted ring so there are a few stitch count changes. There was a bit of trial and error to get the right dimensions, which I expected. If you happen to be using thread already on the shuttles that are not wound continuously this is much easier. The large Self-Closing Mock Ring (SCMR) at the bottom can be a bit of a pain, but certainly better than a regular ring!

It came out well. After a few issues!

This isn’t harder than the cross with the tatted ring center. It’s almost exactly the same, you just start with the rings attaching to the center instead of making one and climbing out. But it helps to pay attention to what you are doing. Things go much better that way.

I started this several times. I retro tatted several times because of mistakes, and several times found that I hadn’t made a mistake after all. I also cut it off once or twice because I did make mistakes. I didn’t have this much trouble with the original in the several times I made it.

I like how quickly this tats up – when paying attention! I plan to put ends on the several I’ve made to make them bookmarks. They will be wonderful to have for gifts to be put in cards, for sympathy or congratulations.

I’ve added the pattern for the Simple Easter Cross on my patterns page. This is for the tatted center, not the finding. To use a finding for the center the SCMRs need a few extra stitches.

“Determination will get you through this.” From a fortune cookie.

Lanyard 2016

I’ve had several people ask how I made the Lanyard from last week.

Tat Days Lanyard
Tat Days Lanyard

I hadn’t planned on writing it out but changed my mind.  This is my version of a simple idea that tats up quickly.

Lanyard, Wanda's version
Lanyard, Wanda’s version

I’ve added the drawing with text to my Patterns page.

It has been a busy week.  We’ve had a lot going on around the house as well as putting in a lot of overtime at work.  The only tatting I’ve done is not worth sharing; it’s not pretty.  I’ve been practicing cluny tatting.  One of the classes I’m taking at Tat Days in September is a cluny pattern.  Yes, I’ve made them before but only enough to say I know how to do them.  Now I would like them to look good as well.  I can’t say they look good yet but it doesn’t take me as long now to make them.

I have a lot of ideas of things I would like to tat.  Now I’m trying to make the time to do them.  Hopefully when I have the energy to do them and not just think about them.

“A woman’s mind is cleaner than a man’s: She changes it more often.”

Oliver Herford

www.brainyquote.com

Bunny Face

I’ve decided I like the bunny face.  I’ve made a few more, playing around with it a little, mostly with the ears.  I think the bottom one looks a little more like a dog than a bunny, but still has potential.  I don’t think this will become an edging, at least not without a lot more work, but it looks pretty good as a bunny face. 
I’ve been trying to find out if there is another bunny that is made like this.  I’ve found several really cute bunnies: 
Tatman has a couple of cute bunnies here and here. I also hear he has a pattern for a bunny in an egg, but I don’t know where to find the pattern.  I saw it on Steph’s Stuff; very cute!
Bella OnLine has several bunny patterns, including a few edgings, found here.
[the first link on the page, Brenda’s Bunnies, does not contain tatting. It looks to have been hacked]
Nancy has a cute one on her be-stitched site, here.  
I checked Dianna Steven’s book ‘Animal Bookmarks, a Tatted Zoo’, which has a really cute bunny bookmark, but it doesn’t look like this either. 
So, if anybody is interested, I have put the pattern up on my sidebar.  The pattern has the rounded ears like the top two in the picture. I made the bottom one today while I was sipping my Tatting Tea Tuesday tea, after I had the pattern ‘finished’.  I might make an addendum for changing up the ears later.

This time of year thinking of bunnies makes me think of Easter, so I’ll leave you with another Easter poem.

Sky Bunnies
The sky is full of bunny clouds
So soft and fat and white,
I wonder if they’re hiding eggs
For stars to find at night.

Because it’s Easter Eve, you know,
And there’s no reason why
There shouldn’t be an Easter hunt
In meadows in the sky.

TIAS Day 3

Jane’s TIAS has started.  This is mine up to day 3.  It actually looked better but it curled a little and I tried to flatten it out which deformed the SCMR a little bit.  I can live with it. I have no guesses as to what it might be.  Last year she had us flying in an airplane and the year before crowing with a rooster, so this could be anything! If you haven’t started the TIAS it’s never to late to start.  She is going to post day four tomorrow (January 19).

