Losing the Flow...

I think I've been thinking about tatting too much lately (I bet you're not surprised!).  What I mean is, I've been so busy trying to make my tatting better, working front-side/back side, trying different joins, adding a half-stitch here and there to see if it looked better, posting the shuttle, not posting it... that I feel like I've lost my rhythm all of a sudden!

Tatting normally flows for me.  It's soothing, rhythmical, and effortless.  But just lately, it's not been so. I've become too obsessed with improving rather than enjoying and in fact, I think it's made my tatting worse!

That last Iris Niebach motif was awful.  And even this one below was hard work - I don't think I've ever untatted so much in one small motif!!

My proposed remedy is to go backwards a bit and just enjoy tatting as I did before, not worrying about the side or the up or down join for a bit.  Until I get "my flow" back!

This is a motif from Blomqvist and Persson's Book

"Tatting Patterns and Designs"

It is tatted in Lizbeth 20

Country Grape Lt.

But does this motif look familiar to you?  I'm sure I've tatted something very similar before... but at the moment I can't remember where it was from or when I tatted it!

I decided to decorate a couple of Aerlits for myself to give them a good try.  This one in a lovely vintage floral print went so well with the thread, I had to show you a photo:

Best wishes,

Frivole

Time to Learn Clunies?

Last night I came upon an image on Pinterest...  after asking at In Tatters, I was told that the pattern was by Iris Niebach and it is this one, dating back from 2008.

I have to admit that I have one of Iris's small books and I don't find her patterns easy to follow (ssshhhh!  I'm embarrassed to say this!).  But this one really appealed to me so I had to tackle it.  The first stumbling block is that I hadn't tatted clunies yet (well, I had a very brief attempt at the technique some time ago which didn't conclude successfully).  So search on YouTube and Tatman came to the rescue with his video and I duly learned to make the loom, etc.

Another admission I have to make is that I am undecided about whether I like clunies in tatting.  To me, they belong to bobbin lace.  It may seem a weird thing to say but the whole technique to make them is so different to what normally goes on in tatting that it's like they're a bit alien to shuttle lace.  Is that a strange comment to make?

Nonetheless, they add an interesting texture element and I had to try them before deciding whether I like them or not!

Anyway, here is the image of my Iris Niebach motif.  THIS IS NOT MY BEST TATTING!  So don't look too closely but I was interested in just figuring out the pattern to start with and then making the clunies!  So this is my first motif ever with clunies.

As you can see, there's all sorts of clunies in there:  some are too thin, some are too fat, some look triangular rather than leaf-shaped...  The best one is middle left I think.  Still the last ones were easier to complete than the first so I'm making progress!

The other thing I found was that there was too much tension between some of the elements for me.  The "straight" lines are too wonky for my taste (due to my bad tatting!), I would need to adjust the stitch count a bit and anyway, chains are meant to curve, not lie straight so there's bound to be tension when forcing them to make a straight line.  Is that a fair comment?

Please don't think that I'm complaining about Iris's design.  It caught my eye because it's so interesting and unusual.  She does some wonderful work and I really appreciate it.  I'm just looking at it with a critical eye and wondering how I could modify it just a bit to my satisfaction.

I actually like it a lot and plan on remaking it.  I like the play of texture between the elements of the design.  It would make a really beautiful larger piece.  So I will have to make a few to see how they look like together...

Best wishes,

Frivole

Thinking Ahead

I've not yet completed my current large project (the Butterfly Doily) but I'm getting itchy fingers already and started to think about what new large project I will be tackling next.

I'm not going to go round the next time.  I think I'd like a rectangle.  So it's likely it will be made from many motifs assembled together with a border.

I tatted the one below before which is from Jan Stawasz's first book.  I still like it and it may be the one!    So I'm tatting it again in different colours and threads to try to decide which to use...

I feel that I want a change from the ecru I'm currently using.  But then I quite like larger pieces to be traditional and timeless, so is cream or ecru a better option? (I'm afraid I don't like white!).  Opinions would be welcome.

I managed to make mistakes in both the samples above.  For some reason I couldn't get my head around the stitch count of the outer rings and kept putting one picot too many!  

I also feel I may have to tat this FS/BS due to the opposing rings in this design which would mean you'd have one front-side on and the other back-side facing if tatted with the traditional method.  

As there are no directions in his books, just diagrams, I'm not sure how he made the motifs himself but I didn't want to have to cut and tie between the two rounds so I used a split chain which I now feel really comfortable with since learning Marie Smith's Method.  I used to dread split chains but since learning Marie's method, they are a piece of cake!  Oh, how I love the internet and all the resources therein!  Including all the wonderful tatters who share their knowledge.

Now, of course, I have plenty of time to change my mind before I start this next large project but this one is definitely a possibility.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Penultimate Round!

I'm getting there!  I was travelling again this weekend so the butterfly doily accompanied me.  I completed the last few repeats of the "long chains" row and have started on the "frilly split rings" row.

I do love working on larger pieces like this.  It gives me great satisfaction though I couldn't tell you exactly why.  I like feeling the weight of all that lace and seeing it draped across my lap as I work... 

Best wishes,

Frivole

Update: Les P'tits Oiseaux

From the comments, the French name seemed to appeal so "Les P'tits Oiseaux" it is!  I dithered and at first called it "Les Deux Oiseaux" but I preferred the idea/image of "Les P'tits Oiseaux".  I've now finished writing up the pattern (fingers crossed, everything is accurate in it).

The green version below I made for a good friend of mine last year;  she wears it regularly and says she often gets comments on it.  

Right, I'm supposed to be tidying this morning...  Not writing more blogposts!  The sun's shining and it's another glorious spring day, time to also go put the washing on the line.  I hope the sun shines where you are too.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Kallista Necklace

I have had requests to make some of my necklace patterns available.  I had actually been thinking about it for a while so I debated with myself some more and decided that yes, I would.  The shape of this particular one reminded me of a lyre or an amphora so, inspired by the greek idea, I called it Kallista.

Here are my testers.  This is a pattern I came up with last year and I have two versions of it for sale in my shop. The pattern was only written in brief note form for myself so I had to work it a few times more and write the pattern out in more detail.  I also added a diagram.

I nearly called it something else though... because when my daughter looked at it, she said it looked like two little birds on a nest...

See what she means?  I think that's sweet.



Do you like the name?
Or should I have called it "Little Birds"?

Here is the black version of it that's currently available in my shop.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Still Tatting Newcastle

I'm still enamoured of Marilee's Rockley's Newcastle necklace.  I did it again in size 20 thread this time and it looks really lovely on the neck too, in the smaller size.  Don't look at how I finished the blue necklace, I knotted the ends because I'm testing it just for myself at the moment.

I've made some very small changes:  first of all no beads at all whereas the original has lots of beads but I've kept the central pendant which I like to have on a lot of tatted necklaces as it gives weight to the piece and helps it stay in the right place on your neck.  Then just some minor modifications on the centre part.  I do mean minor.  But I always feel I have to say when I've changed something to a pattern in case someone else makes it after seeing mine and then wonders why theirs doesn't look quite the same.

It's a really nice pattern which looks striking when worn.

Best wishes,

Frivole