Pretty Threads!!

Yesterday I got a package in the mail from Gina the Tatting Goddess!  About a month ago, Gina had a giveaway of some threads she had received from someone whose mother was a tatter.  You can check out the whole story here.  I really appreciated that Gina explained where the threads came from- it gives it history. 

The colours are sooo pretty!  And the thread is very fine- Gina said it is probably about size 70.  I have not tatted anything with that fine of thread yet, but it should be fun and very beautiful!  The balls are like little candies.

And in true Tatting Tea Tuesday fashion, Gina also included a card with a teacup on it and some raspberry chocolate. The chocolate was a little melted from its travels, so it is in my freezer at the moment (but not for long!)

So in summary, I would like to say Thank You Gina for such generosity in sharing this thread and now its time for me to tat some more!  :)

Snood...

Well, the tatting of the snood is finished.  It was not well tatted by any means (I was using Clea crochet cotton I found at a local yarn shop- it likes to come apart which is not appreciated when tatting).  Also, this was just to try out the idea, so I was not aiming for perfect.  I was also impatient, which means that the last two rows were never blocked and therefore are rather bumpy.

My original plan was to put ribbon through the long picots I had on the last round.  However, I found it too difficult to tie the snood on like that, without having the knot or bow in the front, which I did not like the look of.  I found a black elastic headband, but since the tatting was done, and it was a closed circle and could not be threaded through, I tied the headband to the long picots with bits of thread.  The headband made it much easier to put on.

It still seems to take some skill to put the snood on and keep one's hair looking decent inside.  One trick I found online was to put on an inexpensive hair net first.  This worked really well at keeping my fine hair inside the snood.

 (My apologies for the less than perfect blurring jobs- my living room is messier than I would like shown on the internet!  And I would like to maintain some anonymity- if that is even possible these days.)

Smile everyone, Laivine

New Books!

I just got two new tatting books in today!  My brother had bought me a gift certificate for my birthday and I used it to buy tatting books. :) 

 

Both look like they have some great patterns for me to try out, I can hardly wait!  (I need more shuttles so I can have more projects on the go at once! hehe)

Have a great day everyone, Laivine

Present from th Lace Lovin' Librarian

Just the other day (fortunately before Canada Post locked out their employees), I received a hankie in the mail from Diane, the Lace Lovin' Librarian.  A couple weeks ago she had a giveaway of some of her vintage hankies for interested tatters, and I asked for one and she sent it to me!  I am very excited, it should be fun tatting my first hanky edging!  Here are some photos of the pretty hankie:

 Note the pretty card she sent it in....

And a close-up of the design- yellow is such a happy colour, which is why I picked this hankie.

Now to find the right thread and pattern!  (The pattern will probably be easier- no one sells tatting thread in my area!)

Have a great day everyone, Laivine

Lace- Loving Librarian's Giveaway!

Again there is more generosity in the world of tatting!  The Lace Loving Librarian is having a giveaway of one of her fabulous blinged shuttles, which are one of her specialties.  You can check it out here!  Wish me luck and good luck to everyone else!

A tatted snood.....

I am not sure how this will turn out, but I thought it was worth trying.  I am in the process of tatting a 'snood', which is a essentially a hairpiece that covers most of the hair and holds it up out of the way.  I decided that tatting a snood would be fun after seeing a pattern for a knitted (or was it crocheted?) snood on a vintage pattern site (Bramcost Publications rocks- plus they frequently have book giveaways, including the one of 1940's Beauty that I won!).  I then looked around online and found that others have tatted snoods.  From the patterns I have seen, especially for crocheted snoods (the most common), what a person needs is essentially a doily that can have a ribbon or elastic run through the last round.  However, I do not have much patience, so most tatted doilies are too intricate for me (as well as not being open enough for the effect I want).