If you don’t want to participate you might still go over and check out all the different shuttles people are using on this.  A lot of participants have taken this opportunity to show off some pretty nice looking shuttles. I haven’t shown mine – I chose to do this in Lizbeth Victorian Red #670 in size 20 using Clover shuttles in green and orange.  The green doesn’t look too bad but the orange clashes badly. Hey, they were the two shuttles that I found that didn’t have any thread on them. Most of my other shuttles either have projects on them or little bits of thread that I would have to do something with before I could start. None I found had enough for this project – Jane said you will need two shuttles filled with thread.

Anyone remember this post? Trayna asked for that pattern awhile back and posted about it on her blog recently.  As I have been working on updated and sharing some of my older patterns I thought this one would be the next one up.  My previous post showed it with the arms joined at the picots and with beads but the pattern doesn’t reflect that.  I don’t think it will be hard to figure out how that was done, but if you have questions please feel free to contact me. My contact information is on my profile page.  The pattern is up on the sidebar.

Has anyone noticed that I missed Tatting Tea Tuesday?  I’ve been working some different and very long hours this last week so was just too pooped to post.  But it’s only late by a day – not too bad. Back to normal today, so I have a bit more enthusiasm.

“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.” Bo Bennent

January is National Hot Tea Month

Did you know that January is National Hot Tea Month? This article is from 2009 but the link is still posted on the front page of TEAUSA.com.  It has a few things that are nice to know, especially if you like tea 🙂

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m drinking a cup of Strawberry Misaki from Teavana, a gift from Tabatha.  It’s a blooming tea, which means it comes in a ball that when steeped in hot water blooms into a flower. Pretty cool!  I was going to take a picture of my bloom (I’ve heard of this before and always wanted to know what the bloom looked like) but I forgot and drank the tea before I got the camera out.  Mmmm, strawberry tea.  It’s a very light flavored tea, but I like it.

Have you read Trayna’s blog post from Sunday?  She was so nice as to tat one of my snowflakes 🙂 She had seen it in one of my posts and asked me for the pattern.  She did a lovely job on it, too.  It’s part of her 100 snowflake challenge – to make 100 snowflakes in a year(!).  Knowing she was making snowflakes I sent her the pattern of another snowflake, which she was so sweet as to test tat for me (good thing that she did!). It is the snowflake I had decided would be my Christmas snowflake one year, which I posted about in December 2010.

This one.

 
If you like it and would like to give it a try, I’m adding the pattern to the sidebar.  I’m touching up the pattern for the one that Trayna made and hope to add that pattern soon as well.

Don’t forget, Jane’s TIAS starts today!

“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart may desire.”
Irish blessing 

A hot Tatting Tea Tuesday

This morning I enjoyed a lovely glass if sweet iced tea, Black Cherry Berry flavored – very yummy! I hadn’t been sure I’d like it iced but I’m very sure I like it now! Yes, the picture shows a cup of tea not a glass but I wanted to show the pretty cup:-) The doily is one I made quite a few years ago, and sad to say I have only a vague idea where I got the pattern.
The little book “Get Well Tea” I picked up on my vacation in Branson, Missouri. I found it in the back room of an antique/flea market that my sister and I visited on our way out of town. The author is J.C. McCracken, the owner/innkeeper of the Inn at Fall Creek, Branson, Mo., at least as of 1996 when the book was published. This little book has a brief history of tea, a little about the hummingbird and a few recipes for “Get Well Tea..” I’m really going to have to try a few of these, they sound very yummy, though I’m not sure they would all taste good if your tummy wasn’t feeling to well. But being unwell doesn’t always involve the tummy, does it?

I’ve done some tatting this week, I just don’t have any I’m quite ready to share yet. I’ve also spent a lot of time on the computer (not surfing, though), working on diagramming patterns. I’ve noticed lately looking at the stats of my blog that a lot of people are looking at the pattern I posted for the Christmas bell ornament from this post, so I diagrammed it and have it in the right sidebar. I spent my day Saturday doing this instead of all the cleaning I should have been doing, isn’t that sad? And, yes, it took more hours than I planned; I have a ways to go before I’ll be quick at it.

