Playing with Krystledawne's threads

I LOVE HDT! ...and honestly, I can't tell you that I prefer one artist's thread over another's. They each have a sense of color that appeals to me in different ways. I've been collecting hand-dyed threads ever since Yarnplayer began experimenting with dyes. LadyShuttleMaker, Tatskool, Bre-Aly, HAJDesigns, and Krystledawne joined in the fun, and I have been in tatting paradise ever since! I'm sure there are many others who hand-dye thread. These are just the ones I have tried, and I love them all!

I'm terrible with tags, but I'm pretty sure this is Earthy Rainbow, size 40 HDT by Krystledawne. This is my all-time favorite pattern, Spinning Wheel glass mat from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. As I mentioned in a previous post, I like to use my Tatsy and Tatsy-sized shuttles for HDT so that I don't have to add thread. I think I own every color of the Tatsy shuttles... I couldn't choose a favorite! The wood shuttle is the first Tatsy-sized shuttle I commissioned from Dave Stanbrough at Grizzly Mountain Arts. I love the feel of a wooden shuttle!


I don't think Krystle named this thread. It's one of her first in size 20. I decided I need to tat patterns from books that I own but have never used, and this was the first one I grabbed off the shelf. This is the wreath pattern from by Tatsy book, Tatting by Carol M. Winandy. This was one of the first tatting books I purchased, and I never tatted anything because the directions were so overwhelming! I can laugh at myself now... the directions are really very easy to follow! The flat shuttle is another from Grizzly Mountain Arts. I know some people don't like these shuttles because the thread is exposed, but I like that I can wind lots of thread, and it's very easy for me to tell how much thread is left. The bobbin shuttle is Zingy from LaCossette. I'm not a big fan of bobbin shuttles, but this one was so pretty, I just had to have it.


The two wreaths at the top of the picture were tatted with the flat shuttle as the ball shuttle on one, and the bobbin shuttle on the other. I like the way the color flows with both of these.

The wreath on the bottom was tatted using the shoelace trick, because I didn't have enough thread left on the bobbin shuttle to complete the motif. I use the shoelace trick when I'm running out of thread, but it's not my favorite technique. I don't think the finished piece looks as nice, and I don't like the way the color flows on this one.