This is also my first use of blocking- I normally just press designs with a steam iron.  However, I thought I would try blocking (which I might note, is very easy to do- a cardboard box, a pillowcase, a spray bottle of water and a generous amount of pins).  This way, since I am making up the pattern as I go, I know that everything to this point is pretty much even and ready for me to add the next row!

Until the next random post, enjoy the spring weather!  Laivine

Tatted Mask!

Sorry for the long absence- I have been tatting, but I am still working on remembering/ making time to post!  So here is a post for everyone:

One of the first tatting blogs I ever found was TotusMel's Needle Tatting and Other Nonsense.  It made me want to learn how to tat even more, as she uses tatting in very creative ways.  Now that I read many different tatting blogs, I know she is not the only creative tatter out there (dying art, yeah right!).  My favourite pieces that TotusMel makes are her tatted ankle corsets and her tatted masks.  I have now managed to make both!  The ankle corsets are my version of this necklace, with several changes.
They now have ribbon laced up the back (I forgot to take a picture with them on).

I also just finished TotusMel's tatted mask that she posted step-by-step directions here.  There are many mistakes in it (aka "personalization"), in part I think because I shuttle tat, whereas TotusMel needle tats and I am stilling learning how to translate patterns.  Also, it is probably the most complicated thing I have tatted to date, so mistakes are to be expected!

I hope everyone is having a great day and I plan on posting more often!

Yarnplayer's Giveaway

The generosity of people never ceases to amaze me  Yarnplayer is having a giveaway of her amazing hand-dyed thread.  She is giving away some of her gorgeous threads!  I have my fingers and toes crossed- as a student, I currently lack the funds to purchase all the amazing thread and shuttles that I would like, but I am looking forward to one day building up a stock of hand-dyed thread.

It is thanks to another giveaway that I have my favourite shuttle. Tat's Heaven did a giveaway at the end of December and I won!!  I am still excited about it.  My shuttle is one of her 'I'm in the garage's' handmade wood shuttles, I believe mine is holly wood and it has images of holly on it.  She also sent me a penguin stuffie (the contest required the entrants to create a quote for her tatted penguin in a snowy scene- I suggested, "Walking in a winter wonderland"), a piece of her tatting designed to hang with keys or off of a cell phone, as well as beaded earrings she made.  Too cool and soo generous!  Wish me luck on the giveaway!

Epoxy Shuttles!

I know many shuttle tatters have probably already seen these, but I did not until Jane posted pictures of them with her designs inside on her blog today.  These epoxy shuttles are made by Chris Hinton and Anne Bruvold and more info can be found here.  They do not have an online store yet, so you will have to email them to order one (and you can even send your own tatting to go in one!).  I can not wait until I am done my degree and have the spending money to buy myself one (or two, or three....).  I love shuttles!

Wine Bottle Decoration

This project came about after my boyfriend found me some beads that I knew our friends who owned a U-Brew would like.  However, being just plastic beads, they were not nice enough for a necklace, but then I remembered that I used to bead glasses.  So I decided to tat a decoration for a wine bottle using the same idea.  However, I gave that one away before I took a picture of it.  Here is the second one I made (I still need to hide the ends in the back and press or block it though).  I have made more as well which I will show in future posts.

Tatting on the Runway

One of the blogs I follow (actually, the first tatting blog I followed) is Needle Tatting and Other Nonsense.  What is really cool is that yesterday, some of her creations were on the runway of Bensoni during New York Fashion week.  TotusMel's post about the show can be found here.  I read some fashion magazine's and I was really excited when she announced that some of her pieces would be on the runway.  Although she had some problems with shipping, what went down the runway was a great compliment to the designs.  However, I do not think that the designers fully tapped the potential of TotusMel's designs (but that could be due to the shipping issues).  Here is to seeing more tatting on the runway!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!  In this blog I plan to share what I tat as well as what I find online that relates to tatting.  I began tatting last October and have really appreciated all that I have learned from other tatting blogs.  I have now decided that I should start my own blog.  It is my first blog ever, so please me patient as I learn how to use it!