It looks better irl. I swear!

Here is the choker I made some time ago. I've taken close to a billion pictures, the camera I have is all nice and good, but I just can't make the choker look good. For some reason the focus is all wrong, and obviously it can't be my fault, since my Mom always told me that I'm brilliant at everything I do, and as a parent myself, I know moms are NEVER wrong.  :P

The thread was some what thicker than what I usually work with. Ofc. I can't remember the size now, but I like the result. I was wondering if I should tat some more for the front, but tbh I don't  think I will bother. I like it as it is already, and I already have so many other things I want to do (not counting the UFO's that haunt me QQ).

Dantatter's Snowflake and a small update

I had a wonderful Christmas, were we went to visit most of my husband's family. It was quite an endeavor, since his family is really, really huuuuge. New Year's eve we spent at home, alone the three of us, since we were all exhausted after so many days of Christmas lunches. Christmas lunches is a Danish (it's probably the same in all of Scandinavia?) Christmas tradition, which basically consist of eating until you collapse - or almost - together with as much family as possible.

On the journey back and forth, I managed to finish a tatted necklace, I had lying around for ages, but I haven't taken a picture of it yet, so it will get it's very own blog entry later.

 Last night I finished one of Dantatter's design, and I got her permission to post the result. I'm quite happy with it - bear in mind that it hasn't been blocked, ironed or anything, because I'm such an impatient person I haven't had the time yet. :P

The blue yarn is DMC 80, and the golden one is also a DMC, but it doesn't say the size of it on the label. It is, how ever, slightly larger than the blue threat. I had planned to tat it back in December. The star in the middle reminded me of the Star of David, and it also made me think of New Year. Now I'm wondering what I can make of it. Maybe use it as a pendant? Use it as part of a bracelet? I also thought of making lots of them and stitch them to a blue piece of chiffon or some fabric like that to make a scarf, but I don't think I could find the time to do that. Hmm...

 

An angry wolf and a swine was having fun...

No, it's not  from a fable. It's just my lupus acting up and me, being so stupid as to get the swine flu vaccination on top of it. Too late I found out, that the doctor only had the vaccination with the immune system booster, which is kinda bad when you actually try to supress the immune system all that you can. :P It will probably take a while before I'm back on track again.

Did my muse go on vacation?

She (or shouldn't I, as a woman, have a male muse? I mean we do live in an age with gender equality, don't we?) wasn't helpful at all when I tried to find inspiration to the stitch count for my design project. As I wrote earlier, I'm not that happy with the way the 1. and the 2. round looks when put together. It seems like the piece needs a round 3. or a change in either the 1. or the 2.

However, until I test tatted I did honestly think it would make a nice, flat something, but alas, that was not to be. It has a remarkable cup-shape now, and even if I were to beat it down with a sledge hammer, I'm quite sure it would pop back in that shape again. There is no way that is ever going to be flat (I think I might have done permanent damage to the scanner in the attempt to get a decent picture :o). So...back to the drawing board. Now, please ascend, you muse of fire tatting and give me the right stitch count so I don't have to do it all over again next time. QQ

Next projects

I've got 2 projects I'm working on atm (not counting the UFO-baby cap I ought to have finished ages ago). My first project is inspired from some fabric I saw in a hobby shop. Creamy white linnen with *yuck* spiders on it. I immediately thought of a gothic / Halloween'ish sort of pouch, with a thicker black edging than I usually do. It will also get some kind of a handle, I've decided. I'm almost done with the edging itself. I used Cebelia 30, which is some what thicker than my usual DMC 80. I will have to see how it works out on the final bag, but atm I'm thinking it could have been fun with an even thicker yarn.


My other project is for the design class. I made a pattern, inspired by a snowflake and the upcoming Christmas. Sort of a wheel-shape surrounded by hearts. It looks very good on paper, if you ask me :P, but now that I'm tatting it, I'm not sure if it works as well as I hoped. The center is very dense while the ring of hearts is the opposite. I think it might need a 3. round to sort of balance the first and the second? Pictures coming up when I'm done, which should hopefully be in a day or two.

Big promises!

Some time ago I found a marvelous little book from 1915 hidden away in our Royal Library, in the Medicin / Science department. How on earth a tatting book ended there would probably make a great story. I imagine a tatting secretary in the late 1920'ies secretly giving it the wrong label so she could keep it for herself for the next decades. :D

But the weird, handwritten label isn't what make this book so fun. It's the titel itself:  "BOGEN OM ORKIS - Regler for at komponere et uendeligt antal mønstre på den hurtigste måde". My best translation (bear with me): "The book about tatting - rules for composing an unlimited amount of patterns in the quickest possible way". I must say the dear Esther didn't lack self confidence. :D

I must confess I eagerly grabbed the book when it came to my hands. Imagine: Here I had the book that would reveal to me how I could design an unlimited amount of patterns and then be quick about it too! It was almost like when Indy could hold the Holy Grail in his hands for the first time!!


Sadly, I think the book had more to reveal in the 1920'ies than today. Her best advise is to change the numbers of picots and size of rings and chains, and take one motif and entangle another / tat another one around it 'for endless possibilities'. I guess it wasn't this book that was supposed to start my design career. :P Apart from that bitter disappointment :D I really like the book. There is just something about old / older books. The looks, the texture, the smell, the way they used the words...I wish I could keep it, but sadly I have to hand it back in today. Bye bye Esther, it was fun.

A leap into the seventy thousand fathoms of water :-o

When I started this blog I knew that I someday wanted to make it a public blog. How ever I am so very much a chicken so until now only a few select people have had access. Now I finally managed to get the courage to publish it, thus taking my own grand leap of uncertainty (yes, I always favored drama \o/) and make it yet another tiny drop in the big ocean of blogs. :P With a bit of luck I might even get someone to browse past it at some point. :D