Yet another star and some design sighs

Lots of things has happened lately, so I haven't found the time to scan this star I made a while ago, when I was staying a couple of days at my parents place.
I still haven't found out whether I dare iron this metallic yarn or not, so if it looks sloppy I hope that's the reason. :P
I need to make many more, if I want to keep the promise I made to myself.
How ever it's a lot more fun to work on a new pattern for the design class. I'm very proud of the looks of it *beaming with pride*, there is just one "slight" detail that is troubling me at the moment. How on earth am I supposed to find the right number of stitches for the design? It looks so nice on paper, but I'm quite sure it won't look anything like it at all, if I try tatting it with the numbers I've tried so far. Making your own patterns is indeed a lot harder than one should think, and I didn't expect it to be easy.

Bits of this and that

It turns out the bag was very well received, which makes me so happy. I've never made a bag like this before, and I had no pattern for it (couldn't find one I liked), so I build it in normal paper first and then made my own. The thing she liked best was apparently the pentagram, so good thing I ended up putting it where I did. :D

And I have to post how a good girl I've been! I stuck to my promise and made a Christmas Star / Snowflake yesterday, before I started anything new. I'll see if I can post a picture of it soon.

New book!! \o/

There isn't anything like getting a big, brown parcel, knowing it's one or more books that you have been waiting for for weeks. This time I got Jan Stavasz's "Tatting theory and patterns."

The book is really a joy. It's hardback, which is always a plus, and full of wonderful patterns. I really don't know where to start...And tbh. I ought not to have ordered it all now, since I promised myself I would start on some Christmas decoration IN GOOD TIME this year. But...eh...maybe it would be wrong of me to break my long tradition of finishing everything in the absolute last second? It might turn over the whole world order, and we do not want that to happen, right?!! So I guess it's my duty to try out one of those beautiful necklaces first. And after all there are still many days (and late nights) until December. :D

Procrastination ftw :P

Why start working on something straight away, when you can procrastinate and wait an extra day or even a few hours? :P

Again I managed to wait too long to start on the last bit of the bag, but again I did actually manage to be done just in the last second. How ever there wasn't enough time to get a proper photo of the finished bag, so here are some work in progress ones: [deleted].

The first is how it looks from the front - only the finished one actually did close properly. :P And eh...it did not have a pin stuck through it.

And this is the inside [deleted]. For a long time I didn't really know whether to use the pentagram at all. Originally, I planned it to be on the front, above the flower edge, but it turned out to be far too crowded. Then I thought about putting it on the backside of the bag, but it would just get messy, since it would rub against the coat all the time. Finally, I decided to put it on the inside. When the lining was sewn to it's place (it's not even pinned in place on the photo) and the pentagram as well, it turned out ok, I think. Now I just hope the girl will end up liking the finished bag.

Stars and flowers on my mind

Well....turns out I wasn't really on my feet again, but hopefully I am now.
I haven't had much tatting time the last couple of weeks. I've been trying to figure out how to draw patterns (thanks so much to Sharon's design course! :D), and I've been working on a gift to the daughter of a friend of mine. She is a young wiccan and I promised to make (yet another) bag, this time for her. I've been working on how to create a nice looking pentagram. It took some tries but I am happy with the end result now.



I'm nearly done with a matching edge (same green / pink flowers), but haven't decided on the bag design yet. :( I would really like to do something different than the usual pouch, and I can't wait much longer to decide. The bag needs to be done thursday at the latest! =:-o

Silver and untidy ends :o

I haven't' fallen completely asleep. Unfortunately I've been a bit ill, but I'm getting on my feets now. Here is a bit I did a while ago - I was just too lazy to hide the ends until yesterday. :P I sincerely wish I never had to hide any ends ever. I know you can do the magic trick, but I always end up breaking the thread or draw the hole piece skewed, or I get so eager when I start a new project that I forget to think ahead. Anyway I always end up with a billion ends (at minimum!!), and then I leave the piece in my tatting basket until "a day where I suddenly feel an urge to hiding ends" (as if that day existed :P). But yesterday I was a good girl and finished 2 projects.

One is a bracelet made with beanile lace (I had to try something after I got that book :D). The colors are a bit random. The silver beads were the only beads I had lying around, and the white yarn was the only yarn with the right size. I tried with my usual DMC 80 first, but the knots were too small. They simply disappeared in the beads. It did turn out ok, I think, though I would have preferred black yarn and maybe some more colorful beads. I think I will have to make another one at some point.

The other project was a small Christmas ornament. A star made with metallic
silver colored yarn from the "24 Snowflakes in Tatting" by Lene Bjørn. It's a cute motif, and the yarn works very well for this, I think. My only worry is if I can actually iron that kind of yarn? If you look close on the picture, you will see that I haven't done it yet. I think I better tat a test sample and test how the yarn responds to heat, before I try ironing the real piece, even though if it's through the usual damp piece of cloth.

So many plans, so little time...

I'm still working on multiple projects. My birthday was in late August and I got several tatting books as presents, amongst those Nina Libin's "Beanile Lace", which I *had* to spend some time on. :D
Before I make any grander projects, how ever, I need to get some new beads. I've started to think about making some beaded snowflakes for Christmas. I do feel a bit like the woman dreaming with the basket of eggs on her head...while I imagine all the lovely pieces I can make, I will probably make the worst mess out of it ever or even stab myself to death with the tatting pin. Maybe I ought to learn to master (or at least use) the technique before I plan the awesome designs I want to make with it. :P


I also started following Sharon's Design-tat, which is very, very fun so far. I'm not overly happy about my designs yet, but on the other hand - if I was, why take the class? In the last lesson we all had to make a design from the same starting point - eight 4-4-4-4 rings connected with 4-4 chains. My first design was a very simple one. I wanted a cloverlike shape, but ended up with something looking a bit more like a tudor rose. There ought of course have been some extra rounds, but I misread and thought part of the challenge was only one round.


A couple of days after I finished that design, I woke up one morning and had dreamt about another design. I had the whole design in my head when I woke, and of course I had to try and make that as well. It came out ok, I think, even though in my dream it was a lot easier to make even sized very large rings. :P In reality I tightened too much when I pulled them together, but since I didn't believe I would be able to make it all right in first go, I didn't bother to unravel - I thought I would be unravelling any second anyway. It turned out I didn't - I actually did it all right in the first go :o. But I guess I ought to make a new one with a proper tension in the rings. Wtb more time...