As you might guess from the title of this post it’s been rather hot here in Kansas. It was mentioned on a local TV station that the average high temperature for this July was 103 deg. F (39 deg. C), which makes it a pretty hot month. The average temperature is 90 deg. F but we haven’t had a day under 93 deg all month. And August is usually pretty hot as well. Today is a good example of how hot it is here: at 7:00 PM CDT it was 110 deg. F (43 deg. C). There have been several records set for the heat this year – these are records I would prefer not have broken! I’m ready for cooler weather.

“Whether the weather be fine,

Whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold,

Whether the weather be hot,

We’ll weather the weather,

Whatever the whether,

Whether we like it or not.”

Tipping On Tuesday

This morning I started Tatting Tea Tuesday with a glass of iced Refresh tea then headed into town for a few errands and a doctor appointment. I happened to arrive a little early so pulled out a shuttle, starting a butterfly to empty it. A lady sitting in the waiting room started asking some questions about what I was doing. I was very happy☺to talk to her about tatting. She asked what the end result was so I showed her my Heart’s Honor bookmark that I had just finished. She was quite impressed with it. She also asked about how you knew how to make something, if there were patterns. So I showed her the pattern of the Flag Pin. That’s where she saw the name of my blog, which really tickled her. Then her mother came out from her appointment and the daughter wanted me to show her what I was doing. For a few minutes there I had two very interested people to share tatting with. It was a very good morning.

This is what I worked on this week, at least when I could tat. I worked on this for over a week as there was so many other things to do. Including working on the pattern for it. The pattern is coming along pretty well, but every time I start on it I see something else I should probably do with it, to make it better. But it is much closer to being done.

If I can remember how to do it I’ll be posting the pattern for the Flag Pin I shared on this post, so keep an eye on the patterns over on the right. This was designed in a hurry but I haven’t had time to re-visit it to make it easier. But as Independence Day is approaching I thought I would share what I have in case someone else would like to make it for the holiday.

“All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin” Lord Byron

Tipping = tatting in public

And the name is..

Thank you to all who offered name suggestions for my bookmark. I had some great suggestions. I heard from a few people that there was some trouble leaving a comment. Thank you, Shannon, for emailing your suggestion when you had trouble.
I pondered quite a bit over the name, wrote them out to see how they looked, then pondered some more. I showed the bookmark to my daughter, who immediately thought of an award like a purple heart even though it wasn’t purple. Her idea kept percolating in my mind and the name I’ve finally decided on is “Heart’s Honor”. So I guess she’s the winner.

©Wanda Salmans 2011

I’m still working on the pattern for it, getting all the stitch counts and joins correct. I’m getting to do all kinds of things with the diagram that was talked about in the Design-Tat class. I know there are some things that could be done better but I’m leaving the drawing the way it is this time. After you get so far, going back and correcting can sometimes mean going back to, or almost to, the beginning. (I promise I’ll do better on the next pattern!) Between the written out pattern and the diagram I think it will be pretty clear. I don’t know that it will be ready to post next week but I’m hoping it will be ready by the following week.

A few months ago I introduced Ryan, a Flying Minor Norwegian Dragon. Since then we’ve been trying to find the perfect home for her, and she’s been very picky. She couldn’t make up her mind about colors or design or anything. But finally, finally, she found something she likes, and would now like to show off her new home. Her landlord is very happy with her as well (I hope they get along). She was also working on her flame, trying for just the right color. We both thought this copper looked perfect.

I had no tea today and I miss that. I was in such a hurry to get out and do some errands I didn’t take the time to make even one cup of tea for Tatting Tea Tuesday. And I didn’t even realize it until I got to work and it dawned on me it was Tuesday. So today I’ll take time to tat during breaks and dream of tea – okay, probably not dream of tea, but I plan on drinking tea tomorrow.

“Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves” Carol Lynn Pearson